Arma 3 Community Alpha - Announcement!

[kremator 1065]

I have my money ready for P&C testing of arma3 :)

[sethos 2]

A completely open testing model will be hell in a handbasket. The entire Day Z fanbase suddenly knows about this game, they'd test it out and you would hear nothing but "OMG broken, oh it's so janky, where is Day Z 2" bla bla.

P&C would be my preferred method.

[slatts 1978]

I have a dilemma, spend my money on beer...or on the Alpha (if we have to)...

x-ulkfvpQtc

[antoineflemming 14]

A completely open testing model will be hell in a handbasket. The entire Day Z fanbase suddenly knows about this game, they'd test it out and you would hear nothing but "OMG broken, oh it's so janky, where is Day Z 2" bla bla.

P&C would be my preferred method.

Well, very much seems like it's open, and I have no problem with that. And, you know what, what's the big deal about those people complaining about it being broken? Will that somehow prevent BIS from releasing ArmA3? NO. Let them complain, if they will even test it.

[batto 17]

A completely open testing model will be hell in a handbasket. The entire Day Z fanbase suddenly knows about this game, they'd test it out and you would hear nothing but "OMG broken, oh it's so janky, where is Day Z 2" bla bla.

Permanent transparent overlay with "ALPHA VERSION - EXPECT BUGS" text in the upper center of the screen should do the job.

[sethos 2]

Well, very much seems like it's open, and I have no problem with that. And, you know what, what's the big deal about those people complaining about it being broken? Will that somehow prevent BIS from releasing ArmA3? NO. Let them complain, if they will even test it.

It's called bad publicity. And no, the "any publicity is good publicity" moniker don't work for a monetary controlled business venture. Seriously, have you people worked in any sort of business position? You can add as many overlays and notices you want and it'll have minimal effect. Even Battlefield 3 'Beta' was a huge PR blunder terms of what they showed off was completely contradictory to the game's true essence - Large scale, open combat which Operation Metro was the complete opposite of. Luckily heavy PR, a strong brand and showing the opposite helped them out. We keep hearing how Bohemia want to reach a wider audience, because right now the entire franchise is fairly niche at its core. Even was a study some months ago how demos and betas had a huge negative impact on how the public perceived the games whilst trailers was the most positive.

ArmA 2 is infamous for all its perceived jank and problems, releasing a PUBLIC alpha of its sequel, bound to get a ton of attention after a huge influx of interest from the Day Z mod is a PR disaster as the same problems, jank and performance issues will rear its ugly head - No matter how many Alpha stickers and notices you slap on there, it will get received negatively in the groups they wish to attract. And no, 'let them complain' is just stupid, this isn't playground rules of "I don't care, can't hear you lalala" BIS are actually running a business here and they need all the PR traction they can get.

So unless they want yet another Armed Assault, ArmA 2 situation they need to keep the Alpha locked down behind selective testing, P&C or any sort of mechanism that will only entice people who are familiar with the games history and can handle those kind of problems. It's not a demo, it's not meant to persuade people who are unsure about the game to buy it, it's meant to be an actual test to iron out problems and it does NOT make sense to release that kind of alpha for a game know for those problems, to a huge Day Z enticed audience.

And no, don't give the general public too much credit on how they read into alpha, betas and tests in general.

[maruk 80]

A completely open testing model will be hell in a handbasket. The entire Day Z fanbase suddenly knows about this game, they'd test it out and you would hear nothing but "OMG broken, oh it's so janky, where is Day Z 2" bla bla.

P&C would be my preferred method.

We hope to be able to come up with smart combination of free and closed P&C Alpha of Arma 3.

[Kakeshoma 10]

(Very bad google translation) About the contents of this Buchta said: "The community Alpha will include infantry battles and a couple of new features. We plan to extend it by a few upgrades of course, because we are interested in feedback from the players. "

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/arma-3/news/arma_3,46950,2568644.html

[maddogx 13]

We hope to be able to come up with smart combination of free and closed P&C Alpha of Arma 3.

Now I'm really interested to see what a smart combination of, essentially, "free + closed + paid" will be. :D

EDIT: Although I guess you meant you want to offer one free alpha and one closed+paid version. The wording was somewhat misleading. ;)

Also, I'm now even more confused than before...

[pvtdancer 5]

I bet the open Alpha will be smaller and more focused and the P&C will have either more or you will have more pull when you say "HEY! this is broken!" mind you I'm just guessing though personally I wouldn't be very excited to be paying to test someones product when I'm helping them by reporting bugs. mind you if there was a coupon or something similar to get the price you paid off of the game at a later time I would be OK with that.

But in my mind its like your buddy is moving across town and he says to you "HEY BUDDY! pay me 20 mucks and I'll let you move my crap from my old place to this new one!" just how it feels to me but I do understand the point of it being more helpful people who love the game would pay and would be way more constructive. I was in the BF3 alpha and beta and it was a nightmare I had to type out and explain what an alpha\beta was more times than anyone should have too the stupidity of the masses should never be underestimated.

[sethos 2]

mind you if there was a coupon or something similar to get the price you paid off of the game at a later time I would be OK with that.

No need for a coupon, P&C you get the actual game as well. Look at the Carrier Command P&C:

Become a P&C Supporter by providing ultimate development assistance; receive beta-access, a digital copy of the full-final game from Store.bistudio.com and Steam, plus the Gaea Universe soundtrack!

I'm sure it would be exactly the same with an ArmA III P&C

And you are right about the nightmare concerning explaining Beta / Alpha to the 'common man' and the same will happen here. The casual fanbase will judge it like a retail product no matter what sticker you slap on it.

[hellfire257 3]

BF3 alpha...bad times...very bad times...

Although, that wasn't much of an alpha in terms of giving bug reports because there was no decent way to do so (a la Redmine).

Thanks for the info, Maruk!

[pvtdancer 5]

Thanks for the info Sethos that calms me a bit ;)

@Hellfire: I thought they did a pretty good job just hop on the forums and post, plus they had the support button to the right of the page. The worst part was trying not to get over shadowed by the flamers and people who didn't get what an alpha\beta was and would be like THIS GAME IS CRAP RAWR RAWR RAWR DON"T BY THIS PIECE OF SH** IM CANCELING MY PRE-ORDER!!!

it was aweful

[naizarak 4]

I don't want to go off-topic, but I think the BF3 alpha was better than final release. Either way the game was a POS at all 3 stages - a great franchise commercialized and killed. Hopefully that never happens to Arma.

[REALIN 10]

Very cool, can't wait. :)

[SpunkMonkey 1]

No need for a coupon, P&C you get the actual game as well. Look at the Carrier Command P&C:

I'm sure it would be exactly the same with an ArmA III P&C

And you are right about the nightmare concerning explaining Beta / Alpha to the 'common man' and the same will happen here. The casual fanbase will judge it like a retail product no matter what sticker you slap on it.

What abut if all the player models are replaced with circus clowns? That might get the point across.

[james2464 177]

Let us pre-order Arma 3 now! imagine the $$$ :)

[OverpaidUnderdog 1]

No one knows. As far as everyone is concerned it will be a PUBLIC ALPHA, means everyone will have access until BI says otherwise.

Awesome to know :)

Thanks for a prompt and helpful response.

[SpunkMonkey 1]

All I can say is that with the latest round of BS from EA/Dice (the "premium" package for BF3), I can't wait to try ARMA III. EA's given me the green weenie too many times, and I look forward to supporting a company that appears to actually respect its player base.

[Amuro 10]

Let us pre-order Arma 3 now! imagine the $$$ :)

Yeah, my money is ready. Now just want BI to have it, LOL.

[Interceptor 1]

Hello!

I'm really new to this forum and also arma 3 so I've got a question about to get in the alpha:

What do you have to do to help BI during alpha stage? (In other words how to get in alpha testing?)

[Smurf 12]

Hi, welcome.

Nobody knows yet since the Alpha may begin only in August. Probably some weeks after E3 we'll have more details on that.

[mr burns 132]

It´ll probably be to have about 1337 posts :D

[Interceptor 1]

It´ll probably be to have about 1337 posts :D

Hahahaha, You encourage me to leave this forum ;)

[gossamersolid 155]

Hahahaha, You encourage me to leave this forum ;)

You encourage me facepalm...

If we knew when the alpha date was, it'd be in the first post...