World of Warcraft Stress Test Beta Signups Open

erax0r writes "FilePlanet has been given 100,000 World of Warcraft stress test beta accounts. Sign up for a FilePlanet paid account to be given a beta CD key which will be activated a later date. Blizzard has also composed a FAQ for the stress test." If you're not a FilePlanet subscriber, and with the exception of this I don't know why anyone would be, you have a chance of getting in the stress test, but forking over the cash guarantees your spot.

Comments

save some money

[saqq]

For anyone who was planning on forking over 15.00 use this link to save you some money! (7.90)

Re:save some money

[DarkFencer]

You must not be looking in the right place. I signed up, didn't even give gamespy my name much less my credit card number and downloaded all 2.2GB of WoW goodness. I installed it, but the stress test isn't up and running for a few more days still.

I'm not sure what problem people are having.

US only

[lastninja]

Why US only? Yes I read the FAQ; same time-zone, language barrier yadda yadda. Wouldn`t it be better if they had different time-zones, that way Blizzard could monitor the game play during working hours and not leisure time. Or maybe Americans play games when at work ;) .

Re:US only

[iCEBaLM]

Not US only, North America only.

*waves Canadian flag while downloading WoW beta*

Re:US only

[Guppy06]

"Stress test" to me sounds like "Let's see what happens when everybody is on at the same time." It's easie for that to happen if everybody lives relatively close to each other longitude-wise.

I know why

[Anonymous Coward]

" If you're not a FilePlanet subscriber, and with the exception of this I don't know why anyone would be"

Let's see: nice quick downloads, early betas of Tribes, Worlds of Warcraft, Warhammer, etc. Instead of waiting 2-3 days for a reliable bittorrent of a game file, I can get it in a shorter period of time.

Re:I know why

[sevensharpnine]

Yes, and you can contribute to the crass stupidity that is Gamespy. Their planet sites have often refused to post news regarding non-hosted mods (if you want your release on Gamespy, join up and serve their ads). They've also worked hard to stop third-party browsers from letting you browse online games by getting exclusive contracts will game devs. And Fileplanet has (I don't know if they still do) allowed people to download files that they were never given permission to host for fee (HL maps, models, etc.). And then you have to factor in the large amount of game ads that accompany their "reviews"--I can't prove that they sell high scores, but I highly suspect it.

So yeah, if you think this is ok, then go ahead and pay them for your precious betas. But don't come here thinking you're so smart and getting a great deal by paying for the things the rest of us get for free. Some of us have a baseline standard of business practice we apply before we spend our money somewhere. Some others are just useless fucking tools.

This all assumes, of course, that you're not some bottom-feeding astroturfer. Given the history of Gamespy, that wouldn't surprise me.

What are they testing?

[KDR_11k]

Considering FilePlanet's average performance this is more of a stress test on FilePlanet rather than WoW.

Re:What are they testing?

[Gailin]

Not sure what you are talking about. I personally have been subscriber to Fileplanet for a little over a year now and have never had an issue with their servers. I can't remember the last time I was not able to max out my cable connection downloading from them.

Moreover, its nice to be able to get the latest movies, patches, and files without having to wait in-line or scour the net for it. Hell half the time I find it handier to go Fileplanet to look for patches to old games, than to go the publisher's site.

While Im sure some people have their moral or principel reasons they do not use Fileplanet, I do not agree that it is performance related.

Gailin

About stress tests

[Dragoon412]

I don't know exactly how this one will go; maybe they've upgraded their hardware since I last played in beta, but even the stress tests with the standard beta crowd made the game utterly unplayable. The server would die every few minutes. You'd get 5 minutes of play for every 10-15 minutes of downtime. Often times, you'd get disconencted in the middle of a fight, and log back in as a ghost, then spend the up-time trying to get your body back, jsut to die again.

I think a lot of people are just getting their hopes up over what's essentially going to be one, bug, on-going crash.

And in case anyone's interested, here's my 2-sentence review:

World of Warcraft absolutely perfects the EverQuest-styled game, and pulls it off with a lot of flair and refreshingly understandable design decisions. Unfortunately, I've come to expect more from a game than EverQuest-styled monotony in a no-skill-required environment, and WoW, for all its polish, comes away feeling like half the game it should be.

Re:About stress tests

[MistaE]

I was under the impression that the beta servers that are used for currently testing the game are no where near the capacity of the actual servers that will run the game when it goes live. I also remember reading somewhere that beta testers and stress testers will be on different servers, so this confirms my suspicions.

Re:About stress tests

[kwerle]

Every time they release a new beta (new patch set), the servers go wonky for days. That's the way it is with beta software - and is why they're testing it in beta.

I certainly hope they are planning on using the current beta as the stress test. The servers are now fairly stable.

Re:Well That's the Kiss of Death

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Blizzard used Fileplanet because they have a shitload of servers to host this giant file. The stress-testers will only be able to play for seven days.

100,000 * 1.5 gigs each is just too much over such a short time for anybody except an established file-serving company.

Why not judge them on how they got the actual closed beta copies to the the players, with BitTorrent.



And if you don't want to play WoW because of this, I feel bad for you. It's an amazing game.

So? Client ain't worth shit without an account

[SmallFurryCreature]

That is why online games are so popular with publishers. Instant anti-piracy protection. As long as you make sure only known accounts can play you have instantly killed of piracy. Just check the number of people begging for half-life keys.

Re:Well That's the Kiss of Death

[damiam]

Why don't they just limit the amount of users who want to download it?

Maybe because it's a stress test; which by its very nature has to have a shitload of people.

Back on Track

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure anyone read the FAQ, but you don't have to pay to get in on this Stress Test. The people that pay get the first crack at the signing up, but they are/have opened it up and anyone who wants to (subscriber or not) can download the stress test and play for 7 days when they open it up. As there are ~100,000 openings (I have no idea how many subscribers Fileplanet has that are interested), I imagine everyone that wants to will get a crack.

This isn't a beta test; Blizzard is just seeing what it looks like to have 100,000 people playing WoW instead of 6,000.

As for stability, the Beta servers are pretty solid right now and always seem to be ~3 days after a patch. Also, keep in mind that it has been officially stated that these patches are only lightly QA'd during beta as they just want to get the content in. When in production, all patches will be given the typical Blizzard polish.

US only?!

[node159]

Phear the proxy muahahahaha :).

As for fileplanet, what an incoherent pice of dribble, the thing doesn't even work properly half the time ;P. As for timestamped url's for downloads, so much for technological progress like download managers, 1.4Gb file single stream without restart capability, snigger...

Please ohh please someone post a torrent!

Re:Oh man, this is the deal of a lifetime!

[BTWR]

$7.50 for a week of entertainment is bad?

What about $10.25 for 90 minutes of entertainment in a movie theatre? I think $1 a day is a pretty fair deal personally...

Who wants my key?

[mixtape5]

I have one of the keys for getting in the game for free but wont be using it. Anyone who wants it can have it. Email me at hckymanr@yahoo.com and I will send it to you :)