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Sephris

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Guild Wars 2 Stress Test - More Stress Than Test

Today Guild Wars 2 put out one of its last stress tests to those who have pre-purchased the game and are able to get in on the betas they offer. However, with an hour into the stress test the problems have started rolling in.

To start with, the first half an hour of the stress test was nothing more than error messages when trying to sign in. Fans dashed to the Guild Wars 2 Facebook site to complain. The Guild Wars 2 staff were quick to hop on the issue, assuring the players they would be able to get on within 30 minutes. The minutes ticked down as people hovered their pointer over the log in button and as promised the site was up and people were able to log in and play the game.

This only lasted a few moments before everything came crashing down once more. For some, including me, this crash was so hard it froze up their computers. Consecutive attempts afterward were met with disappointment. It seemed that all the work the staff at Guild Wars 2 had done to make their game run smoothly had melted into a bubbling pool of failure.

But the joke was on us. As one of the last, and perhaps the very last, stress test before the game is released, the folks over at Guild Wars 2 decided to put everything to the test and made a "worst case scenario" so they would be prepared for anything when opening day came. And I can think of no worse of a situation than what I've experienced.

While I find what they have done to be clever, and I understand that betas will have issues like this, to intentionally set something up like this without letting the players know about it beforehand is a cruel thing to do to the fans. I can just see people rushing to see if something is wrong with their operating system. Others thinking their program had become corrupted so they wipe the game from their computer and spend the next 5 hours or more downloading everything a second time. Only those who ran to the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page to complain would finally know why things were so terrible. Advance notice of their intentions would have saved many from panicking and taking situations into their own hands when they need not have.

I've been with this game since the first beta event came out, and what they have to offer is something beautiful, unique and has the potential to be the bar that all MMORPGs will be compared to and strive to be like in the future. My advice to these future game companies is not to make the mistake guild Wars 2 employees did. Let your audience know what you are planning if it is going to directly effect their game play. If you do not, chaos will ensue. Sweet, sweet chaos. On second thought, maybe you should be all secretive. Watching the masses bounce around in anger and confusion is almost as entertaining as the game itself. At least to me.

Christopher4277d ago

The first rule of Guildwars 2 Stress Test is that you shall not Test Guildwars 2.

coolbeans4277d ago

Perhaps they're actually graphing how much stress they can induce on players with these log in issues. That's the real test.

:P

Christopher4277d ago

Sorry, but EverQuest already did that test from 1999-2001 :P

Sephris4276d ago

That may be, Coolbeans. But I tell you what, I would rather have masturbated with a cheese grater than to have gone through the hell of that stress test. lol

Feralkitsune4276d ago

They should ask Blizzard, after Diablo 3, they have collected the most failed login, player stress data to date.

coolbeans4276d ago (Edited 4276d ago )

Over 10 years have past. Perhaps they're comparing SOE's graphs with their's to see if the stress level has changed at all. :P

Sephris4277d ago

Hahahahaha! It's been a frustrating ride. I even got nailed with a blue screen Bad_Pool_Caller over it. It wasn't my hardware or software, so it had to be from them. When I can play though it's pretty fun.

Griffin48714276d ago

What part of "Stress Test" do you not understand? Hell, they even gave a disclaimer, so what the hell is with all the complaining about "mistakes".

This writer is obviously a WoW fan pretending to be a GW2 fan so he can avoid flames.

Christopher4276d ago

From Sephris' blog: "While I find what they have done to be clever, and I understand that betas will have issues like this, to intentionally set something up like this without letting the players know about it beforehand is a cruel thing to do to the fans."

Sephris4276d ago (Edited 4276d ago )

Yup, I'm a huge fan of WoW. Tell ya what, go look up the name Lor Draconis on the Guild Wars Hall of Monuments calculator. You can find it on the web easily. That's me. :)

Or you can just click the convenient link I have for you.

http://hom.guildwars2.com/e...

I guess being a GWAMM and a CotG in Guild Wars makes me a WoW fan. lol

JellyJelly4276d ago (Edited 4276d ago )

Was supposed to agree with your comment but my cat shoved his face on my hand just when I clicked so it became a disagree instead.

I'm putting him to death.

Griffin48714275d ago

Yep. WoW fan.

Didn't click.

Sniper_amer4275d ago

i totally agree, ppl need to understand the meaning of "Stress Test" and "Beta"

yeah some companies even after the betas and stress tests fails, im not saying GW2 will be a success!!!

but i think after all of these betas and stress tests it should be better @ launch... if not THEN i can say they truly failed....

poolsharky274276d ago (Edited 4276d ago )

Sounds like the stress test was doing what it set out to do, testing server stress.

Generally for things like this, they purposefully try to fill up servers to the brim in order to break it. They put the servers up with the intention of crashing them, to find the problems that arise, so they dont occur at launch. Not so people can go around and play the beta.

It's a test for the servers to make launch smoother, not a player test and play session. I dont know why this is so difficult to understand.

This wasnt a beta test, it was a stress test, it's like people dont even know the difference. And they did let people know ahead of time that they were stress testing(!), what do you think that encompasses?!

Sephris4276d ago

To this point, every stress test they have put out just dealt with the players that were on. This time they intentionally overloaded the servers without saying anything. It messed with many of the players computers. If they had made us aware of it from the start it wouldn't be a big deal. But to have blue error screens popping up made many players panic. It wasn't the smartest move by Anet. But fortunately no serious damage was done.

poolsharky274276d ago

I disagree, it -was- a smart move to test these types of issues before the final version is released to the public.

Also if you think this is the first stress test people couldn't log on and had crashing, you're quite mistaken.

I played in every beta and stress test before this one(not this one though), and pretty much none of the stress tests were even playable, even if I did manage to get on.

It's delusional to think that a stress test should be a happy beta play time for everyone.

Giru0174276d ago

Exactly what has been said. A stress test isn't a nice beta weekend. They said beforehand on twitter (and common sense applies) that this isn't for players to run about and enjoy (which is awesome if you manage to do it though), but for them to stress test their servers, engine, etc, the players adding an extra load than what their internal departments can provide.

Basically, you're there for extra "weight", that's it. That's why the stress test get announced shortly (a day or so) before they happen and not publicly advertised on their blogs and such. I've seen a lot of people complain about them, but I'd rather have the "stress" be now and have them ready for launch than the other way around.

Sniper_amer4274d ago

ok i want to ask you something,HOW ON EARTH would they know that this test will generate blue screens or errors or w/e without testing it first???

ppl uses different hardware, if there is a conflict or something with some part during this test and the person failed to report it as a beta tester you have your self as a beta tester to blame, this is not a DEMO.... its a BETA, and BETA testers should report any bugs, problems with their systems and so on...

would rather see them do these tests to fix these errors up or suffer in launch?

MrDrGuy4276d ago

Can anyone help me out, I prepurchased guild wars 2 and want to get into this stress test. How do i do it?

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