http://www.sidequesting.com/2013/01/ea-reserves-the-right-to-ban-simcity-testers-from-all-ea-products-for-not-reporting-bugs/

Wow.

I assume these are the typical "volunteer" beta testers....game fans who just can't wait to get their hands on the new products.  So not only are they expected to work for free....but are threatened with a ban if they fail in their "job". 

What happened to the days when game companies actually liked their fans?

Originally Posted By ArizonaTank (21 JAN 2013 7:22am)

I assume these are the typical "volunteer" beta testers....game fans who just can't wait to get their hands on the new products.  So not only are they expected to work for free....but are threatened with a ban if they fail in their "job". 

 

What happened to the days when game companies actually liked their fans?

No one's gonna get banned for a mistake.  They just want to be sure that folks who sign up to beta test actually take their jobs seriously instead of just treating the positon as a chance to play a game early.

One part of "liking" their fans is providing a bug-free game on release.  To do that, beta testers have to take their job seriously.

This makes me want to sign up.

Originally Posted By Queeg (21 JAN 2013 8:34am)

Originally Posted By ArizonaTank (21 JAN 2013 7:22am)

I assume these are the typical "volunteer" beta testers....game fans who just can't wait to get their hands on the new products.  So not only are they expected to work for free....but are threatened with a ban if they fail in their "job". 

 

What happened to the days when game companies actually liked their fans?

 

No one's gonna get banned for a mistake.  They just want to be sure that folks who sign up to beta test actually take their jobs seriously instead of just treating the positon as a chance to play a game early.

 

One part of "liking" their fans is providing a bug-free game on release.  To do that, beta testers have to take their job seriously.

 

 

I agree with this. I have been a beta tester, for multiple products, and I took the responsibility seriously. Not just for bugs, but for game balancing as well.

I gotta ask the "dumb question" here..so here goes,

but what if you don't notice bugs in your game? I mean CTDs is obvious, BSODs, odd graphic artifacts..but game play? I did beta tests for Unity of Command and I was trying to learn the game in order to test it, and what was embarrassing when I visited the forums and offered some feedback but I didn't have the savvy as others did.

Originally Posted By Reich36 (21 JAN 2013 9:49am)

I gotta ask the "dumb question" here..so here goes,

 

but what if you don't notice bugs in your game? I mean CTDs is obvious, BSODs, odd graphic artifacts..but game play? I did beta tests for Unity of Command and I was trying to learn the game in order to test it, and what was embarrassing when I visited the forums and offered some feedback but I didn't have the savvy as others did.

 

 

Plain and simple you get BANNED from ALL EA games past present and future. So, one just has to ask the question "do I really want to take that chance just to be able to play the game early?"

I'm in agreement with this as well because all too often games come out buggy and crappy as hell because the MAJORITY of beta testers didn't do their job and just wanted to "play" the game with no care in the world for helping to "fix" it. I personally think there should be beta testing "tests" you have to pass before you can beta test. Maybe 10 small programs with bugs in them and you have to find them. Created randomly so no jerk can post the answers on a website. How I hate information websites on games and how to exploit them and where everything is in them....MMO sites especially.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Yikes!

Although I can see the reasoning in perhaps banning them from a certain game, but all their games is a WAY out of proportion.

And in this case, I think it should apply to in-house beta testers, as that's their job, sometimes they're paid for it! If you're doing mass beta tests where customers are involved potentially, this can be a disaster.

Wasn't there something a few years ago about EA banning forum members and in turn, they're banned from accessing their games?

Originally Posted By Sigma One (21 JAN 2013 10:46am)

Yikes!

 

Although I can see the reasoning in perhaps banning them from a certain game, but all their games is a WAY out of proportion.

 

And in this case, I think it should apply to in-house beta testers, as that's their job, sometimes they're paid for it! If you're doing mass beta tests where customers are involved potentially, this can be a disaster.

 

Wasn't there something a few years ago about EA banning forum members and in turn, they're banned from accessing their games?

Yes there was with Battlefield3, I think. It was really ugly.

Well I already hate EA and resent having to buy their products even

when my daughter wants them (the only time).  I have many games and I do not need

to support EA.  If there ever was an excuse for piracy EA and Ubisoft

provide it....since I am a criminal before the fact, why not just steal it?

Since I will not steal it I won't buy it either.

Originally Posted By JaguarUSF (21 JAN 2013 6:47am)

http://www.sidequesting.com/2013/01/ea-reserves-the-right-to-ban-simcity-testers-from-all-ea-products-for-not-reporting-bugs/

Utterly ridiculous. If they want to do that then they should pay them - at least they have some cause or right to do what they say then - otherwise they takes their chances with volunteers.

Originally Posted By Sigma One (21 JAN 2013 10:46am)

 

 

Wasn't there something a few years ago about EA banning forum members and in turn, they're banned from accessing their games?

It happened with some EA-Bioware forum people.

This kinda crap doesn't make us appreciate EA any more than we already do.

What a great marketing tool to get more customer loyalty. Geez

The people that make the decisions at EA must be insane.

EA has been doing this stuff for awhile, banning people from all of the games they bought for some infraction or other. It has always looked really, really bad. Yet, they seem to be expanding the idiocy even further by now banning a non-action.

BETA testers are no substitute for in-house testers. BETA testers are not paid and often must deal with games that are riddled with bugs and often unplayable. To somehow punish these unpaid people with real monetary punishment, if for example you don't report enough bugs or perhaps a certain bug, that borders on insane. So what if a portion of the test population are dead weight, its a part of the business- AND BTW THEY ARE FREE TESTERS.

At the same time, it doesn't surprise me. The suits at EA think they are too big and successful to fail. That is the only way I can even imagine why they would even threaten to lock people out of the products for forum infractions or not reporting bugs. There are people in high places in EA who simply don't respect their customers and take them for granted.

Which is why I simply don't buy anything from them. Thats not the only reason, though. The last product I purchased from EA was through their Origins service. I purchased an older game for $10 which didn't install properly. After some research I found out that it didn't install properly for a vast majority of OS configurations due to some outdated code, which would likely be easy to fix. Anyway, they said it was a known issue and was being "worked on". The game was on a list of dozens of games experiencing the same problem. That post was like a year old. The thing is, they were still selling the products- knowing damn well they didn't work and they likely have no intention of making them work. To cap it all off- they won't refund you for a game that doesn't work for your system.

That is a company that thinks its untouchable. EA will come crashing down someday and it will be a good day in my book.

Edit- EA reminds me of the people at the DMV. They know their jobs are safe so they don't give a crap about how they treat people. Its like the people at the DMW know that they are slow and often rude, and it kinda gives them a kick because they are untouchable.

At EA, you have that same type of unresponsive and tone deaf monster running around like you have at the DMV. Some people might be all-in with EA purchases that might run into the hundreds of dollars. As if you were a potential trouble maker, rather than a valued customer, they hold these intrusive powers over over your head, in an effort to manipulate and control any behaviour they might not approve of, regardless if that behaviour has anything to do with the product you purchased from them.

The simple solution is to not buy anything from them. I have already signed up for that.

Ivory Towers comes to mind. 

Publishers of PC games are living on numbered days.

Crowdfunding will make them obsolete and they will go the way of the T.Rex.

Stauffenberg I actually think crowd funding may be a fad that may continue but I doubt its a major threat.

Originally Posted By destraex (22 JAN 2013 12:26am)

Ivory Towers comes to mind. 

Drown a cold, starve a fever comes to mind here.

Well all I can say to EA is good luck finding Beta Testers.

All's well that ends well:  http://www.sidequesting.com/2013/01/ea-responds-to-simcity-beta-controversy/

The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

Originally Posted By Swatter (22 JAN 2013 10:13pm)

The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

Yeah ... or they meant it but decided not to say they had reversed their decision. Given the sociopaths that run most corporations I will go with that one.

Challenge everything....but us.