I remember a couple years back there was a beta world before a release. I'd love to have a permanent beta world for Seble to mess around with different ideas. That and it was fun to mess around with different things. 

Fun?  Yes
Good idea?  Probably not.

I've been part of three WIS beta testing groups and all three were what I would deem a failure.

1) At least half the coaches that sign up don't test, making any results a bit sketchy.  Even I can recruit successfully when I'm the only team in the Southeast US paying attention.

2) Testing goes super slow and people are making conclusions on a very small sample size.  Understandable, but it would be better to have seble simulate 1,000's of games and do analysis that way.

3) Only a portion of the coaches that do log in provide feedback.

4) With such a small number of coaches providing feedback, major problems can go unnoticed.  For example, based on the last HD beta you got to test with your team if you were in the world.  Right now that means that there would be very few teams testing fastbreak and zone.  In fact, there might not be a single coach that is providing feedback that is testing either so you might end up with a new uber-offense or complete disaster of a defense and nobody really notices.

Now if a lot of people would actually test and provide feedback, it is a good idea.  But prior experience suggests that will not happen.

The last one I was in was a joke it hardly ever simmed and when it did would do mulitple games at a time ad overall was a failure inmo

Posted by kujayhawk on 1/3/2012 5:41:00 PM (view original):
Fun?  Yes
Good idea?  Probably not.

I've been part of three WIS beta testing groups and all three were what I would deem a failure.

1) At least half the coaches that sign up don't test, making any results a bit sketchy.  Even I can recruit successfully when I'm the only team in the Southeast US paying attention.

2) Testing goes super slow and people are making conclusions on a very small sample size.  Understandable, but it would be better to have seble simulate 1,000's of games and do analysis that way.

3) Only a portion of the coaches that do log in provide feedback.

4) With such a small number of coaches providing feedback, major problems can go unnoticed.  For example, based on the last HD beta you got to test with your team if you were in the world.  Right now that means that there would be very few teams testing fastbreak and zone.  In fact, there might not be a single coach that is providing feedback that is testing either so you might end up with a new uber-offense or complete disaster of a defense and nobody really notices.

Now if a lot of people would actually test and provide feedback, it is a good idea.  But prior experience suggests that will not happen.

I guess I should have specified to say "to see coaches reception to possible changes"

Still don't know how helpful it would be but it couldn't hurt.

Permanent beta world sounds like "permanent free world so I can play an extra world and not have to pay for it."  I don't know if that's where you're coming from, but a lot of coaches would look at it that way.  WiS would likely lose significant revenue if they offered a consistently free world even if only allowing relatively veteran and otherwise active coaches to use it.  Particularly if they get enough coaches to generate meaningful sample sizes.

isnt one of the worlds now the beta world?

I tried to participate in the last Beta, but it was so frustrating that like most coaches I eventually checked out. You would go like 8 days of nothing happening and then it would sim through 23 seasons into the future one morning and it would be recruiting again.