Arcade Berg aka. "Learning Game Design with Arcade Berg"

The fight for wanting to help out

I got a key for the StarCraft 2 Beta today from a friend. (Thanks Jonas.)

I suck at it. There, I said it.

But enough about my tremendous RTS-suckiness.

People envy the people having SC2-keys. And people are now screaming their lungs out, because some people have been getting invites they can use to invite other people into the game. "Everybody" wants one.

When you get access to a beta, you get the privilege to play the game before everyone else, right?

Sometimes you have to buy one game to get the beta key to another. Sometimes you have to sign up for a newsletter or register on a site. Sometimes, it's something completely different. But you usually have to put some effort into getting one, no matter the game, if it's a closed beta.

This is for me fascinating.

What a beta is, is for the developers GETTING help to find and iron out the bugs, test servers and see how well the tweaking works. The goal is to use it to be able to finish the game and do it well. It is not about giving something to the player. Yet, it's treated as a divine gift from the developers. They're so kind to let us try the game, even though it's not even done yet.

I don't like this attitude.

I'm gonna play some more StarCraft 2 now, because I can play it before everyone else. Thanks Blizzard!

What a privilege...