It's October, What's Up With That?
by Chager.
Hello TERA-ites! Or is it TERAns? I can never remember.
It's been several weeks since my last update (longer than I initially planned), but the good news is we have updates on several projects.
Our web team has been hard at work redesigning the En Masse Entertainment corporate website, so the team can now turn their eyes to the TERA website. We're still in the early stages of researching and redesigning the site, and the possibilities excite us. (We're looking into new forums as well!)
About two weeks ago, we hosted a few key members of the Bluehole Studio overseas team. These guys are dedicated specifically to the Western market, and we had some great meetings. We came away with a firm alpha/beta/launch schedule that is packed but completely achievable at the quality level we (and you) want. BHS and EME are working hard to fit every request into the development schedule. Here's the outlook: between now and launch we have time to eat, breathe—and of course play some TERA. All the necessities, in other words.
Alpha is also one of our main focuses at the moment. We have employees playing on the live server now and have had "live operation support" for several weeks. Up next for alpha will be practicing hotfix and regular client updating with the Operations, QA, CS, and Community teams.
I know most of you are eager to hear about the next phase of alpha and how you can be a part of it. We will be extending our internal testing to select partners and external users over the upcoming weeks. Please note that at this time we are selecting the users internally, so if you don’t receive an invite, don't worry—there will be more opportunities to come! Keep being awesome and contributing, and know that we will regularly add people in batches throughout Fall.
Finally (yes there's even more!), our platform team has been turning on the afterburners, and the new account management system is really starting to take shape. They are currently working on an entirely new experience that includes account management (what you use to manage your game accounts, subscription, etc.), a fully customized launcher/patcher system, and enough additional features that would take up the rest of this page. Because this system touches everything from the game itself to the launcher/patcher, it is very intricate and worth the extra time to build a robust and secure system.
We are steadily progressing through our project and task lists, and we have shifted into a higher gear as we work toward alpha, beta, and launch! (You know I had to get my car analogy in there!)
More updates to follow!