Att släppa en beta handlar inte enbart om att tillfredsställa fansens begär efter ett spel. För Blizzard handlar det mer om att säkerställa tekniken inför den väntade anstormningen av battle.nets servrar i samband med releasen. Idag postade Blizzards CM Zarhym en checklista över de olika stadierna inför en beta.

1. Start with a small sample audience to test stability
2. Take bug and crash report feedback; act on them quickly
3. Release new patches to make some very necessary changes in the small test environment
4. Keep testing stability while adding new battle.net/infrastructure components
5. If everything is running incredibly smooth after steps 1-4, invite people from the general public to open the flood gates on stress testing and get focused gameplay feedback/bug reports

This is a very layman’s description, but the point is we have to slowly throttle in more people to test the game as we continue to create new builds and work out new battle.net functionality. Once the environment is stable and many of the core features are there, we then start to invite the masses.

I’d feel remiss in not mentioning this: we absolutely want everyone to play this game as soon as possible. But to make that a reality, we must first excel in both content and deliverance. (So let’s put on our classics and we’ll have a little dance, shall we?) ;)

När han blev tillfrågad om de befann sig i det fjärde stadiet svarade han såhär:

Im guessing we are on step 4 right now?

Basically, yea :) We’re getting really close! That’s the good news.