Podcast 7 – Special: Abigale clarifies beta questions

by on Aug.05, 2010, under Blog, Podcast

As we mentioned in the last podcast, some confusion arose when the most recent Rift: Planes of Telara newsletter was sent out on July 30th announcing that the chance for closed beta keys would be attainable at both Gamescom and PAX gaming conventions in August and September respectively, for attendees.

Abigale joins us today to answer the plethora of questions there are about beta, many of which arose from the newsletter.  She unfortunately isn’t able to answer every question that there was because, as with most games in early development, information is subject to change and some of it is part of a business plan, but the answers she was able to give us we believe you will like.

Abi covers some of the different mechanisms they’re using to determine beta participants and the wide range of things they’re taking into consideration.

We hope everyone enjoys this special edition of The Rift Podcast. Main points are behind the cut.The podcast covers the following points:

  • Despite what people might prefer or wish for – there will be a strict NDA. You can’t even tell people you get into beta.
  • The community members have not been forgotten and will have a chance at beta through multiple avenues of consideration
  • The min specs for Beta – not for the game itself – but for beta will be posted early next week
  • Gamescom and PAX are but one of the pools from which beta testers will be drawn
  • Although there might be an EU beta, codes should still enable them to get into the upcoming beta
  • Contribution to the community as well as reputation amongst your peers will be part of the package looked at for beta access
  • An official post about – what you can do for beta – will go up next week

These are just brief points – if you’d like to know things in more detail, please listen if you would like to.

Podcast: Play in new window

Written by Arithion

Arithion was insane enough to start the production of The Rift Podcast back in June 2010. Apart from hosting The Rift with Desikis she also writes articles for the site and has a fascination with corgis.


15 Comments for this entry

  • Vesavius
    August 5th, 2010 on 11:57 am

    Excellent info, very clear and useful. Very dissapointed that it looks like us EUs (if I understood it right) won’t be getting into it until later in a seperate thing, but better to know now then sit here in hope I guess. Thx again for this :)

  • Arithion
    August 5th, 2010 on 12:05 pm

    I’m not quite sure why people are understanding it that way. I understood it (and of course I could be wrong) to mean that of course EU people can participate in beta since they’re giving keys out at Gamescom.

    So I hope I understood it right.

    • Vesavius
      August 5th, 2010 on 1:09 pm

      Me too! :P

      Seriously though, if not no biggie, I can wait for a chance later. (this is me pretending to be nonchalant btw, is it working??)

  • Nayru
    August 5th, 2010 on 12:58 pm

    Thankyou soo much !! Was excellent! I Was so excited for this podcast haha. Very clear in what Abi was able to give us.

    Thankyou again! :)

  • Sornin
    August 6th, 2010 on 2:58 am

    I just want to thank Arithion and Cindy for the hard work on this episode, despite a fairly tight schedule. It ended up being far more informative than I could even hope for, and has allayed a lot of concerns.

  • Maladhiel
    August 8th, 2010 on 5:42 pm

    I like how Abigale spun the whole, we haven’t forgotten the community … and this rep system will be a way for community members to have a chance at testing the game in beta … and that this is not a perfect system, that she needs a way to do this, and this is one of the best ways she could think of to choose people. I’m sure some people will be displeased. But … I’m glad Abigale was upfront about that.

    • Vesavius
      August 9th, 2010 on 10:20 am

      I’m not so sure her talking about rep being used as a beta selection tool was a good thing… already the boards have +1 circle jerk groups and sock puppet accounts popping up to boost it.

      Not Abi’s fault, she has the best intentions no doubt, but declare something like this and people will abuse it. The system is already useless in her intended aims imo.

    • Arithion
      August 9th, 2010 on 10:47 am

      Yeah, if nothing else, no one can fault them for trying to hide anything. I’ve been in a lot of pre-beta/release communities and the team at Trion has to be one of the most forthcoming ones I’ve ever encountered.
      It’s a nice refreshing pace – and I hope some of the negative reactions they’ve had to it don’t make them think it’s not appreciated by the majority.

      Thank you for listening and I’m really happy you liked it.

      • Vesavius
        August 9th, 2010 on 11:18 am

        Agreed Ari, I don’t blame her or at all, and the intention was great. It’s a shame people can’t just play things straight in internet land ever :(

        Trions communication, obvious focus on community, and active approach to developing both has got to be 50% of the reason I am following this game so closely, otherwise I would have just switched off, played EQ2 for now, and come back in 5 months :P

  • Alyndale
    August 9th, 2010 on 5:03 am

    Hi ladies and thanks for great podcasts. I have been listening since episode 4. Keep up the great work!

    • Arithion
      August 9th, 2010 on 10:48 am

      Thank you :) We’re not planning on stopping any time soon ;) Although not sure how we’re going to go for a schedule once the game is out.

      We’ll have the next one out next week. Thank you for listening!

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