Guild Wars 2

Before people farm for hours and hours on end for portals, you should have told people the test was going to be a grand total of 6 hours, split into 2 hour blocks.

People would have had a lot less frustration in farming had they known it really wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

i think the point is the method of aquisition was not in balance with the beta.
Im not really surprised about that, As you say they test what they need to test. However, once again developers miss the full implications of random distributions, especially with low rates.

Its a good concept to have something like beta access be obtainable due to ingame methods, but the execution of that, was ehhh.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Amen. People seem to look at these things as a free sample. It isn’kittens a beta TEST!!!!

I will admit though that it is a little disappointing to only get a few hours total, in the middle of the week, much of it during most people’s work hours. If this was a preview rather than a test I WOULD be a bit upset.

The times are what they are, there’s no point being mad. Having been in the first beta I’m not surprised the times are still against EU players.
The only thing that does annoys me though are the number of players who have received a portal but won’t be able to participate in the beta because of the times, when there will be players who farmed for days, got no portal drop but would have been able to test the beta.
Surely if Anet wanted people to test the beta for bugs they should first make sure that players would be able to participate in the times of the beta instead of sending everyone off to farm for portals.

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

But then you make the drop rate low and you have people farming for it for days on end, without any detail and it’s a recipe for disaster. What people were farming for should have been made more clear from the outset.

I didn’t farm for it, in fact, I was on vacation for most of that period and hardly had a chance to play at all, but I could see where people would be angered by this.

Lets think..the first Closed Beta was split into 2 1 hour blocks. Maybe instead of complaining you should be thanking Anet for not making it another round of 2 1 hour blocks.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Okay, look.

They HIRE, and PAY people to do serious testing, that’s what the QA department is for. That’s how a lot of their developers actually start their career, get hired on as QA and then they eventually get promoted to designers, like Mike Zadorojny.

Beta tests with playtesters find things that only occur when there’s high volume on the servers, so that’s one purpose, the “payment” for doing this for Arenanet is that people do get to see content early.

That’s pretty much the understood relationship, across multiple developers, and multiple games.

So while trying to trumpet “it’s a test, not a preview”, you’re basically wrong, we’re not hired Arenanet staff, it’s not our job, it’s an exchange, we test things for them in high volume and find issues they might not be able to find with the lower volume they have using only internal QA, and in exchange, we get to see something early.

It’s both a test and a preview, in that sense. All beta tests with volunteer playtesters are both tests and previews.

Otherwise if this is just supposed to be our job and we’re doing QA work for them, they’d better be cutting us a check.

But that’s beside the point. The point is, there were a lot of people upset at how beta invites were distributed this time and there would have been a lot less people upset if they’d known the details of the test ahead of time, because many people would have said “oh well, I can’t be on then anyway, guess I won’t farm” or “oh well, it’s only 6 total hours, so it’s not worth farming for more than 6 total hours” Some people farmed 60+ hours, for this 6 hour test (I’m not one of them I spent maybe 20? I don’t know, 2 hours a day tops for the duration and not every day), that’s a staggeringly disproportionate amount of time, and some of those people farmed that long for a beta they won’t be able to participate in due to irl obligations.

Of course, Arenanet may have had trouble getting enough testers for that “high volume” part of what actual testing we do consists of if they had been up front. But then they would have done as they did before, randomly select accounts that are on the newsletter subscription.

So what makes me angry is that Anet was not up front about the details and wasted a lot of time for some people and in fact deceived people to do what the REAL purpose of the portals was, not to get testers, but to get people back into farming Dry Top and Silverwastes. Their deception is what makes me angry about it.

I don’t think this will be the only Portal related beta testing but I do agree that they should have been up front with the details during the Portal event. I happened to get my one from casually playing, but I do feel for those who heavily farmed their one.

Without any information on the kind or scope of the Portal beta access, I don’t blame people for thinking it would be as grand as the exclusivity of the Portals itself. When you have a void in any information, it’s only natural for it to be filled in by the players. That’s the time when the devs should have stepped in to quell that sort of speculation. They didn’t have to but it would have been prudent.

I have hopes that this is the first of many Portal events. Culminating in a Beta Promotional Weekend exclusive for the Portal owners. Something of a sneak peak to the sneak peak.

Vayne.8563:

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

No they don’t, they dont even have a right for a chance, being part of the beta is a PRIVILEGE not a right

GummiBear.2756:

Vayne.8563:

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

No they don’t, they dont even have a right for a chance, being part of the beta is a PRIVILEGE not a right

It’s not a privilege when EVERYONE can get in if they get lucky for a drop.

Not only did they make it a drop, but they didn’t tell any details till now and those details are rather disappointing.

GummiBear.2756:

Vayne.8563:

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

No they don’t, they dont even have a right for a chance, being part of the beta is a PRIVILEGE not a right

The Beta Testing relies on the goodwill of the playerbase. Expend that goodwill and you won’t get the sort of enthusiastic feedback you’d want out of a Beta Test. All people are asking for is some transparency in regards to the scope of the Beta Testing, especially when it is linked to an event like the Portals that could see people farming for 40+ hours. If the testing was simply linked to random invites through the newsletter that is one thing, but when you have it linked to an event that only level 80s that dedicate their time and effort farming… that lessens the privilege and gives the player some fair entitlement.

Mordeus.1234:

I don’t think this will be the only Portal related beta testing but I do agree that they should have been up front with the details during the Portal event. I happened to get my one from casually playing, but I do feel for those who heavily farmed their one.

Without any information on the kind or scope of the Portal beta access, I don’t blame people for thinking it would be as grand as the exclusivity of the Portals itself. When you have a void in any information, it’s only natural for it to be filled in by the players. That’s the time when the devs should have stepped in to quell that sort of speculation. They didn’t have to but it would have been prudent.

I have hopes that this is the first of many Portal events. Culminating in a Beta Promotional Weekend exclusive for the Portal owners. Something of a sneak peak to the sneak peak.

The problem is, I expect this portal to only get you invited for THIS test, and anet will probably do another event to give invites for the next.

If this portal gets you invited to not only this test but future tests as well, that’d be handy information to know. Here’s another place where transparency from the developers or the community team would be appreciated.

Honesty is met with appreciation.

Deception is met with hostility.

As of now? It feels like Anet deceived us, in order to get more people farming Dry Top and Silverwastes, and I hate being tricked like that.

Devildoc.6721:

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Okay, look.

They HIRE, and PAY people to do serious testing, that’s what the QA department is for. That’s how a lot of their developers actually start their career, get hired on as QA and then they eventually get promoted to designers, like Mike Zadorojny.

Beta tests with playtesters find things that only occur when there’s high volume on the servers, so that’s one purpose, the “payment” for doing this for Arenanet is that people do get to see content early.

That’s pretty much the understood relationship, across multiple developers, and multiple games.

So while trying to trumpet “it’s a test, not a preview”, you’re basically wrong, we’re not hired Arenanet staff, it’s not our job, it’s an exchange, we test things for them in high volume and find issues they might not be able to find with the lower volume they have using only internal QA, and in exchange, we get to see something early.

It’s both a test and a preview, in that sense. All beta tests with volunteer playtesters are both tests and previews.

Otherwise if this is just supposed to be our job and we’re doing QA work for them, they’d better be cutting us a check.

But that’s beside the point. The point is, there were a lot of people upset at how beta invites were distributed this time and there would have been a lot less people upset if they’d known the details of the test ahead of time, because many people would have said “oh well, I can’t be on then anyway, guess I won’t farm” or “oh well, it’s only 6 total hours, so it’s not worth farming for more than 6 total hours” Some people farmed 60+ hours, for this 6 hour test (I’m not one of them I spent maybe 20? I don’t know, 2 hours a day tops for the duration and not every day), that’s a staggeringly disproportionate amount of time, and some of those people farmed that long for a beta they won’t be able to participate in due to irl obligations.

Of course, Arenanet may have had trouble getting enough testers for that “high volume” part of what actual testing we do consists of if they had been up front. But then they would have done as they did before, randomly select accounts that are on the newsletter subscription.

So what makes me angry is that Anet was not up front about the details and wasted a lot of time for some people and in fact deceived people to do what the REAL purpose of the portals was, not to get testers, but to get people back into farming Dry Top and Silverwastes. Their deception is what makes me angry about it.

testing in a controlled dev environment will never be the same as testing with players, also the numbers arent there.
No company hires enough people to playtest an MMO in a realistic fashion. They have like 250 employees at arenanet, even if everyone in the company was a playtester, it still wouldnt equal what happens when the game is live.

I got a portal invite to the beta test, and unfortunately I am one of those people that always works Tuesday when A-Net releases updates/content. I work a night job, so I never really get to play the game when these updates go live. I am happy that I will be able to join the test after work, but I do agree that A-Net should have given us information about what the times would be when the Portal farming event started.

It’s one thing if you work but you have all day to check the beta. It’s another thing if you only have a few hours out of the day, or you live on the East Coast, like I do, and could potentially miss all three times.

Since the event required blind farming, and low drop rates, people could have easily invested over 40 hours to try to get one of these portals. If we knew ahead of time, some of those people wouldn’t have had to spend so much time farming if they weren’t going to be able to make the time frame.

It is a privilege to participate in a closed beta, but it’s impractical to have people spend so much time trying to get into it, and then find out that they won’t be able to actually participate because of a lack of communication/information.

Who’s to say that there will be enough participants to have valid performance reports created?

What I forsee is that this beta will be disappointing and the real preview betas will be closed behind a paywall called pre-purchase. Because money is the only language anet talks these days.

I got a portal. I’m not going to waste any more of my time for this “beta”. Actually I’m not even going to buy hot. However reading these forums is fun and I can’t wait for all the bad decisions this company makes finally escalate to mass exodus level ^^

What Anet pulled was very shady.
They allowed this upcoming “beta test” to get extremely hyped up without telling the community that the “test” was going to be one day; and that the test date was going to be announced within less than a week.
It’s like telling the community you can obtain a legendary weapon in game, then one month later telling everyone that only 1 legendary weapon will be handed out through the game.
Its deceiving and an example of a very poor dev to community relationship.

Whether or not you think its ok to create such a short “beta test” window; the lack of communication is what makes this whole situation a problem.

States.6387:

What Anet pulled was very shady.

I love how people work themselves up with a complete fantasy of their own creation and when others don’t live up to those delusions its “shady”.

How long have the beta tests been up to this point? A couple of hours for the stress tests and 24 hours for the sPvP map. In that light do you see ANYTHING inconsistent about this next window and past practices?

Nike.2631:

States.6387:

What Anet pulled was very shady.

I love how people work themselves up with a complete fantasy of their own creation and when others don’t live up to those delusions its “shady”.

How long have the beta tests been up to this point? A couple of hours for the stress tests and 24 hours for the sPvP map. In that light do you see ANYTHING inconsistent about this next window and past practices?

How many of those have incentivized you into them by trying to get you to earn an item for entry?
When you do it that way, you basically set the beta up as a more of a preview/reward than a standard test, yet what they’re providing doesn’t really feel like a reward anymore.

I agree it would be awful to force ANet employees to work overnight or on weekends for the beta testing. But this suggestion would be really good to avoid future disappointment. It may be as usual to their past practices but there are newcomers to the game who may not know. Maybe Anet can give some kind of extra reward to people who have portals so that those who couldn’t make the timings would not feel too disappointed? hint *gold *hint

No, what’s done is done, all we ask for is transparency and honesty.

What make you think this will be the ONLY HoT beta testing?

Before GW2 was release, there were several pubic beta testing which starting of playing only three races and the last two were follow after a test weekend or two.

Yeah it suck some will missed the first one next Tuesday but so what? Just wait for the next one and hopefully the next one will be more convient for you?

Before you asked on my stance, I can played a little at 11.30 but I working in the afternoon so I will missed the 3.30 one but I’m all clear at 7.30 especially when I’m not working on the next day.

Dark Saviour.9410:

Nike.2631:

States.6387:

What Anet pulled was very shady.

I love how people work themselves up with a complete fantasy of their own creation and when others don’t live up to those delusions its “shady”.

How long have the beta tests been up to this point? A couple of hours for the stress tests and 24 hours for the sPvP map. In that light do you see ANYTHING inconsistent about this next window and past practices?

How many of those have incentivized you into them by trying to get you to earn an item for entry?
When you do it that way, you basically set the beta up as a more of a preview/reward than a standard test, yet what they’re providing doesn’t really feel like a reward anymore.

Isnt this kinda exactly what Nike is saying though? you assumed something would be one way using your own interpretation instead of looking at past events and the information actually given by Anet. Only to now be angry at Anet because they didnt follow what you assumed would happen, but continued with their trend of closed beta’s.

It’s really just save to never assume more than what you know from past events unless you’re explicitly told it will be different. Aka, when they announce closed beta and a way to acces them, assume they will be the same as the closed beta’s in the past, instead of free previews of the new content.

This portal event was just another way to get participants in a more active way that would give people something to do ingame if they really wished a ticket. The RnG is still the same as it would be if it were by signing up to the newsletter just a more active way.

Devildoc.6721:

Before people farm for hours and hours on end for portals, you should have told people the test was going to be a grand total of 6 hours, split into 2 hour blocks.

People would have had a lot less frustration in farming had they known it really wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

Or maybe you should keep in mind that they have stated that the beta portal you farmed will work for all subsequent betas. Not just this one.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

TBH this test makes no sense to me. Yes you are totally right that beta tests are for testing and not for previews. But 3 blocks of 2 hours during the week in a time barely any European player can partake? Americans aren’t off much better.

The amount of testers they will have for this event will be much lower than what they’d get during the weekend. And IMO that is really not good. They should try to get as many people for testing as possible. The less people they have the less likely it is that they’ll get usable feedback.

And no I didn’t get a beta invite and now I’m kinda glad I didn’t. I wouldn’t have time for it like this. so having beta access while not being able to attend is much more frustrating than not having access at all.

Roxanne.6140:

I agree it would be awful to force ANet employees to work overnight or on weekends for the beta testing. But this suggestion would be really good to avoid future disappointment.

I still don’t see how this is a proper argument. Personally I’d love to work at uncommon times on a great game for a cool company. Obviously taking off on other days for it but still. If they like their job I don’t see why they wouldn’t work at uncommon times. Too bad my skills aren’t good enough to work for such a company yet >.>

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Devildoc.6721:

Before people farm for hours and hours on end for portals, you should have told people the test was going to be a grand total of 6 hours, split into 2 hour blocks.

People would have had a lot less frustration in farming had they known it really wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

Or maybe you should keep in mind that they have stated that the beta portal you farmed will work for all subsequent betas. Not just this one.

Source? I dont remember them saying anything like that, in fact in the bottom of the mail i got now it says “*This invitation is for this Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns testing event only. This does not guarantee access to future events. Invitation is non’transferable. A current Guild Wars 2 account and Internet access are required to participate.”

Devildoc.6721:

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Okay, look.

They HIRE, and PAY people to do serious testing, that’s what the QA department is for. That’s how a lot of their developers actually start their career, get hired on as QA and then they eventually get promoted to designers, like Mike Zadorojny.

Beta tests with playtesters find things that only occur when there’s high volume on the servers, so that’s one purpose, the “payment” for doing this for Arenanet is that people do get to see content early.

That’s pretty much the understood relationship, across multiple developers, and multiple games.

So while trying to trumpet “it’s a test, not a preview”, you’re basically wrong, we’re not hired Arenanet staff, it’s not our job, it’s an exchange, we test things for them in high volume and find issues they might not be able to find with the lower volume they have using only internal QA, and in exchange, we get to see something early.

It’s both a test and a preview, in that sense. All beta tests with volunteer playtesters are both tests and previews.

Otherwise if this is just supposed to be our job and we’re doing QA work for them, they’d better be cutting us a check.

But that’s beside the point. The point is, there were a lot of people upset at how beta invites were distributed this time and there would have been a lot less people upset if they’d known the details of the test ahead of time, because many people would have said “oh well, I can’t be on then anyway, guess I won’t farm” or “oh well, it’s only 6 total hours, so it’s not worth farming for more than 6 total hours” Some people farmed 60+ hours, for this 6 hour test (I’m not one of them I spent maybe 20? I don’t know, 2 hours a day tops for the duration and not every day), that’s a staggeringly disproportionate amount of time, and some of those people farmed that long for a beta they won’t be able to participate in due to irl obligations.

Of course, Arenanet may have had trouble getting enough testers for that “high volume” part of what actual testing we do consists of if they had been up front. But then they would have done as they did before, randomly select accounts that are on the newsletter subscription.

So what makes me angry is that Anet was not up front about the details and wasted a lot of time for some people and in fact deceived people to do what the REAL purpose of the portals was, not to get testers, but to get people back into farming Dry Top and Silverwastes. Their deception is what makes me angry about it.

THIS
A thousand times this. (I was one of the people who farmed for days and days and I won’t be able to participate, plus the fact that this portal only gives me access to THIS event and no future ones. I can’t be hyped for HoT anymore)
Thank you so much for putting this into words.

GummiBear.2756:

Vayne.8563:

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

No they don’t, they dont even have a right for a chance, being part of the beta is a PRIVILEGE not a right

Beta testing isn’t a ‘privilege’, it’s a legitimate JOB that none of us are getting paid to do. We will have to purchase HoT. It isn’t our responsibility that it runs – that falls exclusively on ANet.

Ninjakittee.7681:

Beta testing isn’t a ‘privilege’, it’s a legitimate JOB that none of us are getting paid to do. We will have to purchase HoT. It isn’t our responsibility that it runs – that falls exclusively on ANet.

And yet you still complain like mad about being unable to join the beta-test due to the time….

lordkrall.7241:

Ninjakittee.7681:

Beta testing isn’t a ‘privilege’, it’s a legitimate JOB that none of us are getting paid to do. We will have to purchase HoT. It isn’t our responsibility that it runs – that falls exclusively on ANet.

And yet you still complain like mad about being unable to join the beta-test due to the time….

Yes. Which I have the right to do. I am a customer and I am unsatisfied. The amount of time and effort I put into obtaining a portal, not to mention the fact that I bought and have continued to spend money on the game, means that I have the right to complain. This isn’t some service ANet is doing for me out of the goodness of their heart. This is a transaction. I don’t get paid for testing their product and I will still have to purchase the final version. So yes, I am going to complain.

Ninjakittee.7681:

lordkrall.7241:

Ninjakittee.7681:

Beta testing isn’t a ‘privilege’, it’s a legitimate JOB that none of us are getting paid to do. We will have to purchase HoT. It isn’t our responsibility that it runs – that falls exclusively on ANet.

And yet you still complain like mad about being unable to join the beta-test due to the time….

Yes. Which I have the right to do. I am a customer and I am unsatisfied. The amount of time and effort I put into obtaining a portal, not to mention the fact that I bought and have continued to spend money on the game, means that I have the right to complain. This isn’t some service ANet is doing for me out of the goodness of their heart. This is a transaction. I don’t get paid for testing their product and I will still have to purchase the final version. So yes, I am going to complain.

Actually it IS a service they are doing you giving you a chance to be in a beta. If it wasn’t a service you wouldn’t feel so upset about the “bad service” you feel you’ve received.

And they’re really recruiting YOU to do a service for THEM. The betas aren’t on the weekends for that reason. They want people dedicated to the game in the beta, not just casual weekenders.

We were told before the Portal event that this test would be longer than the last. Since the Beta Tests before the release of GW2 were weekend events I sorta expected this one to be a weekend event too. I know they didn’t say that it would be, I know they only said that this test would be longer and more involved than the last. But, I work for a living. I’ll be working on Tuesday. I feel rather cheated. I’d happily give my portal to someone who could actually use it, but that’s not allowed either.

They could have told us that it would be weekday play, or that it would be six hours total. They could have given us enough information to let us know that this isn’t a real beta test but a stress test. There isn’t enough time to find the hidden bugs with three two hour sessions, just enough to find some big stuff and test the servers. Couple that with the fact that there is no NDA and I think what we have here is a preview and a stress test, not a beta.

Hahahahahaha. Anet, and transparency, in the same sentence?

Next time don’t be such an entitled brat.

Beta testing is voluntary. No one is forcing you to do it and no one forced you to farm one.
If you’re someone with a busy time table it would have made sense for you to think that perhaps, you might not be able to participate.

As someone that is well versed in beta testing, finding/reproducing and reporting bugs it upsets me that a lot of my friends have beta access while I do not. Considering their chatter about it; they just think it’s early access/previewing the game.

These people at least in my opinion are worthless numbers in the beta since all they are going to do is play and then log off giving no input other than a logged in user during the test.

Do you have information that this will be the ONLY beta test you’ll be able to participate? If not i don’t understand your complains.

Devildoc.6721:

People would have had a lot less frustration in farming had they known it really wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

They would also have farmed less, and that’s the opposite of what ArenaNet wanted.

It was a very vague promise to lure people into playing the Silverwastes more. I don’t even want to think what ArenaNet is making with the numbers they got from this (“See NCSoft, we got X players playing in a single map! Look how healthy our game is!!!”; “See guys, people just love playing in the Silverwastes, no matter how repetitive and grind-based it is, so we should make all future content like that!”, and so on). But it was a bait and people took a bite.

Not telling people everything wasn’t an accident. ArenaNet knew exactly what they were doing.

Vayne.8563:

I think people have a right to be angry about this. The whole participating in a beta thing has no detail. People don’t all know to expect limited times. Many people would have expected more.

Dear ArenaNet, if Vayne is saying people have a right to be angry about something you did, you really know you have massively screwed something.

I’m conflicted on how to feel about this situation, sure they could have been alot more up front in regards to when the test will happen, and how long it is, but at the same time I also view the anger towards Anet for this to be..I don’t know, unfair?

So people farm many, many hours for a test they literally know nothing about? Who is to blame here?

I can’t see how people can be mad at Anet directly for something they chose to do themselves.

You didn’t know when the test was, or how long it was, or what it contained, or if you are able to participate at all and yet it is unfair?

This isn’t directed at anyone in specific, my reply to this topic but I have seen numerous people complain about it. And this is my perspective.

No one is/was forced to play in the beta/farm for the beta access.

Not to mention the majority of ppl just want to “play it” not test it. No loss.

Khenzo.2465:

I’m conflicted on how to feel about this situation, sure they could have been alot more up front in regards to when the test will happen, and how long it is, but at the same time I also view the anger towards Anet for this to be..I don’t know, unfair?

So people farm many, many hours for a test they literally know nothing about? Who is to blame here?

I can’t see how people can be mad at Anet directly for something they chose to do themselves.

You didn’t know when the test was, or how long it was, or what it contained, or if you are able to participate at all and yet it is unfair?

This isn’t directed at anyone in specific, my reply to this topic but I have seen numerous people complain about it. And this is my perspective.

Anet should’ve told people all that info, not wait for people tried to farm that portal for days to finally say “ok, the beta only lasts a day, in blocks that last a few hours each”, thanks for farming!!"

I don’t understand how people actually take Anet’s side. You’re at Blizzard fanboy levels right now where they do mistakes and you refuse to see them.

Ephemiel.5694:

Khenzo.2465:

I’m conflicted on how to feel about this situation, sure they could have been alot more up front in regards to when the test will happen, and how long it is, but at the same time I also view the anger towards Anet for this to be..I don’t know, unfair?

So people farm many, many hours for a test they literally know nothing about? Who is to blame here?

I can’t see how people can be mad at Anet directly for something they chose to do themselves.

You didn’t know when the test was, or how long it was, or what it contained, or if you are able to participate at all and yet it is unfair?

This isn’t directed at anyone in specific, my reply to this topic but I have seen numerous people complain about it. And this is my perspective.

Anet should’ve told people all that info, not wait for people tried to farm that portal for days to finally say “ok, the beta only lasts a day, in blocks that last a few hours each”, thanks for farming!!"

I don’t understand how people actually take Anet’s side. You’re at Blizzard fanboy levels right now where they do mistakes and you refuse to see them.

This has nothing to do with silly petty white knighting for Anet.

The information surrounding the beta was completely non-existant, I said sure they could have been more open regarding when the test was, but they didn’t.

So people blindly farm for a test they know literally NOTHING about, then cry foul at Anet?

This is a little bit silly, if you ask me. You should EXPECT disapointment if you are going to farm for something with no information about it.

GummiBear.2756:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Devildoc.6721:

Before people farm for hours and hours on end for portals, you should have told people the test was going to be a grand total of 6 hours, split into 2 hour blocks.

People would have had a lot less frustration in farming had they known it really wasn’t going to be worth the effort.

Or maybe you should keep in mind that they have stated that the beta portal you farmed will work for all subsequent betas. Not just this one.

Source? I dont remember them saying anything like that, in fact in the bottom of the mail i got now it says “*This invitation is for this Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns testing event only. This does not guarantee access to future events. Invitation is non’transferable. A current Guild Wars 2 account and Internet access are required to participate.”

I’m looking. I thought it was something Gaile said after the fact, but I could be mistaken.
Unfortunately not everything is consolidated in one place for information. Though, yes I do note the line in the original announcement that says “next” beta. I haven’t found anywhere to support the assorted claims that this one was supposed to be longer either, as others have said.

Khenzo.2465:

Ephemiel.5694:

Khenzo.2465:

I’m conflicted on how to feel about this situation, sure they could have been alot more up front in regards to when the test will happen, and how long it is, but at the same time I also view the anger towards Anet for this to be..I don’t know, unfair?

So people farm many, many hours for a test they literally know nothing about? Who is to blame here?

I can’t see how people can be mad at Anet directly for something they chose to do themselves.

You didn’t know when the test was, or how long it was, or what it contained, or if you are able to participate at all and yet it is unfair?

This isn’t directed at anyone in specific, my reply to this topic but I have seen numerous people complain about it. And this is my perspective.

Anet should’ve told people all that info, not wait for people tried to farm that portal for days to finally say “ok, the beta only lasts a day, in blocks that last a few hours each”, thanks for farming!!"

I don’t understand how people actually take Anet’s side. You’re at Blizzard fanboy levels right now where they do mistakes and you refuse to see them.

This has nothing to do with silly petty white knighting for Anet.

The information surrounding the beta was completely non-existant, I said sure they could have been more open regarding when the test was, but they didn’t.

So people blindly farm for a test they know literally NOTHING about, then cry foul at Anet?

This is a little bit silly, if you ask me.

I might have mentioned that people are taking Anet’s side, but what you said is kinda what i said.

And yes, they cry foul at Anet because they did this incredible wrong. Please tell me of any other beta in other MMOs where players are told to farm something in order to enter it, please tell me another beta where this whole situation happens.

I’m one of those that did farm for the portal stone and didn’t get one.
I’m one that complains on the forums all the time because I disaprove of no content in 3 months.
Yet I’m still here defending anet because it’s a voluntary beta test that no one forced on you.
Farmed in SW for days gaining gold/materials/karma – 100% wasted time.

Crystallize.8603:

I’m one of those that did farm for the portal stone and didn’t get one.
I’m one that complains on the forums all the time because I disaprove of no content in 3 months.
Yet I’m still here defending anet because it’s a voluntary beta test that no one forced on you.
Farmed in SW for days gaining gold/materials/karma – 100% wasted time.

It doesn’t matter if it was forced on you or not. People used their time to farm this portal because they wanted access to the beta and for Anet to simply say “grats for farming, the beta lasts a day” is low.

For me, the real problem is that they made an effort to differentiate between the first beta event (calling it a ‘stress test’) and this beta event (calling it a ‘closed beta test’). Yes, it is my fault for assuming that the portal would grant me access to a multi-day beta, but the change in terminology was very misleading for an addition of 2 hours to the testing period. Seriously, why is a 4 hour test a stress test, but a 6 hour test a closed beta test?

The real moment of truth will be if what we play on Tuesday is essentially the same build as the PAX beta, with just outposts and an early version of the day/night stuff added. If, for example, the Revenant still only has two legends in this test, I’ll be a little sad. Regardless, I’m really excited to finally play HoT.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Yea, no. A beta is an extended large user test. It’s the LAST round of testing. What they are doing is an Alpha test or an Alpha.5 at best! I think without ANET announcing that the beta they planned would look nothing like any of the MMO betas that people are familiar with, the OP’s object is super valid. I didn’t spend that much time grinding for a portal, but still I find this super annoying. I get that this is the first GW2 expansion, but there are a lot of role models they could have followed to have done this right. For example, I’m assuming that elite specs and so far unannounced revenant legends won’t be included? Lame.

Nanashi.6297:

But 3 blocks of 2 hours during the week in a time barely any European player can partake?

It’s not an actual beta like you would expect it to be. You’re not looking for bugs or to give feedback. It’s more of a stress test.

The point of doing it in blocks is so they can fix problems or change configurations in between. The actual goal of the beta is to test something specific in an active environment, which they simply can’t do internally because they don’t have hundreds of players. The last beta for example was likely testing the impact of removing the bleed caps.

Healix.5819:

Nanashi.6297:

But 3 blocks of 2 hours during the week in a time barely any European player can partake?

It’s not an actual beta like you would expect it to be. You’re not looking for bugs or to give feedback. It’s more of a stress test.

The point of doing it in blocks is so they can fix problems or change configurations in between. The actual goal of the beta is to test something specific in an active environment, which they simply can’t do internally because they don’t have hundreds of players. The last beta for example was likely testing the impact of removing the bleed caps.

“Starting tomorrow, April 28, heroes adventuring in the Maguuma Wastes have a chance to find a mysterious portal to the heart of the Maguuma Jungle. Looting one of these special trophy items grants you access to the next Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™ PvE closed beta event!”

If it was a stress test, why didn’t they say that from the start? Why did they trick people into thinking it was a full closed beta event?

And let me remind you, this has been going on for a month, a MONTH, for a one day stress test that they disguised as a beta.

lordkrall.7241:

Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?

Yup, that’s why people farmed for an unpaid game tester position. They’ll be working for free…. Suckers lol