With the close of the Uncharted 3 beta last week, Sony released some impressive statistics on the participants over at the Playstation Blog ( http://blog.us.playstation....
Over 362 collective years of playtime logged by some 1.53 million unique players. For an Uncharted fan like myself all this is good news- even though I didn't personally participate in the beta. In-fact, even though I consider myself a hardcore gamer, I've never participated in a beta, and I never will.
It's not that I don't think the beta process is worthwhile. Actually I think for modern games its essential. How many online games have we played over the years that require patch after patch to bring it up to speed on launch? Too many for my count. Black Ops on PS3 was a shining example of a game that could have used an open beta- it was and still is a hot mess for PSN users.
But I personally have no place for betas- or demos- for that matter in my life. You see, to me, the best time I have with a game is those 2 or so hours after I first get it, and I'm being wowed by the new experience in front of me. There's no way I want those first magic moments with my hotly anticipated game being spoiled months before its release where I see a warts and all beta version full of bugs for me to find.
Betas and demos rob me of the surprise in gaming. Nowadays gaming coverage is so saturated that you basically know how to play and beat a game before it comes out. No surprises, no moments of revelation, its all out there on the table as part of the hype machine. Hell I've even taken to avoiding previews of games I'm really looking forward to, and not reading reviews (just scores) until after I've bought and played a substantial amount of a game.
So while I urge all you beta lovers and sneak-peekers to keep doing what your doing for the good of gaming, I for one will sit out, and enjoy the finished product you people helped create.
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