MMO Blog

Beta tests are a big deal to everybody, whether it’s the developer who needs to test the server hardware and software issues, the publisher judging reaction to what they’ve put so much money into or the end user, excited to be amongst the first to play a game they’ve waited so long for. It would be impossible to say that it’s a bad thing to beta test a game, but over the last few years there has been a definite shift, probably watched over by PR and marketing people, towards the beta being an important way for everybody to get their first glimpse of what an MMO could be at launch and has become nothing more than a glorified publicity stunt, a demo and competition all rolled into one.

Over the past couple of months I’ve reviewed quite a few MMOs. Some of them were brilliant, some were passable (but not exactly original), a few were a bit boring (mainly the strategy MMOs) and at least one was so terrible that it pained me to put in the time and effort needed for the review. There’s always going to be a variety in the amount of titles out there and, let’s be honest, that’s not a bad thing. Even a terrible game can give birth to an idea that will be put to better use in other titles. For the most part though, even the least interesting games managed to work when I tried them.