13. External Testing
13.01 Will there be a public Beta Test?
Yes, public beta began during the summer of 2002. Previous phases involved only internal testers. We are presently accepting applications for consideration to Beta 3, where we will open up general testing for up to 50,000 people.
13.02 How do I sign up for the Beta Test?
To sign up for the Beta, please answer all of the questions on the official Beta Application. Note, you must be a Station Member (free registration) to sign up for the Star Wars Galaxies Beta.
13.03 How do you select Beta participants?
There are many factors in selecting potential beta testers. In the process of trying to make the best possible use of test, we start by hand-selecting people from our community. Beta selections are not based on number of posts, but instead by quality of involvement in the community and demonstrated ability to think critically. Additionally, we randomly take a selection of our beta applicants who meet additional criteria.
13.04 What is your "criteria" for selecting random testers?
So people don't alter their Beta applications just to tell us what we want to hear, we aren't saying what our current criteria is. For the most part it depends on what our Quality Assurance department deems necessary for a complete test (meaning the criteria does change).
13.05 Will Beta testers be able to talk about the game to others?
We will have a very strict Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that all Beta 1 and 2 and early 3 testers must agree to. We take violations of the agreement very seriously and they will result in banning from Beta and possible legal action. At some point in Beta 3, the NDA will be lifted and people will be able to talk freely about the game.
13.06 What are the stages of the Beta?
The Beta is broken up into three official external stages. Beta 1 was primarily internal testers with 500 hand-picked community members in it. At this stage, the game is extremely unstable, unpolished and unbalanced. Beta 2 opened the doors a little wider for some more people from the community. Beta 3 includes up to 50 thousands and will primarily stress test systems and work on balance issues. All stages of beta are meant for people serious about testing the product to make it better and not for people to try it out for fun.
13.07 Is the Beta period long enough?
We have a lot of people experienced with running multiple betas. We feel we have scheduled the appropriate length of time for our external test. We have two separate companies each with internal testing departments working on the internal beta. Although we are working to hit our release dates, we have no intention of putting out a product that suffers from excessive bugs or low quality. If circumstances warrant, we may extend the beta period. We will continue to add lower priority features and new content after release and throughout the life cycle of the product.
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