General WoD Alpha/Beta Discussion

[Dhomeli]

Is it blizzard's day off or something

They've been very quiet so far today.

[xskarma]

They've been very quiet so far today.

Let's hope that quiet = working hard to get us what we want.

[brothernads]

Because the part where it says reverse the order entered below. I believe it to be a court order as only a court could force someone to give the money back

The actual chronology was:
1) Headmaster and school entered into settlement/confidentiality agreement, in which school agreed to pay headmaster $80k and headmaster agreed not to disclose details of settlement
2) Daughter made Facebook post
3) School learned of this and told headmaster that he violated confidentiality agreement and he wouldn't be getting any money
4) Headmaster filed a motion to enforce the settlement (i.e., to make the school pay) and he won in a lower court
5) School appealed the ruling to a higher court
6) Higher court reversed the lower court, saying headmaster couldn't enforce settlement and school didn't have to pay

There was no court order mandating any confidentiality. There was only violation of the agreement to keep confidentiality.

I misstated it earlier - the school never actually paid the headmaster before the Facebook post. If they had, they probably would have been the ones to file a motion to rescind the settlement.

[Scourge12309]

Let's hope that quiet = working hard to get us what we want.

[Tiberria]

Yes, the PTR for a normal Raid Tier takes about 2 months of PTR testing, but an expac will for sure, do the same or less?. Comeon man, as excited as I am too, I can't really let hype cloud realism when development isn't as easy as some people paint it. I hope I'm proven wrong, but as of right now, they're schedule with each day that passes goes more and more pass a early/mid summer release, and even a lot us that are hyped about it realise it.

The PTR for a major content patch is typically actually closer to 3 months, with about 2 months of raid testing. I find it almost incomprehensible that an expansion wouldn't add a magnitude of months to that time frame with all of the additional things a new expansion brings. That's why I have been saying all along; expecting beta to be shorter than 5 months is just setting yourself up for disappointment. I also distinctly remember that the same thing was being said this time 2 years ago with the MoP beta and how it couldn't possibly be longer than the Cata beta and would assuredly be 3-4 months long.

A 5 month beta starting next week (best case scenario) rules out everything before mid-August. If they can't get it out before mid-August, I would expect September 23 or 30 will be the next window it can be released (given Destiny release date, Labor Day, etc). Maybe, they know they won't get it out before that mid-August time frame and are just delaying beta because they don't need it out right now if it won't be ready until September/October for release anyway?

[Dhomeli]

Probability does not imply causality. - I think it is entirely possible that Cataclysm being a 5 month beta and Mists of Pandaria being a 6 month beta are outliers. Yes, there is a trend, but that does not mean we will see the trend continue indefinitely.

I think it's possible that all zone testing could be done within 1.5-2 months, with some initial garrison testing starting at some point. Then another 1.5-2 months can be devoted to all max level content - max level zones, Ashran, raiding, and further garrison testing.

[Prode]

The PTR for a major content patch is typically actually closer to 3 months, with about 2 months of raid testing. I find it almost incomprehensible that an expansion wouldn't add a magnitude of months to that time frame with all of the additional things a new expansion brings. That's why I have been saying all along; expecting beta to be shorter than 5 months is just setting yourself up for disappointment. I also distinctly remember that the same thing was being said this time 2 years ago with the MoP beta and how it couldn't possibly be longer than the Cata beta and would assuredly be 3-4 months long.

A 5 month beta starting next week (best case scenario) rules out everything before mid-August. If they can't get it out before mid-August, I would expect September 23 or 30 will be the next window it can be released (given Destiny release date, Labor Day, etc). Maybe, they know they won't get it out before that mid-August time frame and are just delaying beta because they don't need it out right now if it won't be ready until September/October for release anyway?

QFgoingtobeignoredT

Probability does not imply causality. - I think it is entirely possible that Cataclysm being a 5 month beta and Mists of Pandaria being a 6 month beta are outliers. Yes, there is a trend, but that does not mean we will see the trend continue indefinitely.

I think it's possible that all zone testing could be done within 1.5-2 months, with some initial garrison testing starting at some point. Then another 1.5-2 months can be devoted to all max level content - max level zones, Ashran, raiding, and further garrison testing.

Yes it could happen, only thing that you r expecting the unlikely which doesn't make sense.

[Steve the Sloth]

Hype isn't clouding my vision. I'd probably be with you if this was MoP beta. I'm just not convinced doom is nigh.

You let pride cloud your vision!

[Aeluron Lightsong]

You let pride cloud your vision!

Sha of Pride is defeated so not true

Yes it could happen, only thing that you r expecting the unlikely which doesn't make sense.

Unlikely things have happened or things that nobody expected.

[alexkeren]

[snip]
I also distinctly remember that the same thing was being said this time 2 years ago with the MoP beta and how it couldn't possibly be longer than the Cata beta and would assuredly be 3-4 months long.
[snip]

The only reason MoP Beta lasted as long as it did was they redid The Jade Forest from the ground up. Otherwise it would have completed about 1.5 to 2 months earlier.

[Xentronium]

If the beta is so close does it mean the FAF alpha was kept quiet / never happened?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

If the beta is so close does it mean the FAF alpha was kept quiet / never happened?

There was no Alpha for MoP either.

[brothernads]

The problem is we just don't know how much testing can be done in-house. And what they actually use beta for. Which is why predictions for lengths are very hard to estimate. We know they need at minimum 2-3 months for dungeon testing+class balance. Other than that, we just don't know how much they NEED public beta testing. I have absolutely no clue how much of questing they need beta tested. And I don't think anyone else knows. Could be 3 months. Could be none and they can do it in house.

Which is why I think if they are adding that new protection and faster downloading thing and that's what's taking so long, they likely could be doing a shorter beta with a shorter questing testing. It'd be very hard for me to see that Blizz would delay release of the xpac by a month to integrate a faster download system. If that's what is going on.

Questing is tough to judge. We do know that they decided to revamp an entire zone in Mists because the questing flow was off, so it's definitely something they want to test sufficiently and are willing to scrap if needed. They've said that Warlords will offer more "dynamic" questing (a la Timeless Isle), that quest items are no longer in inventory, etc. It would seem that they'll need some level of public testing for all of this, at least because players always find bugs that internal QA doesn't - sometimes due to sheer scale of people testing, sometimes due to players doing things in creative ways.

[Darkmon]

I am not sure, but i haven't seen this image before....maybe there is some sort of closed beta happening right now....

http://imgur.com/V4ZIEEJ

[Dhomeli]

I am not sure, but i haven't seen this image before....maybe there is some sort of closed beta happening right now....

http://imgur.com/V4ZIEEJ

I haven't seen that one before either... and it was just uploaded a minute ago to imgur.

Edit: A Google image search seems to show that image on a foreign game website on February 22nd, so it's probably just from the press event.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I am not sure, but i haven't seen this image before....maybe there is some sort of closed beta happening right now....

http://imgur.com/V4ZIEEJ

Interesting mob.

[Deleted]

Sha of Pride is defeated so not true





Unlikely things have happened or things that nobody expected.

[brothernads]

I am not sure, but i haven't seen this image before....maybe there is some sort of closed beta happening right now....

http://imgur.com/V4ZIEEJ

Probably from the press event. Blizzard CMs have confirmed there is NO beta happening right now.

[Prode]

Unlikely things have happened or things that nobody expected.

Why on Earth would they postpone closed beta you think ? What's bad in it for them advertising their product long before release ? IT IS IN BAD SHAPE, get it. Only reason for them not to let the public go and try it is that it's not ready, not even to test gameplay and then you come and say it's gonna be an all time short beta, god.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Why on Earth would they postpone closed beta you think ? What's bad in it for them advertising their product long before release ? IT IS IN BAD SHAPE, get it. Only reason for them not to let the public go and try it is that it's not ready, not even to test gameplay and then you come and say it's gonna be an all time short beta, god.

Postponing beta=/ postponing release. I don't know either but I'm still feeling this phase of *Going to Beta to release* is so..different.