Closed Beta FAQ for Path of Exile: The Awakening

Hm I disagree with this comment "If the goal is growing the player base, the feedback of new players is infinitely more valuable than experienced players."

I'm a new player. My feedback is terrible. I barely know wtf is going on. I know spell echo is good and still sells expensive on the 1monthHC. I know the game is fun as hell, and my introduction into the game via the 1month leagues has been AMAZING. That's what I know lol.

My feedback in the beta would be absolutely TERRIBLE and would not be "infinitely" more valuable than experienced players. I wouldn't know what to comment on. "Oh this area looks cool". I wouldn't know how or what to exploit. I don't even know the uniques, I don't know how things interact. I know "hey these keywords match! Let's put them together!". And I know how to read forums to get ideas/outright just take builds (Thank you Willy, your Arc build/equipment has helped me in shaping my character now. Hopefully I don't RIP at 79 again due to answering a trade ingame <.<)

I think the whole streamer thing has been blown out of proportion...How many "streamers" will get in? To be perfectly honest, this game does not have a lot of "huge" streamers, and even the "big" ones for PoE are miniscule compared to bigger games (just being honest).

I watch like...5 streamers? Pohx, Zeno, RichJ, Cha-Siu-Bao, Krippi. In total there's like....10-15 maybe 20ish streamers who have carry some kind of sizeable (for POE) fanbase? 20 is being SUPER generous too, and even 15 would be generous from what I've seen. It's not a big enough base to really make a big deal out of in terms of number of people getting into the beta. It's hugely blown out of proportion.

I didn't even sign up for the closed beta. I know I'm not a good person to go in and test. I don't just want to play the content like a lot of people do. I know it's a beta. I know it's meant to make sure stuff works right.

Anyways I think most people understand why there's a beta. Makes sense, but GGG obviously did not handle the build up towards it well considering most people thought GGG was just going to release the date of release for the expansion. WHICH in itself is NOT even GGG's fault. It's people's thoughts for coming up with all kinds of stuff in their heads.

So if streamers get in, don't be butthurt, there aren't really that many of them compared to the amount of people that will be in the beta. PLUS trust me. You would rather someone like Nugi be in the beta "stealing" someone's spot than some newbie like me in the beta doing absolutely nothing productive laughing that I took someone's beta spot Kappa.

Aiiiii,

My friends and I have 'LAN' party days scheduled to all gather in person and have fun... sure hope we all get in the beta. *doh*

~R

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trackcatbat wrote:

Hm I disagree with this comment "If the goal is growing the player base, the feedback of new players is infinitely more valuable than experienced players."

I'm a new player. My feedback is terrible. I barely know wtf is going on. I know spell echo is good and still sells expensive on the 1monthHC. I know the game is fun as hell, and my introduction into the game via the 1month leagues has been AMAZING. That's what I know lol.

My feedback in the beta would be absolutely TERRIBLE and would not be "infinitely" more valuable than experienced players. I wouldn't know what to comment on. "Oh this area looks cool". I wouldn't know how or what to exploit. I don't even know the uniques, I don't know how things interact. I know "hey these keywords match! Let's put them together!". And I know how to read forums to get ideas/outright just take builds (Thank you Willy, your Arc build/equipment has helped me in shaping my character now. Hopefully I don't RIP at 79 again due to answering a trade ingame <.<)

Then, quite frankly, you're a terrible tester regardless of experience.

Why is echo good as hell? How did you find that out?

What makes the game fun as hell? What about the 1 month leagues is so amazing?

Why does that area look cool? Why don't you know the uniques? Why don't you know how things interact? How has the experience of keywords helped you learn the game?

What parts of the forums were the best? The worst?

How did the UI affect your gaming experience? How was character generation? What was it like tryig to look at the passive tree for the first time?

What was it like opening the game on the Twilight Strand? How was Lioneye's Watch the first time you went in? What do you think of the quest interface?

I could go on and on and on with questions that new players can provide much, much better feedback on than I can, especially as it relates to being a new player in 2015 vs. when I started, and things were very, very different, in 2012.

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Archwizard wrote:

You know what kills me about you? Your profile says "Bronze Supporter". This means you were in the original Closed Beta. It worked ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. Some folks got lucky, others paid to get in (this is the different part, maybe)

And there are at least 3 very good reasons why that part is different this time:

1. You could make at least some argument that paying to get into the beta would give an advantage and thus make it p2w. I don't agree with this argument, but it's not entirely unreasonable. Back then, they needed the money to get the game finished badly enough that they did it anyway. Now they have enough funding that this is probably far less of an issue.

2. Back then, there were far fewer people who would be willing to buy in and less players overall. I'm sure they know if they offered keys for $10 or even $100 now, they'd get far more people buying them than what they want to have in the beta, at least to start off with.

3. The original CB ran for MUCH longer than this one will. And I'm almost certain the supporter packs with guaranteed access didn't come along until later on in the process. Again, the whole point of a CLOSED beta is they want to start small and gradually build up from there. They had plenty of time to do this before and THEN offer the packs. That won't be as much of an option with this beta being only a few weeks.

I'm sorry, were you expecting special cookies for being a supporter? I don't know about you, but I know that every single time I gave GGG money, I got a nice sum of GGGold in exchange. And, at least 4 times, I got shiny titles, mtxes, frames, and other stuff as well! GGG's obligation to reward me for my support ended right then and there.

As to what the Alpha folks were doing: whatever GGG allowed them to do. Alpha (to my understanding) was shut down as a test realm for a long, long time. It's not like those guys could have been testing and simply weren't. But now, GGG is giving them a chance to test again and you've seen how many folks have posted appreciating the chance to get back in to testing things out.

So let the entitlement go and enjoy the game you've supported, since I'm assuming that support was given because you enjoy it. I know mine was.

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Hodari wrote:

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Archwizard wrote:

You know what kills me about you? Your profile says "Bronze Supporter". This means you were in the original Closed Beta. It worked ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. Some folks got lucky, others paid to get in (this is the different part, maybe)

And there are at least 3 very good reasons why that part is different this time:

1. You could make at least some argument that paying to get into the beta would give an advantage and thus make it p2w. I don't agree with this argument, but it's not entirely unreasonable. Back then, they needed the money to get the game finished badly enough that they did it anyway. Now they have enough funding that this is probably far less of an issue.

2. Back then, there were far fewer people who would be willing to buy in and less players overall. I'm sure they know if they offered keys for $10 or even $100 now, they'd get far more people buying them than what they want to have in the beta, at least to start off with.

3. The original CB ran for MUCH longer than this one will. And I'm almost certain the supporter packs with guaranteed access didn't come along until later on in the process. Again, the whole point of a CLOSED beta is they want to start small and gradually build up from there. They had plenty of time to do this before and THEN offer the packs. That won't be as much of an option with this beta being only a few weeks.

1. You could, but you'd be wrong. An untenable argument is an invalid one. The money thing is almost certainly accurate, but really irrelevant here.

2. Almost assuredly true, and this is why I had the equivocating word almost in there. I wasn't around early enough, but it's my understanding that being able to buy into the original CB came along after the CB had started.

3. Indeed it will, which makes this butthurt even stupider. And I wrote that that's the whole point of a Beta back on 25 ;p. If people can't handle waiting for a product that's been in dev for 3+ years to be tested... well shame on them.


And a quick thought on this "how GGG handled it" stuff.

If they had reached out, privately, to folks to have a CB and then after it was done announced the release of Awakening, as soon as people found out about the private CB the forums would explode way, way worse than they have right now.

So public announcement pisses people off, private handling pisses people off.

As with many things, when dealing with this many people it is literally impossible to make everyone happy. And it's okay to be unhappy, or to think GGG could have done better. What's not okay is acting like a crybaby, entitled brat when you feel that way (this isn't directed at you Horari, just a general observation that prompted many of my posts in his thread).

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Archwizard wrote:

Spoiler

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WATCH_ME_QWER wrote:

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Knightmare101 wrote:

THIS!

I'm sorry, but wtf were "alpha members" doing all this time...??? Let me guess, playing other games....? What's the point of these testers anyways, to get instant access to betas?

This dude is right, whatever happened to hyping the release of expansions (let alone an act) and letting the players die in ahhh of learning new content on the fly instead of from watching streamers play the content weeks in advance before them...?

I thought betas were for games that weren't released yet...? Why do we have to follow in D3's path with the PTR BS?

+1 also couple of my friends start to think what is the point for been a long term supporter which still active in the game?

I'm sorry, were you expecting special cookies for being a supporter? I don't know about you, but I know that every single time I gave GGG money, I got a nice sum of GGGold in exchange. And, at least 4 times, I got shiny titles, mtxes, frames, and other stuff as well! GGG's obligation to reward me for my support ended right then and there.

As to what the Alpha folks were doing: whatever GGG allowed them to do. Alpha (to my understanding) was shut down as a test realm for a long, long time. It's not like those guys could have been testing and simply weren't. But now, GGG is giving them a chance to test again and you've seen how many folks have posted appreciating the chance to get back in to testing things out.

So let the entitlement go and enjoy the game you've supported, since I'm assuming that support was given because you enjoy it. I know mine was.

Im totally agree with you and I don't care too much if I get in or not. However, I was trying to say is there are people think that way. Also, I don't think asking those people who paid thousands and been around for years to watch streamers play the new content first is reasonable.

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Knightmare101 wrote:

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Pathological wrote:

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DarkHeart69 wrote:

Ziggy, Zeno, and Mathil are the most played streamer, have the most experience with variations of builds, and probably have the million views. You should let them in off of this fact alone to help balance those passive gems. There feedback is worth more than your average player. Some people say it is unfair, but they have the same goal of growing the player base that GGG has and that would be the purpose of this tree change.

If the goal is growing the player base, the feedback of new players is infinitely more valuable than experienced players.

Letting streamers in on the strength of being streamers is utterly ludicrous, and continues to reaffirm my ever-growing disgust in "betas" that aren't betas. As soon as you let people into a beta on the strength of a marketing ploy, whether for free advertising via popular streamers or through increasing cross-promotion through beta-key giveaways, the beta is no longer a beta, but a soft release. Let's stop calling it what it's not and call it what it is; a marketing release.

Poe used to be the exception to the rule with the new beta paradigm; upcoming builds were very hushed and the releases were hype as hell. A beta completely ruins that; the expansion will be known before it's out, the same as every other major game in the modern era.

THIS!

I'm sorry, but wtf were "alpha members" doing all this time...??? Let me guess, playing other games....? What's the point of these testers anyways, to get instant access to betas?

This dude is right, whatever happened to hyping the release of expansions (let alone an act) and letting the players die in ahhh of learning new content on the fly instead of from watching streamers play the content weeks in advance before them...?

I thought betas were for games that weren't released yet...? Why do we have to follow in D3's path with the PTR BS?

+1

What the hell is this crap!! Do I have now to check all events on PoE, going to other news sites and beg for beta keys!? Checking every 5 min if I'm the lucky one?

You guys really there much more suitable ways to let players in, perhaps just selecting the onces with the highest activity first which would be more than fair.

Random selection which implies already to be used by cracker and multiple account creators.


Really the most fucked up system to release a new content I've ever seen. Really I would be totally okay with not playing this game 2 months longer but seeing others playing it while I can't.


I can see Act 5 release already and the staff saying "The way we released A4 was a huge mistake..."

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Gary_GGG wrote:

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KhelThuzad wrote:

I really like GGG insisting that anybody will get a chance to enter. But there MUST be some kind of pack that guarantees Beta entry. Else bots will get the beta codes with their thousands of alts and will sell them as was the case for early beta. Keys were sold for less that $5.

Can I sign up with multiple accounts to increase my chances of getting in?

No. Additional accounts will not be eligible. People trying to game the system will be removed. It's fine for multiple people in the same household to sign up as long as they are different people and have only one account each.

How do I unsign up my alt account? I signed it up before i knew it was against the rules.

Oh holy fucking shit balls I missed this thread!

Bollocks.