Paying is not worth it. I don't know what the big deal is about beta, i have gotten into every beta since Wrath.....I honestly don't know why, I bash them into the ground if something is wrong and get banned repeatitively from forums for my language. It honestly ruins the game for you and you see it go from good to bad to good to bad to worse. You see how they polish, you see how they start making poor choices after X period and once again like the others....its happening with Diablo 3. It doesn't matter how much feedback you give, they have a set path and they will do it whether the majority like it or not.
Fortunately I am not like you, nor are plenty of others out there patiently waiting to get involved with the game. I've followed and played WOW for at least 5-6 years now and there are several things that I think Blizzard has done wrong, but I'm not going to run to the forums, pickup a phone or write an email in disgust. I'd post constructive ideas and criticism and point out the things that I thought worked and things that I thought didn't.
I would go with the flow and mature with the game, much like I have done with this website. They've made changes and created contest that I don't agree with. But I'm not gonna come here and start bashing the crap out of the people who run this site. They are trying to appeal to the masses while keeping a stead flow of income and users.
The reason blizzard can't sell beta keys though is because they're testing servers, not gameplay. They need a controlled amount of people playing to stress test. If they sell keys that kinda defeats the purpose.
This is one of the only valid arguments that I could come up with myself. I realize that opening up the beta to pay to play would put massive stress on their servers but what are they going to do come release? Certainly the number of current testers cant even come close to simulating the amount of stress the servers will be under come release.
I have seen this question around the forums quite a bit. I would have to say I would buy beta access but only for a price that equivalent to a normal game price. I have been dieing to try out diablo 3, but I still would not pay over 60$ for it.
It would be commercialy innacceptable for a gaming company to do such a thing.
But I would easily put 10-20 bucks for it (at least to get it from the begining which means for a minimum of 4 months).
I'm not rich but, I'm sure I'd put a lot of time on it so it would be worth my 10-20 bucks, more than a used game that has poor replayability and/or short campaign/story mode.
As has been mentioned above, the reasons they aren't selling beta keys are very simple.
1: They don't need more testers at this point. When / if they do, they simply flag more accounts and let people in for free. This means they already have a near endless pool interested testers chomping at the bits for access to help them.
2: It creates hype. All these people who are falling over themselves for beta keys is creating free publicity. On top of that, contests like the ones Dfans is offering allow an easy way for them to further increase exposure.
3: They aren't money grubbing bastards. The fact of the matter is, no matter which side of the "MMO Subscription fee" argument that you fall on you have to admit that few titles these days show the polish of Blizzard titles. This is why they are allowed "when it's done" release dates - they've earned it. If they were truly money hungry bastards, we would have an unfinished product in our rigs now while we wait for the patch to fix it and make it playable.
Now don't confuse #3 with the concept of them being in this for charity. They are a business afterall, and one owned by Activision. The thing that typically gets lost here though, is all of us generally agree with their madness.. Except for two issues..
We want it to be done now, and we want to play the beta now if it isn't.
Surely though, when looking at the bigger picture of the issue, no one here can honestly think a buy-in beta would be a good decision.. From either a testing standpoint nor a PR standpoint.
Don't worry friends.. We will play soon. I have faith.
The answer is a big fat NO. I believe paying for a beta key, which is temporary access to an unfinished product, is a waste of money. Now don't get me wrong, I WANT ONE SO BAD :D, but they're a privilege not something you should buy.
I think I would end up paying if it was $15 or less. But as other stated I don't see how Blizzard could ever sell beta access since they'd be flooded with requests. Besides beta testers might be more demanding of extra gameplay if they'd paid for access to that content. Either way I guess it's moot since noone is selling.
I definitly would! I have been waiting for the game for so long that i can see myself spending up to $50 on it easily. It might seem too much to some but here in Australia if i want to go and eat out in an ok restaurant i will spend probably between $30-40 for just a single meal so spending $50 for a D3 beta which will provide me with houres of fun is not too much really...
the most beneficial thing for the company to do would be to make it an open beta. not anytime soon. somewhere around a month to a month and a half before release. this would be for server stress testing. at that point, most bugs would be found. but with that many new people coming in with that many system configurations, new ones would be found.
Negative. No game's beta is worth any price of money to me. Maybe I'm cheap like that I dunno.
The deal of getting the beta when you pre-order stuff shouldn't count here cuz I mean....I'm just pre-ordering...the beta would be an added suprise of my order.
for my busy life kid/wife i may if it's not over 50 bucks, i woundn't even mind donate 100 bucks for a boys/girls scout but 50 is my limit for a beta! btw i'll donate $50 if i get better chance of getting into this beta here...like 99.99%
By all means yes I would buy a beta key simply to be able to try it out ahead of time and see how things would work. But yeah there would be the whole "Not a beta" concept to it since everyone would be able to play it and it would be looked at more as a demo. And yeah if everyone had access to it the whole posting bugs or reporting bugs here or there would be more of a negative standpoint to actually playing the beta to assist in prepping the game. But in all honesty yes I would buy the beta, been waiting for so long and after seeing so many reports/screenshots/videos its almost too much to have to wait longer lol.
I highly doubt it. If I got beta access with a pre-order sure, that sounds great, or if the money I spent for access could go towards buying it when it comes out. I'd even consider it if the money for Beta access ended up in your account for the RMAH as well, but to just buy beta access and then still spend full price for the game? Not likely. If it was cheap (like $5) and I could invite 3 friends to play with? That may be worth it, but I'd still be on the fence.
Yes, I would pay. But not if it was as short as the current beta is, and it would really depend on the price.
If the beta would cost like 20$ and the real game 50$, I wouldn't pay for it, and it would have to be atleast one whole act of the game.
THe way I see it there would be 3 camps if they did this. The first being the "Blizz are greedy and just a bunch of lazy toe sniffers...." the second being the "im not bothered by their decision you do what you like cause thats what im doing" and the third being the "its totally reasonable because its D3 and paying for beta gives dedicated testers....."
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Super Cop! He knows where you live, he knows where you sleep.
I dont think companies should charge for betas, after all, the reason its beta is because its an incomplete game. I'm more in favor of the existing system where you either sign up for a random key, or the keys are given out to fansites like this where they can have mini contests and games to give out beta keys.
Fansites are a big part of playing any game and letting them award keys is good for the community and gaming in general. It not only drives traffic but also boosts interest in a game. Everyone like to win something from a contest
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Fortunately I am not like you, nor are plenty of others out there patiently waiting to get involved with the game. I've followed and played WOW for at least 5-6 years now and there are several things that I think Blizzard has done wrong, but I'm not going to run to the forums, pickup a phone or write an email in disgust. I'd post constructive ideas and criticism and point out the things that I thought worked and things that I thought didn't.
I would go with the flow and mature with the game, much like I have done with this website. They've made changes and created contest that I don't agree with. But I'm not gonna come here and start bashing the crap out of the people who run this site. They are trying to appeal to the masses while keeping a stead flow of income and users.
This is one of the only valid arguments that I could come up with myself. I realize that opening up the beta to pay to play would put massive stress on their servers but what are they going to do come release? Certainly the number of current testers cant even come close to simulating the amount of stress the servers will be under come release.
I thought MineCraft did something like this?
1: They don't need more testers at this point. When / if they do, they simply flag more accounts and let people in for free. This means they already have a near endless pool interested testers chomping at the bits for access to help them.
2: It creates hype. All these people who are falling over themselves for beta keys is creating free publicity. On top of that, contests like the ones Dfans is offering allow an easy way for them to further increase exposure.
3: They aren't money grubbing bastards. The fact of the matter is, no matter which side of the "MMO Subscription fee" argument that you fall on you have to admit that few titles these days show the polish of Blizzard titles. This is why they are allowed "when it's done" release dates - they've earned it. If they were truly money hungry bastards, we would have an unfinished product in our rigs now while we wait for the patch to fix it and make it playable.
Now don't confuse #3 with the concept of them being in this for charity. They are a business afterall, and one owned by Activision. The thing that typically gets lost here though, is all of us generally agree with their madness.. Except for two issues..
We want it to be done now, and we want to play the beta now if it isn't.
Surely though, when looking at the bigger picture of the issue, no one here can honestly think a buy-in beta would be a good decision.. From either a testing standpoint nor a PR standpoint.
Don't worry friends.. We will play soon. I have faith.
The deal of getting the beta when you pre-order stuff shouldn't count here cuz I mean....I'm just pre-ordering...the beta would be an added suprise of my order.
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
If the beta would cost like 20$ and the real game 50$, I wouldn't pay for it, and it would have to be atleast one whole act of the game.
THe way I see it there would be 3 camps if they did this. The first being the "Blizz are greedy and just a bunch of lazy toe sniffers...." the second being the "im not bothered by their decision you do what you like cause thats what im doing" and the third being the "its totally reasonable because its D3 and paying for beta gives dedicated testers....."
Super Cop! He knows where you live, he knows where you sleep.
Fansites are a big part of playing any game and letting them award keys is good for the community and gaming in general. It not only drives traffic but also boosts interest in a game. Everyone like to win something from a contest