What's a "beta" patch?

[BoredStiff]

So, what exactly is a "beta" patch?

Having played computer games for over 20 years, I obviously know what a patch is, but what is the idea behind a "beta" patch?

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: BoredStiff
So, what exactly is a "beta" patch?

Having played computer games for over 20 years, I obviously know what a patch is, but what is the idea behind a "beta" patch?

Say the developers have made a patch. First it goes to their beta testers for testing, but if it looks like it's good to go they can broaden the number of eyes having a look at it by releasing this "unofficial/beta" patch to a larger audience. At Matrix this is done so that everyone who has registered the game can download this beta patch. Contrast this to an official patch where there's no limitation as to who can download it. The beta patch also comes with the caveat that it's actually beta code, which means that if it reformats your drive and eats your keyboard you can't complain [;)]

For some people it's a good first step to find out if they would like being a beta-tester, others avoid beta patches as the plague - it's all up to you.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[PunkReaper]

A Beta patch is better than a worsa patch [:D]

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: sterckxe

Say the developers have made a patch. First it goes to their beta testers for testing, but if it looks like it's good to go they can broaden the number of eyes having a look at it by releasing this "unofficial/beta" patch to a larger audience. At Matrix this is done so that everyone who has registered the game can download this beta patch. Contrast this to an official patch where there's no limitation as to who can download it. The beta patch also comes with the caveat that it's actually beta code, which means that if it reformats your drive and eats your keyboard you can't complain [;)]

Thanks, that's what I thought.

For some people it's a good first step to find out if they would like being a beta-tester, others avoid beta patches as the plague - it's all up to you.

I'm probably in the latter group.

[Marauders]

Sometimes developers release beta patches to allow the community to have a look at upcoming features.  For games that have quite a bit of user adaptability, it is sometimes helpful to get the patch out ahead of the regular release.
 
Developers will also release a beta patch to allow the larger numbers of users to find bugs that a small team of beta testers may not.  This is similar to having an open public beta for MMORPGs.
 
A beta patch is not considered a finished product.
 

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: Punk Reaper
A Beta patch is better than a worsa patch [:D]

ROTFL [:D]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[mack2]

Most beta patches are release because a company's testing is too slow and the people who have bought the game have grown impatient.

[JWW]

They're easy to recognize. They look like this.

[plund]

ORIGINAL: BoredStiff

For some people it's a good first step to find out if they would like being a beta-tester, others avoid beta patches as the plague - it's all up to you.

I'm probably in the latter group.

definitely in the second group

[jdonaldson512.]

ORIGINAL: Marauders

Developers will also release a beta patch to allow the larger numbers of users to find bugs that a small team of beta testers may not.

And some just don't have anyone willing to do betatesting so they hope that their general customer base will be naive enough to do it for them.

[TonyE]

And sometimes the patch is good enough for release but Matrix doesn't have a slot to release it officially so the developers release it as a beta patch anyway [8D].
 
 

[BoredStiff]

ORIGINAL: TonyE

And sometimes the patch is good enough for release but Matrix doesn't have a slot to release it officially so the developers release it as a beta patch anyway [8D].

Slot?

[TonyE]

Slot:  Matrix doesn't have the manpower (for the marketing drivel postings and whatever else happens) or desire to release a patch for every title on the same day.  Space them out on a schedule and it appears something new is happening every day/week/month.

[Zap]

A welcome to the new members jdonaldson512 and plund. Keep on a posting.

[Halsey]

beta=experimental

At first when I saw this posting, I thought it was a "who's buried in Grants tomb" question.[:D]

[Neilster]

It's something you sew while enjoying your video recorder's superior quality to VHS. [:'(]

Cheers, Neilster

[PunkReaper]

So, what exactly is a "beta" patch?

Meet our latest patch