The "Loyalty" Program

To be fair, the loyalty program announcement did suggest that there were three tiers for access, first for 60+ers, second for loyalty, and third for preorders. now the definition of tiers is nebulous, but usually tiers are used to denote different levels of quality. This is, as i said, not guaranteed, but it would be a bit like if a collecters edition was undifferentiated from a regular edition, not a lie, but an unusual usage of the word with unfortunate connotations.

i will say that this thread does have some epic dramaticism for something that could easily be resolved by customer service reps, and the fact that the original poster hasn't posted here recently may indicate that situations on the ground may no longer be as they were, and now we are just playing kickball with semantics. I dont care when i get in, though i should "officially" be in the first tier, whatever a tier turns out to be, but i'd prefer testers with proven records precede me, because that's what the beta is about, a test, not a freebee look.

Can't say I disagree with this sentiment.

No, not really. I actually haven't even logged into the game today and when I do, I'm not sure if I really want to take the time to wait around for someone to finally respond to a petition.

My lack of involvement in the thread today can probably be read more as a lack of desire to interact with the ones who label any complaint, no matter how reasonable or how unreasonable, as whining or being a drama queen.

There are better things to do with my time than that.

And yet you spend the time to post in the first place? No, that doesn't work. You're either involved enough to QUIT THE GAME, because you didn't get what you want, or you don't care enough about petitioning to the people who can actually do something about it, and can't be bothered to play or post and attempt to have a discussion.

Sorry, I see a disconnect here.

Apparantly you don't have better things to do because you came back to defend yourself and try to imply that you haven't been whining and being a drama queen. Even this latest response about why you don't want to file a petition is whiny, petulant, and overly dramatic.

They've never comprehensively listed what their full criteria for beta invites are in each wave(s), and they never will because they change from Issue to Issue and test to test. Don't for a moment think that those waves will be the only waves. They have already clarified there will be more (I think in the Hero Con video).

You are aware you do not need to be in-game in order to respond to your support ticket, yes?

Sign in, /petition, sign out, finish rest via email.

Really, in all the time you've come here to tell us why you're not going to work to resolve your problem, you could've been done resolving it in the first place.

If my memories of seeing Arcana arrive in Beta Testers Channel are accurate, I'm fairly certain I made it into at least one beta before Arcana, but that may just have been her personal schedule not allowing her to login until after I'd been on. So yeah, the requirements aren't always what you'd expect.

My rage is like a volcano! My fury is... is... not buying it, are you?

oh, no question there, I didnt say they had an ironclad reason to think it, just that it does seem to suggest that the tiers will be going at different times, does it not. now the idea that you must have been in the loyalty program, or any real precondition for entry has been set in stone is completely off the mark, but i could understand where some would get the impression, even if that impression was mistaken. as i said, I am hoping that the waves are primarily functional in nature, where the more organized bug-busters get in first, because they will likely be the most efficient resources to hunt for game affecting bugs and balance issues. and those of us who are simply too lazy to go through the trouble of unsubscribing during slow bits get in later.

and i sadly didnt watch the herocon video, vids load very slowly on my connection, and most of the vids i have seen were kind of long, so sadly there just wasn't a reasonable block of time i could devote to watching all the herocon vids.

You know, its not really my math skills that are valuable to the devs for closed beta testing. Primarily, its because I always try to pick things no one else is looking at, and test that to death. That makes me a consistently unique tester in that regard. Now, some of the things I look at require significant math skills to analyze, or require perspectives and knowledge fairly unique to me, but in every closed beta there is a giant laundry list of things that I think should be tested to a higher degree than they ultimately are, because not many people try to test something other than what everyone else is. And many of those things don't require specialized knowledge or computational skills. They do require methodical testing ability.

Most people test what they are familiar with, what they think will be the most interesting thing to test, what everyone else is testing, or what they think are the "most important" parts of the issue. I always spend most of my time testing something else entirely.

I cannot say how to get into the closed betas on any consistent basis (or at all), but I suspect that doing that makes me more valuable to the testing process, and by extension anyone else looking to make themselves valuable to the testing process might want to consider a similar testing strategy (even if its conducted during open beta, it will still be noticed by the devs if done well). No guarantees, and it will probably seem like work - but that's really what closed beta is: work.

I do think though that most people would agree that the first wave of public betas should go to people like you who do take deep care and actually make a huge difference. Also people like zombie_man who iirc has made some very helpfull guides for when issues hit open beta, makes things a lot easier for people like me who [if im honest] have nowhere near the intellectual skills such as yourself.

I think the only thing i have contributed on any significant level was for the MA when i did a guide with screenshots of every map. So i'ld gladly give up my beta access if it meant that a person who'ld contribute more could be there.

Edit: btw hey Thanks for your guides! Been a great help for me!

I'll agree with Arcana vehemently about her two main points. Testing is most helpful when you think outside the box when it comes to what you look at and how you report it. You should keep in mind what the devs are asking for, but in order to help pin down bugs like animation bugs when PC hit, you need to think through odd situations and be able to report them clearly.

Also agree that Beta Testing (ideally) is work. I'm nowhere near as rigorous as she is, and I don't play for hours and hours at a stretch, but even so, I make a real effort to find at least one thing I consider a legitimate potential bug each time I login to Test.

I'll also add that it really helps everyone if and when you do make it in to beta to do your part in Playing Catch Up before you begin playing. The Beta Testers Chat is meant as a resource and discussion area, but it shouldn't be a substitute for taking a few minutes to look at Known Issues and patch notes. It's really hard following threads of people trying to pin down legit problems when people jump in and ask the same questions over and over about easily available info.

I hope you're not thinking outside the box when you report your bugs!

Bug Reports in iambic pentameter doesn't count I hope.