The Beta Testers Pledge

[Cyndre]

***Note: The start of this entry is fiction. Anyone currently under NDA please respect that in this discussion and limit your responses to speculation and public or general information.***

You have had a long day at work/ school. You head home to check your email inbox for the 6000 time since the announcement that Vanguard: Saga of Hero's had begun its Beta Testing phase of development. You don't expect anything, because you've been disappointed 5999 times before, but wait.. whats this... An email from Sigil...?

Welcome to the Vanguard: Saga of Hero's Beta!

You're heart is pounding, you have waiting years for this game, posting on fan sites, on the forums, you are even in a guild. Some of your guild mates are probably waiting for you in the Beta... You hastily fill out the requested information, agree to the Terms of Service and the NDA without reading it, and begin downloading the beta client... so what now? Beta Pledge time.

I think it is important for every prospective game tester to revisit the purpose and objectives of a Beta phase, and to make a personal pledge to do everything in their power to better the game, and improve the MMO industry as a whole. So often, Betas become about a freebie chance to play a game, or a chance to test the waters before you fork over the cash.. While those are nice perks for game testers, you do not help the game when you approach it with that attitude. Game Testing is about working out the kinks, its about stressing the systems and features of the game, and providing meaningful feedback to the developers. It is about respecting the NDA at all costs.

We all are looking forward to Vanguard, or we wouldn't be on this site. But what happens when someone breaks NDA and claims the game is terrible? What if a hundred people do..? Does that mean it is bad, or are the positive opinions just bound by an NDA and respecting that? So 20,000 testers love it, but can't tell you they love it, and 100 very vocal haters are stirring up all kinds of bad press...

So when I get invited to a Beta, here is my pledge and I hope others will do something similar:

I will log in, and play hard.

I will try to break the game, exploit every way I can think of, use every feature and push the limits of the world that the development team has created.

I will take detailed notes. This servers two purposes, as I can both formulate my opinions for public discourse after the NDA is lifted and I can make informative posts for the development team.

I will report my findings often. Find a bug? Repeat it and record the facts. Write a synopsis and submit it with detailed concise information and a clear header [BUG] Moss Snake Kicks.

I will respect the NDA. I may think this game sucks and will flop, but it is not my place to push it over the precipice. There will be plenty of time for that after the NDA is lifted.

[Greymain]

There is a slight problem with this otherwise good pledge. Does sigil want to be drowned in a mass of inaccurate and pointless bug/exploit reports. When you Beta test any new game and I have tested a few it is hard to tell what is design or exploit, falling through a hole on the landscape is a common problem in new games but if the report fails to provide the holes co-ordinates the report is useless.

Due to the CGM invites Vanguard will get a lot of testers who have no experience of a MMORPG, Know very little about Vanguard or are not interested in testing. The dev team can learn a lot analysing their logs and traces. Bug reporting should be left to those who know how to do it.

[glassweaver]

Actually, as long as his bugs are legit (dupes, hacks, invincibility, ect) sigil wants to hear about it...that is why they have beta testing in the first place...then when the game comes out, we dont have people hacking their toons to max levels with the best gear. The one thing I would do different...when it comes to bug reports, I would just give a brief description and say email me if you need more...after all, they are busy, and if you can just tell them the general area of the game that caused this (or show them how to trigger it) then thats really all they want. Yes, beta testing is fun, and yes, there are people who want in soley to see the game before its unfinished, but this is the wrong mindset if you ask me, I agree with your ideas Cyndre.
EDIT:
I do agree with you Greymain on the idea of the cgm people (for the most part) probably being best to not report things unless they know what there looking for and they know how to send a short simple message to sigil saying what they found....

[Cyndre]

Well one thing that you guys are forgetting, is Beta is about all player levels of game sophistocation testing the game. That is why they select from experienced and inexperienced people, good game machines, and bad ones. They want to know as much as possible from as many different viewpoints.

Trust me when I say they have teams of people who are very skilled at filtering through the bug reports and processing and catalouging and addressing all relevant information. I also would point out that the most helpful thing you can do is to properly format your report.

Subject Line: [BUG] Fell through World at 12,30 Coordinates

Post: Explain here exactly how you found the bug. Have you been able to repeat it. What happened? How did you fix it? Restart CPU or just keep going. Computer settings during the bug observation.

The most helpful thing that you can do for teh QA team, is to write clearly, consise and to the point descriptions, and don't speculate. Just relay facts as they pertain to the situation at hand.

Testing is also a chance for Brad & Co. to find out how we feel about the game. Posting feedback, even froma noob perspective is important and should follow the general format above.

[Pirotess]

Im a little confused how the CGM invites are any different than the random board invites or even guild invites for that matter. There will be a mix of experienced testers and inexperienced testers in all three pools though I would bet the random board invite pool will have the most.

[Aredhel]

Wow, Cyndre! You sound like my hubby when he beta's something!

I will agree that I think Sigil is wanting everyone to /bug anything they think looks wierd/wrong/crooked/out-of-place! Brad seems to say that at every turn. If not, then the game might have been out before now, but it's not, is it!?

Good thread. Thanks for the thoughts, and good luck, everyone, with beta...no matter HOW you/we/they might get in!! It's russian rouxlette with a fun outcome.