I expected that threads offering complaints about "it's too easy" or "it's too cartoony" or a million other things would start showing up. Therefore, I figure it would do good to set some expectations of what the beta is in line, as I've been in it since closed beta release and seen a couple of extra things thanks to having a couple of friends that work at Blizzard down in Austin.

1. The beta is the first act of the game, and it's not even the entirety of that act. The beta is set to the easiest difficulty, which is the setting it has been set to since the beginning of the closed beta. The reason for this is because IT'S A BETA! People are supposed to be tooling through it repeatedly in order to look for bugs that Blizzard can fix as well as give a glimpse of the basics that the game has to offer.

2. The look gets plenty dark and dreary, but it's not going to be the same dark and dreary as previous Diablo games. That's because...surprise surprise...the world has evolved beyond that. If people can't deal with that, then maybe they should go pick up Lineage or Path of the Exile.

3. The stuff in the first act does not employ much strategy...on easy difficulty. That is correct. However, once you get past that act...and anything on the highest difficulty setting, you will DEFINITELY need strategy and patience. That shit gets brutal hard, especially on the boss fights which can quickly become akin to something like a WoW instance fight (except actually challenging) when you have a full party going.

4. A lot of stuff has been streamlined (Town Portal, crafting, etc) since the beginning of closed beta. There used to be three items: Cauldron of Jordan, some stone for Town Portal, and another thing item for selling stuff without returning to town. Since then, they turned Town Portal into a skill with a cooldown while crafting and salvaging is back at town. It is SERIOUSLY worthwhile that they did this, as it leaves a lot of freedom to actually...ya know, dungeon crawl!

5. There is a REASON why they offered this progressive look to your character in terms of loot, gear, etc. Did you pay attention to the story AT ALL that was going on? Obviously not, because it literally EXPLAINS WHY! If that wasn't enough, Blizzard has talked about this in extensive detail.

_________________________________________________________

I really wish people would remember what the word "BETA" means. It's not a DEMO! This is literally the same thing as the beta client many of us have been playing for months on end now. Use it for what it is meant to be: a way to report bugs to Blizzard so they can polish it up before it gets released.

Never understood the need for preemptive defensiveness.

@TentPole said:

Never understood the need for preemptive defensiveness.

Or preemptive negativity, for that matter, but here we are. Thanks for the writeup jakob187, I wish I was in the beta test.

@Giantstalker: Beta is open to everyone this weekend.

@YI_Orange said:

@Giantstalker: Beta is open to everyone this weekend.

Whaaaaaaaat? I'll just shut up and get to downloading. This is great news

@Giantstalker said:

@YI_Orange said:

@Giantstalker: Beta is open to everyone this weekend.

Whaaaaaaaat? I'll just shut up and get to downloading. This is great news

Have fun! ;)

@Giantstalker said:

@YI_Orange said:

@Giantstalker: Beta is open to everyone this weekend.

Whaaaaaaaat? I'll just shut up and get to downloading. This is great news

Have fun! ;)

@AhmadMetallic said:

@RVonE said:

@Giantstalker said:

@YI_Orange said:

@Giantstalker: Beta is open to everyone this weekend.

Whaaaaaaaat? I'll just shut up and get to downloading. This is great news

Have fun! ;)

"Disconnected from server - the game was terminated"

Yep :(. Was almost done with Demon Hunter too I think. So sad.

Stressed servers are stressing.

Actually it was better today after this mornings capacity adjustment maintenance.

And to the topic: The 'demo' just made this wait that much longer...Damnit!!!!

Being preemptive to something that is possibly forthcoming is not a reaction.

You should know, all those people complaining and being overall bitches about some shit in the game, are still going to buy it on release.

I agree on the streamlining thing... I can finally dungeon crawl and stop worrying about what takes up too much space and how i'm going to get back home! Also I heard that if you want to experience the higher difficulties, just use the items you start with, ONLY. It should make it hard enough to kill things.

I love what I played of the beta. It's focused on getting you to the people you want/are playing with and then the group of you having a blast killing and looting while absorbing the story in a much much smarter way (reading story based books via 'audio logs', in environment cutscenes) than previously. In fact, the only two things I've not liked is how much the pace of the game slows when I'm trying to disassemble items at the Blacksmith (I should be able to shift-left click when I have that window open to auto disassemble), and how the weapons I find aren't used in just about any ability animation, kinda making them feel like they are useless, when in reality they aren't at all. Those are tiny complaints, though, and this makes me super pumped to play the full thing in just over 3 weeks.

There are many things I like about D3 so far.

There are also many things I dislike.

Those both being said, it's fun, but I'm not sure it's $60 worth of fun for me. People should really try it and get a taste to see how they feel, though.

I've already seen threads before I posted this that were complaining about how easy the beta is and many other items that I have brought up. These are all things that Blizzard themselves went over during the beginning of the closed beta, and my guess is that they did not readdress these things with the open beta that they are currently holding. In turn, I felt that it would be pertinent to anyone going into it to know why the things they are complaining about are set up the way that they are. At the same time, it's also something I decided to use in order to critique the fact that people are not looking at this as a beta, but instead they are looking at it as a demo in much the same way that so many companies have started using "betas" as "demos".

My friend and I were actually discussing this a short time after I posted, and he made a good point: companies have started dropping one word from the phrase that was commonly used for betas: "beta TESTING".

Also, as someone pointed out in this thread particularly, the servers are going under a ton of stress. In short, it would seem that the beta is already doing what it needed to do: find out where the problems are in a larger group of people so they can be squashed as much as possible before release. The actual game part of it should be pretty polished at this point, as every patch they released during the closed beta saw a significant amount of improvement done over what the last iteration of the game was previously at.

Hopefully, Blizzard actually gets the information that they need from this open beta rather than just a bunch of complaints...but looking at the D3 forums on their official page, it seems that is not necessarily the case. *le sigh*

Nonetheless, if you guys want someone to group with at all this weekend, I'm more than willing to group up and get some dungeon crawling on with some naked runs (no gear beyond what you start with). It's honestly some of the most fun I've had with the beta in the last few months, and from the other stuff I've seen, it definitely reflects a bit of the higher difficulties that you will see in the game.

@Eujin said:

There are many things I like about D3 so far.

There are also many things I dislike.

Those both being said, it's fun, but I'm not sure it's $60 worth of fun for me. People should really try it and get a taste to see how they feel, though.

Yeah, same here. But considering that it's a Blizzard game, they tend to never go on sale (Diablo II and Warcraft III battle-chests have only dropped like $10 in the past what, over 6 years?) That and the best time to get into these games is when they're new I just threw down the cash. I wasted too much time in Diablo II to not play Diablo III. It'll probably be an every 6-9 months, I'll play for a month or two game for me though.

@Driadon said:

...I should be able to shift-left click when I have that window open to auto disassemble...

You can do this by left-clicking on the anvil icon in the center of the salvage window, then holding down shift while left-clicking each of the items in your inventory that you want to salvage.

As someone that has been in the closed beta for about 8 months, gotta agree with jakob on all points. I'm still loving the d3 beta after getting 2 lvl 13's with every character, wiped, etc. everytime there is a major update. Can't wait for release :DDDD

@jakob187: Finally, someone with a little sense to understand the limitations of a Beta and to shut-down the idiots with their mouths hanging open.

Bravo, +1 follow.

@Matthew: Don't forget about the hot new pvp action they will reintroduce!!!!

I had no expectations or history with the series. Just booted it up and enjoyed the hell out of it.

@Savage said:

@Driadon said:

...I should be able to shift-left click when I have that window open to auto disassemble...

You can do this by left-clicking on the anvil icon in the center of the salvage window, then holding down shift while left-clicking each of the items in your inventory that you want to salvage.

Thanks! Was there a tool tip that mentions this at all, because I don't think I ever would have figured this out?