Will there be a closed/open beta for EoD?

[Raizel.1839]

Like there was for HoT?
I remember there was an item dropped in Silverwastes which would allow you to join the beta before HoT release, it was a fun idea IMO.

Edit: this one https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Portal_to_the_Heart_of_Maguuma

Or maybe an open beta like for PoF?

[Omega.6801]

How should we know?

[Raizel.1839]

@"lokh.2695" said:How should we know?

Speculation?Your expectations?Maybe god (Anet) will descend here and leave a post?Idk xD

Maybe I should've named the thread differently, something like "What would you like for a EoD beta" or something like that.

[Danikat.8537]

We'll probably find out when they start the promotion for the expansion, likely after Icebrood Saga ends in April.

[kharmin.7683]

Doubtful. There wasn't one for PoF.

[Schimmi.6872]

@kharmin.7683 said:Doubtful. There wasn't one for PoF.

Actually there were two preview/Beta weekends for PoF, one for PvE and one with Elite-Specs for PvP

[Danikat.8537]

@Schimmi.6872 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:Doubtful. There wasn't one for PoF.

Actually there were two preview/Beta weekends for PoF, one for PvE and one with Elite-Specs for PvP

It wasn't an open beta though, it was only available to people who had pre-purchased the expansion. The HoT one, if I remember correctly, was also open to people who owned the base game but hadn't yet bought HoT.

[leila.7962]

@"Raizel.1839" said:Like there was for HoT?

I remember there was an item dropped in Silverwastes which would allow you to join the beta before HoT release, it was a fun idea IMO.

Edit: this one https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Portal_to_the_Heart_of_Maguuma

Or maybe an open beta like for PoF?

You had to actually 'drop' your way into the beta.. it was awful, I dropped mine but my friends, who also wanted to play on the beta, didn't drop it. I hope they make it open to people, but we won't probably know until much later this year. Anet's default behavior is to not say too much until it's ready.

[Raknar.4735]

I hope they let us try the e-speccs like they did for PoF.

[Veprovina.4876]

@kharmin.7683 said:Doubtful. There wasn't one for PoF.

Yup! I don't think there was even one for HoT, so i doubt there will be any kind of open beta for anything Guild Wars 2 related...

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Here's what we were offered previously, for Core, HoT and PoF: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beta

[Abelisk.5148]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Schimmi.6872 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:Doubtful. There wasn't one for PoF.

Actually there were two preview/Beta weekends for PoF, one for PvE and one with Elite-Specs for PvP

It wasn't an open beta though, it was only available to people who had pre-purchased the expansion. The HoT one, if I remember correctly, was also open to people who owned the base game but hadn't yet bought HoT.

Pretty sure this isn't true. I remember purchasing PoF a day after it released (my cousin gave me money then I owed her after) even though I tested out Mirage in sPvP extensively.

[Kondor.2904]

I didn't pre-purchase anything too, and I (as well as pretty much everyone else) was able to test PoF elite specs.

[mercury ranique.2170]

PoF had an open Beta (you only needed a free to play account). You had a specific beta character slot in the game and when you created the character, it started in the airship to amoon with the first story chapter.

Hot had a closed Beta. in order to enter, you needed to have the main game (no free to play) and farm the silverwastes to have the portal stone to drop. To be anything succesfull in farming the silverwastes, you needed a lvl 80 character.

We do not know how they will do it for EoD. Also the amount of beta depends on how much they want to give away ahead of release (I have some higher expectations about the story, given the name and the dev-comments)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@mercury ranique.2170 said:PoF had an open Beta (you only needed a free to play account). You had a specific beta character slot in the game and when you created the character, it started in the airship to amoon with the first story chapter.

Hot had a closed Beta. in order to enter, you needed to have the main game (no free to play) and farm the silverwastes to have the portal stone to drop. To be anything succesfull in farming the silverwastes, you needed a lvl 80 character.

We do not know how they will do it for EoD. Also the amount of beta depends on how much they want to give away ahead of release (I have some higher expectations about the story, given the name and the dev-comments)

This is inaccurate. Any player who had pre-purchased could take part in the Heart of Thorns Beta Weekend Events and the Revenant Test Weekend.

For the HoT Closed Beta Weekend events, you could also obtain access through an invitation 'lottery' from the pool of those signed up for the newsletter.

[maddoctor.2738]

Since we had beta events for both previous expansions, it stands to reason we'll get one for EoD as well. The real question is the scope of the beta, and the timing. The first HOT beta was as early as March 2015, POF had beta events starting in August 2017.

[keenedge.9675]

They don't seem to like open Betas. Testers seem to be in-house or must sign a Non-disclosure agreement.

They like the surprise for the community, PLUS it gives an unfair market advantage to testers when the content releases. We've had this trouble in the past. ( Cauliflower anyone? )

[Konrad Curze.5130]

@"keenedge.9675" said:They don't seem to like open Betas.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Beta

Jeez, for not liking open betas they did an awful lot of them, dont you think?

[Danikat.8537]

In-house testing is usually quite different to an open beta. That's more about finding bugs and making sure things work as intended. All the repetitive stuff like making sure checkpoints in instances actually work, trying every possible combination of traits and skills to make sure nothing crashes just because two things are trying to trigger together, checking all the art loads correctly etc. (I've done it for friends making mods for other games and it's pretty boring but important, it's amazing how many things can crash a game.)

A beta is (or at least should be) about player feedback - finding things which work as intended but cause balance issues because of how players use them, or which players don't like or understand. For example back during the original GW2 betas a lot of players didn't like that if a ranger pet 'died' it walked back to the ranger and could be revived by any players with F. It worked exactly as intended so presumably it passed internal QA but players found it really annoying because the F prompt over-wrote other things like looting or reviving downed players and especially for the ranger it was hard to avoid, but reviving the pet took a long time and wasn't really worth it when you could just swap them. So Anet ended up taking it out.

Of course that can happen after release, but for some things, especially stuff like how new elite specs work, it's probably best to get some people looking at it before release. It can also act as promotion for the expansion of course, but that shouldn't be the main purpose (or if it is they should just call it a preview or whatever).