Unclear Description: Obvious Beta

BreadBull Since: Aug, 2015

#1: Sep 30th 2018 at 10:33:10 PM

A discussion on this trope was made here, but that kinda stalled so here goes.

The problem with Obvious Beta is that there is a bit of YMMV on this. According to the other wiki Beta testing is supposed to be for games that are "feature complete", ie it has all the things developers wanted in the game and just needs bug testing. Unfortunately time has caused the phrase to shift slightly in meaning and I myself would classify a game as Obvious Beta only when it is nigh-impossible to play mainly due to poor optimisation, being unstable and Game-Breaking Bugs. Also, some folks seem to think that this is for any game that is in beta, even if they don't try to hide the fact at all (which this trope is).

The page image probably isn't helping, showing an image (missing textures) that according to the strict definition isn't in beta.

Wick check:

Open

Action 52 - Maybe? A lot of the games are super basic and one could probably recreate them using MIT's Scratch in 10 minutes, but at least for the most part it's playable.
Burnout Paradise - Game is playable at the time of release, though missing a few promised features. IMO shouldn't be Obvious Beta.
Cook, Serve, Delicious! - Similar to above, playable but missing a few features. IMO not Obvious Beta.
Video Game/Cobalt - Quote, "The game comes with a few warnings labeling it as an alpha game." Well, that's just 100% not this trope.
Video Game/Civilization - This one is interesting. Quote, "Bugs and balance issues, routinely crashed to desktop for many machines, and had obtuse, sociopath AI". The first two I would classify as Obvious Beta, but bizarre AI is quite different from brain-dead AI.
Dead Island - Considering they forgot to remove a function used only for bug testing, most definitely counts.
Video Game/Driver - A saving grace is that there is Word of God the game is unfinished, which means it's without-an-argument Obvious Beta.
Evil Genius - The game is perfectly playable. Sure, the bugs might be really glaringly obvious, but they're not game-breaking. Shouldn't be Obvious Beta.
Grand Theft Auto V - The description says enough. Quote, "How many players feel about Online". The trope shouldn't be subjective. The description goes on to mention the horrendously poorly balanced state of the game. Shitty yes, but still not Obvious Beta.
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun - Poorly written plot. A negative true, but nothing to do with the software itself. Not played this game myself so not sure how obvious and how extreme the "obvious bugs" are.
NHL Hockey - Slew of features missing upon release, though the game itself is playable. Some would say it counts, I would say not really.
Need for Speed - Multiple games, framerate issues. Some installments are unplayable, some aren't. Also a comment on how manual transmission is missing - quite unforgivable as it's a racing game I would agree, but Obvious Beta? No.
PlanetSide - Game only plays well on one specific PC spec, as well as being unstable. Would say it counts.
Puzzle Pirates - Another interesting one. It specifically has gone through beta testing, the devs just didn't respond to feedback. Would say it counts.
Pyongyang Racer - Quite YMMV. Again haven't played it, but sounds like another "missing a lot of features, but playable". Given who made it though, is it really missing features, or are we just having too high expectations for a game that didn't promise any of those (albeit quite ubiquitous) features?
Rollercoaster Tycoon - Rollercoaster Tycoon World. Who could forget that disaster? I would say it counts because not only does its unfinished UI make it unplayable, it also seems like quite a step back from its previous instalment.
Sid Meier's Pirates! - Intended feature, wasn't in the game, though still playable. Shouldn't be Obvious Beta.
Soul Series - Maybe? V has an unfinished story mode, but the game's focus is on fighting more than a story. Again, haven't played this; not entirely sure.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Some glitches and missing content. On its own I would say "not really", but as it was rushed for a Christmas release that pushes it up to a tentative "maybe" for me.
Starship Titanic - Er...has anyone described a room as beta?
Superman 64 - A shitty game, but at least it didn't crash. The game is apparently more playable in its beta state, which makes this hard to decide.
Surgeon Simulator 2013 - Some bugs, still playable. I wouldn't count.
Video Game/Swordquest - Since placeholder graphics made it to the final release, would count it as Obvious Beta.
Test Drive Unlimited - Again, a no from me. This time, it's less a fault of the game and more server issues.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - This highlights one extra issue - technical faults might not affect everyone. Personally I've not had trouble, so from my experience I would say it's not Obvious Beta, but someone else who plays this game and had black screens would happily disagree with me.
The Sims 4 - The game on its own is fine, it's just that since it comes from a line of great games and had a lot of hype to live up to. Most notably, the devs never actually promised the features would be in the game, people just expected them to be since the last instalments had them. A step backwards, or a step sideways?
TimeShift - Another maybe. Missing features and an Obvious Rule Patch to prevent bugs, but again it's quite playable. Depends on your opinion on how much loading screens referring to non-existent features counts.
Unreal - Unstable, many crashes. Check, although downplayed since it's limited to one specific part of the game.
Video Game/Worms - Not played this game, not sure how unplayable it is. Another maybe.

In summary: Due to a shift in semantics, as well as being slightly ambiguous in the first place what Obvious Beta means has a lot of YMMV. You reading this might disagree with my analysis / wick check, which is exactly the problem. My suggestions for this trope would be

A. An example cleanup of those that clearly don't fit, as well as ZCEs;

B. Rename the trope to something like Unfinished Release, and perhaps

C. Start a YMMV TLP for works that people feel are unfinished and should not be published, but is.

Edited by BreadBull on Sep 30th 2018 at 6:34:08 PM

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#2: Sep 30th 2018 at 10:43:57 PM

This sounds more like a task for a Short Term Projects thread than TRS.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

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