Topic

Test Opening Announcements

This has always confused me: have tests typically been announced in the past, or is this a recent development?  In my experience, up until very recently, the only time I got an alert that a test was open was when I got my email invite.  I assumed that all during Alpha and the parts of Beta that I've been a part of the tests were just random and if you caught them, good for you, if not, better luck next time.

Where did this sense of entitlement that we always know when the test will be opening next come from?  Not that I don't enjoy the information, just wondering why all of a sudden it became such an obligation for the devs to let us know when its open.

Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I have to agree that a lot of users are entirely too pushy about the game opening, and that we're not entitled to be told when the game is open. It's nice to know, though.

    Also, from what I understand, a lot of users do get e-mails when the game opens again, though sometimes they're later in the day or, as in my case, some of us don't get the e-mails at all.

    EDIT: Though, as a subscriber, it would also be a nice perk to have, lol. But again, I agree that we're not entitled to it.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sometimes they were announced, often not. Often tests were just a few hours and you caught it or you didn't. (I kind of miss those days. Honestly, I do.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm only a recent play-tester, but since I joined I saw in the Forums past posts with the devs announcing openings and closures, and the twitter feed @isglitchopen doing the same. It looked like information the devs willingly volunteered. It didn't occur to me to think about it in terms of play-testers' sense of entitlement.
    Posted 17 months ago by Vortexae Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Vortexae, did you notice that the instant a test closes someone seems to ask almost instantaneously "WHEN IS THE NEXT TEST?!" Or that until the game is open again people keep insisting that it open? Too many users seem to be impatient and I have to admit that it gets annoying sometimes. Especially having to repeat, week after week, "THE GAME WILL OPEN WHEN IT OPENS AND THERE IS A GOOD REASON IT IS NOT OPEN RIGHT NOW." Every. Damn. Week.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 17 min to open ;)
    Posted 17 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Arizoo -- That's nice, but not necessarily what this thread is about.

    That's another thing. People turning every thread, regardless of degree of relativity, about when the game is opening or not opening. "New clothes in wardrobe!" "WHO CARES GAME IS OPENING." "Where do you hail from?" "VANCOUVER WHERE THE GAME IS OPENING IN SUCH-AND-SUCH TIME." "What are you up to?" "JUST HOPING THE GAME WILL OPEN."
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • To play devil's advocate, sometimes people saying "WHEN IS IT GOING TO BE OPEN AGAIN?" is just folks express their excitement and joy and not intended to ACTUALLY sound demanding.
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • And excitement for a game is good. :3 But after such a long time, seasoned testers have found that really, the game will open when it opens. And the longer the down time, the longer the 'making game awesomer brb' time is.
    Posted 17 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i mean players can sit at the forums and write "When is the test opening" all they want, it's not like it's that much of am issue. If the devs don't want to tell us, they won't and if there are impatient players out there who are turned off the game because they don't get any information, then that is their own problem. From what i've noticed the population that is asking for a schedule is generally good hearted, and are just hoping for some reassurance, even if it's a simple "soon"
    Also, with the announcement of the opening, more players will participate, which is beneficial to the game.  
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I understand that, Bacon-O, but I see the same users being very repetitive about it. And some flat out say IT SHOULD BE OPEN NOW. Yes, I know that they're still just expressing their excitement, but when you end up with multiple threads all essentially saying "OPEN THE GAME NOW PLZ" and people post the same thing over and over and over and over until the game opens, it can be pretty taxing.

    And I know that I also tend to be very tangential, too, and oftentimes very loosely associate a topic within a thread to what I'm actually saying, haha.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Generally, you're going to need to point out when your Beta is running in order to get the most out of it; as much as you can expect the users to trickle in after a while, any time spent with little to no people on the server is wasted testing, and testing is time, and time is money. If you can get your tests going right on the bat then you can get more data for your buck.

    The obsessive frantic seemingly entitled ramblings of the users... well, that's just human nature; between the addicts who desperately need their next fix, the neophiles who just desperately want to try new things before anyone else, and the eternally bored (that's me, I'm afraid), even short downtimes of well established games can gather the ire of the impatient zombie user hordes.

    Just be glad that the Glitch community is friendly and eccentric. It can get rough in downtimes of other, more 'serious' games :P
    Posted 17 months ago by Vordus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • true, Lord Bacon, and we donĀ“t intend to make any pressure on devs team, they are nice people, and we all welcome some info about when the game will be open again.
    Posted 17 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree that we aren't entitled to know, and I agree that it's very kind of the devs to volunteer the information. I also agree that dozens of people all clamoring the same thing at once can get annoying.

    On the other hand, if I were a dev for something like this, I would be a little flattered that everyone was so excited about what I'd worked so hard on. :)

    I guess my own idea of the compromise we should be making is to express our appreciation in more creative and varied ways than "omfg must have game nao nao nao". :3
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Arii "nao nao nao" lol
    Posted 17 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think lately they announce it a) because really there's no reason not to and b) because we haz community manager :)
    Posted 17 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Vortexae, did you notice that the instant a test closes someone seems to ask almost instantaneously "WHEN IS THE NEXT TEST?!" Or that until the game is open again people keep insisting that it open?"

    ...Not really. I've been checking Aero's thread for the whimsy of it, with my sense of humor in my side pocket for ready accessibility, and for the off-chance that a dev might show up with a reopen announcement... but it isn't any skin off my nose if someone else is more vocal with their impatience for a reopen than I am.

    "Too many users seem to be impatient and I have to admit that it gets annoying sometimes"

    I'm sorry it bothers you. I try to avoid reading those forum threads or blog comments in situations where I know the conversation will piss me off, because I like me better when I'm not uselessly angry. For what it's worth, the only thing that really hacks me off here on this forum are when some users take it upon themselves to scold the rest of the community for... whatever it is they disapprove of. I have not been entirely good at biting my tongue when that happens, I admit.

    When in doubt, I reread this comic: xkcd.com/386/ and I mutter to myself, "Perspective, V, perspective, get some perspective..." It seems to help.

    In any case... 4 more minutes!!!!! :-D
    Posted 17 months ago by Vortexae Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Basically what Arii said. :P
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • And Vortexae, like I said before, it's hard to avoid it on the forums when, sometimes, it's ALL PEOPLE WILL TALK ABOUT, even if it's not relevant to the thread.

    EDIT: Also, there's a difference between scolding and voicing my opinion. I'm sorry if my opinion annoys you but retorting in any passive-aggressive manner would not only be hypocritical, it would be childish. Essentially, I'm going to rephrase what it seems like you are saying to me and lead you to you own advice: if you don't like what I have to say, ignore it or deal with it.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah, I believe that as beta testers, we aren't entitled to anything. Technically, we're here to test, not to play just to satisfy our need for the game. I look forward to and pine for test openings as much as the rest of you, but I think we should be grateful that we're even able to play the game at all! 

    I think the test announcements by mods are great and very kind of them to do, though, and I agree with everything that Vordus said. I haven't gotten email notifications, and I wouldn't demand them, but they are beneficial to both us and the devs.
    Posted 17 months ago by Napoleon Bonaparte Subscriber! | Permalink
  • [intentionally annoying]

    oh my god, it's been like fifteen seconds, why isn't it open yet?!?!11oneeleventy

    [/intentionally annoying]
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @arii just keep hitting f5 if you don't it will never open
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Already on it! :D However did you know??
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ Cerulean 'passive-aggressive manner'now that is an oxymoron!
    Posted 17 months ago by Phochai Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Humans in general aren't the most patient of creatures. 
    I don't really mind seeing people asking when it's going to open, everyone who has any interest at all in the game wants to know really and it saves me having to ask. 
    If staff were annoyed by it, they could avoid it by finishing a test and saying "The next test will be approx... " instead of waiting to be badgered for that info. 
    I don't mind when it opens, but I do want to know as soon as I can when the next opening will be. If I want to make the most of the game while it's open, I have to rearrange real life stuff. No info on opening = No ability to tweak real life stuff.
    I figure that if the staff want testers to test stuff, it's not too much effort on their part to keep us in the loop... 
    To be honest I think it's fairly strange that people get funny about people having a sense of entitlement to play. 
    Of course people are going to feel entitled to play. It's a great game! If it was a crappy game, then nobody would care. The very fact that it's not open fully yet and already people are addicted and wanting more... isn't that a good thing? 
    Posted 17 months ago by Ebil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • we are all relying on you... didn't you know?
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @JDtreble or cmd + R for us mac users.

    (Every single time I have a moment of "The Game's open!" before realising, no the 'We're currently closed' sign has taken a moment longer than everything else to load.) ;-)
    Posted 17 months ago by Ama Gafr Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well the point of this post really wasn't about my annoyance level (even though it can sometimes be annoying).

    There was another thread a week ago or so that I am too lazy to find, but it seemed like people were actually taking it very personally when the games weren't being announced.  It wasn't the excitement that was the problem, the problem in my eyes were the people who genuinely genuinely felt "betrayed" or "angered" because they weren't told when the test was opening.

    While it is a great convenience and beneficial to both devs and testers if the tests are announced, it was not something that happened often in the past, so I was just contemplating what made it change so that many people feel as if they deserve to know all the time?
    Posted 17 months ago by Laurali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • lol
    Posted 17 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Ama. BAHAHAHAHAHA i just did that!!!!
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Would love to see the spike in their web server logs right about now. :) 
    Posted 17 months ago by Slacy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Laurali, it may be that tests are more regular now? it feels linked somehow, but I'm not quite sure how....
    Posted 17 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @JDtreble I'm so glad I'm not the only one! :D
    Posted 17 months ago by Ama Gafr Subscriber! | Permalink
  • JD "arii just keep hitting f5 if you don't it will never open "

    arii "Already on it! :D However did you know??"

    JD "we are all relying on you... didn't you know? "

    so lol ;)
    Posted 17 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I feel bad for my friend, he's patiently waiting to play, but it's not opening, when i told him it would. this will be his first test. 
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • thats what we need! more fun in this long boring posts! ;)
    Posted 17 months ago by arizoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • asdfghjkl; so much pressure! D: *f5s like a mad f5ing thing*
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @arii
    Stop posting, it's distracting you from F5!!!!!!!
    Posted 17 months ago by JDtreble Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I can't do it without you guys, though. You know, if we just believe hard enough, it'll open! We'll use the power...of FRIENDSHIP. *sparkles and dancing kittens everywhere*
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We did it! See what happens when you believe in yourselves, kids? :D
    Posted 17 months ago by Arii Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OMG R WE OPEN YIT.
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Laurali, from what I remember about the threads I've seen is that people were taking it personally when they weren't being notified of the game being opened BUT OTHERS WERE. Meaning, some people were being given an advantage, which is unfair, and I have to agree with them in that if some players are given notice that the game has opened, from staff/devs or otherwise, everyone else is jsut as entitled to know that same information because otherwise we're creating a separation of groups, and thus building an oppressor/oppressed relationship.

    EDIT: If anyone thinks I sound like Gloria Allred, that's because I consider myself to be a junior version of her, lmao. And I would take it as a compliment. :D
    Posted 17 months ago by Cerulean Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Good post, Laurali. I can hardly stand to be in the forums between tests thanks to the "OPEN NAO!!" threads and the random, post-whatever-comes-into-your-mind threads. "Entitlement" seems like the best way to describe it. Give the devs a break, people! They're busy working their magic. Awesomeness doesn't happen overnight (or over...week?).

    And I also kind of miss not knowing when the test will be open until I finally got the tweet from @isglitchopen.
    Posted 17 months ago by Herp Derp Subscriber! | Permalink