I’m thankful for the various people who’ve pointed out flaws in how they viewed the advertising for the game, versus (ha) their opinions of the game itself. Good points for those of us who hope to publish games in the future and will be coming up with our own advertising copy (so, Hosted Game hopefuls such as myself).
@Shockbolt Maybe we should start a thread, ‘What Makes a Good (or Helpful) Beta Test’? I’d be just as interested in the results as anyone, to be sure. And the instructions in this thread were my original guideline for how to beta test Choice of Games well.
Specifically, with this game? The three main issues mentioned in this thread, I think, seem to be 1. The stats weren’t balanced, I wanted to play a (however) kind of character and it wasn’t really possible. 2. The advertising presented ‘Powered Heroes On Television Wheeee!’ and the game is ‘MC With Weird Powers Faces Discrimination, Takes Care of Powered Sister with Serious Health Issues in Low Income Neighbourhood’; and 3. The game forces you to make narrow choices with Miss Boss and Transfer, for instance that didn’t fit my character and that was frustrating.
If I misinterpreted or misstated any points, I’m open to correction.
For a beta tester:
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The ideal thing here is to say, “I was trying to play a character with traits A, B, and C. I found I was blocked off from being C in this scene and this scene - I would have liked this different option, or I didn’t like when my character had to think that one thing. Oh, and then you made me do D in this scene, and it was out of character.” I know I submitted some feedback to this effect with this game, and most others I’ve beta-tested. (Usually it has to do with, “Can I please have an option that does not involve hitting, blasting, scheming, annihilating, or otherwise forcibly dealing with that character”, or sometimes it has to do with how my MC views other characters. In this game, it was often the latter.)
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Beta testers don’t see the advertising, so I don’t know how beta testing could have directly addressed this issue.
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When frustrating scenes come up, mention to the author that you don’t like them, and why. (I’m in the middle of significantly reordering one of my scenes right now because two people told me it was boring, and why they found it boring. I’m glad they did!) Then the author can sort and adjusting according to taste.
And every author has a different way of interacting with feedback. I’ve beta tested games where almost all of my suggestions were implemented, and games where nearly none of them were. And that’s the way it should be - my suggestions might be helpful, or they might go in a direction the author chooses not to pursue. Sometimes authors respond to give more direction, or feedback, about beta responses, sometimes not. It just depends.
I’d love to talk more about beta testing in general, and hear what some of the other authors and beta testers on the forums think, but probably on a new thread!