How to be a good beta tester

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beta, Blizzard, Mists of Pandaria Beta, test

I’ve seen and heard a lot of people talking about how excited they are about the Mists of Pandaria beta and what they are going to do. But some people are also questioning what’s expected of them as a beta tester and what they should do to become a good beta tester. First I think you should ask yourself these two questions: Why do you want to be a beta tester? What do you think makes you a good beta tester?

I participated in the Wrath of the Lich King beta and Cataclysm alpha. At first I saw it as a chance to get a sneak peek and play the game before everyone else, but then I learned that there is so much more you should do and I felt important and happy to be one of those who got to test it and give feedback to polish and improve the game before it went live.

I’ve now read through some websites and forums, gathered and written down what I think are the most important things to keep in mind if you are going to participate in the beta test.

• Blizzard wants a wide variety of testers: varied computer systems, locations, play experience, and game interest
• A veteran player isn’t necessary a better beta tester than a new player. Introducing previously uninvolved testers with fresh perspective may help identify new bugs.
• The beta is not a demo to complete content before anyone else.
• Keep in mind that it’s a beta and nothing is final before it’s live.
• You are responsible for checking that the game works, is easy to use, has actions that make sense, and contains fun gameplay
• Being a beta tester is more like a job than something you do just cause it’s fun
• The beta test is designed to find bugs, issues that have made it past internal testing.
• There will be frequent disconnects, and the realm may be up for a few minutes at a time as new content is added. Do not expect the entire expansion to be available.
• Expect things to be broken, graphics to be missing, or placeholders.
• Instead of complaining out loud or in the chat, report your problem by using the feedback survey or the official beta testing forums, and be constructive!
• You can still give feedback on the quests, zones, dungeons etc even if you don’t find any bugs.
• The more bugs that get reported in the beta, the less there will be when it goes live.
• Bugs may range from art glitches, animation errors, logic errors, level bugs to quest items not working, random dismounts, falling through the world, getting stuck, damage and class/mob balance bugs, lore error and much more. Testing requires creative gameplay to discover often subtle bugs. Some bugs are easy to document, but many require a detailed description so a developer can replicate or find the bug.
• Detail when the bug occurred and how it occurred. The more detail the better. Go back and see if you can cause the bug to occur again.
• Do stuff Blizzard never intended for players to do. Because a player will do so by accident and cause an issue. Players also have ways of doing stuff the developers never thought of doing. It is better that it happens in beta than on live.
• Use the feedback survey, visit and read the official beta forums, follow Blizzard’s updates on what they want you to focus testing on.
• What is your reward? A sense of accomplishment. You helped to polish a game you enjoy. And a sneak peek at the game is the reward for most. But previous beta invites and good feedback can increase your chances of getting picked again.
• Remember that all characters in Blizzard beta tests are wiped from the servers before the final game. Carrying characters over from the beta to the final game would give beta testers an unfair advantage and there are numerous technical issues as the beta client is not the same as the final game version.

A good and fun video about beta testing, made for Cataclysm but it’s still useful

If you can remember and do all or some of the points above, you’re on the right way to become a good beta tester! Good luck and enjoy!

Sources

• Diablo Wiki – General Beta Test Information
• US Battle.net Mists of Pandaria forum topic
• Wikipedia – Game Testing

What’s behind the raid portal in Stratholme?

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Stratholme

This might not be that interesting or exciting for some of you, but I’m a true explorer and want to know everything, no matter how small or irrelevant it might be.

Most of you have done Stratholme, maybe several times, maybe now recently with looking for dungeon or back in the days. Then you might have noticed in the end of the instance, outside the Slaughterhouse, there is another exit/entrance with a raid portal. If you’ve seen it you might wonder what it’s for and what’s behind it?

It’s possible to get behind the portal, at least in the uninstanced Stratholme, still it might be different or nothing there at all in the instanced Stratholme.

The portal was originally intended to be the portal to Naxxramas but they changed their mind and the portal never got removed, so it won’t teleport you anywhere. But there is a closed area behind it with an unfinished necropolis floating above and two other unfinished undead scourge buildings.

MoP: New druid glyphs and my thoughts on them

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druid, glyphs, Mists of Pandaria Beta

Have you ever wanted our Travel Form to look different? Or do you miss the old tree form? Maybe you don’t like the Moonkin Form and wish you didn’t have to be in it? Does it annoy you that you can’t cast healing spells in Moonkin Form?

Then you might like some of the new glyphs which are coming in Mists of Pandaria.

From WoWhead:

• Glyph of Stars: Moonkin Form ability is replaced with Astral Form, conferring all the same benefits, but now appearing as an astrally enchanted version of your normal humanoid form.

• Glyph of the Chameleon: Each time you shapeshift into Cat Form or Bear Form, your shapeshifted form will have a random hair color.
• Glyph of the Orca: Your Aquatic Form now appears as an Orca.

• Glyph of the Stag: Your Travel Form now appears as a Stag and can be used as a mount by party members.

• Glyph of the Treant: Allows you to shapeshift into Treant Form. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of movement slowing effects.

• Glyph of the Moonbeast: You can now cast Healing Touch, Rejuvenation, and Tranquility without canceling Moonkin Form.

• I think this looks very exciting, but I’m not sure which ones I would choose to use. I doubt I’d use Glyph of Stars as I love being a moonkin, but I wonder if they just made us this glyph instead of giving us an updated version/skin of the moonkin which I really want! I hope they will still do that, soon, hopefully for MoP.
• The Glyph of the Chameleon can be fun if you shapeshift a lot between Cat and Bear Form and easily get bored with the same hair color, it’s always fun with a change!
• Finally a change to the Aquatic Form which is sooo outdated that it’s sad, and I use it a lot, so I will definitly get the Glyph of the Orca.
• I like the idea of the Glyph of the Stag cause it would be great in PvP and if you run a lot of raids or dungeons where you can use Travel Form, or at lower levels.
• If having the Glyph of the Treant means all specs will be able to shapeshift out of movement slowing effects, then I will have to get it for PvP. And I wouldn’t mind being a treant, but it doesn’t have any abilities?
• Glyph of the Moonbeast sounds so scary but it will only let you cast heals in Moonkin Form, but I don’t see why I would have that one if it doesn’t give me any bonus healing cause we usually have other healers to heal us in dungeons, raids and PvP.

They’ve also updated with several other druid glyphs

• Glyph of Grace: Feline Grace reduces falling damage even while not in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Nature’s Grasp: Reduces the cooldown of Nature’s Grasp.
• Glyph of Cat Form: Increases healing done to you by X% while in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Claw: Your Claw and Mangle (Cat) attacks reduce the movement speed of the target by X% for 12 sec.
• Glyph of Cyclone: Increases the range of your Cyclone spell by X yards.
• Glyph of the Predator: Your Track Humanoids ability now also tracks beasts.
• Glyph of Shred: While Berserk or Tiger’s Fury is active, Shred and Ravage have no positional requirement.
• Glyph of Fae Silence: Faerie Fire used in Bear Form also silences the target for 3 sec, but triggers a 15 sec cooldown.
• Glyph of Skull Bash: Increases the duration of your Skull Bash interrupt by X sec, but increases the cooldown by Y sec.
• Glyph of Master Shapeshifter: Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifts by X%.
• Glyph of Survival Instincts: Reduces the cooldown of Survival Instincts by X sec, but reduces its duration by Y%.
• Glyph of Might of Ursoc: Increases the health gain from Might of Ursoc by X%, but increases the cooldown by Y min.
• Glyph of Stampeding Roar: Increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by X yards.

What do you think of the new glyphs and which ones will you use?

Gaming distractions

This week’s shared topic on Blog Azeroth comes from Oathblade of Info about WoW from the Altoholic who wants to know

We all like to do other things when we game. What do you do? Why?

When I’m raiding I usually don’t do anything else than playing and listening to people on ventrilo, or I sometimes check Twitter and Facebook during breaks, or YouTube or our tactics forum for a boss guide, or maybe other moonkins’ armory.

But when I’m playing solo like questing, dungeons or battlegrounds I like to listen to some music on iTunes or YouTube, and I might chat with some people on Twitter or give small updates on things that are happening and post a few screenshots.

Sometimes I also eat while playing or talk with friends on Skype.

The One That Started It All

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First screenshot

Cymre of Bubbles of Mischief has started a new screenshot challenge:

Show us your very first screenshot from the game. Tell us about it, including the date, what you remember about the photo and who was in it with you. Do they still play?

I still have all of my old screenshots, or I think I do, but they aren’t exactly good screenshots comparing to how my screenshots are now cause I didn’t even know how to hide the UI, use UI scale or graphic settings.

Some of the first screenhots are just of my character at the character screen, but here is one of the first screenshots I took ingame.

The date was October 27th 2007, I was leveling my first character Syrcorax the warrior with my friend Sham and his little brother Salus. Some of their other friends were also playing but they had higher level characters so they boosted us a few times in dungeons. I remember everything was new and so exciting, I just wanted to explore the whole world of Azeroth but I had to level up and couldn’t go running around random places. But on this screenshot we had a break from quests in Thousand Needles, it was during Hallow’s End, so we went trick or treating the inn keepers and danced with pumpkins on our heads. I don’t think Sham and Salus are still playing.

Through Your Interface – Day 12: Inspiring Imagery

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whispering forest

Inspiring Imagery

Show us something that inspires you within World of Warcraft. This can be a character, a person, scenery that leaves you in aw, or whatever it is that strikes a chord in you to roll a certain class? Does a certain zone make you long to write a story about your character adventuring through that particular area?

Without doubt – The Whispering Forest. Since I discovered it last July it has been my favorite place and the event with the most beautiful music in the game. I haven’t seen the event since I went back there to fraps the second video but I have been there and just checked, but unlucky. I don’t have time to sit and wait for it anymore, but I might do it when I get time cause I would love to see it again. I want to wait for it to happen and then summon all my friends and guildies to see it, but I doubt they are as interested and excited about it as I am. I wish they were cause they’re missing something beautiful.

You can read my post about the Whispering Forest and see the videos here.