Developers Told Me I'm Not Special Anymore

DP: Ugh…so I just turned off my PS3 after coming to two conclusions, buyer’s remorse is real, and my interest in multiplayer gaming has died tremendously. What was I doing before I turned off my PS3? I...

[movements]

Awesome read.

[Focker420]

"For the games sequels I actually care about, let's use Killzone 2 to Killzone 3 for example, I will gladly play the beta and give my feedback. Unfortunately, it seems like all the wrong people tend to walk their asses into a betas they have no business being in. Killzone 2 was too heavy, and Killzone 3 needs to play faster; Uncharted 2 takes too many hits to kill people; Socom 4 needs killstreaks. There's nothing wrong with criticism, but when it comes to a beta, nayslayers don't acknowledge why existing fans like elements of the game before nitpicking because it doesn't play the way they want it to. The most important aspect of multiplayer titles is the community; devs shoot themselves in the foot by catering to people that don't necessarily 0;care about their game and muting out their loyal following."

^^^
THIS!!!!

[Spitfire_Riggz]

Seems like Socom fans got the worst of this ^^

=(

[TheHater]

And Resistance Fall of Man fans.

[Panthers]

Socom 4 is the biggest slap in the face to Socom fans. The only reason people on this site stand up for it is because its PS3 exclusive. If it were multiplat, everyone would see what a travesty that game is.

[Kurt Russell]

Same went for the Halo franchise... that went sour as soon as the cash started to role in.

[nycrekid]

This is a decent read with decent points, but by his own account he is guilty of the same. So some people like the game to be a certain way and the developers listen. the people who like the game the old way speak out on it also. The developers have to try to appease everyone, which is near impossible. Should they just make a clone of an older game with better graphics? Or should they try something new? Whatever they do they can't win and someone will complain.

Gamers IMO are too whiny and complain too much. No one here is forced to buy ANY games. You don't like the game or the direction the developers are taking they don't buy it! There are plenty of game being released to fill you time with. You want Socom 2 then go buy Socom 2. If a game plays too much like COD then don't buy it. We can bash COD to hell and back. Trust me I can't stand COD but the fact is many many millions of people love it and so developers make it, and others copy it. It is about making money.

I just feel lucky we have so many good games to play.

[InfiniteJustice]

Writer is 100% correct on this one. Betas get treated like big demos that people download for fun. While there's nothing initially wrong with this, you get people who aren't fans of the game/series, and they go off complaining and spamming forums with how the game should be changed to suit them.

I hate to say it but so much was taken away from Killzone 3. It's still great in multiplayer, but so much was taken out because so many complained about things that WERE NOT broken in KZ2 (i.e the weight).

Not only this, but the changes to KZ3 put a lot of hardcore KZ2 players off the multiplayer quite quickly. The ones who did like the changes enjoy the game, but they'll soon ditch it when the next CoD comes along.

It's a sad circle of events.

[Legion]

@Kurt Russel

And yet it wasn't sour enough for you to buy every Halo game and get all of Halo 3 achievments and nearly finish all of Reaches Achievements including DLC. I see you are REALLY soured on the game. ha

[Kurt Russell]

So Legion, that just gives my statement integrity as I've clearly played them and am in a position to judge does it not?

They're not as good as they used to be by a long shot. They've become much more of a cheap and casual affair as a result of what this article is talking about.

[nskrishna2]

Very well written article. Props to the writer

[gravemaker]

i like betas and demos, but they are spoilers

[Kran]

Harry Hill would be most pleased at the first part of your statement :)

[Psychonaughty]

...but which is better, betas or demos? There's only one way to find out....FIGHT!!!!

[Raven_Nomad]

This guy totally makes solid points, too bad at a place like this his opinion and point of view will get bashed...

[Trackboss]

Dual Pixels is a new site run by two people that have been covering the gaming industry for a while. They haven't built their credibility publicly yet on their new establishment but they know their content.

[winflasher0]

How don't you loose bubbles?

[Raven_Nomad]

Why would I lose them? I've gained since I started here.

[Queefy_B]

lol at the title pic.. that is all :P

[NanoSoldier]

do you have a problem with Kratos!?

[Queefy_B]

No the picture is just funny is all, kratos is awesome.

[Redempteur]

i know thats' sarcastic , but really ..if you enjoyed the ride during the beta and had fun ..you could just delete it to start another beta .

[clarick01]

I was just thinking about this recently and i totally agree. Open beta's are partly why so many games are turning into COD clones. Rather than innovating and making there own game, developers are listening to people who are only used to playing fast paced twitch shooters.

[badkolo]

we get to much of any given game before its released, for gods sake before we even beta them there are tons of people playing the game at shows etc.. i know they need feedback to improve the games before they are sold but its getting a ltitle to much, first it was demos now its betas and by the time you get the game the uniqueness and newness has word off.

[Death]

The thing is these arent actually beta tests. The games he's playing are "public betas" that are more marketing driven. The main purpose of these is to get exposure, not actually find bugs or other issues. At best they stress servers and can help devs with play balance. Actual beta tests are hardly recognized when the retail version hits and for the most part they kind of suck. The purpose of these is to find major bugs during development, not a couple weeks before the game copy goes gold. I've beta tested games dating as far back as the Sega days when they were relevant to gaming. It's anything but fun and always very, very NDA. Today's beta testers want the bragging rights of playing early. That isn't what beta testing is about which is why we have the public beta test that everyone has access to.

-Death

[T3mpr1x]

There's still serious private betas, this guy is just talking about the public demos that are for some reason called betas. Those seem to be server stress tests more than anything.

[Danielmccue]

"With Uncharted 2, the transversal gameplay that ND took from its single player campaign was innovative for a multi player shooter; more importantly, it worked."

Which has now been nerfed now you die with a few shots, which stops your urge to climb and do other James bond style awesomeness which made the multi player so great.

:(

[jack_burt0n]

that beta was so so good, game is now trash in MP.

[gypsygib]

Stop complaining, before you know it they will start selling beta's for 10 bucks to anyone to offset developer costs.

[Emilio_Estevez]

You cannot play a beta after the game releases, it doesn't work any longer. This guy says he did. Credability lost, stopped reading, who knows what other kind of non-sense was in there.

[xtremegamerage]

I've never played a socom before, i normally only play tps in singleplayer. But from what i saw, it looked good.

The exception was UC2.

I also played in the beta and actually never gave feedback, probably because i really loved the way it was.

I don't have the game anymore, so i don't know how much it has changed. But the Uncharted's of this world were never about mp, SP story is where that game is for me. Mp was a bonus.

As for the article, i do agree with it.90%

You should always cater to your core audience, but to get more people involved, sometimes things have to be changed alittle.

[earbus]

Kratos is rather lame .

[BrianC6234]

Tis guy is missing a big reason for letting everyone in the betas. It gives the developers a chance to see how their game does with big groups of gamers. They can make changes before the game comes out. Being in a beta isn't about being special and part of a small group. It's only for testing the game before release.

[neversawthestars]

Umm instead of complaining, how about erasing those old expired betas/demos? Sounds like a slow news day and the only thing going on is what to complain about next. Congrats on getting me to foolishly contribute to your hit count. Just chock full of win there sheen...

[ATiElite]

man why do they have to have this picture of Kratos looking so un-happy! it's depressing and ruining my whole day. he looks like he just found out he has a Venereal Disease!

I want to put a caption over Mario's sad picture that says "Dam that stupid princess got captured again"
but substitute Princess for something a little more vulgar.

[Colmshan1990]

Best opinion piece I've read in a long time...
I have to agree with the author.
Now a beta just seems to equal a demo.

[humbleopinion]

Dude is completely clueless and doesn't know what a beta is for: it's not created for you to feel "exclusive" or "unique", it's a tool for the developers of the game in order to improve it. This basically mean that you are *volunteering* to participate in an experiment and provide feedback - if you don't like it then simply don't join.

Most public betas anyway are all about load balancing and stress testing - not for vocaling your opinion about "I don't like this, I do like that, this is too much like COD, this is not enough like COD... Public betas come out in a very late phase of the development and at this step you don't change game mechanics.