How much longer is the Settlers Online going to be in Beta?

[Zotamedu]

It's shady business practice. They are selling in game currency and they have sold two sets of boxed editions of a Beta which is really really bad practice. The reason for the Beta label is so that they can blame beta for all bugs. At the start when they released the game, they claimed that it was only the servers that were in beta, not the game itself. So the game was supposed to be content complete but they needed some time to balance the hardware. Now, one and a half year later, it's still obvious that the servers are not handling the task very well with all the lag we get.

This is one of the reasons why BB will never get a single cent from me.

[Driller7]

It's shady business practice. They are selling in game currency and they have sold two sets of boxed editions of a Beta which is really really bad practice. The reason for the Beta label is so that they can blame beta for all bugs. At the start when they released the game, they claimed that it was only the servers that were in beta, not the game itself. So the game was supposed to be content complete but they needed some time to balance the hardware. Now, one and a half year later, it's still obvious that the servers are not handling the task very well with all the lag we get.

This is one of the reasons why BB will never get a single cent from me.

+1

Simply put great way to keep earning as BB with minimizing expenses... The sad part is they do not look around to other successful games and develop this more but keep adding "safe" updates. PVP is needed!!! PvP will increase their income dramatically when are they going to realize that???

[Metallix]

It isn't beta.

BB may still be claiming it's 'beta', but it simply isn't. It is a commercially available piece of software and has been for a long time. Why they are still claiming it is 'beta' is a mystery, because for all practical and legal purposes it is not 'beta'. Any developer will tell you that it is ridiculous to claim something is 'beta' when you have thousands of customers paying money for it. The test server is 'beta', the main game isn't.

there are still game breaking bugs around. if you're one of those unlucky ppl that lost 2 years worth of time and more money that you usually spend on a AAA title because you moved around some buildings and you whole island bugged out, BB will refund you like 10% of what your island was worth, because you know.. its beta theres some bugs around.
I think there should be better legislation covering gaming, I think beta time should be limited by law and I think a company should not be able to sell you in game stuff during beta. You could pre-purchase some stuff if you want, for when the game is out of beta.
my 2cents.

[BobLurker]

there are still game breaking bugs around. if you're one of those unlucky ppl that lost 2 years worth of time and more money that you usually spend on a AAA title because you moved around some buildings and you whole island bugged out, BB will refund you like 10% of what your island was worth, because you know.. its beta theres some bugs around.
I think there should be better legislation covering gaming, I think beta time should be limited by law and I think a company should not be able to sell you in game stuff during beta. You could pre-purchase some stuff if you want, for when the game is out of beta.
my 2cents.

The only reason it's like this is because we haven't had a legal test case. If any company tried arguing "It's 'beta' and we told them so", the court would pretty much laugh at them because they have accepted money to provide a service. Take a look at the T&Cs on credit cards and the courts will still rule against the card provider sometimes when they think the T&Cs are unreasonable.

The problem is that no one is going to take a matter to court until it's worth their while to do so. It's an awful lot of time, money and effort to expend because of a game! So, we'll carry on with companies making ridiculous claims that a game is 'beta' when it isn't and hiding behind that claim whenever they make a change or a bug pops up.

Tell you what though, the longer BB keep up this charade of claiming it's 'beta', the more likely it becomes that someone who has already spent a lot of money (and time) on the game will get hit by the island-freeze bug and decide it is worth their while taking legal action when the compensation they are offered isn't enough. It's going to happen one day, on one of these games (not just BB or Settlers I'm talking about here) and the fallout from it will be immense, because legislation will indeed have to follow. The gaming industry is on very dodgy ground at the moment and it's only a matter of time before this nonsense about 'beta' and T&Cs blows up in its face.