How long do you think the F&F will last?

[Lords]

1 week? Even though it may not matter because I assume most of us will still be sitting the sidelines still waiting lol.

Edit: typo.

[Feramors]

Yeah, I don't imagine it will be too extensive. I don't think the F&F technically qualifies as the "beta." But I certainly could be wrong.

[Mewy]

A week maybe two? I don't image it lasting more than that.

But you know after watching a whole good 4 hours of beta, I would probably max all characters and then forget about it until the release or new content. The beta isn't that long really...

[mezzlix]

This is just blizzard dipping their toes in the water as it were. It wouldn't take long for any glaring, game breaking bugs to manifest (and it looks like none are). 1 week sounds reasonable.

[ursustas]

My guess is that it will last until the key bugs are ironed out (such as reported/known driver issues .. there are a few hardware configurations that appear to be causing issues according to the beta forum .. nvidia graphics chipsets in gaming laptops being the major one I can see)... then they will bring in more testers :)

[edcaz]

My guess is two days. :)

[MaximDiesel]

one week seems reasonable.

[MagisterMan]

I can't see it really last longer than a week. If we are lucky they maybe start closed beta on friday but more realistically the start of next week maybe?

[Raesene]

Whatever it is will be too damn long.

[Zeek]

Exactly 9 days.

This is based on the total lack of any information that we have to go on.

[MagisterMan]

Exactly 9 days.

This is based on the total lack of any information that we have to go on.

9 days would be torture. And even then, the chances of getting a key to the closed beta are so slim...

I wonder if they will wipe the F&F beta chars when closed beta begins?

[Raesene]

I wonder if they will wipe the F&F beta chars when closed beta begins?

I doubt it.

[headbuster]

604 800 seconds?

[snifsnif]

why are they doing a fast & furious beta? are paul walker and vin diesel gamers?!

jk, im think f&f period will end on sunday, beta annouce friday for monday launch...

[kazyn]

I'm gonna guess 3-5 days.

[Nizaris]

I'm hoping for a 9/9 public beta - considering that's my bday.

[MagisterMan]

Hm. Day9 (high profile SC2 caster) first said he was going to stream beta:


day9tv Sean Plott
Hi my name is Sean and I have a Diablo 3 beta key. Yes. Yes I do. I'll be streaming tomorrow 100%.
12 hours ago

But half an hour ago he says this:


@day9tv
Sean Plott
Aaaand whoops! Looks like I'm in the D3 beta that doesn't allow me to stream video quite yet! I should be able to stream it soon though!
36 minutes ago via web

http://twitter.com/#!/day9tv/status/111484516496965632

I wonder why? Might this be an indication that F&F will be very short?

[Mucky]

I'd guess 1-2 weeks, enough time so that they can break in the servers and sort out any major issues before adding thousands more players into the test.

[digitalforce]

I am hoping for a 9/9 public beta because I want to fracking play it :)

[Risingred]

I'm hoping for a 9/9 public beta - considering that's my bday.

Happy early birthday. :D

The rumor that's been circulating for a while now is a 16.9.2011 beta start date, but I dunno. Sounds about right.

I guess that all depends on what they want to accomplish before going live. What I saw appeared to work quite flawlessly, though, despite testers playing before the game was downloaded and then being surprised when it didn't work optimally.

[alexlaw]

This is just blizzard dipping their toes in the water as it were. It wouldn't take long for any glaring, game breaking bugs to manifest (and it looks like none are). 1 week sounds reasonable.

Sticky sausage toes.....:highfive:

[Sentarius]

I think Sean would likely be in the F&F.

[superhuman]

How long do I want it to last? About another 3 seconds.

How long do I think it will last? Until some time next week. :(

[starrise]

I think Sean would likely be in the F&F.

I know no one will ever believe me, but I went to college with that guy. He graduated one year after me. I don't know him very well so don't ask me to contact him, though we have a few good mutual friends. I'll have to ask them to ask him some stuff though =)

I hope the FF is over soon though...

[Sentarius]

I know no one will ever believe me, but I went to college with that guy. He graduated one year after me. I don't know him very well so don't ask me to contact him, though we have a few good mutual friends. I'll have to ask them to ask him some stuff though =)

I hope the FF is over soon though...

Why would no one believe you? More than one person goes to most colleges, after all!

[starrise]

Fair enough. Our college was tiny. We've had about 5000 graduates total since it opened in the fifties. =)

[Kastigar]

Previous F&Fs I've participated in have lasted like a month or so. But those were for WoW and Sc2. There is a lot less content to pour over in this beta. It's only a small slice of the first act and I believe we are capped at lvl 13.

They've wiped characters between F&F and full beta before. Truth be told, you wouldn't be losing much if they did.

[Gosukusan]

I'm gonna venture a guess that we'll be seeing the real Beta by the end of next week.

Since F&F Beta was more or less a last minute plan of Blizzard's, we can assume it was simply to break in the servers/prepare them for mass use and perhaps fix some of the more glaring issues. It doesn't take more than a week or so to get a feel for how the servers are holding up, and whether or not the game is ready for invite waves.

I'm fairly certain we'll be seeing it before the middle of the month.

[Kastigar]

Blizzard does F&Fs for all their games. It's actually pretty standard. Though I still believe the time frame for this one will be pretty short, especially compared to others.

I think the beta in its entirety is more to test the new Battle.net infrastructure than the game itself. Which would also support a shorter F&F (best way to test it is to get more people on). I imagine most bugs in the game are being squashed internally. Since the story is much more front and center in this one, it's unlikely they'll add anymore content in beta to avoid spoiling the game.

It really plays out more like an extended demo. Still fun, still awesome, but you dont get a crack at the really meaty stuff you character will learn.

[Conroe]

Given that they have only invited a small portion of the people getting into F&F, and it's unlikely they will invite more until Friday, I'd say closed beta is a bit further away than you think.

[MagisterMan]

Blizzard does F&Fs for all their games. It's actually pretty standard. Though I still believe the time frame for this one will be pretty short, especially compared to others.

I think the beta in its entirety is more to test the new Battle.net infrastructure than the game itself. Which would also support a shorter F&F (best way to test it is to get more people on). I imagine most bugs in the game are being squashed internally. Since the story is much more front and center in this one, it's unlikely they'll add anymore content in beta to avoid spoiling the game.

It really plays out more like an extended demo. Still fun, still awesome, but you dont get a crack at the really meaty stuff you character will learn.

But haven't the other F&F's had NDA's on them? I wonder why the opted for a non-NDA F&F.

[mcriket002]

I don't think it will be too much longer until the public closed beta begins.

Side question: I know it's different tech & times but how long did the D2 beta last? If anyone remembers? :D

[Kastigar]

That is true. I've had to agree to an NDA in all previous F&Fs. Iirc, there was and NDA agreement you had to accept to before you could log in for this one. But I just scrolled past it as the email had waved it already.

Perhaps because it is such a small sliver of the game, and things like opening cutscenes for the classes aren't included. They just decided to use the F&F as a way to drive hype/interest. It's hard to say. But yes, NDAs have been standard in the other F&Fs.

[WDC]

I see this little F&F event as free hype for blizzard basically (hence the no NDA on F&F)

So IMO, Beta should be up by early next week, possibly an announced start date this week.

[Jaime]

So..


The games is complet right?

[Muggs]

If they want to keep the servers stressed like they mentioned I would imagine it will end very shortly. I have watched a lot of streams and even if I leveled all the chars to max level I would be done in 2days of play easily. So I would imagine the amount of players playing would drop off significantly in a couple days and they would have to reup on new ones.

[fnaxqtr]

it ends now and the game is released tomorrow , everything else unacceptable

[TerribleDamage]

F&F will last about one week.

Next week the first public invites go out, mostly to fansites, contest winners, and blizzcon ticket holders.

In the 3-4 weeks following, more waves of random invites go out as needed to maintain or reach whatever the target concurrency is for the servers.

Then in mid to late October, beta keys will be given out with preorders from select retailers (and possibly the blizzard store). A release date is announced at blizzcon.

Finally in early November, the game goes gold and there is a fully open beta lasting not more than a few days, in order to completely stress the servers (and act as a demo for those who aren't already sold on the game).

Game releases Tuesday, November 29th, with the servers coming online at 12am pacific.

[Sentarius]

Game releases Tuesday,[] with the servers coming online at 12am pacific.

Well, I definitely think this is right.

[Kastigar]

For those wondering about character wipes, they're actually doing them now. We are getting a patch it looks like as well. Seems like just about everytime a patch goes out, they wipe the slate clean.

Apparently they've had more than a few wipes internally in the couple of weeks leading up to F&F. So I would say more wipes are likely to happen, and frequently.