100,000 Annual Pass Invites On Their Way

Originally Posted by ItZMuRdA

I understand how probability works. I'm using the 2 factors that Bashiok explicitly mentioned as a grounds for who gets invited when. Considering my AP was signed up for literally instantly, and my cumulative subscription time is upwards of 6 years, I find it hard to believe that more than 100,000 others are in that same boat. There are plenty other factors I could list that I would *think* would give me an edge, but I went with what was stated by Blizzard. Nonetheless, I'm still surprised.

There is clearly some criteria that the players will never know of that is sorting people out or in. Thats the only thing off the bat I can think of that would put you "out of the boat."

However, I wouldn't be surprised. With the way blizzard words things and manages things, nothing they do surprises me anymore. We'll,except maybe the entire theme of this expansion and most of it's content but other than that...

Originally Posted by F-Minus

Pretty much same boat.
Playing pretty much since release in EU, Feb 2005 (no breaks so each month 12.99EUR for ongoing 7 years), signed AP the day it was up + I'm paying 12.99EUR for a second account since 2009 every month, still no beta invite, so I think that PR what they have is just blowing in the wind.

That said, I'm not to fused about the whole beta thing, I wont really play it, I will mearly check the new abilities and changes of my main (Priest) and fly over some zones to get the feel for it, not gonna do any questing, dungeons or raiding, I'll try and keep it fresh for when it's released.


EDIT:
Also my better half also has an account active from the release of EU (2005) with no breaks and AP on the day of announcement, also no Beta invite yet.

EDIT2: I checked my bnet account and i have the BETA account added (thank you poster above).

Yeah I too have had a second account subscribed for some time, as well as numerous accounts created for things like RAF that are no longer subbed. Also all the collector's editions on my main account, previous beta access for all Blizzard betas at one point or another (and I thoroughly played them and gave feedback), etc. I don't really think time spent in-game is a factor, but if it is I've got a ridiculous amount of time /played. Anyway, grats on your beta, I still haven't been lucky enough yet. :P

This is really a huge scandal. Anyone who has ever worked for a data center or in a network operations center knows that the cost of setting up enough blades to run a million non-concurrent annual pass holders in the beta is pennies for a company like Blizzard. They're trying to save money by claiming limited resources so that money that could have been used to reward annual pass holders and improve ActiBlizzard's corporate image can instead be funneled up the corporate ladder so CEOs and upper management can float in a pool drinking expensive vintage wine from a diamond-encrusted goblet -- or some posh nonsense such as that. It's not just the annual pass, either -- they're not updating old character models with pandaria and they have re-used old areas for top-tier raid content (dragon soul). Diablo III is also a huge letdown in that the lighting quality is terrible (not enough contrast), and it's basically just a button masher. Just so everyone knows, it's quite possible to cancel the annual pass in order to protest this nonsense from Blizzard -- either have your bank block the transaction or just get a new card. Dropping out of the pass is the only really effective way to protest Blizzard's policies, as they will simply not listen to their subscriber-base on these types of issues because let's face it -- the subscriber base has always been too complacent.

I can't believe people actually think that time playing the game is a factor for a Beta invite! People think that this is a reward. But when it comes around this time to where you can actually buy yourself into an invite, people still think time is a factor. The point of the beta is to test the servers out. You need to be able to take surveys everytime you log out, you need to report bugs, you need to do your part of testing the Beta.With that, Blizzard more then looks at computer specs. When you are in your battle.net account, you can have your computer analyzed and puts your computer specs into their database. Then need to be able to see how the games works on certain comps/graphics cards.

This invites have anything to do to the ones handed yesterday to players on 2004 and 2005 ? Cheers.

You're not alone. I actively pay for 4 accounts across two battle.net IDs, none have received a beta invite. And I just checked my account history... I've been paying since 11/26/04 (According to battle.net account history) and signed up as soon as I could for the annual pass. I'm not complaining, I'm just sure that the length of time I've played / had annual pass has nothing to do with getting in.

Originally Posted by quras

There is clearly some criteria that the players will never know of that is sorting people out or in. Thats the only thing off the bat I can think of that would put you "out of the boat."

However, I wouldn't be surprised. With the way blizzard words things and manages things, nothing they do surprises me anymore. We'll,except maybe the entire theme of this expansion and most of it's content but other than that...

RNG. That's the way I would do it if I were them. A lot simpler than anything else

Originally Posted by muto

Lets assume 25% to 50% of WoW has annual pass, that means assuming WoW has between 10m-12m players your odds of getting into a 100k beta pool would be:

5m or 6m divided by 100k = 50 or 60, so your odds would be 1 in 50 or 60 (50%), or 1 in 25 or 30 (25%)

Actually your odds are probably less then that, because I don't even know if 25% of WoW has annual pass.

they said they had roughly about 1 million peeps who got AP. its probably rounded up so the odds arent that bad.

Originally Posted by starkey

hopefully this stops all the f...ing QQ threads now

Nah. I expect threads like "The other 90%"

I'd recommend checking your account on battle.net, I haven't gotten the e-mail, but I just checked and I'm flagged for it on my account. I'll have to start downloading/installing when I get off work.

Originally Posted by Necrotica

I'd recommend checking your account on battle.net, I haven't gotten the e-mail, but I just checked and I'm flagged for it on my account. I'll have to start downloading/installing when I get off work.

same for me
Downloading it now , its slow but im off out for an hour or 2 so ill have something to play tonight

Panda beta? Panda beta. Huzzah! Never taking a break from the game since release appears to have paid off.

EU, if we're still tallying the results.

my account is from day one wow launched. not invited so it's pretty random they choose you

Originally Posted by muto

Lets assume 25% to 50% of WoW has annual pass, that means assuming WoW has between 10m-12m players your odds of getting into a 100k beta pool would be:

5m or 6m divided by 100k = 50 or 60, so your odds would be 1 in 50 or 60 (50%), or 1 in 25 or 30 (25%)

Actually your odds are probably less then that, because I don't even know if 25% of WoW has annual pass.

Disregard the math used on this...

anyways. good luck to everyone on getting in.
Glad they have started the invites going strong.

Got in the beta! xD Eu side playing since release annual pass ordered on 11 november.

So if 10% of those 1 million AP owners got invited this week and Blizzard sends out invites once every week... I wish those who have to wait for nine to ten weeks more to get a Beta invite allot of patience and luck (myself included).

Still... yay, finally an official post from Blizzard about those *insertswearinghere* invites.

1million people signed up for AP, 100k invites went out, you have a 10% chance of getting a invite this wave!

Eu here, downloaded... connecting... .... ... .... .... .... ....

apparently i am not eligible for a beta invite at this time, since i had created my account back in february 2005 (EU) and created a second one in the same battle.net account in 2010. the second one was active (my main is on it) when the beta went live, so i am now treated as a customer from 2010 rather than 2005.. even if i have an account from 2005.

Got my beta invite, and i've been playing since release. /cheer