"Beta apps could hit 1M"...just more PR

[Mbj]

Folks,

So, here's a bit of info as to why we started the beta ticker. It's actually kinda simple and I'm pretty sure I've said this before but I'll repeat it.

Back when i signed the deal with GW to do a game based on Warhammer there were lots of people making fun of my decision. Much like the early DAoC days, we heard stuff like "Nobody cares about Warhammer as an MMO" or "Mythic bought the rights to Fantasy? Hah, 40K I'd play but not Fantasy!" or "Warhammer is too dark and depressing for an MMO" etc. Even EA, prior to the acquisition, had lots of doubts about the value of the Warhammer Fantasy brand. At Mythic, we did not have any doubts since we were about to invest a ton of money and the future of the company into the game. We believed in the potential of the brand as an MMO. We also knew we were going to have to compete with WoW as well as other MMOs over the development cycle as well as at the game's release. So, I thought, how do we both measure how we are doing in terms of buzz and at the same time, do something that's kinda fun (okay, I grew up in NYC where my favorite food places (delis, bakeries, etc.) had the "Now Serving" and McDonalds had their own version and I always liked all of that growing up) and that could help generate interest on its own. Thus, the beta ticker was born. In my initial pitch it was real time but I was actually talked out of it by some of the guys. Who knows, maybe when we get close to a million...

As far as I am concerned the ticker has done exactly what I hoped it would do. Be a great gauge of user interest in the game and also help build buzz by showing potential customers that other people are also interested in the game. And when you are competing against the top selling MMORPG of all time, both of those things are very useful. And now that EA has acquired Mythic, the ticker also servers to reassure them that a large number of people are interested in beta testing our game. Now, you can use whatever yardstick you want and try to figure out what 1M people signing up for a game's beta test would mean in terms of potential customers but the one thing it means to me is that our decision to go with Warhammer was the right one 3 years ago.

Mark

P.S. Okay, it also means something else to me, it means that we will have generated more buzz for this game than almost any other Western MMORPG pre-launch (with WoW being the possible exception) in history. Not a bad accomplishment for a company that was mocked by many only a few years ago for even starting work on this game.

[Saerol]

Originally Posted by Mbj

Not a bad accomplishment for a company that was mocked by many only a few years ago for even starting work on this game.

Who, and where? I'll fustigate em.

[Sol Kyoshiro]

*Thread officially owned by Mark himself*

[Khameir]

Originally Posted by Mbj

P.S. Okay, it also means something else to me, it means that we will have generated more buzz for this game than almost any other Western MMORPG pre-launch (with WoW being the possible exception) in history. Not a bad accomplishment for a company that was mocked by many only a few years ago for even starting work on this game.

Mark has an excellent point here.

I remember playing EQ1 back when WoW's development started and hearing people pretty much bashing it, saying things like "That game will never fly" or "No one's going to beat Sony" "Its going to fail". I know Mythic got the same crap about DAoC when it was in development. Guess what happened? Blizzard generated a worldwide buzz for the game rather quickly because WoW is based on a wildly popular IP. And not just an IP popular in the US or EU, but everywhere. While I'm not sure exactly how many Beta apps they ended up with worldwide, I can tell you from first hand experience if you were an EQ player and you got a WoW Beta invite...your EQ career was pretty much over. I remember whole guilds saying "Sorry Sony, we're leaving" once enough of their members got invites.

Now apply the same base formula to WAR but multiply the popularity of the IP. WAR is 20+ years old, with a very large following and built in fan base. Sure, the Beta App Ticker may seem like shameless PR and Beta Tests themselves have become a lot more then just "Bug/Glitch/Stability Tests" that only the elite few get access to but you have to look at it from both a player and dev standpoint. As a player who plans on playing WAR, I see 1 Million beta applications and think "Thats 999,999 other people I could potentially be playing with/fighting against...thats awesome". And Mark has already mentioned what it means from a developer standpoint.

[Cherubael]

Originally Posted by Mbj

Hah, 40K I'd play but not Fantasy!"

The 40k people don`t have much of a choice, do they? At least Warhammer is written on it. That`s enough for most of the 40k fans....
40k would have had a larger fanbase but it would have been much harder to sell to the average Joe. Warhammer on the other hand with its fantasy style reaches a lot more people because every Joe knows elves and dwarves and orcs and enough people played/are playing/tried WOW. In my humble opinion you didn`t have much of a choice than making Warhammer (choosing between fantasy and 40k). It will also be a test, because if Warhammer becomes a huge success, people are going to be ready for 40k.

[ChosenOne]

Well, not even gonna tread on ground that MBJ has now claimed.

So to go back to the point that the beta testing has turned into a churning mill of players who simply want to play the game before release instead of testing it. In the interview vid from Paris, Jeff makes a comment about how there is a small circle of highly trusted beta testers that are heavily confided in as well as the Dev's who play alot, then there are the rest of the beta testers that they take feedback as a whole from.

Shows me that even though they used beta testing as a method of advertisement they also understand the core purpose of it and have sought out and found those core testers who also know the meaning of the beta testing. It was good to hear.

[Spikey]

Mark 1 - Whiners that didn't get a beta test spot 0

[Kayella]

Originally Posted by Khameir

Now apply the same base formula to WAR but multiply the popularity of the IP. WAR is 20+ years old, with a very large following and built in fan base. Sure, the Beta App Ticker may seem like shameless PR and Beta Tests themselves have become a lot more then just "Bug/Glitch/Stability Tests" that only the elite few get access to but you have to look at it from both a player and dev standpoint. As a player who plans on playing WAR, I see 1 Million beta applications and think "Thats 999,999 other people I could potentially be playing with/fighting against...thats awesome". And Mark has already mentioned what it means from a developer standpoint.

When the game nears release and the PR engine steps up, all we need is GW to start talking up WAR in stores, in WD, etc. and I think the counter could very easily top 1 mil. In-built fanbase = win.

[Loekii]

Originally Posted by Mbj

"Warhammer is too dark and depressing for an MMO"

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]Damn Hippies! [/FONT]

[Cherubael]

Originally Posted by Kayella

When the game nears release and the PR engine steps up, all we need is GW to start talking up WAR in stores, in WD, etc. and I think the counter could very easily top 1 mil. In-built fanbase = win.

And a lot of angry people because a Mythic Open Beta is not a real Open Beta...that`s were the preorder pack comes in. If more people would know that open beta does not mean that everybody gets a beta slot, they would sell a heck of a lot more. Actually not very fair, but hey, who cares nowadays...

EDIT: The videos do not look very dark and depressive to me.... But I`ll wait till I`m in the beta and actually playing it before I dare to judge anything atmosphere wise.

[pgq666]

It seems a bit funny to me how people become lemmings to an idea that such behavior will earn them favor with the Gods that be.

Shadowbane revisited.

On a sidenote: 969 was it? /Huzzah! Senses abound freely because no one has them claimed.

[Ragenrok]

I like playing betas cause yes, its nice to play the game in advance for free. I admit im one of the horrible people that just want to beta test to try out the game But I consider that real beta testing as well.

If im playing the game normaly the way its meant to be played and run into a glitch then I'll happily report it, and as far as im concerened even though im doing this for fun im still contributing to the beta test and doing my part, and the bugs you encounter while playing normaly are the ones a large mjority of players are gonna notice so the more people doing this way the more smooth the game will be for the casual people that just play the game.

[moondriane]

Originally Posted by Tiernos

Who, and where? I'll fustigate em.

Yes, tell us Mbj!

*puts on his Witch hunter hat*

i want to "interrogate" these people as well.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by Ragenrok

I like playing betas cause yes, its nice to play the game in advance for free. I admit im one of the horrible people that just want to beta test to try out the game But I consider that real beta testing as well.

If im playing the game normaly the way its meant to be played and run into a glitch then I'll happily report it, and as far as im concerened even though im doing this for fun im still contributing to the beta test and doing my part, and the bugs you encounter while playing normaly are the ones a large mjority of players are gonna notice so the more people doing this way the more smooth the game will be for the casual people that just play the game.

Here is the difference between a beta tester who just wants to try out the game early and a player who just wants to try out the game early.

The tester understands the game isnt at game quality, they understand when they are TOLD that the graphics are purposefully placed on the lowest quality that it means the graphics of the game arent necessarily crap because they arent testing the graphics. Also when they get pissed that the downtime between beta sessions is too long. Its all about the mindset going in. They are expecting a complete gameplay experience going in and then when they dont get it they get all butthurt and begin writing bad reviews and saying the game is crap because of its graphics.

/rant off

[Distaste]

I think most of the posts that think the counter is a bad thing are just sour grapes. Even if every last beta applicant was just there to play the game and not fully "test" it there is tons of info that can be gathered. Where do people bunch up? Whats the most used ability? How many healing potions are used during a certain quest? How long does the quest usually take? What quests get skipped? etc etc etc.

Then on top of that in most beta tests there are little pop up boxes that are easily filled out that ask about the difficulty of the quests, the value of the reward, the lore appeal, etc. Even those just getting filled out is a huge help to find out what players like and don't like.

So really everyone who thinks that just because people don't fully investigate bugs, try breaking systems, and post on the boards it doesn't mean they aren't helping. The amount of info that can be collected from monitoring players is enormous. As they say numbers don't lie but people do.

The counter just represents a general interest. Even if 1/2 the people who signed up don't plan to play the game it still shows they were at least interested enough to sign up. It gives people a number to rally around to build more interest. No one wants to play a game that no one else wants to play.