I want to start this article out with a quote from Stephen Reid that basicly sums up a huge problem we have in the MMO community.

Do not present opinions as ‘facts’ here, please - unless you have evidence to back it up.

Stephen posted this at the end of a very well written response to a forum members proclamation that in order to get into the beta for Star Wars The Old Republic you should not preorder the game. The forum poster went on to give some sketchy data mined from a “forum” community as hard evidence. Its banta fodder like this that can hurt our community as a whole.

The post exploded with page after page of people chiming in, cause ya know, they all know better. My question to you and myself is this. Do we? Do we really know better or do we just suppose we do?

From the very begining of closed beta BioWare has been very clear in stating that beta invites are random. The assumption that they will play favoritism because company XYZ employs this type of system, or, this is how I would do it, get my buddies in over others type thinking is what makes people nerd rage on a public forum spewing false information.

I want to take a moment and make an apeale to this infant community. Infant in the terms that we are just begining. We do not have the years or legs of say the WoW community, and frankly that is a  great thing. Please, lets not be like the wow community, or other communities where others reign supreame.

We have an obligation to help build and shape our new community. Read that again, “WE”. Each and every member of this new community needs to take responsibility for how they act or react to the community. We need to lose our false sense of entitlement and embrace each other. Help one another, and create a fantastic community that happens to surround itself around an awesome game.

Ok, enough preaching. Back to the point. Can you get into the beta faster if you do not preorder? Here is what Stephen said in its entirety. You be the judge:

No, it’s not true, and it is not a ‘fact’. As your thread title is misleading, I’ll be changing it after I’m done replying here.

Random selection is just that - random. Despite any poll, headcount or anecdotal evidence you may encounter, we are not selecting people for testing based on whether they pre-order or not. There is no marketing conspiracy here.

Let’s all step back and think on something for a second: random selection is alien to human beings. We cannot believe things are random. We look for patterns, and we find them even when they’re not there. Therefore, I can understand why people want to believe there’s a pattern somewhere.

However, there is no pattern here. Whether you agree with it or not, our selection process is random based on our criteria for any given test.
Do not present opinions as ‘facts’ here, please - unless you have evidence to back it up.

Preorder the game, you will not be disapointed. If you get in the beta, enjoy it and have fun reporting bugs and issues. Do your part to help the game, which helps the community. But please, please do not spew false information or post troll posts simply because you do not have better social or communication skills.

Thank you.

(image from [https://torwars.com](https://torwars.com/))

Comments: Link to heading

I totally agree that we have to build a new and be… Link to heading

Patrik Holmqvist - Oct 5, 2011

I totally agree that we have to build a new and better community then the WoW community. And i hope that we can inspire others to just do it better by being friendly and helpful. Lets not troll and spread rumors or bad mouthing this and that. Use common sense and the respect that you yourself want to have. And we have come a long way.

Regards from Patrik