The gamma isn't a reward for good customers, but an extended test for those who have contributed more through help on the forums, bug reporting and general feedback than the average tester. The changes since the last public beta still needed to be tested, but Stardock wanted a group that they knew would do actual testing on it. You admited you don't have time to test the latest builds. Stardock is a week from their "Gold" deadline (when the final master disc has to be sent to production) and they need immediate feedback on what they're putting in right now.

Beta isn't a "free play" type of thing. And the developer can hold a more private test if they want to, you're not guaranteed every and all pre-release builds of the game by preordering. The private test also lets Stardock test some of the final content and AI with a smaller group, so those of you not in the private test will have a fresh and new gaming experience come February when the game hits retail. No real surprises for us.

They have thought on this point of view, as it was I believe an argument during the GalCiv 1 beta too. They weighed the benefits and the detractors and decided to stick with having a later private test. Heck, most game developers never do a public test of any kind, and tie you up in NDAs if you do test.

Besides just basic "less people meens less overlapping reports", we also want there to be SOME suprise when users get the final version...the jump for players from Beta 5 to the final release will be significant, and we want them to go "Ah yes, THIS is MUCH better". When you get incremental updates, like the gamma testers do, it takes that 'UMPH' out of getting 1.0.

Honestly, if it were up to us, there'd be about 2 months at the end of the project whith NO beta testers so EVERYONE got a pleasant suprise at the end. Unfortunatly we can't weed out all the bugs that way, so a select few get to test the release candidates, while the others can only anticipate the features being tweaked and added

It'll go by fast...and hopefully your paticence will be rewarded

I played beta5 again last night to have a 'fresh' play and to see what some of the new graphics elements looked like that you are dripping into teh open beta5 version (why is that by the way?) it was great fun indeed. I have a good instinct on what will be going into the Gamma testing (I gamma tested on GC1 you may recall) but to be fair I havent had as much time to test this time, joined late and have therefore not got access this time. My gut feel is thi sgame is going to be AWESOME. I have played a lot of strat games, including x4 games and this feels huge, I hget a sort of CiV buzz from playing and it is so much more polished and immersive than GC1 - the ship design plays a big part in this, and with the AI/Deplomacy improvements discussed elsewhere, I am really excited by thsi title, That said, it is a niche market and I cant see it selling like Quake! That said, the new movies and polish are awesome and THIS title may be the space strat title that breaks out of the niche - who knows?

Anyway a comment to BoogieBac, I agree with what you say above about the focussed testing, However it does no harm to pre-payers if you let them choose if they want a 'suprise' or not. The general retail version will be a suprise to those not in testing who download or buy the box, and to be fair most testers have a pretty good feel what to expect - You could just ignore the posts on bugs from the non Gamma testers. My point is, as long as you ignore the distractions of the random bug reports from non gamma testers (easy enough as you have a separate forum thread ?) then what harm does it do not to let non-gamma testers have access?

Just to make you tear your hair out, I am happy to wait

It is frustrating outside fo the gamma, and as I have said before this is because this small band of testers here is very committed to the game and is somewhat dissapointed.

people of higher rank participated more, so they should be allowed to play it.

Though I did pay for the game so I could participate in the beta..... i can wait a few weeks.