Paraffin,

     I believe I was a member of your group back then on CompuServe. If my memory is correct, CompuServe initially cost $35 an hour for daytime access and that, for me, was at 300 baud.

54 minutes ago, DadJokeCinema said:

Yeah, my brother's buddy is in the test.  He says it's fantastic.

Woo thanks! 😄

For Pete's sake could some of you tone down on the zealous, self-righteous attitudes? There's nothing wrong with the OP's thread so chill. He hasn't done anything wrong by asking if anyone has heard anything. He hasn't asked anyone to spill the beans. Trying to get info on a hotly anticipated, unreleased product is not strange at all. Some may say I'm rude for saying this but some of you sound like you're hoping MS will see how hard you're fighting for them in exchange for a pat on the head. It ain't that serious, guys. 

2 hours ago, Paraffin said:

Nah, it doesn't work like that. I've been a beta tester for many games and flight sims over the years, including sims like Spectrum Holobyte's "Flight of the Intruder" and "Falcon 3.0."

I would only counter with those two sims pre-dating the Internet as we know it today. These days, folks have a much bigger soapbox to stand on (for better or worse).

Communities that are rabidly looking forward to new releases tend to be merciless when bugs are found. On day one of release if the first words from "{flightsim forum user}" is a complaint of some kind, and the second words are almost always "didn't the testers do their job??"

That, of course, is usually followed by more sensible folks who kindly remind the complainant that yes, the testers probably did report these issues and their concerns should be directed to the developer, but it still happens endlessly.

To all alpha (and eventual beta) testers... heads down... repeatable testing... enjoy your preview! And don't make us any more jealous than we already are. 🙂

-Greg

1 hour ago, David Mills said:

Paraffin,

     I believe I was a member of your group back then on CompuServe. If my memory is correct, CompuServe initially cost $35 an hour for daytime access and that, for me, was at 300 baud.

Cool! Do you remember the Fly-Ins we used to do? We'd choose a destination airport everyone would fly to from their home area using Flight Simulator. Someone would log in to the forum and act as the "tower", with a FS multiplayer connection on another phone line to people one by one as they landed. They would watch and describe the landing to the forum. Some embarrassing moments there. I remember running a contest in the air combat forum to see how long people could survive without being shot down in Red Baron. Fun times!

17 hours ago, Alan_A said:

From the NDA:

3. Do not describe any part of the Game on any venue unless we’ve instructed you to.

So, no.

@Krakin, please read the above. Then think about what you posted including this ... “Trying to get info on a hotly anticipated, unreleased product is not strange at all.”

Can you see the problem? I’m guessing you’ve never been a beta tester and signed an NDA.

For what it's worth, I have no problem with people trying to get at information.  It's a division of labor thing.  They ask the questions, I say "no comment."  Everybody's doing his job... 😎

1 minute ago, Alan_A said:

For what it's worth, I have no problem with people trying to get at information.  It's a division of labor thing.  They ask the questions, I say "no comment."  Everybody's doing his job... 😎

Alan, I used your post for the NDA rule it contained and for no other reason. Requesting information is pointless as anyone supplying it is likely to suffer the consequences.

5 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Alan, I used your post for the NDA rule it contained and for no other reason. Requesting information is pointless as anyone supplying it is likely to suffer the consequences.

Oh, I understand.  And I agree with your take.  But on the other hand, I come from a long line of journalists, so purely in personal terms, I'm not offended or bothered if people want to try to get information out of me. They're welcome to try, and it's on me to stay quiet.  I've been on both sides of it - I used to be a magazine writer and now I do corporate PR - so I'm equally OK with the asking and the not answering.  'S'all good, man, as Jimmy McGill once said...

3 hours ago, DadJokeCinema said:

Yeah, my brother's buddy is in the test.  He says it's fantastic.

A buddy of my brother's heard that there is testing going on and said he is fantastic.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@Krakin, please read the above. Then think about what you posted including this ... “Trying to get info on a hotly anticipated, unreleased product is not strange at all.”

Can you see the problem? I’m guessing you’ve never been a beta tester and signed an NDA.

Reading comprehension 101 my friend. There's a difference between "have you heard anything?" And "tell me about your experience". Real simple

19 minutes ago, Krakin said:

Reading comprehension 101 my friend. There's a difference between "have you heard anything?" And "tell me about your experience". Real simple

What’s the point in asking any questions when you know whoever answers you with any privileged information will probably lose their test licence? Just wait for official releases from Microsoft. What’s so hard about that?

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

What’s the point in asking any questions when you know whoever answers you with any privileged information will probably lose their test licence? Just wait for official releases from Microsoft. What’s so hard about that?

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize the person with second hand info was bound to the NDA. My bad. Smh

2 hours ago, carmined said:

A buddy of my brother's heard that there is testing going on and said he is fantastic.

A buddy of my brother's heard he is being tested and said that's fantastic.

I am Spartacus