Tuesday, October 23rd 2018
Bethesda Warns Against "Spectacular" Bugs in Fallout 76 Beta
Okay, let it all out right now: "A Bethesda game with bugs? Color me shocked!". With that preemptively mentioned, the context here is a little different and worth mentioning. Bethesda took to Twitter via a letter to their fans earlier today, a letter that is trying to keep expectations low when trying out the Fallout 76 early access program, which they call the Break it Early Test Application (B.E.T.A, get it?). The letter goes on to bring up examples of other large games with massive in-game worlds, with Bethesda's own Elder Scrolls and Fallout series brought up as examples. To be more specific, the letter mentions "Given what we're doing with 76, we know we're opening everyone up to all new spectacular issues none of us have encountered. Some we're aware of, such as areas where performance needs to improve with lots of players. Others, we surely don't. We need your help finding them, and advice on what's important to fix."
There is a whole other discussion to be had on how private and public beta programs are now becoming glorified unpaid quality assurance work in the so-called AAA game industry today, and Bethesda in this venture does not do anything particular egregious either. But combined with all the other negative press Fallout 76 has been getting thanks to questionable choices made by the publisher, and also noting that only those who pre-ordered the game get to try out the beta beginning in a short while today, things are looking bleak for the participation numbers in said beta program. If you happened to be one of those participating, please do share your experiences in the comments section on this story.
Source:
Bethesda, via Twitter
There is a whole other discussion to be had on how private and public beta programs are now becoming glorified unpaid quality assurance work in the so-called AAA game industry today, and Bethesda in this venture does not do anything particular egregious either. But combined with all the other negative press Fallout 76 has been getting thanks to questionable choices made by the publisher, and also noting that only those who pre-ordered the game get to try out the beta beginning in a short while today, things are looking bleak for the participation numbers in said beta program. If you happened to be one of those participating, please do share your experiences in the comments section on this story.
25 Comments on Bethesda Warns Against "Spectacular" Bugs in Fallout 76 Beta
Like WTF Bethesda?! Is it not the job of your own programers and beta testers to smooth things out before launch?! What self respecting game company operates like this... (rhetorical folks, we all know the answer). :p
As for Bethesda. Fallout and Skyrim have always been a bit of a buggy unoptimised mess anyway. Fallout 76 wont be any different.
Remember fuckup called Diablo 3? Yea, that had demo. And that demo was reason why me and couple of million others pre-ordered it (and flipped a bit or a lot later).
But point is, they showed pretty finished product, responses were mostly fine and they sold shitload of.. well shit.
Definitely better than doing open betas (or in some cases open alfa).Thats not the best part. Best part is.. You cant fix it! :D
Skyrim (every version) has unofficial patches which fix pretty much everything there is possible to fix via modding (thankfully nearly everything). Also its possible to manually clear game files themselves (highly recommended).
Aaand that wont be possible with F76.
I think Bethesda missed that only reason their games are played and liked is mods. Vanilla Skyrim is obsolete game in pretty much every aspect and on top of it looking like a turd (especially compared to W3) and mods are usually only reason why it still sells and is played. F76 is without proper single player and mods pretty much dead before being made.
What i find more questionnable is the fact that you have to pay for the beta test, which limits drastically the number of setups tested, increasing the chances of future problems.
Good game studios should be supported.
I will continue to buy Bethesda games. But Fallout 76 is one I am going to avoid.
Its not like they've done any kind of charity work here. They made a product and it sold well, then they milked it and they still are to this day. With their success came stagnation and repetition, not great new games. Fallout 3 is where it should have 'ended' for Creation already. It looked ancient even then. We're in 2018 now and the best they've added was godrays and higher res textures, at the cost of major FPS drops and stutter. New Vegas had an OK narrative because Betheseda didn't write it. Skyrim's vanilla campaign is just plain weak. FO4's vanilla campaign is... horrible writing all over the place. If there is a trend, you could say that their products get progressively worse. The fact that the largest community of fans is still on Skyrim is telling - its almost 7 years old now.
Seriously people give Bethesda way too much credit. FO76 will fail miserably, its clear as day. Bethesda now needs to fix their shitty code by themselves, and they've proven incapable of doing so.
Instead of praising this company, we should be wondering why they haven't done so much more with that gold mine of a fanbase and franchises they are sitting on. But according to you, we should be supporting them for writing us this nice letter, which really is a statement of incompetence.
They can't fix anything and they don't give a shit.
For example, Skyrim SE is still unplayable with internet connection pretty much a year after the problem was reported for lots of players: bethesda.net/community/topic/148732/can-t-run-the-game-with-an-active-internet-connection
For myself, my main complaints are the lack of a free beta test, and instead an exclusive paid testing period, and that their track record in ESO shows they can put out an MMO, but not necessarily well (and definitely not without major bugs). In the past, Bethesda has relied heavily on the modding community to pull their fat out of the fire, and an MMO won't allow that. ESO supports that view.
I get that a beta test is more than a "Woohoo!! Free gamez for my leet skillz!!". I've done enough, and submitted enough reports to get an idea what is desirable from a tester. But I've always balked at the idea that a company wants me to pay to be allowed to help them fix their game. The only compensation I want is to be allowed to try out the game, or the router, or the mouse, etc. But to be expected to pay for the ability to do their work for them? Not really my cup of tea, and I love tea :)
Its not like Bethesda makes a better game when it costs $100,-. In fact you could defend that Skyrim easily costs more than that, and so does Fallout with its DLCs.
Minimal effort for maximum gain is simply maximizing profit. If you need paid beta testing to have a profitable product, its not even viable.
Game prices are definitely creeping up, but then I'm old and get-off-my-lawn. Have we seen a statement on monthly fees on it yet?
The reason why studios do not pay a ton of testers is because it would involve tens of thousands of man hours to test a game like Fallout 76. And because of the downward pressure on game titles they are going to ask kids to test it for them for free.