Sapience, cards can be held too closely to the vest.

[Eartholloth]

"Having a private beta with an NDA" usually equals to "We are too cheap to hire professional testers".

Regardless, the tone [attitude] shown by Sapience toward that guy (a customer, the kind of people who keep Turbine in business), who wanted to help Turbine with the beta but couldn't, is puzzling.
Was high-handedness mentioned in that job description ? If I were to talk to a customer like that, a written warning would be the mostly likely outcome.
Oh well, life must be nice as a CM.

There was nothing wrong with what he said. He flat out told them they won't have to worry about there problem anymore because of the NDA violation. Quite frankly I have no sympathy at all for someone who revokes there NDA like that person did given they are told explicitly in there beta invite not to talk about beta outside the beta forums. If someone cannot do that then whatever happens to them ol well. I have never seen so many fragile snowflakes & drama mama's as gaming forums have.

[Widoch]

Seems to me a good way to tick off the playerbase.

The whole 'NDA' thing is an absolute joke. I'm not in beta. And I can freely say that I'm NOT in beta. But if someone WAS in beta, simply mentioning they were, or honestly seeking to get help with something, is license to boot them from said beta. Yea, that'll win you brownie points.

Based on my RoR BETA invite back in the day, it was extremely clear that by attempting to download the client, you were accepting the NDA agreement. It was also very clear where you were supposed to get help. As to being a joke, Turbine is offering you, at their own expense, an opportunity to be part of the development process with very easy access to pretty much every single facet of the game (at least in RoR, to my knowledge). The only thing they expect is for whatever happens in Vegas to stay in Vegas.

You want to kick someone from the beta for violating the ridiculous NDA... fine, that's your perogative. But don't go all public with it and rub their faces in the mud here on the forum. Have more grace and tact than that. You know all those new forum guidlines where violations to the terms of service for doing XYZ to PDQ? I'm thinking you folks shouldn't be immune to the rules here either. Practice what ye preach.

Where did anyone rub anyone's face in it? Besides, it's a nice reminder to everyone else.

I'm thinking ye folks at Turbine take some things way too seriously, and things that ye should take seriously, nowhere near serious enough.

Yeah, it's a real drag when someone takes keeping your word seriously....darnit.

Honestly, I think that kind of public response lacked tact, and was extremly out of line. Since it was a public smacking, it deserves a public apology. Yes, this means YOU, Sapience.

You are of course, welcome to your opinion. "Extremely" welcome to it.

After 15 hours of effort on the part of the customer (yes, CUSTOMER), to test YOUR software for you free of charge, he is then very publicly informed that he won't have to worry about it anymore due to the NDA violation for talking about Fight Clu... err... Beta..

Yes, that poor customer who is being offered an opportunity free of charge TO THE CUSTOMER with the only requirement that they keep all communication about it to the BETA forums and blue name PMs. Where on earth do you get the idea that this isn't costing Turbine anything? The cost is enormous to host and moderate events like these. You make it sound like the players are being FORCED to participate. When one of your friends offers you a ride to the store I'm sure you get pissed off that he asks you to open your own door to get in?

You either recognize where you were in the wrong, or you don't. And if you don't, then that's a large part of the problem.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Honestly, if you worked for my company, (or any I've every worked for) you'd have a 'talking to' at minimum for treating customers like that. These people pay your salary. Never, ever, forget that.

Honestly, eh? As honestly as a person who agrees to an NDA and then violates it? Because that's SUPER honest

I've participated in many, many, betas in my time. Including the one for Riders of Rohan. Never again.

I don't know why people line up to be hamsters and act like it's a gift from the gods to go out of their way to test some company's shoddy, buggy pre-release software. :P

Well, I think you've found a wonderful way to fix your problem with what happened. If it really bothers you that much, you don't have to participate, which oddly enough is the exact same option everyone else has. They can choose NOT to agree to the NDA and NOT to participate in the FREELY OFFERED testing server. Unfortunately I don't ever remember in my RoR Beta email a paragraph that said, "By downloading the Bullroarer client you are agreeing to a Nondisclosure Agreement, unless of course you decide you want to chat about it in the public forums because that's like totally OK man! Don't worry! If you get kicked from BETA for going back on your word, Kaynith will have your back, dude!" It's normal, is reasonable, and it's perfectly acceptable to receive very clearly stated consequences to poorly made decisions.