Are WiPs spoiling us?

[Eiwynn]

@ClaimedMinotaur

Lmao. The entire point I’m trying to make is that the written policy is not clear because, as I have shown, that could be interpreted many ways.

I’m not trying to say you guys don’t know what you’re talking about because I know you’ve been doing this much longer than me, but literally everything I’ve read is directly contradicting you, so I’m very confused.

The following quote is very relevant here:

@jasonstevanhill

To follow up to Havenstone, if you say “I did a beta!” but you mean, “my three best friends and my mom played it and they all told me it was awesome!” that doesn’t mean it was given a beta test. We want to see the community given a real opportunity to engage an author in a dialogue.

In particular, when we at Hosted Games are trying to decide if we should expend money/capital on a game (putting it on Steam, putting it in a mailer, tweeting about it), Rachel gives her input, and then we look at the beta thread to see how the community has responded. Thus, whether the game is freely accessible or not, letting us see the feedback of the beta testers helps us decide how we market it.

The last sentence should be definitive for you because Jason states: “Whether the game is freely accessible or not…” meaning that both closed and open tests are allowed.

@ClaimedMinotaur

it doesn’t make any distinction between the kind of betas.

The last sentence is quite clear … it says it can be freely accessible (open) or not (closed)

I am not sure that there is anything else I can say at this point.

The advise I would give to any author unclear of their “beta testing” is to contact customer support, and your inquiry will be routed to the appropriate person (most likely Jason).