- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
This means that the beta doesn't really HAVE to end in 3 weeks then - I'm not kidding please consider it Bungie - as you continuously tweak the mp code, you can just push it out to the public beta. Especially with load handling code from the initial few weeks, there's no way to fully stress test it until you release unless you leave the public beta open. The nice thing for Bungie would be that if you break something pre-release, nobody really has any right to -blam!- and moan about it like the do once they've paid for the product. You'll never have that opportunity again once the final product ships - at that point you've got paying customers to support, but now you could rapidly push out fixes and tweaks with minimal QA and see how they perform under stress.
The other reason I think the beta should stay open until right before release is because of glitchers, cheaters, and exploiters - these guys can only be found when the masses have the game, and finding them after the game ships means that (again, PAYING) customers will be (rightfully) mad at Bungie for allowing cheaters to ruin their games. If the cheaters are surfaced now, the geometry glitches repaired, and the exploits plugged, all before shipping, it will be a good thing for all of us including Bungie and Microsoft.
It would be different if it wasn't possible to patch on-the-fly, but the whole point of this thread is that it IS possible. Please, Bungie consider it. I admit my motives are somewhat motivated by the fact that I don't want to wait 6 months to play again after the beta, but ultimately I want Halo3 MP to be the best it can possibly be and I think we the community can really help that happen if you give us more time with the beta than 3 weeks.