Why the Battlefield 3 Beta Was Wonderful… for Activision - Gamers Riot

Writer JohnnyWayne_ must begin by sending out his appreciation for Dice in releasing an open beta version of Battlefield 3 to the public. He cannot say enough about how appreciative he is for a company to provide us, as a gamers, with the opportunity to play an early version of their game and send feedback based on our experiences. This process is wonderful on two accounts: it makes gamers feel like they have a say in development, and it ultimately provides us with a higher quality gaming experience when the title hits store shelves.

This, however, was a terrible marketing decision on EA/Dice's behalf.

[solidworm]

I sense huge amounts of butthurt in this article.

[Cablephish]

Not really, he has a good point.

Think about it, they tried to build hype from this game, and it all started with Medal of Honor containing a code to join the Battlefield 3 beta. They advertised a beta with the means to strictly test stress on the servers.

If that's not using people, I don't know what is.

[jp0249107]

Me too, either that or he's trolling for hits (probably both).

[JohnnyWayne_]

Not trolling for hits; and no part of my anatomy was injured by the beta. I was just sincerely and severely disappointed by the beta in comparison to how excited I was for this title's release and, after hearing multiple opinions which spoke to the same, I decided to post about the issue. Thanks for reading!

[FanboyPunisher]

biggest crybaby i've seen in an article.

[M-Easy]

I'm telling you the COD defense force is in full assault mode.

[Fil101]

lol i'm glad you canceled your pre order for BF3, 1 less COD kid on BF3 jus make's my BF3 expereince all the btr, seriously the amount of people that are canceling there pre orders after only playing 1 map on 1 game mode is stupid. Dice stated that there is 6 times more people playing the beta than there was playing BFBC2, O.K so how many of these people are cod fans i'd say alot judging by the noobs running about with snipers at close range. Wait for the full game then it will be miles btr cause all the kids are going to want MW3.

[Akira2020]

BF3 is an unfinished mess. I will not cancel my pre-order because I think DICE deserves my support; however, you need to understand what goes on in the final stages of a game as they attempt to make a deadline. Judging from your post, you do not. There are 6 times more people playing the BF3 BETA because of the hype and interest stirred up by EA....not because BF3 is going to be the best game ever.

You need to get your head out of the sand and see BF3 for what it is......unfinished and rushed. There was another rushed title that was suppose to be the next COD killer......that was BRINK. At least EA allowed the current to be pulled back with the BETA of BF3.

FYI, I'm not a COD fanboy...in fact, with 4 different studios working on MW3, I think that may be the bigger disappointment. Too many cooks spoil the spoil the broth.

[Biggest]

Why are you calling BF3 an unfinished mess when you've played the console beta? You haven't played the physical release to see if it is unfinished. Think about it this way. DICE released BF:BC2 over a year ago. Is it a stretch to think that they can't at least recreate something they already created? They released a beta for the purposes of beta. There is absolutely NO REASON for anyone with a working brain to think that DICE will release a game that has players falling through the ground, a broken chat system, and any of the other "problems" in the stress test beta. Do you think the tanks will also drive through the ground? The only thing you can base an intelligent opinion on is their last game. There were no vehicles in the beta. There was barely any destruction (one of the major points for BF) in the beta. There was hardly anything IN the beta that is in the final release. I do not understand how some of you form your outlandish opinions of the finished product.

[Tarantino_Life]

BF3 is awesome! Dunno even a map without vehicles is far more entertaining than COD in my opinion. I will always love squad based games.

[jp0249107]

I really don't understand why the beta was so awful. I had a good time with Metro (even though it wasn't the best) and Caspian Border is even better. Maybe I should start my own crappy website and make up articles with controversial titles about MW3 being less than stellar just to get hits. I could become another jim sterling troll.

[XboxInnovation]

The beta was awful because the game is being rushed. The game is more of a Bad Company 2 extension than a new game in itself. You should have known something was up when EA starting going after MW3.

[zeksta]

Oh, so you've played the full retail game? No? Then shut the hell up.

[zeksta]

This Article contains nothing but severe stupidity from the writer.

This Beta build is about 2 months old, none the less they've fixed the bugs and along with that the graphics were stripped down the the bare essentials for smaller download size, how you people can judge a game on those terms plus one mode and map is beyond my comprehension, glad you canceled your pre-order you bucket of incompetence and stupidity.

[Mustang300C2012]

Then what was the point in releasing the beta if all the bugs were fixed? I mean that is the point of releasing a beta. What EA/DICE fuc*ed up doing was releasing a beta so close to release. Now instead of the continued hype the game was getting now they have to constantly remind and make excuses that the beta doesn't represent the final product. I %100 AGREE with that it doesn't represent the final product. It was a marketing decision to release the beta. They can keep saying it was to test the servers for all 3 platforms but this should have happened MONTHS ago. The beta is really just demo. Who releases a beta weeks before release and already claims the bugs are fixed? What is the point of the beta again? Stupid decision.

[JohnnyWayne_]

I'm sorry you missed the point, but the article wasn't necessarily about the beta being 2 months old- it was about the notion that releasing a 2 month old bug-filled beta to brand new players of the game was a bad marketing decision on the behalf of EA and Dice when they are trying to convince gamers to purchase their title.

By the way, you shouldn't have capitalized "Article" or "Beta" (they aren't proper nouns), you're missing the preposition "to" in your phrase "the graphics were stripped down the bare essentials..." (not to mention repeating the word "the" which I removed here), and "none the less" should be written "nonetheless." It looks like there is a great deal more which is "beyond your comprehension" than how people can judge a game based on these terms.

Anyway, cheers mate- thanks for reading and commenting!

[Akira2020]

The writer of this article was just telling it like it is. Due to the rush of this game and public BETA access for an unfinishe product; Activision will be singing victory this holiday season. The BETA's many bugs and horrible graphics will not win over the millions of COD fans out there. Sure, it's just a BETA, but DICE is churning out PR statement after statement in an attempt to keep you away from the truth.....BF3 is not finished.

If you truly believe the BETA is not indicative of their actual finished product, why are they releasing a graphical upgrade CD/update on October 25 with all the console versions? This occurs in the business when something is not finished.

EA is so determined to dethrone Activision's workhorse (COD) their demands for DICE to finish by October 25 will only force DICE to ship a subpar product. DICE will not bite the hand that feeds them and understands the dangers of confronting their financiers.

Attacking the writer is not fair. EA deserves your scorn for demanding DICE put out a game that just isn't finished.

Take care.

[Chidori]

The author has good points. If you read the article with no bias, you would notice this, but I guess BF now has exactly what we used to hate about cod - biased fanboys just like zeksta. I can tell you from personal experience, after I got that beta, every bit of excitement I had for this game was completely drained. I know it's just a beta, but holy hell it was terrible and totally turned me off. I can speak for a number of friends too when I say this. We're all the more anticipating MW3 now. I'm one of those guys that always complain about cod being the same shit every year and how tired I am of it, but now im excited for Mw3 like I've never been before, and it's all thanx to the horrendous BF3 beta. I'm sure they're many others out there like me right now, so yeah, he's right. The beta is definitely changing a lot of minds, which is only good for Activision.

[BenEViolent]

Read with no bias? Then how am I supposed to act like an enraged fanboy?

[trenso1]

Agreed my excitement dropped for the game playing that crappy map but I'm still getting it day one cause I know it will be good after seeing those two new maps the announced. I just don't wanna play operation metro at all when I get the game

[Fil101]

That's exactly what i've been saying, fair enough the beta was old code full with bugs and maybe the map wasn't to everybody's taste, but to judge the game on 1 map alone and with 1 gamemode was going abit to far. personally I cannot wait.

[DigitalxPiracy]

I've played it on both PC and 360 and, admittedly, I've changed my mind about buying it for the latter. Most of my friends play there but I'd rather play on PC with random people to be honest. To make things worse, it wasn't even on a map that has been "toned down" for the console versions. I've played Caspian Border conquest with 64 players and I will not pay $60 to play with only 24. Console version is a joke, sorry.

[HAF912]

after the beta i decided not to buy bf3. but after they released caspian border i changed my mind pretty much instantly.

dice was just a bunch of retards to choose operation metro to demo/beta a battlefield game.

anyway all is forgiven, waiting for bf3 to come to steam then purchase right away.

[solar]

"It may seem shady, but from a pure business perspective, EA and Dice should have taken a few notes from COD XP... hold off on the public beta, build hype and excitement for the release, and drop the game on store shelves later in the month"

so have people buy the game before they realize it is crap is a better decision for stockholders than gamers. sorry, but i do not agree with that "business perspective" at all.

[Kishin]

the game will be fine, stop whining like kids. this is a beta, nothing to see here move along and stop being idiots...

[Garrison]

I haven't played the beta.

That being said, I think the writer is right on the "mentality" of players when it comes to certain betas.
You can say "but it's a beta!!!!!! It's a beta I tell ya don't be stupid!! Only a fool would take this for the final product!!!"
That being said, and yes I understand It's a beta. At least for me as a customer and knowledgeable salesperson as well,know for a fact that IT DOESN'T matter.
SORRY BUT IT DOESN'T.
Yup, sad but true. It's just how perception works, and when it comes to product quality, before the ACTUAL purchase perception is everything.
Imagine your at a restaurant, the cook himself walks over and says: Hey guys I got a brand new cake I'm making, still in progress thou because ima just need a few touches to finish it up, you guys wanna try what I got so far for FREE?
You: Hell yeah i'll try it out!
You go ahead and try it and it's delicious or at least really good, you go on and most likely would say: Hell yeah man this is awesome, when you have it complete, let me know I'll get one for here and one to go!!
The cook says: Awesome!!
Now imagine if what the cook brought was a turd on a plate.
You: S#hit...i can't stomach this thing jesus!!
Cook: Hey you guys wanna try out when it's complete??
You: Hell NOOO!!!! NO thanks..
This is why beta's no matter be they beta's can make a gamer lose interest in a game. It what you see is something you don't already like or be willing to give a change when I comes out, then the beta did more harm than good to the company that is making the product.
It's quite simple really.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

As I stated before on another article, no matter what people say its stupid to justify a beta sure the beta's bad, its months old with numerous and partially intended glitches and a none finalized FrostBite engine. Jokes on you when the full game gets released and all you're friends are talking about it, then how you gonna feel?

[Mustang300C2012]

It was stupid to release a beta on Dice/EA part so close to release and now spending their time clarifying how it is a old build and rest assured that the final product doesn't have the bugs etc.

[BenEViolent]

Nice article, Johnny. Loads of colorful comments here.

[ZombieAssassin]

The beta was good marketing in the sense I went and bought Bad Company 2 brand new after playing it and preordered BF3....then again I never overhyped myself for the game as I've learned that always ends badly.

[0neShot]

The bugs are so obvious they can easily be picked up in testing. I think what could have happened was DICE running out of time. EA can't screw up the BF3 release because investors will hammer their stock so forced DICE to throw out whatever they have and hope for the best while asking the marketing team to damage control the negative feedback.

[Arnon]

I still don't understand how people can believe a beta that was confirmed to not only be an old build, but did not include any high quality textures, and was placed on the network to stress test it, to be indicative of the final version.

Just a few hours ago, I had another person by the name of NeoTribe state "First of all the game WILL look like that minus the glitches. Dont think anyone really expected the console version to be mind blowing." even AFTER it was already announced a high quality texture pack would be available for install on both console versions.

http://n4g.com/news/860751/...
(Comment 6.1.1)

I mean... I actually find it difficult to believe people can be this naive.