Life in a Beta

Being in a beta (open, closed, private, or whatever) has its perks. In a way, it's an extended demo, with around ten times the content of a normal demo. I've been in three beta's now for Playstation 3. I can openly talk about one of those now, but the other two I can't. Which is my problem with being in a beta.


The problem with not being able to talk about the "game" is HUGE if you are into games. Gaming is a love of mine, obviously, as I've dabbled in many types of game-related projects. From fan-sites to news sites, blog sites to podcasts, I've done a lot of small things. So it's an absolute chore for me to keep my mouth closed about a game I am playing. I will start with my first example, Uncharted 2. I didn't think much of keeping to myself at this point, so I talked freely about the game whenever and whereever I wanted. I talked about the beta at length on Gameciety more than once. But the way I see it, that's a good thing. I was giving publicity to a game.

Let's backtrack a moment. I understand the point of a beta. Find ways to break the game, find glitches, report things, stress testing the servers, etc. etc. Honestly, in Uncharted 2, I didn't have any problems. I never got stuck in a glitch. I never felt the balancing was off. I never found any bugs. Was I going out of my way to find them? No. I was playing the game, the way I would play the game. Had a blast doing it, and convinced me to play the retail game when I otherwise would of looked over it.

Onto my second beta experiance. MAG. I still can't go into this game. But I will say, in the first and second phase (of four, I think, which I didn't play in), it was buggy as hell. But, that game was a massive (haha) undertaking, so I could understand it. And from the sounds of it, a lot of the bugs were fixed in later updates. I don't hold those bugs against a game in beta form. I reported all the bugs I experianced, because as a beta tester, that is part of the "job". One of my big problems, which I think I can say without getting in trouble, was the server times. You couldn't just play anytime. Which really bugged me. That aside, I can't talk more about the game, though I have been itching to for months now. Again, that is like you dating the hottest girl in school, and you can't tell anyone.

Currently, I am in the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Closed Beta. As before, I can't talk about it. Boooooo. At least I don't think I can. I never read the agreement, as I assumed it was the same. But I am having no problems with the game, bug wise or glitch wise. Which makes for an awesome play experiance when you are not being lagged out, or stuck in a glitch, or what not. I have personal complaints about the game, but you'll have to wait till March 2010 to hear about those. Anyways, the point of this blog was twofold. One, it was a test to see hot an opinionated article felt and looked. And two, to test my writing to the audience. If you've come this far, please drop me a comment here, or on twitter @Sobaer, with what you thought. I can take the heat, I've been in the kitchen awhile. :)

-Sobær