MMOre Insight

Here’s something I found a little bit ago:

Warhammer Beta Update
By: James Nichols
08 Oct 2007 18:40:47 EST
Greetings all!

Recently, all WAR Beta participants received a letter stating our plan to end this phase of the closed beta test this Wednesday, October 10th. We periodically close Beta, our last closure being in March of this year, to focus on major improvements and polish. The next phase of Beta will reopen in early December with plenty of new and improved content, art and systems for our beta-testers.

We are very proud to have reached this point in development. Beta has been going very well and the testing community is extremely active. Excitement around the game continues to grow and the team is looking forward to enhancing many features already in the game as well as continuing to add new features to an already great game.

Based on player feedback, our own observations and our current schedule, we have set the following major development goals:

* Improve open field skirmishes and battlefield objectives with major enhancements.
* Provide players with even more options to customize their character both through their abilities and visual appearance.
* Continue to enhance Public Quests and the PQ System.
* Prepare the elves for their release into the world!

When the beta reopens, we look forward to welcoming back all of our current testers, as well as many new faces. Shortly after re-opening the doors, we will be inviting the first wave of guilds into the beta to really get things rolling.

Thank you!
- The Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Team

 

I think this is exactly what they and any other company in their situation needs to do for two reasons. First, there is no sense in wasting bandwidth letting players run around when what they find won’t even be taken into account anyways. The developers have made their decisions on what they want to focus on that’s all they should concern themselves with for the time being and see how that changes things once they’ve implemented them. The second reason is that you don’t have to string the players along, letting them hope for a patch every day giving them no indication on when to expect one for months on end while you make a massive number of changes to your game (yes, I’m referring to another beta, perhaps you know which one.) Then they won’t have to check the forums every single day to find dead boards and no sign of a patch.

Anyways, props to you, EA Mythic. You did the right thing, and hopefully others will follow your lead in the future. While I’ve never really shown any signs of excitement for this game it’s been building slowly, and it’s release can’t come soon enough

~Kanthalos