Starting with patch 1.2, you'll be able to preview and test most, if not all, StarCraft II patches before they go public. Blizzard has announced plans to set up a test server for this latest patch and future updates from this point forward, which is something the studio has already been doing with big updates for World of Warcraft. The primary purpose of this test, as explained on the SCII blog, is to help Blizzard identify SCII patch bugs and "ensure that when a patch is released, it's of the highest quality possible."
 

When the PTR is available, a retail patch will add a new executable file named "StarCraft II Public Test.exe" to the StarCraft II game directory. To access the PTR, go to the StarCraft II game directory and run the "StarCraft II Public Text.exe" executable. 

A small patch will be downloaded to install the PTR client the first time you run it.  Eligible accounts will already be enabled for the PTR so there's no sign-up needed for this phase.

Starting with patch 1.2, you'll be able to preview and test most, if not all, StarCraft II patches before they go public. Blizzard has announced plans to set up a test server for this latest patch and future updates from this point forward, which is something the studio has already been doing with big updates for World of Warcraft. The primary purpose of this test, as explained on the SCII blog, is to help Blizzard identify SCII patch bugs and "ensure that when a patch is released, it's of the highest quality possible."
 

When the PTR is available, a retail patch will add a new executable file named "StarCraft II Public Test.exe" to the StarCraft II game directory. To access the PTR, go to the StarCraft II game directory and run the "StarCraft II Public Text.exe" executable. 

A small patch will be downloaded to install the PTR client the first time you run it.  Eligible accounts will already be enabled for the PTR so there's no sign-up needed for this phase.

sweet.

Looks like somebody saw Valve doing their Team Fortress 2 weapon testing beta, did a collective palm to the head, and wondered aloud why it was not they themselves who had dreamed up this idea.

" Looks like somebody saw Valve doing their Team Fortress 2 weapon testing beta, did a collective palm to the head, and wondered aloud why it was not they themselves who had dreamed up this idea. "

STOP USING THAT PICTURE! It reminds me of 40k's terminator armor. Another shameless 40k rip off. Well done Blizzard...
Also it seems SC2 isn't as polished as we were let to believe...

" Looks like somebody saw Valve doing their Team Fortress 2 weapon testing beta, did a collective palm to the head, and wondered aloud why it was not they themselves who had dreamed up this idea. "

Wow some of those balances are kind of crazy. Taking away Fungal Growth's ability to hit air units is really gonna mess up part of my Zerg game. Oh well, I'll get used to it eventually.

Yeah, Public Test Realms (which is what PTR stands for) have been around for a long time. They're nothing new and to be honest I don't think this is news worthy. It's not anything ground breaking or that exciting but maybe that's just me.

 Lmao is that idiot really saying a company had to copy the idea of testing patches from another company. *shoots himself*

" Also it seems SC2 isn't as polished as we were made to believe... "

" STOP USING THAT PICTURE! It reminds me of 40k's terminator armor. Another shameless 40k rip off. Well done Blizzard... Also it seems SC2 isn't as polished as we were made to believe... "

" STOP USING THAT PICTURE! It reminds me of 40k's terminator armor. Another shameless 40k rip off. Well done Blizzard... Also it seems SC2 isn't as polished as we were made to believe... "

Good news :)

Blizz actually started doing test reallms with patches of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

Terran and Protoss get buffs, Zerg gets nerfed. Bring back hydra speed, they're useless off creep.

Whoah chat channels, no friggin way!  Blizzard, you are the innovation masters.

I'm torn on whether I want to participate or not... I kinda do... and at the same time, don't want to get used to patch updates that might not come true.

Fungal Growth no longer effects air units. 
 
Welp, there goes my roach-infestor build. Thanks Blizzard.

Wow. Significant changes for the balance. Void Rays don't have speed upgrades and fungal growth doesn't affect air units.

But when will they Fix Bnet 2.0?

Man, they seem to not be able to get a handle on Void Rays - removal of the speed upgrade.  I think the main problem is just they are really hard to beat if microed well and speed makes them a lot easier to micro, but I'm surprised they went that far. 
 
The fungal growth thing is huge though.  Infestors are great at trapping Marine/Medivac balls, now any Terran on his game can load them up when he spots an infestor and render it useless - and that's assuming you can't load up fungal-growthed units (don't think you can?).

Already downloaded and fired up the beta but have yet to try out the balance changes in multiplayer. The extra visual options are nice but I would've liked to see some adjustments made to better optimize the game; for some reason too much Zerg heavy action (meaning: a LOT of Nydus worms at once) on screen (in both multiplayer and singleplayer) absolutely kills the framerate for me even in the relatively modest settings that I run the game on.

infestor nerf was uncalled for, and unneeded. and im not even Zerg

i believe they do this with wow and the patches usually benefit from the feedback.

 Battle.net Chat Channels have been added :D
 Flux Vanes speed upgrade removed.   D: 
 
Chat channels are going to make it easer to get games with people.

Fungal growth not hitting air units makes sense... it is sad though.
 
Voids losing speed is going to piss off some noobs im sure, though most people stopped doing void rushing and mineral line harassing with them a long time ago. They are much more powerful when mixed in with your army, once those things get powered up they rip through the enemy.

"Beta testing" is certainly not the best way to put it.

Phoenix buff + Infestor nerf, does Protoss have map control vs Zerg now? lolol

Almost started replying to the some absurd comments... 
phew... close one. 
 
I can't wait till they implement the chat stuff... that should of came with launch. 

Similar to the WoW PTR. Not sure if as many people will be eager to get in and see the new content in SC though. Still, pretty neat.

" Terran and Protoss get buffs, Zerg gets nerfed. Bring back hydra speed, they're useless off creep. "

Jesus, I still need to finish the campaign!

" infestor nerf was uncalled for, and unneeded. and im not even Zerg "

" @cartoons4andy said:

" Looks like somebody saw Valve doing their Team Fortress 2 weapon testing beta, did a collective palm to the head, and wondered aloud why it was not they themselves who had dreamed up this idea. "

World of Warcraft. "

Great news. Blizzard decided not to implement the 3 worst ideas they had.
 
 http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1306100875

We would like to thank everyone for their participation thus far in the first StarCraft 2 public test. We’re in the process of temporarily taking down the PTR in order to apply changes based on your feedback and testing.

Some of the changes we’re working on implementing:

# Bunker build time reduction removed as previously noted
# Fungal Growth’s terrestrial limitation has been removed and the ability once again affects air units
# It will once again be possible to hold down a key to repeat a hotkey command
 
That shit almost got scary. Phew

" Great news. Blizzard decided not to implement the 3 worst ideas they had.
 
 http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1306100875

We would like to thank everyone for their participation thus far in the first StarCraft 2 public test. We’re in the process of temporarily taking down the PTR in order to apply changes based on your feedback and testing.

Some of the changes we’re working on implementing:

# Bunker build time reduction removed as previously noted
# Fungal Growth’s terrestrial limitation has been removed and the ability once again affects air units
# It will once again be possible to hold down a key to repeat a hotkey command That shit almost got scary. Phew "

" Great news. Blizzard decided not to implement the 3 worst ideas they had.
 
 http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1306100875

We would like to thank everyone for their participation thus far in the first StarCraft 2 public test. We’re in the process of temporarily taking down the PTR in order to apply changes based on your feedback and testing.

Some of the changes we’re working on implementing:

# Bunker build time reduction removed as previously noted
# Fungal Growth’s terrestrial limitation has been removed and the ability once again affects air units
# It will once again be possible to hold down a key to repeat a hotkey command That shit almost got scary. Phew "

Wait, why isn't  Brad shoemaker writing this? 

" @raiz265 said:

" @cartoons4andy said:

" Looks like somebody saw Valve doing their Team Fortress 2 weapon testing beta, did a collective palm to the head, and wondered aloud why it was not they themselves who had dreamed up this idea. "

World of Warcraft. "

Looks like somebody made an uneducated guess, did a palm to the head, and wondered aloud why he makes assumptions about genres he doesn't follow. "

Ugh, thank god.

Now that I upgrade my PC a bit, I'll have to consider checking this game out.

Screw the starbarf, get on with Diablo 3!

" @Kinarion:  Yeah this game was so focus tested that they forgot to lock the FPS on the menu screen which led to burning video cards. Well done Blizzard, well done. "

" @DarkDude:   It's important in that Starcraft has never had player interaction in the development or testing processes before.  So unlike WoW players who are used to having the devs ears, SC and SC2 players have largely been left out of the loop. "