If you are one of the lucky few to receive a golden ticket from Square Enix like the one in the picture than "Congratulations!"... it doesn't mean anything! I did that one myself in Photoshop, believe it or not. I had to put that disclaimer in there because I'm sure somebody somewhere, googled the phrase, "winners chocolate bar type FFXIV beta tickets" before reading the rest of this little guide.
However, sure enough, emails will be sent out pretty soon to first wave of lucky Final Fantasy XIV beta testers. We do not know exactly when this will be. My speculative guess would be around mid to late February, as most major MMORPG beta periods begin around 2 to 3 months after the initial registration.
Non-Disclosure Agreement
I'm not going to preach to you about the NDA. You agreed to the NDA upon signing up for the beta, hopefully you read it. If, in your overwhelming excitement, you hastily clicked away without reading the fine print - don’t worry. We have a copy of it right here: Final Fantasy XIV Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Take some time to look it over and I assure you that you won’t be doing time in the slammer with a large man named Bubba.
Duties of a FFXIV Beta Tester
Duties!? That’s right! You weren’t just sent that email to try the game out and decide if you like it or not. The whole purpose of a beta is to make FFXIV as good as it can possibly be when it comes time for the game to release.
Now, I’ve been an avid MMO player for over ten years. I’ve taken part in number of betas myself; games such as Aion, LotRO, Ragnarok Online, Age of Conan and some other free MMO betas. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t contribute much of anything to the testing process for those games. When my character fell into cracks or got stuck under bridges, I didn’t file any reports. Instead, I simply told myself, “This game kind of sucks” and I’d carry on until I found more stuff I didn’t like about the game. FFXIV is different. I think most of us will agree on that, as a recent poll showed roughly 70% of the Vault community consists of ex-FFXI players. We already know XIV is going to be our game, we know SE will get it right.
At this point, it’s not a question of, “Will I like this game or not?” The question is, “What am I going to contribute to the beta process that will make the game better for everyone later?” With that said, I have a few tips.
How to be an Efficient Tester
Think outside the box: Don’t get caught up in the “leveling hype”. Without a doubt, there will be people whose primary goal in the beta is to be the first to reach the highest tiers (The developers have stated that there won’t be “levels” in FFXIV, so we’ll just call it “progression of your weapons” until we figure out exactly how it works). Regardless of how “leveling” works, don’t be afraid to take the road less travelled for the sake of testing. Try running into corners, walls and the edges of the map to see if you can fall through into “the abyss”. Test out mob behavior - let enemies chase you around and see if they react to different terrain appropriately. If the game allows odd job combinations, similar to that of FFXI’s sub-job system, don’t be afraid to mix things up and test for bugs. Be creative.
Check for reliability: The central question here is, “Does _____ do what it is intended to do?” This could simply mean analyzing the resulting conditions of using an item, such as a food or wearing a piece of equipment. Checking for reliability also means closely observing the effects of interactions with NPC’s. For instance, if an NPC casts a spell on you, see if an unrelated condition is able to affect the spell in some way. There’s a million ways to check if things are not working as they should. It is often these types of bugs that manage to slip their way into the final release because they are so easily overlooked.
Participate in group functions: Oftentimes, certain bugs are only triggered when multiple players interact with an NPC, enemy, item or another player. Team up with a partner to test bugs. Cast spells on your partner while they teleport, attempt to trade an item while they do something else, see if you can get the game to react out of the ordinary. If the game offers group activities and events such as PvP combat, take the time to really test different scenarios, rather than simply aiming to be the “best at it”. There will be plenty of time for that down the road. Play the game NOT as intended just to see how it responds.
Try to break the game with outside resources: In this beta test, we will be focusing all of our attention on the Windows PC platform. This is due to the fact that, unlike the PS3 console, hardly any two computers are exactly the same. Even the same brand and model PC’s could house different software that could result in an adverse effect on the game. When I say “try to break the game” I mean exactly that – Run different programs, anti-viruses, display resolutions, purposely lag your connection and note how the game responds. The more bugs we catch during the beta process, while we have the complete undivided attention of the developers, the smoother our game will be in the long run.
Report, Report, Report! I really can’t stress this enough. If you don’t like how a feature is implemented and you have a better idea than, by all means, report it! Make a big deal about it. Get other beta participants talking about the issues. Think about it, you just might be playing this game for the next two, three, five, maybe even seven years! Never again will you have this degree of say in what needs to be changed in the game. Take full advantage of it.
Conclusion
Remember, Final Fantasy XIV is not going to be “FFXI – The Sequel”. You’re going to have people in the beta that simply just want to play the game, try it out and nothing more. I’d imagine that it’s not a stretch to say that a large majority of beta testers will carry this mentality. It should be considered a privilege to be selected as part of the first wave to test the game. Make the most it, for the sake of those of us who may not set foot in Eorzea for many months to come.
