Sending out way too many beta tester invites for Tabula Rasa was the greatest flaw in the title's recent launch, says lead designer Richard Garriott.
While he acknowledges the marketing benefits of the traditional MMO beta system, he also feels it gave the game's crucial hardcore audience an unfortunate early look at the title when it was still 'broken.' He explains:
In the past the beta system -- in which thousands of gamers are given the opportunity to test games before release -- has been seen as an act of goodwill between developers and the pre-release fanbase of their games. As these are the players most likely to spread an MMOs virtues via word of mouth, open beta testing has always given developers the sort of grassroots hype that no amount of marketing cash can buy.
Unfortunately, as Garriott points out, if the game is unfinished, it can leave a bad taste in the virtual mouths of the game's most important players. He's almost certainly not the first developer to come to this realization, but with the system having become tradition with these sorts of games, there's no easy way to avoid the problem it creates.
Either developers present an unfinished product to gamers whose only joy in life is spending hours on message boards comparing the virtues of +3 Helms of Elf Punching, or they create a player base that is hostile towards "that game that never even gave us a beta" before their title ever hits store shelves. To coin a phrase, they're stuck between a rock and thousands of misanthropic, unbathed nerds.
Garriott: Too Many Beta Invitees Hurt Tabula Rasa [Gamasutra]
