The Daily Grind: Your favorite end of beta event?
by Krystalle Voecks 
Sep 2nd 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Betas, Events, in-game, Opinion
Beta tests. It seems like no sooner do you turn around these days than you trip over a beta. With so many games coming out in the second half of this year, it also means we get to check out the various end of beta events! Fallen Earth's Apocalypse Parties were lower-key, involving groups like the above pictured mix of folks getting their groove on. The actual end, however, involved getting everyone to join in on a free-for-all PvP fest where the GMs made themselves and a few other people enormous. Champions Online had a huge invasion of Destroids - robotic bad guys - bent on destroying everyone and everything. We can only guess what might be coming with some of the other games set to close down their betas soon.
While those are only a couple of examples, we know there have been some truly stupendous end of beta events. From huge scripted events like The Matrix Online's end of beta to smaller, more informal events held with friends, there are great memories to be had. So tell us, dear readers - what was your favorite ever end of beta event?
While those are only a couple of examples, we know there have been some truly stupendous end of beta events. From huge scripted events like The Matrix Online's end of beta to smaller, more informal events held with friends, there are great memories to be had. So tell us, dear readers - what was your favorite ever end of beta event?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Critus said on 8:37AM 9-02-2009
Unfortunately in all my years playing MMO's I've never had the opportunity to catch an end of beta event. I came close with Fallen Earth, but that was pretty much a non-event (and teleporting to their party a few days before the end cost me several hours of play time as I made my way BACK to the starting area)
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Jason said on 8:49AM 9-02-2009
LOTRO had a pretty cool end of Beta event. The Dev's were spawning giant dragons and trolls in Breetown and the Shire. Was pretty fun getting killed in 3 hits at level 15 by some mythic monster.
Jack said on 8:48AM 9-02-2009
So this game now is ready for his SEP 15 Launch? :)
Was there anything good in this game you did like? was it playing stable?!
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Krystalle Voecks said on 8:59AM 9-02-2009
Working on a First Impressions now for it. Hang tight.
Snorii said on 8:55AM 9-02-2009
I had the most fun during the end of City of Villains Beta, where we fought the signature heroes from Paragon City which were controlled by the developers. It was a nice way to let loose and be evil.
Unfortunately, the lotro beta ending event was too much for my old computer to keep up with. I saw a few evil critters around Bree, but kept freezing and timing out. Oh well, it was a good excuse to upgrade.
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Scones said on 9:11AM 9-02-2009
The Aion Closed Beta went out in a very fun way. Each of the main cities (Altgaurd and the like) went under a major seige every hour and the devs gave us players awesome items for it. It may not seem as interesting but defending a city against hordes of mobs all 20 levels above you has some feel of cool.
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Xugu Madison said on 9:22AM 9-02-2009
I have to say, personally I think end of beta events are actually a bad idea. They're only available to a very small part of the user base, who typically have either been lucky enough to be picked for beta, or paid their way in (that's Fileplanet subscribers such as myself). They take developer resources away from working balance and stability issues at a critical time, to do something that has no long term ingame result.
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Venekor said on 10:46AM 9-02-2009
Not at all developers do these things in their own time and normally it's the GM's and Community developers whose job it is to do things like this anyways.
I've been in nearly every mmorpg beta thats worth talking about but frigging I've never made it to the end cause I get bored of them by that. The only ones I stuck with was SWG and Planetside but they didn't really have events but people standing around talking.
Mitch said on 12:23PM 9-02-2009
In the case of Fallen Earth, developer events are going to be common-place even in live, so having beta events was only natural and, in fact, necessary in order to test them.
stormwaltz said on 9:54AM 9-02-2009
I have fond memories of the Asheron's Call 1 end of beta event, "Fire in the Sky." It was a tested of our in-game event technology -- we put a comet in the sky, turned towns into craters and had fire elementals dropping all over the place. These days, that wouldn't earn a second glance, but in 1999 no one had seen it before.
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rabbit said on 10:31AM 9-02-2009
Star Wars Galaxies memorial. No question:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/25327
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someguymc said on 3:08PM 9-02-2009
Guild Wars had a nice beta event, giant worms popping up and fireworks going off, was nice.
Champions had a fun one also. Devs controlling Cryptonauts, and were raping also.
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LOC said on 8:34PM 9-02-2009
Heh, yeah that was awesome. I remember me and a friend were in Vent playing while everyone was getting nuked by the worms. And we were still running around trying to stay alive and right before they turned off the server (or whatever you wanna call it at that point) we got hit by a worm out of no where. And then we watched the fireworks heh.
The Auto Assault end of beta was quite fun as well. Reminds me of the end of live events also for some reason...