Guild Wars 2

As someone who spent the past week trying for one and finally getting one today, here’s how I look at it:

Even if I never got the Portal, I now have more gold than I ever had in the game since I first started. Win Win

StrangerSin.3614:

As someone who spent the past week trying for one and finally getting one today, here’s how I look at it:

Even if I never got the Portal, I now have more gold than I ever had in the game since I first started. Win Win

That is how I looked at it. I am working on T6 materials and the Ambrite collection and the week has been a boon for that. It isn’t really a loss. I worked hard every day trying for a portal and finally got one just a bit ago. If I had not got it I would have been sad, yes, but overall I am now soooo much closer to making my first legendary I cannot be all that sad.

The one thing I did today that I had not done before was switch maps every 20 to 30 minutes. I got the portal on my third switch from a small mordrem wolf in the Silverwastes.

Just like the Mayweather fight, the only winner is Anet.

http://i.imgur.com/ExqnUIC.jpg

Working as intended.

They really need to say something about the drops across different accounts. They should flag up once the portal has been gotten even though it doesn’t affect the overall limit, it might slow the drop rate at that time.

John.8507:

How can they say its totally random when someone can get 5? They really need to say something about the drops across different accounts.

Maths warriors with their statistics are coming for you.

Yeah same here, im close to 6.000 play hours, farmed SW the last week and weekend for over 60 hours, with no portal drop. I kinda understand their intention there, filtering out only well geared max level players that participate in the newest map, but i really kinda feel cheated on this one. OF course i can still hope i get a random invite from the mailing list, but hey, i love this game and id love to farm and to do something for a beta invite, but this seems just so pointless.

Randomness: If you roll a 1d100 you have a 1 in one hundred chance in getting any given number. Lets say Portal Drop is in a 100. What are the odds that you will consecutivly roll a non-100? I can tell you there just the same odds—in a true random system— of ONLY rolling 100s

How can you feel cheated? Its not like any other players have any other advantage in getting them. If they did they would be cheating. If Anet decided “only people who have played for x number of hours can get them” the people who don’t have that would be cheated.

This is the ONLY fair way. We need to move on

timmyf.1490:

Ranatoa.4869:

2. Anet should prioritize x group of players The problem with this is obvious, there is more than one group of players in any game and they need that variety to test. No one group is better qualified to beta test.

Then why are they prioritizing players with the time/willpower to farm DT/SW? If you want the test group to be fair and cover all groups, add a small chance for portal drops to appear with daily log-in rewards.

Ranatoa.4869:

3. In game RNG is different from the mailing list RNG It is not. Everyone who didn’t get an invite then complained too.

Of course it’s different. Mailing List RNG doesn’t compel players to spend dozens of hours farming one particular zone in hopes of getting lucky.

You can say these players made the choice to farm and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but it’s nonsense to claim they are the same thing. One requires only luck, the other requires both luck and perhaps a substantial time commitment.

Dude what your saying, in my opinion, makes no sense.

This is just ONE way they are giving people a chance to get into Beta. They said there will be other ways, including the newsletter.

They are prioritizing DT/SW players probably because that content is most related to the upcoming expansion, it is full of max level players that have at least hit 80 and gone through the very basics of the game. I firmly believe Anet wants some sort of variety in this test. They don’t want ONLY seasoned veterans playing it— they want opinions and chances open to newer players, too. I don’t understand why you seem to think just because you heard about GW2 earlier than some other people you deserve any better. For all you know, there could be a player that’s only owned the game a quarter of the time you have, but has invested just as much time as you, or is playing in a completely different style than you and has different interests. In fact, I’m sure there are players like that.

As for the farming, players who opt in or CHOOSE to farm KNOW beforehand that it is RNG and luck-based, andyet they still complain when they don’t get what they want. Dude. It’s based on LUCK. The newsletter was extremely similar; it was just a pool of people who filled out something quickly and had the chance to get in. They’re still doing that. But now people are getting thirsty for beta portals and investing wayyyy too much time into it. It’s ridiculous. Don’t get kittened if you don’t get one, surely you considered this (not getting one) to be an option, and yet you kept farming.

I got mine after farming for a few days. I’d checked out tons of suggestions on where to go, what to do. I spent days doing dolyaks, breach, VW, DT runs, etc.. Wound up getting mine off of a devourer I randomly decided to kill in between events. Things just happen. It’s RNG.

MAYBE they’ll implement some “seniority” beta later in the future, but that’s not what this beta entrance was about. People need to chillll.

Amnesiak.8619:

Don’t get kittened if you don’t get one, surely you considered this (not getting one) to be an option, and yet you kept farming.

Hi. You don’t know me and many of your assumptions about me are false. For one, I decided that I’d rather not be in the beta than have to farm SW for dozens of hours just to have a small chance at a portal.

Based on the complaints I’m hearing from my guild members, I made the right decision.

In the end, there are a variety of ways they could have handled the process. I think an in-game method is better than the “newsletter only” method, but those were not the only two options. I’ve suggested alternatives here, but just to lay it out for you…

• Based on some marker of personal achievement
• Random chance based on logging in (tied to log-in rewards)
• Random drop from all zones, including PvE, WvW, and PvP reward tracks
• Portals tradeable on Trading Post
• Some combination of the above

I’m not complaining that I didn’t get a portal because I didn’t attempt to get a portal. I’m complaining that the criteria for getting one, while perhaps slightly improved from the newsletter method, leave a lot of players out and made a lot of other players play content they dislike for a chance.

Theres a lot of people who played in the first beta getting access to the second with portals, when a lot more players haven’t had access to either.

GrandHaven.1052:

segman.3560:

Beta is made to test content not to admire landscapes. At least it should be because anet haven’t shared with us any info about what is going to be tested in the next beta. If my statement is the case then vets are better at finding bugs and exploits than new players which most probably have no idea what is a bug and what is intented in this game mechanics.

Betas are about hype and stress testing more than anything else.

ANETs bug fixing policy and frequency is poor enough as is to make me think they won’t really care about the bugs reported unless its MAJORLY game breaking which any dunce can find/exploit since that is how they have done it for almost 3 years.

You need to amend your statement, this is the new state of game development and has been for the last 5 – 10 years in case you haven’t noticed. Only game breaking bugs get fixed before release dates, this is caused by the current business model of publicly traded game publishers/developers…not so the case with independents, whose games don’t get widespread distribution, thereby perpetuating the status quo.

Eh…its a little frustrating when certain people I know got more than 1. Others have farmed the heck out of Silverwastes and gotten nothing.

Its frustrating, but really what can they do about that?

That is the nature of RNG. I think it would have been better to just have it drop around randomly in the whole world instead of limiting it to the two maps. As it is I am now completely sick of the Silverwastes. Oh and still no date for expansion? Terrific…

It was a good idea for beta drops, but way to suck the life out of a couple of fun maps for people who by nature don’t grind farm.

Guess I am the only one that don’t give a kitten about these portals and wait for the fully release,

No one at Anet will make me believe that if they needed say 5000 players, the patch could not have been made to last one day only. For example say on the 28th you announce the hunt will last only 1 day or until the 5000 portals are gone. Then the patch is inactive until removed. Why drag it on for 9 days what’s the point? All it does is alienate the player base to the point of quitting in some case.

It’s could have been so simple Anet 1 day slam dunk it’s done. Perhaps you did it to increase traffic online for the sake of your precious store.
Last year my friends nicknamed me “Didn’t Win” since last year nothing changed so they bought me a dog and nicknamed him ’Didn’t go".

Player since day one, not a great grinder, since i have only 5800 achive points, no ascended armor or weapon..not even the 100% map completed.. (and i stuck at Fractal lv.18) ….

..loot a portal after only 2 days of farming.

I have a good karma ??

I really hope that Anet does not do a beta invite system this way again.

Here’s my reason: The level of frustration that you get farming for hours to try and get the drop and not getting it is much worse than the annoyance of rng if the invites were taken from the mailing list. Especially when there’s reports of people getting it within 5 min of entering silverwastes, getting multiple portals, or even getting it after 15 hours of farming. I’d much rather know that rng just wasn’t in my favor from a pool of possible invitees rather than having to spend hours and hours trying for it and then having rng still not be in my favor.

timmyf.1490:

Amnesiak.8619:

Don’t get kittened if you don’t get one, surely you considered this (not getting one) to be an option, and yet you kept farming.

Hi. You don’t know me and many of your assumptions about me are false. For one, I decided that I’d rather not be in the beta than have to farm SW for dozens of hours just to have a small chance at a portal.

Based on the complaints I’m hearing from my guild members, I made the right decision.

In the end, there are a variety of ways they could have handled the process. I think an in-game method is better than the “newsletter only” method, but those were not the only two options. I’ve suggested alternatives here, but just to lay it out for you…

• Based on some marker of personal achievement
• Random chance based on logging in (tied to log-in rewards)
• Random drop from all zones, including PvE, WvW, and PvP reward tracks
• Portals tradeable on Trading Post
• Some combination of the above

I’m not complaining that I didn’t get a portal because I didn’t attempt to get a portal. I’m complaining that the criteria for getting one, while perhaps slightly improved from the newsletter method, leave a lot of players out and made a lot of other players play content they dislike for a chance.

I read your original post, I know you personally didn’t farm for it. But you were talking and representing the opinions of many who did the farming, which is why I referred to those people as “you.” It’s easier to refer to them as “you” rather than saying “People who don’t like this system…,” and you agreed and shared many of the opinions of those people.

You don’t know their future plans. Maybe they will implement these other ways within time— what bothers me about people complaining like this is (1) they feel they “deserve” it based on seniority or AP or something, when having a large breadth of players from various backgrounds and experience in the game is vastly superior to just seasoned veterans, and (2) they act like they know what Anet’s next move is. They don’t know if this will be the last beta test, they don’t know how/if the next process will be off of AP or daily log-ins or what. It’s entirely possible. I disagree that they should be tradeable, because then you get a HUGE amount of people paying their way into beta, when beta access should be something people strive for. I also disagree that it should be available for all zones (the reward tracks are fine), because having it an exclusive 80 zone pretty much dictates the masses testing the beta aren’t completely new to the game and have at least achieved SOMETHING (hitting 80), albeit a small achievement in terms of this MMO.

Honestly I think the people who didn’t get one are salty, and sure, I would be disappointed; but I surely wouldn’t be writing up why it’s unfair because (1) it doesn’t change anything. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, and (2) it really isn’t “unfair.” You (those people farming without the beta, not YOU specifically) spent the time farming and doing events, all while knowing that there was a strong possibility of not getting it. And yet you still did it. And I guarantee that even if you left beta-less, you didn’t leave empty-handed. The events still gave you a lot of mats, exotics, salvageables, karma, etc..

FrostyBou.5491:

I really hope that Anet does not do a beta invite system this way again.

Here’s my reason: The level of frustration that you get farming for hours to try and get the drop and not getting it is much worse than the annoyance of rng if the invites were taken from the mailing list. Especially when there’s reports of people getting it within 5 min of entering silverwastes, getting multiple portals, or even getting it after 15 hours of farming. I’d much rather know that rng just wasn’t in my favor from a pool of possible invitees rather than having to spend hours and hours trying for it and then having rng still not be in my favor.

But you do realize you CHOSE to do that. You CHOSE to spend that time in there, farming away, full well knowing that there was a great chance you wouldn’t get the portal. It sucks you didn’t get one, but surely it can’t be entirely surprising.

Amnesiak.8619:

But you do realize you CHOSE to do that. You CHOSE to spend that time in there, farming away, full well knowing that there was a great chance you wouldn’t get the portal. It sucks you didn’t get one, but surely it can’t be entirely surprising.

Correct, but that doesn’t negate the fact that after farming, those who had bad luck feel considerably worse than if they had simply missed the opportunity via a random draw from the mailing list. The current drop system for the beta invites also breeds the strife and hurt that many are posting about both here and on other forums.

FrostyBou.5491:

Amnesiak.8619:

But you do realize you CHOSE to do that. You CHOSE to spend that time in there, farming away, full well knowing that there was a great chance you wouldn’t get the portal. It sucks you didn’t get one, but surely it can’t be entirely surprising.

Correct, but that doesn’t negate the fact that after farming, those who had bad luck feel considerably worse than if they had simply missed the opportunity via a random draw from the mailing list. The current drop system for the beta invites also breeds the strife and hurt that many are posting about both here and on other forums.

Well that bad feeling though is the known risk you take by spending all that time farming. :/ Yeah it sucks, but who knows how many other beta tests they’ll have and how they’ll let people in. Just because they used this tactic one time doesn’t mean it’ll be the only way they do it for the rest of the tests (if there are more). And honestly I don’t understand all this “strife” and “hurt.” I spent a week in SW farming multiple hours a day, knowing that I could not get it. I didn’t get it after four days of pretty much no-lifing it. But what I DID get was an insane amount of T6 mats, karma, gold, etc. from all that farming. And after I stopped trying so hard and just let the events run their course, I got a portal the next day. It’s a GAME. It’s a small portion of the expansion that some people will get to test. It’s really not that big of a deal. If people are “hurt” by this I don’t understand. Sure being frustrated is understandable. But hurt? Like… seems a bit of an overreaction to a very small thing that you won’t remember down the road of this game.

Wasn’t this idea hailed as the great revolutionary idea to give access to those people who actively play the game?

I never do silverwastes, but when i went there for a cycle, i got my portal. So good.

Good luck farming.

The original beta invites were random. These invites are random. There difference: you couldn’t do anything before to increase your chances and this time you can (or could) simply by playing more.

I far prefer this system — and I spent very little time in Dry Top or Silverwastes — because I like having some semblance of control over my chances.

Azala Yar.7693:

John.8507:

Know how you feel, and reports of newer accounts being luckier, and some accounts getting multiple portals is very worrying, it seems they are not rewarding players correctly, or fairly!

Multiple portals are not a worry, they will still count as just one.

Yes, but it’s still very annoying! :-D

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The original beta invites were random. These invites are random. There difference: you couldn’t do anything before to increase your chances and this time you can (or could) simply by playing more.

I far prefer this system — and I spent very little time in Dry Top or Silverwastes — because I like having some semblance of control over my chances.

Plus all that sweet, sweet loot and gold.

Amnesiak.8619:

FrostyBou.5491:

Amnesiak.8619:

But you do realize you CHOSE to do that. You CHOSE to spend that time in there, farming away, full well knowing that there was a great chance you wouldn’t get the portal. It sucks you didn’t get one, but surely it can’t be entirely surprising.

Correct, but that doesn’t negate the fact that after farming, those who had bad luck feel considerably worse than if they had simply missed the opportunity via a random draw from the mailing list. The current drop system for the beta invites also breeds the strife and hurt that many are posting about both here and on other forums.

Well that bad feeling though is the known risk you take by spending all that time farming. :/ Yeah it sucks, but who knows how many other beta tests they’ll have and how they’ll let people in. Just because they used this tactic one time doesn’t mean it’ll be the only way they do it for the rest of the tests (if there are more). And honestly I don’t understand all this “strife” and “hurt.” I spent a week in SW farming multiple hours a day, knowing that I could not get it. I didn’t get it after four days of pretty much no-lifing it. But what I DID get was an insane amount of T6 mats, karma, gold, etc. from all that farming. And after I stopped trying so hard and just let the events run their course, I got a portal the next day. It’s a GAME. It’s a small portion of the expansion that some people will get to test. It’s really not that big of a deal. If people are “hurt” by this I don’t understand. Sure being frustrated is understandable. But hurt? Like… seems a bit of an overreaction to a very small thing that you won’t remember down the road of this game.

This was pretty much my thinking – and I still ain’t got one. :-D

RNG is always a bad choice when it comes to select people.
But no matter how Anet decides how to pick people, it will always give some that are unhappy with their decision.
If they pull 20k people out of all the newsletter subscribers, this is nothing but a large scale RNG. Either you’re in or not.
Let’s say you have to match 5 criterias they set up, like doing daily pvp, pve and wvw, playing 5+ hours a day, 100+ posts in forum, 20k AP, etc. etc. and you only match 4 at the time they checked (and you maybe had 99 posts in the forum and 19,999 AP). That would also suck, while people with new accounts, playing for 2 months now could match to 5 criterias.
What if they make a little contest, in which you have to program a small piece of code, because they only want software developers in the beta. Wouldn’t that be unfair too?

So, as bad as this sounds, RNG is just as fair as everything else. Trying hard to get the portal is always a pain, believe me, I had to farm like 30-40 hours before I got my drop, and that was like 10 minutes before I was going to give up for good. (Usually I am “in favor of the RNG gods”)
I got mine by clearing the south waypoint in sw all by myself shortly before vinewrath event. After killing one of these mordrems there was a “chest” on the floor (just like when u get a rare/exotic item). This chest contained the portal.

At the end, it’s only just a beta. No one knows what you will see there. Maybe it’s the same as in the first beta. Maybe you’re forced to do Jumping Puzzles with max sized Charrs. Or it’s between 3am and 4am on a Wednesday. No one knows. It could be fun, it could also suck.
So my recommendation is, to only play sw when you have nothing better to do. And don’t try too hard to get it. Just have fun there and don’t care so much for a closed beta. There might be enough open ones until the release of HoT.

And about all these “got mine within 10 minutes posts”. The chat code was out like 1hr after patch. So do not believe when people are posting stuff like that. Also some keep farmind and are reposting their portal again and again. So it looks like a lot of people get portals but that’s not the case.

Anyways, I only wish you all the best and most luck to still get one of these portals!

People itt who claim that RNG favours or disfavours them ought to look up the definition of ‘Random’.

Alga.6498:

Guess I am the only one that don’t give a kitten about these portals and wait for the fully release,

Not entirely.

I’m moderately interested in being in the next beta, but I play in silverwastes occasionally more because I like the feel of the larger event cycle, it gives me a chance to tag up and lead strike forces, and because I’m still puttering getting carapace armor.

The possibility of a portal drop is a bonus. The real fun for me is having fully populated maps.

I know, lets give everyone beta access!

/sarcasm

GrandHaven.1052:

I know, lets give everyone beta access!

/sarcasm

Literally nobody is saying this.

timmyf.1490:

GrandHaven.1052:

I know, lets give everyone beta access!

/sarcasm

Literally nobody is saying this.

Well, everyone who complains here on the forums say they should have a portal because of this or that….

Blanche Neige.7241:

timmyf.1490:

GrandHaven.1052:

I know, lets give everyone beta access!

/sarcasm

Literally nobody is saying this.

Well, everyone who complains here on the forums say they should have a portal because of this or that….

I can only truly speak for myself. I have no problems with the beta access being RNG. I have no problems with me personally not receiving one. I dislike that the access to the item was gated behind one specific type of content.

I think the portals should have dropped from a wider variety of game locations/modes.

I’m confident you can understand the difference between “you should have the chance to get one in WvW” (a critique of the specific method of acquisition) and “qq why didn’t I get a portal” (being sad at not getting a drop).

timmyf.1490:

I think the portals should have dropped from a wider variety of game locations/modes.

That could have been made, but then they would have to reduce the drop rate somewhat : more players having a chance to drop it, but not more beta spot available.

Blanche Neige.7241:

timmyf.1490:

I think the portals should have dropped from a wider variety of game locations/modes.

That could have been made, but then they would have to reduce the drop rate somewhat : more players having a chance to drop it, but not more beta spot available.

And I would never have come here to complain about it. The only reason I’ve given criticism is because of the very restrictive nature of where the item drops, not the number of participants in the beta.

timmyf.1490:

~Snip~

I can only truly speak for myself. I have no problems with the beta access being RNG. I have no problems with me personally not receiving one. I dislike that the access to the item was gated behind one specific type of content.

I think the portals should have dropped from a wider variety of game locations/modes.
~Snip~

No, and there’s an absolutely valid reason for it dropping only in DT and SW, the expansion is going to be very much if not exactly the same as DT and SW in the mechanics of how the maps work, therefore you want people that play those zones to be in the Beta testing the new content…that’s just common sense.

I play since release. I would really love to participate in next beta. I farmed whole week everyday for hours in SW and I didn’t drop the portal. Im currently heartbroken

Zaklex.6308:

timmyf.1490:

~Snip~

I can only truly speak for myself. I have no problems with the beta access being RNG. I have no problems with me personally not receiving one. I dislike that the access to the item was gated behind one specific type of content.

I think the portals should have dropped from a wider variety of game locations/modes.
~Snip~

No, and there’s an absolutely valid reason for it dropping only in DT and SW, the expansion is going to be very much if not exactly the same as DT and SW in the mechanics of how the maps work, therefore you want people that play those zones to be in the Beta testing the new content…that’s just common sense.

I would think that they would want as many people as they could to play the type of content in HoT regardless of whether they play in DT or SW. I really don’t believe that Anet intends to limit their playerbase to just players who enjoy DT and SW.

DaShi.1368:

I really don’t believe that Anet intends to limit their playerbase to just players who enjoy DT and SW.

I would hope not, as 90% of my guild would have no reason to purchase it.

FrozenChinchilla.5249:

It’s just a beta. It’s not a big deal.

This.

But then again, the RNG applies to everything in the game.

When you repeatedly see players getting beta portals, precursors, exotic drops, etc. and you have logged x thousand hours, played since launch and played all content, you kind of feel disheartened and generally a sense of apathy towards this.

First of all, keep in mind that their are limited spots in the beta. So not everyone who wants to enter can. This means people will be dissapointed. But changing the system now, would also be unfair to people who got the drop. So I stick with some feedback to Arenanet bout how I would have handled this, and hopefully it is a good tip for the next beta.

What does Arenanet want? They want a limited amount of people in the beta and they want a selection of players who are actively playing GW2.

The issue with the current system is that the second part (requirement to be activly playing GW2) is easily proven (if you are an active player) but the amount of people who fit in it, are bigger then the first part (the amount of spots). So it is in my opinion unfait to let people grind for hours and hours for nothing.

My suggestion for the next time is:
1: Put it in as a garanteed drop for two occasions:
a: killing the vinewrath while having been in the map since the end of the time out in the silverwastes.
b: Defeat Queen Chrii’kkt IV while having been in the map since the end of the last sandstorm (I would prefer the legendary sandgiant, but the Queen has the advantage to require T4 favor, so actual cooperation in the entire hour instead of people just afk-ing till the sandgiant spawns).

2: The item does NOT garantee you access to the beta, but let you enter a raffle. Each account can only have one item (and so only one spot in the raffle). At the end of the timeframe, the lucky beta-players are drawn from the pool of people who entered the raffle.

This changes the system in such a way that your RNG-chance doesn’t increase with grind.

In no way should the portal drop be guaranteed and then select from a pool of people. Dry Top has been very active for several days now which is allowing me to do the Ambrite collection while I farmed 21 hours till I got the portal. Once people get the portal, the odds of them to leave the map is really high. I much prefer the only randomness being the drop which keeps the map active for longer and more people in the game overall.

Pretty random, get a party together and do a SW raid, ie run in circles like chest run, except to kill everything. 5 staff guardians can do this easily and everyone can tag everything.

also do not believe everything you see.. chatcodes essentially made it seem like people can get these things left and right. some people enjoy the reaction more than actually getting the item.

case in point I use to randomly spam a precursor chat code after killing some world boss. reactions are great… you know usually it would be something like Dusk, and I would buy the cheaper version of that weapon to get the skin and equip it while jumping around. then people go GRATZ!, kitten YOU!, WOW YOU’RE Lucky!
then I would keep doing it until people realized in trolling, or they join in on the trolling… I don’t do this anymore.

Male, age 46 ( I’ve been gaming since I was 12), ex hardcore gamer with 50+ betas tested for different games. I tested each beta very thoroughly and spent as much time as I could in each then supplied detailed briefings, bug reports, reviews and suggestions to the devs in each of those beta tests.

It’s very possible that Anet are using metrics to decide who has a higher chance to get drops based upon groups and subsets of groups that fall within certain criteria they wish to test for the beta.

For example :- A: 1000 players age 15-21, B: 1000 players age 22-30, C: 500 players age 31-40, D: 200 players age 41+

Then those categories are split into each of the classes. If you fall within those categories and there are still drops available you may be eligible for the chance of getting a beta key drop.

I’ve crafted an entire ascended set from the spoils of grinding SW anywhere from 6 to 16 hours a day since the beta key became available and still not seen it drop.

Anets handling of this situation is counterproductive since all it’s doing is making players frustrated at the non stop grindfests trying to get a key. This in turn may force people away from the game with the result being PEOPLE DON’T BUY THEIR EXPANSION.

I got a portal after some days of grinding and nearly giving up. They seem to be focused in the big boss events and the labyrinth.

Have to admit, I’m not liking the zerg fest map. Hopefully, HoT will support solo and small group content.

Blanche Neige.7241:

timmyf.1490:

GrandHaven.1052:

I know, lets give everyone beta access!

/sarcasm

Literally nobody is saying this.

Well, everyone who complains here on the forums say they should have a portal because of this or that….

Precisely.

sTiLz.9712:

It’s very possible that Anet are using metrics to decide who has a higher chance to get drops based upon groups and subsets of groups that fall within certain criteria they wish to test for the beta.

For example :- A: 1000 players age 15-21, B: 1000 players age 22-30, C: 500 players age 31-40, 200 players age 41+

And how can they know their players’ ages?

Blanche Neige.7241:

sTiLz.9712:

It’s very possible that Anet are using metrics to decide who has a higher chance to get drops based upon groups and subsets of groups that fall within certain criteria they wish to test for the beta.

For example :- A: 1000 players age 15-21, B: 1000 players age 22-30, C: 500 players age 31-40, 200 players age 41+

And how can they know their players’ ages?

This was merely an example of what they might be looking for as a target audience for testing the beta, not actual facts.

All companies when carrying out market research of a new product will target specific groups to find out which demographic has the best appeal/effect/sales. I dare say beta testing may use similar techniques.

I’ve done it with my own company so am aware of what’s involved in information gathering and what evolves from the statistical analysis of that information.

Blanche Neige.7241:

sTiLz.9712:

It’s very possible that Anet are using metrics to decide who has a higher chance to get drops based upon groups and subsets of groups that fall within certain criteria they wish to test for the beta.

For example :- A: 1000 players age 15-21, B: 1000 players age 22-30, C: 500 players age 31-40, 200 players age 41+

And how can they know their players’ ages?

“based upon groups and subsets of groups that fall within certain criteria they wish to test for the beta… For example:”

It’s an example… It’s not literally based on age demographics.

There are a lot of people with entitlement issues.