Marindor
Well-Known Member
It's an interesting question and actually quite complicated to answer in a simple way as well. First of all, let me be clear on the fact that I'm not speaking for InnoGames here, but am just giving my personal opinion on the matter.
At Elvenar Beta we basically have 2 main purposes:
1. Testing new game versions - Finding and reporting as many bugs as possible so we can do our best to get them out of the game before the game version hits our live servers. Of course this isn't always possible for every bug, but as we've seen the last months, we have become quite good at that and you'll often see hotfixes implemented on Beta that already took out bugs that would otherwise go to our live servers. This is also the main reason there's now more time between the versions on Beta and on Live and it has had a positive effect!
2. Gathering as much feedback as possible on new features and changes - Everything is implemented here first and the feedback is directly passed on to our game developers. Does that always mean a change/new feature will be blown off? No, of course not. But the player's opinions are certainly passed on, kept in mind and can result in changes not being implemented in the "real" game or in things being adjusted before they're going to live as we've seen with the declinable quests issue, for example.
For both purposes, active involvement from the community is necessary. We cannot filter out bugs in time when there are no bug reports and we cannot gather feedback if noone gives their opinion. When you talk about added value to the community or to the purpose of our Beta testing: Of course your "added value" is quite minimal if you're not reporting bugs, expressing your thoughts and participate in the discussions. But that's just about the added value to our testing and Beta community. You could be playing on Beta because you're an active player or (arch)mage on one of the Live servers and want to be the first to know about new changes or new features, so you can help your fellowship. You could be playing here because you're a very active player that writes guides on Elvenar and wants to experience new content as soon as you can, so your guides keep up to date. You could be playing here because you're just a fan of our game and wants to see the "new stuff" as soon as you can.
In short: There can be multiple reasons why you're playing on Beta and you're of course free to have your own reasons for doing so. As a player however, you should always keep in mind that on this server, you will encounter more bugs than on a live server because one of our main purposes is to test the game versions and get these bugs out before they go to Live. If you hate encountering bugs and they frustrate you, a Beta server may indeed not be the best place for you and you might want to stick to the Live Servers where (again) not all bugs will be filtered out, but where the game will at least be much more stable than during the "testing phase" here on Beta.
At Elvenar Beta we basically have 2 main purposes:
1. Testing new game versions - Finding and reporting as many bugs as possible so we can do our best to get them out of the game before the game version hits our live servers. Of course this isn't always possible for every bug, but as we've seen the last months, we have become quite good at that and you'll often see hotfixes implemented on Beta that already took out bugs that would otherwise go to our live servers. This is also the main reason there's now more time between the versions on Beta and on Live and it has had a positive effect!
2. Gathering as much feedback as possible on new features and changes - Everything is implemented here first and the feedback is directly passed on to our game developers. Does that always mean a change/new feature will be blown off? No, of course not. But the player's opinions are certainly passed on, kept in mind and can result in changes not being implemented in the "real" game or in things being adjusted before they're going to live as we've seen with the declinable quests issue, for example.
For both purposes, active involvement from the community is necessary. We cannot filter out bugs in time when there are no bug reports and we cannot gather feedback if noone gives their opinion. When you talk about added value to the community or to the purpose of our Beta testing: Of course your "added value" is quite minimal if you're not reporting bugs, expressing your thoughts and participate in the discussions. But that's just about the added value to our testing and Beta community. You could be playing on Beta because you're an active player or (arch)mage on one of the Live servers and want to be the first to know about new changes or new features, so you can help your fellowship. You could be playing here because you're a very active player that writes guides on Elvenar and wants to experience new content as soon as you can, so your guides keep up to date. You could be playing here because you're just a fan of our game and wants to see the "new stuff" as soon as you can.
In short: There can be multiple reasons why you're playing on Beta and you're of course free to have your own reasons for doing so. As a player however, you should always keep in mind that on this server, you will encounter more bugs than on a live server because one of our main purposes is to test the game versions and get these bugs out before they go to Live. If you hate encountering bugs and they frustrate you, a Beta server may indeed not be the best place for you and you might want to stick to the Live Servers where (again) not all bugs will be filtered out, but where the game will at least be much more stable than during the "testing phase" here on Beta.