Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

World of Warcraft Beta To Begin

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the in-every-toaster dept.

MrWonton writes "The word is finally out from Blizzard: the World of Warcraft beta test sign-up begins 6:00 PM PST Wednesday, January 28th. No need to rush though, it'll be open through February 4th, and it's not on a first-come first-serve basis. Good luck!" Update: 01/27 16:34 GMT by S : To clarify, Blizzard say "you will be able to submit an application and receive equal consideration anytime during the signup period", but only selected individuals will get into this initial Beta.

16 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Open beta? by Snowspinner · · Score: 4, Informative

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't an open beta when they just put the client up and anyone can join?

    --
    Philip Sandifer's academic website
    1. Re:Open beta? by metallicagoaltender · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, that's basically the meaning of an open beta. In this case, "open beta" was just flat out the wrong term - there's an application and selection process, it has limited geographic scope (US, Canada, and Korea)...either the submitter didn't RTFA (ironic, eh?), or didn't realize they were misusing the term "open beta."

      That aside, I'm curious to hear how the game plays once it's a bit more polished. I've never really gotten into MMORPGs because of the time issue, but WOW looks too good to not at least try for a month or two.

    2. Re:Open beta? by simoniker · · Score: 3, Informative

      I think I'd define it like that as well - article amended. In fact, everyone has an equal opportunity of winning the Beta lottery, in this case :P

    3. Re:Open beta? by aSiTiC · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's more like an Open-Application Beta. They did the same thing for Warcraft 3. Basically, during the time period they take in say 300,000 applications. They then choose say 30,000 for the first period of beta. Later on they will let more of the original 300,000 into the beta, after a couple months. They don't take more applications though...

      During the Warcraft 3 beta I got in during the first period, one of my roommates got in a month later and then another of my roommates got in another month later.

      --

      Where the Music Matters

    4. Re:Open beta? by DrDoombender · · Score: 3, Informative
      Slashdot had a article on WOW's alpha, and basically it said that the WOW alpha was more of a highly polished beta. I really think WOW is going to be great. Plus, unlike many MMORPGs, they plan on allowing players to define the world instead of being restrictive (EG: Star Wars Galaxies where they have a very restrictive rules set).

      One of the things I'm hoping for is the ability to be a deathknight or blood mage in WOW. I'm so excited about this game!

    5. Re:Open beta? by Bethor · · Score: 3, Funny

      WOW looks too good to not at least try for a month or two.

      famous last words.

    6. Re:Open beta? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They will be having an "open open" beta sometime in the future, and they will be doing things MUCH differently than the two WC3 betas. Once the applicants have been chosen as soon as they feel the servers can handle more players they will then pick more to test. This sounds like they are going to have a pretty large number of people playing the beta (which is a good thing) if they can do this in rapid sucession without server trouble. So compaired to their previous betas, despite the large number of applications they'll receive, there will be a good chance most people will get in sooner or later. If not that's what the REAL open beta is for.

    7. Re:Open beta? by jafuser · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They made roughly the same mistake in Star Wars Galaxies. They called it an "open beta" when they meant that they were dropping the NDA and that people would be "open" to talk about the game with non-beta people.

      In the process, they got a lot of people's hopes up who thought they were going to just suddenly let everyone who could download the client in.

      --
      Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
  2. looking at the races... by fireduck · · Score: 2, Interesting

    is the list of playable races complete? and if so, anyone know why Night Elves are included but the regular Elves (Blood Elves?) aren't. Also, why are Undead included with the Horde? I've kinda stopped playing WC3 so I'm a couple patches behind (including the bonus campaign), so I don't know if Blizzard has made recent adjustments to the official canon or not...

    1. Re:looking at the races... by fain0v · · Score: 5, Informative

      Blood elves are a nonplayable race since they are scattered, corrupt, and mostly on another planet. The Scourge are the evil group of undead led by the lich king (arthas became one with nerzhul to become the super powerful lich king). The playable undead race are undead that have freed themselves from the lich king.

    2. Re:looking at the races... by MMaestro · · Score: 5, Informative
      Those are very good questions considering what happened at the end of Warcraft 3, the Frozen Throne (the expansion), and the 'Bonus Campaign.' Heres a quick lesson for those who haven't played through it all (or simply want a refresher).

      There's a rogue group of Undead who broke away from Arthas (the former prince of Lordaeron who became a death knight) and set up a base in Lordaeron's ruins (which you invade and destroy in the Frozen Throne). Now keep in mind that this same group of Undead tried to kill Arthas (who emerges in the end as two of the big bad guys) so you can see how and why the Undead would be fighting, well, Undead.

      As for the Blood Elves not being in the game, thats unanswerable at this point. What IS known is that the Blood Elf leader, Prince Kael, swore alliegence to Illidan (the demon hunter you released and left at the end of WC3). You also see the Blood Elves in the last mission of the last campaign but it is not required for the player to kill them off. Hence you're left with only a few alternatives. 1. The Blood Elves (or most of them) were killed off and are now too few to play as. 2. The Blood Elves are in hiding and will be released in an expansion pack, logical but doesn't explain everything without word from Blizzard. 3. The Blood Elves managed to retreat and remain largely in the Nether World (long story).

      As for the Bonus Campaign, theres nothing in it which explain where, when, or why the Undead allied with the Horde (you don't even fight the Undead in it.) I'm assuming that the Undead you play in WoW is allied with a different splinter of the Horde.

    3. Re:looking at the races... by weaklink · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why the Undead have joined the Horde is explained in short, on WOW's website in the racial entry for undead. (My assumption is this is a new development after the ending of WC3)

      http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wow/townhall/unde ad .shtml

      Here is the pertinent excerpt:

      To further their dark aims, the Forsaken have entered into an alliance of convenience with the primitive, brutish races of the Horde. Holding no real loyalty for their newfound comrades, the Forsaken have duped them into fighting against their common enemy - the Lich King.

  3. Re:How can one increase their ods? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I believe the criteria is the same as always.

    As part of the application you fill out, you give them info on your PC - their goal for the Beta is to get testing on a wider variety of system, from their minimum requirements up to a brand-spankin-new maxed out system.

    Along with that, they also ask stuff about gaming habits, etc.

    Your best bet is to be truthful, and hope random selection goes in your favor - if you want to be risky, fill out info you may think is less likely to be commonly entered and see if you can get fewer people in your "bracket" of CPU power and playing habits. I'd go with option A though :P

  4. Re:Only for Canada, Korea, and the US... by Rallion · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually, I think it was just to give them greater control. The biggest single reason was probably to eliminate the most blatant cheating, which it was quite successful at. Plus, it allowed them to delete characters of people using the cheats that do still work.

  5. All Beta slots will be random by Rexz · · Score: 4, Informative
    How are beta testers selected?

    We have plans to give many beta tests away via contests (I hope to have more information on this next week). All other beta testers will be selected randomly from the applicant database.

    This sucks. My Beta test resume is better than my real one.

  6. I hate the automated system checker by Comen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just signed up for the beta, and I am going to tell you I really hate that active x system checker they are using, I guess just as much as making people send a windows system text file or whatever some do.
    The reason is, I have a Pent4 2.4GHZ machine with 512ram and a geforce3 video card, I think the processor is fine and the RAM could definitly be 1gig but the video card especialy is outdated.
    I have been waiting for DOOM3 or HL2 or soemthing to make really want to upgrade, I updated the rest of my system when I got on the SWG Beta, for a Pent3 600mghz machine.
    If I got on this beta and it ran crapy I would probally just go out and buy more ram and new video card, that is what makes me go by new stuff is the games coming out, but they tend to look at the system then decide if you should be on the beta. I understand they want to make sure people dont wast spots etc... But I really tend to buy my hardware when I have to, and just planed to wait till a game came out I really needed to get new stuff for and would.
    Maybe this wont effect them picking my for beta as much as I think, but I would think they would see the video card and think "this guy will just whine and complain and tell people the game runs bad with this video card" etc...