Major Beta Concerns
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:53 am
I'm seriously concerned that many people out there don't really understand the notion of 'beta' software and that the structure of EiANW is forcing us all down the route of using the beta patches whether we like it or not.
In the commercial world the rule of thumb with beta software is 'don't install it on any important/critical systems'. In the world of EiANW I can't think of anything more critical than a seven player PBEM game where people have invested a lot of time and effort in the play thereof.
The next issue is that we are strongly (and I'm sure properly) advised that everyone in a PBEM game should be on the same patch level. Clearly this makes perfect sense, however since many people will be playing in more than one game it only takes a small number of games to make the choice that they'll risk using the beta patch to force pretty much *everyone* down the road of using it. Surely this is not Matrix's intention ?
Finally I am told, although I have not tried it, that you can install the game more than once on your PC in different directories and it will run fine. This would provide a solution in that you could run two different version of the game. *But* as far as I can tell this is against the licence agreement which say "LLC grants the original purchaser of this software package the right to use one copy of the software program".
My solution would be to ask for the licence to be changed to read ". . . right to run the software program on one computer" which might allow people to run multiple patch versions on their computer.
Could we have some input from Matrix on this please ? Do they feel that the situation where most PBEM games are *forced* to use the beta patches is desirable ? If not what solution do they propose ?
And before anyone posts to say there is not much risk in using the beta patches, I understand that. I am concerned about the *consequences* not the risk. What if a bug messes up all the PBEM games ? Presumable Matrix will say (with justification) "Well it was beta, sorry guys" and yet many of us would have been forced to use the patch against our better judgement.
In the commercial world the rule of thumb with beta software is 'don't install it on any important/critical systems'. In the world of EiANW I can't think of anything more critical than a seven player PBEM game where people have invested a lot of time and effort in the play thereof.
The next issue is that we are strongly (and I'm sure properly) advised that everyone in a PBEM game should be on the same patch level. Clearly this makes perfect sense, however since many people will be playing in more than one game it only takes a small number of games to make the choice that they'll risk using the beta patch to force pretty much *everyone* down the road of using it. Surely this is not Matrix's intention ?
Finally I am told, although I have not tried it, that you can install the game more than once on your PC in different directories and it will run fine. This would provide a solution in that you could run two different version of the game. *But* as far as I can tell this is against the licence agreement which say "LLC grants the original purchaser of this software package the right to use one copy of the software program".
My solution would be to ask for the licence to be changed to read ". . . right to run the software program on one computer" which might allow people to run multiple patch versions on their computer.
Could we have some input from Matrix on this please ? Do they feel that the situation where most PBEM games are *forced* to use the beta patches is desirable ? If not what solution do they propose ?
And before anyone posts to say there is not much risk in using the beta patches, I understand that. I am concerned about the *consequences* not the risk. What if a bug messes up all the PBEM games ? Presumable Matrix will say (with justification) "Well it was beta, sorry guys" and yet many of us would have been forced to use the patch against our better judgement.