Betas, what determines who gets in?

[Zantos]

Ok, so some background as to why I ask this. My uncle and his wife signed up for the elder scrolls beta. His wife got the beta invite for the game and he has not. Now, here is the details.

My uncles wife is not a big video game player. She has only played a few mmo's for a very short time. She is over all, not a gamer in the least. She is the one who got a beta invite.

My uncle has been playing mmo's ever since Everquest. He has tried pretty much all of them that come out. He has played video games on multiple platforms and loves playing call of duty. He is your typical gamer with extensive experience. He received no invite to the beta.

They both share a computer so their computer specs are the same. What leaves me a bit confused is why a non gamer like his wife would get an invite over him. If they randomly select people I view that as a bit short sighted. I mean, a non gamer like her wont see all the small details well enough to know if they are a bug or intended. She won't be able to give a whole lot of feedback on mechanics since she has literally no experience with mechanics. All of this, my uncle would know.

So, what factors do they use to determine who gets a beta invite in games like this? I just assumed they would want experienced gamers with good systems to really test the game out while also having the background to know if something is up.

[Theendgamelv3]

Ok, so some background as to why I ask this. My uncle and his wife signed up for the elder scrolls beta. His wife got the beta invite for the game and he has not. Now, here is the details.

My uncles wife is not a big video game player. She has only played a few mmo's for a very short time. She is over all, not a gamer in the least. She is the one who got a beta invite.

My uncle has been playing mmo's ever since Everquest. He has tried pretty much all of them that come out. He has played video games on multiple platforms and loves playing call of duty. He is your typical gamer with extensive experience. He received no invite to the beta.

They both share a computer so their computer specs are the same. What leaves me a bit confused is why a non gamer like his wife would get an invite over him. If they randomly select people I view that as a bit short sighted. I mean, a non gamer like her wont see all the small details well enough to know if they are a bug or intended. She won't be able to give a whole lot of feedback on mechanics since she has literally no experience with mechanics. All of this, my uncle would know.

So, what factors do they use to determine who gets a beta invite in games like this? I just assumed they would want experienced gamers with good systems to really test the game out while also having the background to know if something is up.

Why did she sign up in the first place? I believe most companies who do the beta tests assume people who sign up for these tests are people who are into MMOs. Would a "non" gamer know about would about beta testing for their game or betas in general? My assumption is that they give these invites randomly.

[-aiko-]

Are En Gee

For most betas they separate them into groups. Based on computer specs, experience and other factors. So you have groups of people with a lot of gaming experience, those with little gaming experience, high end machines, low end machines, etc. Then they randomly select from those pools.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Well, often times, only a few people get into betas because the beta servers can only handle so much, so of the few that weren't eliminated during preliminary filtering, a drawing is performed to randomly select a lucky few set of people to get in.

Other factors depend on what the devs are looking for in a beta. For instance, they may be making an MMO, but are looking for people familiar with their games. Maybe the game they are making is for consoles, so they want console players to test it out. As said before, even if the candidate meets all of the requirements, there's still often too many people, so you have to be lucky to be selected.

[Tabbycat]

All Paul Sage said in regards to this (and I believe it's burried somewhere in Podcast 17 found here: http://www.bethblog.com/podcast/) is that in the beginning they were originally looking to create a small core group of experienced beta testers and then, would, over time, increase the number of people that they let in to test the game.

As for what criteria they are using, all they are saying is that it's determined by their needs at the time. So it could be the wife got in just because they needed bodies to stress the server load. Or maybe they wanted to see how someone who isn't big on gaming takes to the game. Sometimes it's good to have a fresh point of view.

But it's probably just random.

[Deleted]

A Or maybe they wanted to see how someone who isn't big on gaming takes to the game. Sometimes it's good to have a fresh point of view.
But it's probably just random.

It's random, and they obviously want to know how people who don't play games much would actually like playing it, etc.

[dude1197]

there is no specific thing that determins who gets in and who doesnt, but rather a multitude of things that they pick and choose from so they get a wide spectrum of information for the beta process. i have a lot of mmo beta testing experience from wow, star wars the old republic, eso, ect and i have a middle of the road pc. so if i were to come up with a game and have it beta tested i would want people from all sorts of circumstances testing so that way i could have more information as to what things to fix based upon each experience

[Sj]

It depends on which company is looking for testers, and the game they want tested. Luck, beta experience, hardware specifications, experience with their other products... there are lots of variables that come into play.

[Stir]

RNG, as Aikoyammamoto explained.

Even though your aunt is a member of a much smaller player-group; the 'inexperienced' group. That kind of skews the numbers somewhat in her favour. Companies need newbie feedback simply because experienced players are much better in figuring out how to play/spec/operate their characters. If the system is absolute tripe, an experienced gamer may still figure it out and do okay for themselves, whereas an inexperienced gamer will end up just tossing the game aside. Things like that need to be properly examined.

[Deleted]

Ok, so some background as to why I ask this. My uncle and his wife signed up for the elder scrolls beta. His wife got the beta invite for the game and he has not. Now, here is the details.

My uncles wife is not a big video game player. She has only played a few mmo's for a very short time. She is over all, not a gamer in the least. She is the one who got a beta invite.

My uncle has been playing mmo's ever since Everquest. He has tried pretty much all of them that come out. He has played video games on multiple platforms and loves playing call of duty. He is your typical gamer with extensive experience. He received no invite to the beta.

They both share a computer so their computer specs are the same. What leaves me a bit confused is why a non gamer like his wife would get an invite over him. If they randomly select people I view that as a bit short sighted. I mean, a non gamer like her wont see all the small details well enough to know if they are a bug or intended. She won't be able to give a whole lot of feedback on mechanics since she has literally no experience with mechanics. All of this, my uncle would know.

So, what factors do they use to determine who gets a beta invite in games like this? I just assumed they would want experienced gamers with good systems to really test the game out while also having the background to know if something is up.

they might like to send her an invite because they would like to see someone who has no expectations to like it? im not sure tho, im still waiting on my heartstone key xD