New Phase of StarCraft 2 Beta?

By -

I think StarCraft 2 is getting ready to move into a new phase of beta.  Hopefully this will allow more people to get involved and really test the new Battle.net system.  Let me tell you my reasoning.

The home page of the beta client has listed an upcoming reset of the servers for about a week now. This server reset is to simulate the live release of StarCraft 2.  To do this I think they need more people than the current 10k-15k usually online at any given time.

Out of nowhere Gamestop is suddenly giving away keys to people who pre-order StarCraft 2 through them.  This makes it much closer to an open beta since anyone can pay $5 to get in.  It isn't a fully open beta, but it is creeping away from an exclusive access closed beta.

Blizzard is releasing the StarCraft 2 map editor this week.  My thinking is that they are expanding features as they expand the beta.

There was a very recent wave of Battle.net bans for people cheating in WarCraft 3 and Diablo 2.  They banned over 320,000 accounts.  That is a huge number.  This is in preparation for the StarCraft 2 launch, but it may also be preparing for a new stage of beta.

There has been a lot of speculation on the beta forums about an upcoming balance patch.  There hasn't been a balance patch in the whole time I've been playing the beta and the community is chomping at the bit to get one.  I've seen a lot of posts on the forums discussing the topic.

With all the above evidence I think StarCraft 2 is moving into a new phase of beta this week.  I hope I'm right, because the farther we get in beta the closer we are to actual release!

UPDATE:

StarCraft 2 released a balance patch along with new features today!  They are in the process of updating right now.  I was at least somewhat right.  Also, I went to Gamestop today and picked up my own beta key so that I can stop using my friend's account.

Comments

  1. KlelithApril 23, 2010 at 2:47 AM

    There's alot of connection issues right now. Also, the one FFA I tried to play crashed the game. I think I would have won too. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. VoidApril 23, 2010 at 12:15 PM

    I think the influx of new people is causing server issues. Give Blizzard a couple days to get back up to speed.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Latest Board Gaming

By -
Image
Besides video games I also regularly play board games when I'm hanging out with people face to face.  My brother, my wife, and I end up playing a lot of 3 player board games, but sometimes we get other players involved too. I realized I haven't talked much about what I've been playing in the world of board games, so here goes: Ticket to Ride - We own 3 different base versions of Ticket to Ride, 2 expansion sets, and an extra map set.  We love this game.  This is the game that gets the most overall table time when I'm playing board games with friends.  It's super accessible but still holds fun for people who have been playing the game for a long time.  I recommend this as a great beginner board game for anyone. Masquerade - A hidden role game where roles are constantly switching hands.  You're limited in actions on your turn and can only take one action.  This means that a lot of the time you're not entirely sure what role you currently have.
Read more

S2E22 - E3 2017 - “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur?!”

By -
E3 Hype! E3 2017. Not comprehensive. Not VGNN.  Only talking about things we think are interesting enough to talk about.  You have video game news sites for the rest :) We’re talking about Press Conferences, if more news comes out throughout the rest of the week it won’t be here because we’re recording on Tuesday night! http://e3recap.com/ has been my friend Overall trends Esports being forced onto games that aren’t even out yet “Influencers” being put front and center BJ: torn on the current “influencer” boom. Feels like a bubble that’s totally disingenuous Shorter press conferences with less big game announcements Really hard to tell what is actually exclusive Microsoft “Console Launch Exclusive” Most of these press conferences would have been better pre-recorded as just a series of trailers instead of having a stage show, honestly. Updates on games we already knew existed.  This is what we get for so many years of announcing games way ahead
Read more

Games of the Year 2022: In Conclusion

By -
This running Games of the Year list has been an interesting experiment.  I decided to start this series right as we were shutting down the Geek to Geek podcast as a way to keep creatively broadcasting some gaming thoughts out into the world.  I learned a few things from sticking with it this year. The main thing I learned is... I just don't have as much desire to broadcast my thoughts out in public as I used to when I started this blog or when I started podcasting.  I still love to have in-depth discussions about current games and general geekery, but I feel less and less need to broadcast those thoughts widely.  Honestly, it's been over a decade of blogging and podcasting at this point.  It would be more surprising if my relationship with the media landscape hadn't  changed. Around mid-year I started trying to use Twitter as more of a microblogging platform to do very short quick-hit thoughts about games but didn't get much traction or conversation going which was wha
Read more