Overly Positive

So it appears that Bioware is further along with their beta plans for Star Wars: The Old Republic after all – because the site now has a testing portal for the TOR beta where you may submit your interest to be a beta tester.

Naturally this is a major announcement and even if beta is months away, users are rushing to signup, crippling the bandwidth of Bioware’s web servers and forcing frequent maintenance to keep the demand high. Looks like there are a lot of players out there looking to try out their prospects as the next Han Solo, Darth Vader, or Boba Fett, to say the least. The demand has been so crazy that I had to wait until 1am this morning to actually complete my TOR beta signup, which consists of taking some personal info, agreeing to a normal beta tester set of policies, and having a scan of your system submitted.

Really though, guys and gals, we should stay a bit level-headed as well as positive-minded about this whole thing. Like I said before, the date of TOR beta could be months away. We could be waiting in a queue for a long time to come. So really, rushing to beta signup in an attempt to get your name in the hat, and becoming frustrated at not being able to do so, is just not worth it. Beta signups should cooldown in a few days, after which you should be able to submit your NASA-like computer settings and personal info to Bioware just fine.

There’s also a thought that even though this is a great thing for Bioware (and a sign that development is proceeding along nicely) that once you’re in the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta, you’ll be getting a sneak peek at the game. This is true, but you’re also going to meet, head-on, the realistic image of the game behind all the polished marketing. While some people might find the experience discouraging or, as Syp has said, one that they might not want to play due to not wanting to ruin expectations, others I think will want to get in on it to set those expectations appropriately prior to spending money.

I’m one of these people – but I’m also a tester when it comes to these things too. Mostly this is because I know the game is going to have broken things, bugs, and other such issues. Not surprisingly, I’m looking forward to the idea that I might be crashing every 5 minutes, that performance could cripple my machine, that the fully-voiced features could suddenly crap out in TOR beta and everyone could start sounding like chipmunks with lightsabers. It’s all a part of a process of development that I’ve participated in many times, and contributed to meaningfully, so I can’t wait to get in and get my hands on the client to test it out and beat it into the ground.

Still, all that being said, rushing to beta isn’t for everyone. There’s a lot of panning for gold involved before you get it, so I encourage everyone to take a deep breath, realize that not being able to signup for TOR beta isn’t the end of the world, and wait patiently – there’s plenty of TOR beta river space to go around.