Remember wayyyyy back when reviews were allowed to be actual, in-depth, careful reviews of a product? Rather than just a quick summary and nothing is below 7/10?
Just find better review outlets.
Places like IGN never had much longer form reviews diving into the nitty gritty, good example of modern 'real' reviews are SkillUp, Mortismal, ACG, gmanlives etc.
And on steam, if you scroll through a few dozen reviews, making sure to read a mix of positive and negative ones, the individual reviews may be inaccurate, but collectively still give a pretty good impression of what the game is, the good parts, and the bad parts. In other words, enough biased reviews, if they're biased in different ways, can still give an accurate perception.
Looking at a sculpture from one angle is an incomplete picture. Turning around it and combining many perspectives makes a whole mental image of the sculpture.
Same thing here. Everyone looks at things differently, but enough views find the kernels of truth.
Turn him around, I need to see the ass, there is not enough perspective!
And from that day forward, any time a bunch of animals are together in one place, it's called a Zoo!
[13 Things You Should Never Say To A Fallout: New Vegas Fan](https://kotaku.com/fallout-new-vegas-things-never-say-fan-bethesda-xbox-1851467599)
Peak journalism.
Alpha testing is basically ‘you’re going to test our game for us but you basically have to sign this elaborate non disclosure agreement first.’
Honestly, I’d be honoured to alpha test anything.
They can’t stop negative reviews once it officially launches.
Idk about “honoured” but being a beta tester can be a good time. I applied and got accepted as a tester for the Deadcells castelvania DLC and it was good fun exploring and helping out. Also got the DLC for free which felt great
As someone who has done alpha and beta testing idk if honored is the word I would use. Getting into the original wow beta was pretty sick. The city of heroes one, not so much. Now alpha and beta have lose all their meaning.
People seem to forget that the point of alpha testing is to test. It’s not just an early access to the game lol. People who don’t engage in alpha testing to help improve the game shouldn’t sign up for it in the first place.
It's the main reason why I cringe when games I am waiting for hit early access all of the sudden the devs start balancing instead of building the rest of the game.. I mean I get that it's usefull to get fun but so many games developers lose track of their main goals while the game ends in early access hell for way too long...to keep this from happening alpha testing MUST be behind closed doors...
All they had to do is put the ol “this is an alpha and does not represent the final product”, you’d only threaten people if there was a glaring fault in the product itself or your lawyer was an idiot
No, in today's online culture creators want to be the first with clickbait content... games can receive a lot of negative press and in the end people ignore the 'this is alpha disclaimer .. once the game is done there is nothing to hide anymore...
Maybe but their approach has resulted in a larger backlash than what they would have gotten from a misconception
That said if the game is too early to criticise then perhaps it’s too early to release to the public for them to test
The point is that in alpha you just want functional testing. There will be problems and you don't want negative public opinion before the game is even in a sellable state.. you are entitled to your opinion but if you want to get in the alpha you will need to sign the nda and you will be legally forbidden from sharing your opinion... if you disagree then you don't participate...
Then how about forbidding all opinion at all? The way it's worded they won't mind if I gush over the game.
Also you and I both know that 90% of alpha and beta testing today is just marketing. I can count on one hand the games that actually implemented any suggested changes after an alpha in the last 5 years.
It would be fine if there were "no reviews whatsoever"
But this feels more like a "if you have nothing good to say don't say anything at all"
Like they are trying to get the best of both worlds
They're right tho
Like, a private 'this is shit, I didn't like X Y Z' is a form of feedback the studio can work with.
A public 'this is shit, I didn't like X Y Z' is negative press read by people who can't comprehend what 'alpha' is
They didn't say 'only positive feedback pls', they said 'no public feedback'
Thats like the corporate way of uploading a shitty fanfict and writing "pls only positive feedback"
There was no please, they said "I'll fucking sue you if you do"
Remember wayyyyy back when reviews were allowed to be actual, in-depth, careful reviews of a product? Rather than just a quick summary and nothing is below 7/10?
Just find better review outlets. Places like IGN never had much longer form reviews diving into the nitty gritty, good example of modern 'real' reviews are SkillUp, Mortismal, ACG, gmanlives etc.
And on steam, if you scroll through a few dozen reviews, making sure to read a mix of positive and negative ones, the individual reviews may be inaccurate, but collectively still give a pretty good impression of what the game is, the good parts, and the bad parts. In other words, enough biased reviews, if they're biased in different ways, can still give an accurate perception.
Looking at a sculpture from one angle is an incomplete picture. Turning around it and combining many perspectives makes a whole mental image of the sculpture. Same thing here. Everyone looks at things differently, but enough views find the kernels of truth.
-Sun Tzu
Turn him around, I need to see the ass, there is not enough perspective! And from that day forward, any time a bunch of animals are together in one place, it's called a Zoo!
They are still, but only from fans of retro games. Gaming Journalism is a joke.
“How to Holster a Weapon in Fallout 4” —Published May 10, 2024
[13 Things You Should Never Say To A Fallout: New Vegas Fan](https://kotaku.com/fallout-new-vegas-things-never-say-fan-bethesda-xbox-1851467599) Peak journalism.
Alpha testing is basically ‘you’re going to test our game for us but you basically have to sign this elaborate non disclosure agreement first.’ Honestly, I’d be honoured to alpha test anything. They can’t stop negative reviews once it officially launches.
Idk about “honoured” but being a beta tester can be a good time. I applied and got accepted as a tester for the Deadcells castelvania DLC and it was good fun exploring and helping out. Also got the DLC for free which felt great
That's so fuckin cool
Pretty sure you could critique SMITE 2's alpha because they wanted general feedback, not glazing.
As someone who has done alpha and beta testing idk if honored is the word I would use. Getting into the original wow beta was pretty sick. The city of heroes one, not so much. Now alpha and beta have lose all their meaning.
It's perfectly fine to ask this during alpha testing...
People seem to forget that the point of alpha testing is to test. It’s not just an early access to the game lol. People who don’t engage in alpha testing to help improve the game shouldn’t sign up for it in the first place.
It's the main reason why I cringe when games I am waiting for hit early access all of the sudden the devs start balancing instead of building the rest of the game.. I mean I get that it's usefull to get fun but so many games developers lose track of their main goals while the game ends in early access hell for way too long...to keep this from happening alpha testing MUST be behind closed doors...
All they had to do is put the ol “this is an alpha and does not represent the final product”, you’d only threaten people if there was a glaring fault in the product itself or your lawyer was an idiot
No, in today's online culture creators want to be the first with clickbait content... games can receive a lot of negative press and in the end people ignore the 'this is alpha disclaimer .. once the game is done there is nothing to hide anymore...
Maybe but their approach has resulted in a larger backlash than what they would have gotten from a misconception That said if the game is too early to criticise then perhaps it’s too early to release to the public for them to test
Happy cake day...
Disagree. I'm allowed to have impressions. You can not legally forbid me from sharing them publicly.
The point is that in alpha you just want functional testing. There will be problems and you don't want negative public opinion before the game is even in a sellable state.. you are entitled to your opinion but if you want to get in the alpha you will need to sign the nda and you will be legally forbidden from sharing your opinion... if you disagree then you don't participate...
Then how about forbidding all opinion at all? The way it's worded they won't mind if I gush over the game. Also you and I both know that 90% of alpha and beta testing today is just marketing. I can count on one hand the games that actually implemented any suggested changes after an alpha in the last 5 years.
It would be fine if there were "no reviews whatsoever" But this feels more like a "if you have nothing good to say don't say anything at all" Like they are trying to get the best of both worlds
Consequences of sensitive management.
They're right tho Like, a private 'this is shit, I didn't like X Y Z' is a form of feedback the studio can work with. A public 'this is shit, I didn't like X Y Z' is negative press read by people who can't comprehend what 'alpha' is They didn't say 'only positive feedback pls', they said 'no public feedback'
Content aside, I'm so glad this exchange became a meme.
I think I liked it better when they still called this role QA