Star Wars: The Old Republic announced

[cheeba]

Don't care about the NDA. All they could do is throw me out of beta and right now the only thing I'm beta testing is the broken launcher anyways.

That said, I don't see how one can say combat is fun after playing only 5 levels of a class. At that level combat consists of walking up to mob, hitting mob. You have maybe 3-5 attacks but they don't really matter. There's no heal/tank/dps concept at that level (which may be considered a good thing). I'm not saying it's not fun, but I don't understand the glowing praise. However, if you're enjoying the game that's all that's important!

[Arclight]

I know you guys are just having fun, but those all still constitute breaking the NDA.

I don't even care about the game and am not buying it, but won't/can't say why.     You would think the people that LIKE the game would be better at adhering than the ones who don't.

Oh the injustice of it all.  I'm choomping at the bit to play and have already pre-ordered...and thou art playing with contempt for the game...and have no plans to purchase it..........

[CeeKay]

Don't care about the NDA. All they could do is throw me out of beta and right now the only thing I'm beta testing is the broken launcher anyways.

what, you think you're entitled to a working launcher?  you should be happy that they even let you have a broken one.  stop sounding all self-entitled and blah-de-blah blah stuff!

[Roguetad]

Don't care about the NDA. All they could do is throw me out of beta and right now the only thing I'm beta testing is the broken launcher anyways.

what, you think you're entitled to a working launcher?  you should be happy that they even let you have a broken one.  stop sounding all self-entitled and blah-de-blah blah stuff!

<Rage on>That's the purpose of a beta...grrrr...you better try out that broken launcher and like it, all day long.<Rage off>





 

[ydejin]

I don't even care about the game and am not buying it, but won't/can't say why.     You would think the people that LIKE the game would be better at adhering than the ones who don't.

That's exactly the problem.  People who don't care about the game are busy taking a dump on it, so those who may be in beta and like the game feel compelled to let the rest of us know that perhaps there is an alternate viewpoint and that the game is actually a lot of fun for some players.

[Arclight]

I don't even care about the game and am not buying it, but won't/can't say why.     You would think the people that LIKE the game would be better at adhering than the ones who don't.

That's exactly the problem.  People who don't care about the game are busy taking a dump on it, so those who may be in beta and like the game feel compelled to let the rest of us know that perhaps there is an alternate viewpoint and that the game is actually a lot of fun for some players.

Bang on! Agree with you mate.

[Harkonis]

It'd be better if companies would actually do something when people break NDA's, including blacklisting them from other beta's.  You'd think it'd be in their best interests to share this sort of list to other companies.  Who wants someone testing who's going to run off and say how much they hate it because they just don't care about a contract they signed.

[Asharak]

It'd be better if companies would actually do something when people break NDA's, including blacklisting them from other beta's.  You'd think it'd be in their best interests to share this sort of list to other companies.  Who wants someone testing who's going to run off and say how much they hate it because they just don't care about a contract they signed.

Not to excuse anyone not following their agreement but I think there's a significant difference between leaks in different stages of development/testing and from different types of employees/testers. In this instance, NDA notwithstanding, SWTOR is a game that's very far along the development track, that has been publicly playable (without NDAs) at multiple gaming conventions, that has gameplay videos being released on a regular basis, and so on. There's also the fact that, if you want keep something secret, you don't bring in thousands of unpaid, anonymous (from the point of view of the application: BioWare isn't asking for experience, references, background checks, etc.) forum posters. And let's be honest for a moment here: the Beta Testing Weekend(s) aren't about getting feedback on the game. The signal-to-noise ratio of two to three days of testing from thousands of inexperienced, freeform gameplayers is so low as to be worthless. These weekends are about server stress tests and marketing, not refining game mechanics. The bottom line is that, at this point, BioWare can't severely punish people for cutting corners on their NDA, if for no other reason than the PR harm they'd do themselves in the process.

Again, from the point of view of an individual tester, this is all irrelevant: if you signed an agreement you should adhere to it. Period, end of story, no excuses. But from BioWare's point of view, they don't have much a case for punishing people for breaking it at this point, since they made no effort to screen their testers for trustworthiness, since they're already talking about it themselves, since they've already let other players talk the game about in other circumstances and since it would generate public ire during their critical preorder-and-launch sales window.

If this was going on in the alpha or very-early-and-smallscale-beta stages, however, I'd be right there with you in expecting and supporting BioWare in enforcing their NDA. But at this point, short of someone Youtubing the cutscenes or posting the client for public download, I don't think there's likely to be much reaction to people only paying lip service to the NDA.

- Ash

[cheeba]

If this was going on in the alpha or very-early-and-smallscale-beta stages, however, I'd be right there with you in expecting and supporting BioWare in enforcing their NDA. But at this point, short of someone Youtubing the cutscenes or posting the client for public download, I don't think there's likely to be much reaction to people only paying lip service to the NDA.

Absolutely agree. My feeling as a beta tester is this: I'm not giving away anything that is going to hurt BioWare in the slightest. I agreed to the NDA, yes, and it's my choice to break the NDA. If that makes me a bad person, so be it. Personally I'm of the libertarian sort, the kind of person who thinks information wants to be free, so I'm of the opinion that the little detail stuff that I reveal does some people some good and does no one any harm. I'm not revealing spoilers. I'm not going into deep details (no point in a beta anyways).

If your opinion is I shouldn't be revealing what I do reveal or offering my opinion of the game (I'm not taking a dump on it, just trying to state the facts, I really like the game, if I could play), then that's fine. If anyone has any questions about the game, however, I'll use my own conscience and answer it or not, as I see fit .

That said, if the launcher performs flawlessly at launch you bastards have me (and several others who have spent hours and hours trying to figure out what's broken) to thank .

[Razgon]

It's weird how we all have flexible positions on whats right or not, and whether its okay to lie to companies when its not okay to lie to persons. I guess the fact that a company isn't a single person makes it easier.

Hey, I've done it myself in the past, but its still weird.

[Arclight]

It's weird how we all have flexible positions on whats right or not, and whether its okay to lie to companies when its not okay to lie to persons. I guess the fact that a company isn't a single person makes it easier.

Hey, I've done it myself in the past, but its still weird.

Human nature. We will always find an excuse to do something if we want it bad enough. Everyone has their own presuppostion to every aspect of life. One man's bread, is another man's poison.

[ydejin]

... One man's bread, is another man's poison.

Especially if they have celiac disease! 

[Arclight]

... One man's bread, is another man's poison.

Especially if they have celiac disease! 

You mean chronic diarrhoea isn't a good thing?

[TheAtomicKid]

Wouldn't that be more like bread and soup???

Thread now COMPLETELY off the tracks..

Got my 'correctional' from SWTOR email today. *cry*

Atomic

[CeeKay]

Stay on target..... stay on target.....

[Arclight]

Target down, target down.
Delta 1 this is Yankee 47..........changing targets..........fire for effect...

[cheeba]

Holy shit it looks like we found a fix. Looks like I might actually get some playing in during this cycle after all!

[Blackjack]

For those paranoid about using EA's Origin service, it looks you'll only have to use it to "complete" your direct digital purchase -- *not* to download or update the client:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9577006#edit9577006

While you will complete your digital purchase of Star Wars: The Old Republic via Origin, you will download, install and patch the game digitally via our own launcher.

[Blackjack]

They decided to set up a thread that updates when the latest batch of test invites are, and generally where:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9602562#edit9602562

Game Testing: official 'invites have been sent' thread

With that out of the way, here's the current status as of today, October 3rd:

Last week (ending September 30th), we invited community members to game testing from North America (USA, Canada) and select European countries. These were Game Testing invites for US-based, East Coast servers.

This week, so far, we invited community members to game testing from France, Germany and North America (USA, Canada). These were Game Testing invites for EU-based servers (for France and Germany) and US-based, East Coast servers (for North America).

I believe community members just means you've set up the necessary SWTOR.com account.

[Blackjack]

Reid added a mention they'll have physical SWTOR servers on the U.S. East and West coasts (at this time, the U.S. test server is only on East Coast, he seemed to indicate):
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9610233#edit9610233

I was just stating we have no plans to physically locate game servers within the CST zone. We'll have servers within the US on the East and West coasts.

[Blackjack]

Ahem. Looks like Hell really did freeze over for me.   Too bad I got notified when I'm 2 hours from needing to finish an issue and ... what am I doing here anyway?  

[rshetts2]

Ahem. Looks like Hell really did freeze over for me.   Too bad I got notified when I'm 2 hours from needing to finish an issue and ... what am I doing here anyway?  

    Just kiddin',   grats on getting in.  Have fun!

[drifter]

Beta test starts on Friday so you can download the client ahead of time; not that I got an invite today or anything.

[CeeKay]

Ahem. Looks like Hell really did freeze over for me.   Too bad I got notified when I'm 2 hours from needing to finish an issue and ... what am I doing here anyway?  

let me know your toon name so I can ignore your whispers 

[Blackjack]

Never mind, I'm in the weekend test too. It just didn't seem worded that way. Supposedly mine was a "general testing" invite, rather than a "Beta Testing Weekend" invite. Just means I'll burn out quicker.   My understanding from forums is it's perfectly OK to say if you're in one test or another (people are doing that every other minute at the forums without penalty).

Latest Reid update was:
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9632493#edit9632493

We have sent General Testing invites this week, and that batch of invites is complete. If we choose to send more, then we'll update this thread when we do that.

Beta Testing Weekend invites are now all sent. Emails do sometimes get delayed, through no fault of ours. If you login to swtor.com/tester/ then you will potentially see you're invited before the email arrives.

I gave up trying to get you to team in any game ages ago CeeKay, so don't worry about me. Worry about other people here.  

[Wargus]

I'm in on the weekend event as well. Yay!

[Zarkon]

Ditto, but can't download, it says the link timed out.

[Blackjack]

Ditto, but can't download, it says the link timed out.

I'm PMing you a thread to check out, as we probably shouldn't chatter in this much detail here (better paranoid than sorry ). 

[Wargus]

Ditto, but can't download, it says the link timed out.

Same issue here.

[Zarkon]

Working now.

[TheAtomicKid]

*whimpers a little bit*

Atomic

[jersoc]

time to destroy some rebel scum this weekend.

[Soulchilde]

 

[Gryndyl]

Still no invite for me

But my roommate might have gotten one...and he might just happen to also be gone for much of the upcoming weekend... 

[cheeba]

Those of you that got into beta, congratulations . If you're running an ATI video card, make sure to download the newest drivers (11.9 or 11.10b). If you have 11.8, there will be problems.

[rshetts2]

Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
The dead rising from the grave!
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Yeah, I just got my weekend beta invite! 

[Arclight]

Ok lets look at this: Red head = check
                             Left handed = check
                             Felt like a step-child at times  = check

There has to be some reason why I never get invited into betas.

 

But as Yogi Berra said it best: It ain't over till its over.....And it ain't over.
Still hanging in there hoping I'll get in next wave of invites.

[ydejin]

I thought I was out because all of you got invited a few days ago.

This afternoon checked my e-mail yet again and 

[ericb]

I got plenty of fake invites (Diablo III too) but no real ones.

[TheAtomicKid]

* TheAtomicKid sobs and whimpers some more...

Atomic