They can claim whatever they want. But if it’s publicly available then it’s a beta regardless of what arbitrary name they give it.
If it was alpha it should be free.
It is, it’s also in alpha still. If they were claiming beta in this state I’d be more worried rather than just mad they keep adding stupid shit instead of going full optimization. They have a game, they just need to get it out the door and worry about content in future releases. It’s like the painter who can’t call a painting finished.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Cypher@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The industry definitions of alpha/beta disagree with you.
Words have meaning and you’re using them wrong.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
You are correct words do have a meaning. A weird thing for you to bring up since you’re the one incorrectly applying labels here.
Alpha products are available only for internal review, they are not available for public release they are not intended to be viewed by the general populace.
If you’re charging people money for it then it can’t be an alpha because now it’s an external product not an internal sample.
Cypher@lemmy.world 2 months ago
In video games development, and more broadly in software development, Alpha state refers to a feature incomplete and largely untested state and is unrelated to internal/external sales, review, testing or release.
Alpha software is not thoroughly tested by the developer before it is released to customers.
While outside of recent trends, particularly in crowd funded games development, alpha releases to customers for paid software are less common they do occur and don’t have any bearing on the alpha state of the software.
In general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon for proprietary software, while open source software often has publicly available alpha versions.
Further
A feature-complete (FC) version of a piece of software has all of its planned or primary features implemented but is not yet final due to bugs, performance or stability issues. This occurs at the end of alpha testing in development.
And for Beta
Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. A beta phase generally begins when the software is feature-complete but likely to contain several known or unknown bugs
I am both a qualified software developer, and have worked in the video games industry. I hope you have learnt something.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sorry bud you’re just wrong on that one.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
It’s been in development hell for over 10 years it’s not going anywhere slowly. They barely even have a product.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Okay? But it’s still definitely an alpha.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 months ago
It’s like trying to trace an outline of a fractal.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
After what feels like 20 years, it still being in alpha should worry you more than if this current state was called a beta.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yes and no. On the other side they’ve essentially rebooted development something like 3 or 4 times. So there’s a chance it comes up roses.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
For other games that would be described as development hell
Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yup, I acknowledge that it’s in development hell.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Oh well if they’ve only started four times then that’s fine. It’s only a problem if they do it 20 times right then we worry but nah, that standard.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m not saying this is normal. Why are you so hellbent on making me look like I am?