Whining about forced Beta

[Croel]

So I started P99 about a week ago and enjoyed it very much. I have a level 5 druid, a 3 Nec and a 4 Enc. Its fabulous. I played EQ started in August of 1999. By the way I already donated $20, because I am happy to contribute a reasonable subscription fee to whatever it is that entertains me, and I am really looking forward to playing up my toons and leveling them; I mention this to only demonstrate I'm not some kind of whiney parasite. :)

Now, given a long weekend, instead of advancing my level 5 druid, I am expected to play a twinked L60 character to beta Velious. Bleh. I have no desire to waste my time on a character that will inevitably be wiped. I want to play and advance my own characters. :)

If Velious cannot be properly beta tested with volunteers, I think it is likely that the server isn't ready for Velious! In other words, if it takes this kind of coercion to make Velious live on P99, I think it likely that the population of P99 is just not interested enough or ready to progress to Velious!

What is the hurry? Why the coercion?

Thanks,
Croel
Newbie

[bhoff1975]

A lot of us are in a similar boat. However I am very thankful for the crew that puts this together and I'm happy to support this in any way I can.

Since playing again, there is a little spot deep in my chest that almost tickles. I've missed EQ for far too long.

Plus Velious is a great expansion. It opens up so much more raid content.

Just have to grin and bear it, my friend.

[Itap]

The server has been in Kunark for 3 years, it's ready for Velious. Not enough people were volunteering their time to beta test the expansion (myself included), so I can see why a long weekend is dedicated to testing it. This game makes people crazy, I swear. It's one weekend, if you don't want to beta test, spend time with your family or go to the beach.

[Latege]

What is the hurry? Why the coercion?


3 years of Kunark, we're sure in a hurry here.

[Byrjun]

It's just the nature of releasing new content to the server. When the beta server goes up, you're going to get about 100 players on it semi-actively testing stuff. That's great for catching all the big glaring problems, but not so great for polishing the smaller stuff.

Kunark beta was similar, with "forced" participation soon before it was released to live.

I don't really look at it as punishment or anything, it's just a necessary step to getting the content released. It's a contingency so that when Velious is launched to live, there is more guarantee that the release will be smooth.

It sucks for the people who wanted to play on blue this weekend, but the vision of the developers has always been to create an accurate classic server through Velious whether anyone plays on it or not. The success is just a bonus.

[Thulack]

So I started P99 about a week ago and enjoyed it very much. I have a level 5 druid, a 3 Nec and a 4 Enc. Its fabulous. I played EQ started in August of 1999. By the way I already donated $20, because I am happy to contribute a reasonable subscription fee to whatever it is that entertains me, and I am really looking forward to playing up my toons and leveling them; I mention this to only demonstrate I'm not some kind of whiney parasite. :)

Now, given a long weekend, instead of advancing my level 5 druid, I am expected to play a twinked L60 character to beta Velious. Bleh. I have no desire to waste my time on a character that will inevitably be wiped. I want to play and advance my own characters. :)

If Velious cannot be properly beta tested with volunteers, I think it is likely that the server isn't ready for Velious! In other words, if it takes this kind of coercion to make Velious live on P99, I think it likely that the population of P99 is just not interested enough or ready to progress to Velious!

What is the hurry? Why the coercion?

Thanks,
Croel
Newbie


You can still donate money and be a whiney parasite :)

[Croel]

You can still donate money and be a whiney parasite :)

Whiney: Yes, most definitely. Parasite? No, not so much.

Anyway, in addition to my few pitiful comments regarding possible bugs, one good thing I've figured out is I prefer playing a 60 shammy rather then an enchanter. Best to have figured that out now, I guess. :cool:

[Foggon]

Not really fair because, though I don't know what their staff looks like, I am sure it is limited. Unlike on live when they probably had entire wings of a building dedicated to aspects of programming.

Sorry about your timing.. Thank you very much for your willingness to donate :) Now the staff can order a pizza while they sit in a circle and debate the next re-pop date. (you only been playing a week so are probably not entirely sure what I mean by that..

Just one more day friend and you, me, and everyone will be back on blue leveling our favorite characters.

Take the time to play level 60 versions of your classes and decide who you like. Also a pro-tip, take the hour it takes to organize your spell book(It's worth it!)

[Cyrano]

Enjoy velious, this forced beta is what we've been needing. It's going to make the experience much better all around when it's released.

[Jettison]

My only problem is that the beta forces alot of unorganized play and testing. It took me all weekend, until this afternoon, to find a group / raid that could actually do anything at all. I didn't want to play the beta, but I did my due diligence and put a ton of time into it this weekend... I figure it's my way of attempting to give back since I can't donate a whole lot.

That being said, I think one or two of the top tier guilds needs to be given some sort of incentive to test for a couple of weeks straight instead of playing / raiding on blue. Buff them up, give them Velious gear (on their beta toons of course), and maybe reward them by allowing them to keep one piece of gear per toon that they looted on the beta (or something like that... I'm not saying this is proper compensation or if it will unbalance blue too much, and I'm sure the powers that be can come up with something more fair for everyone involved.)

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

[fishingme]

So I started P99 about a week ago and enjoyed it very much. I have a level 5 druid, a 3 Nec and a 4 Enc. Its fabulous. I played EQ started in August of 1999. By the way I already donated $20, because I am happy to contribute a reasonable subscription fee to whatever it is that entertains me, and I am really looking forward to playing up my toons and leveling them; I mention this to only demonstrate I'm not some kind of whiney parasite. :)

Now, given a long weekend, instead of advancing my level 5 druid, I am expected to play a twinked L60 character to beta Velious. Bleh. I have no desire to waste my time on a character that will inevitably be wiped. I want to play and advance my own characters. :)

If Velious cannot be properly beta tested with volunteers, I think it is likely that the server isn't ready for Velious! In other words, if it takes this kind of coercion to make Velious live on P99, I think it likely that the population of P99 is just not interested enough or ready to progress to Velious!

What is the hurry? Why the coercion?

Thanks,
Croel
Newbie

I recommend trying red. the play environment, in terms of grouping is a lot more classic than blue's. I just started playing this weekend and I have enjoyed it this far. Only real crappy situation is the fungi tunic twinks that are boxing a druid to buff them that stay permacamping a zone all day long. Other than that, it's been an enjoyable experience.

[Jeisenne]

I put in a lot of time this weekend to beta test. I could have been finishing up a painting (I'm an art major) or getting ready to finish the last 2 weeks of this semester, but instead I decided to throw myself into beta testing because I know how important it is to the staff running the game to get feedback from the players. I've done many an alpha and beta test (lately every single Blizzard game that's been released, thanks to friends of mine who work there) and I always try to give feedback. It's the very least we can do for playing a game that does not require a monthly sub.

That being said, I will do my part and post on the bugs forum, as well as the general discussion forum, the things I found that seemed odd and different from my very first Velious experience back when it was released.

One last thing, to add to Jettison's point. The raids I participated in were led by some competent people (Shaquita was one, I hope I got the name right) but there were people who showed up who clearly had no idea how to raid. It proves the point that you could give a person some amazing gear, give them max level, and they can all band together and still not get a damn thing done other than wipe. I was given the responsibility of having rez gloves (one I take to heart) and I put myself out there with the others who were trying to keep up with rezzes and keep things running smooth. If that's how raiding is going to look like in this expansion, then it's going to be a pain in the butt. I think the majority of my experience this weekend with raiding in beta wasn't so much buggy, as it was filled with user error. How hard is it really to not move when you get a CotH in NToV, so that you don't trigger any traps or get detected by angry wyverns when you open a door? For some people, it must be the hardest thing in the world because yesterday we weren't able to raid NToV with the group I was in. It was a good hour or two down the drain. I believe in the mantra that if you're going to do something, do it well. I wish others felt the same, at least with regards to voluntarily raid. There were a lot of people involved whose valuable time testing was wasted because of people either not listening or being inconsiderate on purpose with the trains.

Other than that, I enjoyed testing this weekend, and I'm very appreciative of the staff for being open, approachable, and accessible to all our questions and comments in game for the duration of the test. Thank you all for doing all that you do. I will be more than happy to donate to the server in a couple of months when all this holiday expenditure stuff for the family is over.

[Polyphemous]

Extensive testing is not classic! Expansions must be released with game-breaking exploits and bugs that destroy weeks' worth of effort or it's just not EQ!

[catbeard]

My wife and I recently started playing again and are at lvl 9 or so. We put in some time for the Beta, just not having played a high level character for so many years, we were absolutely horrible skill wise and we just died and died. You learn playing a class while levelling up.

Motivating people at higher levels might be the way to go and incentives are not unthinkable.

Unless the type of rewards cause players only to group with others who received that award also, I do not see a problem (which does not mean that there is not one).
Maybe even structure it more as in an appointed group goes to a certain location and tries to reach specific goals.

To me, logging on in the midst of horrible spam and seeing character names which tell me I am the only adult in the zone made me want to log out again right away.
For instance, seeing a female troll named "On the rag" is just disturbing. And does not give me hope on enjoying any interaction with people like that.

It was also hard to find malachite for a pet. I found one vendor in Thurgadina finally.
Maybe this was clear to players who have more recent experience playing EQ, but for "newbies" such as myself, it took me a long time.

Ending with saying that the people hosting EQ *ROCK* for offering a place to enjoy old times and making new times to remember.

Thanks!

[Dazed]

I personally think that most of the kinks will be solved when Velious goes live.

[Fame]

Someone get this man a handy and a otter-pop

[Jeisenne]

Someone get this man a handy and a otter-pop

and an othmir-pop

FTFY

[jdixon485]

On the rag - that's brilliant +1 i guess we cant all have awesome sense of humors. Sometimes belittling great humor can be a great way to convince yourself that your intelligent!