Not the most earth-shattering news for most of you , no doubt, but I just got my invite to the WoW Wrath of the Lich King Beta test :) I guess I got in because I was at the WWI in Paris last month and entered the code from the card in the welcome pack I received. A bit of shame - I would have rather I got in through the lottery and could use the Beta card to try out Starcraft II. But hey-ho, its better than a poke in the eye with a rusty nail.
I've never been in a beta before. I know some people attach a lot of cache to being beta-testers. I've seen many posts on forums where some over-opinionated jerk says something like 'well I've been playing this game for 12 years now, since the beta test, so that means I must be right'. I hope I'd never become like that, but then again, is beta testing an expansion close to as important as beta testing an original game anyway?
Maybe not, but then again, the collector's edition of WotLK will probably sell more copies than the Gold Editions of most other games on the market, so there's definitely some geek-cred in being in on the beta.
The only regrets I have about it is that I cannot save any progress I make on my character on the test realm when it all opens for real and I cannot adventure with my current guildmates in Northrend. I have copied my beloved level 70 pally over and will eventually get her up to 80 I guess. But when the gates of Northrend open in commercial reality later (this year?) I will be back to 70 again. I wonder if I should've waited till I got my last piece of epic PVP gear before copying over.... And while I'm traipsing around Grizzly Hills and Dragonblight my friends will still be running around in Outland. Without me.
But then that once again highlights the problem I have fond with my human body again and again - I can really only play one game at a time. Only got one pair of hands and eyes.
I wonder whether I can log in on both realms at the same time using different computers?
as for how much I can say about the WotLK content, I am not 100% sure. I skimmed through the legal bumf I had to agree to to upgrade my account and as far as I could tell I can say whatever I like about whats in the game. I cannot reproduce pictures, sound, or video though, and definitely cannot gold-farm, or launch a DoS attack on the server.
So, assuming I have read all that right, I will try to report a little of what I find in the new world on this site in the coming weeks. I am particularly looking forward to the new PvP arena's and BG - flying machines! Hopefully I won't be reporting getting kicked out of the programme here!
Meh, I couldn't be more jealous! I hope you enjoy your time in beta and crush them bugs!
Wed Jul 23 2008 11:37AMlvl cap is 77 in beta i think
Wed Jul 23 2008 12:19PMCareful what you say about it. There's usually a non disclosuer (sp?) agreement involved with beta testing any game, so unless you want to get banned from beta testing you might not wanna discuss in-game content.
I hear what you're saying about beta testing though. I'm currently a beta tester for Wakfu, and while I have fun doing it, it's hard work. And considering that Akama (the company that makes Wakfu) is a french company knowing what's a bug and what me just not understanding something is even more difficult. That's why your beta forums are so important.
Yes, it'd be nice to be able to "save your progress" so to speak from the beta into the full release, but then, what if you could and you re-introduced a bug from the beta into the full release? Some bugs have a tendancy to act like a virus (very common in MMOs that use Mobs) and it causes your server to crash? Now imagine that happening across all servers as all the beta testers go back to their original relms? They're just saving themselves and their users from a whole lot of frustration in that case.
Wed Jul 23 2008 2:34PMI've never heard that bugs can get attached to characters and act as a virus, that sounds to me a bit made up.
There's two main reasons they won't let you carry a beta character to live servers (besides technically dificulties). Firstly, if you've been beta testing for a month, and it takes 6 months to finish all the content, that's a possible month of revenue the game companies lose. more importantly, it will get all the power gamers upset if they can't be the first one on their servers to level 80, and it would do some wonky things to the economy.
You're right, there's very little geek cache with beta testing an expansion. If it were an revolutionary expansion, like Jump to Light Speed that would draw some nerdiness, but this expansion just seems to be more of the same, you're not really seeing anything new in the game.
Sat Jul 26 2008 11:04AMYeah, I guess there a lot of good reasons to not let people carry their achievements in the beta over to the released game. I guess what I'm really saying is I want something I can show off when the retail pack comes out to show I was in on the beta. I must be some sort of attention whore! :)
Mon Jul 28 2008 6:22AMI'm glad , all cheats should be banned for life.
oh and btw WoW sucks.
Mon Jul 28 2008 7:47AMJust like your how your face should be banned from all of humanity, Gamer146.
oh and btw your mom sucks.
On topic,
I think beta testers should get a little bonus in repayment for being a player ASWELL as a tester. Just something for them to have for keepsake/memories. Hell, a shirt would be nice if no ingame items are given. (or free month to play)
Mon Jul 28 2008 4:25PMMMORPG.com writes:
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