World of Warcraft Open(ish) Test

Drakar

WoW now has an "open" testing period coming up. You need a full account on fileplanet to avail of the "final stress test", which is available now if you are a (paying) fileplanet subscriber. Perhaps in a week or so there should be a properly open beta period.

Currently, the main WoW site is down (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/), but you can read about it below. Note however that the FAQ suggests that European players will not be included in these testing phases. I'm not sure whether they will actually enforce this exclusion. European servers will be tested separately (at a later date). Note also that the second set of testing (the 'free', open beta) does have a limited set of places, so when the client is available for download players may have to jump in quickly to secure, though the wording seems to suggest that there may be a large number of accounts available.

From http://www.battle.net (I don't go there normally, honest!)
Blizzard Announces World of Warcraft Final Stress Test
Monday, November 1, 2004
In preparation for the upcoming free open beta test, Blizzard will be conducting a final stress test for World of Warcraft. Starting today, November 1, at 1:00 PM PST, players who would like to get a sneak peek of the game prior to the free open beta test will be able to visit FilePlanet, sign up for the final stress test, download the game client, and begin playing. In addition to helping us further test World of Warcraft's server infrastructure under heavy loads, final stress test participants will automatically have their free open beta test slots reserved, and their account and characters will transfer over to the free open beta test seamlessly! For more information, please check out our final stress test FAQ and free open beta test FAQ.

Please note that a subscription to FilePlanet is required in order to join the final stress test. For those who wish to wait until the free open beta starts to join in, we will be releasing information about signups for that in the week ahead. The exact duration of the final stress test has not yet been determined; however, the free open beta test will begin shortly after the final stress test is brought to a close. Please stay tuned to WorldofWarcraft.com for more information.

Memnoch

will have to wait for the free open beta myself!

Ivan

If it is being fully released shortly, will there really be much more, in terms of beta testing?

Memnoch

they might have a week or two of open beta to get people to try it out, makes sense from a marketting point of view to me anyways.

Drakar

Looks like it would cost like 6.5 yoyos for the fileplanet subscription, but it really does look like the open testing may be next week (fileplanet says you get "up to" 1 week before other people get in, but thats probably just to cover themselves), so it's probably not worth it.

My broadband doesn't come back till next Monday anyway, so perhaps good timing for me methinks. Paying 6.50 to get just a few days early play doesn't seem that good hehe. Note though that people who are in the stress test get their characters carried over into the beta test. It's still up in the air as to whether beta characters will carry over into the full game, though it could happen to give an aged population instead of having everyone in the game clamouring over the newbie zones (though I'd prefer the everyone starts at zero approach).

I'd agree that it probably is only a week or two of testing though since stress testing is just about performance. That'd probably be enough though to see if it's the kind of game you want to play.

Jilm

You can now download the very sweet intro cinematic.

Leetdrood

finally downloaded wow beta, its very good as i thought, still eq2 seems better, hell theyre both good, wow has less lag