Why an open beta for Madden 20 is the beta we need
Not what you know, but who you know
Most times in life it’s not what you know, but who you know
and the beta was no different. As I mentioned, access was granted first to the
game changers then it flowed into the competitive circuit. The push by EA to
solidify Madden as an E Sport is no secret, however having a restricted beta
where some competitors have access while others don’t undermines the idea of
fair play. Imagine the NFL allowing some teams to have OTA’s while not
providing that capability to other teams.
While EA attempted to get the codes out to players who had
any sort of past ranking points, it dismisses the fact that a player who’d like
to enter the competitive gaming structure that cycle now faced an even greater
barrier of entry. When attempting to establish credibility as a sporting
organization it’s important to ensure the playing field is level for all. I’m
not sure this can be done in good faith with any sort of restricted beta short
of barring comp players from participating.
Team work makes the dream work
They say many hands make light work, so why wouldn’t you
want as many people working to find issues with a game in prerelease? When it
comes to beta’s you are usually running them for one of two reasons, either you
want feedback on gameplay or you’re searching for bugs. In either of these
cases, a game like Madden who has found itself so maligned with critical launch
bugs and tuning issues it would seem could find great value in getting as much
feedback early on as possible.
It sounds funny I know but there was a weird “have and have
nots” feel to the beta distribution last year. I got a code early from a
developer but as the weeks went on the mad search for codes started creating a
lot of animosity within the community. It seemed those that did not have codes
began resenting those that did and it became a divisive topic. For EA fighting
the toxicity that comes with video game communities today is already a tough task,
I’m not sure adding to that with a restrictive beta is in their best interest.
A social experiment
As someone who works in marketing I can understand, and even
appreciate, the value in the way EA went about distributing codes last year.
They used influencers and developers on social media to push out the codes
through games and drawings which kept people talking. The issue EA has to be
wary of here is it started to become toxic like most things in gaming seem to
do today. Code selling, and even code selling scams, became rampant after a few
weeks. Some in the community felt like people were using the codes to further
their own clout and views versus trying to get them out to the community as
soon as possible.
As much exposure as EA got from doing these give a ways I
believe the exposure they’d get by getting more of their community testing the
game earlier would be much greater. Think about it, wouldn’t people tweeting to
their friends that they are already testing out the new Madden bring more
people to the game? There is always a risk the beta sours some people’s view of
the game, but at this point many people that would fall in this bucket already
have a “need to see it for myself” view of the game.
Beta for one; Beta for all
What does this all mean? It means that there are a lot of
reasons not to do a beta at all…just kidding. In reality, closed betas work
when players don’t know they exist but that is a hard thing to do today in the
social media era. Since we all know it’s happening it would go a long way for
EA to open up the beta to the entire community this year. With Madden 19 having
so many issues early, and with the developers showing a strong confidence in
the game this year, I think there is a lot of goodwill to be had in giving the
community a sneak peek.
What are your thoughts? Let me know on twitter @T4Verts
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