Hollywood doesn't get to do betas.
- The media is published and has to be as good as it will ever be.
- Very unlike the software world.
- A movie is a fully static, unchanging artifact once published.
- Software can be updated after the fact over the internet.
- Also everyone's experience with software–even the exact same software, bit, for bit–is different, because software maintains state that is personal to a user.
- So the third time you launch a bit of software, it's already very different from what your friend sees on their third time.
- How different your experience is comes down to how much relevant state has been saved.
- Here's a few examples from more to less different in the domain of games:
- Minesweeper (no save games) - same for everyone.
- A simple puzzle game (only saves what puzzle you've completed) - mostly the same for everyone, the only difference is how far you've progressed.
- A game where you quest and earn better weapons and items - gets more and more different as you play and earn items.
- An open-ended world-building game like Minecraft - wildly different for each savegame.
- Whereas a movie is always the exact same bits for every user, every time.
- This allows shared cultural experiences for everyone who consumes it, shared touch points.
- But it makes it much harder to iterate.[ahy]