I've been on those "alpha expert groups" teams a number of times though. By the time it hits alpha they've usually got all the core gameplay stuff that gets focused on. Whatever gimmick they're going for is done at that point, because that's the focus. Half the models may be missing, it's more than likely buggy, and it lacks those little progression tidbits designed to string people along, but the core gameplay is usually decently solid, if unstable. Almost every time I enjoyed an alpha, they messed it up during beta by adding messy mechanics, an annoying pricing scheme, or replaced the temporary placeholders that ended up being more fun than the final result. In the cases they didn't do any of those, core gameplay tends to be the same, just prettier.
"Alpha is the state of the project when all the features have been completed and the testing stage begins. Beta is the state where the bug count has been reduced to zero, but bugs are still incoming. Gold is where the publisher or team decides the game is sufficiently bug free and is sent to the manufacturer (or released to partners) to be printed/distributed. These terms can vary from place to place. For instance, Google likes to label their products as Beta long after they've been released."
Those terms really do vary wildly. It's an alpha when developers decide to call it one. They define what those parameters are, but it's on a case-by-case basis. Usually it has something to do with feature benchmarks. Minecraft needed working multiplayer to move on to beta. Smite needed some things that are NDAified. Hawken just used a timeline.
I generally see it as, Alpha is done for the devs, Beta is done for the testers, and Gold is done for the world. The amount of patches/updates don't really define what phase it's in, and sometimes you never stop patching/updating a game, but usually, you're not going to get an Alpha key through a giveaway.
It's as the sensible ones of us suspected. Event's aren't random, they're triggered by the enemy team. http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/27 ... te-crisis/
+1 for me hue. Also, been a long time since i've been hyped for a game. Wouldn't have noticed it if it wasn't for you.
I'm too cautious to be hyped, it's too early to say if it'll be good yet. I'm definitely keeping a heavy eye on it though.
I don't understand your reference. I was merely guessing what "actual multiplayer online battle arena" she was going to be playing.
Rai kept whining about that acronym. Yes, from a completely literal, abstract point of view it's a stupid, non-descriptive misnomer. From my point of view, whining about it is incredibly annoying and kinda a failed attempt at looking smart.
Oh, I see. You assumed he meant dota-like instead of meaning what he said. He very clearly wasn't including games with gameplay like Infinity Crisis and Dota 2 when he implied that such games weren't actual MOBAs.
I read it as "Infinite Crisis is going to be a poorly designed, gimmicky game hopping on the DotA bandwagon and riding on w/e franchise they're exploiting. I'm going to play good DotA-likes instead." But what do I know.
wait what, yall are reading way too much into what I'm saying, except thebigpill. He got it right. (and he*)
