Another busy day for the Blizzard CMs, though little new info was presented. One post I found interesting is in their tech support forum, where a fan asks about the beta client downloaders. Most of you guys have long since grabbed it, but I was surprised that the post wasn’t deleted, and that a tech support guy confirmed they were legit and said no harm would come to people who grabbed them. Clearly Blizzard doesn’t mind them being publicized, and if you don’t have them yet, here they are:
- PC beta client.
- Mac beta client.
As we’ve been saying while posting info and screens from this client, it’s not that great since it only lets you poke through the options menus, since you must have D3 beta access via your Battle.net account to connect and play. All the same… shiny!
Click through for a lot more Blue post action, and a serious warning about why you should not read the B.net Beta Feedback Forum, at least not without preventative medication.
In other Blue replies, a predictable complaint from long time Diablo fanatics who aren’t (yet) in the beta test is that so many of the people who are testing clearly don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. I’ve seen a ton of comments to that effect on the live streams, and while it’s understandable that you guys who really want in are angry that people who are in haven’t paid their fan dues over the past years… Blizzard does not want only experts in the beta test. They want noobs as well. We’ve had an explanation for this on our Beta FAQ forever, and a CM echoed that sentiment today.
[blue]We also want testers and feedback from all sorts of players, from first-timers to longstanding veterans (though we have plenty of those in-house), so I’m not sure what you’re driving at in any case. [/blue]
In related news, there are quite a few posts from the early testers in the B.net Beta Feedback Forum and yet… I’m almost afraid to link to them from here, since I know how a lot of you guys will react.
Here’s the problem; only beta testers can post there, and since many/most of the current testers haven’t been following D3, it can be painful to read the amount of misinformation, confused speculation, surprise about features we’ve known of since 2009, etc. I’m completely serious about this — if you are a hardcore Diablo 3 fan, and you’re dying to get into the beta — you should not read this forum, or at least not until after you drink a few beers or a big glass of wine, to calm your nerves. Or your head will literally explode.
One interesting thing that won’t piss you off; a fan suggested that screenshots taken in the game go into a screenshots folder, instead of right into the root install folder. And a Blue said they’ll put that into the final game. (If you’re wondering how none of their 500 developers thought of that at any point during the past 5 years… you got me.)
There’s lots of Blue action in the tech support forum, with most of the problems related to hardware and driver issues. (Which is largely the point of the D3 beta test; to give tech support a headstart on launch day headaches.) None of them have game info, but you might want to see the sorts of issues that are coming up in the tech support forum.
One other post amused me, by a guy complaining about the quality of the D3 B.net forum, where apparently it’s mostly just people begging or trying to kiss ass to get a beta key. (I can’t comment; I only read the blue tracker, since all the real info is in our beta forum anyway.) I quote it since his wording is nicely-articulate. As for the Blue reply by some WoW CM… seems like he would love to make a larger argument and defend things, but he’s limited by his PR job requirements and can only say kind of generic, non-offensive words. Thus his reply is fairly tepid.
[blue]It has become hard to stomach floating in the sea of pandering and begging that these forums have become since their creation, but now that some (very few) privileged individuals have keys and others don’t it has become borderline insufferable. I say borderline because I still will trudge through this Shawshank pipeline of brown nosing and lap warming to get updates on features, gameplay, and official replies.
If I thought posting here a number of times or prostrating ones self would nudge my odds even a modicum, I would be leading the charge for archival knowledge of the games features and defending every single inexplicable design decision as though it was hand of god too.
I fear this will bring a lot of hate from those already invested in these efforts, but my intention of this post is not to do so. I’m really just pleading that we get back to actually discussing (not just defending with zealotry) the now partially playable game instead of finding new ways to tactically try and skew our odds of a random distribution from a multi billion dollar corportation who has as much interest in our individual opinions as they do the price of tea in china.
Daxxarri: I just find it interesting that those who are critical of the experience, as it’s appearing in streams and the like, seem to be thoroughly convinced that anyone who disagrees with them is begging for a beta key or is simply a slavering fan boy. It’s fine to be critical, since we’re interested in hearing what people have to say, provided that it’s presented in a constructive fashion. We also like positive feedback regarding what’s working.
Why not simply take the statements that are made at face value without resorting to ad hominem attacks? Let alone starting an entire thread dedicated to demeaning the rest of the forum community?
I’ll be locking this up now. [/blue]