PlayerHater
04-28-2005, 06:14 PM
Looking over the posts, it seems obvious that there is a huge expectation gap caused by the release of the demo. After playing it a bit, and after reading Chuk's posts as to what is being modified as a result (at least in part) to the demo feedback, it seems clear that the 'demo' was really intended to be an open beta.
Now I have no problem with an open beta, when you have a smaller house and hence a smaller Q&A budget it seems like a very good idea. However, it seems clear that a pretty sizable minority of the users who post on the forums express dissappointment in the game because when they downloaded the demo they expected a polished product that would include substantially all the major game features, and instead they found an early beta product.
For most of those who checked out the forums, I think it became clear what the actual nature of the 'demo' was. However, for a lot of folks out there who do not read the forums, and for some who do read the forums, they may not realize that they ran into a confusion of names here.
So two questions: first, has there ever been an official word as to why the initial test product was released as a demo instead of an open beta? And second, could the company consider putting out an official release that stresses the preliminary nature of the demo so that they do not lose sales to potential customers misled by the naming convention used for the demo.
This is a good game and has a lot of potential. I would hate to see it suffer from a confusion of names in the pre-release product.
Bob
Now I have no problem with an open beta, when you have a smaller house and hence a smaller Q&A budget it seems like a very good idea. However, it seems clear that a pretty sizable minority of the users who post on the forums express dissappointment in the game because when they downloaded the demo they expected a polished product that would include substantially all the major game features, and instead they found an early beta product.
For most of those who checked out the forums, I think it became clear what the actual nature of the 'demo' was. However, for a lot of folks out there who do not read the forums, and for some who do read the forums, they may not realize that they ran into a confusion of names here.
So two questions: first, has there ever been an official word as to why the initial test product was released as a demo instead of an open beta? And second, could the company consider putting out an official release that stresses the preliminary nature of the demo so that they do not lose sales to potential customers misled by the naming convention used for the demo.
This is a good game and has a lot of potential. I would hate to see it suffer from a confusion of names in the pre-release product.
Bob