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{{trope}}
When computer programs, equipment or other projects take too long to complete, sometimes they get rushed out early. This often results in an [[Obvious Beta]] of which [[What Could Have Been|we'll never see the finished version]], but when the program is good enough to stand on its own two feet despite all the bugs and unfinished features, the programmers may be able to [[
But sometimes it doesn't stick, and the result has the users feeling like they're participating in (and paying for) one big beta test that never seems to end. Often by the time it feels finished, they'll have a sequel out, [[Here We Go Again|and it starts all over again]]...
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While this usually applies to [[Real Life]] software and [[Video Games]], it can just as easily apply to complex machines and other devices in works of fiction. See [[Beta Baddie]] and [[Psycho Prototype]] for this taken to a more dangerous level, and [[Super Prototype]] for a subversion of sorts, though they sometimes have problems.
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== [[Real Life]] examples ==
* [[Microsoft]] is often accused of this with varying and [[Your Mileage May Vary|subjective]] levels of truth. With its monopoly weakened by users outright refusing to adopt Windows Vista when XP still works just fine, and the increasing popularity and variety of alternatives, the company might be starting to clean up its act. They have been through more than one [[Dork Age]] before, though. (see: Windows ME)
** Although, Service Pack 1 fixed a bunch of problems with Vista (which is why most businesses wait for the first Service Pack before adopting a new Microsoft OS).
*** The latest{{when}} Service Pack for Vista is pretty much rock solid. All of those nagging bugs are gone and it just ''never crashes''. The only problem is that it was released on the verge of Windows 7... which is essentially Vista with said service pack and a new taskbar. In fact the whole reason for Windows 7 was to get rid of the Vista name and start with a clean review slate after they fixed all the errors.
* This is pretty much the case with ''any'' operating systems keeping up to the evolution of hardware. Sometimes developers can't simply make new drivers for new hardware (i.e. due to change of paradigm in hardware design), which means the developers must alter the core (the "kernel") of the OS itself. This is especially <s> [[Egregious]] </s> noticeable with open source OSes such as [[UNIX|Linux and the BSDs]], that requires you to [[Our Souls Are Different|update what is basically the soul of the system]] (not as painful nor as dangerous as it sounds).
** Debian, a Linux distribution, has an ''unstable'' branch that is ''meant'' to be this. Almost all packages are first uploaded to ''unstable'', which contains the latest bleeding-edge versions of all software, before they enter the ''testing'' distribution, which, in time, becomes the next stable release.
* Many players cannot ever foresee Notch, the creator of ''[[
** Notch he has stated that he wants to include a variety of base features, then release a finished game and essentially turn it over to the modding community. With Mojang announcing their next game, Scrolls, and ''Minecraft'' quickly reaching beta 2.0 status, some fans have speculated that this will happen sooner rather than later.
** Minecraft left Beta and went into its first "finished" version on November
** And the game is even buggier than before.
* Not only do nearly all [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] titles release patches, but also new areas and quests.
** For example, powerhouse ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' still receives periodic patches that can, in some cases, dramatically alter the entire game. Every single class has been renovated multiple times, entire concepts have been introduced, tinkered with and in some cases finally abandoned if they didn't work right. ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' right now, pre-Cataclysm (which will completely renovate the ''entire game''... ''again'') is practically unrecognizable from its original launch, even ignoring two expansion packs' worth of new content.
** And [[Multi User Dungeon|MUDs]] before them; since they're free to play, they could openly admit they're a perpetual work in progress.
** ''[[
*** Many MMOs are following this model, with public test servers to increase the likelihood of game-breaking bugs being squashed prior to release. Examples include ''[[
*** With ''[[
** Most localized Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese [[Free to Play]] MMOs tend to stagnate at the Open Beta phase long after the parent version has officially gone gold. This could be due to publisher policy, however.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' is still in ''alpha'', and the [[Good Bad Bugs|bugs are considered all part of the game]], which includes [[Hammerspace|Quantum Stockpiling]] and [[Chunky Salsa Rule|the Atom-Smasher]], and other bugs can be used to engineer unique traps, such as the combination of magma and the (now fixed) low boiling point of water to create a Dwarven Microwave. The typical DF release cycle is a major update with lots of new features and usually an equal number of bugs, followed by a flurry of bugfixes and minor additions and a long and more or less stable period while its creator works on the next bunch of new stuff.
** Unlike most of the examples on this page, there's a clearly-defined list of development goals on the game's website. It's just that [[Word of God]] estimates that achieving all of them, in addition to anything the userbase think up that Toady One deems sufficiently cool ([[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|in the highly unlikely event he hadn't already thought of it]]), is probably going to take ''anything up to twenty years''.
* [[This Very Wiki]] ([[The Other Wiki|and others]]) for that matter. Pages are never really 'finished' and there are always new features and changes being made.
* Pretty much every [[
** Facebook itself is being continually renovated over time. Every time they substantially overhaul one of their core features there will be thousands of people complaining about it - all of whom have forgotten about the whole thing a week or two later. This has happened so many times as to be a [[Running Gag]].
* [[Google]]'s mail service, GMail, was in "beta" for so many years that, when it finally got to an official version, an experimental tool was eventually introduced for the sole purpose of restoring the "Beta" to the logo.
** Google inverted this for many years, calling many of their products "beta" when they were fairly solid, just in case.
** As does their Translator.
* ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]''. ''[[Neverwinter Nights]] 1'' has lots of patches, but by the time they released ''[[Neverwinter Nights]] 2'' (with fugly memory leaks), it still drooled. Community extension packs provided lots of content and scripting the original developers should have done, and engine was a bit
* ''[[Furcadia]]'' is in perpetual ''Alpha'', according to its designers. It's still good enough to work.
* [[
* ''[[Playstation Home]]'' has been in open beta for ''over two years''. [[Penny Arcade]] once spent a podcast talking about how the program will never, ever leave beta so that it will be impossible to criticize; "I mean, come on guys, it's just a beta."
* Most Linux distributions have the option to use "bleeding edge" repositories, ensuring the latest untested software is used for updates as soon as its available.
* Every sports game, but particularly wrestling is one of these because they often are titled for the year after they are released, but by that year, many people who were present in the company during the development stage are no longer there, yet are still in the game, and people who've joined since aren't in the game. As a result they usually represent a brief period of time where anything could have changed. ''WCW Thunder'' and ''WWF/E Smackdown: Just Bring It'' are particularly notable examples of this.
* ''[[The Sims]] 3'' is ''very'' guilty of this. Bugs are endemic to the game, and they range from "amusing" to "[[Game Breaking Bug]]"
* ''[[Dragon Age 2]]'' had to be patched almost immediately after its release, and issues are still ongoing. Several quests have only recently been made accessible, and combat is still being tweaked. One major fan bugbear is the cameo of the Warden's love interest in the previous game - Leliana and Zevran either act as if the Warden is dead (even if they survived), or fail to acknowledge their relationship with the Warden (for example, Zevran will accept Isabela's offer of sex, which he is not supposed to do if he's involved or in mourning). Developers claim that this issue is too deeply embedded to be resolved any time soon, and [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] tends to cause its own set of problems, so players remain braced for more bugs.
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' was first released with great fanfare, with the game scoring very well with most reviewers. However, the developer Obsidian, [[Knights of the Old Republic|as they are known to do,]] did not run proper debug routines. The game on release was so crash-prone as to be unplayable at times, a problem that still persists in some parts (the final battle sequence come to mind) after ''four'' major patches. That's not even getting into the faction paths cut off by bugs or scorpions that get stuck in the ground due to clipping errors.
** With ''Ultimate Edition'' announced and all DLC released, support for ''New Vegas'' is essentially over, leaving multitudes of unfixed glitched, ranging from crash-to-desktop game breakers to bookkeeping annoyances (Why are the three helmets from ''Lonesome Road'' the only "Heavy" headgear in the game? When [[Powered Armor|Power Helmets]] are "Light?").
* Many people accuse Valve of doing this for the Cold Stream DLC for ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]''. The campaign was released in March
* [[
* [[Arcen Games]] actually build their business model about this, but their site makes sure buyers know what they're in for. Games at release was feature-complete, fully playable and almost bugless. However, the company knows they could do a lot more and continues development for as long as community interest persists, constantly adding beta updates and periodically pulling back to clean out bugs and release a stable update. This has actually worked very well for them, [[AI War Fleet Command]] has been operating like this for years, with occasional larger chunks of new content released as paid expansion packs to keep the company going.
* ''[[RHDE]]'' is open source. Even after the game goes gold as part of a collaborative homebrew multicart scheduled for sometime in 2014, a second version has been planned with a bigger memory to hold the features that didn't fit.
* Because of their dedication to ''[[Kinnikuman]]'', Matayan has been programming, spriting, and releasing characters for ''[[Kinnikuman: Muscle Fight]]'' for more than a decade. As long as the 2011 revival is going, Matayan should have more material for this game.
* Pretty much all of Tony Stark's ''[[Iron Man]]'' suits seem to be constantly modified, repaired, rebuilt and replaced, which is handy for writers who [[Depending
▲* Pretty much all of Tony Stark's ''[[Iron Man]]'' suits seem to be constantly modified, repaired, rebuilt and replaced, which is handy for writers who [[Depending On the Writer|have trouble keeping his powers straight]].
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
[[Category:Perpetual Beta]]
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