Like, this perhaps?
Yes. Exactly like that. 
However, more open to those who are interested so it’s not a total random lottery drawing.
It’s not a random lottery draw though (the current version at least). The devs want/need people they can count on to give honest feedback & feedback covering a wide range of play styles, skill levels, etc.
Sure, but it’s still a lottery based on the group wanting in on the testing, right? Is there some formal application or is it just based on the community selection from users here who have a history of submitted posts containing proper feedback?
What makes you think that?
It’s invite only on EHG’s part & I imagine that they look at people’s posts to see how they act in the community, what their level of game knowledge is, etc. EHG ask people to join based in their internal needs for the skill set of testers, it’s not really anything that “we” (the community) get any input in since it’s driven by whatever EHG need.
according to this then we will get the multiplayer when 0.9 goes live later in 2021… at least thats how i read it when they say patch 0.9 and multiplayer 2021
Hence my comment about it being ready by December…
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Hence my inquiry about getting access before a whole year passes. I mean I know it’s going to be coming to public access eventually, but it sounds like from what I’m reading thus far that it’s still got quite a long way to go before it could reach mass playability.
maybe we get word on when 0.9 is after we get 0.8.1
I would be surprised if that happened. We might get another update with more details about MP later in the year but I’d be very surprised if that was (directly) after 0.8.1.
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I’m using the laws of attraction to bring the developer’s attention to this post, so that they may grant my account Community Tester status.
It’s probably not prudent for them to grant users access who seem to lack impulse control and patience. However, that could be exactly the opinion that they’re looking for though. I’m the personality type that will still study the flaws of games even I like and enjoy. I beleive everything can be improved in my opinion.
Otherwise, just make some splashes on the front of the steam storefront when the multiplayer update is released.
I have no doubt whatsoever that MP will be released to great fanfare.
I have no doubt that it wouldn’t at all. That is why I’m sure I’d see it even if I weren’t actively following the game’s continued development.
I’m just saying… Pick me! Pick me, Next!
Haha I know just how you feel - I was one of the people pushing for more MP updates last year. While I’m happy with the response of what is being planned for MP, I’m still skeptical on the approach they are using. IMHO, MP is so critical to every element of the game (especially when you consider economy/trading on top of gameplay), it should be tested with as many people as possible, as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more time is being “wasted” - in the sense that there are issues that simply won’t come up without some critical mass of testers. I don’t know what that number is, but I’d imagine you’d want at least 100 people, really like 1000 to do really solid testing.
I don’t buy the argument of “when it releases it has to be xxx good or it will tarnish the reputation” - thats what NDAs are for. I’m not saying release a buggy mess to the entire public, but I do think testing with a significantly sized group - with a greater diversity of player types -(and an NDA in place), would greatly benefit the game in the long run. No offense to the Community Testers, but it seems to be a fairly specific (what I’d call “hardcore”) group of players.
They will be the best at exposing many types of issues faster than others, but not necessarily ones that occur to casual/lazy/inexperienced players. I’d argue if the goal is to make the first official “release” to the greater public as polished as possible, you’d want to do something like this regardless.
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Are they going to NDA the entire community? The Closed Testers would get access to it early under an NDA to help test it, yes, but what I meant was that if 0.9 releases to the general public & the multiplayer doesn’t work well then it will look bad for EHG, people will be turned off it & that bad press will spread.
Edit: Having properly read the second paragraph… How large would/should a larger MP testing pool be? The more people you have in that pool the more likely there are to be leaks (either deliberate or accidental). But yes, I agree that there will hopefully be an increasing size of MP testers as it goes along.
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Is that really the case anymore though? I feel like there have been plenty of games that have turned around just terrible releases. No Mans Sky just kept plowing ahead and they’ve finally got it turned around.
Either way, if you want some critical feedback… Then pick me up. I’m a critical person by nature.
It is possible to turn around a horrifically bad launch, yes but it’s certainly not idea. Why risk the reputational damage if you don’t need to? Us soulless corporate types (I’m an accountant) worry about this kind of thing…
I don’t really feel like that is much of a thing anymore. All you have to do is pay a streamer to play it for a day once you have improved it and if it’s good people will flock.
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I was feeling nostalgic so I looked back at an old guild forum when we - in 2003 - were lucky enough to be invited into the World of Warcraft Friends and Family Alpha test (under NDA). I don’t know how many people were in it, but it was definitely a pretty large group. Just my guild alone had around 20 people or something like that. I know EHG is not Blizzard, but I also think 17 years have passed, and there should be plenty of lessons learned and genre enhancements to look at. Anyway, that was the kind of test I envision would be helpful to really wring out not just bugs and problems, but real gameplay concerns and issues. Note we ended up in that phase for more than 3 months. On top of conventional technical issues, there were major discussions about things like death penalties and corpse runs, as well as leveling pace and loot. There wasn’t any form of endgame for us at the time, this was testing to really wring out a lot of conceptual things including the economy and how players interacted with each other (both in and out of game) - and of course making sure it all worked seamlessly in a persistent multiplayer environment.
Obviously, LE is a very different type of game, but I thought the general strategy Blizzard employed was very sound and very meticulous, yet even with all that time put in they still ran into problems. Note that even after Beta began (with no NDA), another eight months of testing went by before they felt ready for release. And even after all that testing, the release was filled with issues (queues, etc) logging in, etc.
I understand this is a difficult process but that’s exactly why I would test with as many of the hardest and least predictable variables in play as soon as possible.
TLDR: I would argue jumping from a small community test to a full blown public beta (with nothing in between) is actually more risky if the number one concern is reputation.
Just out of curiosity, do you actually know how many internal testers (QA and Community Testers) EHG has?
I also really think, that EHG did sound very mindfull about their situation. In the 0.9 MP Update Mox gave, they acknowledged, that they know they don’t have the ressources as other companies and they try to plan according to that.
I am 100% sure, they will do the best the possibly can to make it as smooth as possible. But i am pretty sure, they are aware, that there will be issues.
It’s just a matter of how grave those will be. And with enough time and preperation i am sure they can eliminate alot of the common issues.