10-01-2002 00:52									#1
	Firaxis Games Public Beta Team Tired of ads?

Firaxis Games is recruiting roughly 25 individuals, over the age of 21, who live in the United States, and would be willing to help us test patches and possibly future projects. If you're interested and meet the above criteria, please send an email to beta@firaxis.com. Put 'Public Beta Application' in the subject and include (in the following format):

1. Your Name
2. Date of Birth
3. City and State
4. Amount of time available to dedicate to testing
5. Why you want to participate (1 paragraph or less)

If you're selected, we'll contact you through email in the coming weeks. Thanks and good luck!

Jeff

	10-01-2002 01:11									#2
	Increase Your PM Length

Apolyton's suggestions to the people who will want to mail Firaxis:
1) Only send a mail if you meet the criteria(that's a good way to help Firaxis as well!)
2) Dont expect a "Thank you, but no" reply. There's going to be a flood...

Jeff, check the news

	10-01-2002 01:15									#3
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Is the reason for the criteria that the testers need to be bound to American law? or is it just administrative reasons?

	10-01-2002 01:21									#4
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Gramphos Is the reason for the criteria that the testers need to be bound to American law? or is it just administrative reasons?

i'd say both...

	10-01-2002 01:47									#5
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That must be a joke! Is it April 1, yet?

	10-01-2002 01:54									#6
	Put an end to popups!

What's wrong with you guys, have something against college students?



Oh well, I guess we'll just have to use persuasion to get a look at those patches and help your programers who dont know jack about civ.

	10-01-2002 01:58									#7
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It's a shame that they only want those in the US.

Doesn't the Civ series have at least as much support in Europe as in the USA?

Judging by the posters here at Apolyton there are more Europeans than anyone else.

	10-01-2002 02:02									#8
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quote: Originally posted by Frank Johnson dont know jack about civ.

that's a good line in order to get on the team

MrWhereItsAt, it's not about having fans in europe or not. it's most probably easier to manage a group if the geographical area of the participants is smaller...

	10-01-2002 02:16									#9
	Increase the size of your Attachments

Hey mark, I'm 19 so I can be bitter if I want!

And face it, me and you know more about civ than some programer they pick up off the street. And they don't want you cause your greek. Come on and fight the system, it doesn't hurt if you've already been outcast.

	10-01-2002 02:23									#10
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

quote: Originally posted by Frank Johnson And face it, me and you know more about civ than some programer they pick up off the street.

yes frank, the people who worked on civ3 every for the last 2.5 years know nothing about civ...

	10-01-2002 02:40									#12
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I'm 23, 11 years of civ experience..........
but I'm from europe......... thus I can't apply

c'mon Jeffrey, please don't stick to the 'only from the USA' requirement.............

	10-01-2002 02:52									#13
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quote: Originally posted by MarkG yes frank, the people who worked on civ3 every for the last 2.5 years know nothing about civ...

Yes markG, for the same reasons that building engineers don't always make great architects.


Some of them do though...

	10-01-2002 03:05									#14
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Headline News!!! Civ3 goes beta and is looking for public participants to help out. However, you will stay be able to purchase your early stage game of Civ3 for $50 at your local electronic store.

I guess it's better late than never for Firaxis to do this.

	10-01-2002 03:13									#15
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

quote: Originally posted by TechWins I guess it's better late than never for Firaxis to do this.

i think you should bold the more important part of your post instead

	10-01-2002 03:54									#16
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quote: i think you should bold the more important part of your post instead

Maybe if you even had minimal intelligence you would be able to comprehend that the bold was there to symbolize a fictional statement by Firaxis.

	10-01-2002 03:58									#17
	I assume this is a volunteer thing? Enter the AD-FREE zone

And I assume there's no payment involved? I would consider applying, but am not sure many hours are they expecting? 5-10? 30-40? Aside from the number of hours, I'm not sure how my current employer (who pays me to develop and test software) would feel about me being paid to work for another software shop (though I'm not in the game industry).

	10-01-2002 04:00									#18
	Suffering from ads?

I think this just validates the fact the original release was little more than an Alpha. Now it looks like Firaxis is moving into the Beta Phase as they prepare for the expansion (which will really be the first legimate release). Then they will move to the Gold version (which will really be the first expansion).

	10-01-2002 04:01									#19
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quote: Originally posted by TechWins Maybe if you even had minimal intelligence you would be able to comprehend that the bold was there to symbolize a fictional statement by Firaxis.

saying nothing intelligent though

	10-01-2002 04:06									#20
	Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by jimmytrick I think this just validates the fact the original release was little more than an Alpha.

Nevertheless, this is good news.

	10-01-2002 04:37									#21
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Americans

	10-01-2002 04:38									#22
	Another unhappy Eurocom Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

I: IFGM has headquarters in France... why not a team in Europe?

Firaxis: Only if there will not be enough Americans that satisfy the requirements.

I: What if I plan to move to US?

F: Come on... who would wait for you...

I: Please please
(Firaxis decides)
F: Sorry but no

I: I will sue you for geographical discrimination
(Firaxis thinks)
F: Ok than lets have a global team

5 US, 5 Europe, 5 Latin america, 5 Asia, 2 Austrailia, 2 Africa, and 1 NZ....

I: Yipeeee

And than they gave me to supervise the team


Than I quit...

*waking up*

	10-01-2002 04:44									#23
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quote: saying nothing intelligent though

Basically what I'm trying to say is that we see the 'bold' statement brought to us, which is absolutely terrible. Civ3 is now just now going through a real beta and the game has already been released. What should have happened was for us to see the first part of the 'bold' statement right now (Civ3 goes beta) but not the latter part of the 'bold' statement (Civ3 is released and on sell for $50) until Spring. Do you now understand what I was intending?

	10-01-2002 05:08									#24
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Mark,

how much of a help is geographical restriction? I assume everyone will get most (if not all) info over the 'net or thru email, and there is minimal need for any particular area to be focussed on if this is the case. I could understand if perhaps ppl needed to have hardcopy or software mailed to them that Firaxis/Infogrames would want to keep postage costs smallest, but what could they send? You'd hope all the beta testers would be chosen for having Civ 3 already, as well as knowing at least a little about the game and thus need only to test patches/mods which could surely be got by 'Net access.

And all who learn of this application process would do so because of 'Net access anyway...

My point is that (correct me if I'm wrong) Civ has a much larger fan base overseas, perhaps somehow the type of game it is has more of an appeal to Europe than the US (that's the impression I get). Thus you would hope that the beta testing would test both what works and what ppl want - so you find out where your largest markets are and get them in on the process. Perhaps Firaxis has done this and have found the US market to be large enough, but if so this would surprise me.

In any case I don't see any reason for not asking for overseas testers (Europe, anyway), in order to get the probably quite distinct views of this very very large market slice.

	10-01-2002 05:44									#25
	Hmm.. Tired of ads?

I would have assumed the US market to be 75-80 % of total sales.

Anyway, the obvious reason to restrict the beta to US residents is to simply the legal aspects.

	10-01-2002 05:57									#26
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This is a joke right? They want volunteers to beta test patches and updates? What have all of us been doing since the games been released?

They need to take note of Blizzard, you know the guys who do a public beta test THEN release the game, not the other way around.

	10-01-2002 06:15									#27
	Tired of ads?

first of all, while being a proud european, i'm sure Firaxis will be able to find 25 people from the US that can give some pretty good feedback

quote: Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt I could understand if perhaps ppl needed to have hardcopy or software mailed to them that Firaxis/Infogrames would want to keep postage costs smallest, but what could they send?

there might actually need to snail-mail stuff. being involved indirectly to the ctp2 beta team, i can tell you that snail-mailing was a big issue.


btw, people who think that this is only for patches should re-read the announcement more carefully

	10-01-2002 06:31									#28
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if i didn't have to work so much () i might be interested, especially with that "and possibly future projects" bit

	10-01-2002 06:43									#29
	Full PM-box? Change here!

One more thing, remember how Jeff said that they don't (possibly just rarely) visit the General forum anymore because of the 'zoo' that it is. Well, I think Jeff just proved that they don't by posting this in the Creation forum. Typically an announcement like this would be posted in the General forum. My point being is that a lot of people's concerns/ideas/questions might be going unnoticed by Firaxis. However, I may just be conspiratizing just a bit.

	10-01-2002 06:47									#30
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quote: Originally posted by TechWins However, I may just be conspiratizing just a bit.

trust me, you are
dan magaha replied to two threads today, one was in the general forum....