Please consider this Thread closed guys. As I have stated a few times below, my thoughts and opinions on these matters have changed since I started the thread due to the comments and opinions I got from others.
I really wish I could close it myself. Blizzard really should give us the ability if we are the original poster to close the thread
Beta feedback has never really been used, they typically only act on bugs and other things not functioning properly.
I’m not sure what you mean by RPG players, but beta selection is mostly random. They do send out some invites and do giveaways with some 3rd parties.
I mean it was clear to me in the shadowlands beta a lot of the people in the beta we’re not wow players. More people than I can count said they haven’t touched wow in the years and they were just tinkering around in the beta because they were bored I wanted to get a head start on what the expansion looked like and we’re not giving feedback
This is what I mean by controlling who gets into the Beta. Practically guarantee in people that have had an active account for years a spot in the beta can be heavily crucial feedback wise.
Another thing that should be a determining factor is how much feedback you’ve given in the last couple betas. If you were someone who is just going to treat the beta like a preview of the expansion and not give feedback I’m sorry in my opinion you really shouldn’t be there.
Yes make a large portion of who gets into the Beta random but also those long-term players should pretty much have a guaranteed spot there and it’s silly not to do so because they are the best people to give you the type of feedback you need.
Like I said in my original post getting feedback sometimes is not nearly as important as who’s giving you the feedback
Sorry but I know people who have an account since 2005 and all they do is farm. What they need to do to make an alpha/beta better is have some kind of tracking system that when you put in feedback its tagged to your account and they know you are doing what they ask.
A lot of beta testers use it for a preview of the game. I’ve been in every beta since wrath and I’ve seen a ton of people in chat say they wont test the game for blizz for free and then complain about bugs in the game…
I honestly think a good mix of older and newer players is the best. The newer players don’t have rose colored glasses on.
What do you mean RPG players? If they listened more the the role playing game players it would be better.
This is why I said it’s important to make sure people that have given a lot of feedback in previous betas should have almost a guaranteed spot in the beta. Basically I’m trying to say that it should depend on a lot of the factors that I listed but not be completely dependent on them
It certainly should not be 100% random. You are right though if you’re just going to treat the beta like a look-see of the expansion without giving feedback you really shouldn’t be there
It sure would have been nice if I actually got into ANY beta to give feedback in the first place…
I’ve had my account active during the years 2006-2012, then took a break which ended up being 7 years due to real life issues completely out of my control, to then come back in 2019 during BFA and preordered Shadowlands… after which, another beta where I ALSO didn’t get in during 2020 was a LARGE part of why I almost immediately left again the following year but held out until May 2021, which was when I had to move to another residence and then just recently came back because I thought it might improve my chances of getting into THIS beta: arguably the single most important one of this game’s lifetime
Yea i saw your 2nd post after I typed all that out. The streamers should be the very last to get an invite for sure. Otherwise I think random is good so players who have never gotten one and just started in BfA get a shot.
From a marketing standpoint I fully understand why letting streamers in first happens and it probably should happen. Those streamers are going to serve two purposes.
Both of those two points serve their purpose. Let’s call the streamers a necessary evil
A necessary evil is still evil, thankfully not all streamers fit that description to a perfect T
Disagree. And here is why…
People who are not in the beta yet but watch the streamers already make up their minds about the product based on what the streamer says. Without actually doing it themselves.
And I don’t think they really generate that much in pre-orders. I don’t watch them. I barely stand watching a boss fight video. But from my time in game here most of the people I know make up their minds to pre-order really early…
I think streamers should be after the first couple waves. Blizz should get viable feedback first
Name one who doesn’t? (/sarcasm)…
If I wasn’t as insomniacally tired as I am now, I’d name a few off the top of my head, suppose I may get back to answering you on that
This. This right here.
However, assuming they DO go that route: the problem then turns into the streamers who whinge that they weren’t included in the FIRST wave!
It should be random.
They aren’t going to spend lots of money trying to categorize players in order to get an atypical makeup that won’t give them a cross-section of what the playerbase will find. Bringing in mostly elite players who neither like nor play much of the game besides raiding or mythic+ would be bad for testing, since neither of those will be available, while their experience leveling may be very different from average players.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they favored people who don’t currently have a subscription but have played in the past, because those are the people who have time to spend on it.
I think they use beta feedback for making up lists of bugs that might be addressed sometime in the future if enough players are outraged and quit over them.
I will be honest before you do. I have never watched a gamer stream in my life. I can barely stand boss fight videos and the best I’ve seen do that I don’t think does WoW…Misteq(sp) MTQcapture is what youtube has her listed as
agree with most of that. I don’t think someone who hasn’t played in say over 5 years should get a beta invite for the most part.
I’ve said this for years…accounts that get beta/alpha invites and actually go on the ptr there should be a way to flag the ones who provide good feedback and that should be the accounts that get invited first.
I’ve been lucky every beta since wrath. And I have seen some people hyper focused on testing. I was in a beta guild a couple times Beta Max and thats all we did was testing out stuff and feedback…
And yes the elite players will just want things for the elite players. But on the flip so will casuals. A player that may not do m+ but raids heroics will provide different feedback then a m+ player.
just my opinion of course
Or Battle for Azeroth.
That’s not true, I personally know feedback I gave in Legion and WoD that was acted on before release. They also acted on a lot of the feedback in Wrath and MoP. Cata, not so much.
Yes, this IS irritating. You would think an active subscription would be required to be in the beta, but inexplicably it is not.
It’s also quite clear that a ton of people only play the beta for an hour or so when it launches, and that’s it. On launch day, or patch days, the place is swarming with people. The next day there are far fewer people. A week later it’s a ghost town.
Heh. The only game I’ve ever watched people stream is Kerbal Space Program. And that’s entirely because I cannot play it myself (it’s far too addicting, I had to go cold turkey).
And that’s part of the whole problem right there
Why would I want to resub when I have just as much chance (next to none, just like always) at getting into the beta WITHOUT a sub as I do with one?
At this point they might as well just do another level squish from 60-70 down to 20-30 and / or make WoW F2P in that case, which (in the current gaming industry) I can see them doing, ESPECIALLY when they will be backed by Microsoft out of all the current giants
I struggle to even watch my nephew play the switch when he is doing a single player game. And I watch them when I am raiding but I hate boss fight videos I learn better doing then watching…I do like mizteq(sp) and her ff14 vids they are like 3-5 mins long and cover all the bosses
Basically what I’m trying to say in a nutshell is getting into beta should be based on various factors instead of being 100% random.
Some of the factors it should be based on I have already talked about. The rest of it should be random. 50/50 sort of deal.
I just don’t think it being 100% random is the way to go at all and it’s often more hurtful than it is helpful but it is however the easiest on blizzard
A person who has not played the game in years don’t know the game now. If you haven’t subbed in over 5 years you should never get a beta. A year or 2 max should be the cut off
They are not backed by Microsoft yet the buyout is not complete and wont be til 2023 and I feel confident in saying this…That buyout will be blocked