F2P Cast: Betas Aren't What They Used To Be (Ep 40)

I don't like how the Betas are run these days, like with MechWarrior:Online for instance. To my knowledge, they started this "Founder's Package" trend, and it's flat out ridiculous.

It's even worse when games go into beta but never make v1.0 until a year(Or more) after it's launch. Blacklight:Retribution has been out a while and is barely APPROACHING 1.0.(0.980 I believe was what I've seen last) A game is not fully launched until it reaches 1.0 AT LEAST in my opinion.

A-bombs to "Founder's packages" and any "buy for beta" deals. It started with Devs paying gamers to test their games, then it's free, NOW we have to pay? Screw that noise!

Second A-bomb goes to Zombie for allowing Blacklight: Retribution to launch unfinished and for not making 1.0 MONTHS after it's launch.

Finally, Da-bomb to you guys at MMOBomb for being on top of the F2P news. You guys deliver on your work all the time and with quality!

Hey F2P cast, greetings from Denmark (Im a He btw). As always love the show and hope you keep going for as long as you can and will. Its a quest of inspiration to listen to your views on the subjects at hand, as you look at it from different angles and thus changing atleast my initial views on the games.
Ps: Need replays in the future of Damina playing the different upcoming horror games. ;)

Question of the week:
For the one year anniversary, have Brimm and Havok duke it out in the ring, dressed up in sumo suits and ofcourse shoutcasted by Magicman and Spunkify. >.<

A-bomb: Its a big title so maby abit of flaming coming my way (equip flameproof jockstrap)
League of legends.. I love the game, the company, the competetive scene around and the champions but: Well over 100 champions but still only 1 map used for 5v5.. come now Riot, atleast a few other skins for the original map and a rotation for it would really help.

May the loot be with you!
Tyreal out

you pay for betas now because people are so desperate to get in a beta they will do anything to get into it. so companies are thinking why not make those fools pay 50$ for a beta.
company: ha ha these fools! we should be paying them too test out our crappy games and give bug reports on them. But they paying us too test out our games AND give feed back. that's a win win.
people; omg omg omg i got into the beta. wtf this game has so many bugs.
me: yes people its a f$@king beta. might as well pay for a pay to play. and then again the free to play item shop is always pay to win. if i get into this shit now this will be long so ama stop.

Hiya guys 1 year WEWT!!!!
A BOMB For beta's and trying to make money of us honestly i noticed this trend seemed to start with firefall (ie founders pack) now everyone will copy this.
Da bomb for I....urrr i guess nothing oh wait brimms reaction to 8 bit anything

I say for the anniversary a special live 3 hour show. I proberly wont be able to catch it cause im uk but w/e that'd be awesome to see.

I am gamer for a long time and i was in alot of betas till now. The betas change to speedrun release just to milk more money and change nothing, since people dont give feedback and dont force developers to change anything, users will pay anyway so what for waste money on changes??

Gamer market changed to "support unskilled and brainless people". When i first time played games they were a challange, required some player skill/reflexes, gave lot of fun and satisfaction in competing something in it. Now games are made in a way that even playing with your foot toe you will still win with ease. People like that lower the pressure on developer at making really good game (ex. diablo3 fail) since they have no idea what gaming is supposed to be.

what's the time gap between you guys record and upload? coz it's kinda funny... that you guys posted the news about TSW might F2P, and then the post an episode asking if it's going to F2P. and THEN (don't remember how long)... finally discuss TSW might go F2P.

s'up Bombers and f2p-cast

so what has happened to Beta-Tests? It sure is one thing how companies use, treat and call their tests and another thing what gamers do with it. Don't underestimate the hordes of Bored Gamers who are constanly looking for something new to spend their time on. They have allready tried out everything that exists up to date and then try to get into Betas just for the sake of having something new. Companies became aware of that and that lead to this date's Betas with a minimum of feedback turning into actual changes, because they don't expect any kind of input from the Bored Gamer.
The RaiderZ-pack with the Neverwinter-access however adresses this topic too well. It's like "We know you won't be playing our game for long, here have the next one to try out". It's unethical imo. Has the world seen a car-salesman who offers you keys for cars in development state if you buy a brand new one?

A-Bomb to RaiderZ for not officially confirming the leaked Assassin and Archer arctypes.

Q. of the week: I suggest taking the mmobomb community to storm a f2p mmo and have us create new characters while recording. Hundrets of new chars in the starter zones, hilarity ensured!

May your connections be stable!

qroxta

Wow, I'm so looking forward to episode 52, I've been watching your show since the very first episode and it's nice to see you reach that milestone. I would love to watch another live episode, maybe involving all the cast or most of it at least. Oh... and make it three hours long please :).

This week I would like to launch an entire nuclear assault of A BOMBS to Funcom not only for disappointing me every time, but for trying to rip me 14.99 Euros a month (roughly 19.18 U.S. dollars) for the Secret Word... and also for Age of Conan before that... Why do I complain? Because I live in Latin America, hell even my country is part or North America, why would I have to pay more for being outside the U.S. and Canada even though I will be using the same servers?... Hell I've been paying 15 dollars a month for every subscription based MMO I played since Everquest. The saddest part is that for The Secret World, EA and Origin backed them up, I even bought the "BOX" in local currency at a fair price. I really wanted to like both games, but not ever their billing department got it right.

Awesome show as always guys!!

P.D. I really missed the derp of the week :).
P.D.D. I'm not related to "Awesome Enchilada" at ALL!!

This is the best show for free to play games really detailed with everyones comments

have you guy heard when star wars the old republic will be free to play and soul and blades will be sub when it moves til they see the way people react

MMO with the best beta and cash shop? DOTA2
huehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehue!

Thank's for Another Show !

Question of the week !

Another live stream with All of the host's.. I know thats CrAzY, But hey 1st year will never happen again.

Que's Music

Let the body's hit the floor.... Rawr :D

But honestly my friend,I will be saying this on your 10th year
( 2022 - Brim is the Host and some how you became his side kick .... wtf ! )
.. Sure has been a wild ride getting all my gaming info from all of you.

Peace

Inflictious

Hey Dizzyjay, once again, I haven't followed up on the show much. I hope all is well with you all.

Lets get to it, Raiderz I have the same feeling you guys had, I like it but I just don't know why I don't wanna play it anymore.

As for black prophecy I just think that game tried to recreate my favorite game: Freelancer Discovery mod(Check it up on youtube.), except they missed all the good part. For example, A Universe with atleast 30 systems and 50+ factions each are joinable by killing who they don't like or just buy your way to them, you can trade and mine with different system to gain different amount of profit, flying hundreds types of ships from light fighters to freighters to mining ships to battle cruisers, discover alien universes and wreckage, your level is determined by how much your character's is worth in total. without all those parts the game really was just really ****.
Check out their site here: http://discoveryfl.com/
But in the end with all those goodies, EA still shoved a grenade up the original developer's "you get my point" and cancelled them from making the second one.

As for The secret world, it all looked good until I saw the combat, then my fire for the game was put out. So I guess I don't need to further express that.

As for the betas in the current state, I feel the same way except for firefall. But I been in so many betas they are all the same thing, I really just don't even wanna do anymore betas, since they'll just make me not wanna play the game when it actually comes out. And with all those play to beta test stuff going on, I think I'll just stay in the shadows for now *evil laugh*.

Therefore, I really hope game developers would put duct tape on their eyelids, to look more into the flaws and problems of a game first, other than money in our pockets first. Wouldn't you agree?

Again, I find myself agreeing with Damina on TSW's current business model. Subs alongside a box cost are one thing, but add a cash shop as well....it just doesn't feel right.

With paying for betas....I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I agree that the term "Beta" has lost its original meaning in terms of testing and that it should be free for the purpose of finding bugs. On the other hand, I would say that if you're going to charge for betas (given the shift in its meaning), you should definitely offer free beta giveaways alongside the payment option. (eg. Dota 2)

For episode 52, perhaps go over the top 5 best f2p games of 2012, top 5 greatest f2p disappointments of the year, talk about the the 1 game which has had the most attention since f2p cast's inception...

Perhaps for the top 5 best and greatest disappointments, in the few episodes prior, try and get all the f2p cast guests to cast their votes prior and announce them on episode 52. Oh and maybe do a viewer vote as well.

Enjoyed it, looking forward to the weeks ahead :)

There is one thing that pissed me off about what you were saying about funcom, WTF about AO huh? Man yall have no idea about old school MMO games at all, AO with updated anything will beat the holy hell out of any MMO game to date. So no Funcom does not need to stop making MMO games, they need tp pull there head out of there ass and start on AO. Man i like your show but dam don`t forget about all the games they have, it seems like you only know about the two that they do have.

I wish i could go on your casting show and just strait up school you on MMO games. I have been playing MMO games since 1997 i have seen things that would make your head spin, so ya if your up for the challenge come at me.

Okay this is my thoughts on how u should celebrate it... i have two thoughts maybe do both its up 3 u

1. Episode 52 will become an episode where u do some of the best funniest moments of free 2 play cast :D so u know stuff that made the community laugh (for me personally when brim was right about SWTOR)

2. Or u could do a live free 2 play cast (hopefully at a better time for europeans :P not like last time where i had to stay up till 3 am just to watch :P ) and then have like maybe some give aways or something i know u guys dont have a tun of money and stuff to give away but i mean anything u guys can offer u know :P :D also have some questions like if u answer write u get some mmobomb gold or something

3. Maybe get a few of the more active mmobomb members join u in the free 2 play cast maybe? not greatest idea but still would be funny :D

idk if they are good ideas or even creative ideas but its still a good way to celebrate maybe

40th times a charm?!?!?!?!? We'll played guys and gal, once again great show! With my job, working 60+ hours a week as a manager of a multimillion dollar a month company, I don't get much time to unwind. I love to come home and find that there is a new episode posted.....crack a beer and chill out. This show does a great service to gamers. You give honest opinions and are well informed taboot. Keep the content coming!

Question of the Week:
One year is a great accomplishment. Do it up! I call for a free2play cast awards show. You could give awards such as Best free2play cast rage! Best member bomb! Best guest host. etc...
It'd be great to have a show highlighting the best of the year. This way everyone could be involved. All you wonderful hosts, guests, members, and so on, give credit where credit is due!

RAWRRRRR!

Damina’s opening comments on Secret World were fierce ! And I completely agree. I subbed to the TSW newsletter while it was in development and was always hoping for a F2P model. I just don't think it was a good idea for Funcom to release it as a F2P in this current age of gaming (Maybe they were trying to replicate the success of Age of Conan after it went f2p? Probably). If there is no news about The Secret Worlds conversion in the next few months then I will probably give up hope.

The way you phrased the whole 'Pay to Beta' system definitely makes it seem like a ridiculous model !

Also, I missed the RaiderZ CBT by one day ! >.< So will be eagerly awaiting October 24th !

Another great F2P cast guys ! Thanks a lot :)