Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Grand Exchange Database. Why Beta?

I am very pleased with the new Grand Exchange Database. It definitely makes my life easier and I have no doubt that it will induce a lot of players to start their merchanting carriers. I really don't want to hear any more "Jagex killed merchanting" staff. It wasn't true before, but now it should be clearly obvious for everyone (I hope...).

Anyway, another thing I like about the Grand Exchange Database is the fact that it is BETA. Yes, I like it very much! Google started to use this approach a while ago, a lot of smart companies adopted it in the last few years, I am glad to see Jagex being agile and open-minded as well. Why releasing BETA products of internet services is good? Several reasons, I'll list two:

  • the main one is that the development team is not limited and is able to implement reasonable suggestions from their customers right away, without waiting for another long release cycle to start.
  • you also get less hysterical complains ("Oh, my GOD, this minigame is overcrowded, what a fail!!!" type of staff) and more constructive feedback, as the customers EXPECT bugs and see that their feedback is welcomed and needed.
So, well done, Jagex. Way to go!

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