You invited some “Friends” to do a very early test stage for you, then you let the people in that payed 120 to help with alpha testing.
Why do i feel or sense that there is a difference between the people, ive seen forums mentioned i cant find?
dont those of us that payed for access have access to the same forums as the ones you invited?
if so why not?
afaik we are all in this together for good and bad, so different levels of testers seems a bit odd to me
Well I’m not a Dev, but I’m presuming it’s something to do with the VIP access in the 240 & 320 packs.
I’m not sure but are you talking about the VIP forums?
I think those are for the people that got invited and the VIP founders club members (packs above 120$). You see very few of those “invited” people around anyway (which is a shame since they got trusted by SD for their past support).
It’s a sense of “exclusivity”, not sure it’s really worth it but I don’t mind those small extras they have (forum/irc/…), except the VIP server (and the concept of “vip priority” with the release of new maps, since then they introduced the “blockout wednesday” to remedy the emptiness of it).
It’s easy:
Veterain and Elite - No alpha forum access (yet)
Legendary - Alpha forum access
Contributor and VIP founder - Alpha forum access and inner circle forum access
Sometimes the inner circle forum is also called the VIP forum, but it’s the same thing and to be completely honest isn’t used all that much as most of the inner circle members recognise the value of the rest of the alpha participants. Occasionally it’s used to spitball a new idea or something, but 9 times out of 10 the thread will either get moved to the normal alpha forums or the exact same thread will be re-created in normal alpha forum. I believe it’s main purpose is to make the big contributors feel a little extra special. So you’re really not missing out on anything and if you still think you are then you’ll have to upgrade only to find out I’m telling the truth. 
With regards the friends invites, for forum purposes we are essentially considered the same as a VIP founder. Hope that clears up your concerns, of course any additional reasoning can only be answered by SD, but thought you might appreciate the insight.
Yeah im talking about the VIP forums
Its not that i envy anyone, I just simply cant see the reasoning in it.
we are all here for the same goal imo, I hope the new people from other packs that will join soon will have same access as i have, as again imo, we should be here togehter on equal termes, only difference should actually be how long we have been able to participate, which means how early in the process we could help.
but keeping it divided is … just saying
There are loads of us around. theres a list in the vip section. next to the champagne bar but before the sauna.
and i see them all the time. quick there’s one now…:hog:
Of course the main point is that they’d rather sell more inner circle packs than not and if an extra forum (that is very easy to setup) gets someone to upgrade then it’s worth it.
aslong as it taste good 
Yes yes i get all that with the innercicle and that they cost more and all that crap, but does that also mean that with different levels of testers, that some is beeing listened to more than others?
i wouldnt waste my time putting in time and effort in comming up with my comments if thats what happening.
just call me a whiner or crybaby idfc
No, we dont get more attention and our voice isnt louder than the others nor is our feedback better than yours. We are all alpha testers and we get the same attention. No things to worry about
I’ve said this a lot on the forums already but no one person has their feedback treated differently to anybody else.
We read as much as we can, we judge each point on its own merits and even then we often don’t act on something unless we feel the data, observations, our own opinions and others’ opinions all point towards something being the right thing to do.
Do the Inner Circle guys have a different platform on which to present ideas because of their forum, well yes they do. That feedback isn’t judged any differently from anybody else’s though.
[QUOTE=Anti;455819]I’ve said this a lot on the forums already but no one person has their feedback treated differently to anybody else.
We read as much as we can, we judge each point on its own merits and even then we often don’t act on something unless we feel the data, observations, our own opinions and others’ opinions all point towards something being the right thing to do.
Do the Inner Circle guys have a different platform on which to present ideas because of their forum, well yes they do. That feedback isn’t judged any differently from anybody else’s though.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, all i wanted to hear
[QUOTE=Anti;455819]I’ve said this a lot on the forums already but no one person has their feedback treated differently to anybody else.
We read as much as we can, we judge each point on its own merits and even then we often don’t act on something unless we feel the data, observations, our own opinions and others’ opinions all point towards something being the right thing to do.
Do the Inner Circle guys have a different platform on which to present ideas because of their forum, well yes they do. That feedback isn’t judged any differently from anybody else’s though.[/QUOTE]
also not when you talk in capitals? 
[QUOTE=Anti;455819]I’ve said this a lot on the forums already but no one person has their feedback treated differently to anybody else.
We read as much as we can, we judge each point on its own merits and even then we often don’t act on something unless we feel the data, observations, our own opinions and others’ opinions all point towards something being the right thing to do.
Do the Inner Circle guys have a different platform on which to present ideas because of their forum, well yes they do. That feedback isn’t judged any differently from anybody else’s though.[/QUOTE]
This makes me ask the question that always interested me - how do you actually discuss, make decisions and compare opinions, let’s say, about a certain highly discussed feature in a dedicated thread? Do you schedule meetings and brainstormings or just visit each other’s office spontaneously or during coffee breaks? Are these meetings specially scheduled and who does it? You or sub-team leaders? Does this happen often and regularly? Just curious.
I’m also curious.
Part of me thinks that you’re letting the intern collect the most inane forum posts, collect it into a slideshow while you booze up get pizza and space cake in the board room and do drinking games where you take turns in trying to read the posts out loud without cracking up.
Well, I am not trying to suspect anything or similar. I am just curious how it’s done in gaming industry and compare with how we do it in industry
I like the idea that we each have an office! 
We have scheduled review meetings for maps and game design once a week where we’ll bring up anything we feel is of major interest, be it complaints or suggestions. Those meetings involve the whole Level Design and Design teams on the project.
On top of that we tend to have a lot of other meetings during the week anyway where these things come up, and we roll up to each others desks quite often to go over things anyway.
It’s fairly informal but we cover a lot of the topics you discuss, design and dev in general involves a lot of discussion as we work so it gets worked into that.
All of the design team do read the forums a lot though so we’re always aware of what’s being said. Sometimes it makes us very happy, sometimes it makes us cry into our coffee
I would not pay 3x the price just for a closed forum section … but for the stuff that comes with it (SWAG). -> which is why I got the VIP founder
I mostly did it because I wanted to support SD, and now I can
Oh yeah, forgot you got these funky contemporary open transparent privacy-killing fashionable brinky glass halls
Company I work at also built a whole building like that - noone likes it there Luckily I sit in another building 
Just get together, break free and smash all of those glass walls and install cardboard walls everywhere
You can invite Locki to have glass-smashing fun - I am sure he can afford that little fun
Thx for the insight btw!