| Mail |
You might also like: WoW Insider, Joystiq, and more

Reader Comments (5)

Posted: Nov 23rd 2009 8:12PM (Unverified) said

  • 1 heart
  • Report
Well, I have beta access, but haven't been playing it, so I can't tell you much about the game, but I can give you my impressions of the beta itself, if that makes any sense.

Simply put, it's been a baffling mess. No beta forums (though last I checked about a month ago, those were in the works) and up until recently absolutely no way for beta testers to communicate with the devs. As it stands, there is now an IRC channel (and there may be forums by now, I'm not sure.) which doesn't help much as it's mostly unrelated (and often painfully immature) banter and repeated instances of, "Server up? Server up? Server up?"

Since the beta began, I've yet to see any devs post as to what they want players to be testing; The playtesting lacks focus entirely. Again, all of this may have changed by now, but during the time that I actually attempted to use my beta access, this is how it was. Near the beginning of beta, you were simply dropped into the game world at a random point, entirely naked, no map, no spells, no nothing. While I understand that the game is going for a "fend for yourself," kind of standpoint, that makes for a pretty rubbish beta when people log into the world and do nothing but run around for hours on end trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing.

That being said, however, the game itself - when I did get to actually do things in it - seems to be coming along well. The graphics are nice, and the action-focused gameplay is refreshing. I can't really say much more than that on the game itself right now since it's been so long since I've even set foot in it. Perhaps I'll change that sometime in the near future.
Reply

Posted: Nov 23rd 2009 8:19PM bartillo said

  • 3 hearts
  • Report
there is a beta forum, has been for quite a while.
Reply

Posted: Nov 23rd 2009 8:27PM (Unverified) said

  • 3 hearts
  • Report
You obviously didn't look very hard. The MO Beta forums have been up for 2 months now. If you'd read the stickes, you would have seen that all you need to do is link your game and forum accounts to get access. No wonder you didn't see anything regarding what to do during the testing, you couldn't even find the beta forum.

Initially, the beta wasn't handled very well, but once the forums went up with a built in bug tracker on the MO forums, things have been running a lot more smoothly. The initial few months of the beta were very bumpy, but in the last couple months things have been coming along very nicely imo.

I don't think the game will be fully "complete" on release, but for anyone who is interested in a good sandbox game like UO, I think there will be enough there by release for you to have a bit of fun while waiting for other very promising features. I only hope Star Vault can get enough subs to get the revenue they need to continue development.

I think the game is a lot of fun, but that could be because I'm a jaded fanboi who's been waiting for a sandbox MMO with that UO "feel" for years now... but this is by far the closest thing I've seen yet.
Reply

Posted: Nov 23rd 2009 10:20PM (Unverified) said

  • Half a heart
  • Report
As I indicated in my post, it's been a while since I played due to the poor handling of the beta. I acknowledged MULTIPLE times that things may have changed since then. Thanks for the heads up though, despite the underhanded observation on my... well... observation.
Reply

Posted: Nov 24th 2009 11:46AM (Unverified) said

  • Half a heart
  • Report
I love that I get voted down for telling exactly how the beta was early on. I acknowledged multiple times in my posts that it may have changed, and apparently it has. Doesn't change the fact that what I stated above is precisely how it was in the first however many months up until only recently.

Fanboys are rabid, I tell you.
Reply

Massively Speaking Podcast

Massively Speaking Episode 185: Bree-to-play

Latest episode: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW