Beta Test is Over: ULA Isn't

I'm still under contract with a ULA for the third round of beta testing for the new MMORPG RIFT, so I'm going to hold back on my comments for a week or so, then post my impressions of the game online. I will say that it was entertaining and enlightening to participate in the beta testing for the game, and I look forward to the opportunity to do more in the future.

They do demand that you submit lots of feedback on your game experiences and impressions, which only makes sense because I'm sure they aren't letting people create characters and log into servers just to get some excitement built up about a coming release. The computer designers for the system want to make damn sure most of the bugs are worked out before the official reviewers try their hand at their product.

Notice that I said "most" of the bugs, not all of them. I really do think that aiming for complete bug elimination is just one way to guarantee heartburn and a slew of ulcers. Fortunately, that wasn't my job in this case. I was just there to try out a new gaming world, and point whenever something broke. Or (blush), when I broke something. Heh! Not to much stuff broke while I was online, and let me tell ya, I was trying!

This does remind me of Elemental : War of Magic. I was closely involved with the beta testing forums for that launch, and much was made of the fact that the developers worked so closely with the beta testing crowd. There were some exceptions, of course. Some thought that their ideas and observations of the game weren't fully appreciated by those who were in a position to enact their suggestions, and therefore the game which was released didn't meet their hopes. But for the most part, the forums were filled with positive comments. I did see one instance where the developers should have listened to their target audience more closely. Almost all of the people eagerly awaiting the release of the game mentioned that all the proposed races looked very similar to each other. In fact, spotting differences between the different factions in the game was difficult. The qualities and physical characteristics between races was almost identical. The developers kept saying that it was their intention to have 8 options of a 'vanilla' race to choose from.
I was less than impressed.
I don't ask for extreme varieties, but I still don't see the point of giving the player an option of choosing between 8 indistinguishable races when starting a game. Ah well.