I don't want to be in your Beta anymore

I don’t want to beta games anymore. To me Beta testing games has always been about more than just getting a game early. I honestly took pride in what I was doing and tried to test the game rather than simply play it.

I’ve beta tested more games than I can count anymore. I was in Diablo 2 closed beta and got my name in the credits to nearly every MMO in the past 5 years and quite a few before that. The problem with a Beta test is you use up the Honeymoon game phase before the game is ever released. Some beta’s can last weeks to months and every day a beta goes on is potentially one less day I would play the game down the road. It all adds up to burn out.

I have opted out of all Beta’s since Warhammer Online, I just haven’t had the heart to play one since then. Sure I bought Mortal Online early and logged in a hand full of times during the 2nd phase of beta testing, but nothing longer than a few minutes. What I’ve come to realize since Warhammer is I like games more when I don’t beta test them. I like being ignorant of games.

I know it sounds weird and it is the opposite mentality of most gamers. However it makes the entire game more interesting to me. I got into video games because of the stories in Role Playing Games, if someone had told me the end of those games I probably wouldn’t have played much longer. It didn’t use to be about being the best, it use to be about simply playing the game.

In the words of Cypher from The Matrix “Ignorance is bliss”. Not knowing the outcome of a game makes it that much more enjoyable.