Would it actually work in Blizzard’s favor to use a closed beta test, which would limiting the number of testers there by also limiting the risk of spoilers. By only opening up the next expansion to a smaller faction of players, those who are not just twitter celebrities, a balance between privacy and transparency can be had.
The risks of having open beta test became overly apparent with Shadowlands. First off by having public beta test Blizzard had hopes that it would be a chance to create buzz and excitement around their product. Users will rave, the media will swoon, and customers will line up to get their hands on the real thing. However, as shown, a public beta test can just as easily be dominated by negative coverage. If testers have trouble using the product, or find it to be too buggy, or simply don’t like it, you can bet those messages are going to dominate the discussion. And once that genie’s out of the bottle, there’s no going back.
Secondly, the designers run the risk of being over run by hundreds of repetitive bug reports and thousands of requests for support if the public beta is large enough. Depending on your team’s size and preparation, this could bog down your entire team and risk delaying the product’s launch. Also, if testers have no way to give you feedback or get support during the test, they may get frustrated, which could turn them against your product. If your user experience during the public beta is bumpy, your early adopters may decide that your product isn’t worth their time. This means that even while you may not get a bunch of negative feedback during your public beta, you could open your doors on launch day only to find out no one is there to buy it.
The last there is a fact that with all of the coverage and the risk of datamining most of the story can be exposed before players are even able to explore the world. Part of the excitement of highly anticipated games is the speculation. Leaks can dispute these speculations and kill that speculator part of the hype train. It could really diminish how you experience the game when you get your hands on it and start playing. With many leaks, you could spoil the ending and many plot details for yourself. The early days of WoW were way more fun when you couldn’t just look up everything online. You actually had to explore and ask people for help finding things. You’d end up making friends this way. Once the game was datamined everyone would just “look it up on wowhead you noob” if you ask for help.
Exposing your pre-release product to the public spotlight is a risky endeavor. But, by completing rigorous private beta and stress testing phases first can ensure that you only receive feedback from skilled users before you place your product in the spotlight.
You can add more and more testers and continuously assess the success of the test. This gives you the ability to pull the plug at any point if the test goes south, while minimizing the damage. It also keeps the hype train going by showing your hand only with the official developers and insiders .
As of right now we can only make assumptions or speculated how DF will play out. Having nothing spoiled by people taking vague information or unfinished plots we are not able to judge a game before it is even availed to the public. By hiding or preventing how many testers are allowed to test as the potential of increasing player interest while preventing players from not DF based on a unfinished product.
It is always more fun and interesting to find out big reveals and things during the story at the appropriate time. It would be far more eventful if they released a finished product than being told in advance what the final fate of the game will be before the final patch.
