Valve Now Seeking Testers for Software, Hardware

Valve recently announced on the Steam forums that it's currently looking for candidates to playtest both unreleased software and hardware prototypes. The testing will be localized for now, asking chosen participants in the Seattle/Bellevue area to drop by Valve's office and give the beta products a thorough testing. Valve said it will eventually open up testing to gamers nationwide, and then offer international support in the future.

The survey, which can be accessed here, asks about the potential candidate's gaming background including his/her favorite video game, the average difficulty setting, the number of systems and games actually owned, and so on. Valve also wants to know if candidates actually like first-party titles like Half-Life, Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead, and what title(s) they have actually purchased and played.

"How often do you experience motion sickness (nausea/dizziness) when playing first-person shooter games?" asks one of the survey questions. "What games produce motion sickness when you play them? How long do you typically play these games before you notice motion sickness symptoms?"

The Valve Playtester Survey arrives after Valve's Jeri Ellsworth, who works in the studio's year-old hardware division, indicated that hardware testing would begin by 2013. Based on her interview with Engadget, what's likely to come first is testing software formatted for Steam's Big Picture mode. The first attempt to beta test hardware won't take place until sometime next year.

During the interview, Ellsworth said the hardware division is working in tandem with Steam's Big Picture Mode, creating a hardware solution to the control-based limitations found in many titles offered on Valve's Steam platform. Without indicating what Valve was actually developing, she said possibilities range from Phantom Lapboard-type solutions to hybrid controllers. Nowhere in the interview were there signs of a possible Steam console.

Gamers interested in testing Valve's software and hardware initiatives can fill out the survey here. Interested participants outside the Washington area can still submit the form, but whether Valve will dismiss it (based on your area code) or set it aside for later is unknown at this point.

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  • I get sick when I play CS:GO.

    total trash after the last patch.

    Blow me valve.
    Reply
  • echondo
    blahhumbugI get sick when I play CS:GO.total trash after the last patch.Blow me valve.
    Oh look, one opinion of one experience and somehow he thinks it represents everyone else's opinions on the matter. If you get sick after playing a VIDEO GAME then there's something wrong with YOU, not the game.
    Reply
  • bluebob951
    Must be looking to make a motion sickness friendly game, i think it's a good idea, a lot of people can't play because they feel sick when playing.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    I get motion sickness from Black Mesa for some reason. I can't play it for more than 20 minutes straight even though I enjoy the rest of the game.

    BigMack70Maybe they should stop wasting their time on this crap and start making Half Life 3, or Half Life 2:Episode 3 or whatever they'll wind up calling it.
    Other companies push out shovelware without ever beta testing it, using the early customers as beta testers instead.

    And in some cases, pre-alpha testers.
    Reply
  • actually, the game lost over 20k users in a few days after that update, sorry to get your trollish hopes up.
    Reply
  • I'll kiss Gabe's rosy red ass for a chance to beta test Half Life 3. I will even convince him I liked it! :love: :lol:
    Reply
  • anounamouse
    Linux support? Of course, this has either OUYA or an actual SteamBox concept written all over it (probably OUYA or Linux though).
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    BigMack70Maybe they should stop wasting their time on this crap and start making Half Life 3, or Half Life 2:Episode 3 or whatever they'll wind up calling it.
    Most everything VALVe has ever done has been quite amazing. Look at Steam. I am sue people wanted HL2 vs Steam but Steam has beome an amazing digital distribution platform.

    Plus I prefer they take their time with HL3/EP3 instead of rushing out a product early like RAGE (not a bad game, just bad driver support).

    A Bad DayI get motion sickness from Black Mesa for some reason. I can't play it for more than 20 minutes straight even though I enjoy the rest of the game.
    Other companies push out shovelware without ever beta testing it, using the early customers as beta testers instead.And in some cases, pre-alpha testers.
    It might be the graphics rendering for it. I also noticed that it does have pretty bad perfomance even on my 2500K/HD7970 system. A friend said it was due to the AF, need to drop it to 8x instead of 16x but I have decided to wait for the full Steam release to see if there are better performance numbers.

    As for the second part, I agree. If you look at D3 (yes play it) the game patches are so major that its like we are still in the beta. I do't mind a few balane changes but thewy have shanged major things, like completley changing skills and difficulty. Not just simple balance fixes or bug fixes.

    To top it all off both my wife and I get lag, sometimes pretty bad. She has a HD7870 and I have a HD7970. Sometimes it looks like a certai skill auses it,others just random.

    At least VALVes games come out performing decently.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    jimmysmittyIt might be the graphics rendering for it. I also noticed that it does have pretty bad perfomance even on my 2500K/HD7970 system. A friend said it was due to the AF, need to drop it to 8x instead of 16x but I have decided to wait for the full Steam release to see if there are better performance numbers.
    I get around 50-60 FPS on my i7 720qm and slightly OC'ed Radeon Mobility 5730 (assuming AV isn't running) according to my MSI Afterburner's graphs, though there's frequent obvious stuttering where everything freezes for a second or two. Very annoying in middle of combat.
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    I also forgot to mention that Black Mesa uses Source SDK 2007, which only has single-core support. That may be the reason for the microstuttering because the i7 720qm is the weakest 1st gen i7 processor (four cores, 1.6 GHz).

    The highest end 1st gen i5 matches or beats the i7 720qm on most software while partially supporting overclocking and running cooler.

    That's sad...
    Reply