I feel PDX should explore the idea of public beta after what happened with Imperator.
Youtubers and critics who were given early access few months prior to Imperator release all said it was a great game and that's probably what the beta testers mostly said, but as we've seen. It didn't coincide with what the public at large thought of the game at release. We all know that Imperator's recent updates are really great and the team is doing a great job with it but there are still lessons to learn from it.
I'm really worried that the dev team will be an echo chamber again and be caught off guard by a different reception than what they would have hoped for.
So please either substantially expand your beta team or simply make a public beta, especially for a release as risky as this one. Sequels to games that are still very popular are very challenging to nail. Don't solely rely on your most loyal fans on the forums as those tend to be the most forgiving in the community.
Youtubers and critics who were given early access few months prior to Imperator release all said it was a great game and that's probably what the beta testers mostly said, but as we've seen. It didn't coincide with what the public at large thought of the game at release. We all know that Imperator's recent updates are really great and the team is doing a great job with it but there are still lessons to learn from it.
I'm really worried that the dev team will be an echo chamber again and be caught off guard by a different reception than what they would have hoped for.
So please either substantially expand your beta team or simply make a public beta, especially for a release as risky as this one. Sequels to games that are still very popular are very challenging to nail. Don't solely rely on your most loyal fans on the forums as those tend to be the most forgiving in the community.