How to be a MWiF betatester...

[Greyshaft]

Hello potential beta-testers,

Over the last few weeks and months there have been a number of applications to join the beta–test team. Your desire to be on the team is appreciated. If there was room we’d have you all, but reality is a little crueler than that. The fact of the matter is that there is no beta-tester list. We had one but discarded it for the following reasons:

• If it still existed we would probably be placing new applicants at position 71 or 72 in the queue – quite a depressing prospect for an ambitious betatester.
• Last time we sent out invitations to join the beta-test to the next 10 people in the queue only half responded, leaving us wondering about whether to hold places open or to invite another group. This created problems when people later returned from their holidays and found their position had been taken by someone else.


So when the time comes when we need another 5-10 testers I will:
* pre-announce it in the Forum for a week so people can get their resumes ready.
* once we open the list we will accept a shortlist of the first 20-30 responses.
* poll the existing testers to see who they recommend from the list of applicants.
* rely heavily on the advice of Patrice (froonp) and capitan (who won his place on the team by volunteering to do the land unit write-ups).
* evaluate those responses primarily on how active the applicants have been in the Forum for the preceding few months and whether their contributions have been a positive force for the game (That doesn’t necessarily mean saying nice things but rather joining in an intelligent and critical discussion about how to make a better MWiF.)
* try for a 50/50 mix of cardboard WiF grognards(who know the rules backwards) and complete newbies (who don’t know the rules at all.)
* Of course, Steve gets to appoint testers if he wants but that only occurs when he identifies a particular propeller-head skill that he wants to chat with on a regular basis. If you have a PhD in Game Theory and Artificial Intelligence then you could try that approach.

This means that people aren’t penalized by coming late to the Forum but they do lose their opportunity by not being a regular reader of the MWiF Daily News. So you can maximize your personal chances of being a tester by:
• visiting the Forum regularly (twice a week is a good average)
• contributing to the Forum dialog
• volunteering to help with the land unit write-ups - send a PM to capitan to apply
• finding some other job to do – read the Forum dialog for inspiration

Hope this helps everyone understand the system. I'm always open to suggestions about how to improve this method.

[macgregor]

This is actually very good news. With that many people working on the team, results shouldn't be that long in coming. The important thing is having the right 70 people. Honest introspection tells me I may not be the right betatester. I haven't exactly been on the same page in these forums. That being said, if I were personally assigned a particular research task(as I'm not a programmer), I'm sure I would perform it well.

[Greyshaft]

*bump*