In short, what Sebastian (@mixedrealityTV) says is that from us (the testers) studying the M1 for quite some time in order to give the green light, we have moved on to a situation in which a few backers would give the green light after a few short experiences; no doubt selected by marketing from among the almost 400 games we have checked out; obviously, the best ones and where SDE is not appreciated or any possible performance issues, lack of sharpness, chromatic aberration or distortion of the image that the M2 version might have, which has not been tested by any tester and that, of course, backers could not appreciate in a controlled environment.
This haste would be due to the pressure to get the product to market.
He says he is not comfortable, as he will only be able to respond if he likes those particular experiences; he assumes be expected to smile and say âyesâ, which he considers to be very partial, as people expect him to give his full review of the product, so he feels like a marketing tool rather than a tester. He wondered and asked his followers whether he should go or not, as he felt that whatever happens, peopleâs only comments would be âItâs fantasticâ or âItâs horribleâ (for getting their 15 minutes of fame) so he considered it useless for the trials.
I think so too. Although I donât think even he thinks theyâre going to play such simple games, but some Lone Echo, Project Cars 2âŚ
And yes, he also says not all M1 testers will be chosen to test M2 and he thinks Pimax actually might not make him a M2 tester because heâs too critical.
We already know that we are âthe restâ, we donât care, we have it assumed and we are proud of it. They are âthe youtubersâ. In fact, he does mention us.
Yes, thatâs also pretty much what I got from watching that video indeed. So it seems Pimax wants to rush to the market, probably fueled by pressure from the investors who feel itâs all taking way too long.
Iâm not really sure what to think of it. The testers obviously have a much better idea of how good the HMD is than anyone could get from trying the HMD in a controlled environment for just a few minutes. Then again, the opinion from a much broader group of backers would also matter. Maybe they should just bring much more HMDâs to Berlin, like 15-20, so visitors can spend much longer with the M2. Also I think it would be a VERY bad move to lock down the testing to just a few chosen games. Backers need to know how current popular titles work. Nobody cares how well Fruit Ninja works.
Backers will not be able to identify problems with the device with the limited time and scope of testing at the meetups. Some problems may only be noticed after extended use, or in certain games or applications. This could be software problems or ergonomics problems, or any kind of problem really.
Testers, although allowed to give impressions of the M2, will likewise not have enough hands on time with the device to give a good assessment. Testers are put in a difficult position of either A) Stay silent on the M2 since thorough testing was not done so no certain statements can be made B) Give a very superficial âSeems OKâ which could cause backlash to the testers if later problems are found and the testers did not warn about it.
The impressions of the backers themselves are likely to be unreliable and will probably stratify into two groups of âIt sucksâ or âItâs awesome!â. Any middle ground will likely be made by people who are cautious and critical but these same people will not have the experience with the device to actually give their balanced assessment.
Pimax has shifted gears from âWe will release when the Testers give the greenlightâ to âWe will release if the backers like it at the meetupâ. This gives the impression that Pimax has given up on satisfying the testers, and whether itâs because the testers are too critical, or whether itâs because Pimax is running out of time, or whether itâs because Pimax canât improve any further, it gives the impression that Pimax wants a quick âOKâ from the backers.
Point 1, 2 & 3: clearly understood, but the importance of this is that even a superficial impression is an impression, and if it convinces the backers in such test with meaningful games (!) it is a good first indication that it doesnât suck, even if it may have a few more hidden flaws. Still a good thing to do.
Point 4: that would be astonishing, because it would mean there are some more substantial issues which may not be obvious to everyone, or noticed immediately. I can imagine that some testers may pride themselves with being very critical, or simply because they are in âinvestigatory modeâ and then jump on any small flaw. As has been pointed out before, we are not looking for perfection, just for a substantial improvement in some aspects over what we have today. Still it would be a bit sad and in that case Pimax should lift the NDA to let those beta testers say why they did not feel it was okay and pImax can say why they released it nevertheless.
My understanding and feeling is that Pimax is starting feeling uneasy about the testers, as the expectation of the testers did not follow expectations of Pimax, so they decided to try the headset on âuninitiated crowdâ to see if it is really critical.
But in no way Pimax should expect the backers to greenlit the release. So far the backers have been kept in dark about all issues testers reported and even if we knew them, without direct hands-on experience, it would still difficult to see if they are finally fixed on M2 or to what extent.
Concerning the testers participating in Berlin, I hope that all testers that could technically make it there (i.e. from Germany, or Europe) will be there. Missing anyone could give very negative signal to the public as they are so far the only people who can bring any conclusion to the current status.
It would be also great opportunity to have something like a panel discussion with the testers and the backers - hopefully Pimax can organize something like that. If not, we will just have to have a beer together
I still think Pimax should just lift the NDA a few days before the meeting. That way the testers get rewarded for all of their time and energy that theyâve put into this. Plus, the backers then will know what to expect and know what to look for during the tests, so they can much quicker get an idea if they can live with the current HMD or not.
Agreed. As if the issues have been fixed in the m2; it only serves to give appreciation of tge obstacles discovered & corrected. This will not harm pimax bu giving history.
I am a bit unsure why they are having another meetup this late in development when the prototypes were shown to backers already.
I think most trusted that the testers were a good final line of defense between what backers expected vs what Pimax thought they could deliver after the prototypes were finished⌠Swe has tested what? 100, 200 games? in a normal environment and I assume other testers have tested a high number too.
So why another meet-up? Backers are getting the device no matter what. The only purpose I can think of is that the Pimax team disagree with all the testers on what is acceptable and this is how they hope to prove it. Which circles back to MRTVâs opinion on it all.
I think it would be naive to think this meetup is just another show-off moment. It is another test to hopefully gain some positive marketing prior to launching it as is. By backers that have a short demo.
I donât think itâs fair to tell us all about the problems with M1 right when the M2 is being demonstrated, people will equivocate the two which is the opposite of what Pimax wants. The testers need their testing time with M2, they donât want to jump to conclusions about it either.
