What I Am Allowed To Say
Thar be a game testing program.
I be in it.
And since that’s all that’s I can say, we get to talk about my feeeeeelings.
Back in the day, I would have been bouncing off the walls with anticipation. Now… I’m older, wiser, and don’t have as much time. Get off my lawn.
Pros of participating in said game testing program:
- I will see if my PC will run it. If not, it’s a trip to Fry’s for me.
- I will see if I like it.
Cons of participating in said game testing program:
- What if I hate it?! I’ve already preordered.
- It’s kinda… spoilerific to do a beta.
- I don’t have as much time as I used to.
- I’m a little burnt out on working srs hard to make a game better… for free.
Ok, that last point is the main one. After SWG and the correspondent program, I was just so… done with investing oodles of time and effort into making a game better. For free. Now, there were people who really wanted to get into the industry1 so it made sense for them to throw themselves wholeheartedly into this endeavor, but that wasn’t me. I worked so hard because I was really attached to the game and I have trouble doing a half-assed job.
I haven’t done a beta in about 5 years, I was that burnt out. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even bother signing up for the ones in WoW. I haven’t set foot on the PTR either.
So the question is will I be able to give reasonably good feedback (the whole reason companies have beta) without the game just monopolizing my life while I have access. And with a kid who wants to go to the park, do I even have time to do it right? Because park always beats gaming.
We shall see. And by “we” I mean “me” because, duh, there’s an NDA.
- Some of them did, and are working for Bioware! Woot for them. ↩