Forum Group Tags Explained (Testers, Developers, Contributors and More!)

[LittleWhiteMouse]

New members to the forums will notice that some players have tags beneath their names -- often colour coded, while everyone else seems stuck with a boring ol' "Members" name.  There's a lot of confusion as to what these tags mean.  They can change which means I'll probably have to keep coming back to this post and updating it every once and a while.  Players can have multiple tags denoting different achievements earned -- there's a section under your Profile where you can enable more if you have them.  Understanding what these tags mean is important.  It lets you know who you're talking to and what authority (if any) and experience that they have.  Some of these tags denote Wargaming employees.  Others are unpaid volunteers Wargaming chooses to recognize.

 

I will be using screen captures of particular forum members to use as examples.  I also added googly eyes because I love and respect these people and fully expect them to playfully abuse me in turn.  If I've used your ID and you would like it removed, contact me in private messages and I'll swap it for someone else.  If I haven't used yours and you think you're CLEARLY a better example than that wall-eyed, dastardly, horse thievin' varmint that I've selected, also send me a private message.  I'm sure we can work something out (which will mostly involve me having a good chuckle).

 

Here's the list:

 

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Alpha Testers were volunteers that Wargaming used to evaluate and provide feedback  the earliest builds of the game.  These are not Wargaming employees, but rather players that put in their own time to help in the development of the game.  Recruitment for Alpha Testing began as far back as 2013 and didn't conclude until early 2015.  Yeah, that's a long time!  These players have seen the game in iterations you cannot even imagine.  If you buy them a beer, they might even regale you with talk about "the good ol' days" when wakes were several kilometers long and you had to manage your ship's ballast.  Alpha Testers who met certain participation benchmarks were awarded not only with this neat title but also received and exclusive ship, the Iwaki Alpha -- also known as the "Death Pickle".

 

Notable Examples

Early on, I felt rather mixed feelings towards Alpha Testers.  On the one hand, I was impressed with the work they did to help the game come to fruition.

On the other, I was SUPER JELLY for not being one of them.

 

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Beta Testers are players that Wargaming used to help evaluate and provide feedback during the Closed Beta testing period of World of Warships.  These are not Wargaming employees.  There were three ways to get access to closed beta.  Some were selected volunteers.  Others were given access through various contests, giveaways and lotteries.  Lastly, players could buy their way into the Closed Beta (yes really) by purchasing one of the pre-order bundles available at the time (Yubari, Gremyashchy, Sims).  Closed Beta ran from March 12th, 2015 until July 2nd, 2015.  Beta Testers who met certain participation benchmarks were awarded not only with this neat title but also received an exclusive ship, the Arkansas Beta.  A lot of people sold theirs for the port slot.  Don't ask me why.

 

Notable Examples:

DokturProfesur once traumatized me with doctored a picture.  I'm returning the favour.

 

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The In AlfaTesters group tag has confused a lot of people for a long time.  According to my sources, this was a tag created by one of the Wargaming Admins to grant players access to certain sub forums while the game was still in Testing.  Note that someone might not be an actual Alpha Tester yet still have been included in this group.  These are not Wargaming employees.  Where it gets really fun is that some Alpha Testers are also In AlfaTesters.  But not always!  Confused?  Good!  Moving on!

 

Confusing Examples

I wasn't around when they were handing this title out.  I dunno that even those that have it know what it means.

 

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Supertesters are a group of player volunteers.  These are not Wargaming employees.  Supertesters are responsible for assisting Wargaming with evaluating and providing feedback to upcoming builds of the game.  These players were recruited by Wargaming.  All Supertesters are required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which precludes them from talking about anything they have or are currently working on without special permission from Wargaming.

 

Much of this work is done on special servers removed from the main servers upon which we play.  At it's most basic, these tasks involve looking for bugs and reporting on them.  It's exceedingly tedious work (IMO!) trying every combination of options imaginable in an attempt to break the software. Imagine looking in the dim, dark corners of often forgotten menu screens for something as simple as a misplaced punctuation mark.  Occasionally they do get to do fun stuff, like play test new ships or game modes that come out, both on test-build and finally on the live servers. Once they're survived the eye-crossing ordeal that is testing, they get to fill out PAPERWORK!  Yay!  Contrary to popular belief, Supertesters are not responsible for game balance.  They provide feedback based on their own observations.  This may run contrary to feedback provided by another tester.  So whether a particular point of feedback is heeded or not is all in the hands of the Developers.  That has to be frustrating.

 

"Why would anyone volunteer for something that sounds so awful?"  Well, because they love the game.  They want to help out with improving it. They help ensure that patches are delivered promptly and bug free.  I'm sure if you politely asked them they would tell you their own reasons, but those were my sentiments during my brief time as a Supertester.  And the best part?  They're often thanked with scorn by ignorant members of the community.  Yeah, I don't get it either.

 

Hard Working Examples:

I was a Supertester once upon a time.  But due to conflicts with writing reviews of Premium Ships, I bowed out.  It really is a lot of work and it cuts in quite a bit to your play time with some rather odd hours.

 

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Supertest Coordinators are Supertest team leaders.  They're the right-hand man of the Wargaming employee overseeing the Supertesting program.  These are not Wargaming employees.  As senior Supertesters, they help organize and follow up on individual tests.  They're the ones organizing teams and helping set up times for testing.  They're checking attendance and reporting on participation levels of existing Supertesters.  They also report on problems that the Supertesters encountered or any challenges met to meet the asks of Wargaming.  They're the point of contact for Supertesters to provide notice about any issues they found that couldn't be resolved outside of the normal reporting process.  You know, all of that thankless stuff which makes the project work. 

 

Not only do they do all of the above, but they're still Supertesters themselves and put all of the time the other testers do (and then some) to make sure each build is tip top.  Pretty impressive for an unpaid volunteer.

 

Overdue for Praise Examples

I have huge levels of respect for these guys.

Cripes, Macabe, you have ALL of the titles!

 

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Did you know that World of Warships has a wiki?  WoWS Wiki Editors are the people responsible for the upkeep of the articles found there.  These are not Wargaming employees.  As volunteers, they work to try and improve upon the site, adding information as it becomes available, all the while conforming to standards of style, reference and accuracy.  This can involve translating information being sent from other wiki sites while also doing their own independent research to fill out historical sections.  In addition they dig up outside references and links they deem worth adding, including reviews, articles and replays made by members of the community.  They also may be working under an NDA given the necessity for them to work with content before its released to the public.

 

Also Hard Working Examples

Wiki Editors seem to be in a habit of choosing avatars that are hard to glue googly eyes onto.  I'm not sure that Killjoy1941's makes sense.  Guns have peepers?  I dunno.

 

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Community Contributors are content creators.  These are not Wargaming employees. These are Twitch Streamers and YouTubers.  These are people who are occasionally huge in Taiwan and maybe not so much in their home country.  They're the sorry sort who spend hours trying to explain how the game works or reporting on how the changes coming into the game will affect players.  They work in close conjunction with Wargaming, often play-testing new ships before released in order to be able to publish their content on time.  Because they're often viewing content early, they have all signed Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and cannot comment on new stuff until an agreed upon publish date.  These are players who spend a lot of time trying to make the game easier to understand while vaguely attempting to be entertaining while doing so.  Sometimes they even succeed.

 

Unfortunate (and one that's soon to be disciplined) Examples

I am largely responsible for the pink colour of the title, mostly because the others weren't around to veto me when it was put to a vote.

 

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All isn't sunshine and rainbows on the forums.  There are those in the Banned group.  These are players who are no longer with us.  You can guess why.

 

Infamous Examples:

Nope.  Not sharing the names of those who have stepped over the line.

 

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Next up, there are the Developers and Administrators.  These ARE Wargaming Employees and the only ones on this list, you'll note.  They may have other titles too, but their names will always appear in bright red.  These are people on Wargaming's payroll who do everything from Customer Service, Game Development, Forum Administration and anything else you could possibly imagine that goes on inside Wargaming's offices.  Some are very active participants on the forums and in the community, doing a lot to keep things going.  Some only show up on occasion but provide some very welcome insight.  They represent the company and the decisions made by the company.  They also have the privilege of posting in bright red which is why I had to use a darker, muddier red for their title instead of matching it directly.

 

Examples that will probably (rightly) clobber me for pasting googly eyes on their Avatars

As a Community Contributor, I work closely with NikoPower.  He very patiently puts up with my shenanigans. For now.

If you spend some time on the EU forums, you don't know how lucky we are to have Devs that are so involved with the community here on NA.

 

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And finally, there's Members. That's everyone else.  Including you!

 

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Hopefully that explains the Group Tags to everyone's satisfaction. 

And cause people asked:

 

Tedster clearly wins for most titles so far.

[Goose21891]

Somehow I get the feeling Niko has found his new avatar 

[saagri]

Those eyes. 

 

[QuantumEntropy]

I only saw the eyes

 

And thanks for the info , seems like i am in alfa-testers thing also

[mr3awsome]

Couldn't come up with anything for the pumpkin?

 

[RipNuN2]

[TheStarSlayer]

Aww you didn't animate the entire Kobeni gif with googly eyes  Oh well plus one anyways.

[Lord_Zath]

LOL intensifies

[Lert]

 

WHAT HAVE I BECOME?! The Incredible Sulk?

[FuyuzuKii]

I've never giggled so hard at a forum post. +1 to you.

[Goose21891]

 

WHAT HAVE I BECOME?! The Incredible Sulk?

A Final Fantasy male protagonist

[TheZeke00]

I wish i could dump more +1s for the eyes themselves; well done LWM

 

Edit: stomach hurts. too much gligglies. send help. 

[Personator]

... what have you done to our avas LWM  XD

 

 

[QuantumEntropy]

 

WHAT HAVE I BECOME?! The Incredible Sulk?

 

Make that your avatar it's great

[Tedster_]

If I haven't used yours and you think you're CLEARLY a better example than that wall-eyed, dastardly, horse thievin' varmint that I've selected, also send me a private message.

 

I have more tags, add me 

[Lert]

A Final Fantasy male protagonist

 

My hair is nowhere near outrageous enough.

 

Make that your avatar it's great

 

Needs to be animated for that 'staring into your soul' thing.

[SireneRacker]

 

I have more tags, add me 

 

Is there a tag you do not have?

[Personator]

 

Is there a tag you do not have?

 

Yeah, he doesn't have

 

"WoWS Community Contributors" 

[The_first_harbinger]

Just a slight confusion...

The tag thing is neat, thanks for the clarification!

But can you explain a bit about the forum rank system?

like ranking from Forum recruit to Admiral of the Navy, what's the criteria for promotion?

Posts? Quality Posts? Upvotes?

[Killjoy1941]

I envision a lifeless doll staring forever with dead eyes, and it's sitting behind her monitor. Mouse? You okay? 

 

Yes, we as editors have to sign the ST NDA. Note that this doesn't in any way mean we have access to the same information available to the STs. It does mean we get access to the ships before they're made available to the public so we can add in all that information on captain skills and such.

 

The historical sections generally require a minimum of two trusted sources and some painstaking attention to detail. Premium articles are limited to the specific ship itself. Tech tree articles cover the entire class. Yes, that means the IJN DDs from tier 5 up involved researching the service history of every single ship. If every ship isn't included, the section hasn't been finished.

[ValkyrWarframe]

Great thread as usual Mouse!

 

EDIT: Those eyes...

[Lert]

But can you explain a bit about the forum rank system?

 

Posts, pure and simple. People like me who have 'vice admiral' simply talk too much.

[Personator]

But can you explain a bit about the forum rank system?

 

That's just based on number of posts. There's a thread regarding this somewhere...

[SireneRacker]

 

Yeah, he doesn't have

 

"WoWS Community Contributors" 

 

And Developer....

 

How much time of his life has he/she/it spend with this game? Half of it?

 

 

[devastator5000]

Best part about this entire thread the eyes, got to love them googly eyes