How do people have the patience to play through game alphas/betas?

[thejunglegod]

I get absolutely turned off with a game if a find bugs in the final release. So how do people have the patience to actually play something that they know are going to be riddled with bugs? Isn't that a waste of time? And it's not as if they're paid for it.
So what is it that drives them?

 

[bystander36]

I think part of the reason bugs irritate a lot of people, is because they shouldn't exist in the final game. They feel like they were cheated by the developers for not finishing their game. When playing a game before it is finished, that irritation doesn't exist. While the bug may be annoying, it is expected, so it doesn't dig under their skin, and they know it should be fixed before the game is done.

It's also a chance to get your input on a game. You get a taste of what the game is going to be like, with a chance of giving your input to hope for changes you like.

I'm ok with bugs on prereleased games. I usually avoid them, because I hate it when things I've come to enjoy to be changed for the worse. If I waited for release, I wouldn't know what could have been.

 

[Craig234]

Here are reasons:

- A desire to see the game at all, even with problems. Think about it, all kinds of things have this - like bands who release studio recordings of early versions. For example, Alan Parsons has a song 'I, Robot' - and has released an early version, 'Naked Robot'. 'Behind the scenes' type productions also provide access to fans including flaws.

- Some might like to see the development process.

- Some might enjoy the process of finding bugs.

- Some might be supporters who like to help the game get better.

There's an element of early or 'insider' access also, sort of a backstage pass.

Finally, 'bloopers' are a pretty popular feature for products also. And it's a chance to 'be more part of the game', like watching a tv show made and getting to offer suggestions.

 

[sandorski]

Depends on the game. Been playing 7 Days to Die off and on for over a year now. There are not too many bugs, it's mostly not fully realized with Content with very few bugs. The bugs that do exist are rather minor, mostly dead bodies falling through terrain and the like, haven't had a Crash or anything like that.

 

[Craig234]

Humble Bundle has it for $35.99 also so 10% off that for the monthly customers.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Beta testing with 'final' releases has been going on for years. There's also a sizeable group who buy or, shudder, pre-order any new release by a major franchise. It's gotten so bad, they've driven me to the opposite end of the spectrum. I never buy a new game till it's been out a year and the bug fixes and dlc are all rolled up together.

 

[Majes]

The best reason to alpha, or beta test a game is to gain a competitive advantage on players who join up later. I had a huge headstart on people when I was able to beta test Warcraft 3's expansion pack. This carried me through about 3 years of play at a very high level. Before that I wasn't very good.

On the other hand I've had games go in a terrible direction and lose my support. Dungeon Defenders was my 2nd or 3rd favorite game of all time. I loved that if you worked hard as a solo player you could clear pretty much all the content with good tower placement and build choices. I bought into the Alpha for Dungeon Defenders 2 but they decided to make it a less tower focused game and progression was group required. I argued every day on the forums about it for weeks. Then I gave up and quit the game. I'm sure the people who wanted a group focus are super happy their input was listened to though. Sometimes if the company is genuinely still accepting input to their game you can help with the game design. That's another great reason to alpha/beta test.

 

[Red Storm]

The love of the game.

Or as stated above, to gain a competitive advantage by being able to test and learn how new stats/mechanics will work. This is more for multiplayer games.

 

[clok1966]

Did many alphas and Betas when they didn't charge but gave you the game free to test it. yep they used to "pay" you in the form of a free game for testing it. Bugs, eh I have tested maybe 100+ games and 95% where not frustrating. But you do learn to save when testing, and i had screen cap software running most of the time to record. real life is frustrating, a game, even when it crashes, etc is just a restart away. And as some said finding glitch's is kind of fun, you don't play the game to win, you play to do things out of the norm, you get to use those options nobody does. Can i get to that spot? You get to try weapons, items in weird spots , that table fork is actually killing stuff better then a sword, why? hey i can put on 7 pieces of Armour in one spot and it stacks AC! there are fun bugs too (you would be surprised).

No playing alphas is easy, PAYING to play them is hard, I have paid for to many Greenlight games that promise or mention features that never show up. I wont even mention kickstarter.

 

[pcslookout]

I played Left 4 Dead 1 beta for 200 + hours. I loved some of the bugs. Especially where hitting the car as a tank into the subway entrance blocked the survivors from getting into the safe room. That was epic!

 

[Stg-Flame]

I used to beta test games a lot when they were invite only and it was purely because I enjoyed finding bugs. Some of the best moments I had were when me and a few friends beta tested games (looking at you Natural Selection 2).

 

[shortylickens]

If its something genuinely interesting, I can put up with it.

The old tutorials for Space Engineers were actually really damn good. After a recent update they made a new set of tutorials that dont really do justice to all the cool mechanics. I think a new player would actually be kinda unimpressed with the game now.

Oh, and Subnautica is freakin awesome, it just needs more stuff to do.

 

[thejunglegod]

Thank you for all your comments. It makes a lot more sense to me now.
But I'll just stick to playing games after release. You guys keep up with the good work