How long does it take?

[amarino]

How long does it take to get on to a beta project? I signed up via the Horizon beta site when it first opened and still have not heard anything.

[xlovelessx]

I have no idea, Ive had the same problem.

Don't worry though, their procrastination is only depriving them of good beta testers like you and me, so in the end, it's their loss.


Ive been playing games since the ripe age of about 8 months old, ever since I could hold a controller in my hand. Ive beta tested lots of games before, and I tend to find things that most other testers dont. try http://www.betawatcher.com since youre having problems here, Ive been accepted to many other beta tests, and you should too. Just because one site has an idea that some people aren't good enough to test their products because "oh, no, Its Atari", doesn't mean anything about your abilities as a gamer, Im not saying that it's bothering you, but if it is, don't let it get to you.

[RobinsHood]

I also got the acceptance email over a month ago, but have not gotten the CD key email with instructions. It said not to panic, so I hold my breath every day. If I do not get a chance to Beta test Horizons I will just have to buy it when it goes gold.

RobinsHood

[xlovelessx]

Again, if they can't get their act together, then that's their fault, not your own.

[Spekao]

My status for participation on the Atari site has been pending since May 19, 2003...so don't feel so bad. I've not even gotten an acceptance letter from Horizons or anything else, other than the email from Atari with the login info so I can see that I am still pending everyday for 4 months.

I figure I somehow got lost in some vortex or something, slipped through the cracks.

[Kujaku]

Bah! I wanna play Horizons Damnit, Why wont they accept me yet?

[zimnick]

Send an email to betatestadmin@atari.com stating your problem and that you did, indeed receive an acceptance letter. They should be able to get you in.

[Xristal]

well if they don't turn the pending sign over to active I would assume they are just filled up atm, so you should brace u'r self with patience and hope for the best, it will probably be your turn soon. (( though I hope my turn comes before ))

[xlovelessx]

They need to change "Pending" to REJECTED if they have no intention of accepting someone any time in the future, instead of leaving people hanging, waiting, hoping that they'll get accepted.

[TyphoN]

Hello everyones, I do understand your anger because your application is still pending. Well I am like you all, my application is still pending. I've been waiting for this game for about 2 years now. I applied on www.istaria.com a long time ago to find out some months ago that I needed to apply here now. I, too, wants to test this game. I, too, can't wait to see the game.Atari choose beta testers because they want to test the game on different video card, OS, etc... And others are chosen because they already have tested other games from Atari and they gained points by telling bugs..There are ranks within the system of beta-testing. And I, like most of you didn't test any game from Atari yet so we do not have points. The points system is to split between the real beta-tester and the people that only want to be a beta-tester to play the game for free. There is not much thing we can do but wait till the pending change for 'Accepted' or something like that ^.^

Must be patient I guess..really patient...

[xlovelessx]

Atari's system of deciding who is a beta tester and who is not is completely unstructured and flat out wrong. Just because people havnt beta tested FOR ATARI before, doesnt say anything about their skills as a beta tester. Ive beta tested many many games that were not released by atari, so since they were made by other companies, does that mean that I have no experience as a beta tester? No. It does not. Atari really needs to take a look at the system they're using to decide who they're going to accept, because they're really letting some exerienced testers go by.

[Xristal]

Well theire system is so they know who they can use or not, and they will invite NEW one in when times comes and they will have a chance to prove themself worthy as beta testers aswell. and as Typhon states u have to be really patience

[xlovelessx]

Its fine with me, Im not upset about it, Ill just take my skills elsewhere, where they can be put to better use than here, where I cant even get approved for a Deer Hunter beta.


Waste of my time.

[Kujaku]

damn, i agree with xlove, this takes to long they shouldnt waste our time like this giving us false hope, ive beta tested a couple of games before, and i wanna do it again, but look someone has been waiting 2 freakin' years to play this game..........Really........ Atari should be more organized bout their beta testing......... Lol they were 1 of the first video game companies a while back, they should act like they have much MUCH more experience on these things, but who knows.............maybe they are testing us to see who doesnt bad mouth them, and who can wait over 2 years just to play a damned video game to help THEM out for just a couple of months.

I hope you people at Atari Read what I just said, it would do you some good =).

BTW I aint giving up on Atari Just yet.

Peace out..........

[xlovelessx]

First doesn't always mean best, or most experienced.

Consider diet sodas.


Look at Tab.
Now taste Tab.

Now look at Atari and Atari's Beta Test Qualification System.




.....

[Spekao]

Originally posted by TyphoN
Hello everyones, I do understand your anger because your application is still pending. Well I am like you all, my application is still pending. I've been waiting for this game for about 2 years now. I applied on www.istaria.com a long time ago to find out some months ago that I needed to apply here now. I, too, wants to test this game. I, too, can't wait to see the game.Atari choose beta testers because they want to test the game on different video card, OS, etc... And others are chosen because they already have tested other games from Atari and they gained points by telling bugs..There are ranks within the system of beta-testing. And I, like most of you didn't test any game from Atari yet so we do not have points. The points system is to split between the real beta-tester and the people that only want to be a beta-tester to play the game for free. There is not much thing we can do but wait till the pending change for 'Accepted' or something like that ^.^

Must be patient I guess..really patient...

I too signed up at the Horizons website, as soon as they'd opened it up to do so. It took until May 19, 2003 before I got any reply and that was the application acceptance email from Atari - since then it's been pending. I've beta tested pretty much every one of the big MMORPGs that are out there now except UO, EQ, and AO. I obviously have lots of experience in beta testing, so it must not be experience in this area that they are looking for...which kind of worries me about whether they are really trying to improve their product before release. I always end up buying the products I've beta tested and tend to play more often than not on the test servers, so I can continue to help them improve.

To me, this genre of gaming has the potential to be so much more than it currently is, and if I can help these companies to accomplish that, then I am happy. I just wish the system for here was a bit more streamlined, 4 months+ at pending is a bit excessive IMHO.

[TyphoN]

I am pretty sure that most of you are good testers. There is no point why I should not believe you. However many people beta- test only to play for free so the system they have chosen is one of the way to find out who really beta-test games. I am sure that they accept New members of Atari as beta-testers, like most of you and I^.^ And I am sure that they know that there are still people out there experienced in beta-testing like us. We had no luck so far I guess ^.^ But we should not abandon hope since there are people that have been accepted in the recent days. One day it might be our turn ^.^

[Spekao]

Oh, don't get me wrong..I'm not angry with anyone, just was wondering if I was somehow bugged or overlooked. Unfortunately since finding this forum and hearing about all the people who have just recently applied and been accepted a few days following, I am getting a bit disenchanted with this system. I know they have good intentions with it, but there does seem to be something lacking tremendously. Besides, how are they to get new people who like to test and help with this using a "point' system that unless you've already accumulated points under, the appearant chances of getting a chance to participate is seemingly slim to none. 4 months is an extremely long time to be "pending", and I've been patiently waiting up until now. But everyone has their limits and I was starting to get worried that something ran amuck with my application...and I still am hoping for that.

It would just be nice to get some sort of follow up or something rather than get one email and four months later having to wonder if you are indeed still pending or if something has gone wrong.

[nTT]

Their system is perfect from a developer's perspective. They want active testers, no freebie players. Hence the point system. Testers who are active are chosen first and when need rises for more testers new testers are taken. One of the major issues of the beta testing period during development is to test the product on as many different configurations as possible. So the selection process is mostly biased on that. On a rough example: If person A, B, C, D have the same hardware and person E has different hardware the developers will accept person E and one of the rest unless there are more testers needed and there are no other choices of hardware variety. If they would choose blindingly or via other criteria (such as how long you're waiting on pending status which is a silly argument or how good of a tester you are which can not be proved other than your own claims which have no validity since --no offence meant to anyone-- anyone can claim whatever they want and you have not tested for them before so they can verify--VIA the excellent point system idea) then they would lose the chance to test on a hardware configuration that could hypotheticaly cause some type of game problem hence they would end up with non-working/non-sufficiently working product and all the consequences and frustration this brings to both the developers+producers AND the end users such as you and me.

PS To clarify for everyone I am on pending status myself so you don't get the wrong impression. But I'd rather not get accepted than end up with a promising product crashing every 15 minutes until my specific hardware case gets issued...wouldn't you all?

[xlovelessx]

If it's such a perfect system, how is it that theyre going to find out that I am an active tester, and not just a "freebie player" if they wont let me even touch any of their products? I can't possibly prove my activity and earn points in their "perfect system" if I can't even access the executable that they want me to find bugs in.


If they have no intention of letting me test, why did they accept me as a beta tester? They should only approve accounts to those who they feel they are going to approve testing for, instead of leaving people with a screen full of about 9 bars with the word pending at the end of them.

[BetaTestAdmin]

I hear the "How long must I wait?" question often, so here is how you can improve your chances of being selected.

The truth is, the best way for you to get selected for a beta test is to completely and honestly fill out your profile information, request the games you want to play, and if you're really adamant about a particular game, write an e-mail to betatestadmin@atari.com detailing why you think you'd be a good choice to betatest the game. Obviously, if someone's willing to take the time to compose a well-written letter, they have a better chance of being selected. Think of it as a cover letter for a job.

As far as the "how can I betatest without points/how can I get points without betatesting!?" catch-22. You'll notice there is an option on the profiles page for "Previous betatest experience?", this applies to any betatest you've done, for any company. Sometimes we want to add people with experience, sometimes we want to add people without experience, because we like to see a good variety of people test any particular game.

If you're wondering why your application has been "pending" for however long, there are a number of reasons for this, the most common being that we aren't looking for people with your particular processor/net connecion/video car/whatever at the time. We won't reject any applications, because we never know when we're going to need a certain kind of system or person to help us out.

We can't accept everybody into a beta test, or even a very high percentage, since there are a limited number of slots for any betatest (although many have multiple waves of additions), and many thousands of people apply.

You'd be surprised at the amount of requests I see where people say, "omg leeme test horzins plz!!!!!!!111" and haven't even filled out their system specs, requested the game, or sometimes even made a betatests.net account. It does take a bit of luck to get selected for a test, but you can certainly improve your chances.

[nTT]

You fail to see the concept of this. The point is to beta test the product and certainly not to test your own personal ability as a beta-tester. You will be accepted in one of the available betas when need arises and it is quite possible you/we will not be accepted in any of the current projects at all but maybe in some other future project. If no more testers are needed or if other applicants qualify more for the open spots, they will be chosen instead and you will remain pending like all of us until you are needed. That is how it works. The system works for the project and not for the applicant tester which would be completely irrational. They don't just add you to the program just because you applied (and that stands for all projects regardless of producer/developer/publicher/etc). All you need to do is wait...

[xlovelessx]

So how many people are actually testing Deer Hunter: 2004?


Sad times, these are.

[zimnick]

The truth is, the best way for you to get selected for a beta test is to completely and honestly fill out your profile information, request the games you want to play, and if you're really adamant about a particular game, write an e-mail to betatestadmin@atari.com detailing why you think you'd be a good choice to betatest the game. Obviously, if someone's willing to take the time to compose a well-written letter, they have a better chance of being selected. Think of it as a cover letter for a job.

I thought about doing something like this, but I figured that they get many requests and are sick of it, so I just took the leave 'em be and be patient with the system. I was patient, and I've ended up being accepted into 2 tests so far.

[xlovelessx]

And as for your comment about me failing to see the concept, you also fail to see the fact that people are giving up their good time to test these products. The few who go along for the free ride of gaming don't define the entire population of valuable beta testers, so don't patronize me about how the system needs to be convenient for the project.


That's like saying that the owners of a store should get to take a part of everything that each customer buys, just because they provided the product.

We're no different from customers, and if we were, then you should be treating us with MORE respect than you do customers.

We're like employees that you don't have to pay.

Work at no expense, how can you complain about that?

[Kujaku]

There really is no point in arguing about this stuff, but it would be nice if my pending switched to accepted, LOL. But really, they could make 4 different stages of it: Unread (Not looked at yet), Pending (been read and they considering), Accepted (Accepted, Rejected (Rejected.).......... or if they dont need you yet it goes to Pending-2 to let you know that you might be accepted later or something..........

lol well Cya.............

[nTT]

Originally posted by xlovelessx
And as for your comment about me failing to see the concept, you also fail to see the fact that people are giving up their good time to test these products. The few who go along for the free ride of gaming don't define the entire population of valuable beta testers, so don't patronize me about how the system needs to be convenient for the project.


That's like saying that the owners of a store should get to take a part of everything that each customer buys, just because they provided the product.

We're no different from customers, and if we were, then you should be treating us with MORE respect than you do customers.

We're like employees that you don't have to pay.

Work at no expense, how can you complain about that?

I do not fail to see anything. You are giving your free time on your own free will. No one is forcing you to do so. The people going for the free ride are the majority of those that apply and not just a "few" and that's a fact.

The store metaphore you are giving is entirely off-topic and with no particular value or relativity to the subject.

We are not customers. Customers are PAYING and they have rights over a product.

We are not employees. We are to test a product while getting rewarded with being the first ones to see/play it plus the feeling we helped getting it to gold. That is what a beta-tester is (with the exception of in-house paid testers) and always was. If you think differently you shouldn't be here in the first place. You should do this bacause you like to do it. No one is forcing you to do it, you're a volunteer, not an employee. The difference is huge.

[Spekao]

Originally posted by Betatestadmin
I hear the "How long must I wait?" question often, so here is how you can improve your chances of being selected.

The truth is, the best way for you to get selected for a beta test is to completely and honestly fill out your profile information, request the games you want to play, and if you're really adamant about a particular game, write an e-mail to betatestadmin@atari.com detailing why you think you'd be a good choice to betatest the game. Obviously, if someone's willing to take the time to compose a well-written letter, they have a better chance of being selected. Think of it as a cover letter for a job.

As far as the "how can I betatest without points/how can I get points without betatesting!?" catch-22. You'll notice there is an option on the profiles page for "Previous betatest experience?", this applies to any betatest you've done, for any company. Sometimes we want to add people with experience, sometimes we want to add people without experience, because we like to see a good variety of people test any particular game.

If you're wondering why your application has been "pending" for however long, there are a number of reasons for this, the most common being that we aren't looking for people with your particular processor/net connecion/video car/whatever at the time. We won't reject any applications, because we never know when we're going to need a certain kind of system or person to help us out.

We can't accept everybody into a beta test, or even a very high percentage, since there are a limited number of slots for any betatest (although many have multiple waves of additions), and many thousands of people apply.

You'd be surprised at the amount of requests I see where people say, "omg leeme test horzins plz!!!!!!!111" and haven't even filled out their system specs, requested the game, or sometimes even made a betatests.net account. It does take a bit of luck to get selected for a test, but you can certainly improve your chances.

The thing you listed there that I have NOT done is send in the letter, and that was only because I applied on the Horizons and they included in their application a section for that specific thing - why you think you'd be a great beta tester for Horizons.

I do thank you very much for posting your response, but I still can't help but feel that I've somehow been overlooked or fallen through some crack sopmewhere. I find it incredible difficult to believe that in 4+ months of pending that my computer specs have not been ones that are being tested, and I also have had all the MMO games I've beta tested listed on the application since I first sent it in. It just doesn't seem that having tested previous products that were not for Atari has any credance at all still - which is I guess, but it makes the point system very hard for "new people" (meaning new to Atari not MMOs or Beta Testing MMOs) to break into still.

I will type a letter and send it in to you, since you have given a green light to do so, I just didn't want to seemingly overload you or actually lessen my chances of helping by sending in unsolicited email - I just really wish this had been known or explained 4+ months ago.

[Kujaku]

its nice to see the Administrators checking the boards, it makes us feel like they are real people to, and not just a Shadow sitting in front of a computer drinking a cup of coffee or something.

Lol, what I meant to say is the following: the more we see the Admin on the more we think they arent just ignoring us, or are on a long vacation :-P.

[xlovelessx]

Just because the admins are checking the boards, doesnt mean theyre taking any kind of positive action.


Bush addresses the nation quite a bit, and talks about things, but does anything ever actually happen?

That's what I thought.