Demo

[lostcause]

Oh, god, if the Civ5 demo is anything like the CitiesXL demo, I'll probably cry. I really wanted it to bring back my SimCity glory days where I played SC3K instead of doing my homework, but I didn't even play it for 30 minutes before deleting it off my hard drive. But I have faith that Firaxis will deliver. Didn't they put out a demo a few weeks before Civ4 was released? Or was that the Mac version and I have my versions mixed up...

 

[Ztaesek]

Have to agree with Dale. Having worked on several closed betas, you have to get used to the game crashing. But I've always liked figuring out problems, so testing something to find what caused the crash can be enjoyable.

However, I don't think that Civ5 will have an open beta. I can't remember Firaxis ever holding one. Anyways, the rampant speculation is usually fun.

 

[Ztaesek]

Heh, I never realized I hadn't posted with this account before.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

If there's a civ 5 beta that crashes constantly, I will be quite happy. It means that as long as the devs listen to the testers, those crashes won't occur in the final version.

 

[Quintillus]

If there's a civ 5 beta that crashes constantly, I will be quite happy. It means that as long as the devs listen to the testers, those crashes won't occur in the final version.

As opposed to a Civ5 Beta that doesn't crash constantly? Or is it basically that you'll be happy if there's a beta regardless of the quality?

I'd suspect there will be a demo either shortly before or slightly after game release. There was with Civ3, Civ4, and Civ4BTS (times two) before. I might actually try the demo prior to making a purchasing decision - kinda wish I had done that with Civ4.

Never beta-tested a game myself. I've paricipated in the open betas of Windows 7 and Office 2010 (still doing that one) and from what I've seen they're pretty solid products even in beta. But I suspect Microsoft intended it to be that way. OTOH, those aren't as exciting as games, and I don't plan to upgrade to the final release of either of those.

 

[Tarkhan]

Hey i'm beta testing Starcraft 2 right now But Blizzard waits forever to do beta testing so their games are practically finished by the time beta begins.

When I was testing Star Trek Online? What a crash-fest.

 

[Ztaesek]

It was amazing STO crashed so much. The content in the beta was very limited. That game should never have been released in its current state.

 

[Lucianer]

Looks like Civ5 wouldn't become much better then Civ4 for me...

Civ3 is still the best... ;-9

 

[Genocidicbunny]

As opposed to a Civ5 Beta that doesn't crash constantly? Or is it basically that you'll be happy if there's a beta regardless of the quality?

I'd suspect there will be a demo either shortly before or slightly after game release. There was with Civ3, Civ4, and Civ4BTS (times two) before. I might actually try the demo prior to making a purchasing decision - kinda wish I had done that with Civ4.

Never beta-tested a game myself. I've paricipated in the open betas of Windows 7 and Office 2010 (still doing that one) and from what I've seen they're pretty solid products even in beta. But I suspect Microsoft intended it to be that way. OTOH, those aren't as exciting as games, and I don't plan to upgrade to the final release of either of those.

Pretty much!

But seriously, I guess what I meant to say is that if beta testers find so many ways to make the game crash, it will be better for us in the end as we will hopefully not have to deal with those crashes.

On the topic of Beta participation: its not fun. You play the game, try to make it crash. You write reports. You repeat, 8 hours a day...etc
I haven't beta tested games, but I have done QA for software. If a real beta is anything like the QA work I did, its not very much fun. Yes you get to work with civ 5 before release and you get to affect the final product, but its not all fun and games (har har!)