StarCraft II Beta

[Draegan]

The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you'd like a chance to participate, now's the time to let us know. Simply go to the "Beta Profile Settings" page in Battle.net account management to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you'll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games. Please note that even if you've opted in to our betas previously, you'll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.

Time to submit your beta application.

[Tarami]

How do I sign up?

[Murgos]

[Tarami]

Thanks!

[Murgos]

Happy to help. 

[Nonentity]

Boo! I have my DxDiag from my home computer on my work computer so I can app to betas from work, but now I have to run their dumb program.

DUMB

[Salamok]

The up side of going through blizzards process is that once you register all of your blizzard games it remembers all of your cd keys and you then have the option of downloading the game in case the media is misplaced or screwed up.

[Merusk]

I can't upload using Blizz's System Checker as hitting send just gives an error message. I've probably firewalled the port they're trying to use, but I can't find any info on which ports to unblock.  Woo hah.

I fail to see the reason to do it this way instead of the traditional "send us your DXDiag."   It's not like they couldn't do that along with their whole 'you must have a cd key registered' to prevent spamming for betas.

[Salamok]

I'm guessing the beta thing is just bait to get you to buy into to their new account management system.

edit: and people fudge their dxdiags

[Velorath]

I can't upload using Blizz's System Checker as hitting send just gives an error message. I've probably firewalled the port they're trying to use, but I can't find any info on which ports to unblock.  Woo hah.

I got an error telling me to check my internet connection the first few times I tried to send the data.  Tried again a few minutes later and it worked, so maybe it's just that too many people were trying to send it in at once.

[Salamok]

In retrospect I am thinking i should have signed up each of my games to their own acct to up my lottery chances.

[gryeyes]

I got an error telling me to check my internet connection the first few times I tried to send the data.  Tried again a few minutes later and it worked, so maybe it's just that too many people were trying to send it in at once.

Same, i had to try a few times before it got accepted. Took me longer to track down a Blizzard game with a code on it.

[Ratman_tf]

Yuk. I don't want my email address to be my login!

[Trippy]

Wow their system checker sends your MAC address to Blizzard.

[Rendakor]

Kind of offtopic, but if I already have a WoW account can I turn that into one of these wierd Battle.net accounts so that I can sign up for the SC2 beta? Or should I just create a new account?

[Koyasha]

You have to (I think) create a new battle.net account, then merge your WOW account into it.  But the way I understand it you then have to log into wow with your email address.

[Merusk]

What Koyasha said. 

I finally got it to work, but had to download a new copy of the profiler to do so.  Apparently the one I had was corrupted. 

[Vash]

I like how you have to download and run their system checker, but then it doesn't even recognize SLI.   

I wonder if it fails to recognize Crossfire too?

[Yegolev]

I suppose it is either very anemic in what it gathers, or it simply doesn't show you everything it gathers.  It showed that my disk space was ~75GB, which only counts my boot disk/partition.

[Big Gulp]

This is a multiplayer beta, right?  Pass.  I've come to the conclusion that multiplayer is great in theory, shitty in practice.

I prefer my gaming to be a solitary exercise, unless it's a casual, play on the couch with friends game.

[Goreschach]

This is a multiplayer beta, right?  Pass.  I've come to the conclusion that multiplayer is great in theory, shitty in practice.

I prefer my gaming to be a solitary exercise, unless it's a casual, play on the couch with friends game.

You do know what starcraft is, right?

[Ratman_tf]

You do know what starcraft is, right?

"YOU PUSILLANIMOUS MAGGOTS! GET ON THE BATTLEFIELD!"

[Big Gulp]

You do know what starcraft is, right?

Yep, I'm just assuming that the beta is to balance out multiplayer, and that you're not getting the single player component of the game.  Am I right in this?

If that's the case then I wouldn't even want to touch it until the actual game hits retail since I'm only interested in the single player game.  I"ve just recently come to the conclusion that I need to be more careful about what games I buy.  Even admittedly great games like TF2 or L4D don't get played by me because I don't really want to deal with other people.  Shit, I don't even like associating with people in games like WoW.

[Merusk]

I suppose it is either very anemic in what it gathers, or it simply doesn't show you everything it gathers.  It showed that my disk space was ~75GB, which only counts my boot disk/partition.

It's very anemic.  They specifically state in the FAQ that it won't detect multiple drives or partitions.

[Vash]

I suppose it is either very anemic in what it gathers, or it simply doesn't show you everything it gathers.  It showed that my disk space was ~75GB, which only counts my boot disk/partition.

It's very anemic.  They specifically state in the FAQ that it won't detect multiple drives or partitions.

That's pretty dissapointing, since the difference between having 1 video card and two of the same card in SLI or crossfire is fairly significant.  Not to mention from what I coud tell it didn't even check the GPU speed or amount of ram on your video card, just grabbed the basic model name.

[Ragnoros]

That's pretty dissapointing, since the difference between having 1 video card and two of the same card in SLI or crossfire is fairly significant.  Not to mention from what I coud tell it didn't even check the GPU speed or amount of ram on your video card, just grabbed the basic model name.

This is blizzard.  It should run smoothly on a toaster.

Edit: If anything they probably want to test it on lower end systems to further refine said toaster performance.

[Vash]

The rest of my system is not a toaster though, I figure I'd have a better shot at getting in as a higher end system with a less common SLI setup.  Instead their System Check tool makes it look like my system is some sort of weird Frankenstein abomination with an older video card holding it back. 

[Draegan]

You probably have a better chance at getting to test this game having a 5 year old POS than a Super-Computer.

[Ratman_tf]

The rest of my system is not a toaster though, I figure I'd have a better shot at getting in as a higher end system with a less common SLI setup.  Instead their System Check tool makes it look like my system is some sort of weird Frankenstein abomination with an older video card holding it back. 

That'll probably up your chances though... 

Blah. Draegan. 

[Ingmar]

Boo! I have my DxDiag from my home computer on my work computer so I can app to betas from work, but now I have to run their dumb program.

DUMB

Don't you have an automatic entry from your Blizzcon card anyway?

[Yegolev]

You probably have a better chance at getting to test this game having a 5 year old POS than a Super-Computer.

I suppose I should not get hopeful considering my Windows version is from "teh future".

[shiznitz]

This won't be news to anyone but it might as well be somewhere. From the Activision earnings call:

Update on Development of StarCraft II
• Now I’d like to provide an update on the development of StarCraft II, which continues to be
a major focus for us this year
• This summer, we will be opening up external beta testing, and while we haven’t announced
a release date yet, this phase will signal the final stretch of development
• During the StarCraft II beta test, we’ll also begin external testing of our newly revamped
Battle.net online service, including some features that are designed to connect all future
Blizzard games
o This includes new tools that will make it easier for players to communicate with
each other between games

[Ratman_tf]

• This summer, we will be opening up external beta testing, and while we haven’t announced
a release date yet, this phase will signal the final stretch of development

[Xerapis]

Sweet.

If I get in, all of my male students will be forced to worship me.

[Soulflame]

I've watched a couple of videos where two "e-sport" players are testing maps, and I have to say, the sheer amount of micro that's going on in the video really kills a lot of my desire to play this against other people.

I'm with Big Gulp.  Bring on the single player.  I'll be damned if I want to micro my troops while running away from an explody bug, by running one at a time back into the explody bugs, all while managing an economy, scouting, watching builds, etc.  It looks entirely too much like work.