Diablo III - Open Beta

[Ninjam0ves]

Hello fellow gamers

I was wondering if any of you know whether or not there is going to be a "open beta" at some point? (A beta which everyone can enter, and not just a small amount of those who actually "signed").

If yes, when would this be happening? Guesses are welcome as I believe they haven't published anything yet on this subject, could be wrong tho.

Thanks in advance.

//Ninjam0ves

[Milamber]

There wasn't an open Beta for Starcraft either, but they invited more and more people to the closed Beta.

[Kisho]

I don't think Blizzard have done an open beta, ever. The closest we've come is during PTRs for the upcoming x.0 patches for WoW, but they weren't betas. I could be wrong though!

[Ninjam0ves]

There wasn't an open Beta for Starcraft either, but they invited more and more people to the closed Beta.

Do you know how many they eventually invite?
I mean out of 1000 "sign ups" how many would get into the beta at the end?
I'm fully aware that you can't give an accurate number, but I would like to know my chances you know

[Lysah]

Do you know how many they eventually invite?
I mean out of 1000 "sign ups" how many would get into the beta at the end?
I'm fully aware that you can't give an accurate number, but I would like to know my chances you know

Over the next few months, your chances are probably fairly decent. Most people won't play the beta more than a couple of days (because there's only about an hour of gameplay in it), so they will keep adding more people to replace those that quit.

[Ninjam0ves]

Cheers for the reply Lysah, you are indeed "Totally Awesome".

[Vespian]

so they will keep adding more people to replace those that quit.

Let's not forget that it's not unique that Blizzard opens the doors to new testers and at the same time increases the amount of access to the game in terms of level-cap, areas etc. So the fallout from quitters might happen, but don't expect it to be enormous. The level cap is lvl 13 right now. Blizzard has plenty of room to expand on this.

[Lysah]

Let's not forget that it's not unique that Blizzard opens the doors to new testers and at the same time increases the amount of access to the game in terms of level-cap, areas etc. So the fallout from quitters might happen, but don't expect it to be enormous. The level cap is lvl 13 right now. Blizzard has plenty of room to expand on this.

They seem to have made it pretty clear that that is never going to happen. Bashiok posted a while back along the lines of "not going to increase the content at all." I'd find it for you if I wasn't waiting on class =/

[Cel]

They seem to have made it pretty clear that that is never going to happen. Bashiok posted a while back along the lines of "not going to increase the content at all." I'd find it for you if I wasn't waiting on class =/

Went through all the blue posts in the Diablo 3 forums and was unable to locate this anywhere. Not saying you are wrong, but I'm going to assumeyou are until I have proof otherwise simply cause its sad when you destroy hopes and dreams like that... :P

Plus (purely on speculation) with them pushing Diablo 3 back to next year, I find it really hard to believe they only want to test 1/3 of act 1 and that's it. Anyways, I have no information on this so take what I say with a grain of salt, but even if they do expand content and invites (the invites part is a certainty I'm sure. Content, don't really know) but there will be no open beta. I can't remember a single Blizzard open beta for that fact. But if you remember SC2, pretty much everyone that wanted in by the end of beta had a chance to play. They sent a ton of invites in the end. Also, if you have a friend in beta, stay close cause Blizzard has been fairly typical about invites for people in beta to send to their friend/s.

Anyhow, Lysah I love you and all, but after trampling all over my fantasies... I just dont know what to do. Let me dream!

[Lysah]

Let me dream!

I'm glad you said that, now I have an excuse to not go digging through Diablo III news >_>

[Razboss]

I can safely back up Lysahs claim. I have read and seen said post from Bashiok. Being as a new member, but long time reader of MMO-Champ, u can take it for whatever its worth. But your chances of getting an invite are a little better now that beta will most likely last a little longer with the push back of the release date.

[Vespian]

They seem to have made it pretty clear that that is never going to happen. Bashiok posted a while back along the lines of "not going to increase the content at all." I'd find it for you if I wasn't waiting on class =/

In that case, these beta tests really are nothing more than a gesture to the community, because testing will only be available to 1/5th of the content. I personally find it hard to believe, although I don't doubt that you've seen them say it somewhere.

Personally though, I'd rather spend time craving DIII, than wasting all my energy in beta :P

[Athryl]

I too doubt there will be a true open Beta but as the release date was pushed back I think there's a good chance many more people will be invited, particularly because they are overhauling demon hunter and will want some feedback on that.

As far as Blizzard doing open betas in the past the only one I know of for certain is original WoW had one prior to launch. I think they've become a lot more secure in handling server loads rendering open beta somewhat unnecessary (because a large part of what open beta tests is server stability/stress testing).

[Lysah]

In that case, these beta tests really are nothing more than a gesture to the community

Yes, pretty much. It also makes me very sad that they give us like 5% of the game as a beta test and expect that to be good enough for us to hold out six more months to live release =/

[Arkenaw]

Yes, pretty much. It also makes me very sad that they give us like 5% of the game as a beta test and expect that to be good enough for us to hold out six more months to live release =/

It's better than nothing, which is what most of us will get to experience at the current rate of invites. =[

[Cel]

It would be amusing (and sad) should the game finally release with never getting past its current implementation of beta, for gamers to find after lvl 13, past the Skeleton King, a crap load of bugs and problems.

Yah, didn't know about the limited beta and not that I want to complain, but it really doesn't seem like a beta like this. More like a early demo. And if that's truly the case, I don't see why they don't just open it up to the public.

They already have a free trial of SC2 going. Might as well make this so called handicapped beta similar.

Oh well, I guess I do still get to test things out and see how the early stuff works. Can't say I am not disappointed that they don't let testers further into the game. I mean, sure I get to see skill, and basic mechanics.

But haven't seen a single runestone, crafting is pretty much left un-touched, and pretty much all the items you see are either common or uncommon. Not that they should be sending out the full game in the beta (though thats what they did with WoW expansions) but don't some of these things need testing and would feedback be helpful?

bah, whatever. Thanks for the info anyhow I guess... T_T But yah, diablo 3 beta will be shortly lived for each tester if this is all it is.

[Lysah]

I totally agree, I felt this way months ago when they first announced the beta would stop at Leoric. Runestones are said to come into play at Act II, so we won't get to play around with those at all, nor with item progression, really, nor with crafting...we barely even really get to taste the game, just get a feel for how it actually plays and you're already done. I really hope they change their minds and decide to give us the rest of Act I/maybe II at least, considering it can't take six months to test their servers, which is all this beta is giving them.

This "beta" is kind of becoming a running joke already to many people, it's not like the Cataclysm beta stopped at level 80.5 and that was it for half a year of testing. Guess we just have to wait and pray to the gods for time to pass quickly =/

[dhood74200]

I was so sad when I didn't get my beta key

[Verdugo]

Blue post said they have they own testers for other content and point of this beta is only to test if servers can hold the people and get some feedback on gameplay.

[Shamanic]

Went through all the blue posts in the Diablo 3 forums and was unable to locate this anywhere. Not saying you are wrong, but I'm going to assumeyou are until I have proof otherwise simply cause its sad when you destroy hopes and dreams like that... :P

I think this is the blue post that Lysah is referring to in regards to no more content. There is a discussion there on whether people will get new content or not.

I totally understand that people are done with the content and want more, and I only see that as a positive outlook for the future. If people were completing the content, or worse not completing it, and then ambivalent or uncaring to see any more of the game then we'd have a problem.

Yes we fully understand people would love to play more content, but no we're not going to release any more during the beta phase. The test is mainly intended for server stability and hardware/software compatibility testing, and not for content bug testing. For that reason we really only need provide a small bit of content to get the majority of our beta testing jollies.

We really do appreciate everyone that has been playing, and continues to play, but if you're done and have done everything you can to help provide us with feedback/bugs, then we don't want you to feel obligated to keep playing. As older testers drop off and server stability increases we'll be adding more and more people. There's no real downside in that.

As stated above, the beta is more for hardware/server/stability and not for content testing (I assume that's been completed by their in house team), because of this, I don't think they will do an open beta myself, I think they will just add the necessary numbers of people with the configurations they want to test it.

But because it is such a limited beta and there is not really much reason to continue playing if you've tested it once on every class, it does seem to make it more likely that older testers will stop playing and they will continually send out more waves of invites as that happens.