About Beta invitation

[vax]

If don't want to read the wall of QQ text, please go a bit down.

On 26/11 i got up really happy, ARR alpha it started and for some reason i was thinking something like "Hey i was so loyal to SE, played FFXI for 7 years, then bought the collector edition back on september 2010, maybe i got a bit luck on getting an alpha invitation". After checking my email account my happyness tourned to angry then sadness.

Then, the next day one of our favorite devs Bayohne (at least is my favorite with Camate ) posted this:

Greetings everyone,

I know the alpha tester selection process is a hot topic, and while I cannot disclose the selection process, I do want to pass on some additional details to help you better understand the situation. To ensure a broad scope of testing for the Alpha Test, we did accept users with specific types of machines, setups, connection types, ISPs, geographical locations and other configurations that we need to test that may, or may not, meet every requirement on the application. Alpha is an important first step for testing and we need to make sure we have a wide breadth of users testing it.

We appreciate your understanding, and we look forward to further expanding our selection in the future. In fact, there are a few Yoshida posts that we're working on today that go into further detail on this.

Geographical locations, this was my first problem, I can't remember where it says that alpha went only for NA, EU and JP people, i'm from south america, so i'm not there, starting to worry about if i'll be getting an invite or not, but since my game it's from NA, maybe i fit it there, who knows.

Later, Yoshida told us that the next monday there will be more invitations, so i started to look for it. Same as 26/11 on 3/12 got up really happy looking for my email, nothing there, same feelings. But hey, now two people from south america got to play alpha, so there is a chance to get some invite. Then 5/12 come like 3/12 nothing there, 7/12, same.

One of the guy who got to play alpha told me how he pay the game using crysta (people from south america can't pay with crysta), so yes, he use a fake NA adress, same with other people who got invitation. I know 10 people of my country playing the game, and only 2 got the invitation, and yes, those two who got to play are using a fake adress. After i realized this all my hope on getting something went a bit loss but there was a bit of it, but well, today is the last day and nothing from SE got on my email.

Note that i'm not angry with my friends that using fake adress got to play alpha and also more important (at least for me), being able to pay using Crysta.

___________________________________________________

Now that alpha is ending, i'm totally fine to not being invited, but i'm worrying about not getting a spot on Closed Beta, my question to devs is if there will be a restrict to geographical locations again?


Thank you and sorry if the text is a bit long.

[Malakhim]

There's always open beta!

[vax]

There's always open beta!

Yes i know, but when open beta start i will be a very busy xD, being from south america i got more time from december to march.

[KiriA500]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game. They're supposed to be for testing purposes.

[vax]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game. They're supposed to be for testing purposes.

Totally, i want to test it. Live everyone want it too.

[Elexia]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game.

Stop blaming the players. Blame western developers that does this. As for the topic itself, SE doesn't officially support South Amercia as I recall (no studios there) so there's a good chance they may overlook it if you had to sign up as NA/EU with your SE account.

[Yrusama]

Everyone needs to stop treating alpha/beta like early access demos to the game. They're supposed to be for testing purposes.

It's true, but that doesn't stop people from saying "I was in the alpha" like it's a status symbol. It's essentially like saying "I've been alive longer than the world itself" in fan terms. Just remember there will always be that one person willing to one-up you with "I was in the 1.0 alpha" or "I was in the XI alpha" or every damn alpha in gaming history. In reality the most you're getting is a head start familiarizing with the base system and the minimal areas made open to the testers, all of which are subject to change depending on SE's whims.

[KiriA500]

It's true, but that doesn't stop people from saying "I was in the alpha" like it's a status symbol. It's essentially like saying "I've been alive longer than the world itself" in fan terms. Just remember there will always be that one person willing to one-up you with "I was in the 1.0 alpha" or "I was in the XI alpha" or every damn alpha in gaming history. In reality the most you're getting is a head start familiarizing with the base system and the minimal areas made open to the testers, all of which are subject to change depending on SE's whims.

I was a 1.0 alpha tester, and believe me, that is not something to brag about, lol.

But yes, that's basically all it comes down to.

"I played it before you!"
"Yeah, but the game was bad."
"Still! I played it before you!"

[Skies]

Conspiracy theories! Conspiracy theories everywhere!

Really, now...
You're worried for no good reason, ma'am. Think a bit about what is the purpose behind the alpha testing: Testing the game's server structure and connection. Having a sample size with various different ping responses is important for that, seeing if the person with 10ms ping and 10000ms ping are getting the same lag is part of the process (I was being hyperbolic with the times there, by the way)

Beta testing has a completely different reason to be. "Can the server handle 1000 people doing quests at the same time in the same place" is for alpha, "In what ways can players skip actions in this quest to cause it to break and become uncompletable" is for beta. Your geographical placement (in other words, your ping response) does not plays any role for beta.

It does for alpha, though.

[vax]

Conspiracy theories! Conspiracy theories everywhere!

Really, now...
You're worried for no good reason, ma'am. Think a bit about what is the purpose behind the alpha testing: Testing the game's server structure and connection. Having a sample size with various different ping responses is important for that, seeing if the person with 10ms ping and 10000ms ping are getting the same lag is part of the process (I was being hyperbolic with the times there, by the way)

Beta testing has a completely different reason to be. "Can the server handle 1000 people doing quests at the same time in the same place" is for alpha, "In what ways can players skip actions in this quest to cause it to break and become uncompletable" is for beta. Your geographical placement (in other words, your ping response) does not plays any role for beta.

It does for alpha, though.

It's not a conspiracy theory, it's a fact when you know 10 people of your country, 8 with real adress, 2 with fake NA adress and only those two got invited.

When i think the purpose on an alpha testing i find more important to look on people from different region, more region outside NA, JP, and EU as well too, same as you say, i don't see the point of why SE won't let people outside those region play the alpha to get a better test.

We left forgotten, back withgame contest, crysta and now with testing.