I'm one of those guilty of not testing as much as I wanted. I did report some errors, but this was the first time I've ever tested a game, and it was WAY more complex than I ever could imagine. Which is an awesome thing--but unfortunately, life & work just got in the way for me, so I wasn't too much help with that in the end I'm afraid. (Excuses, excuses... ) But I definitely didn't choose to be a beta tester just to get my hands on the game...this is a project I've really believed in from the start and I have HUGE amount of respect for everyone who worked so tirelessly on it. So my main contribution probably wasn't so much with the testing, but I wanted to help in any way possible.
Yep, my earlier comment was speaking more generally (not just about QFI) about how a lot of people view beta testing as a way to get their hands on a game earlier / get a free copy, rather than those who are already supportive of the game like yourself. And it's fine to have people on board who wanted to play the game a bit earlier, as long as they contribute as they promised. And if they can't, then to let us know if they are too busy to help, like many people did
I think the hardest part of any beta testing is having the time to do it. Just playing through the game once doesn't cut it. Instead, every aspect of the game needs to be explored, and puzzles and dialog options have to be attempted in different combinations. A good beta tester also has to be quite creative. I've had some time off before my next job, and even without a job to get in the way, I don't feel I've completely explored the QFI world. It's so vast and rich. I wonder how helpful I'd be as a beta tester.
QFI comes across as having been extremely well-tested before release, and I appreciate the time everyone spent making it so polished.
Indeed. For me it was time... I work full time in real life (which also requires some travel away), but I ended up spending nearly all my free time after work testing the game in the couple of months before release. Lambonius pulled out all stops right before release though, which really helped as I was very drained at that point. Plus, he found a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have found in that time. It does help to have different sets of eyes looking for different things, and we did have to look for cases where you could do things out of order and muck up the code/story continuity because of it. It's not easy