What the hell is it with DTG that everything has to be so secret now? Specifically, I’m referring to the last post by dtg_jan in the ‘beta testers’ thread created by the EP in May. No-one is asking about what they are ‘working’ on but I fail to see the secrecy around who ‘they’ are! The lack of candour & the general attitude of DTG recently leads to one thing ultimately - a player base that has no trust in the publisher/developer. Personally, I think confidence in TSW is at an all time low….lack of cohesive structure, bug fixes, blurry textures to name a few. Just my opinion. Not looking for validation or otherwise.
Lots of valid complaints about DTG, imo, but this isn't one of them. Why do we need to know who the beta testers are? They probably don't want other users harassing them for "secret inside info", and rightly so.
I don't know if it's the case with DTG, but very often a non-disclosure agreement (which beta testers have to sign) includes a provision that you're not actually allowed to tell anyone you're a beta tester. Very similar, in fact, to working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Don't ask me how I know this though. JB (<--- pure coincidence)
While it would've been reassuring to hear they were working on investigating blurry textures for example, I agree with other posters that we don't need to know who the beta testers themselves are. Up to them if they wish to tell people (NDA permitting of course), but I think it'd be wrong for everyone's names to be published. Frequently the player base gets riled up by various issues, and this could just lead to targeted threats or harassment of beta testers unfortunately - which they don't deserve. Feel it is important given my stance on the matter that I state that I, unfortunately, am not a beta tester.
Hey! So I'm not a beta tester, but I do gametesting sometimes (in my very rare spare time), and work here. [Don't ask, I'm an overachiever] A lot of it has to do with harassment, some of it has to do with people being contacted by media/PR teams to ask about the "inside scoop" and put DTG/3rd party devs in awkward places, acting as an agent for DTG and saying things that cannot be verified/clarified. Plus leaks, obviously. Basically, we don't want people to feel they are unable to help with the game, nor do we want them to feel pressured to find issues constantly. We want them to give honest, unhindered feedback. Think about how people tag the DTG team in the forums constantly about issues, and are sometimes not very nice about it, and think about how they might tag a group of Beta testers who didn't find a game-breaking bug. Note that Jan has way more insights into this than I do; I'm just speaking from my experience, not as a beta tester for DTG but as a tester for other games.
They could have at least said something sooner. Nowt like leaving everyone wondering if it was even still a thing.
You can pretty much guess who has been invited to the inner circle when their prolific posts on the forum dry up. Even though the NDA doesn’t preclude posting I suspect it’s easier just not to, for fear of inadvertently saying something that breaches the trust. Then as stated there’s the issue of harassment.
Good morning folks, Candace hit the nail square on the head here. We understand that there is a desire to learn as much information as possible, but the NDAs are designed to protect both parties. This I agree on, honestly. We wanted to keep the thread open just in case we needed to share more information or extend more invites, but in hindsight, it kept things unclear for too long. Definitely something we need to keep in mind for potential future extensions of the beta team. All the best, Jan
Indeed, disclosing that one has signed an NDA is very often a breach of said NDA. Not just SIS. Even your average civil servant is not meant to disclose their security clearance level, as social engineers use information like this and someone's job role to target them with spear phishing attacks.
