by tmc » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:15 am
But contest organisers who don't have direct access to the servers are allowed to compete as well. I think a closed beta would be far worse: far less testing, so you'll need an extended open beta before the contest opens anyway (for example, lots of volunteers needed to write the starter kits), and it doesn't prevent people from starting on bots early unless you keep the game mechanics (and source code!) secret, which sounds like a pretty bad idea, since a lot of debate went into defining the mechanics for this game.
Maybe some bots are months ahead, but I think it is a very small number. Less than 5. Personally I'm not annoyed by this, since I didn't have time to start properly until a week after the start anyway.
Instead, the final ~three week beta could have been advertised more widely, so that more people have a chance to start early if they want.