Hey everyone!



We are very pleased to announce that we will be introducing a wider Beta Program to The Contest in the future. Those that have been with us for a few years will recall that we have conducted Betas in the past for things such as the initial release of Alliance Wars, as well as various quest content.



Previously, the process we’ve used to enable such content on select Summoner accounts has been a rather manual and inelegant one - resulting in some of these Beta tests being smaller in scale than we’d like. Since so much of the feedback we’ve received from our players has been that they want to be more involved in our development process and wish to see their feedback taken into account, we knew we needed to develop something that would help us achieve a beta program on a much larger scale.



For months now, we’ve been working to create an easy to use in-game menu structure that will allow us to more seamlessly beta test new content or features with our wider community base. While it’s safe to say that not every feature will make it’s way through a beta, our aim is to ensure that Summoners will have the chance to engage with many of the large scale changes or new features before launch or release.



We’re not quite ready to share the date of the initial wider beta or what new content we’ll be testing first, but we knew that some crafty Summoners may notice some of the Beta UI hidden in today's update and have questions about it. We are first conducting a ‘friends and family’ beta where our staff and their family members will go through to test boring stuff like menu and button functionality. Once this process has been completed and results are to our satisfaction, we’ll be working to share with you all more of our wider plans for The Contest and the Beta Program.



Each specific beta will have requirements for player testers and the number of players. An example - we wouldn’t want a level 24 Summoner testing out end game content that is aimed at level 60. We wouldn’t want a level 60 Summoner testing out new tutorial content that is aimed at beginner Summoners. As a result, specific details such as Summoner requirements and Summoner participation numbers will be announced on a case by case basis surrounding each individual Beta test we perform. It’s important to note that we won’t be taking special requests or volunteers for the Beta program, we will be notifying eligible players on a case by case basis via in-game messaging.



We are confident that this formalized beta program will mark a new chapter in our development process, as well as improve how we partner with you, the player base!





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