WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha now over, say sources
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 15th 2008 at 4:50PM
Various tipsters and sources from around the web are reporting that the WotLK Friends and Family Alpha is now over. Deathknight.info reports that Eyonix has posted the official notice on the closed alpha boards, thanking everyone for participating.
There is, of course, no date given for the start of the beta, he only says that the team is hard at work preparing it. All alpha testers will be invited back for the beta, and will even be allowed to keep their characters after a short lockout period to allow new testers to catch up.
A poster at Wotlkwiki.info claims to have information from an alpha tester who is a member of a developer's family. The source says that they believe that Blizzard is rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline, as the game doesn't seem ready for beta testing -- this part, at least, is a bit hard for me to believe, since Blizzard has always marched to the beat of their own drum when it comes to release dates and deadlines. They also predict that we may need to wait until August to see the beta actually begin.
Regardless, it looks like beta will be upon us swiftly -- or at least soon. If you haven't opted in, now is a good time to do so. Once you've done that, keep checking WoW Insider. We'll let you know what we know as soon as we know it.
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Blizzard, News items, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, Rumors
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ninjasuperspy Jul 15th 2008 5:13PM
OK.... Paladins are for betaz?
Vanifae Jul 15th 2008 5:22PM
They need to update our talents first :(
Candina@WH Jul 15th 2008 5:28PM
And thus are the fingerprints of Activision's suits seen.
If the Beta comes out before September, if Wrath releases before January, it will be because Activision, a distributer and marketer, will have set the tempo to meet the christmas selling season at the expense of quality.
BlizzAct will hire more developers to meet the financially driven deadline (which is not 'arbitrary'), and the bugs will increase.
I would not be surprised if WoTLK ships without the polish of Blizzard previous products. A company cannot grow above a certain size without compromising some thing(s).
So. The beta will begin at or about Blizzconn?
Orion Jul 15th 2008 6:17PM
IT will NOT because of Activision. Blizzard is operation AS usual it has been stated OVER and OVER again, it just operates UNDER the Activision Blizzard banner.
Don't try to pull the "Oh Blame Activision card" when you have ZERO Facts on the matter.
Candina@WH Jul 15th 2008 7:11PM
Since my quote was masked by the editor (note to self, don't use < to quote).
IF the tipster is correct. If blizzAct is 'scrambling to meet arbitrary deadlines', how else do you explain it? When they never have before?
I stand by my assertion.
Bylak Jul 15th 2008 7:54PM
Really? JANUARY is too soon for you?! I'm thinking November at the absolute LATEST.
vlad Jul 15th 2008 5:44PM
i broke this news last week when i told you about the thank you letter blizz sent alpha players stating it was closing in a week
Kyrra Jul 15th 2008 5:49PM
Oh oh, can you post the letter?
Leviathon Jul 15th 2008 6:33PM
No your post said it was closing in 30 days I remember us looking at it last night on wotlkwiki.
vlad Jul 15th 2008 11:32PM
whowoweeuh, your totaly right. the guy that told me did say 30 days and i had a total seizure when i saw the headline and was hastily trying to post how cool i was. i just prooved how cool im not :)
kenney Jul 15th 2008 6:07PM
I don't agree that Blizzard "Blizzard has always marched to the beat of their own drum when it comes to release dates and deadlines". Wow 1.0 was released a week after paladin talents were introduced to beta (ie- before they had been tested and balanced). This release was about 2 weeks before EQ2 was released, and I think that the market timing had a lot to do with why some people were playing WoW instead of EQ2.
Blizzard certainly did their own thing with the burning crusade, missing christmas season entirely, but there wasn't a competing product to consider. I think that right now, there may be some incentive to get the expansion out before Warhammer Online (preferably JUST before warhammer online, so that everyone is too busy leveling up mains to check out the new title).
Anyway- just wanted to add my 2 copper about the "blizzard being oblivious to anything but quality" meme. It's definitely a common view, but I don't think that it's entirely historically accurate.
Phoenixblight Jul 15th 2008 7:04PM
Except the whole problem with WAR being out in September there is no way in hell Blizzard will hit before WAR but at least get it out during the X-Mas season.
dAnixx Jul 15th 2008 6:46PM
Reroll shaman, REROLL SHAMAN
DavidC Jul 15th 2008 6:48PM
"The source says that they believe that Blizzard is rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline"
Par for the course in a Software company. You have to "push" the employees with deadlines to help keep them motivated (and of course reward them for their extra efforts).
That doesn't mean Blizzard will release the product before it's *ready*. Get a grip peoples.
Tenchan Jul 16th 2008 1:46AM
To be entirely fair, it may very well be that at the end of Alpha, the game was not in a state that can be called Beta-Ready. That does not mean though it won't be when Beta starts, it just means they didn't release quite as much to the Alpha servers as they could have. Considering how long it is until beta opens, it seems likely that they have a huge new build coming.
node159 Jul 16th 2008 9:09AM
As a developer, its not unusual to set arbitrary deadline. It is an effective way to keep the momentum on a long term project and is core to a successful delivery of a multi phased project. More likly they have taken all the feedback from the alpha and used this to enter the next development phase.
You know creating a game isn't like voodoo, it dosn't just appear out of now where, there is structure and a project plan at its heart :P.
As for release dates, its done when its done, they might hit the Xmass season, which is what this push is about, summing up where they are at in the development processes and how many man hours are left to do.