Where was the in-game notification of the beta?

[Rose Solane.1027]

Where was the in-game notification of the start of the beta? How could a player that doesn't follow the WVW forums know that the beta started this Friday/Saturday? How many players this Saturday opened the WvW tab to check which colour their world was this week and were confused because they couldn't find their world? And didn't know which new world (team) they were assigned to? Did ArenaNet really think is was a good idea to launch a beta in a 9 year old part of the game without any in-game notification?

[Danikat.8537]

I don't think there was an in-game notification. I assume they thought that announcing it on the forum and social media would be enough. I first heard about it via Team chat on Desolation last week where it seemed to be the main topic of conversation. Maybe Anet assumed anyone who wasn't following the news about WvW or talking about it with people who are wouldn't care which world/team/whatever they're on?

But it's only 1 week, if you're not playing WvW every week with a regular group of people does it really matter that much which team you're on? I've always been on the same server, but that means I haven't followed guilds or commanders as they move between servers and I haven't paid any attention to when that happened, so in a sense I've always been playing with random people. When the alliance system goes live it will be the first time I've actually chosen who to play WvW with, and I'm not sure how I'm going to do that because I've never done it before. I may just stick with a random team.

[Custodio.6134]

Alliances and the restructuring betas have always been in talk inside of the servers communities. Guilds and community-guilds have been preparing for alliances and betas constantly since the first announcement of the beta. Everyone just slightly interested is soaking up any information they could, so if you didn't get the memo, you're probably not that interested at all. It's not that difficult to check social media, the forum and especially the blog (since the blog is always linked in the launcher when ANet posts new info). 

Yes, an inGame notification would have been nice (like a highlighting of the WvW symbol, just like trading post or black lion) when guild sign up was enabled, but again, there was plenty of info available inside and outside of the server communities. 

[CrimsonRise.7650]

They are more focused on EoD and it's betas right now, especially since Alliances development is not tied to the expansion, but they could have mentioned it on their front page, weekly events news article and even on Twitter sooner, after they made an Announcement on these forums.

Edited December 6, 2021 by CrimsonNeonite.1048

[Rose Solane.1027]

8 hours ago, Custodio.6134 said:

Alliances and the restructuring betas have always been in talk inside of the servers communities. Guilds and community-guilds have been preparing for alliances and betas constantly since the first announcement of the beta. Everyone just slightly interested is soaking up any information they could, so if you didn't get the memo, you're probably not that interested at all. It's not that difficult to check social media, the forum and especially the blog (since the blog is always linked in the launcher when ANet posts new info). 

Yes, an inGame notification would have been nice (like a highlighting of the WvW symbol, just like trading post or black lion) when guild sign up was enabled, but again, there was plenty of info available inside and outside of the server communities. 

Which blog are you talking about? The most recent News item I can find is on page 4 of the News on the website and isn't currently visible in the launcher. As far as I know there isn't a news item about the WvW restructuring beta. There are several news items about EoD beta's.

It is completely clear to me that WvW guilds got the information they needed. But the casual WvW player was probably surprised this weekend when he went to the WvW tab and their world wasn't there. ArenaNet started a beta in active (current) content. So not a optional beta (like the the beta for EoD) but a mandatory one if you want to play WvW this week. Replacing current, active content with beta content and no warning at all (for many casual players). I know the beta content isn't that different from the normal content, but I don't think it is a wise decision to replace content with beta content without any in-game message.

Edited December 6, 2021 by Rose Solane.1027