Would you pre-purchase SOW now to be a part of the Beta team?

[Aviar]

I wonder if this would be a viable option for Oleg's SOW:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...s/3107124.html


Basically, it's a pre-purchase of the game which also provides access to Beta versions of the game and access to a closed Beta forum. Betas will be updated during development.

Of course, the purchase price includes access to the full and complete final release version of the game.

If nothing else, it would give Oleg hundreds, if not thousands of testers to weed out those nasty bugs he is busy with at this very moment. It would also give Oleg valuable hands-on feedback from real players, instead of the endless comments we see now concerning static screenshots.

I think it's a very interesting option that DCS is offering to the 'fanboys' of it's upcoming A-10C Warthog flightsim.

Obviously, this is a totally optional decision on the part of the buyers, so if there is anything at all that makes them uncomfortable at all, there is absolutely no need for them to participate.

I see it as an interesting option for the diehard fans as well as a lot free development input for DCS, the creators of the game.

Aviar

[Skoshi Tiger]

I put down option 1 for the poll, But I'm not sure how good I would be as a beta tester. With the free time I've got available I doubt I could contribute anything useful to Oleg and team.

Also (from experience) software testing is a thankless job and the developers end up hating your gut's because your a pedantic (expletive deleted) and every one else hates you because every valid problem you identify delays the release of the product!


That said I just pre-purchaced DCS-A10 and am downloading the open beta as we speak. I doubt I will be able to add anything of value to the product, but you never know!

Cheers!

[BP_Tailspin]

I voted; bad idea.


All you would accomplish by the buy a game win a prize approach is forming a Whiners Club … Oleg needs to hand pick a mix of “Sim” Pilots and “Real” Pilots to beta-test SoW BoB.

And with only 2 weeks before the release of SoW BoB he's running out of time LOL

[Flanker35M]

S!

Bad idea. It would just leak to the wild public within hours of people getting in beta and massively whinery would commence. I think Oleg has it covered already.

[_RAAF_Smouch]

I said bad idea also.

I feel that as everyone else has said it would give those people who would "moan if their a@se was on fire and then b!tch if someone p!ssed on them and put them out" another avenue.

just my five cents worth.

[The Kraken]

Same here. An interesting approach but I don't think it would work for this community.

[WTE_Galway]

I thought new releases of MS operating systems were paid Beta's anyway ?

On a more serious note, I can see serious problems getting people that "paid" for "their" Beta to stick to a confidentiality agreement.

It may however be workable, lets just wait and see how DCS go with it

[Qpassa]

I think beta as a gift for pre purchasers . good idea

[Chivas]

I wouldn't have a problem with a paid beta. It would give the developers much needed funds, and we would be able to fly weeks in advance. Hopefully there will be workable measures to avoid piracy as much as possible. Piracy will kill this small genre quicker than anything else.

[csThor]

A broad beta such as DCS does is only useful if you want to test a program on a very wide range of systems. This means the program itself has to be fleshed out and that beta part is only meant to ensure there are no nasty surprises WRT exotic hardware configurations lurking in the shadows.

For a team such as Maddox Games such an approach doesn't make sense for they never follow traditional western standards for software project management and they're a rather small team for an ambitious project. To me it's a bad idea for SoW while it may not be a bad one for other titles.