Selection question... issue experienced.

[Pilloch]

Experienced an issue with a beta signup and wondering what method of selection is used, and more specifically, after a round of selection, are the accounts that were bypassed that round disregarded completely if their details did not meet minimum criteria? I'll explain in a bit more detail. Just wondering if anyone else subscribing to the Horizon's beta has experienced a similar issue:

I'd applied quite some time ago and remember distinctly pausing at the computer speed and memory fields which only seem to indicate "mhz" and "mb". I wondered, in what I suppose is true tester form, whether entering "1.73 Ghz", or "1 Gig", with those field labels would be problematic or if I should convert the said values. I've come across this many times, being a developer myself, and know that scalability is often overlooked during the creation of data collection forms. Not siding with error, I entered in the aforementioned values, registered, and double-checked those fields to make sure they saved properly. They did and I've since slept at night thinking my application was in the queue and the rest was a waiting game.

Well after many folks that I know had been accepted into the beta, -quite a few who applied a considerable time after me, I wondered if it was my own dumb luck preventing my selection or if something was wrong. Heading back to check my application I noticed that those fields that saved properly before, now had values converted both to integers ("1"). I had 1mb of memory and a 1mhz processor! No wonder I'd been "overlooked"! I've other friends who have experienced various degrees of data being converted or updated under different situations but caught it much earlier on.

Well, I've since updated to converted equivalent values and I'm just wondering about the selection process and whether or not I've missed my chance completely or if I can still consider "pending" to mean that I am a candidate in subsequent rounds of selection.

Any info or insight on the above would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Grundir]

hmm I thought they had the processor speed in mHz - I put 1400 there.
I better go back and check.

[Pilloch]

They did specify "Mhz". I wondered if it was a bit of a legacy field and whether I should specify "Ghz", having a faster processor than a gig, or convert to a full "Mhz" value. I've since done so. The real question I suppose was involving the datatype possibly being converted and more importantly, if I am now excluded from subsequent rounds having had such paltry numbers in there for a while. I'll wait and see I guess. I've been in a few betas to date and not many of those have gone smoothly during sign-up even when I do follow instructions to a "t". Although this system of having a central location and gaining beta points is certainly one of the best intentions I've come across. The implementation could use some improvement, but I gather that'll be the case as time goes by.

[Grundir]

You sound as keen to get into the horizons beta as I am.
I'm in Australia tho so I think I might be out of luck but I haven't had that confirmed yet.
I have seen a lot of posts on various boards from people who really shouldn't be in the beta.
Some didn't even bother playing for more than a few hours while others were obviously not really going to help test the game at all.
Hopefully a lot of others will be hard at work testing it so that it can be as free from bugs as possible on release.

[Rikkir]

I have had the same problem. I signed up at the initial stage on the horizons site before Atari came in. I got the notice I was in the beta program pending acceptance so I sat and waited. Then one day a friend of mine said he got a notice and was accepted to the beta. Congrats (hidden jelousy) but figured my wait might be comming to a end soon. Then another friend came in to work and said he got in. Grats! (even more jelousy) figuring I must be soon, I waited again. One day we were talking about the game and one of them asked me if I had up dated my profile with Atari. Knowing I had played a few more games since I signed up with Horizons, I thought I would add those in as well. To my supprise I found out that I was a 30 year old women with an empty tower for a computer. Gasp!?! Seeing that I am a 34 male with a bit more of a computer then the stated female, I made the corrections and now here I am trolling the boards in hopes that there is light at the end of the tunnel once again.

Rikkir
The Lonely

[Pilloch]

Rikkir, I just nearly fell off my seat.

Half of that reaction came at the expense of your story and the humor therein, while the other half in equal quarters was both solace and sorrow. While I feel your pain and wish you didn't experience what you did, I am elated to have a teammate.

Welcome to the family, my new friend!

No, but seriously. I do feel a bit better knowing.

They'll iron it out, I'm sure. Even now the system seems to be working better already, for what its worth. And it worked with quite a few folks. Lets share Grundir's sentiment below and hope they're all testing to the best of their ability.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Much appreciated, and good luck,
Pilloch