Testing

As most people will know, when a new game is being developed it will go through numerous stages of testing. From internal alpha testing to external quality assurance teams. For an MMO generally the requirements of testing netcode and load on servers requires a larger number of people. So towards the end of development teams of real players are recruited for closed beta tests. Now if you haven't guessed already, this is what I've been doing for the last few days as the "secret gaming thing". Now this is taking up the majority of my free time at the moment and will be doing for a while yet. I'm going to have to start doing my blog earlier before I start playing in the evening! Of course before I wrote any of this I had a re-read of the non-disclosure agreement to be sure what I'm actually allowed to say about this online. The answer is basically "nothing" except this:

PERMITTED DISCLOSURES

1. The fact that there is a Game Program.
2. The fact that you are a member of the Game Program.

So for anyone who is interested, I was lucky enough to be chosen for one of the testing groups on Bioware's highly anticipated new MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic and no I can't say anything more than that. I originally signed up over two years ago, getting the email this week was a very nice surprise.