Non-NDA event in March - Beta this summer?

**:aproxy** · 02-07-2011 05:51 PM

2011: A TERA Odyssey | TERA - True Action Combat

We gonna have the bros in attendance?

Late in January, Bluehole Studio completed a record-breaking MMO beta test in Korea. TERA was literally everywhere, from billboards to bus-stop advertisements to filling screens in cybercafés across the country. Some of our En Masse team were on-hand to experience the excitement—be sure to read about it on our blog. Two weeks later, on January 25th, Bluehole finished the process of bringing TERA to their eager audience with a hugely successful, official game launch.

After hearty congratulations to our colleagues at Bluehole, we here at En Masse went right back to work. After all, our North American audience is champing at the bit to see TERA, and it's our job to bring it to you!

There is a plethora of screenshots, YouTube videos, and forum posts featuring TERA's Korean launch, and we couldn't be happier interest is at a fever pitch. In those videos, you can see the results of feedback from our Focus Group Tests in the game client—from Achievements to controller support to a myriad of game mechanics adjustments. We continue to focus on delivering an incredible game for our audience.

Next month, we're going to host our first game event this year—a Community Play Event to show how TERA has evolved and where it is now. We have brought back everyone who participated in previous tests, and also invited those who have provided thoughtful and constructive feedback within our community (and our contest winners from previous months!)

This event will be an introduction to where we are now, so the community can track our progress in the next few months. Participants will not be under an NDA and can freely share their experiences with everyone. More importantly, this group will help us test another very important aspect of TERA: our game servers.

En Masse hit a huge milestone in January by launching and configuring, for the first time, our final remote game server hardware. Until now, we've used in-house, temporary hardware for our servers. Not anymore! This is the final hardware you'll log into when you join the game. The Community Play Event will help us test this configuration and make adjustments. As you might imagine, bringing a game like TERA to life in North America is no mean feat, and getting our servers right is extremely important.

A couple of months later, we'll host a second event—this one open to a far larger group. This event will help us further refine our server architecture and plan for contingencies. This will also be the first test of our other huge project, the account management and support systems for TERA. More importantly, it will put the game client in the hands of many more people, so they can see the continued progress we've made.

And after that? It's beta time! The beta cycle will be a multi-part odyssey through TERA where players will be able to see the game in its various phases before we launch in North America.

We've got a lot of work to do (and you guys have a lot of playing to do!) so here's to a great 2011. Now, we better get back to our desks!

See you all in-game!

The En Masse Entertainment TERA Team