The Battlefield 3 Beta Is Called a Beta Because It Is A Beta, Dummy

SG - I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there’s a trial version of this game called Battlefield 3 available on Xbox LIVE, PC and the PlayStation Network. It’s really good and you can shoot people in it, apart from the bits where you get kicked out of games, somebody shoots you from underground or your soldier doesn’t actually reload his weapon when topping up his ammo.

[SITH]

Dummy.

[Twizlex]

Beta does not equal demo. Trufax.

[deadpoole]

New book released: What is Beta for Dummies.

[Angrymorgan]

Ooh it's a BETA,
Thanks for clearing that up. =)

[ATi_Elite]

Yeh you stupid uneducated not too smart opposite of genius, certified dummy.

[SilentNegotiator]

ONE month old? OH MY! It must be a completely different game by now!
/s

Errors need to be reported. If DICE had already fixed the major errors a week before releasing 4 week old build beta, for a game due in a month.....then they may as well have delayed the already late beta by a week, renamed it to "demo", and then apologists wouldn't have to be screaming to the mountain tops that it was an "old" build, and DICE wouldn't have gotten so much bad publicity.

[ATi_Elite]

It's not a DEMO!!!

It's a BETA...why? SO DICE can test the servers!!

And no one cares about COD fanboys complaining as they just wanna bash BF3 anyway they can which seems to be the only people bashing the BETA. A beta is supposed to be Buggy, laggy and not run smooth cause it's not the FINAL build.

People complaining about a BETA is beyond stupidity. It's not like you paid for it...it's not like it's a retail release with issues like RAGE, Black-Ops, or MW3 in a few weeks! It's a BETA being used to test SERVERS.

I'm sure DICE knocked out most of the bugs during the limited ALPHA!! besides why would DICE put out a final build to test the servers as that would not make sense...why cause then the final build would be hacked before release.

Hence they used an OLD BUILD to BETA test the SERVERS to protect the final build!! Jesus H FN. Christ.....Less complaining and more thinking then maybe more people would understand this! But some people just wanna bash BF3 no matter what!! BF3 has been so dominate since that 30 second teaser that this Beta is the first thing they could bash!!

OMG! Bugs, Lag, Glitches, it's the worse BETA ever!!!! run for the Hills BF3 is gonna suck!

I'm starting to feel happy that so many people are complaining and canceling their BF3 pre-orders cause that will make for a better time playing BF3 with BF Veterans instead of a bunch of casuals and N0obs. So for everyone complaining about a BETA...Good don't buy it, stay off the BF3 servers on OCT 25th and have fun with MW3!

Battlefield since 1942!

[SilentNegotiator]

They aren't even using the full amount of players possible in the PC version of the beta, so they aren't exactly doing a great job stress testing the servers.

The beta released so late, it's more of a publicity thing now. I'm calling bull on their assertion that they already fixed all of the big problems in the few weeks between the "old" beta build and the latest. If it were that simple, they could have just waited a little longer, fixed all of the issues, then released the beta to test the servers, and not given their latest a bad reputation.

[Ghoul]

ATi_Elite

me too bf vet since 1942 beta.

all you whiners PLEASE leave the game and play cod.
it will be so much better for us if you spare us with mic spamm constant whining and codlike behaviour.

cant wait for 25th

[rataranian]

Ohhhhhhhh ok. Gotcha. ...So why does it suck?

[rataranian]

"cause it's a beta you big dummy!"
The full game will rock tho. Can't wait.

[pr0digyZA]

The way you replied to yourself makes it look like you have two accounts but forgot to change it.

[SITH]

^^^^^^LMAO^^^^

Account switch fail.

[FrightfulActions]

Jesus guys, can't you spot a joke? Its not a account switch fail. he was making fun of how everyone will be replying to his question. Do you not see the quotation marks. Lay off. Back to subject: If you don't like the beta, don't play it and wait for the full game. Beta doesn't translate to demo - a misunderstanding that a lot of children seem to have. Not such a bad thing though, maybe this will send them back to screaming on their mics in COD and keep them out of BF3. If that was the case, a buggy BETA is definitely worth the sacrifice. Haha.

[pr0digyZA]

Not a very good joke if 13 people didn't get it.

[RedHotChiliPepaSpray]

Beta or not, it was still a bad move from DICE. The majority of the people dont give a sh*t about that if it was a true beta, they're just trying out BF3 to see if they like it.

Now they've alienated some people away from the game and they've lost sales. It would of been a better move to do a private beta, but then they wouldnt get the publicity, which, I think, was the aim from DICE in the first place

[ATi_Elite]

2 million people played the BC2 Beta and it has sold/shipped over 9 million units.

12 million people have played the BF3 beta so DICE/EA are on the right track.

for every 1 person not impressed i'm sure there are 3 people who are very happy with BF3. PLUS people like myself who are BF Veterans and are buying the game without participating in the Beta.

People are not happy with bF3 cause it's not a casual game like COD......BF3 requires skill!

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

Battlefield doesn't take any skill. I'm a long time COD player and this is the first BF game I've ever played. I've played really good in the demo so far, and had a game of 28-23 with 5301 points. This is the buggiest beta I've every played.. and crap like this ruins the casuals experience. http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[RedHotChiliPepaSpray]

"people are not happy because its not a casual game like cod"

speaking for the majority? i bet that most of the players will have known what type of game battlefield id by now and what they were getting into.

so dont make that poor excuse for a beta that was riddled with bugs and glitches. some people who would have bought the game have gone away from it and they also got bad publicity from this.

"BF3 requires skill" - lol

[ATi_Elite]

Good i'm glad you had a terrible experience with BF3...now go back to playing COD and please stay off the BF3 servers when BF3 comes out!

Looking at the BF3 BETA from a different angle, I'm glad so many Casual COD gamers are complaining. BF3 is gonna suck so please go buy COD and STAY OFF the BF3 servers so us BF veterans can enjoy our game without so many noobs running around.

some of you have some nerve to complain about a BETA when MW2 and black-ops still to this day have Lag, hack, and Bug issues! PC Devs have the luxury to put out a Beta of what ever version they want while collecting data and fixing the gold build.

Ahh the key word..Gold Build...which this BETA is not. Anyway I'm exhausted from trying to explain what a Beta is to a bunch of COD fans who just wanna bash BF3 anyway they can. Fine by me just remember on Oct 25th DO NOT BUY BF3 cause the Beta is so laggy, buggy...oh and have fun with CODMW1 version 4.0.

[StealthyRay]

And patience, too.

[radphil]

"Battlefield doesn't take any skill. I'm a long time COD player and this is the first BF game I've ever played. I've played really good in the demo so far, and had a game of 28-23 with 5301 points"

Doesn't mean crap on many modes, like rush for example. You could have a 50-0 KD, and STILL lose.

It's about team work, not rambo time.

[Ghoul]

endoran:

you totally misunderstood how bf works

radphil:
you are so damn to the point.

BF IS A TEAMPLAY GAME.

if you dont squad up with the classes you can have the best skilled shooters available and still loose against a organised team with class support.

but who am i talking to ???

cod does only shooting nothing else no need for anything except working on your aiming skills.

because in COD every player is an egoist.

i hate cod for that its basicly only teamdeathmatch every map noone cares about the other because everyone is on a stats hunt.

why help your collegue that had a 9 kill spree instead of letting him die in the open, that way you can become the leaderboard top player more easily

in cod you get rewarded for egoism
in bf you get punished for it by constantly loosing.

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

@radphil and @Ghoul

No.. I understand perfectly what it's about. That's not an impressive K/D ratio I put up.. but the points were. I'll link you to my site where I put the picture up. As you'll see, the guy on top of the scoreboard had 46 kills... and I had 28, yet I was only 400 or so points behind him because I was planting bombs and NOT going rambo for kills. here's the link.

http://showtimeforfree.com/...

I know perfectly well what I'm supposed to do in Rush mode. Doesn't change the fact that this game takes "skill" to play, and COD doesn't. That's just plain wrong.

[JellyJelly]

I could swear it was a demo. /s

[grailly]

maybe it's called a beta because it's easier to call it a beta? bugs get overlooked and such.

uncharted 3's release multiplayer release is also called a beta, but it's the finished multiplayer we are playing, just sayin'

[ATi_Elite]

DICE has said repeatedly that this is a BETA! a Beta of an OLD VERSION!! They are using this Beta of an old version to make more optimizations, fix bugs, and test servers!

They didn't want the Gold version tested cause they didn't want the final version out early with hackers ripping it up and they also have some surprises in store for the final release!

Only consolers have issues with this Beta.....meanwhile PC Gamers know that a Beta with bugs is no big deal cause it's just a BETA!!

[grailly]

the argument is about the release being a demo called beta rather than a beta... Of course it's not the full game!

do you think after all those bugs DICE would come out and say: " yep that's what you're gettin''"

even if there were using some old version of the game how dumb is that, every body is complaining about hit detection, buttons not working and falling through the map. How will they fix minor details nobody in the beta cares about right now because they're drowned out by other "game breaking bugs"?

and I heard a few journalist saying that the game is rushed and I absolutely believe them. They have to release the game before MW3.

That said, I'm still getting the game, it does a lot right - the suppression mechanic is awesome and the shooting feels so right - just not on day 1

[Waddy101]

@grailly Really? The game is rushed, that's funny considering that it's been in development for over 2 years (The average development cycle of a COD game).

[grailly]

lol

yes for a COD (imagine it written really, really big) game. those games are spat on time and time again for not being innovative, using the same engine and being buggy as hell!
so 2 years for an innovative game with a new engine is kinda short

[Waddy101]

@grailly Dude i said over 2 years, Battlefield 3 has been in development for 3+ at least. Also if you have actually played the beta in the last 2 days almost all of the 'big' bugs have been fixed.
Anyway the beta itself isn't about testing out the game it's about testing out the Server back-ends.

[jamstorr86]

why do people such as yourself keep on insisting that there is some big conspiricy? Its a computer game for christ sake.
DICE and EA know this game will sell, and yes they have hyped it up like smeg. But they have said, and said again and again, that this is a BETA.

So why miss-trust them? What jave they got to gain from calling this a BETA instead of a Demo? The game on relase day will be the same, regardless, except with some server fine tuning, and the realse will not be a BETA. Then and only then can we make our judgement.

Would you judge a painting before it was finshed? Or a book before the end was written?

[grailly]

who talked about a conspiracy? it's just basic PR...

what they gain is people like you saying it's a beta and bugs are normal.
yes, we'll judge on release

[gamingdroid]

That is what I have been saying, the Uncharted 3 beta was way more polished months ahead of release.

Then you got BF3, hyped to oblivion with PC footage and fanboys going hysteric. Then a "beta" is released 4 weeks from game actual release that NOT only does NOT meet the hype (far from it), but with massive number of bugs. Dice then claim it is a month old build.

You can call it what you want (alpha, beta, demo, trial), but we all know 6 weeks from going to Gold your product ain't looking good compared to the competition!

[grailly]

6 weeks from releasing, that's about 2 weeks from going gold, sadly

[Megaton]

DEFEND THE HIVE!

Is all your valuable beta tester feedback going towards fixing the things that DICE says are already fixed? It's an old chunk of broken content full of problems that DICE claims are long gone. Therefore, it serves no purpose as a beta aside from minor load testing. It's a broken demo. Deal with it.

When you turn required work into a pre-order bonus, there are certain expectations you have to live up to. Real beta testing tends to be closed, includes an NDA, and access to the developers to provide feedback. They're usually frequently patched with improvements based on said feedback. It's also not rare for them to have specific operating hours, not 24/7 open access.

[Jobesy]

Good point megaton, if Dice stated that all the beta issues weren't in the final release, then why release a buggy beta? There's no reason for it. the only thing it would invite is bad press. Everything points to a rushed game.

[Hufandpuf]

I don't think dice would intentially release a buggy beta as a demo. They have been making games for a long time and I'm sure the purpose was to improve the game. Dice is not one to use smoke and mirrors. I trust the beta is for good reason and they knew they would get some negative feedback but not THIS negative. BETA= Test build, DEMO = final presentation.

[Blaine]

Since when is a demo final? Most demos also come with the disclaimer that you're playing content that is subject to change before release.

[Hufandpuf]

The demo is the final public presentation of the game before release.

[gamingdroid]

Demos do have that warning. I have seen it first hand multiple times....

It might or might not be, but remember it's just a label.

[zeksta]

Hmm.. Demo's are mainly close to the final representation of the game, but there may be some features missing due to them adding patches in the future, that can also be said for Beta's.

[gamingdroid]

Some beta's are really close to final release of the game. See Gears 3 and Halo: Reach while I expect the Uncharted 3 beta to be the same.

There were some bug fixes, minor map changes and a little balancing in both cases.

[TopDudeMan]

Okay, if it's a beta, then how come they've already fixed all the bugs? That's what they said. I mean, the real beta happened ages ago. This is a DEMO, and a very bad demo at that.

[ddurand1]

Ignorance is bliss.

[TopDudeMan]

Yeah, you would know.

[ddurand1]

It's old software. Review the definition of a beta again, please. Then share it with the rest of the people that don't get it

[Hicken]

They didn't say all were fixed. And there's still the need to stress test servers and such. Demos aren't released to test the game's functions, but to test the public reaction. The former is the job of a beta, and this fills that description.

[TopDudeMan]

Well, the thing is that people were complaining about stuff and they were like "we know, we know, we've already fixed it".

Well, what I'm saying is if they let us play the fixed version we could have discovered NEW bugs if it's a beta. What's the use in testing an old version of a game if they've already updated it? It's like peeling an orange then throwing it in the bin.

There's a whole sea of bugs in that beta that they already know about so they've made it impossible for us to spot the ones they missed because the other ones are so glaringly obvious.

And whether they wanted it or not, there's been public reaction to this "beta". People have already started cancelling their pre-orders. That beta definitely hurt their sales. Big time.

It's like they were sitting in the office one day and the guys were talking about what they wanted to do for a demo and a guy says "Durr, lets give them a month-old build of the game with loads of glitches we've already fixed and we'll call it a beta hur, hur, hur." Great marketing plan.

[ddurand1]

It isn't about marketing. That's where you miss the point.

If you wanna play the fixed version buy it Oct 25. This game will be better off because of the beta, even if people can't grasp that concept yet

[DevilishSix]

I can already see all anyone is going to do is camp in prone for cheap kills, if Dice doesn't take prone out of the game. Why, because that is what I see going on in most games. No one seems to care about working as a team on objectives, they seem more concerned with K/D ratios. I am holding off on this game now.

[ddurand1]

It's quite easy to see people prone.

Hold off, itll be one less shitty teammate I get assigned with

[DevilishSix]

Doesn't matter, if your picking up more players and trying to convert the COD crowd over to BF all your getting is players doing what they do in COD and that is camp prone K/D boosting and thats what is going on.

[ddurand1]

Seeing prone people with their heads exposed are easy headset kills. Keep playing you'll get better. They're easy to spot and kill. Especially with all the tactical light noobs and sniper glare on scopes.

[Captain Qwark 9]

pay attention and prone guys dont matter, look for the muzzleflash. the only way to hide that is with a suppressor but that reduces damage so you can likely run to cover before they drop you if they are using one.

this is a game of patience and teamwork. and i agree that too many people are concerned with k/d though, which is why i only play when i have at least one of my buddies around that way at least him and i can work as a squad. to me the w/l ratio is much more important in a game like this and mine currently sits at 1.5 which isnt bad....( k/d 1.285-7hrs total so far )

[DevilishSix]

I understand just pointing out what I see and it disappoints me. This just did not seem a concern in BFBC2.

[gazgriff2k12]

finally someone gets it :-)

[csreynolds]

I understand that DICE has released the beta primarily to test back-end systems for server stability, but even so you'd think they'd distribute the most current version of the game, not one that's a month old - a) it's not a great way to promote their game, dishing out a shoddy beta version over the supposedly improved one they have now, and b) player feedback is rendered pointless. What use is our input to DICE if the beta we're commenting on is out-of-date? Sounds a bit backwards to me...

[Waddy101]

They won't distribute the current version of the game as it has now gone gold and the current version is the final version. Also they weren't testing the game client, they were testing the server back-end so they could improve that for release.
Also for you point b) How is player feedback rendered pointless? There is a little thing nowadays called a PATCH and said patch could include updates based on player feedback.

[Hufandpuf]

It took a while for them to get all three beta versions up and running at the same time. That's why the beta date was revealed so late.

[tickticktick]

It's a demo not a beta. A beta has a select few testing. A demo is open to all, like this. EA should worry about the backlash and how the "demo" has failed to deliver everything they hyped.

[Eyeballs20]

Yep ill enjoy my CODMW1 V4.0 and you guys enjoy your BFBC2 V2.0..... Oh I mean BF3

[MasterD919]

I've played a few betas and this was by far the sloppiest one ever...However, after playing in the last few days I am noticing its playing a bit more stable than it originally was. I'm still falling through the map here and there but its getting better...

People also need to put into perspective the fact that this game is much larger than the download size...which is why things are so bland and unimpressive. I know 100% that I never want to play on Metro again. Doesn't suit the game well at all and I think that is 40% of the issues with the beta while the other 60% is technical.

I am on the fence and was ready to throw in the towel but we'll see...