Some of my thoughts:
I put in my opt-in on the same day (but earlier) than Boogie2988 (a partnered streamer). He got his access less than 24 hours after his opt-in, while I still sit here waiting for it, and still do not have access to the beta even today.
I got access to the classic Stress test. I had the client open before the start, and once I saw the servers go online, I clicked to create a character and less than a minute, I got an error that character creation failed. For the next three hours, I tried and tried again and again to create a character, never once seeing the in-game world.
Then blizzard said they were done with their test… how?! How can they get an accurate measurement if so many of it’s players never got into the world itself?
Some speculated (some even had proof, so they say) that many of us were purposefully prevented from getting in, while partnered streamers and many their followers were in the world and playing with GM spawned bosses.
I wanted to play too.
I went to bed, tired, fatigued, disappointed that I never saw the game world for the stress test.
Woke and saw that I could get into the world, played to level 5, had a fantastic experience, community was super kind, even grouped with a stranger to tackle a cave, it was great! It was what I expected to experience, and more!
I had written three bug reports during the stress test. I was hoping to be seen as a helpful person and get a higher chance of getting into the beta, but looks like I Was wrong. I still dont have access to beta.
Then stress test over. I still saw it in my game client, everyday tried to log in but was not seeing servers, then at some point it would tell me there were no servers available, and then days later I see a greyed out play button when I have the beta selected. I would check this less and less often over time, still feeling a chip on my shoulder about how the previous stress test was handled, how I still didnt have an email for the beta, nor access to beta stress, and yet, I watch boogie run around almost seeming like he isnt as interested in Classic as I am… and watching him file a bug report with every other word an F bomb, I was quite displeased at his actions.
Checking my email once or twice a week, not seeing an email. Even checked yesterday, still no invite email.
then a friend of mine contacted me yesterday, there was another stress test to come. I checked the beta in my game client, play button still greyed out. Because of my disapointment in how the past stress test had been handed out, and how I still didnt have access for weeks and weeks and my hunger to play only grew more and more, but due to my disappointment in what seems like favoritism given to partnered streamers, I decided I didnt want to bother to look at the details from Blizzard’s websites regarding the next release date for a stress test, so I was unaware of the exact time my friend and I could access the stress test server(s).
when I would look on the launcher, I glance quickly, and have a narrow field of focused vision, and was looking at the lines of text on the top section of the drop down menu in my bnet client. I quickly checked it an hour ago, play button still greyed out, but I see some friends in the classic livestreaming it. This friend tells me I should have access, and he shows me his bnet client, which looked different than what I have been familiar with for years. I said to him I still saw a greyed out play button, unaware that there was a change to this drop down menu since I saw it the other day. A change to what has remained the same for years. I didnt see it, I just never registered in my brain that classic was there (in addition to the beta, but in a different spot). I had to look closer upon additional encouragement from my streamer friend. The menu changed, this stress test was accessible in a “different” place than previous, where I am used to seeing my account names, is now a different set of options. I had no idea, no idea that the classic was accessible for a while today, because of the change to the game client, where things are not where I am used to them being.
I feel that Blizzard poorly handled the previous stress test, favored partnered streamers, and changes to the bnet client confuse me, or I totally dont notice a change.
I know I am not the average gamer, I am unlike a lot of gamers, but I am still a gamer. My excitement for Classic still is strong, but at the same time, I feel let down by how beta (and the changes to where to click to get access) is being handled.
I would have been a good tester, reporting every bug I would have seen, but I was not given access for idk why reason. Sure random invite some say, but I had seen so many players in the streams in the beta, while me and my friends beat hard on that login door to fail everytime to get into the game world… to magically have access after that test was over, and lack of clarity from Blizzard that they were going to handle it that way, or not. And to see numerous partnered streamers get access right away, makes it look like the invites are not random.
I would feel better about this if there was more clarity on what happened last time… if there is, I have not seen it yet and would like someone to show me where I can read their choices and actions regarding the last stress test, and if the access is truly random, or are truly favoring partnered streamers.
It seems like invites were given to partnered streamers, a priority over others who opted in.
I had connected my Twitch to my bnet, but that didn’t seem to help me gain access. My affiliated friend has his net and twitch connected for a while, he too has not gotten access to the beta testing.
I still want to play Classic, but I dont see myself playing on the current PvP classic servers, because I cant handle PvP, it is very bad for my health as adrenaline is like a painful toxic fluid that will flow into my body if I play, and physically (literally) hurts me for hours for incidents that only take seconds to happen. It hurts. I cant do that and feel ok about it.
Will there be a PvE server during this stress test phase?
I would like to play and help report bugs (and not dump f bombs every other word like boogie did).
I haven’t checked my email today (having checked it last night with no invite email in there, nor in spam or trash). I don’t enjoy having to log in, or look at emails, because it irritates me usually, and to not see an invite is very discomforting, and I rather just not look, as it has been lacking an invite for weeks/months since I opted in.
I am irritated that the battlenetapp layout has changed so I didnt see the “World of Warcraft Classic” as an option in my game client, because that line of text is currently sitting where my account name used to sit, so I was unaware that it was there. I have a narrow field of view so I saw it as a line of text. I thought the line of text was the same as it has been for years (which is my account name).
I was wanting to play this current stress test since I heard about it yesterday, but oh oh nope. Only PvP servers. I’ll pass, for my health is important. Thanks anyways.
p.s. I have a bad sense of time, so some of the periods of time are rough estimates
I have alot more to say about this, but meh, I want to get back to watching Twitch, and playing peaceful minecraft. shrug
TL;DR:
Not typing this for the general populous to see, but written to any official employee to look at and to know my feelings and experiences about this. I still want to play Classic, but my motivation to play the current Stress Tests is pretty close to dead.