Most of the concern about and opposition to the idea of beta testing for RuneScape seems to be based on issues related to Jagex’s ability to implement such a program while simultaneously maintaing secrecy about upcoming changes. A lot of players seem to be incredibly worried that implementing a beta program will give those involved in the program an “unfair advantage”. There also seems to be a general consensus among the anti-beta crowd that Jagex somehow is dealing with a unique set of circumstances here.
A thorough discussion of all of these issues would take far more time than I have available at the moment. But I do want to throw out a few points for consideration. While you’re not really supposed to number points in an essay, I will put convenience over custom and do so anyway.
1. There is nothing that unique or special about Jagex or RuneScape when it comes to secrecy or security. RuneScape may be a special game, and Jagex a special company, but the design, development and implementation of RS is no different than the process used by hundreds of other companies to make hundreds of other software products. Whatever the issues that are raised, all of these other companies have had to deal with them. And they all have, with very, very few concluding that they had to never implement a beta testing program because of those concerns.
2. Jagex already has ways of ensuring secrecy. This isn’t Andrew and Paul Gower in a garage somewhere designing features and updates. It’s a company with hundreds of people, and I doubt there is anything either planned or in progress within Jagex that isn’t known by dozens of people, including many who are not directly involved. Despite this, real leaks about upcoming features and changes are very rare. Clearly, Jagex already knows how to ensure security in this regard.
The obvious response is to then say that it’s different when you are dealing with players versus employees. To that I say: why is that necessarily so? Sure, employees have something to lose if they violate a confidence, and perhaps more than a regular player ever could. But it is very possible to do the same thing with beta testers: give them a carrot to keep the secrets they have promised, while holding a stick in reserve for those cases where they do not.
There is nothing magical that transforms someone from untrustworthy git to saint by virtue of receiving a Jagex paycheck.
Most Jagex employees have regular accounts. How does Jagex prevent them from taking unfair advantage? Either they have a way, in which case it can be deployed here as well, or they don’t, in which case it obviously doesn’t really matter that much.
3. There are already trusted groups of RuneScape players. Would Jagex just pull random people off the street to hire as employees and share private information with? Of course not. And they shouldn’t, and needn’t, do that with beta testers either.
Nobody in favor of beta testing is suggesting they take applications from random players, or that people that Jagex knows nothing about should be allowed to enter such a program. Jagex already has groups of players that they entrust with power and information: player moderators and forum moderators. I believe there is also a forum for maxed out players, where some information is made available to which the average player is not privy.
These folks have already proven themselves to have at least a basic level of trustworthiness, or they wouldn’t be in their positions. And as reference in point #2, they have something to lose if they don’t do as they promise.
4. Risk of disclosure is not a justification for never allowing private information to leave a company. While some players may think that the idea of future updates being leaked would be some sort of unimaginable disaster, in the end it is just a few items changing in price in a game. There are tons of companies that use non-disclosure agreements to protect againt real potential financial loss if secrets are violated: we’re talking about millions of actual dollars being on the line, not just millions of geepees. If they can find ways to make things work, so can Jagex.
5. The impact of potential leaks is severely overblown. Suppose Jagex implements a beta program, and one bad apple gets into the program and violates confidence. I don’t think this would really be the end of the world. It’s not so long ago that all updates were telegraphed via a “Behind the Scenes” posting at the start of every month. This didn’t exactly cause any major problems, and in fact, many players wish those announcements would return.
A more recent example of deliberate “leaking” of an upcoming event was the bonus XP weekend. And while that did cause distortions in the market and make a few items difficult to buy or sell for a while, it wasn’t the end of the world.
6. Bad updates and quicky fixes can be just as disruptive as leaks. Don’t underestimate how badly the market and the game as a whole can get messed up because of poorly-considered updates. The recent positive feedback loop with respect to the jewelry trader is just one of many examples. Avoiding bad design decisions means avoiding these disruptions.
7. Jagex can manage the “unfair advantage” issue. There are a number of ways that Jagex can minimize the issue of some players getting unfair advantage due to knowledge they have about upcoming items. For example, they could restrict player trading during a beta test period; or they could prevent those who agree to be testers from logging in during the run-up to a release. These players can be monitored and managed as necessary to ensure compliance with policies designed to ensure fairness.
Even better, they could just stop with all the secrecy and tell us what’s in the pipe. If everyone knows the basic gist of the updates, nobody has an unfair advantage.
Picking players who already have achieved so much that they don’t need an unfair advantage would also help. I highly doubt that someone with all 99s and a billion gp in the bank is going to risk his/her account and status by violating a pledge of secrecy as part of a beta program.
8. I’m more concerned with what I am doing than what others are doing. Even if Jagex did absolutely nothing to prevent beta testers from getting the inside scoop and taking advantage of it, I really wouldn’t care all that much. It wouldn’t be ideal, but it’s a small price to pay for a quality product.
So there, I said it: I don’t really give a fig if a beta tester makes a bit of money on the side. It would be a tiny drop in the bucket, certainly not even close to all of the money made by merchant clans, for example.
Insider trading happens in the stock market. Nobody suggests this as a reason to shut down stock trading. The idea that something that would improve the game for everyone should be shot down because of the chance of a few people getting a small advantage for a few days or weeks is short-sighted and silly.
9. The issue is design and balance, not bugs. Opponents of beta-testing keep focusing on bug-fixing, usually saying something like “a small number of people won’t find bugs any better than Jagex’s in-house testers”. True—and irrelevant. Jagex doesn’t need players testing releases because of bugs; it needs them because the company consistently puts out releases that need tweaking due to not having properly anticipated how real customers would use them.
And finally:
10. We are customers, not children. I find the notion that it is impossible for Jagex to find a small number of real players who are trustworthy enough for a beta testing program highly insulting. We are customers, not little children who can’t be trusted with anything. Beta testers should be adults who have already proven that they are reliable and trustworthy, and they should be treated as such. Believe it or not, there really are people out there who place a higher value on their personal ethics and reputation than making a few extra gp in a game.