[mverta]

Hey guys -

I might recommend that if English isn't your first language, you not post when you're angry, because it's barely understandable. Calm down, take a breath, and then post. I know it's hard to write in English, but when you're typing too quickly, your point gets lost.

_Mike

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[Gear]

Mihai, i'll try to explain ONE more time the topic about alpha\"beta" and final product. So, I know, the costumer bought a final product, now, these people are able to periodically recieve an alpha/"beta". I do not, because I did not bought anything. So, If I buy the final release, I can also recieve those alphas/"betas". The equation is quite simple, so I KNOW that the money you gave them are for the final product, but its LIKE if you bought even alpha and "beta", so NO ONE who didn't payed has an alpha or beta.

I don't know if these mistakes are due my bad english or what, but next time i will post a drawing.

These versions, of course, are not for free download, and I repeat this is a risk, because using this type of marketing strategy, people become angry when realize that periodical upgrades dont respect roadmaps (and if things carry on this way they will be more and more), and it is a risk because the software becomes unpopular, so I think that it would been a good idea if alpha and beta were AVAILABLE for everyone, MR would be the most famous rendering engine at this time. If i don't mistake World of Warcraft was for free download in beta stage (a download up to 2GB!!!) and now? Now it's the most famous RPG in the whole world.

Surely, buffo's career doesn't depend on maxwell release, but if you are not worried about your invested money, maybe there are people that feel like that, maybe is it not your problem, but 300E or 600E could be problematic for someone else.

[Mihai]

Gear, do you have an idea what these forums would look like if the alpha was freely available? It would be totally incomprehensible....it would get flooded with bullshit posts where you have 80-90% of people just asking the same questions over and over again, too lazy to read even a few pages of the manual.

We have these kinds of posts already, but it's rather limited and I suspect it's not people who invested money in it.

The idea of NL was that they will get much better feedback from people who are knowledgeable (or brave) enough to take this chance and invest in it. I think this strategy worked pretty well.

[Mihai]

Oh I got almost the same thing, but got a reply about 3-4 weeks after my email. I guess I caught them in a bad moment and the team that has to do the coding is ofcourse also the team that has to do the tech support. I imagine they also have quite a lot of other types of work issues which take time.

I'm not saying this was a good way to handle it, but I don't find it realistic for them to start hiring and training people to handle these emails.

I'm also sure some emails were ignored, perhaps when someone asks 20 questions in one email.

I think you're getting too upset about it, that's all I don't think they do it because they disrespect you if you know what I mean.

[Gear]

So, lemme realize... there were no free download, because free download turns an entire forum into a huge junk pile? The NL main priority was this forum???
This means that NL made a cut to the potential costumers range because they were worried about forum integrity??? Are You kidding mihai?

I'm sorry, but this is the worst argumentation I never seen before.

[rivoli]

i don't think this is what mihai meant. the point is not the forum itself. by selling the alphas they just made sure that the alpha testers were professionals (or at least people who had an actual interest in making an investment in a render engine) or something close to that. Also if you spend money on it, you are much more willing to do some serious testing on it, and this really helps on both sides.

[tom]

i thought the same..namely that he's betatesting like hell...on the otherhand, maybe his neglected wife handcuffed him to the bed

that would be really amazing...

no, 8etty is in a place with no electricity at all..seen the movie 'jeremiah johnson' with robert redford ?..kinda like that

...ask 8etty if she feels like someone is following her nowadays