GameSpot Review Posted Online

Yimboli · #1 November 5th, 2006, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Suicide Junkie said:
I totally think they should have let the fanatics buy it early online, and do the full retail push once it had been patched up.

That would be a nice compromise between a premature release and a public beta - the premature release is very buggy, but a public beta would be difficult to manage by such a small company. The fanatics would easily work together (as they've done for years on the forum) to avoid repeats and submit more intelligent bug reports, allowing Aaron to scrutinize a larger portion of them. SJ has an excellent point here - the fanatics can be used not only as modders and beta testers, but also as an elite squad of beta testers to focus Aaron's attention just prior to the full release. The only drawback I see here is that you're putting a lot of power into fewer hands, which carries its own concerns (not that any of the fanatics on this forum would intentionally abuse such a power, but speaking from the age old argument that absolute power corrupts absolutely).

Hopefully Aaron will tap into this unrealized potential for SEVI.

*lightbulb* I better get my post count up!!!!

Suicide Junkie · #2 November 6th, 2006, 12:17 AM

It would actually be the opposite...
Going from the "power" in a small number of beta testers, to spreading that influence over the wider community.

There are far more people who would buy SE5 early than were chosen as beta testers.

shinigami · #3 November 6th, 2006, 03:12 AM

Hmm, give anyone that pre-orders a game the option to help work out bugs before the official release. Let's see, that would make the beta testers actually alpha testers and early buyers actually beta testers who paid for the privledge.

That development model would be all kinds of cool!

Ed Kolis · #4 November 6th, 2006, 02:21 PM

Didn't GalCiv2 use that model? Looks like it worked out pretty well for them...

Atrocities · #5 November 6th, 2006, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Ed Kolis said:
Didn't GalCiv2 use that model? Looks like it worked out pretty well for them...

They no longer are in business.

Phoenix-D · #6 November 6th, 2006, 07:29 PM

Zuh? Stardock is alive and well.

frightlever · #7 November 6th, 2006, 08:09 PM

and recently started selling Space Rangers 2.

Good company Stardock. Brad's a dick to the community though. Muwhahahaha.

Atrocities · #8 November 6th, 2006, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Phoenix-D said:
Zuh? Stardock is alive and well.

GT Interactive and Digital Reality are no longer in business. GT Interactive is part of Atari I think, but haven't seen a title from them in years.

EDIT:
My fault, I misread the post. I was thinking of Galatic Imperium 2 and not Galatic Civilizations 2. My bad.