f13.net

http://www.autoassault.com/news/2005/04/_auto_assault_b.html


And I didn't get one.. <whine> wanna play now *stamps foot* </whine>

Damn...just checked my mail and no dice for me either. Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

Someone needs to reload that chain gun because it's shooting blanks.

Wasn't schild supposed to take care of this for us?

I know I blame Schild, but the man can't even post irc logs how did you expect him to get you first-wave beta invites?


*added*  Guessing Shockeye didn't get in either.

What makes you so special that schild should take care of anything for you?

The first round of all beta tests is friends, family and whoring websites. Like, well, I don't need to point fingers.

We're none of those. Well, maybe friends, but none of the lead developers invited me over for a bagel brunch any time recently.

Edit: Random pool of testers it seems.

Because I'm a swell fucking guy.

They are still accepting beta signups here:

http://www.plaync.com/aa_beta.html

Randomness was my friend this time ... I'm in.

Please do everything in your extremely limited power to make it not suck, kthx. I really want to like this one.

Step 1.  Make the mutants sound less retarded and look cool.

Step 2. Make the Human and Mutant special car powers be cool, like the Machine-guy-my-car-turns-into-a-mech power.

Step 3.  Reduce grind

Step 4.  Good guild system

Step 5.  Some kind of cool economy / Car customization thing

Step 6.  Blow stuff up.

Do you play Russian Roulette a lot?

This movie (http://www.kontrabandcontent.co.uk/1/graphics/movies/roulette_on_kb.mov) seems appropriate.

Indeed - please make it fun.

I believe a 2nd wave might have been sent out...

Still believing beta tests matter? :)

Correction - 3rd wave.

And as for mattering - I'd say they matter big time - if the game is crap in beta. No one will buy it.

That's total bullshit and you know it. But undoubtedly very few companies get all the beta members and then some to buy their game. Come to think of it, I don't think any game has had that sort of perfect luck.

What was I thinking? Word of mouth about WOW sucking in beta killed them.

Afaik, more people played the beta than purchased the game.

Also, way to pick out the one POSSIBLE anomaly, dick.

Edit: I just realized our comments spun off in two directions. Bad Word of Mouth doesn't kill a game as much as bad competition. Horizons still exists, right? Ultima Online is still profitable, right? But look at Matrix Online. The two-headed dragon of WoW and Guild Wars dominated what is actually supposed to be a relatively decent game. Easily better than Horizons. Also, EQII really wasn't as bad as we make it out to be, it was a grindfest sure, but their box price on the $80 collectors edition is down the $30 with the regular edition asking for $15. WoW decimated it. Anyway, yea, bad word of mouth is bad, but it's still press. Incredible competition will do much more.

Schild, I don't see where I am being a dick here.

Starwars, most people didn't care for it in beta. (I had fun playing an entertainer) But I would say most people in beta felt it was less then expected (I don't know many people that liked the HAM system, well maybe a few rifle players). You can say they had 300,000 players for a few months, they sold it based on the Starwars license alone, and gameplay and word of mouth didn't matter. And maybe for that title it's true, but eventually, after the Starwar's fanbois quit, they were not saying great things to their friends about the game. So ultimately...it's gameplay that matters, not word of mouth.  But you won't have word of mouth without gameplay.

Word of mouth about games is terribly important. (Be it print, web, forums, talking to friends).

If I play in the Matrix beta and say, Meh. I'm not going to buy it, I'm going to suggest my friends not buy it. And they will listen. If I say, GO BUY MATRIX! they will trust me that it is a good game worth spending $19.99 on and buy it.

If I beta'd TSO (The Sims Online) and realized it was a constant grind no matter what. And that it really wasn't the massively multiplayerish, I'm not going to buy it. I'm going to tell my friends it is crap. I think their initial sales and subsequent sales support this.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your logic line Schild. I'm sure Hrose's intent was "Can a beta tester change any of the design of a game?" In that case..Historically, not very much.

As long as this thread is up here...

Here are the new videos:
http://www.autoassault.com/downloads/movies.html

In the cinamatic video you see cars change into mechs. Two other things I noticed was in "E3 2005 Gameplay Movie" there are cars driving through each others geometry? And through building geometry? But in "Havok Gameplay Movie" the cars crash into the building pieces and seem to bounce whole sides of buildings based on "physics". Right.

Most of the textures are pretty low quality. The trees pretty much look like crap. The reason is probably framerate though because they have so many objects in game (destroyables).

The "mobs" running around in a few of the shots look pretty dumb.. as in they look like EQ mobs. The idea of EQ style mobs in Auto Assault is very uninspiring. Anything that takes more than 3 shots to kill with the right weapon and stands there flailing it's arms at you while it does damage is an EQ mob.

Ask the guys at Mutable Realms. Although I guess that was more of an alpha.

If you are talking about the WoW Beta they shut down the Open Beta signups after about 500K keys were given out so that added with the existing testers comes nowhere near the 1.5+ million subscribers (not including Korea) they have now.

Bad word of mouth has kept me from playing SWG -- it's the only major North American MMORPG I've never played. Every time I'd get semi-interested in buying it I would go the forums, read all the problems with the game, and totally lose interest again.

Not to derail, just to pinpoint:
My comment about the beta phases being pointless was aimed at the development because about the development was the quote I commented.

It's fun how the actual history is completely irrelevant in a discussion. WoW received a lot of hype. A lot of GOOD hype. Till the last day before release WoW has been praised for the most part. "Word of mouth about WOW sucking in beta" is something that didn't happen in this reality, at least from a general point of view.

If we want to talk about bad hype let's go back at SWG. That was one game that directly suffered from catastrophic beta tests.

Not as much as the testers themselves suffered.

I still bear the scars of that closed beta, as well as the beta CD's.

Hey, apparently, I got into the beta LAST FRIDAY, and never checked my mail.

I leave on Sunday for a month and a half, DAMNIT!!

Can I have your stuff?   :-D

Everything but my Money Hat.  :-P

Anyone else get this today? Woo-fucking-hoo! I haven't been this fired up about a beta since SWG. God I hope it turns out better than that...

For those of you who have gotten in, what's the email address they are sending the invites from? I want to make sure my spam filter isn't marking any invite I may have gotten as spam.

Was there a second wave because..well...yesterday I got an...ummm.

I would make sure support@ncsoft.com wasn't getting blocked.

Thanks!

I would be very interested in how the networking pans out on this game, especially as beta progresses, if anyone wouldn't mind posting from time to time about lag, latency, and so forth!

Is there a NDA involved at all in the beta and if so, are there any exceptions to it?

Duh, /smack self...good point, wasn't really thinking!

Just got my beta invite.

Yup, there's an NDA and it's pretty tight.  I don't know if I'm allowed to say there's an NDA.

Got mine today. Haven't glanced at the NDA yet. I expect I might already be in violation by simply saying I'm in.  :oops:

Yah um someone I know leaked that he just got his email .. look for some loser named Niiv.

Regardless of NDA, let me know whether you can program your car's audio system in-client.

And I cant create a stupid forum account. It keeps telling me I cant have alphanumerics in my name. I dont have any. Really pissing me off because I want to see what the game was really like. I hope this doesnt break NDA. Can I break NDA if I havent even seen the game yet?

If you haven't linked from your acceptance email to the NDA page then you can't have broken it, I guess. 

Umm... I may have broken the NDA by telling you that, though.

Err... and, also, by saying I may have broken the NDA.

 :cry:

Why am I not playing?  :?

I played for one session before leaving for FL.

Unfortunately, at this time, I am vastly underwhelmed. Of particular interest is the combat. It is novel at first, but becomes quite tedious.

Sorry, trying to not break the NDA for once.

I''m thinking of getting preorder just to get into beta.
Worth it?

But if you HATE it, you are still obligated to buy it, when you pre-order.  You will be out $50 and your children will go hungry all for naught!  So, for that reason, I would say no... not for any other reason that might break the NDA I may or may not have signed.

Not trying very hard I see.

I know!   He broke it way more than I did.  Well... at least that anyone knows about.  Mostly.

I'll share a story.

I pre-ordered Lineage 2 online back when I was young and stupid.

That allowed me access to the beta.

I played the beta and was filled with hatred.

I went back to the site from which I had pre-ordered and cancelled the shipment.

I was never charged a cent for any of it, and even got to keep the pre-order box and goodies they sent me.

I liked the Lineage 2 beta the first day I was in it. It lasted all of 3 hours. The next day I came back and it bit ass. How? I don't know. Maybe I was possessed by my evil Catass twin the first day.

You lasted about 6 times longer than I did.

Remember kids, Five Levels is too Much (http://www.f13.net/reviews.php?subaction=showfull&id=1080685565&archive=&start_from=&ucat=2&).