Guild Wars 2

lol I would have still farmed, I had a lot of fun, completing the events there, and I bet a lot of you had fun too, beta or not, it was something a little different from the norm, and that was great.

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?

It’s actually fair for people to want this. These test times are very specific. People should know if they want to try for one of these to see if it jibes with their real life schedules. Also, with such limited time frames, it’s very possible a lot of people spent more time in game trying to get one of these than they actually will get to spend in the beta itself.

I agree that people need to stop thinking that the Beta is for them to have an exclusive preview to HoT. But you can’t blame them for having false expectations with the way ANet chose to advertise this event. I think that the random drop was a fine idea, but they should have explained their intentions more clearly. Unfortunately, a lot of assumptions were made from players. The way it was advertised initially made it seem like all you needed to do was participate in the Silverwastes to gain access. We all knew it was a chance but perhaps being a bit more realistic and wording it in such a way that would lower people’s expectations would have been smart, instead of hyping it up and getting everyone out looking for the golden ticket. Once a lot of disappointed players realized that their relentless farming wasn’t enough to guarantee them an in, those who did get a portal began to feel like they had won the lottery only to finally remember that no, it is just a beta test and not an exclusive all-day preview. I just feel a lot of this could have been avoided if ANet was more realistic and upfront about their plans.

This is nothing new from Anet. It’s essentially their entire marketing strategy: trickle out a tiny bit of information on something to the players, and have them build up assumptions to get the hype train rolling, only to have everyone disappointed when the end result is nowhere near everyone’s sky high expectations.

I agree that it’s kittenty practice, but this is something that people really should have seen coming at this point.

For everyone complaining, and complaining is what it is, not necessarily offering constructive criticism or feedback, let’s really look at what those who will be able to enter the Closed Beta can do, from the post on the GW2 Home Page:

The upcoming closed beta will help us test the stability of our new PvE outpost-event content structure. Participants will be able to use a Revenant—or any of the existing eight professions—to play a small amount of expansion story content, followed by two beta versions of outposts and their corresponding adventures in part of the Verdant Brink map. An early, partially completed version of the day/night cycle meta-event experience from Verdant Brink will also be available.

It’s a stability test of specific content that is coming with HoT, it’s also going to have an early partially completed version of the day/night cycle. From this I am going to conclude that based on the results of this particular stability test ArenaNet will either hold one more Closed Beta to test the stability of the same events again, or we’ll go into the first Open Beta.

P.S. – This Stability Test Closed Beta is also longer than the first PvE Stress Test, which was 2 1 Hour sessions, this time we get 3 2 Hour sessions, basically triple the amount of time as the first test.

Renkencen.6127:

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.

as far as we know, the portals are only for this specific test. Until anet clears up the confusion and says otherwise, that’s all we can know for the time being is that it gives us access to this one beta stress test.

I’m sure anet won’t be transparent with us on this issue either.

They may do another portal drop event for the next beta test.

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.

Link to where this was ever declared by anet.

Mo Mo.1947:

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.

No. external playtesting is not a privilege for us. It is an exchange between anet and us. We do them a favor in identifying bugs that either slip through the cracks or only appear during high volume, and we get to preview something that otherwise we’d have to wait for.

It’s a quid pro quo, not a one sided bargain where anet is giving us everything and we should just be thankful.

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,.

No..That is
THE PURPOSE.

Beta testing comes after alpha testing and can be considered a form of external user acceptance testing. Versions of the software, known as beta versions, are released to a limited audience outside of the programming team known as beta testers. The software is released to groups of people so that further testing can ensure the product has few faults or bugs. Beta versions can be made available to the open public to increase the feedback field to a maximal number of future users and to deliver value earlier, for an extended or even infinite period of time.

Secondly

This is volunteer work, and all you have to do is log on and go through the zone.
No one is forcing you to test, and no one forced anyone to farm.

You farmed because you wanted to

Solori.6025:

This is volunteer work, and all you have to do is log on and go through the zone.
No one is forcing you to test, and no one forced anyone to farm.

You farmed because you wanted to

If you train a mouse to navigate a maze for the cheese at the end, and then take away the cheese, the mouse will still run the maze under the assumption that the reward is there. Technically, the mouse is choosing to participate, but it’s going to be very disappointed when it finds out that there is no cheese at the end.

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.

I agree, had I known this I wouldn’t have spent countless hours farming a whole week for something that ultimately didn’t drop and made me hate gw2 RNG based loot system quite a bit more than the usual, oh X item didn’t drop oh well move on.

Before this portal fiasco I used to hate RNG moderately, now I hate it’s guts with a passion.

Haha are you people actually having a cry over a test? Apparently nothing to good enough for you people! If you hate the way Anet runs their game kittening leave. just go. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I find it crazy that idiots get worked up over something so trivial.

Automaton.4926:

Haha are you people actually having a cry over a test? Apparently nothing to good enough for you people! If you hate the way Anet runs their game kittening leave. just go. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I find it crazy that idiots get worked up over something so trivial.

Indeed,quite a drama over such little things

Valdur.3607:

Automaton.4926:

Haha are you people actually having a cry over a test? Apparently nothing to good enough for you people! If you hate the way Anet runs their game kittening leave. just go. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. I find it crazy that idiots get worked up over something so trivial.

Indeed,quite a drama over such little things

Imho,

It is not the individual little things that get to people as they are easily dismissed or overlooked.

The real problem is the accumulation of a lot of little things which add up to a rather larger more concerning issue.

Think about water droplets individually they do nothing but let them drop inside a glass for some time and they quickly accumulate and cause a spill, leave it still going and at some point you will have a flood problem.

ANet promotes something. As usual, Just as with every other MMO developer, they couch their vague announcements in glowing positive terminology designed to build hype. Also as usual, fans take these vague announcements and run with them, spinning fancies of what the “thing” will be and how great it will be. Again, as usual, the delivery is not in line with the expectations generated by those who hop on the hype train and imagine what the tracks ahead will look like.

Despite how often these things happen, people continue to deceive themselves. One might think they’d learn. My philosophy, learned by repeated experience, is to never expect anything good from ANet. I’m almost never surprised, and the only surprises that do occur are good ones.

@ OP
Man, you chose to spend hours on a gamble by grinding monotone content. You get angry that the vague reward did not meet your expectations? A lesson learned, I hope.

The goodwill of their customer base is required to successfully launch an MMO expansion. Without us the expansion launch will be an abysmal failure full of exploits, bugs, and problems. They need free large scale testing in order to succeed.

If they continue to jerk us around like this, people will simply stop participating and the expansion will have more bugs and problems than it should. They should be doing everything possible to encourage our participation. If you feel you have been mistreated as a customer then I would encourage you to not participate in the beta, or if you do, don’t provide any feedback. This is the only way any significant change will happen.

If you simply don’t care, or like the way this has been handled then show your support by playing the beta as much as possible, and providing as much feedback as possible.

Those are really your only options.

ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas. I don’t think it’s the fault of the player base for assuming that spending what could amount to many hours trying to get one of these things to drop could and should result in many hours of being able to test the new beta.

All ArenaNet had to do was tell everyone how much time players would get in HoT to test the beta for. Players could then decide if it was worth their time or even if they would be able to be on at the time given for the beta.

ArenaNet could and should have communicated this better. Putting players down in this thread for “whining” or plain old complaining is selling those players short. ArenaNet did a shoddy job of explaining exactly what was occurring. I for one am immensely glad that I have no desire to play in any of the beta content. I want to see the game fresh when it comes out. I am burnt out on the content we were supposed to play ad nauseam to get a chance to help ArenaNet out with their game. I would have been livid had I spent hours in a zone I am tired of playing and failed to get a portal, or gotten one and realized I would be at work that entire time.

Iason Evan.3806:

ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas. I don’t think it’s the fault of the player base for assuming that spending what could amount to many hours trying to get one of these things to drop could and should result in many hours of being able to test the new beta.

They have also set precedent before by offering short betas. In fact, looking at history the vast majorities of the betas have been short and only a few of them have been long.

lordkrall.7241:

Iason Evan.3806:

ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas. I don’t think it’s the fault of the player base for assuming that spending what could amount to many hours trying to get one of these things to drop could and should result in many hours of being able to test the new beta.

They have also set precedent before by offering short betas. In fact, looking at history the vast majorities of the betas have been short and only a few of them have been long.

And now they set precedent of not telling us how long the beta/stress test is till AFTER people spent a month trying to get the portal.

Black Box.9312:

Solori.6025:

This is volunteer work, and all you have to do is log on and go through the zone.
No one is forcing you to test, and no one forced anyone to farm.

You farmed because you wanted to

If you train a mouse to navigate a maze for the cheese at the end, and then take away the cheese, the mouse will still run the maze under the assumption that the reward is there. Technically, the mouse is choosing to participate, but it’s going to be very disappointed when it finds out that there is no cheese at the end.

But the cheese is still there.

It’s just not a cheese factory.

People for some reason saw beta test and thought " Oh look we get to preview the entire expansion for a day"

No one even gave a hint as to the duration, just the test.
If you farmed for hours to get into the beta, congrats.
You decided to spend 40+ hours of your life to help test something for free.

It’s no one else’s fault but yours you decided to waste that time, and its also your fault you assumed testing durations and dates.

Instead of trying to mask the thread as a " It’s your fault I farmed for a 6 hour test"
Why not instead place the blame on the person that’s ACTUALLY responsible?

Lastly,
Some people farmed for days, and didn’t get a portal
Some people wont be able to make the test at all and
Some people didn’t luck out and get the email either.

Why not be thankful you get to actually have a small window to see what others are denied because of your heaven sent good luck?

Black Box.9312:

Solori.6025:

This is volunteer work, and all you have to do is log on and go through the zone.
No one is forcing you to test, and no one forced anyone to farm.

You farmed because you wanted to

If you train a mouse to navigate a maze for the cheese at the end, and then take away the cheese, the mouse will still run the maze under the assumption that the reward is there. Technically, the mouse is choosing to participate, but it’s going to be very disappointed when it finds out that there is no cheese at the end.

But the cheese wasn’t taken away. Somewhere along the way the mouse thought there would be a whole platter of cheese instead of the small block, the same size block (well actually a little bit bigger) that was there the previous times the mouse ran through the maze.

I’m sure a bigger beta would have been awesome, but you can’t fault someone for your own assumptions. It’s not the people who put the mouse in the maze their fault that somewhere along the road that little mouse expected a platter instead of the small block of cheese it will get.

Iason Evan.3806:

ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas.

When?

Cause the last closed beta/stress test was only a day for a few short hours.
So when did this happen?

Even before gw2 was released they had beta on a few weekdays for a few short hours.
So when was this set?

OR

Did people ASSUME that it would be longer, and decide they need to blame others because their expectations weren’t met?

Solori.6025:

Iason Evan.3806:

ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas.

When?

Cause the last closed beta/stress test was only a day for a few short hours.
So when did this happen?

Feel free to learn here. In the last significant beta we had – the GW2 beta – we had Beta Weekend Events. Which, if the name doesn’t give you enough of a hint, lasted for the entire weekend as mentioned in the wiki:

Beta weekend events ran between noon Pacific time on the designated Friday and ended at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on the following Sunday

So yep, that is when it happened. ArenaNet set a precedent to having betas during whole weekends, and in fact that’s how most of the GW2 beta test was done.

See, people KNOW better, instead of using their own ignorance to assume the players are to blame. This is 100% ArenaNet’s fault.

Beta Weekend Event != closed beta.

I’m not sure why everyone is talking about precedents. There have been a grand total of 1 stress test and 0 beta tests so far for this expansion. Stress tests are not at all the same thing as a beta test. One is to play the content and discover bugs/exploits and test the viability of the content. The other is to cram as many people as possible into as small an area as possible and try to break a single event/server.

This is the precedent. Tons for work for odd hours and extremely limited play time. I’ve certainly learned my lesson for next time.

SW was dead, the portal farm made it alive again, then we could run lots of chest train and I could finish my Legendary.

Thanks portal farmers.

BTW: I got 2 portals.

SW is alive again

lordkrall.7241:

Beta Weekend Event != closed beta.

I feel like you are selling short what some of us are saying. Would Johnny have done 12 hours of SW farming for a key had he known it was only a few 2-hour blocks on a day he couldn’t participate? I only want to express that they could have communicated a bit better what exactly this whole thing entailed.

If we are helping ArenaNet out immensely with the data they collect from these events, the least they can do is let us know if trying to RNG one of these things fits in with our schedule.

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.

What I found odd is that the beta is on a Tuesday rather than anywhere on the weekend (actually, a 3-day weekend in the US). Time zones make it even more fun. Whether you are doing it as a test or preview what is the point if most of the team can not be there?

Menadena.7482:

What I found odd is that the beta is on a Tuesday rather than anywhere on the weekend (actually, a 3-day weekend in the US). Time zones make it even more fun. Whether you are doing it as a test or preview what is the point if most of the team can not be there?

So you find it odd that they do not wish to order their employees into the office during a holiday where many of them would like to spend time with their families?

And indeed, what is the point of doing a test if they team is not there? The team is not there on weekends, therefore the test is during a time when the team is there.

lordkrall.7241:

And indeed, what is the point of doing a test if they team is not there? The team is not there on weekends, therefore the test is during a time when the team is there.

Beta Weekend Events say otherwise.

But wait, I have forgotten that in lordkrall’s land, the beta events that are not open for everyone are not, in fact, closed betas! I’m sure they are some weird branch of literature instead

Test.8734:

lordkrall.7241:

And indeed, what is the point of doing a test if they team is not there? The team is not there on weekends, therefore the test is during a time when the team is there.

Beta Weekend Events say otherwise.

But wait, I have forgotten that in lordkrall’s land, the beta events that are not open for everyone are not, in fact, closed betas! I’m sure they are some weird branch of literature instead

UMmmm…

“The upcoming closed beta will help us test the stability of our new PvE outpost-event content structure”

Stress tests were minor beta tests that ran for a limited time (less than 24 hours). They focused on collecting data about server performance and testing improvements to the game’s infrastructure. Public stress tests were open to all players who have pre-purchased a copy of Guild Wars 2.

An invitation-only, closed stress test took place on 13th of April, 2012.¹²
The first public stress test was on 14th of May, 2012, from 11 AM – 6 PM PDT (-7 GMT).¹³
The second stress test was on 27th of June, 2012, originally scheduled from 10 AM – 2 PM PDT (-7 GMT)¹⁴ but extended to 10 AM – 3 PM PDT (-7 GMT).¹⁵
The third stress test was on August 2nd, 2012, from 12 PM – 4 PM PDT. ¹⁶
The fourth stress test was on August 9th, 2012, from 12 PM – 4 PM PDT. ¹⁷
The fifth stress test was on August 10th, 2012, from 4 PM – 8 PM PDT. ¹⁸
The sixth stress test was held on August 12th, 2012, from 11 AM – 12 PM PDT. ¹⁹
The seventh stress test was held on August 15th, 2012, from 12 PM – 4 PM PDT. ²⁰
The eighth stress test was held on August 21st, 2012, from 12 PM – 4 PM PDT, but was extended to 6 PM PDT. ²¹
The ninth stress test was held on August 22, 2012, from 9:10 PM PDT – 10:10 PM PDT. ²²
The tenth stress test was held on August 23, 2012, from 1:20 PM PDT – 2:20 PM PDT. ²³

Again, people assumed, got angry, and now blame Anet for their wrong assumption.

The problem with Anet is they never look at anything from a player’s perspective.

We’ve always got to explain after the fact how they just screwed us over. It’s getting really old.

lordkrall.7241:

So you find it odd that they do not wish to order their employees into the office during a holiday where many of them would like to spend time with their families

On Friday afternoon I was asked about my availability to work this weekend (although I managed to barter it down to having my phone on me all the time and promising to monitor work emails). I have worked late right before a holiday AND came back during the holiday once I got some sleep.

Believe it or not, working when people want to be home with their families is pretty common. HOT is a Pretty Big Deal for anet as they have invested a lot into it. If this was for a preview, fine, do it when it is convenient to your staff. If you are doing it to get volunteer workers then you make it as convenient for them as possible (to maximize their input). Just tell your own staff they have to show up some weekend afternoon (or actually, just log in from home most probably).

You can say ‘oh, there are plenty of other people there for the test’ We are not talking about the same thing: it is a BUG TEST, not a preview or even a load test. As a programmer, I would take one good bug finder over 1000 people there to say they were there any day. I do not want someone to say ‘looks good to me’ …. I want them to say ‘you misspelled a word on that sign’. By reducing the ability of people to be there you increase your odds of not getting the good testers.

Look at it from who you will get too. By doing it during business hours who will most of the people be? Gamers who think nothing of taking a day off. You will not get as many IT pros who know what testing means because most of us will all be busy at work. There are some exceptions, but by the odds you want to do it on a weekend rather than a weekday.

Menadena.7482:

You can say ‘oh, there are plenty of other people there for the test’ We are not talking about the same thing: it is a BUG TEST, not a preview or even a load test.

It’s a stability test……

Says so in the blog post…..

Solori.6025:

Menadena.7482:

You can say ‘oh, there are plenty of other people there for the test’ We are not talking about the same thing: it is a BUG TEST, not a preview or even a load test.

It’s a stability test……

Says so in the blog post…..

Which is between a bug test and a load test.

Solori.6025:

But the cheese is still there.

It’s just not a cheese factory.

People for some reason saw beta test and thought " Oh look we get to preview the entire expansion for a day"

No one even gave a hint as to the duration, just the test.
If you farmed for hours to get into the beta, congrats.
You decided to spend 40+ hours of your life to help test something for free.

It’s no one else’s fault but yours you decided to waste that time, and its also your fault you assumed testing durations and dates.

Instead of trying to mask the thread as a " It’s your fault I farmed for a 6 hour test"
Why not instead place the blame on the person that’s ACTUALLY responsible?

Lastly,
Some people farmed for days, and didn’t get a portal
Some people wont be able to make the test at all and
Some people didn’t luck out and get the email either.

Why not be thankful you get to actually have a small window to see what others are denied because of your heaven sent good luck?

dsslive.8473:

But the cheese wasn’t taken away. Somewhere along the way the mouse thought there would be a whole platter of cheese instead of the small block, the same size block (well actually a little bit bigger) that was there the previous times the mouse ran through the maze.

I’m sure a bigger beta would have been awesome, but you can’t fault someone for your own assumptions. It’s not the people who put the mouse in the maze their fault that somewhere along the road that little mouse expected a platter instead of the small block of cheese it will get.

Both of you missed the point entirely. It’s not about the cheese, it’s about the fact that when you make a habit of something that people become accustomed to, and then suddenly break that habit, everything comes to a screeching halt and people are left wondering why they weren’t given fair warning that change was coming.

The previous event was referred to as a “stress test”. This one was referred to as a “beta”. The last time we had a “beta” was pre-release, and those lasted for entire weekends. Yes, people chose to farm for portals, but they have every right to be upset that they dedicated their time to a lost cause because they were purposefully left in the dark.

Menadena.7482:

Solori.6025:

Menadena.7482:

You can say ‘oh, there are plenty of other people there for the test’ We are not talking about the same thing: it is a BUG TEST, not a preview or even a load test.

It’s a stability test……

Says so in the blog post…..

Which is between a bug test and a load test.

I’m going to tell you right now, though they will go over the forum posts pointing out bugs the biggest thing they’re going to be doing, and the reason is it during a weekday is monitoring the systems internally while we play them to gauge their stability…it’s a metrics gathering event if you really want to look at that way. Obviously if it keep crashing it’s not stable, they don’t need IT pros testing to figure that out, if each test runs the full 2 hours without any events crashing then what they’ve done so far is stable…that is what we are testing, all other information we provide is frosting on the cake.

There’s one thing I find very amusing in all this, during the Portal drop event I saw a lot of people commenting in map chat they didn’t realize how lucrative SW was; yet as soon as the event was over they stopped coming to the zone…so either they aren’t that crazy about making lots of gold or they’re full of bs. Don’t even say anything about burnout because I’ll come right back at you and tell you that burnout is something you cause yourself. It’s like something I learned way back when taking business management courses…if you can’t get your job completed in 8 hours, then you need to look at how you have it organized and how you delegate, because there’s absolutely no reason not to complete your work load in 8 hours…5 days a week.

P.S. – This is a stability Closed Beta…and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I certainly don’t follow along like Pavlov’s Dog.

Black Box.9312:

Solori.6025:

But the cheese is still there.

It’s just not a cheese factory.

People for some reason saw beta test and thought " Oh look we get to preview the entire expansion for a day"

No one even gave a hint as to the duration, just the test.
If you farmed for hours to get into the beta, congrats.
You decided to spend 40+ hours of your life to help test something for free.

It’s no one else’s fault but yours you decided to waste that time, and its also your fault you assumed testing durations and dates.

Instead of trying to mask the thread as a " It’s your fault I farmed for a 6 hour test"
Why not instead place the blame on the person that’s ACTUALLY responsible?

Lastly,
Some people farmed for days, and didn’t get a portal
Some people wont be able to make the test at all and
Some people didn’t luck out and get the email either.

Why not be thankful you get to actually have a small window to see what others are denied because of your heaven sent good luck?

dsslive.8473:

But the cheese wasn’t taken away. Somewhere along the way the mouse thought there would be a whole platter of cheese instead of the small block, the same size block (well actually a little bit bigger) that was there the previous times the mouse ran through the maze.

I’m sure a bigger beta would have been awesome, but you can’t fault someone for your own assumptions. It’s not the people who put the mouse in the maze their fault that somewhere along the road that little mouse expected a platter instead of the small block of cheese it will get.

Both of you missed the point entirely. It’s not about the cheese, it’s about the fact that when you make a habit of something that people become accustomed to, and then suddenly break that habit, everything comes to a screeching halt and people are left wondering why they weren’t given fair warning that change was coming.

The previous event was referred to as a “stress test”. This one was referred to as a “beta”. The last time we had a “beta” was pre-release, and those lasted for entire weekends. Yes, people chose to farm for portals, but they have every right to be upset that they dedicated their time to a lost cause because they were purposefully left in the dark.

actually thats not true. the only thing that ahs been reffered to as a stress test was the wvw one, the previous closed beta (stress test) was referred to as a closed beta

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/upcoming-heart-of-thorns-closed-beta-tests/

So yes, it was reffered to as a beta, same as this event.

Using the Portal drop as the means to select for a beta test was a cheap method to keep people playing the game while waiting for the expansion. Cheap in more ways than one.

Speaking of habits, having been part of the Edge of the Mists beta, it was just like this in the early stages. The betas were 2 hour periods, a couple of times a day.