I originally posted this in Fusion's GDR sales (for which I apologise humbly!) I won't post a long essay, I'll just try to make this simple. If someone is selling a beta of a game it should be tested first to see if it is any different from retail? The current system is far too open to abuse... and essentially leaves buyers taking a gamble. I could buy a Katana dev kit - knock off a load of copies - then sell them here for whatever price I want. It is a know fact that people with devkits have produced multiple copies of games solely for this reason in the past. I only suggest this should be introduced for betas 'for sale' over a certain price (to be determined by the moderators)
I still don't agree. Ive benefited from the low prices that the gambles provided. And what's to say that there isn't something different on the disk's files, or that there is some debug menu that they cant figure the combination out for? And are you going to buy the retail copy just to sell a beta that you don't care about? I doubt it.
As much as I would like to know, the differences might not be obvious. Hidden debugs, slightly different soundfiles, hell maybe a slight change in a guns spray pattern for example (maybe a tighter spray cone). I played the crap out of Ducktales, one of my favorite NES games but when I played the beta I totally spaced and didn't realize the levels had different names.
The point here is that you've been happy with the 'low prices' that gambles provided. What if you shelled out, say, $250 - received the disc and there weren't any differences at all? For that kind of price there should be some obligation on the sellers part to test what they're selling (imho). Of course, if it's a low price then there's no real issue, there's some real novelty value with owning a dev disc - at a low price that much is justified. I'm really only talking about high priced, but unchecked, betas. I appreciate the comments folks!
If its not worth your money then no problem you just move on and dont buy it. If you feel you have to know ask the seller if he says no then it makes it more likely there are no obvious differences and you can move on.
You have to realize the people that dont test things usually dont because they simply don't care about the disks, and on top of that usually don't have the means to test them. I dont think its realistic to have to spend 130+$ on a system disk for a 250$ disk either regardless.
Hate to disagree Borman but I tend to agree with Paulo here: It's not that they can't be bothered to test them - more likely there aren't any differences at all and thus not really worth buying for the large sums of money they are being sold for. Someome with x amount of dreamcast betas (for example) doesn't have the means to test them? Who are we trying to kid here?
What I would be more concerned about is sellers who KNOW that there is no difference and attempt to get their money back by selling them 'untested'. Hell they could be blank discs with scribbles on the front, no GD burner required. What I think would be a better system would be to require sellers to provide whatever pedigree information they have. Unfortunately some sellers here delete FS threads once they are done. Many things here change hands multiple times between forum members. If someone wants to sell something here bought from another member they should be required to disclose that (with the possibility of the previous owner reporting it). Otherwise we have an easy way for someone to profit by buying a known retail-like beta privately and selling it as 'untested' as soon as the pictures from the original FS thread are gone.
_I_ (and i remark this as only my opinion) think that a file comparizon/date must be done before selling anything like a beta, to ensure the buyer that he's not actually buying a burned copy with something written on top. just my opinion. people are free to "take the risk" if the wish to.
I forgot to point out in my post the big catch-22 of this. If you out the seller as having sold you a bogus beta, you've now confirmed that the one you have is worthless. Only by keeping the secret will you have any hope of getting your money back. Then again, it's unlikely that any seller being outed as selling bogus betas will be able to sell anything here again.
Ive had plenty of betas come through my hands well before I had the means to test them, so it is actually quite fair.
I think you have to use your head when buying any beta to be honest. I have only been on the good side of this in the past but I'd like to think that it's because I have bought wisely. I haven't just bought cheap items either, I have spent good money on beta's and not been dissapointed because I did the necessary leg work before getting my wallet out. This agruement works both ways though. Lets say you buy 'SFIV beta build 0.01' for 360; it's priced at $500 and you think its worth taking the risk on so you buy it. It arrives and its 100% identical to final build. ROBBED! Now lets say its the same scenario but the price was $100 and you test it and 'WOW, that's a character that never made it into retail'! Do you feel it necessary to contact the buyer and say 'that beta you sold me is amazing and was worth $500 not $100 so I have sent you another $400 via paypal'?!? My advise, use your head!
