Cataclysm Aplha Testing

[Adam-Savage]

I almost missed this little blurb on wow.com. It's a blue poster clearing admitting that they had or still have Alpha Testing going on right now. I recall Wow.com reported it would start a couple months back and then Mmo Champion Denied it the next day.


"during the earliest phases of internal alpha testing"

http://www.wow.com/2010/03/02/the-daily-blues/#comments

[Dragonpuff]

I think the alpha testing they were talking about in that specific post was the vanilla wow alpha testing. They're talking about discovering that 200 quests for each side not being enough for the entire game.

[Adam-Savage]

I think the alpha testing they were talking about in that specific post was the vanilla wow alpha testing. They're talking about discovering that 200 quests for each side not being enough for the entire game.

Bah , I Jumped the gun on that one. Either way though something is up with the expansion. There has been alot of blue post about it lately.

[Epicfail]

Alpha is going on now. If you look at the dates, Closed beta lasted 3-4 months and open beta lasted like 2 months for WotLK. It was something similar for TBC. I'm trying to find the site now that I found looking up this info a couple nights ago.

edit- can't find it right now, I'll have to do it at home later. There is a correlation between release dates of vanilla, TBC and WotLK alpha, beta and full release dates. If statistics can be trusted, we should be looking at closed beta starting around april.

[Adam-Savage]

Here is a interesting you tube video I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbqnGb7QLBg

I also dug up some more info on it.

Cataca Jan 9th 2010 9:03PM

Below is a post I made on Jan 7. Seems like I'm spot on so far.

BC Alpha Aug 23-06 (63 days later)
BC Beta Oct 25-06 (41 days later)
Patch 2.0 Dec 5-06 (42 days later)
BC Release Jan 16-07 (126 days later)
Patch 2.1 May 22-07 (175 days later)
Patch 2.3 Nov 13-07 (133 days later)
Patch 2.4 Mar 25-08 (16 days later)

Wrath Alpha Apr 10-08 (98 days later)
Wrath Beta Jul 17-08 (89 days later)
Patch 3.0 Oct 14-08 (30 days later)
Wrath Release Nov 13-08 (152 days later)
Patch 3.1 Apr 14-09 (112 days later)
Patch 3.2 Aug 4-09 (126 days later)
Patch 3.3 Dec 8-09 (35 days later)

Cata Alpha *Jan 12-10 (79 days later)
Cata Beta *Apr 1-10 (68 days later)
Patch 4.0 *Jun 8-10 (36 days later)
Cata Release *Jul 16-10

*Estimates

Based on the average amount of time it took them to release content for previous expansions, these are my best guesses as to when Cataclysm content will release. I'm pretty sure I've at least got it nailed to within 30 days or so baring no unexpected set backs. With your estimate of Nov it would take them roughly 4 months longer to make Cata than BC or Wrath.

If they are keeping pace with previous releases then we should expect news of Cata Alpha very soon(TM).

Source: http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/cataclysm ... /#comments

[Chrizesu]

I thought ghosty said on twitter they were thinking of skipping alpha on cata completely.

[Adam-Savage]

I thought ghosty said on twitter they were thinking of skipping alpha on cata completely.

I think you read wrong.

[Saturo]

I thought ghosty said on twitter they were thinking of skipping alpha on cata completely.

I think you read wrong.

Indeed, alpha is the first testing stage. Skipping alpha means moving directly to beta. Which then becomes alpha, since it's the first one. And I seriously doubt a big company like Blizzard will skip testing alltogether.

Also, the alpha stage is when around 95% of all bugs get removed. Releasing an alpha version as beta would be silly, to say the least.

[Epicfail]

Alpha is really nothing serious to the end-user (us) as they are really working on what content they want in the game to begin with and nothing works completely. Alpha testing isn't all THAT much fun. Closed beta testing can be fun, if you don't mind doing some significant "legwork" writing down all the bugs you came across. Open Beta tends to be the most fun as you get to finally see what all the hype has been about over the past few months leading up to it.

I was in vanilla beta and BC beta, but took a break during the time that wrath beta was going on. I am EXTREMELY interested in getting into Cata Beta because of the changes to the hunter class. I played a hunter in vanilla beta and have played the class off and on for years. If there was ever a class that was a work in progress, its the hunter. They started with a series of good ideas and intentions that didn't always mesh well or add to the fun of playing. The deadzone has come and gone. Taming throw-away pets to learn skills for your main pet has come and gone. Feeding your pet constantly has been minimalized. Pets can now survive most boss fights better than ever before. The talents have been changed, reorganized and infused with "win" (mostly) alot since classic launch. We will soon witness the end of mana as we know it. Bringing the hunter class closer in line to the rogue class should serve to give hunters the playstyle more befitting of an agility based ranged physical damage class. The hunter class is more near and dear to me than any other class in game and I would LOVE to be part of the testing that makes certain it stays an awesome class to play.

Now I just need to find a way to smuggle myself and Mania into the beta.

[Mania]

Ironic that I posted on Arcania about this yesterday. I should have read this thread first -- my estimates might have been more accurate.