Nearly all MMOs go through several discernible stages of development prior to their launch. Most MMO players are likely the most familiar with Beta stages of development, either via participation in various MMO Beta programs or from hearing about them. While any community involvement in the testing or developmental assistance of Fallout Online/Project V13 is likely still a long ways off, it is always good to talk about these matters and how they are generally handled.

Alpha-stage: When a MMO enters Alpha-stage development, it is not usually feature complete yet. However many of the main aspects of the game are usually in place, allowing folk to actually try to play the game. Typically at this stage of development the actual content in-game may make radical changes practically overnight, many things will be broken and not working and in general the MMO will be pretty messy all in all. Features may be tested in Alpha to see how they pan out that may never see the light of day.

Usually very few (if any) members of the community at large will get to participate in the Alpha testing of a MMO project. Typically for these stages the developers are able to test themselves or to draw upon friends or family members to help out. Sometimes folk in the community are tapped at this stage, but generally in those cases they are under a very strict NDA that does not even permit them to inform anyone that they are a tester.

In general it is not practical to expect to be involved in the Alpha testing stage of any MMO. Involvement at this stage of development is usually more frustrating and may even have more of an expected workload than those folk who eventually become Beta testers.

Beta-stage: MMO Beta programs are, in general, usually one of the first times members of the community at large can get a look at a MMO still in development. Generally MMOs in Beta place their participants under an NDA to prevent them from talking about the game or their experiences with it. In general the Beta stage of any MMO is when the game is almost feature complete. All of the main mechanical systems should be in place and the game itself is certainly much more likely to resemble what it may be like at launch. However large changes are still possible during Beta, especially if major flaws are discovered with the implementation of any core systems.

In general the purpose of the Beta stage of any MMO is to expose the current state of the game to more people to generate additional feedback. Certainly the Beta testers are expected to find and report bugs, but (at least in early Beta stages) feedback and discussion is usually also desired by the developers about the content of the game. The developers typically want to know what their play-testers think about what has been developed so far, what may need changing or fixing, what works and what does not and so forth.

It is far more likely for MMO community members to participate in the Beta program of an MMO than in the Alpha. The chance of 'getting in' are dependent upon the particular needs of the developers as well as which methods they utilize to tap potential testers for this purpose. Beta testing programs may require anything from a few hundred active testers to a few thousand.

Closed Beta vs. Open Beta: Open Beta programs seem to be more common of late as compared to earlier in the development of MMO projects. In general the term Closed Beta is used to refer to the portions of Beta testing that are under NDA and which folk can only gain admittance to at the discretion of the developers. Open Beta programs are by contrast a MMO Beta in which no NDA is in effect. Furthermore Open Beta programs may be larger and more 'open' in terms of allowing more people to participate. This is usually done as a means to perform load testing on the software, hardware and network systems of the MMO to see if they can be made ready for launch.

A MMO in Open Beta is not necessarily complete and launch-ready. Bugs may yet exist that need to be fixed and all the features in-game at the time may not yet be fully balanced and tweaked. In general it is far easier to become involved in an Open Beta program for a MMO and the responsibilities of testers in Open Beta are usually much reduced compared to those of Closed Beta testers.

The NDA and its meaning: NDA stands for Non-Disclosure Agreement. In essence the NDA exists to protect the MMO developers and is a contract that Alpha or Beta testers of a MMO must agree to. Usually the NDA means you are not allowed to talk about your experiences in Alpha or Beta to anyone outside of the testing group (such as in some official forum). Consequences for violating the NDA can be as mild as expulsion from Beta to more serious things such as denial of access entirely even as a potentially paying customer. It is also possible that extreme NDA violations could result in legal action being taken against the offender.

Alpha/Beta Testing is a Privilege not a Right: Playtesters serve at the whim and discretion of the developers. Complaining about not getting tapped to become a tester is generally unproductive in the extreme. It is always best to expect to not be chosen rather than to assume that you will be due to some supposed virtue.