General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Wow]

"The Mists of Pandaria beta was different because so many people needed an invite from the Annual Pass. This time around, beta will be more limited and only used for testing and feedback."

Does not lend itself to inviting many casual players. They want to invite actual testers and people who provide feedback. Obviously some casual players want to actually test, but that beta mentality is far more dominated by the balance minded hardcore players. Its a much safer bet inviting a 2200 arena player than a random random bg hero in the sense of inviting someone who actually will provide useful feedback.

Obviously in some circumstances the bg hero provides more useful feedback, but when you start inviting in he 1000's of people, the numbers balance out to the 2200 arena player a better bet.

All that they are doing is what they normally do for betas.

[bluspacecow]

April 29th wasn't 3 months ago.

Your assuming Vacashamanica means this forum.

Note they said "3 months since my last visist to the forum" not "3 months since my last visist to this forum"

He could mean the official forums and missed the "s" at the end of forum

[Edoran]

"The Mists of Pandaria beta was different because so many people needed an invite from the Annual Pass. This time around, beta will be more limited and only used for testing and feedback."

Does not lend itself to inviting many casual players. They want to invite actual testers and people who provide feedback. Obviously some casual players want to actually test, but that beta mentality is far more dominated by the balance minded hardcore players. Its a much safer bet inviting a 2200 arena player than a random random bg hero in the sense of inviting someone who actually will provide useful feedback.

Obviously in some circumstances the bg hero provides more useful feedback, but when you start inviting in the 1000's of people, the numbers balance out to the 2200 arena player a better bet.

The only content I basically could see a casual player being good for testing is length of time to level in content for the average player. And that can be determined through random Blizz employee (those not working on WoD) testing.

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I know that comes of as a bit harsh but, I'm just trying to think what a more casual mindset can be used for if the main goal is to try to break everything. That's not something your average player does. That's something your average hardcore player does though.

I agree. Too many people (call them casuals if you must) just want beta invites to play the game as a free trial. They don't fill out bug reports. It GREATLY benefits Blizzard and therefore all of us for those invited to be high-level players.

[CosmicGuitars]

Your assuming Vacashamanica means this forum.

Note they said "3 months since my last visist to the forum" not "3 months since my last visist to this forum"

He could mean the official forums and missed the "s" at the end of forum

He meant this forum. He's a fairly frequent troll.

[mistahwilshire]

Your assuming Vacashamanica means this forum.

Note they said "3 months since my last visist to the forum" not "3 months since my last visist to this forum"

He could mean the official forums and missed the "s" at the end of forum

Given the post in question I think you're giving WAY too much credit.

[Krazzorx]

All that they are doing is what they normally do for betas.

No, the ratio of hardcore players to casual players will be much higher. The testing population for WoD is going to be incredibly small. However, they need the same amount of hardcore players in to test raids and pvp. And all at the beginning instead of the end.

This will be done out of necessity. There's only an extremely small population of WoW who will test raids. Unlike MoP, they need to be in from the start. And unlike MoP, you can't buy your way in.

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I agree. Too many people (call them casuals if you must) just want beta invites to play the game as a free trial. They don't fill out bug reports. It GREATLY benefits Blizzard and therefore all of us for those invited to be high-level players.

Right, I'm not trying to put anyone down, nor am I suggesting this means anything for beta length.

Just that if your goal is to have the most efficient external test possible, you invite the hardcore players who are deeply invested in the game. Someone who wants beta to see if they want to buy it or not, not a great tester. Yes, some will get invited, but Blizz will make sure there's a far greater ratio of hardcore players to free trial players.

Blizz more or less treated MoP's beta as a frat party. This one is much more business like.

[The Hero of Legend]

Your assuming Vacashamanica means this forum.

Note they said "3 months since my last visist to the forum" not "3 months since my last visist to this forum"

He could mean the official forums and missed the "s" at the end of forum

Pretty sure he's referring to this one. He's always trying to start fights and get people upset. He's has visited this forum in particular a lot.

[Wow]

No, the ratio of hardcore players to casual players will be much higher. The testing population for WoD is going to be incredibly small. However, they need the same amount of hardcore players in to test raids and pvp. And all at the beginning instead of the end.

This will be done out of necessity. There's only an extremely small population of WoW who will test raids. Unlike MoP, they need to be in from the start. And unlike MoP, you can't buy your way in.

The testing pop is normally small... And top players always get inv's so nothing new....

As I said they are just doing what they normally do for betas.

[Krazzorx]

The testing pop is normally small... And top players always get inv's so nothing new....

As I said they are just doing what they normally do for betas.

Blizz themselves says they are doing stuff different.

[Deleted]

3 months since my last visist to the forum , I was expecting to see a bunch of videos of beta playing or at least the beta ETA, what a joke, blizzzard is serously fucking up all their games.

I think D3 is well done in version 2.x.

WoW infact sucks. Without any doubt.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I think D3 is well done in version 2.x.

WoW infact sucks. Without any doubt.

You can do much better then that.

[Wow]

Blizz themselves says they are doing stuff different.

Yes, different from mists but not from what they did before.. This is how beta inv's went before mists.

[Ehnoah]

Lets see tomorrow, if we get something. But I not expect much.

[Krazzorx]

This week will probably be garrison blogs/questing blogs or Ashran blogs.

And maybe someone can explain what happened to the stopping of new builds.

[Paula Deen]

There is not really much 'ofcourse' about it. According to my sources a more open F&F alpha was supposed to start about 2-3 weeks ago already, but as the story of WoD goes so far, something unforseen is heavily delaying their plans. Tbh at this rate we won't see WoD launching before December...

Thought you and a friend were already in the Alpha?

How those 3D Buildings and Map Edges looking? I mean, since you have seen them and I totally haven't

[Krazzorx]

"@DedElf Hard to quantify, but we're trying to make the system a bonus. We'll have lots more info soon (actual soon, not "Soon(TM)")." -Watcher referring to Garrions (I believe). And that was 12 hours ago.

[Deleted]

You can do much better then that.

You overestimate my abilities here, sir.

[Paula Deen]

You overestimate my abilities here, sir.

Then why are you here?

[Deleted]

Then why are you here?

To defend the fact blizzard is still able to build great games. See D3.

About WoD alpha/beta: I am not really interested in participating in a WoW Alpha or beta anymore. The mindset of the developers to deevolute the game is far away from my ability to tolerate.

Still i am very interested in reading how people who are going to get access to alpha/beta actually experience changes made.

[Tiberria]

Unless everyone gets a full set of drops from doing both normal and heroic in week 2, it's extremely likely that raiders will end up having to run LFR for the first few weeks. The drops will be upgrades from everything in 5 mans, and most people won't have full normal/heroic/mythic gear for at least a couple of months.

Here is how it will probably work out for competitive raiding guilds

Week 1 - Level and gear up BiS 5 man blues - preferably on at least 2 different toons
Week 2 - Run normal and heroic with full 30 man raids (30 man = maximized total loot) with master loot turned on so that loot can be directed to the people that will be in for 20 man progression. Top guilds will likely be doing something like 2x30 or 3x30 man runs of both difficulties with 10 mains and 20 alts in each runs.
Week 3 - You will likely be in half or more dungeon blues on average. Every one will want to do full clears of LFR, Normal and Heroic, preferably on Tuesday before main raid, because almost every one will still have upgrades in all 3 difficulties. Top guilds will still need to do full 30 man runs of Normal and Heroic to funnel loot.
Week 4 and on - Gradually, you'll be able to scale back on the LFR runs and later normal and heroic runs as you get more gear. I still suspect people will have to run all 4 difficulties for several weeks. I distinctly remember there still being upgrades for me in LFR even after ToT had opened, so this will probably be no different. It will probably be 6+ weeks before all dungeon gear is replaced.

This whole thing is a recipe for a huge amount of burn out. It will probably be on par with the criticism of all of the "mandatory" dailies at the start of MoP that received so much negative feedback. Sure, you can argue that it affects only raiders, etc, etc. However, realistically, did the dailies at the start of MoP not only really affect raiders? (because they gated gear and key enchants, etc). Casuals didn't need to get every daily done every day anymore than casuals will need to clear multiple raid difficulties, but they still complained about how mandatory it all felt.

I think it will be a repeat of the MoP situation, except with "raid difficulty overload" instead of "dailies overload". I predict that by 6.1, they will change course and decide to put in a shared loot lock across all 4 difficulties (i.e you can only get loot from a boss the first time you kill it each week - regardless of what difficulty). At the same time, they can also put in a toggle switch where you can "turn off" your eligibility for loot if you are planning to kill a boss on a higher difficulty later. This will still make it possible for people to help out friends in a lower difficulty (their stated goal for this system to begin with) while removing any element of it being mandatory to do 3-4 levels of raiding every week.