17th April 2004, 6:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 2nd May 2004, 10:57 PM by Dark Jaguar.)
Yeah, which is why public beta testing is a good thing. The cynical side of me says "Wow, someone got smart. Why PAY people to test games when you can trick people into thinking it's a generous GIFT to make them do the job for FREE?" The gamer side says "Big deal, so it's somewhat manipulative, we get to test the game and suggest changes based on OUR opinions!". Generally, if my cynical side ever goes against my gamer side, gamer always wins. I tip my hat to blizzard for finding a way to actually cut costs by doing something great for the people. Besides, the more people testing, the more bugs are found. When it comes to balance though, usually that's something that, no matter the testing, issues will always come up. Let's face it, every fighting game has some imbalance issues, hence the 3 billioin versions of the same game. Better to have those issues fixed via a patch than a brand new game.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)