Hello i am trying to test new content before purchasing the Sub for the new expansion i bought awhile ago, the game is installed and i have recent expansion. anyway i wanted to try it out on the PTR before buying the sub only to find out that the transition quests have been removed, now im like ok this is new… i remember doing back in MoP and Cata. My question is why are all the transition quests removed even when we have bought the content but just have no sub… this could be severely bad for returning players who dont want to risk paying for a sub and find out they dont like the content after playing it and could build even more frustration because they feel the devs dont care about their $$ and from what i have heard from multiple interviews i watched is the exact opposite of the image you are trying to provide for your fan base. Either a name change or a development change is in order to fix a unrecognized player bleeding problem… i say that because you cant tell witch subs are coming from returning players or players that just picked up a copy for the first time unless they right a ticket asking about returning player benefits. you cant tell who is playing the PTR because it leaves no paper trial. i say return it to the way it was back “when people didint have subs they could still experience the content without the overwhelming player community” this is why you created the PTR on top of “a way for players to test upcoming content in upcoming patches” im quoting what ive heard you guys say at blizzcon.
… the PTR is not a free variant of the live game, no. It’s a sandbox for which players with accounts in good standing can test upcoming patches.
It’s strictly for testing. The whole T part in that abbreviation, and all.
The Starter edition is the free live game.
PTRs are not like demo of the game. It’s for bug reporting and testing.
The only content that you can try for free (without a sub) would be characters on your account that are level 20 or lower.
I don’t believe the PTR is even up right now as there’s no content to be tested. It’s not a place for people to just try out new content. It’s for testing purposes.
Unfortunately, if you want to try BFA content, you’ll need to add a subscription.
I get that part of it i used it all the time for those reasons back in MoP but i was also able to transition to new areas on alts and it was mentioned by a dev at blizzcon that a little bit of free play was part of the reason it was created. a snag to drag more players in. i get why they did it but it just goes against what they said at blizzcon all those years ago.
Do you have a reference for this? Because I don’t recall. Not to mention that was almost eight years ago. Even if it was mentioned, things change over time.
https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/32229 This will help give you a general feel for what the PTR is for.
Just memory and yeah that was a long time ago lol i think maybe i composed my message wrong but im not complaining about the PTR im just suggesting that it be back to the way it was and that this new version of the PTR was implemented pretty close to after activision joined the picture. yeah it was a long time ago but so was Wrath of the Lichking and my player graph doesint look very good since then.
I’m not entirely certain what a “Transition Quest” is. Do you have any kind of examples of the quests you are referring to?
That is the nature of video games, Chamaximon, in most situations you don’t get to try or test before you buy outside of trial accounts. We have Starter Editions just for that reason, so new players can give the game a try up to level 20.
Actually, we can. We have access to a great deal of information and certainly can tell if an account is new or a reactivated one.
Again, we can.
You may be under the impression that the PTR has really worked differently, when it really hasn’t.
The PTR is active when the QA and Development teams need to do some testing. When they activate the PTR and the particular build they want tested they take a “snapshot” of all accounts at the time. Access to the PTR is based on if your account is active or not, so if the account is active at the time of the snapshot, you should have access, if it was not, you will not.
These snapshots are often updated throughout testing phases, but there is no specific schedule available and a snapshot may be in place for months, meaning those who were active will continue to have access, even if they canceled their live account and vice versa.
Do you recall which BlizzCon that was said and at what panel? I tend to focus on those panels at BlizzCon and I don’t recall anyone saying that about the PTR.
The PTR was created so that we could get active users to test out upcoming content. It has never been a marketing tool. Now open beta access, has been part pre-purchases before so certainly has a marketing element to it. From a Development side of it, it has the side effect of being able to get thousands of players to test content.
That answers all of my thoughts on the matter thanks a bunch although i still think the P in PTR gives it a bit of false advertisement.
You’re not paying for the PTR and they’re only offer it to their playerbase at given times. THey don’t put ads up on saying you can play the PTR before paying for the game.
But why? Vrak said it himself:
If those players weren’t able to test, it would no longer be public, it’d be internal.
no they don’t throw ads up at you but its in your downloadable games as soon as you create an account with battle.net
There is no “new version of the PTR”… and even if there was and it was supposedly implemented when Activision “joined the picture” that would have been right before Wrath was released, which goes against you saying it was different back in MoP.
And it is also clearly stated that it is available at will and isn’t guaranteed to be up at any time.
Cant test content you cant transition into…
Are you talking about the War of Thorns pre-patch event that’s no longer in the game?
Or are you just not able to find the starting quests for BfA?
I’m still not entirely certain what you are referring to, Chamaximon. The majority of the content from an expansion is still available. Certain expansion exclusive events, like the pre-Legion assaults, ended when the expansion itself was released, but otherwise most content should still be there.
Example, im on my level 100 mage trying to get him into legion content but im stopped at the loading screen for violet hold in dalaran, says instance data has been removed so then i went on my 110 rogue to try out the BFA starting quests but i click accept on the quest but only the dialog disappears and quest still remains.
That’s not the purpose of the PTR. The purpose of the PTR is to help beta test patches, not to get a free demo.
Meaning what? Barring the fact that this is in the wrong forum, this post is worthless as any kind of feedback, because you don’t explain your issue. Instead you launch into some hyperbolic nonsense taking shots at developers, and citing misinformation and invented, non-specific sources.
Post in PTR forums if you have feedback, and focus just on what you don’t like.
If you’re still talking about the PTR, that’s because there’s still nothing up to be tested right now.
Also, there’s really no reason to test content from previous expansions now. They really don’t need that anymore.
Again, the PTR is for testing new content that’s about to be released. It also tends to require an active subscription in order to qualify for using it as it’s not a Free Test Realm.