Profile of Kobunite

A while ago I went to a VR Meetup at Bossa, one of the guys doing a talk showcased some strategy game ideas he had and I've got to say they were awesome.

He was thinking along the lines of using motion control as well to direct stuff and build things like you see in many films, which I'm not sure would work of CoH2 - the problem with doing it for games like CoH2 is the action bar down the bottom of the screen.

That kind of thing looks awful on VR, it really breaks it. So, the UI would need a complete redesign - and thats before we start talking about the menu system.

Why should they have got in?

Yes, they are very good at this game.
I don't know if they would have given good feedback or not, but I suspect they would have.

But, simply put, being highly ranked in the game shouldn't just get you access to the alpha.

For this to be a valid test of any kind they need a wide range of players that fully explore the skill curve of the community. Putting in too many of the games top players throws this curve hugely.

That is why some of the best guys didn't get in, it's also why some of the worst will have. Almost regardless of what they want to gain from this Alpha they will have needed to recreate a much smaller version of the player base.

TL;DR: Putting in all the top players just because they are top will not make the test, or end product, better - it'll probably make it worse.

Also, the point of the Alpha isn't to showcase things to the community. It's not to make us feel more included (well, that probably isn't it's primary purpose). It's not a reward to the most excited or most loyal players. It's an Alpha that is designed to test the code they have written for whatever has been tested. Its a test to find problems, be they balance, features, abilities, units...etc.

People haven't been betrayed by the alpha, the people in the dark will have been anyway and the people who can't talk about it knew that was the case when they signed up for a closed alpha (or should have).

This really depends on what they want to achieve in the Alpha. For most tests like this you need to allow in a range of experience levels, and the point of the alpha is better served by severely limiting the number of players in the test.

An open beta is for large numbers, and once the aims of the alpha are completed.

Do I think it should be in waves? Well, it depends on what Relic are trying to achieve with this test.

The alpha test isn't for letting everyone provide feedback, to let all those interested have a go. That's what the final release is for.

Even if it was worth doing, the m1919 is already in the game (in the Infantry Company and with Paras) so Relic has already decided what role they wanted .30 to fill in the game.

I don't have that line... The header I get looks like this:

Hm, Yahoo seems to only be letting me view the message header, rather than the message source...unfortunately you need the source to get the link. Maybe try forwarding the e-mail to a gmail account and looking there?