Beta spamming

[Tankbuster]

I'm a big fan of they way BI deploy beta patches. I have to be, I was one of the proponents of it!

But I'm less keen on getting 3 betas in 2 days. This happened a couple of weeks ago and we've had two today and one yesterday.

I appreciate that if a game breaking bug is found in a release beta, you are well advised to push another one with a fix out the door quickly, but this does make issues for some of us.

My GSP, for example has to manually install betas and they get a bit pissed off when they get 3 emails from me in 2 days asking for an updated install. The large download sizes might be an issue for some users on limited data quotas - I remember some South African users saying they had to ration their downloads for this reason.

I do participate in as many of the betas as possible. It's important for BI and us that these things are tested fully by as many people as possible, but if it becomes a hassle for my GSP, they may not install them and that leaves me out of the beta loop.

So, guys, please can you not spam us with betas. You can have too much of a good thing!

[Beagle]

You are in no way forced to install any beta at all, so what is this thread about?

[Tankbuster]

I'll read your post if you read mine.

[Beagle]

Well tanksbuster, but you have to admitt that your problem is a rather personal and somewhat selfmade one. The broad majority seems to have no troubles with 3-5 betas per week...Well sometimes we even miss one or two.

[whisper]

He did read.
If the last 2 are too much for you, you are absolutely not forced to push them to your server, unless you want their new features RIGHT NOW!
I don't see the problem?
The last 2 are too close from the one before? Wait for the next one to ask your GSP. What forces you to keep the server up to date?

[seelix]

Better more than less betas.

[Murmur]

Personally I like seeing all these betas, most companies don't even do anything like this. You get like 3 big patches a year, if that. With this, we actually see progress all along, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[CarlGustaffa]

I don't know. It takes me 2-3 minutes to download and install with rollback possibility for own machine and remote server. Not much of a hazzle. And I'll take beta spam over other spam any day of the week thank you very much

[TRexian]

"If beta spamming is wrong, I don't wanna be right...."

Luther "Viking" Ingram

[Tankbuster]

It's the hassle for my game service provider that is potentially the problem.

I know I'm not forced to install them, but I want to participate in the betas because I know it helps the overall community by testing and bug reporting. I want to do my bit.

I was one of those saying that we needed BI to be more open in their development and public betas was one of the things they started to do. I still think it's the right thing to do.

I do however, appear to be in the tiny minority when I say that 3 betas in 2 days is too much. That's fine. I'm married. I'm used to being wrong.