Beta-2 is pay-2-play

In case you didn’t notice, monetization includes the beta. In the presentation they were careful to say that access to the beta will be limited to the chosen ones. They did not say there would be guaranteed access through twitch viewing, but rather said that it would depend on the number of people playing from those they select as to how many more will be given access.

But saying that they will choose who can access it, and at the same time giving guaranteed access to those who spend money on the pack, is basically monetizing the beta. Others will only get access if not enough people have signed up for the pack. Once the beta is out they can encourage people to sign up even more by not initially giving any other way to get guaranteed access.

Nothing is safe from monetization going forward. Immortal proved that.

it’s especially ironic they just announced OW2 is f2p then make the beta p2p.

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You can also get in for free. So you are wrong. If you want to test things out then you can pay but if you dont want to you can just get lucky or wait until October.

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Huh? You can get the game for free in October, right. But that is not what I said. I said the beta is effectively p2p unless not enough people pay. I don’t get your point. You seem to be agreeing in a strange way.

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F2P games always come with a huge asterisk. They are really just free to start. If you want to unlock anything they either turn into a full time job or force you to spend more money over time than you would have spent for a complete $60 game upfront.

Everyone will get guaranteed access by at least the 14th (So at least ~4 days of play). Definitely not ideal compared to the first beta which gave everyone access on the second day, but it’s something.

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Everyone who signs up is guaranteed at least 1 week of beta. People who buy the bundle are guaranteed instant- and full access to it. That’s the difference. You can sign up for free and have access from day one too, it’s just luck based.

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Still false. Free sign in, and you will get in. Beta only ensures you get in immediately.

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…You’re guaranteed access to the beta no later than July 14th if you sign up for beta access on your preferred platform via the beta site. If beta sign ups reach server capacity, the beta site will no longer allow sign ups. We’ve yet to hit capacity. All the watchpoint pack does is guarantee you wave 1 beta access, and on the off chance the beta sign ups close before you signed up, it grants beta access to you immediately regardless of if they’re closed or not.

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Here you go, OP. Click below for the free sign-up:

They should have done a better job of explaining it, imo.

The downside to not forking out $40 for beta access is that you might get all of four days’ access. I don’t approve but whatever, it is what it is.

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If it can be monetised it will be, that’s Blizzard in a nutshell now a days. Monetising beta is scummy, but more and more companies do that. The idiotic part is that people are actually paying the company to test the game, meaning the company save money on hiring testers and they earn money on selling test spots as if it’s a product.

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as a person who identifies as someone with no money I feel victimised by this blatant prejudice from money supremacists. what happened to inclusivity and diversity.

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You mean 1 week-end of Beta. 2 days only.

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4 days not 2. Beta goes to July 18

The responses all sound like they are arguing against my OP, but at the same time are explaining exactly what I meant. Giving immediate access to people that purchase the pack but not to others, and possibly not providing another way to get immediate access except for luck, is still p2p, even if they give 4 days of access at the end for more people. You still have 2 weeks of p2p before that unless you get lucky.

My OP stands - it is p2p to access the beta in any guaranteed way.

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This is one of the worst things to charge people for that I’ve ever seen in my life.

"What’s that? you want to help us test our product? $40 please! "

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No, not necessarily. Just informing.

Everybody gets guaranteed access. The difference lies in how long that access lasts for.

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Right, which is effectively pay-for-progress which is the worst type of monetization as it excludes people rather than just letting people choose not to buy cosmetics, and it lets the “haves” into the game while excluding the less fortunate.

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Yes, this fact is true. According to Andy B. Anyone who signs up for beta testing will be given at LEAST 1 weekend to test. That is all they will guarantee. Could it be more? Maybe, it will depend on how many people pay $40 to play the beta.

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You are very late to this discussion my friend… they can run the beta any way they want, and if you can get in another way its not “pay-2-play”. Do keep up good chap.

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I’m pretty sure it did mention everyone who signs up will be given access by at least the last week of the beta.