MMORPGs go through testing cycles like every other game. Terms like Closed Beta and Open Beta get tossed around in the MMO universe pretty often, but not everbody knows what these terms mean. What exactly is closed beta? What's open beta? Here's a quick rundown of popular MMO development terms / beta testing terms:

Alpha – This is typically the earliest form of game testing and the most “exclusive”. Typically, Alpha Testing is limited to only a handful of users, usually conducted internally within the studio itself. True alpha testing is never done publicly.

Closed Beta – Closed beta testing precedes open beta. Closed beta tests in MMOs and MMORPGs are typically small in scale and often require beta keys. Players should expect characters to be wiped after the conclusion of closed beta testing. Cash shops are typically not open during this phase of testing. Availability of beta keys varies greatly by game, with some MMORPGs not even requiring beta keys for closed beta while others are extremely exclusive. Sometimes game publishers undergo “pre-closed beta” testing, which is usually the same as closed beta, but even more exclusive.

Open Beta Testing – Open beta follows closed beta and is typically the final round of beta testing. The last remaining bugs, glitches, and other issues are usually addressed during this phase of testing. Characters are typically NOT wiped at the end of open beta testing and is sometimes seen as “full release” by some, as there are no restrictions to the number of beta testers. Anyone who wants to play a game during open beta can. A free to play MMORPG usually launches its cash shop during open beta and has more content available than it did in closed beta.

Commercial Release – Commences upon the completion of open beta testing. Games in commercial release are expected to be much more stable and polished than beta. Cash shops in MMORPGs are always available upon commercial launch. Expect more features and content available during commercial release than any form of beta.

Gamers regularly complain about pay to win in free to play MMORPGs. Things like resistance training in Forsaken World or games like Seal Online that sell gear outright in their cash shops. These are legitimate concerns, but pale in comparison to the pay to win elements in browser based strategy games like Evony, Sparta: War of Empires, and Wartune. There are literally hundreds of browser based empire building strategy games and they're all pay to win. They aren't subtly pay to win either, players are quickly introduced to the benefits premium currency in these games. I've personally played dozens of them and tutorials quickly explain that premium currency can be used to build instantly, get more resources, and more. If you've never played one of these games before, think of them as a real time strategy game like Starcraft, Age of Empires, or Warcraft 3, but with MMO elements (thousands of players on the map). Being able to just buy resources with cash is obviously a huge advantage.

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Sparta: War of Empires - Typical Strategy MMO

I actually had a Skype conversation with a representative of Ministry of War, a browser based strategy game by Snail Games, and he insisted to me that the game wasn't pay to win. I've played Ministry of War before and the game literally lets players buy in game resources (food/gold/stone/etc) for cash. When I brought this up, he simply told me that since players can get these resources for free just by playing the game, it wasn't actually pay to win. When I brought up the fact that players being attacked can just whip out their credit card and buy huge amounts of resources and train soldiers (instantly if you spend the cash) to defend, he brushed it off as a part of the game. I really shouldn't be surprised though, the person I spoke to was employed by the company that makes the pay to win game. I'm not sure why he denied the obvious though. A game could be pay to win and still be successful – just look at League of Angels!

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How is this fair? Players can just buy resources!

I actually really like the strategy games and think that games like Evony would actually be REALLY fun if they weren't pay to win. I actually played quite a bit of Astro Empires years ago. It was my first free to play strategy game and I thought it was incredible. I remember I ran into a wall when it came to progression though. I had to pay money to get more than a certain amount of colonies/bases. I played a few other more modern games like War Tune and Siege Lord, but quickly stopped because they were similar to Ministry of War and entirely pay to win. These games are fun for a while, but you quickly realize that you're at an absurd disadvantage to paying players. I suspect if anyone released a non pay to win browser based strategy game, it would do incredibly well. Practically all these games are built on the same engine too, so it wouldn't be difficult to grab the engine and launch it without any pay to win elements. The game could monetize some other way – like donations, selling cosmetics, etc. Would anyone else play a game like this? A non pay to win strategy game? I know I would.

By, Omer Altay

One of the primary reason's why MMO developers partner with publisher is because they need a local partner to localize their games. Korean developers like XL Games (ArcheAge) and Actoz (Dragon Nest and La Tale) focus on making good games, or at least trying to. It doesn't make sense for XL Games to spend time, money, and effort localizing ArcheAge for Western audiences when they can just license their game to Trion Worlds and let them handle all the translations, billing, maintenance, etc. Larger companies like Perfect World (Arc Games) and Nexon have their own in-house localization teams as well as subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe, so they don't need to rely on separate publishers. This allows game developers to focus on making the games while publishers localize and distribute games. But what if more developers could self-publish their own games? A big hurdle in this is localization and it looks like the folks behind Tree of Savior, IMCGames, have the localization problem figured out.

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The game's development team is using its community to crowd source its localization. Much like Wikipedia, players will be able to actively contribute translations to the game. The beauty of this system is that the game only needs a few hardcore fans to get A LOT of translations done. Just look at Wikipedia – something most of us use regularly, but almost never contribute to. The developers are pushing to get Tree of Savior localized into English first, but plan to add other languages next. The developer already uploaded the Open Text Client (OTC) files to GitHub and players can begin contributing translations. I suspect by the time the game reaches full launch in the U.S., Tree of Savior will have some of the best translations of any Korean MMORPG. Poor translations a real problem in MMOs too. A majority of free to play games in the West are developed in either China or Korea and they're usually translated mechanically, which results in really awkward quest text and other issues.

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Just because a game developer can crowd source their translations, doesn't mean they're going to succeed without a publisher. At least not right away. Having a partner overseas to handle customer support and billing has its advantages. This is definitely the first step though towards more and more developers self-publishing their own titles. From a player's perspective, I'd like to see more games go the self-published route, because it cuts out the middle man, which usually means updates are released quicker. As-is, most Korean servers for popular games in the West are months, if not years, ahead in terms of content updates. A single global version of a game, with well localized servers, would mean no difference between foreign and local versions of that game.

By, Omer Altay