RPG Vault have posted part 27 of their ongoing Q&A with Peter Tyson about Dragon Empires, Codemasters' massively multiplayer online RPG:

    Jonric: You started accepting beta applications some time ago. Looking back, what were the resulting benefits and drawbacks? How many applications have you received, and from what parts of the world?

    Peter Tyson: The disadvantage is that people end up waiting a long time to take part. The advantage is that they get to see a game being developed from start to finish, which for many is interesting. Also, we get to build a community and start people talking about the game early. This is handy as we get a nice sounding board for ideas and concepts before they are implemented and too hard to remove. It has its advantages and disadvantages for everyone!

    In terms of locations, as usual, the majority of our more than 120,000 sign ups are from the US, and the rest tend to be European.