I think if we drop enough rocks into a fen we can make ... a FREEWAY!
would that not be a fenway?
My thoughts exactly.
Depends on the year.
But there will be small children with knives and other sharp objects in our cornfield not dead baseball players.
Yes, a cornfield with children of the corn inside for an escalation type would provide me with many lawls.
And when the escalation isn't met they come out of their cornfield mass slaughtering the adults screaming "Outlander".
Many many lawls.
I'm batting cleanup. KC can be the "short"stop.
Second level, external pilot-test of a product (usually a software) before commercial quantity production. At the beta test stage, the product has already passed through the first-level, internal pilot-test (alpha test) and glaring defects have been removed. But (since the product may still have some minor problems that require user participation) it is released to selected customers for testing under normal, everyday conditions of use to spot the remaining flaws.
Goblin Squad Member
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Second level, external pilot-test of a product (usually a software) before commercial quantity production. At the beta test stage, the product has already passed through the first-level, internal pilot-test (alpha test) and glaring defects have been removed. But (since the product may still have some minor problems that require user participation) it is released to selected customers for testing under normal, everyday conditions of use to spot the remaining flaws.
In other words, the first year of release of any new Windows product.
Yes! Exactly!!!
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Goblin Squad Member
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But seriously guys, you have to get Dan in here to tell us that he in fact, despite what Mark from GW says, knows what a beta is.
Eesh. How do I respond to that one.
This was the response I made at the time, which is now ~18 months old. I've learned some things about PFO's methodology since then that would lead me to alter my answer a bit (though, yes, I darn well know what a beta is).
GW has taken such a novel approach -- at least in the context of MMOs -- to development that it's almost hard to evaluate in traditional terms. Usually an MMO is released in a state that's "done", meaning 95%+ of the intended features are implemented and working. The beta is the final phase of testing before you release the finished product on the unsuspecting hordes that will crash your servers, get angry they can't play, and find tons of bugs you didn't know about or bother to fix. ;)
I'm sure we could list dozens of MMOs that have followed this model just within the past few years.
But my cynicism aside, the point is that you get something that isn't so wildly iterative in nature. Sure, there will be patches and expansions, but what you see is basically what they intended the game to be. It's highly unlikely the flow of play will radically change at any point thereafter.
However, with the MVP model, they've opted to put in features that are designed to follow a different path. The points of engagement are supposed to be stable and only complex enough to provide meaningful feedback by which both players and developers can learn how the game is being played, what's working out as hoped, and where people want to see the game head next.
The developers may bristle at this description, but it's almost like carefully guided improv.
Since GW's been so open about this, I suppose it's only fair to judge the product on its own terms. When EE starts, we're in the first phase of beta. At that point, will we have enough features to meaningfully play the game and educate both ourselves and the devs on what needs to be done next? And while I accept some features are easier to code than others, will they continuously improve the game through rapid, incremental improvements that follow the path we're all discovering together?
If that came across like a meandering non-answer, I apologize. As a fan of lightweight/iterative waterfall, I'm still trying to sort some of this out myself, and I can't think of any precedent among MMOs for this approach that I could use as a baseline. But if you have a more specific question, I can either engage it myself or pass it back up to GW for comment.
Almost time for the Bonny show
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yeah, now if we just get all our members to show up for it, we can have a great shot at getting an Alpha access for one or more of our members. Need a 100 viewers before Bonny starts giving them away.
Wouldn't want Sunnfire to get lonely being the only one from Kabal playing Alpha. I'm doing this for his benefit, not mine. Lonely leaders do weird things. :-)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Sorry if that came across like a jerk comment, Dan. The intention was to say that I do in fact listen to FTB.
Edit:
Are you now officially renaming Fear the Con to Fear the Kon now that you guys are with Kabal?
No, it didn't come across like a jerk comment at all! It came across like an honest (but difficult to answer) question. That's why I put the "eesh" at the beginning. I wasn't upset; I just wasn't sure I had a qualified opinion ready to go.
So it's all good. And I'm certainly glad to have you as a listener!
As for Fear the Con, Kabal would have to win over Pat on that one, since he manages the con. ;)
What Dan is really saying is he will acquire all your socks and put holes in them while you sleep!
Yes, it's true his laundry is filthy!
And I'm not touching it. Except maybe to fireball it.
And now, to test my new forum aias... NO, it doesn't work! Time to change it in my account settings. Huzzah!
Looks like it works to me :P Silly Hedrik tricks are for kids!
Looks like it works to me :P Silly Hedrik tricks are for kids!
Oh sure, it works NOW... Originally I was using HTML code for the chevrons (< and >) because the forum settings page hides the whole thing otherwise.
I think Hedrik rolled a natural 20 and didn't know it!
Isn't that one of Robert Aspirin's books?
Looks like it works to me :P Silly Hedrik tricks are for kids!Oh sure, it works NOW... Originally I was using HTML code for the chevrons (< and >) because the forum settings page hides the whole thing otherwise.
Huzzah! Now I really DO have chevrons in my alias name!
Good thing he hasn't checked out his living room yet.
There's a living room under all this stuff? Heh, that must mean we have a couch, too!
Ooo! I call dibs on one of the recliners!