Guild Wars 2

It is hard to give feedback about Mastery leveling speed and the Verdant Brink area when every event chain has bugs that stop progress. These broken events also seem to bug out adventures. We can’t possibly give feedback based on broken experiences.

It is also hard to know what is included in this beta. Core masteries are in the game but we can’t progress them when leveling in Core areas. We can also level Masteries to a point where what we have unlocked can’t be used in a meaningful way.

This beta should have more dev interaction so we know which bugs they know about (and they should tell us so we also know about the bugs) and also they should tell us which Masteries can be used.

I am aware it’s the weekend, but releasing a kitten Beta expecting feedback based on it working properly gives you foggy results.

Well its beta and bugs will and do happen there is more to beta than simply testing out the game they also test everything to make sure it works and if not fix it such as code and harsware

Then submit the bugs to anet.

As said before, the beta is for testing. That means testing to see if everything works, which from your experience it doesn’t seem to be that way. If you can use ingame report for bugs then they will be able to figure out what is wrong more quickly.

My point is that 90% of bug reports will be “this event chain isn’t working”, and these important bugs ruin the feedback they were asking for, such as: Feedback on event feel, Feedback on masteries, Feedback on adventures.

If we can’t play it we have to extrapolate from “if it worked properly”, “it would maybe overall feel like this”.

It’s a beta. There will be bugs. Report them. It’s a test for everything obviously. Including the events.

This post is like complaining in a construction site that the buildings aren’t finished yet, why do I have the overwhelming urge to say “Duh”?

This is not a beta, this is a demo for a) tricking people to pre-purchase the game and b) actually rewarding people who got lured into the trap.

The area to play in is so tiny that there should be no surprises for the QA team, the duration is too short to get any valuable data from the “test”.

Real beta testing is a thing of the past or – in rare cases – some more serious companies than ANet, this is just a teaser for the hype.

Feel free to send feedback, but don’t expect anything to change.

Beta test weekend my kitten…

Um, except they have changed things based on our feedback before. So you are wrong. There is no doubt, that this is part marketing. Colin even said so, but it is also a test for feedback.

Man’s got a point. I mean when i played the first two hours of the CBT, the chains that are now broken and not progressing were progressing fine. Now they’re not, so between then and now they broke them. It is very hard to give feedback on many things because we can’t try them out.
So yeah, he’s got a point. I would have expected a patch to fix those bugs yesterday, the problem is that, obviously, this beta was more for the marketing than the feedback, since it was scheduled along with WTS and whatnot, they would obviosuly not have the proper conditions to do a full follow up of the beta.

I understand what beta means and do not need it explained

With that out of the way, the amount of broken events this weekend is unreal. The last Verdant Brink beta I took place in was not this bugged and we were able to advance the Mastery system (I got cool gliding stuff). This time around, the Verdant Brinks maps have been halted to a standstill by events that just don’t progress and are hauntingly empty. And there’s no faster way to ruin a map where co-operation is needed than to sabotage every last event with bugs that make players leave.

Beta have changed which is OP point. Reporting that skills don’t work near objects or at max ranged AoE skills wont work that’s a report. Unable to report on a chain of events or even starting events due to the fact that its already not working is not a report but why was it not even ready for beta at all? Let the chains of let people tell you where it breaks to fix it. That’s how reporting with betas work. While I apperciate the fact that we get to play with new class see low dps on Necro GS1 bugs on Rev not correctly recording thats good feedback for Betas. Not things that are borken to begin with.

Basically the devs are asking us how “the shoes feel”, and we can’t even lace them because the shoelaces are too short. Then people say “oh you should tell them the shoelaces are too short”. Right. We are all aware of this problem. This should not have been a problem.

You guys realise that when events that ‘were’ working reach a point where they stop working, that’s exactly the sort of thing that beta testing is supposed to find out.

There are all sorts of things that can cause events to stop working when you have thousands of players interacting with them, such as triggers that fail under heavy load (start event, start event, start event, start event, start event), mobs that spawn in a location that allows them to be killed but not recorded for the event, causing it to register too few kills to complete (spawn, die oops). Not to mention finding novel ways to exploit an event that wasn’t anticipated and therefore causes it to break… and so on.

These sort of things require large numbers of players to find them. Sure ANet want feedback, but what they ‘really’ want is to identify places where the live community can break events that don’t break under internal testing.

Did you ever think that they are only implementing part a small map cutting out of the original, with is causing it to bug out more then normal, cause the full code dose not extend to the rest of the map, witch can cause things to bug out more then they have to. I find this all to be normal in the world of testing and the way games are made to begin with.

Also for the other part I don’t find a need for a Dev. to talk to people all the time cause it can be a wast of there time to answer all the time the same useless questions. Put your sell in there shoes and tell me how can you deal with 4Milion people ever day and deal with each annoying question. They say something bad and then they are classified as the bad person. I really miss the old days when devs where more strict and terminated accounts cause of disrespect.

From being in the beta events for the release of GW2 and now beta for HoT, I feel that this beta is fairly poor in comparison.
The beta events for the release of GW2 were far greater in terms of getting your feedback! Does anyone else remember the pop ups when you completed something that asked you to rate it out of five based on a few different things with an optional feedback box for your thoughts?
That would have been far better for this.
Unfortunately, I feel that although it is good we have been given access to this area, the length of the beta does not reflect the playable content in game.
Within six hours of taking my time playing, I had done pretty much everything available and had discovered the bugs and then had gotten bored out of my skull.

I hope to god that the expansion is much better in terms of hours of game time…I fear I have shelled out the top end price of £79.99 for an expansion the size of silverwastes and drytop!

Hopefully I am totally wrong in this feeling, I really hope I am as I love this game!

Kaz.5430:

You guys realise that when events that ‘were’ working reach a point where they stop working, that’s exactly the sort of thing that beta testing is supposed to find out.

No it’s not. When you go to beta at least the part that you are going to show and want the feedback on is supposed to work. Probably not fully polished, but working.

From the point of view of someone who actually wants the feedback on everything that has been prepared those blocked events are a nightmare. But there doesn’t seem
to be a team on standby to get it going again. From which follows that ANet isn’t
interested in our feedback and this entire BWE is a marketing campaign.

Test this thing!

I can’t get to it, it doesn’t work!

Ok, cya at next beta!

This is how it feels, and it’s super frustrating.

Lara Hesperax.2537:

… Does anyone else remember the pop ups when you completed something that asked you to rate it out of five based on a few different things with an optional feedback box for your thoughts? …

Yep, I still remember how exciting those BWE have been and how much there was to explore which I didn’t manage to do. Also our feedback seemed to really matter.

But that is the past as is the MMO Manifesto.

What has become of you my beloved Guild Wars?
The most important thing in any game should be the player.

Knaifhogg.5964:

It is hard to give feedback about Mastery leveling speed and the Verdant Brink area when every event chain has bugs that stop progress. These broken events also seem to bug out adventures. We can’t possibly give feedback based on broken experiences.

It is also hard to know what is included in this beta. Core masteries are in the game but we can’t progress them when leveling in Core areas. We can also level Masteries to a point where what we have unlocked can’t be used in a meaningful way.

This beta should have more dev interaction so we know which bugs they know about (and they should tell us so we also know about the bugs) and also they should tell us which Masteries can be used.

I am aware it’s the weekend, but releasing a kitten Beta expecting feedback based on it working properly gives you foggy results.

What specifically is broken and problematic? The point is to offer feed back to resolve the issues, not aimlessly whine about them in an unconstructive manner.

Knaifhogg.5964:

Basically the devs are asking us how “the shoes feel”, and we can’t even lace them because the shoelaces are too short. Then people say “oh you should tell them the shoelaces are too short”. Right. We are all aware of this problem. This should not have been a problem.

Got a link to suggest this is exclusively the feedback they desire?

Personally, I think they should suspend your or anyone elses account for 3 days when you make an aimless complaint thread about bugs, while making a conscience effort to avoid offering any feed back, descriptions, or details, to aid in reproducing or solving the problem.

Knaifhogg.5964:

Test this thing!

I can’t get to it, it doesn’t work!

Ok, cya at next beta!

This is how it feels, and it’s super frustrating.

You appear very misinformed in my opinion. You have made multiple post here “claiming” to tell us what the dev teams expects from the beta.

The betas are to test maps, events, quest, more so then “feel” as you keep trying to shove down our throats.

Did you turn in a bug report as they asked you to do in the blog post?

If your going to aimlessly complain on the forums, why are you not being constructive and listed the event chain? where in the map it is broken? how it is broken?

Betas are expected to be crippled by bugs. That is the point of them, is to discover, discuss, and report bugs to be worked out. The bigger problem is when the beta is crippled by players. Players who prefer to thoughtlessly rant on the forums about a problem, over the option of offering information to solve the problem, are a bigger problem, than any other problem.

This thread title is all wrong. The beta is not crippled by bugs, it is crippled by counter productive beta testers with.

Bug reports are a form of feedback.

Beta testing isn’t just about what skills are too OP or too weak. It’s about finding and reporting what works and what doesn’t work also.

xarallei.4279:

It’s a beta. There will be bugs. Report them. It’s a test for everything obviously. Including the events.

Most of the bugs seem to be of a sort that should have been detected by internal testing. Betas are usually for more complicated stuff -for the feel, for things that break only when there are lot of people around, for finding bugs and exploits that are hidden in more remote places and behind less common activities, and finally for finding out what players will like and what they will avoid. Not for more obvious problems that don’t need mass player testers to be seen.

Does seems to be more marketing demo than beta, imo.

It should be a relatively small area of the expansion yet so many initial events bugged?

Also people seem to have voted with their feet, every time I went to VB it was more or less empty. And given the event bugs – and corresponding lack of ‘easy’ group exp – meant you had to grind exp to get your Aion Wings – fours hours in my case.

PvE was no fun (anything new was exp blocked). Very disappointing. Didn’t try anything else (I was late going – Saturday Night – and I think most people bailed out after a few hours on Friday).

Also remember people have JUST paid £35 to £80 to experience this! My advice atm, would be to go play Aion a FTP game! Seriously there was little on offer for PvE. I played Aion for a year about 5 years ago, and that is exactly how VB has INITIALLY felt.

The expansion has to offer far more utility, imo. Instant auto-loot, for example. Or how about 3-D maps if your going the Aion route. A Dungeon Hall for those who are only interested in Dungeon so groups and discussions can be made outside the area – i.e. similar to PvP but for dungeons. More utility is required. I can see what’s coming here, and it is wrong to ask people to grind for so many ‘game improvements’ after forking out a significant amount of money – comes over as a rip-off to be frank.

Oh and another 2 cents, for an expansion the initial area came over as dull, i.e. brown, and more brown. I mention this as if there was one thing Aion was/is it’s a beautifully graphical game. Really all that BROWN was a turn off. Like I bought a R9 to get all these shades of BROWN! The background as BROWN and every mob was BROWN – except the tigers ( or kittens as you could auto hit kill three vet tigers at once). No doubt this expansion will be sold in a BROWN paper bag so peeps can get the full experience. Graphically VB is very poor as an introduction to a new expansion – for PvEers anyway. What happened to the beautiful and generally significantly graphically different GW1 expansions? This was the same old BROWN muck of Drytop/Silverpeaks. I mean are youse serious about this? Why not go the whole hog and try Black and White?

BTW: If this was a marketing demo it’s not going to sell much of the product!

coglin.1867:

Knaifhogg.5964:

It is hard to give feedback about Mastery leveling speed and the Verdant Brink area when every event chain has bugs that stop progress. These broken events also seem to bug out adventures. We can’t possibly give feedback based on broken experiences.

It is also hard to know what is included in this beta. Core masteries are in the game but we can’t progress them when leveling in Core areas. We can also level Masteries to a point where what we have unlocked can’t be used in a meaningful way.

This beta should have more dev interaction so we know which bugs they know about (and they should tell us so we also know about the bugs) and also they should tell us which Masteries can be used.

I am aware it’s the weekend, but releasing a kitten Beta expecting feedback based on it working properly gives you foggy results.

What specifically is broken and problematic? The point is to offer feed back to resolve the issues, not aimlessly whine about them in an unconstructive manner.

Knaifhogg.5964:

Basically the devs are asking us how “the shoes feel”, and we can’t even lace them because the shoelaces are too short. Then people say “oh you should tell them the shoelaces are too short”. Right. We are all aware of this problem. This should not have been a problem.

Got a link to suggest this is exclusively the feedback they desire?

Personally, I think they should suspend your or anyone elses account for 3 days when you make an aimless complaint thread about bugs, while making a conscience effort to avoid offering any feed back, descriptions, or details, to aid in reproducing or solving the problem.

Knaifhogg.5964:

Test this thing!

I can’t get to it, it doesn’t work!

Ok, cya at next beta!

This is how it feels, and it’s super frustrating.

You appear very misinformed in my opinion. You have made multiple post here “claiming” to tell us what the dev teams expects from the beta.

The betas are to test maps, events, quest, more so then “feel” as you keep trying to shove down our throats.

Did you turn in a bug report as they asked you to do in the blog post?

If your going to aimlessly complain on the forums, why are you not being constructive and listed the event chain? where in the map it is broken? how it is broken?

Betas are expected to be crippled by bugs. That is the point of them, is to discover, discuss, and report bugs to be worked out. The bigger problem is when the beta is crippled by players. “Players who prefer to thoughtlessly rant on the forums about a problem, over the option of offering information to solve the problem, are a bigger problem, than any other problem”.

Does ranting on the forums is still communication? And why do players rant?

Soooo….

Who are the one who fix the problems: the the beta tester or the company (arena net)?
Do reporting problems mean anything if the company (arena net ) do not care to take action to fix them?

Look at the 1 week golem event where many players report problems of hackers, cheaters and exploiters to the company (arena net), what action did the company (arena net) make to solve it?

" If you can’t put your finger on your customer’s problem, you won’t solve it ".

“Unhappy customers are bad news for any company, and it only takes one of them to shatter a perfectly good day at work for everyone. It only takes one of them to steer many more prospective customers away from you”.

" Unhappy customers have their reasons. Some don’t feel well, some have unrealistic expectations, and others may just have lousy dispositions. However, we must be honest; others may have a legitimate gripe, for somehow, some way, we may have been the catalyst that tipped the scale to take them from annoyed to cranky to downright unhappy ".

“Whatever the cause, unhappy customers are still our guests and our hope for future business, and we want them happy again. Said another way, the customer may not always be right, but he or she will always be the customer we want and we need. So we need to take control of customer complaints and turn them to our advantage”.

That is all

coglin.1867:

You are whining, it’s beta, report bugs etc

I am referring to the announcement post of the Beta Weekend where they ask us to give feedback on masteries, the map and adventures, all of which are affected by the bugged event chains.

I am very aware of how betas work. I am just frustrated that such a huge issue is in the beta when the feedback they are asking for is relying on the events working (because they give experience for masteries, unlock adventures and it’s an event driven map).

Thanks for the reply, Rubi. Something that would be helpful for the future beta would be knowledge of which Masteries are used in the section of the map we get to play (because getting Itzel Language and being able to buy ??? in different rarities doesn’t let me test much :p).

What’s disappointing is that while it’s impossible to progress the south event chain with the two NPC’s, it’s entirely possible to do that with the north event chain. It’s just that you have a bunch of people who don’t listen and mess it up as there’s a certain way you need to do it to not have it bug.

xlion.3065:

Lara Hesperax.2537:

… Does anyone else remember the pop ups when you completed something that asked you to rate it out of five based on a few different things with an optional feedback box for your thoughts? …

Yep, I still remember how exciting those BWE have been and how much there was to explore which I didn’t manage to do. Also our feedback seemed to really matter.

But that is the past as is the MMO Manifesto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1JUwPqzQY

What has become of you my beloved Guild Wars?
The most important thing in any game should be the player.

I know right? I am not sure what is going on, but I was one of the ones who bought the top end pre purchase for GW2 CE and then this prepurchase top end version as soon as it was released and I felt good about it…

Now I just kinda feel duped…

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s disappointing is that while it’s impossible to progress the south event chain with the two NPC’s, it’s entirely possible to do that with the north event chain.

The map I was recently in found out that it is possible to make the south sniper event progress, even though the snipers don’t attack. Players have to kill the Vinetenders, and they all have to be killed at about the same time, since they respawn pretty fast. Even one of them still alive makes the Breacher invulnerable.

We also found out that it’s (sometimes) possible to make the grub-collection event in Itzel completable. Don’t feed the villagers and don’t defend the baskets. Turns out that the collection baskets sometimes become interactable again if some of the grubs are stolen by the bats.

Please test this, and tell more people if they work for you. I want us to get mastery XP!

RubiBayer.8134:

If you really want to hang out in Verdant Brink, run around with an eye to daytime vs. nighttime. We want them to feel like two completely different maps, so think about that and let us know is we’re headed in the right direction. What we can do to make that experience better? (Besides make the events not stall out. :P )

Interesting perspective. I’ll have a look at that tomorrow. Can’t say I felt it was like 2 different maps at all, but I’ll think about properly that when I get a chance to jump in again.

NeoVid.4817:

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s disappointing is that while it’s impossible to progress the south event chain with the two NPC’s, it’s entirely possible to do that with the north event chain.

The map I was recently in found out that it is possible to make the south sniper event progress, even though the snipers don’t attack. Players have to kill the Vinetenders, and they all have to be killed at about the same time, since they respawn pretty fast. Even one of them still alive makes the Breacher invulnerable.

We also found out that it’s (sometimes) possible to make the grub-collection event in Itzel completable. Don’t feed the villagers and don’t defend the baskets. Turns out that the collection baskets sometimes become interactable again if some of the grubs are stolen by the bats.

Please test this, and tell more people if they work for you. I want us to get mastery XP!

Yes, that’s how we can reset the larva event although it doesn’t work all of the time.

Which event are you referring to specifically for the south? It usually stalls after you claim the WP and they walk down the stairs. I don’t remember a sniper event there but I could be wrong.

I wrote a post on our subreddit about this very topic. The entire subreddit is happy with glee about the beta and verdant brink. After reading everything it was obvious they played for maybe an hour. It’s broken. It’s unplayable. The only things I can give feedback on are the specializations and the revenant because everything else relies on VB events completing, which can’t be done. VB night is boring as hell because thereis nothing going on. But since the daytime is so bugged idk if thats bad design or it being bugged. Is it more exciting if we complete both day chains? The attacks are few and far between, the soldier escorts are so far apart that people won’t do em, even with a commander (I’ve regularly tried to escort, but as i’m alone they dont get far. I’m using bow on DH cuz I wanna test it out so my damage is insanely low. I gave up once and switched to mace. I melted everything). I can’t give honest feedback on much of anything. I’m going to run CoE on all 3 of my beta toons (its an 80 dungeon that any group of idiots can complete.It’s a good benchmark, at least for me) to see if its just a lack of might/vuln that are making my numbers feel low but I dont think so. But yea. This is an unacceptable level of bugs. I was expecting bugs, but bugs that make it unplayable? It shows that all they care about is PvP (stronghold is really REALLY bad… But thats for another place), masteries (a lot of detail but I can’t properly test. Luckily I did play right at the “start” aka an hour early, when the events were actually working, at least the itzel one. Took me about 2 hours to unlock gliding which was awesome), specializations and the revenant. If this is the state of the FIRST map in a POLISHED form than I’m terrified for the rest of the content. It’s easy, super easy. Yes, a few of the mobs have decent mechanics but they will be nerfed because everyone is saying how hard they are. It’s a start, as it’s harder than base game(I can’t stand afk pressing one and expect to beat a mordrem archer ((that longbow volley tho. OH BOY!) like I can against a risen in orr…So thats a start).Idk. It’s kind of disappointing (on a seperate note, dh F2 is the greatest skill in the game and REv hammer is amazing, so that’s positive).

BurningHeavy.7268:

I wrote a post on our subreddit about this very topic. The entire subreddit is happy with glee about the beta and verdant brink. After reading everything it was obvious they played for maybe an hour.

It’s broken. It’s unplayable. The only things I can give feedback on are the specializations and the revenant because everything else relies on VB events completing, which can’t be done. VB night is boring as hell because thereis nothing going on.

But since the daytime is so bugged idk if thats bad design or it being bugged.
Is it more exciting if we complete both day chains? The attacks are few and far between, the soldier escorts are so far apart that people won’t do em, even with a commander (I’ve regularly tried to escort, but as i’m alone they dont get far.

I’m using bow on DH cuz I wanna test it out so my damage is insanely low. I gave up once and switched to mace. I melted everything). I can’t give honest feedback on much of anything. I’m going to run CoE on all 3 of my beta toons (its an 80 dungeon that any group of idiots can complete.It’s a good benchmark, at least for me) to see if its just a lack of might/vuln that are making my numbers feel low but I dont think so. But yea.

This is an unacceptable level of bugs. I was expecting bugs, but bugs that make it unplayable? It shows that all they care about is PvP (stronghold is really REALLY bad… But thats for another place), masteries (a lot of detail but I can’t properly test. Luckily I did play right at the “start” aka an hour early, when the events were actually working, at least the itzel one.

Took me about 2 hours to unlock gliding which was awesome), specializations and the revenant. If this is the state of the FIRST map in a POLISHED form than I’m terrified for the rest of the content. It’s easy, super easy. Yes, a few of the mobs have decent mechanics but they will be nerfed because everyone is saying how hard they are.

It’s a start, as it’s harder than base game(I can’t stand afk pressing one and expect to beat a mordrem archer ((that longbow volley tho. OH BOY!) like I can against a risen in orr…So thats a start).Idk. It’s kind of disappointing (on a seperate note, dh F2 is the greatest skill in the game and REv hammer is amazing, so that’s positive).

Ir’s only two bugs which are halting the two event chains. This also is not a polished map. Just because it’s the first players come across, does not mean it was the first completed.

RubiBayer.8134:

I wanted to drop in and share a few things. First and foremost, I’m sorry it’s frustrating. It shouldn’t be that.

Hopefully it will help when I tell you I checked in with the team that’s in the office this weekend for this event, and they’re aware of the problem with events stalling out. I’m at home, not in the office, so I don’t have more details, but I at least wanted to let you know.

Please don’t feel like you’re not contributing. We want you to have a great time, but this is also a true beta: Everything you tell us is helpful and making a huge difference. (See the revenant.) So let me assure you that the things you’re doing this weekend are making a direct impact on HoT.

Now as far as the gameplay. If something is blocked to the point where you are completely stalled out, beating your head on that wall, and you can’t do anything else to contribute to beta feedback or enjoy that particular part of the game, head off in a different direction. There are a number of specific things we need your help with this weekend, and if you spend some time with them instead for a while it might give you a more enjoyable experience.

Try out the new revenant, roll a class with an elite spec build you haven’t done yet, try Stronghold. Let us know how all of those things feel with different builds and classes, and what you think we should do to make them better.

If you really want to hang out in Verdant Brink, run around with an eye to daytime vs. nighttime. We want them to feel like two completely different maps, so think about that and let us know is we’re headed in the right direction. What we can do to make that experience better? (Besides make the events not stall out. :P )

I hope that helps as much as it can. Thanks for helping us test HoT!

Day and night are different, but not for good reasons.

Day: Spam in map chat before day starts to NOT FEED THE VILLAGERS. When someone inevitably does, that chain is over basically before it starts. Res one villager and that event chain is bugged beyond completion. When that happens you hop on over and check in with laranthir of the wild. This one is better. Kill the vine thingies, clear out the mordrem. When you blow up the Giant vine you have two choices: Follow the events, which you can do up until right after the 20 minute event to blow up the gravel to get to the WP at the ruins OR you can sprint ahead, zerg down the thing the snipers are supposed to hit, run past the vine blocking the way, run up the path and skip to the end boss. You can then complete the end boss and get your 25 ???, but less xp and the map doesn’t know you’ve killed the boss. Either way, it is impossible to complete both event chains and I’ve only managed to do the itzel one ONCE (wyvern fight was fun tho) and I did the adventure once as well (I burnt 90 vines but didn’t get a mastery point. Yay more bugs) but hey, now its night time! So its time to do… Exactly what I thought I would be doing during the day which is escort soldiers and collect supplies to build up defenses… Defenses for what you say? Attacks so infrequent I left my toon afk at one of the command post, got up, made a sandwhich, grabbed some coffee, let the dog out, went to the bathroom, sat down, realized I forgot my coffee, got up, got thecoffee, let the dog in and came back. Still hadn’t been attacked yet. On another note… Why aren’t we building the defenses during the day? Isn’t that the point? So basically daytime there’s nothing to do because the events are bugged and night time there is nothing to do because the there are rarely any attacks, we only own 3 of those places because the day events are bugged, there is no way to see on the map where the supply is to easily gather it, there is no incentive to gather supply because the attacks are so rare and easy there is no point ( I defended the itzel one alone… As a dragon hunter, exclusively using traps… That are rather underwhelming and Longbow, which has a super weak auto attack, but who’s other abilities aren’t bad, although a bit weak). What does escorting the soldiers do? Bring more supply? Ok, wipeewe don’t need supply. So basically, night time is silverwastes only easier and with less loot and no boss at the end. There was no feeling of dread, no feeling of fighting for my life. the only feeling was uh oh, better stop watching Pirate’s highlights, theres an attack, I need to press one and E (my dodge) a couple of times. Ok, everythings dead, Can you believe francisco liriano hit a Home Run? ME NEITHER!
Hope that helps!

xlion.3065:

Lara Hesperax.2537:

… Does anyone else remember the pop ups when you completed something that asked you to rate it out of five based on a few different things with an optional feedback box for your thoughts? …

Yep, I still remember how exciting those BWE have been and how much there was to explore which I didn’t manage to do. Also our feedback seemed to really matter.

But that is the past as is the MMO Manifesto.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU1JUwPqzQY

What has become of you my beloved Guild Wars?
The most important thing in any game should be the player.

I was looking forward to those popups…. I’m disappointed they aren’t there… Probably because people just ignored em. At least a /feedback option would be appreciated. I have too much to say to type, so I’m going to make video feedback but man… This beta is a freaking mess of bugs and nasty.

beta is beta, bugs will happen. If you want to test masteries though, make new characters the first story will give xp. This is after all for testing not necessarily for fun, if you want to help and test that then make due with whats there. Create 4 characters, get oine mastery rank done, delete one, make new, repeat repeat repeat. Then you can earn and test out more since actually completed level ups are saved and its all account bound.

Yes, but these are Alpha bugs.

Now if you took part in a zergfest, say in closed beta (which DIDN’T have these bugs) or possibly in the first few hours on Friday night, you might not appreciate how poor this zone is for PvEers as an expansion introduction.

VB is a pretty poor experience when the population is low and you have no mastery points.

I actually think there was a bug as you got a mastery point at the end of the shorten personal story but couldn’t use it – or at least I couldn’t figure out how to use it. The impression I am getting – having read a few other posts – is that they took the closed beta VB version and hacked it about a bit then dumped it into this beta weekend without any additional testing. Hence why THIS weekend’s VB doesn’t feel like a beta at all to those new to the beta events.

lilypop.7819:

~Snip~

I actually think there was a bug as you got a mastery point at the end of the shorten personal story but couldn’t use it – or at least I couldn’t figure out how to use it. The impression I am getting – having read a few other posts – is that they took the closed beta VB version and hacked it about a bit then dumped it into this beta weekend without any additional testing. Hence why THIS weekend’s VB doesn’t feel like a beta at all to those new to the beta events.

That’s not a bug, you’ll get the Mastery point before you can use it…as you need to fill up the experience bar in order to use each Mastery Point. In this case you get the Mastery Point first, then you can fill the bar up and use it.

You are beta testing. Send beta testing and bug reports to Anet.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

This is not a beta, this is a demo for a) tricking people to pre-purchase the game and b) actually rewarding people who got lured into the trap.

The area to play in is so tiny that there should be no surprises for the QA team, the duration is too short to get any valuable data from the “test”.

Real beta testing is a thing of the past or – in rare cases – some more serious companies than ANet, this is just a teaser for the hype.

Feel free to send feedback, but don’t expect anything to change.

Beta test weekend my kitten…

I have to agree with Kaiyanwan.8521, this is not real beta testing situation. It is just a teaser for the hype.

In real beta testing there should be a document where all testers can read known issues relating to this beta testing. Those issues are what QA team have seen, but Anet haven’t got time to fix yet. When people are testing they can read from that document what issues are already known and that way they can find out what issues are new ones, so they can report only those new ones. That is Beta testing.

So my guess is this, people are sending bug reports what are already known by ArenaNet. People are feeling important by doing reporting and they think that they are really beta testing the game. But infact they are doing same reports what QA have already done before.

So this is not real beta testing situation, it is just try to start hype train again.

Sinope.5630:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

This is not a beta, this is a demo for a) tricking people to pre-purchase the game and b) actually rewarding people who got lured into the trap.

The area to play in is so tiny that there should be no surprises for the QA team, the duration is too short to get any valuable data from the “test”.

Real beta testing is a thing of the past or – in rare cases – some more serious companies than ANet, this is just a teaser for the hype.

Feel free to send feedback, but don’t expect anything to change.

Beta test weekend my kitten…

I have to agree with Kaiyanwan.8521, this is not real beta testing situation. It is just a teaser for the hype.

In real beta testing there should be a document where all testers can read known issues relating to this beta testing. Those issues are what QA team have seen, but Anet haven’t got time to fix yet. When people are testing they can read from that document what issues are already known and that way they can find out what issues are new ones, so they can report only those new ones. That is Beta testing.

So my guess is this, people are sending bug reports what are already known by ArenaNet. People are feeling important by doing reporting and they think that they are really beta testing the game. But infact they are doing same reports what QA have already done before.

So this is not real beta testing situation, it is just try to start hype train again.

No. The current BWE falls under what a beta would be.

So let me get this straight: ANET said this was a beta test. They wanted things tested. Bugs are popping up. They need to be reported and fixed.

And yet this is some kind of marketing scheme rather than a beta test? You do realize how little sense that makes, right? Who in their right mind would have buggy material out for a marketing scheme?

so, they have flaws they need to identify and fix… and yet its not a beta test.

rolls eyes

Sinope.5630:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

This is not a beta, this is a demo for a) tricking people to pre-purchase the game and b) actually rewarding people who got lured into the trap.

The area to play in is so tiny that there should be no surprises for the QA team, the duration is too short to get any valuable data from the “test”.

Real beta testing is a thing of the past or – in rare cases – some more serious companies than ANet, this is just a teaser for the hype.

Feel free to send feedback, but don’t expect anything to change.

Beta test weekend my kitten…

I have to agree with Kaiyanwan.8521, this is not real beta testing situation. It is just a teaser for the hype.

In real beta testing there should be a document where all testers can read known issues relating to this beta testing. Those issues are what QA team have seen, but Anet haven’t got time to fix yet. When people are testing they can read from that document what issues are already known and that way they can find out what issues are new ones, so they can report only those new ones. That is Beta testing.

So my guess is this, people are sending bug reports what are already known by ArenaNet. People are feeling important by doing reporting and they think that they are really beta testing the game. But infact they are doing same reports what QA have already done before.

So this is not real beta testing situation, it is just try to start hype train again.

I have played almost every MMO from the past 10 years(granted some of them only for a couple of hours) and i’ve played in multiple betas. I have never seen anything even remotely close to what you are talking about. Betas have always been done like this weekends beta.

WHAT? THE BETA HAS BUGS?

I thought betas were supposed to be polished releases!?

I think part of the issue, compared to the previous betas, is that this time it has been left to run for a weekend rather than just a couple of hours. A good working model may be that there is a chance each iteration that an event will bug, but once it bugs the bug may stick until the map gets reset. When it gets reset every couple of hours, it may not have an impact, but when it stays open for a day or so…

Remember Straits of Devastation for the first six months to a year or so… possibly even all the way up to megaserver, when every server had its own instance that was pretty much open constantly? Half the events there were bugged more often than not, it seemed.

While fixing the bugs directly is the ideal outcome (which is where information like what triggers the bug with the itzel event is very valuable) one thing that they might consider is to implement a system by which the servers attempt to rotate out instances after they’ve been open for a sufficient length of time, by preferantially placing players in newer instances until the instance to be retired gets Volunteer offered and can be closed. That should at least give the opportunity to reboot any events where the main issue may well be that entropy has set in as the instance aged.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Sinope.5630:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

This is not a beta, this is a demo for a) tricking people to pre-purchase the game and b) actually rewarding people who got lured into the trap.

The area to play in is so tiny that there should be no surprises for the QA team, the duration is too short to get any valuable data from the “test”.

Real beta testing is a thing of the past or – in rare cases – some more serious companies than ANet, this is just a teaser for the hype.

Feel free to send feedback, but don’t expect anything to change.

Beta test weekend my kitten…

I have to agree with Kaiyanwan.8521, this is not real beta testing situation. It is just a teaser for the hype.

In real beta testing there should be a document where all testers can read known issues relating to this beta testing. Those issues are what QA team have seen, but Anet haven’t got time to fix yet. When people are testing they can read from that document what issues are already known and that way they can find out what issues are new ones, so they can report only those new ones. That is Beta testing.

So my guess is this, people are sending bug reports what are already known by ArenaNet. People are feeling important by doing reporting and they think that they are really beta testing the game. But infact they are doing same reports what QA have already done before.

So this is not real beta testing situation, it is just try to start hype train again.

I have played almost every MMO from the past 10 years(granted some of them only for a couple of hours) and i’ve played in multiple betas. I have never seen anything even remotely close to what you are talking about. Betas have always been done like this weekends beta.

MMOs have Alpha tests which is for “their close friends”, then they have closed betas for the “hypers” who signed in and been RNGed and later the open betas for the “hyped croud” created with the help of " the hypers". All leading leading to a full release for “the general public”
A-nets betas are a mixture between closed & open betas due to pre-purchase system, similar to “founder’s packs” in F2P MMOs.
The word “beta” is put in there to cover up any bugs while the real reason is to get the feedback from the players of their likes and dislikes. They dont necesarrely care about bug reports – they have testers of their own – they just need to see what people enjoy and what not. This is what they “test” and nothing more. Plus they create a marketing campaign.

It seems that there are a lot of people angry because they pre-purchased HoT to play a beta without any bugs, like if it were a demo, of course there will be bugs and broken events. That’s why ArenaNet is testing the expansion on a live environment with hundreds of players. There must be a lot of people hard at work on the background paying close attention, even playing along side you all without you even knowing.

Just expect this beta to be a little glimpse of the game, and report any bugs you find, or not even bugs but how everything feels and plays, even if it’s little bits of content, and then come back at beta weekend 2 and check out how everything has improved thanks to hard work and the constructive feedback of the community

The original Beta Weekends for the game also had narrow ranges to explore, lots of bugged events, and some mechanics that weren’t well-explained or complete. ANet got a lot of good feedback from that, which affected what went into the final game, sometimes differing drastically from what was in BETA.

Put another way, a huge portion of our community should avoid the BETA entirely. It’s really something you only want to try if you are fully comfortable with these sorts of limitations.

I’m taking my own advice and avoiding Verdant Brink, except for the tutorial. Instead, I’m bringing the elite specializations to the core zones and trying out the new skills/traits in areas more familiar to me. I’m finding that very enjoyable and I’m still able to provide feedback.

(Of course, I’d prefer if I could explore Verdant Brink, too — I’m just not willing to spend the time until it’s fleshed out some more. I’m grateful to those who are willing to give it a go.)

I can understand where the OP is coming from. They want feedback from the events, but we can’t progress past the first event because of it stalling out. There is a good 10-12 more events after each event chain meta that we can’t give feedback about because of these single events stalling out.

This creates a problem for the 2nd reason we are beta testing, there is a very limited amount of events that are outside the two metas, which is our main source of exp, which is the way we level up masteries. Some people are having a hard time leveling those other than killing random mobs with tons of boosts on.

Then the fact that the event chains stalling out actually hurt you being able to do adventures. You can only do adventures during the day because they go away at night. However the meta chains stalling out is some how effecting the adventures too. So no feedback on those.

The only thing that we are actually able to test this weekend were the elite specs and shiro revenant.

So you are telling me having to kill the vinetenders at the same time was a bug and not a mechanic? But i kind of liked that, it required a bit of coördination…