Have you ever tested before?

This is a simple poll I am starting to see just how experienced our members are with beta testing at any level. So, vote up and let me see. And feel free to post any and all experiences/games you care to share with us.

i wish i could play it :/

I do too. And now, I am going to explain to you what a beta, and its various stages, is.

Alpha (Pre-CBT)- The first stage of testing. The game is run for a small amount of players. These players are usually company employees or friends and family. Alpha stage testing is used to find bugs, glitches, errors and other incomplete aspects of a game. In Alpha stage, the game is vastly incomplete and isn't very fun to play as. People are playing to find everything wrong with the game and report it to the developers in order to fix them in the future. All characters and player data are deleted after Alpha testing has completed.

Closed Beta Testing (CBT)- Closed beta testing is similar to Alpha testing. However, the game is more polished and has more content. Also, almost all the bugs and glitches from Alpha stage have been addressed. This stage of testing is open to a wider, yet exclusive, group of people. Closed beta testing is used to find new bugs, glitches, etc that may have arisen after Alpha testing and as a result of new code being introduced. In this stage, players are still not playing for fun. They are playing to test the game. Hence the T in CBT. All characters and player data are deleted after closed beta testing has completed.

Open Beta Testing (OBT)- Open beta testing is open to the general public to come on in and enjoy the game. Almost all prior bugs and glitches have been addressed and amended. However, the developer still asks that player report any and all bugs they come across. The primary focus of open beta testing is to stress test the servers to see what amount of population they can safely handle. The core game and content is usually complete in this stage of testing, so players will experience the entirety of the initial content. More often than not, players keep their characters and player data after open beta testing has completed.

Gold- The final and official release of a game. Almost every single bug, glitch, error and oversight has been completely fixed. The servers have been tested and the game has received the green light to launch. More often than not, player characters and data have been carried over from OBT to Gold release. Enjoy the game.

Finally, your post was completely off topic. Paradox, please go and read our rules.