Once you start letting people into the Beta, are they going to be able to tell other people they are in the Beta? I guess what I'm asking is even if we aren't selected right away, are we all going to know once the Beta starts? Also, is the Beta going to run right up until release, or will there be a period where we have to go without this game again until final release?
I have yet to see a nda that forbids mentioning your in a beta unless the game hasn't been announced yet.
MechWarrior Online. I could copy paste the whole thing into this post but that would be quite lengthy and I don't want to spam everyone with it. MWO's NDA is now lifted but when I was in the closed beta I was not allowed to tell anyone that I was in it. I highly doubt Card Hunter would go that route though. There really is no reason to.
It's actually pretty common for closed beta NDAs to cover even mentioning participation in the beta, or sometimes even the existence of such a beta. Hahaha, big difference between the NDA not covering it, and them actually discovering violations and taking actions against you for it.
Well you said you had never seen an NDA that forbids mentioning you're in the beta... perhaps you just didn't read it. One obvious thing they did was delete all posts referencing the beta on the non-beta section of their forum. If Card Hunter was going to do the same thing, which I highly doubt they will, that would be the primary concern of the OP. He obviously wants to know when people start getting into beta so he knows when to start refreshing his e-mail every 5 minutes. Can't say I blame him.
NDA's cant actually prevent you from discussing public information. I have a NDA from the Air Force that prevents me from discussing anything that I did while in the service, but it cannot prevent me from telling people I was in the service, or my rank, for example. Military lawyers go over all this crap with you when you process out. If a game is in Beta, they can't stop you from saying that you have played the beta, or are in the beta currently. They can try, but they could never take action against you for it. Discussing details of it, or streaming content/taking videos, on the other hand is a whole different ballgame.
They can in the sense that they can kick you out of the beta. In the case of MWO I never had a personal issue with it but I was aware of several people on their forum who got posts deleted and warnings issued for merely mentioning they were in the beta. They usually gave out the typical "This is your one warning, do it again and you're out." kind of thing but if they had wanted to they could have just kicked them out of the beta on the first offense.
That's a fallacy. They can kick you out of beta, or the retail game for that matter, at any time for any reason. And as far as action is concerned, companies aren't really all that concerned about mentioning you are in the beta. They are far more concerned with leaking information, which will happen anyway.
True but what do you think is more likely? A company kicking you out of their beta randomly or kicking you out because you broke their NDA? And I think you're missing the point of this discussion. Which is: And if they stipulate in their NDA that we cannot mention we're in the beta then that answers the OP's question. It's not about whether or not the company is truly concerned about the behavior... it's about whether or not they care to moderate it on their own website. If the answer is yes, which it could be but probably isn't, then we won't know when people start getting into beta unless you happen to catch someone leak it on this forum before a moderator deletes it (or find out through some other website... but personally I don't go anywhere else on the internet for Card Hunter information). But, once again, I highly doubt that will be the case. I see no reason why Card Hunter would pursue a strict NDA like that.
Fair enough i should have correctly stated that i have not seen any company enforce that policy to the point of punishing any one for it. How they moderate there own forums have nothing to do with a NDA as they are free to delete what ever they wish without any kind of agreement. Also what is there to discus really we need a mod to tell us either way all we can do is very wildly speculate.
Very true. All I was saying was that I have seen people kicked out of a beta for mentioning they were in the beta. Personally I think that kind of strict NDA policy is ludicrous but I suppose they just wanted to prevent immature whining on their forum. The age old "You let _____ into the beta? I would be a much better beta tester than _____." etc.
I doubt we'll have an NDA. I haven't signed one. Nobody in the earlier friends-and-family tests signed one. I just don't think we have the inclination or the bandwidth to bother with things like that.
I'm pretty sure we won't have an actual NDA, we'll just ask people to share their Beta thoughts with us rather than with the public. Even that will probably just be until we leave the closed Beta period though.
Likely the start of beta will be announced. A new forum area for those in beta will be created. As long as you don't talk about game play out of the beta section you will be allowed to mention non detailed information on the beta as a whole anywhere you wish. An example of a statement you would be allowed to make publicly: "It's got a great pace and progression system, but they still have a few thing that need tweaking if the game is going to get big after release."
Lol. so i should have updated the page before I posted. Guess there likely isn't an NDA. This doesn't necessarily mean they want you to live stream the game play on Day 1 of beta. More information will come closer at the start of beta.
