Balandar Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Welcome to the penultimate weekly Beta Update. Although technically I’ve got one more Weekly Wednesday Beta Update to go, this is the last one before the NDA lifts. It’s hard to believe I started doing these updates almost a year ago. I think originally we talked about a very focused 3-4 month beta period and it has turned out a little bit longer. For those of you who missed the announcement, we will be in stores in one week and one day. Notice how I’m not saying we will be “done” in that time. The game, while competitive, stable and fun will continue to grow after we release. In fact, not only is the entire team staying on to work on adding to the game, we’ll also be hiring some more people. We’ve got our announced post-released features to work on, on-going content and also have some other things that we aren’t discussing yet (we’re finally learning not to make announcements until we’re ready ). Additionally there will be more bugs to fix and balance to be done. Yes I said bugs to fix, we’re knocking out all the important ones this week, but to be completely honest no game ships bug-free. Massively Multiplayer Games are generally worse because we are always adding new stuff (yey!), but with 10 new things you usually get 1 broken thing (boo!). Yes, I also said balance. We’re taking our best shot at balancing in beta, but we have had enough experience with MMOs to know that the first couple months of a live product is vastly different from a beta product. Adjustments have to be made, but hopefully the beta testers have helped guide us enough so that any changes will be “enhancements” and not “nerfs”. If anyone tells you different about MMOs, they work in marketing . The NDA is still up, but will likely come down today or tomorrow. Expect a deluge of information, opinions, screenshots, rants and praises. We are extremely thankful for all the help the beta testers have been giving us and continue to give us. Some of them don’t feel the game is ready, some of them do. Regardless most seem to be having fun and have pre-ordered the game. Our favorite quote from yesterday was “I think a launch in 9 days will be an absolute disaster. Still, I've pre-ordered 2 and I'll get a third either right away or soon after.” We, of course, don’t feel the launch will be a disaster. We’ve launched several MMOs before and have confidence in our ability to put out a great product. So some of you will probably wonder what to think of the beta tester responses when we lift the NDA. Well, I’m not going to tell you what to think of course, you are big boys and girls. Wade through the “fanbois” and the “ranters with a chip on their shoulder” and come to your own conclusions. From our perspective, we’re pretty darn happy (even though we’ve got a very busy week ahead of us. On to some other things I want you to know about. These forum days are numbers. When we launch the game, we will open the forums on the new site to customers only. We’ll add a feedback form on the site so anyone can give us their thoughts, but posting on the forums will be for players only. The main purpose of this is to ensure a better community. When people have an player account attached to their forum handle, they tend to be a bit more constructive. As you’ve seen with these forums, we can ban the trolls but it isn’t that hard for them to come back (usually just to be banned again – but that is why our moderators are here). Another thing to note, I announced the first 20 galaxies a couple months ago. When the product launches we will likely open the first 10 or so (alphabetical, some US East Coast and some US West Coast). As the servers fill up, we will open additional servers. If you are all set to play on Valcyn, for example, that server may not be up on day one but it will come up when needed. I expect the first 20 to come up fairly quickly given the pre-order numbers I’ve been hearing. I actually have to run to a dentist appointment right now. I’ll be around a little later with some more info. -Kevin O'Hara Community Relations Manager Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balandar Posted June 18, 2003 Author Share Posted June 18, 2003 Notice this part: Another thing to note, I announced the first 20 galaxies a couple months ago. When the product launches we will likely open the first 10 or so (alphabetical, some US East Coast and some US West Coast). As the servers fill up, we will open additional servers. If you are all set to play on Valcyn, for example, that server may not be up on day one but it will come up when needed. I expect the first 20 to come up fairly quickly given the pre-order numbers I’ve been hearing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balandar Posted June 18, 2003 Author Share Posted June 18, 2003 Good thing we are on Eclipse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zemach Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Yes, but I saw a post from someone claiming eclipse as the new unofficial RP server now. hehe. Let's hope that once they lift the NDA we can find some good sources of information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balandar Posted June 18, 2003 Author Share Posted June 18, 2003 http://boards2.station.sony.com/ubb/starwa...TML/133231.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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