General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Paula Deen]

what does MCB stand for

no clue, made the name as a kid years ago on battlefield 1942, and stuck with it, honestly do not remember.

OT: i think we should all spam rygarius twitter if the info dump doesn't come tomorrow, the bird will fear us

Dont make the bird fear us, he needs to join us.

btw: Mekka + Lost Isles (US) both Servers are not more in PTR List, so I guess this two Servers are on Beta right now, for the guys that play maybe already.

Never seen these on the PTR, pretty sure they were always beta servers.

[Tiberria]

And I counter disagree. Based on all the information that we've gathered (see Daetur post), the most likely release date is June 24th. I don't really think anyone expected a Beta in December or January and the most widely held prediction was a 4 month beta starting in Febrary. I think many of us are misunderstanding the reason why the Beta exists. I see a lot of people here complain that, because we don't have a Beta, that they are behind in the development of content, when in reality they are going to launch the Beta when the mechanisms that need to be tested are in a testable state. In my opinion, the mechanisms that are going to need the most testing are going to be Ashran and Garrisons, so I can expect that those will be heavily tested early in the Beta while the usual things such as PvP balance and quest bugs are going to come later. Personally, unless they run into a major issue such as having to recreate an entire zone like they had to with Jade Forest, I can't see the Beta lasting longer than 4 months.

No - I am pretty sure that most of the people who were predicting a May/June time frame release back in November were predicting beta to start in December or January and then be released anywhere from late April to late June. This would allow beta to be last the 5-7 month time frame that trends suggest that it should. The arguing that beta will last 3-4 months thing is more a new argument that the people who don't want to abandon hope of a June release are now desperately latching on to, because it fits their initial prediction.

Even if you look at Daetur's initial write-up, he states that beta will almost certainly last 5-7 months. As soon as it became clear that we wouldn't see beta even 5 months ahead of June, that was kind of pushed off and he changed his new grid to be "Beta duration of 3-6 months" or something similar.

[Ehnoah]

Oh, my fault then <3

[Aeluron Lightsong]

No - I am pretty sure that most of the people who were predicting a May/June time frame release back in November were predicting beta to start in December or January and then be released anywhere from late April to late June. This would allow beta to be last the 5-7 month time frame that trends suggest that it should. The arguing that beta will last 3-4 months thing is more a new argument that the people who don't want to abandon hope of a June release are now desperately latching on to, because it fits their initial prediction.

Even if you look at Daetur's initial write-up, he states that beta will almost certainly last 5-7 months. As soon as it became clear that we wouldn't see beta even 5 months ahead of June, that was kind of pushed off and he changed his new grid to be "Beta duration of 3-6 months" or something similar.

Or he found new information and changed it.

[Xjev]

Now I'll make an statement based on least possible scenario:

"Blizzard will surprise us this time and give us beta tomorrow and beta will be shortest for no apparent reason, and will last less than 4 months : ) ) )"

Well that was fun...

[Kaesebrezen]

I believe our IGN friend, or someone, said there is a 3rd zone, that was almost complete or may have been complete for the SF Event but not for the Korea and EU Events.

One of the guys that interviewed Ion(Watcher) wrote it in the news discussion thread on their site (gamona).
Ion basically said that that their internal build has one additional zone, and that they would've liked to bring that build to the press event, but didn't get it press-ready in time. They also were specifically told not to take note of any class/talent changes because many weren't implemented in the press build.

So it's at least save to say that beta will start in a more advanced state then what the press build showed. (which automatically equalls a much more advanced state than MoP beta had when it launched)

[Paula Deen]

One of the guys that interviewed Ion(Watcher) wrote it in the news discussion thread on their site (gamona).
Ion basically said that that their internal build has one additional zone, and that they would've liked to bring that build to the press event, but didn't get it press-ready in time. They also were specifically told not to take note of any class/talent changes because many weren't implemented in the press build.

So it's at least save to say that beta will start in a more advanced state then what the press build showed. (which automatically equalls a much more advanced state than MoP beta had when it launched)

Yeah that, thanks all this hype got me all mixed up :P

[hrugner]

Now I'll make an statement based on least possible scenario:

"Blizzard will surprise us this time and give us beta tomorrow and beta will be shortest for no apparent reason, and will last less than 4 months : ) ) )"

Well that was fun...

Least possible would be "Beta started the day of Blizzcon and everybody respected the NDA to its fullest. WoD launches 3pm PSD 2/23/14"

[Tiberria]

One of the guys that interviewed Ion(Watcher) wrote it in the news discussion thread on their site (gamona).
Ion basically said that that their internal build has one additional zone, and that they would've liked to bring that build to the press event, but didn't get it press-ready in time. They also were specifically told not to take note of any class/talent changes because many weren't implemented in the press build.

So it's at least save to say that beta will start in a more advanced state then what the press build showed. (which automatically equalls a much more advanced state than MoP beta had when it launched)

The thing is - even if the third zone is ready, they probably won't release it right away for testing anyway. They always deliberately only release 1-2 zones at a time during betas, because the fact there is nothing else on beta to play forces us to provide more detailed and focused feedback on those zones.

[Paula Deen]

The thing is - even if the third zone is ready, they probably won't release it right away for testing anyway. They always deliberately only release 1-2 zones at a time during betas, because the fact there is nothing else on beta to play forces us to provide more detailed and focused feedback on those zones.

For me atleast, the point isnt that there will be another zone, its that there is already one done, which means beta is very close. It doesnt have to be there on launch, but if its almost done, then there is not a better time to start beta than now.

[Gurluas]

They actually release all available zones immediately but either put up invisible walls or no man's land debuff in them.

This is how it was with Cata and Wotlk at least.

[RippedLife]

Least possible would be "Beta started the day of Blizzcon and everybody respected the NDA to its fullest. WoD launches 3pm PSD 2/23/14"

rofl now that would be fun

[Ehnoah]

Lets go sleeping <3

Hope when I am up, pre-Order is here!°

[Tazzak]

Do we really have a chance at pre-order, or even beta, being here this week?

[Deleted]

How many of you actually play the beta when its available to you, or are there people out there like me who are excited about all the news you get from it but don't want to play it?

[Krazzorx]

They actually release all available zones immediately but either put up invisible walls or no man's land debuff in them.

This is how it was with Cata and Wotlk at least.

Iirc with the MoP one (as in I think I remember someone posting this) some people at the very start of beta managed to get to Jade Forest when it wasn't open and it certainly wasn't able to be tested.

Same way they have place holder NPC models that say "place holder" or something along those lines.

I believe female Pandaren had the "female" tag before they implemented the model.

Finished is also a relative term in relation to beta. Some people considered it finished when its bug free. Others when all the NPCs have their models and are in place. Still others when its testable (eg, enough quests work and there are enough NPCs even if the have placeholders). Even though I can't imagine there's many of them, I suspect some view finished as meaning all the terrain is completely finished.

[Tiberria]

They actually release all available zones immediately but either put up invisible walls or no man's land debuff in them.

This is how it was with Cata and Wotlk at least.

No, it worked that way in MoP too; all zones were on the map and you could go into them, but would get instantly teleported out. However, without being able to go in the zones, it's impossible to tell how much of them are done or not.

[sp2danny]

character copy went all the way to pending for me

[Paula Deen]

Do we really have a chance at pre-order, or even beta, being here this week?

I would say judging by the guy with 1 post a few pages back who said it was out on Thursday and the guy with a translator friend who said it was out Monday-Wednesday..... yes, yes I do. Preorder will probably be a few weeks out atleast, I don't think they would include that at the same time as beta, unless it came with beta access.

- - - Updated - - -

character copy went all the way to pending for me

Care to risk doing it again and losing a copy for a screencap?

[solgog]

character copy went all the way to pending for me

Wow, do you have a beta license or something haha? It's kind of hard to imagine they would let you copy characters without one.