WoW Closed Beta Ends

[Morfiend]

Humm. They where just talking about all the cool stuff in the next patch, now all of a sudden, closed beta is over. Maybe they are trying to beat EQ2 to release.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

The closed beta test is coming to an end. This Friday, October 29, at 3:00 PM PDT, the closed beta servers will go offline as we prepare to run another stress test. All active closed-beta accounts will remain active, and closed-beta testers will be receiving an email with instructions on what to do to continue playing in the stress test.

We will post more information about the stress test in the days ahead, so please stay tuned to WorldofWarcraft.com.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank the closed beta testers for their months of dedicated testing and hard work. Thanks to all of your suggestions and bug reports, World of Warcraft is closer than ever to being ready for launch!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

[Riggswolfe]

Wanna bet money VU said "Blizzard, we can't let Sony beat us out the door. Release. NOW!"

I noticed they've also updated harassment/exploitation policies. I smell release coming.

[Tairnyn]

Hah. I'd love it if they did. I don't think SOE counted on Blizzard, the king of delays, laying down a trump card at the last minute. First and mostly finished.. smells like doom to me.

[Kageru]

Smells like the start of open beta to me. I was pretty much expexting Nov.1 open beta leading up to release on the 15th. Should neatly puncture EQ2's early release advantage.

... The beta boards must be going absolutely crazy ape psychotic. Should be fun to watch.

[Merusk]

Wanna bet money VU said "Blizzard, we can't let Sony beat us out the door. Release. NOW!

I don't take sucker bets.  No talents for 2 classes, warlocks still missing their pet tree, no patch this week, servers are still mildly unstable with no idea why and they're closing beta?  Oh yeah, pappa VU said, "Look if YOU don't ship it, we can find someone else who will."

And yes, I just checked the boards and they're going apeshit. So much so that they're crashing from all the people getting on them.  Very amusing.

[Jamiko]

And yes, I just checked the boards and they're going apeshit. So much so that they're crashing from all the people getting on them.  Very amusing.

Actually I think the servers are down for maintenance tonight and when that happens the forums pretty much go offline too. Of course, that could be because people are going apeshit because the servers are down.

[Kageru]

Blizzards forums are impressively bad. You can tell the servers are down because their forum collapses about 10 seconds after.

I imagine the open beta download will include all the stuff they've been working on, so that wil be fun to see to.

[El Gallo]

wow, just wow.

[Riggswolfe]

I'm actually pretty excited at the thought that I may get to play for real soon.

[sinij]

IMO Blizzard doesn't need to release in order to beat SOE, just start open and very content-limited beta that will transfer to release when ready before EQ2 releases. Say beta where any player allowed to reach level n (where n<10 to 15), limited to few class/race combinations and only few newbie areas. This way everyone can start playing WoW before EQ2.

[jpark]

Blizzards forums are impressively bad. You can tell the servers are down because their forum collapses about 10 seconds after.

I imagine the open beta download will include all the stuff they've been working on, so that wil be fun to see to.

This is very well put lol.  Too true!

[Moroni]

Wanna bet money VU said "Blizzard, we can't let Sony beat us out the door. Release. NOW!

I don't take sucker bets.  No talents for 2 classes, warlocks still missing their pet tree, no patch this week, servers are still mildly unstable with no idea why and they're closing beta?  Oh yeah, pappa VU said, "Look if YOU don't ship it, we can find someone else who will."

If you have played EQ2, you would not be concerned with such trifles.

[Kageru]

Apparently it won't be limited in any way. It looks like the closed beta testers are carrying over into open *with* their characters. So basically the new and old communities will be merged on the new servers. It's an interesting idea and speaks of a lot of confidence. Established high level players saying nice things about the game, and being goals for the new arrivals, sounds like good advertising.

[El Gallo]

Greetings!



If you are receiving this email, you are one of the valued testers currently in World of Warcraft’s closed beta test. This message is to inform you that the beta servers will be coming down at 3:00 PM PDT on Friday, October 29 and will remain offline for a few days in preparation for another stress test. Your account and characters will be active for this stress test, but a new client download will be required. After the game servers come down on Friday the 29th, you will be able to log in to the community site and download the new client.



Once the beta-server preparations are complete, we will announce the start of the stress test, and the servers will come back online. When that happens, you will be able to log back in, download a quick patch, and then continue playing. Please keep an eye on WorldofWarcraft.com for more information about the stress test in the days ahead!



We want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the hard work you’ve been putting in to make World of Warcraft a better game. You’ve done a great job, and without you, the classes would not be where they are today, places like the Barrens would not be as rich as they are today, and the changes implemented from your suggestions would never have taken place.



We hope you've been enjoying your exclusive look at World of Warcraft these past few weeks and months, and we hope you'll take some satisfaction in knowing that you’ve played a big part in shaping its destiny. We'll see you again online soon!



Sincerely,

Blizzard Entertainment

[Riggswolfe]

Yeah got that email too. Reads very much like beta is over and release is on the way.

[jpark]

Say what you want about how similar these games might be, but man it sounds like it just going to be a world of difference in playability and polish between EQ2 and WoW.

[jwinston2]

I believe the apeshit has moved on to something worse with wonderful post titles such as:

WoW not suitable for any auidence!
never thought I'd be this disappointed
Blizzard doesn't like warlocks?
Blizzard is a whore because my mother said so and she would know
Developers - Get rid of this class
Well then, no talents yay.
My Pallys stick is bigger than yours
 "You can't do THAT without a mage"

and of course my favorites

Any way to change e-mail? (The game will be in open beta and someone asked this?)
Blizzard can suck my @*#! for releasing a unfinished game


Yah well some of these have def. been deleted now, but the fun it has been at BlizzCo.

[Romp]

October 29 and will remain offline for a few days in preparation for another stress test. Your account and characters will be active for this stress test, but a new client download will be required. After the game servers come down on Friday the 29th, you will be able to log in to the community site and download the new client.

Are they saying we have to download the whole 2 1/2 gigs AGAIN?

[Ardent]

I find my quality of life improves dramatically with each day I ignore the Blizzard boards.

[Kageru]

Nooo! damn their unreliable boards. That's high quality soap opera I'm missing.

And yeah, I would be putting money on them getting people to download the client again, that seems to be how they've handled large changes before. What you download is probably what's going to be the master for duplication too, so we get another indication of whether they've been holding stuff back.

[Signe]

I find my quality of life improves dramatically with each day I ignore the Blizzard boards.

Well, shit... I must be living large then.  I've ignored that horrible board since it started up and I saw people threatening to commit suicide if they didn't get in the beta.  I usually enjoy a bit of board insanity, but that was too scary even for me.

[Liquidator]

Wanna bet money VU said "Blizzard, we can't let Sony beat us out the door. Release. NOW!

I don't take sucker bets.  No talents for 2 classes, warlocks still missing their pet tree, no patch this week, servers are still mildly unstable with no idea why and they're closing beta?  Oh yeah, pappa VU said, "Look if YOU don't ship it, we can find someone else who will."

And yes, I just checked the boards and they're going apeshit. So much so that they're crashing from all the people getting on them.  Very amusing.

They patch tomorrow.  Those talents are going in.  Pets?  Maybe.

[Soukyan]

Sounds to me like they're preparing for a stress test (which will most likely be an open beta period). I don't see anything in there about release. It's easy folks. They prep the patches and servers for the stress test over the weekend. Put the official open beta announcement up on Monday. Servers come online. Talents are in, pets are in. Servers are optimized. 80 million players sign up for the open beta and test it. They release as planned on whatever day it was they chose. All is right in the world.

Smartassing aside, I'm hoping for the open beta so I can see how this performs on my new video card and test out some other race/class combos before release day. Yada yada yada...

[Kageru]

That's what it looks like to me. And if the stress test is going to be done with the release canditate then its an extremely solid way to do a last test of what's actually going in the box. So on release day they can have a well tested patch for anything they messed up.

Not to mention that open beta takes the wind out of SOE's early release, without cutting short blizzards testing time. All seems rather clever, but they still need to dump VU. They still haven't got their international situation worked out which is really lame.

[Shannow]

Isnt it marvelous that a whole new generation gets introduced to the wonders of a MMRPG release?

I hope this one really sucks.

[El Gallo]

interesting factoids:

From the WoW Information Minister (not really a factoid but worth a chuckle):

Those of you concerned about the talents and other content not being in right now, please relax. They're done internally and we'll be releasing more information concerning what's on the way in soon. I know this makes you anxious, but please don't panic

Methinks they will leave the free talent retrainers in for the first month of paid beta.

From some French website via the FoH board:

From some French mmorpg website, not sure how valid the info is:

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Edit: Et puisqu'on parle de choses qui se terminent, c'est aussi le chant du signe pour Thottbot. En effet, les créateurs de Cosmos ont été poliment, mais fermement, invités à cesser toute activité liée à Thottbot. Ne comptez donc pas voir ce genre de choses pour la release!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rougly translated : The cosmos creators were asked to end their cooperation with Thottbot, do not expect to see such spoilers availabe at release.

[Merusk]

They patch tomorrow.  Those talents are going in.  Pets?  Maybe.

Patching and testing for an open beta vs an closed beta, though.  Those in the open will expect that to be what the game is at release.  Unless Blizzard REALLY focused on those talents, they're more likely going to be overpowered (like all talents have been when first introduced) and the subsequent cacophony of "OMG I WuZ NURFED" will be much louder.

Rougly translated : The cosmos creators were asked to end their cooperation with Thottbot, do not expect to see such spoilers availabe at release.

Not surprising.  If you go and read WoW's new exploitation policy they included a section that specificly targets data mining of the type Thottbot was doing.   I've read that some parts of the UI cusomizations in Cosmos go directly against the 3rd party apps part of the policy.  Blizzard hasn't made any sort of public official statement to the questions various posters have asked, but I'm sure on release Cosmos will be missing a few functions.

[Ardent]

Isnt it marvelous that a whole new generation gets introduced to the wonders of a MMRPG release?

I hope this one really sucks.

Remember, there are human beings with actual emotions developing these games. Have a little heart.

I saw my friend who works for Blizzard last week. He had a glazed, zombified look in his eye. He spoke in a monotone about his 14 hour work days, and the last time he had a day off was in September.

These guys have been working the skin off of their asses for months now. Yes, MMORPG launches are typically a mess, but now that I have personal experience with the toll these games have on the people that develop them, I do hope this one goes as smooth as possible. After months (no, years) of nightmarish work, they really do deserve it.

[Kageru]

The "Death march" phase of a software project I believe that's called.

[Soukyan]

The "Death march" phase of a software project I believe that's called.

Yes. And it's not unique to MMOG projects.

[Krakrok]

The "Death march" phase of a software project I believe that's called.

Is that when the megacorp marchs to the bank and the employees fall over dead?

[AcidCat]

I'm actually pretty excited at the thought that I may get to play for real soon.

Same here.

[HaemishM]

The "Death march" phase of a software project I believe that's called.

Yes. And it's not unique to MMOG projects.

It's just that the MMOG "Death March" doesn't end when the game releases.

Two of the biggest name MMOG's releasing obviously early and fucked up within two weeks of each other? I expect a black hole of whining to swallow the earth. Maybe this will be the death knell of doom the industry needs to unfuck itself.




Nahhhh.

[Ardent]

A tremendous amount of cynicism and asshattery is being spewed across message boards (including this one) regarding the releases of WoW and EQ2.

Everyone just needs to relax. Both games are nowhere near as broken as the squeaky wheels claim. They will be released, stuff will break, other stuff will work just fine, people will enjoy playing or not for their own reasons.

[WayAbvPar]

A tremendous amount of cynicism and asshattery is being spewed across message boards (including this one) regarding the releases of WoW and EQ2.

Everyone just needs to relax. Both games are nowhere near as broken as the squeaky wheels claim. They will be released, stuff will break, other stuff will work just fine, people will enjoy playing or not for their own reasons.

Just quoting this for posterity; it will be nice to remember this cute optimism when both of these not-ready-for-prime-time players hit the markets to the screams of childen and the lamentations of women.