Beta Length Speculation

[ArcherofAiur]

Key point: Does anyone remember HOW previous beta's were announced?

[Triceron]

Yep

With people leaking images of the mailed Beta CDs online, a few days before Blizzard makes an official statement

Shortly after, Warforge and such went up online.

[ArcherofAiur]

And how did Blizzard make the official statement?

[rcp181]

And how did Blizzard make the official statement?

Typical blue post/press release? Honestly I've never really paid much attention because I'm too busy playing the beta by the time they announce it :P

[Genopath]

To OP: You can speculate all you want. Blizzard has a long record of proving positive speculators wrong in terms of timelines and dates. They have repeatedly stated it will take 4-6 months.

As far as balance goes. I sincerely believe this time it won't take that much. SC2 as cool as it looks won't be remotely close to be as hard to balance compared to WAR3 and considering the amount of testers invovled in Beta, I'm sure most synergy strats would be quickly discovered.

[ArcherofAiur]

I think Beta will take an extremely long time for one reason, Macro. Blizzard is trying something that has never been tried before in an RTS. I think it will take a long time to finally get it right but the payoff will eventually be worth it.

[Triceron]

Macro isn't really a fine-tune issue. They're going to balance it for the highest level of play and let it vary for any other skill level. It's a fairly broad mechanic considering it was implemented as a filler for MBS and automine. If there are any balance issues, it only really affects the pros.

Might sound like I'm talking crazy, since Macro Mechanics are a big part of the game - but put it this way, not all of us are able to micro like a pro, I doubt everyone will be able to macro like a pro. I doubt macro mechanic fine-tune balance will be an issue for most players playing the game, they aren't going to require using them at all in their games to stay competitive. It's an optional mechanic sorta like how micro is optional for a casual macro player.

[ArcherofAiur]

Macro isn't really a fine-tune issue. They're going to balance it for the highest level of play and let it vary for any other skill level. It's a fairly broad mechanic considering it was implemented as a filler for MBS and automine. If there are any balance issues, it only really affects the pros.

I wasn't talking about balance problems.

[ego]

And how did Blizzard make the official statement?

I took part in the WotLK beta. I found out it started when the key was in my email. I think Blizzard commented on it almost as an afterthought after the WoW community sites had already exploded with it.

Edit: Well... I did some digging, and *more* accurately: I got accepted into the WotLK beta on July 22nd. The beta client could actually be downloaded as early as the 17th of that July. Blizzard posted the announcement on the forums, and beta instructions on the WoW site the morning of July 18th. However:

There was no announcement of when the beta would start before it started.

[don]

I wasn't talking about balance problems.

Are you talking about playability and that "fun" factor then?

Way I see it, BETA is for maximizing fun for the non-pro and balancing for the pros.