With a lot of big name MMO titles coming out in the next year or two the temptation to opt in for closed or open beta is huge. I have done my share of betas in the past and I have recently tried to think of how much these have influenced whether I played the game or not. I understand that most games evolve quite a bit from betas to launch and then from 1 year out but sometimes the damage is done.

Some games I have tested in Closed or Open beta include Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Vanguard,  Champions Online, Fallen Earth, Allods online, and Warhammer Online.  Of all of these the only one I played after launch was LOTRO and it was fun for a while but the grind became evident and I kept saying with every step of the way, “it’s fun but every feature which is good is just so much better in WoW.” So after 4 months or so I stopped my Sub and went back to WoW. With regard to LOTRO I do have to say that if I had more sustained time for the game and some more guild interaction I think I might have taken to it a bit more but it’s a bit hard for me to go too multi player these days due to family/work etc. So it was back to WoW.

Also of the others, the only one I think I might ever go back to try is Warhammer (or possibly DDO) but the whole free to play nonsense and how they clip your playing soo much has me a bit jaded on those titles. So what is my point? Well basically my point is I think playing these titles in beta has caused me to just not like them and not want to play them. Almost all of them at one point or another I had high hopes for and wanted to play them in release, or for some I just got a beta invite and figured what the hell. Granted I am glad for this for some titles (Champions, Vanguard), but in those others I might have missed out.

So now there is the obvious question. With these big titles coming out (yes, I know some of them aren’t even in beta so save it), WoW:Cataclysm, DC Universe Online, Star Wars the Old Republic, the question is should I want to beta or should I hold out and just play a finished product. At this point I am so excited to see Cataclysm that it’s hard not to use the beta invite but with things changing so much every day and the fact I want to enjoy every second of leveling both to 85 and a new toon I will simply wait for whenever “it’s ready ” per Blizzard and play away.

As for DCUO, I am not sure with SOE making it if I am going to like it or not so a beta (especially FREE!) wouldn’t hurt a bit, or else I will more then likely wait a month or two into the release to see what the consensus says of the new title.

Which brings us to Star Wars:TOR. It looks so amazingly epic that I am fairly certain that no matter what I will just simply be subscribing on day 1 and give it a good 2-3 months of play and if it disappoints well then so be it, or else I will enjoy the hell out of that new title. But that’s about a year away as well so who knows what happens between now and then.

All things that are certain, there are 3 games I am dieing to play and it’s going to be hard to resist but I think I have enough things on my plate to keep me busy until release of these. But I ask you. Is it better to get a head start and probably ruin some of the surprise of the game, or just wait and bask in it’s doneness upon release??

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