Beta timing

Bungie has given a release frame of "Summer 2014" for the Destiny beta. This year, summer begins on June 21 and ends on September 22.

Bungie has also given Destiny's release date of September 9.

Historically, we've never been so lucky as to get the beta on the first day it could possibly be available. And in fact, it would be extremely possible for the beta would be pushed back to Fall if that weren't impossible with a September 9 full release date. The beta would also probably take at least a couple of weeks to run its course. And even if you did a BF4-style "beta" and release the game a week after it ended, you'd need a week of padding after that.

So, realistically, the beta launch window is July 7 - August 19.

But even if the beta were released at the earliest point in the window, we'd be looking at a little over 5 weeks between the end of the beta and the game's release date. And that's at the most. How much work can realistically be done in 5 weeks?

Halo 3 had about 3 months between the end of beta and launch. Reach had about 4 months.

In a larger sense, I think we're seeing public betas shift from being actual betas toward being interactive advertisements in the form of mostly-complete games barring some weapon balancing. This is best exemplified by BF4. I'd like to believe Destiny is bucking this trend, but looking at the timeline they've proposed I don't think it's likely.

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But even if the beta were released at the earliest point in the window, we'd be looking at a little over 5 weeks between the end of the beta and the game's release date. And that's at the most. How much work can realistically be done in 5 weeks?

From what Bungie has said (if I have time later today I will find the article, but I can't even see game sites at work) the beta will be mostly to test their servers. I would imagine the game will be pretty much done at the point of the beta as far as content. Coming from a networking background you could do a lot of work on a server's code and the infrastructure in even a week's time if you are prepared, especially if you don't have millions of people expecting you to fix it immediately, while they continue to use your servers anyway. I think that's why Bungie is pushing so many people to get the beta (even heavily hinting that you can always cancel your pre-order later), because they want to make sure their servers can handle the kind of load that others have failed to.

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While that's important, because lord knows I don't want to buy Destiny and be dealing with horrible server issues like with Halo 4, I also don't want to be dealing with a game that was poorly tested, unbalanced, and a mess. Halo 3 had a lot working well for it in the Beta, then Bungie changed things up (particularly with how the melee system worked, not to mention some major weapon imbalances) that took four months to fix.

Reach's Beta pointed out plenty of things, some were fixed, others weren't. Don't ask me how the Reach Banshee still manages to be so overpowered even after 343's fake TU. I would really like it if Bungie made this Beta about more than servers, especially when fixing bugs, getting proper balancing, and gameplay in general are so important to a game in the long run.

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I would really like it if Bungie made this Beta about more than servers, especially when fixing bugs, getting proper balancing, and gameplay in general are so important to a game in the long run.

I feel like that will come naturally as people play the game. You're connected all the time, so Bungie is going to have tons of data on how people play and what works and what doesn't. Frequent patches are par for the course in always on games / MMOs.

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They have pretty much confirmed balancing issues will be approached on a very frequent basis on some BWU or another.

Also, Schooly, FYI, Summer here ends in March, so maybe we'll get the beta by then. #HopesandDreams

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Naturally. What I'm saying is, I'd rather the game launch in a state that doesn't require endless TUs and patches to fix and balance. I've had enough with games put out by EA or games like Halo 4 that require over 9000 patches and balances in the first six months to a year to make the thing playable. Beta test it, focus on what's busted early, put out the best, most complete product you can, and then use patches to clean up the bugs and any issues that pop up as time goes on.

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Naturally. What I'm saying is, I'd rather the game launch in a state that doesn't require endless TUs and patches to fix and balance. I've had enough with games put out by EA or games like Halo 4 that require over 9000 patches and balances in the first six months to a year to make the thing playable. Beta test it, focus on what's busted early, put out the best, most complete product you can, and then use patches to clean up the bugs and any issues that pop up as time goes on.

I'm sure they will. That's why they have playtesters and internal betas already doing that. Public betas are rarely for what you describe.

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Naturally. What I'm saying is, I'd rather the game launch in a state that doesn't require endless TUs and patches to fix and balance. I've had enough with games put out by EA or games like Halo 4 that require over 9000 patches and balances in the first six months to a year to make the thing playable. Beta test it, focus on what's busted early, put out the best, most complete product you can, and then use patches to clean up the bugs and any issues that pop up as time goes on.

I'm sure they will. That's why they have playtesters and internal betas already doing that. Public betas are rarely for what you describe.

Don't forget that new content will roll out. Eventually there will be lots of new weapons, weapon traits, (hopefully enemies) etc. There will be ideas for weapons that exist in ten months that don't exist now, and when someone goes "you know what would be really cool? A bolo-style grenade launcher (a la Bulletstorm) that sends out shrapnel, so there's a small core of highly-focused damage on one target, while doing chance-to-hit damage in an area, and who doesn't love little ricocheting bits of hot metal?", and they throw it in, there will be all kinds of tweaking that goes on to compensate, because no matter how well they bang on it before it goes out, there will still be stuff that pops up once it's in the wild.

From a QA perspective, I would figure the longer the beta the better. More data collected, more time to throw features out and put them through their paces. But with the right level of community engagement, it could be pretty short if they know what they want to test. Specific gametypes, matchmaking functions, tightening screws on the backend, whatever.

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In all honesty, I think Bungie's design for content in Destiny will likely be extremely malleable. We saw them develop a gametype system for Halo: Reach that allowed a lot of flexibility with the downloading of the gametype itself. New features could be scripted without modifying the game code.

Seeing as the game is technically an "always-on" game, it wouldn't surprise me if updates were pushed regularly, and that they were low visibility and had the ability to modify almost anything.

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I'm sure they will. That's why they have playtesters and internal betas already doing that. Public betas are rarely for what you describe.

Yet that Banshee in Reach still made it through playtesting? lol

All I'm saying is, a public Beta with millions of people playing and finding things that are highly unbalanced, broken, or glitchy absolutely tops internal playtesting and internal betas.

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I'm sure they will. That's why they have playtesters and internal betas already doing that. Public betas are rarely for what you describe.

Yet that Banshee in Reach still made it through playtesting? lol

All I'm saying is, a public Beta with millions of people playing and finding things that are highly unbalanced, broken, or glitchy absolutely tops internal playtesting and internal betas.

And you think asking people to do those jobs FOR FREE is ethical? If Bungie wants me to playtest their game beta and give feedback, then I have to get paid for it.

Hell, I caught a bug in Vanquish before it went gold. Guess what? I got paid for my time in reporting it.

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They're not asking you to do it for free. You get to play the game early, have a great time hopefully, and maybe never come across a glitch or something unbalanced personally.

They get to test their servers, and if something really unbalanced or unplayable comes up that gets some feedback online, well of course they're going to take a look at it.

You buy a game from EA. You just spent $59.99 without tax. Your money just went to an incomplete and busted product that takes months, if not a year, to fix. You talk about getting paid to test their stuff, how about you paying them for an unfinished product, and then they use you as the guinea pig to find all their broken trash they couldn't be bothered to test on their own pre-launch?

I found what I called a Bizarro Banshee bug in the Reach Beta. I saved that film (holy shit saved films for a Beta?) and uploaded it. It wasn't in Reach by launch. Maybe they already knew about it. Maybe they would have known about it eventually pre-launch. Maybe someone finds out post-launch and uh oh. I tried like hell to re-create it, but could only get it to do it the one time. I don't expect to be paid, nor did I expect to be paid, when I reported it. Betas just flat out help make your launch title better.

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You get to play the game early, have a great time

Unless I'm being paid, then that's all I'll do with a Beta.

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And you think asking people to do those jobs FOR FREE is ethical? If Bungie wants me to playtest their game beta and give feedback, then I have to get paid for it.

Bungie's not asking us, we're offering. If you want to be paid for your time, that's your prerogative. Don't provide feedback. I want to offer feedback, and I'll gladly spend my free time doing so at no cost to them, because I'm a goddamn fan.

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And you think asking people to do those jobs FOR FREE is ethical? If Bungie wants me to playtest their game beta and give feedback, then I have to get paid for it.

Bungie's not asking us, we're offering. If you want to be paid for your time, that's your prerogative. Don't provide feedback. I want to offer feedback, and I'll gladly spend my free time doing so at no cost to them, because I'm a goddamn fan.

Wait... you can actually like what you play?

Stop the presses! The public's gonna wanna hear about this.

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And you think asking people to do those jobs FOR FREE is ethical?

Giving people access to a game that they want to play, and giving them a channel to submit feedback that they feel like using?

It's an abomination, they should all be slingshotted into the sun.

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I've been a beta tester since my parents 1st put the pong paddles in my little infant hands and will be till the day I die…

…no pay necessary…

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I've been a beta tester since my parents 1st put the pong paddles in my little infant hands and will be till the day I die…

…no pay necessary…

The only Bungie Beta I ever got to participate in was Halo Reach, but I loved it and I can't wait to play in the Destiny beta. With the limited experience of the Reach Beta I'm expecting a relatively smooth experience, but if I encounter bugs you can bet I'll report any I find, and be happy for the privilege.

Now if part of the requirements of playing a beta were ever "you must play for at least X hours a day." and/or "You are expected to find X # of bugs." THEN I might expect some compensation for my time.

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…I will have to conclude that the closer to the launch date for the beta, the LESS likely changes will be made to actual play and balancing and more focus being put on server issues and player behaviour issues.

I HOPE I'M WRONG.

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^^this exactly…

I'm thinking the game is 99.7 % done and let's make sure the servers can handle it type beta….

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So, realistically, the beta launch window is July 7 - August 19.

So between Bungie Day and my birthday? I like you. :)

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Bungie has given a release frame of "Summer 2014" for the Destiny beta. This year, summer begins on June 21 and ends on September 22.

Bungie has also given Destiny's release date of September 9.

Historically, we've never been so lucky as to get the beta on the first day it could possibly be available. And in fact, it would be extremely possible for the beta would be pushed back to Fall if that weren't impossible with a September 9 full release date. The beta would also probably take at least a couple of weeks to run its course. And even if you did a BF4-style "beta" and release the game a week after it ended, you'd need a week of padding after that.

So, realistically, the beta launch window is July 7 - August 19. ...

Your extrapolation of the possible beta date is interesting. I say this in part because I'm expecting some sort of announcement of Destiny "Going gold" in July at the earliest. Two months to print sounds about right for something with Destines projected scope, and you don't make a Bajillion copies over night - not to mention the whole shipping thing. So I unless the beta is only to expose balancing of both game play and the network at large (and advertising), that would mean if any glitches are found they would be patched off disk.... *!*... I just interrupted my thought for a new one.

Can Destiny be played offline? O_o

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Can Destiny be played offline? O_o

No, it's an always online game.

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Can Destiny be played offline? O_o

No, it's an always online game.

Then the Disk is nothing more but a key to enter the marvelous world [image] of Destiny!

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Making a crazy prediction here,

I'm thinking that will be a popular time slot for a game beta. We'll be in E3 season and it would give Bungie time afterwords, depending on how much they tweak. I'm thinking even starting on Bungie Day 2014 would be a bit late, but what do I know. I also believe that we'll definitely be seeing an early F&F for a week or so before the public release.

CMON SUMMER!!!

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