Beta/Alpha

[Onthor]

Okay, as a self confessed ignorant git who knows nothing about anything to do with this type of thing I must ask this question. What is an Alpha/Beta test? I am guessing that they are stages of game development. I further assume that due to the desire of the dev\'s to always keep this game evolving that it will never be classed as a finished product, so therefore will always be Alpha/Beta. I only first came across the terms Alpha/Beta about three days ago.  Perhaps if people better understood that they are not dealing with a finished product, but one still in development, (As I understand it anyway, though I may be wrong), that they would better endure any difficulties they may experience. Me I just hate not knowing what something means. Would someone please explain these terms to me?

Your humble, though hopefully not always to be ignorant, git.

[Moogie]

Hey, nobody is born with knowledge, it is obtained. I\'ll be happy to give you the definitions I personally go by (although different people sometimes have different opinions about it).

Alpha stage is where the project has the basic functions and code from which more can be built. Alpha is missing many features and content, and is largely untested/buggy.

Beta includes (nearly) all features that would be in the final release, has a decent amount of content like a \'final\' game version, but is also untested/buggy.

A game goes \'Gold\' (final) when all known bugs are gone (read: all known bugs... not all bugs), and all of the features and content are in place. It has been extensively tested by developers and testers.

[Onthor]

Thanks for your graciousness Moogie. Will this test ever go gold?

[Moogie]

I don\'t know. If it does, it certainly won\'t be soon.

[Altharion]

this test wont go gold.

[Harkin]

I have forseen the future, after 3 sets of devs, and in our childrens generation, the year of 2087 is when PS goes gold, and do not mock me for my powers!

[Entamis]

These terms are rather broad. You may want to check Wikipedia, but it\'s just one of the definitions.

[Kramy]

Betas can also be, in some situations, \"Alphas\" with all the bugs fixed. Commercial games don\'t usually do this however, but lots of small game-making hicks release \"Beta demos\" (with all known bugs fixed) to see what people think. Most of these only have 1-3 levels, or in the case of a MMORPG, 1 town...

[St_Augustine]

I thought Alpha was when a game was being test in-house, and Beta is testing to the enduser? (though  I have never been a tester of either) ...Or at least I thought that was I gathered from my Information Technology class...en.wikipedia.org is a good place to get information though.

[W0NDER]

Then Welcome to the world of beta and Alpha my friend:)