"Alpha build" seems to be a common phrase for "I hope they fix that." Do we know when exactly they will move from Alpha to Beta to Gold? This is not an attempt to degrade Bethesda haha, Im an avid fan of their work, but I will say a majority of their products are riddled with bugs *cough new vegas cough oblivion*. Will Fallout 4 Skyrim (joke don't harass me) have a lesser amount of bugs? I know it's impossible to rid a game of all its bugs... But yall get me.

EDIT: I was rudely mistaken when I implied that New Vegas was a product of Bethesda, almost lost my credibility on this forum.

They're on beta now, but the build being used for hands on was an alpha build from june

The so called "bugs" are not because its alpha, its because of magic.

When you're developing a game with as grand a scope as a TES title you're going to get more bugs - it's just a fact of life.

And I think the "alpha build" phrase is just another way of saying, "don't freak out until you play the final build".

New vegas was Obsidian, not Bethesda

It's already in Beta now. The build being shown at different expos is still an Alpha build, however, so most observed bugs should be taken with a grain of salt. And games usually go gold a few weeks before release.

We don't know exactly when their development process will change phases.

We do know that the build that they are using to show people hands on gameplay is from June. They haven't said when they are going to introduce a new hands on version, if ever.

New Vegas was developed by Obsidian, and with Oblivion they had final hardware (Xbox 360) for six months. Fallout 3 had far fewer bugs, at least for me.

If its similar to Fallout 3 in terms of bugginess, then I am fine.

I've been participating in video game forums since Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, I think you're right. "Alpha Build" seems like a quick cover-up phrase that definitely doesn't apply to everything it's getting thrown on. In some instances pieces that are complete may be called "alpha" and hype gets created just to let people down later.

As mentioned, New Vegas = Not Bethesda...

The early alpha footage we've seen is obviously not indicative entirely of the final product. Things like animations, sounds, textures, and so on are always subject to change, may contain placeholders, or might be removed entirely. A good indicator of this were people jumping down Bethesda's throat about the Giant not ragdolling, but their later build during Quakecon was quite obviously changed.

Now, within reason some things should be expected. I would doubt for instance that the sliding of NPCs or during the PC interacting with another object may not entirely be gone by the end of the game's development. Take both sides of the argument with a grain of salt. Does it seem likely that it can change? Is it a simple fix? Do you want to have low expectations and be surprised when the product comes out? Ask yourself these questions.

Here's how the pre-gold builds basically work with game developers:

Alpha - Playable version with major bugs. Merely promotional, sometimes used for public play-tests [as seen in PAX, E3, etc.]
Beta - Sometimes playable [but not in this case] by public, this stage is called 'bug-squashing'. Still buggy, but much less than Alpha.
Final - The last stage before large-scale development stage ["Going Gold"]. Most of the bugs have been fixed after months of Beta, but after release there will still be some bugs to squash.

Just clearing that up.

There's no way that all the bugs will be caught before the final product, but if they can avoid gamebreaking glitches like the Clavicus Vile one in Oblivion, I'll be happy. I heard somewhere on the forum that they were going to leave some bugs in because they are entertaining. If they are anything like the cougar man or donkey lady from Red Dead Redemption, I approve.

That was so messed up! :rofl:

so was the recently released demo in 3 parts from xbox 360? i'd assumed it was but since they said some stuff was from pc i got nervous

Actually, it's a valid explanation for every bug encountered by players at the expos. Bugs aren't dealt with until games move into Beta. The core mechanics of the game are set by Alpha, but every single graphical glitch, stuck character, etc. would not have been addressed for the public builds we've seen.

All video footage we've seen has been the XBOX 360 build. The stuff from PC they talked about were screenshots.

The video that was just released in HD was also the earliest build we've been shown.

They're will be bugs it's expected I will be angry if Skyrim is not buggy Bethesda will loose it's credibility as a developer . There happy now ?
Seriously : It's imposible to fix every bug seriously impsosible as in : to fix that bug a new framework will be needed and anoher year or two of work.