It’s confused me too before 
I believe in this context, the “public beta” refers to “publicly announced” for a wider circle of people than than family/friends to playtest. But as @malinryden says it doesn’t have to be available to everyone.
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But then that is, by definition, not a “public beta.” That is a private beta with open invitations.
@Eiwynn I saw it. Where did you get that from, because I didn’t see that when searching? Everything I’ve read shows that as the definition for Beta Testing, but then goes on to distinguish between open and closed betas.
This entire thread is confusing lmao.
I know, it’s confusing and I need more caffeine before staring at it too long! But that’s my understanding of what the rule is in this context. (I’m also no expert on the HG process so I shall scuttle away like a crab before I say something inaccurate 
)
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A professional testing service’s page explaining their services.
Two points here:
-
In your first screenshot, the highlighted text qualifies “open to anyone” by the words “who is known as a beta tester.”
-
A “public beta test” can be either “open” or “closed” …
In either case, the “beta tester” is defined by the author running the test for their Hosted Games project.
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Ok… so I understand the first part, but you lost me on the second part. It never said that anywhere. I’ve looked on like 7 websites now, and none of them have said that a public beta test can be open or closed. All of them say “a public or open beta is[…] A private or closed beta is[…]” Implying that public and open are synonymous, and that the same is true for private and closed. 
Okay, think of it this way: A public open beta is a link posted on the forum. A public closed beta is a link posted elsewhere, but anybody from the forum can apply. In the second, the author knows who is testing the game, and can get easier feedback from them. In the first, the author doesn’t know who is playing, and feedback will be scarcer.
Though I think we have strayed from the subject, things have been like this at least since I first tested FH back in 2017…
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I will refer you to the blue highlighted part of your “ProductPlan” screenshot:
(Public) Beta tests can either be open or closed. In an open (public) test, anyone can use the product… In a closed (public) beta, the testing is limited to a specific set of testers…
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But you’re inserting words that were not there. It was talking about beta tests in general. It never made the distinction that it was talking about public betas, specifically.
But isn’t that technically “invite only.”
Maybe a little, but it feels relevant to how we release games and test WiPs, which is what the thread was about.
What I’m saying is that the act of applying seems equivalent to requesting an invitation, thereby making it “invitation only.”
No, because in “invite only”, the author invites and picks the people (and can only be friends etc). In the public closed beta, anybody can apply, the author does not weed people out and say no.
What I’m saying is that the act of applying seems equivalent to requesting an invitation.
Yes. Requesting an invitation.
Think of it like a free party with food, compared to a wedding. Both need tickets in this example. In the first one, anybody can sign up on the list and get a ticket, which is needed mostly to calculate how much food needs to be prepared. In the second one, the bridal couple sends out the invitations to people they pick.
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It is a bit confusing terminology, that’s for sure.
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This actually does work on mobile! It requires a bit of fiddling to get it loaded specifically onto either Firefox Beta or Firefox Nightly, but it does work (I put a lot of work into making sure it did 
).
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This means it applies to both public and private testing.
In gaming, beta testing has been overused and as a term of art, it is pretty much how each publisher and developer defines it.
Hosted Games has defined it in the manner I have presented it, since before I joined, and has ultimately published games using both “open” and “closed” methods.
Until staff indicates a change in their policy, I would go with their history as a true indicator of future actions.
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The Steam save editor?
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Sorry, I’m super unfamiliar with the forum and misread your message I also didn’t realize it was from a couple days ago, I was talking about the extension I made and @EvilChani linked.
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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.
I feel like some clearer wording from the COG company would be beneficial, such as:
"A ‘public beta on the forum’, in the context of Hosted Game development, can mean:
- a fully public beta (all parts of the game are accessible to everyone on the forum with access to the link up until [insert date here just before marked release]).
- a closed beta of the full game that contains at least some members of the forum, with at least some part of the game accessible to anyone on the forum with the link, which will stay up until [insert date here just before marked release]. "
Part of me wonders if the current wording is an artifact of the time when CSGs/IF in general (beyond visual novels but even those were very niche outside of say, Japan, until recently) was not well known at all, so back then, definition 2 would be unmarketable even for something like Wayhaven/Fallen Hero/Tin Star.
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If anybody wonders, they can just ask CoG if their preferred way is allowed? There is no way of writing guidelines that apply to every single permutation of a thing, that’s just not how things work. The spirit of the thing is very clear, at least to me.
And now I sign out of this conversation, it keeps going in circles.
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Thanks for trying to explain it to me lmao.
@Snowflower This is kind of what I’m getting at. Finding those guidelines as at all was actually surprisingly difficult, but then add in that a quick Google search tells me something that contradicts what the mods and authors do just confuses the hell out of me.
The following quote is very relevant here:
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.
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).
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I swear I’m not trying to piss you off, but it doesn’t make any distinction between the kind of betas. From everything the internet tells me, you can have users involved in both public and private betas. The distinction just seems to be whether it is publicly available or not.
Please don’t kill me
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