Lemur Lad

That's because you live in Arizona, you don't count.

Not that it matters anyway, timed missions aren't based on the time on the clock, they're based on ticks on a timer.

Since most of it are systems and ideas lifted from other games, I wouldn't qualify it as genius, even if I like them a lot (and I do).

Well laid out post War_Monk, and nice screenshots.

More people, more voices, less focus.

In Catwhoorg's sentence above "more" modifies focused, not feedback. More focused, not more feedback.

In the early stages, it's not about the quantity of responses and people looking at things, or about loading the servers and systems. It's about noticing important bugs and pinning down how to reproduce them so they can be seen by the devs and fixed.

When there's a lot of people in a beta, and a lot of people posting, it quickly becomes impossible to pin down the responses and reports you need from the people working on the bugs you're interested in.

Essentially, we used to have blacklist betas. There was no such thing as closed betas for most of the early issues. They went to a closed beta system, and since then by and large Issues have come out with far fewer bugs in most cases. Truth of the matter is, they flat out work better (or they wouldn't keep doing them).

God forbid the devs use test server to test stuff. So unfair that you can't use it for what you want on demand.

Closed Beta never seems organized when you look at the Training Room forum, because all that happens in Open areas is wheel spinning.

If you didn't get an email invite, and you can't see the Closed Beta Forum sections, this is not the place to post if you want to know if you're really in.

Send a PM to Avatea or Mod8. They can tell you if you're in, or make sure you're flagged to see the Closed sections if you can't now.

My experiences with people doing legitimate studies is far different. I've participated in one Informal (thread like this) and one Formal (chat interview through gmail with signed release forms for me and my girlfriend) relating to couples that play together. One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole barrel as easily as you'd think.

As for the OP's questions

1) Plenty. Snow Globe already mentioned Global Chat Channels, and that is a very primary and active method of communication for a lot of players I know (me included).

2) Anything anyone could give you would be a guess at best. I can say that I know of at least half a couples that play currently or have played in the past. I'd say the population as a whole skews higher in age and a more equal gender ratio than the norm, but as I said, that's just a guess.

3) Estimates are between 100 and 150k players. Without the numbers being posted, this is just a guess. However I'd say in the last 3 months the number would be closer to the low end, simply because of new games launching, and a fairly normal slack period before new issues that cause churn in our population.

4) Sorry, no groups as such. You may want to check the Announcements section since there is an active discussion about the East Coast meet and greet, and a lot of people are discussing where they're from.

Last thing, if your study is meant to be comprehensive and have more than anecdotal evidence, I'd suggest getting in touch with our Community Team. In the past they've been willing to help people doing research, either by giving information or by promoting your study in a more visible fashion.

They're still parts of GR. That doesn't mean they automatically have to be part of the GR beta, nor does it mean people qualified for GR beta will and should be given access to the closed beta that they are part of.

Why even get bothered if you're not part of the beta that includes them, if that beta is clearly EARLY? That means you're getting it sooner rather than later.

It's a matter of trust. If you didn't get into closed beta, do you trust the people that did? If not, then simply say so and have done with it. However from past experience in Closed Tests, the people there take their role seriously and work hard on making things right for everyone else. It really brings things down to hear people complaining about how or why they didn't get in when in most cases it's clear they're only interested in window shopping the new shinies.

Should think about how these arguments sound to the people who did get in. They're trying to do a good job, and hearing people complain is more than a little bit of a downer.

Moot

You linked a reply in your own thread to the top of your thread? How recursive.

PS- don't get on people's cases for not reading replies if you're not going to read his whole reply. It was clearly facetious, kidding around since you're question is asked and answered.

Right. Old Hami, Old SO rules, and a map exploit. There's really no other way, and Modern Hami is much much tougher in any case.

Incorrect.

Best joke I've read all week.

That's because Community Rep positions tend to be stepping stones.

Gonna miss you Niv, take care and good luck.

Agreed. I know people can solo Pylons, I really doubt anyone could solo all the pylons fast enough to bring the shields down.

I've neg repped you once, every other troll post I simply reported. What other people do when you choose to publically make a fool of yourself is not my concern.

"The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems"

There's truly nothing about the game as it once was that I want back more than what we have now.

Then why did you spend a large chunk of yesterday afternoon trying to argue they should make a sequel instead of continuing what they're doing?

Now you think it's pointless? Way to waffle.