Hey everyone, quick update on what's happening next Monday, November 22, 2010. All times are Pacific Standard Time, which is where Los Angeles, California is.
At 9am, I'll be marking all beta registrations to receive their invite codes later in the day. Any beta registrations that come in after 9am will have to wait for our week 3 release on December 6th.
We'll be rolling out some changes to the live beta site and verifying that the code works as intended and doing lots of internal testing.
In the afternoon, when we feel the code base is tested enough, we'll send a newsletter to all users who registered for the beta, even after the 9am cutoff. This newsletter will explain more about what we've been working on, what's in the new release, that sort of thing.
Once that newsletter is sent, I'll work on getting invite codes sent out to everyone who registered before 9am that day, and those users can begin helping with what we'll be calling our "open beta." The Email you'll receive with your invite code will explain what we need from you as beta testers.
It's important to note up front that several things will seem "missing" from the site, such as the forums, leaving comments, rating the games, that sort of thing. Some user profile settings may be available, but as we've already explained, changes you make on beta may get overwritten if you change your AG2 profile later.
The full details of what's going in the beta release, and what major pieces of the site are still missing will be detailed in the newsletter.
Other than questions of "what's in the release" or "what's missing from the release", are there any questions about the process or what will be happening next Monday?
uh just WOOT WOOT PARTY PARTY PARTY!!!! LOL XD ROFL JK!! ? i know that is not a question,but here i will put one! ^ there now it is almost a question!
oh and i what a count down in hours minuets and seconds!! ok you can leave out the second! oh i geuss the minuets to just the hours! and days! but the minutes and second would me nice! *puppy dog eyes* PLEASEEEE!! ok just kinding!! boy why you make it so i can't sleep!
1337Player, as we've said in a previous thread, if you see profile data that you recognize from AG2, if you update it on AG3, and then make ANY changes on AG2, you'll likely lose those changes on AG3. If you see *new* settings on AG3 that don't exist on AG2, those settings will be retained.
Right now, your Armatar is not shown as you browse the site like you do right now. We'll incorporate them into the activity streams, and they'll of course be available on the user profile pages.
As an example, if you change your biography on AG3, and then change it to something else on back here on AG2, the change from here on AG2 will sync over to AG3 so your change on AG3 will be lost.
New settings like privacy settings, that we don't have on AG2, will remain unchanged, since they don't have a corresponding setting from AG2 to overwrite it if you change your biography or whatever.
hmm seem neat and wierd, but i get it, so we sohould realy only change our AG2 if we want to keep it.
knight_34 i am not! i was just making a joke! and some times i am board. and it was near night and don't feel like making more to my game i am making. to complex for night. plus i am the funny,wierd but needed searus type of guy. i mean look at my bio! it is just plain wierd! i am not crazy just very diferant! even albert ienstine him self would say he is a little crazy!! he thought differnatly than others! deos that make you a loon! do we have to all think the exact same way! sorry not to rave just saying... i know OFF TOPIC!
but realy it would be nice if some one could a count down for the fun of it!!! lol
so when we do get to test will there be any thing? or is it just a "shiney poster" (lol XD ) i will have our profiles right? any games?
The new home page will populate with games, sorta. Each category page loads just fine, and the fancy new way we're showing you the games to play is pretty slick thanks to some code-fu that James worked out. And, hey, you can actually play games. New profile goodies for logging in with Gmail/Facebook/Twitter/etc credentials (instead of using your AG username/password) is working really well, and you can add about a dozen of these services within your profile. Haven't tested this myself but James and Larry say it's pretty sweet.
Known problems leading up to our QA process tomorrow: - home page doesn't quite work the way I want it to - auto-login for games that support the feature probably WON'T have auto-login until the following release
The home page bugs will be sorted out tomorrow or over the weekend leading up to our Monday morning launch for closed beta users to poke around. Once we're sure everything's working, we'll stick to the newsletter/invite-codes plan from my original post in this thread, and by Monday night, everyone who has signed up for open beta should get their invite codes.
In the afternoon, when we feel the code base is tested enough, we'll send a newsletter to all users who registered for the beta, even after the 9am cutoff. This newsletter will explain more about what we've been working on, what's in the new release, that sort of thing.
When will the time range in the afternoon process be? I have class Monday and a paper to write (following the interview you kindly sent to me), so depending on how long I go with that paper, I may not be able to make it for the last-minute testing.
Home page is now loading with information. I need to get some game ratings migrated from AG2 to AG3, and Larry and James need to work on some thumbnails.
Oh, and I got bored last night while my wife watched Grey's Anatomy, so auto-login will work for games that support it. )
