Are the TA forums still a good place to find beta testers?

[rocket5tim]

A few years ago when I needed beta testers for one of our games, the TA forums were full of devs looking for testers. But looking thru the "upcoming" forums lately reveals that there aren't that many devs seeking testers.

Are the TA forums no longer a good place to find good/serious testers? Or are devs just not doing open calls for testers in the forums as much?

[Morthizerm]

Most of them are either in time-out, or has been permabanned.

[warcrack]

I can't see any problem for beta testers and developers to promote and seek beta testers

[Jerutix]

I think it's still a good place. Just make sure you follow the forum rules. But, I agree that it is being done less than in the past, even a year ago.

[Eli]

I think the reason you see less public beta testing now is because most studios have a stable of great beta testers they can email. NimbleBit used to do tons of beta stuff here, for instance, but they don't need to publicize it anymore because all they need to do is send out an email. Most studios seem to be doing very similar things.

[rocket5tim]

Originally Posted by Eli

I think the reason you see less public beta testing now is because most studios have a stable of great beta testers they can email. NimbleBit used to do tons of beta stuff here, for instance, but they don't need to publicize it anymore because all they need to do is send out an email. Most studios seem to be doing very similar things.

Thanks for the reply! We have a great group of friends and fellow developers who we call on to help out with beta testing. But I still like the idea of sending builds to folks in communities like the TA Forums for those times when you want unbiased feedback. And who might help spread the word.

That said, we don't want to just send out builds to anyone who asks. We only want to send builds to people who are serious about giving honest feedback and who will send quality, well written bug reports. So when I saw that there weren't a lot of devs asking for testers, I got curious about how things might have changed.

[1pxOff]

Originally Posted by rocket5tim

That said, we don't want to just send out builds to anyone who asks. We only want to send builds to people who are serious about giving honest feedback and who will send quality, well written bug reports. So when I saw that there weren't a lot of devs asking for testers, I got curious about how things might have changed.

I think that this is the crux of the issue. I have requested beta testers here in the past and while there were plenty of takers, none of them actually gave me any feedback at all. It is a problem with beta testers in general, not necessarily TA forum users. The problem seems to stem from the fairly new idea that "beta" just means "early access".