This might be a little late with the Diablo 3 beta starting soon, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
If you're not a Blizzard Employee, a Friend & Family member, or have any inside connections, but you desperately want to increase your chances of winning a Diablo 3 Beta invite, I have couple suggestions.
Most of the guides out there suggest that you join a top end guild, have a high end gaming PC, or get in good with a Blizzard employee. If you're a past beta tester, chances are also higher for you to be invited back too.
Now, in order to opt-in to the Beta Invite, you need an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game title attached to it. Then, "Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including an element of luck."
You can't just create hundreds of B.Net accounts and create Free Starter packs to opt-in, unfortunately, it has to be a full version game attached.
Here are my suggestions;
* Use your classic games. If you're lucky and still have Diablo 2, WC3, or Starcraft CD keys (or any expansion packs) lying around that haven't been registered to your main B.Net account, simply create new B.Net account names (register them to your family members if you want) and use each of those CD-Keys individually for each B.Net account. If you have WoW, D2, D2:LOD, WC3, SC, and SC:BW you can have 6 Active B.Net accounts that are all eligible for the beta.
* If you're more desperate, and have the cash, all of the classic games can be obtained from pawnshops, EBay, Amazon, etc. for $3-10 per game.
* Check with friends or family members with old CD-Keys that they don't use anymore. All you need is the CD-Key to register it to your B.Net account. You never know who out there hasn't played the game for years, but still have the CD case or box lying around.
* Even if you only have 3 CD-Keys.. at least you're 3 times closer to win than before. :)
* Blizzard can replace a lost CD-Key, if you turn in your CD case or manual as a replacement. However, there's a fee of $10 which is typically more expensive than what you can buy it for elsewhere.
* If you don't have the money, but have the time, you could attempt random CD-Key generators. This is rather insidious, but it is possible to generate random CD-Keys that can be authenticated on B.Net. They're extremely rare and will take a lot of time, but if you don't mind the risk, it's a viable option. This link, for example, generates Starcraft CD-Keys which are the most simple to create and authenticate. I'm not sure if it's randomly generated on the backend though, or displayed from a pre-made list. I tried a couple dozen, and ended up with 3 that were legit however they were claimed and in use by other users. Diablo 2 CD-Key generators also work, but are more difficult to get a real B.Net key. Just make sure you create a new B.Net account, a new email address, and do this through an anonymous VPN service.
* You don't want a high end gaming PC, if anything, submit system specifications for an average gaming PC. Blizzard wants to reach the widest audience possible, and the most invitations will be sent for average PC builds.
* Network and make friends with players with B.Net accounts (e.g. your guild mates). Convince them to opt-in. Many beta winners won't have time to play (too busy with school) and will offer the beta key (no "keys" for D3 Beta AFAIK, instead the account is flagged) or share their B.Net account.
It's called a beta, but it isn't so much a beta as it is a demo. There will be very little change between the D3 "beta" and the retail release. Just like WOTLK and Cataclysm. It's more of a stress test on their new servers and authentication systems. The D3 beta is supposed to be much shorter than previous Blizzard betas as well.. so, just hang on there and I hope this information helps out some of you that forget about your classic games and unregistered expansion packs. :)
Yes, the cash auction house is optional. But it's not a very good option.
Rob Pardo's Diablo 3 presentation during the Activision Blizzard Analyst Day event shared some insight into their philosophy surrounding the Real Money Auction House.
Here's what he said (jump to the 2h 15min mark) during his presentation:
"We really thought carefully about how we were going to design this."Earlier in his presentation, he also talked about how the Real Money Auction House is a trading game where players can obtain really hard to get items. He said that there's a difference between World of Warcraft (an "Achiever Economy" where all bosses drop the same items and can be obtained by any player) and Diablo 3 (where it's instead "Merchant Item" based and no amount of skill or time can give you the random rolls you want.) So in contrast to WoW, the really hard to get items will only be available on the Auction House.
"..the reason we're doing a listing fee in the first place is because we don't want every item possible to end up on the Auction House."
"..there's going to be lots and lots of items in the game that players aren't just going to find or going to be valuable enough to spend real world money on. We really feel that it's important that the (Cash) Auction House is the place you go for valuable items."
"The things up on the (Cash) Auction house are the things players should be willing to spend money on. We feel that the listing fee really achieves that."
And then they have the free listings per week. They want players to use the Cash Auction House, and Rob said that the free listing is a great way to get players interested in the real money service. Paraphrased: "They're unsure about using it.. then BOOM, you get a really powerful item. I know this is a valuable item, so I'll try and put it on the (cash) auction house for the first time. If that item sells, it's a great way to get people introduced to the (cash) auction house." You can hear his exact example at the approximate 2:15:51 mark.
Both Gold and Cash is shared amongst all of your characters. That's right; your shared stash isn't needed to share Gold, all of the Gold you're carrying is automatically shared with all of your characters. Their intention is clear when it comes to trading and item sales.
Basically;
* Blizzard really wants you to use the Cash Auction House. There are incentives in place to get you using it regularly.
* There are so many items out there and random drops from bosses, that the items you want will be practically impossible to get on your own. You HAVE to rely on the Cash Auction House to obtain it.
* The Cash Auction House is where you go for valuable items. The Garbage.. I mean, Gold Auction House is where you go for everything else.
* You have to use Real Money to get the really powerful Diablo 3 items. (That's the plan.)
If you're happy with the minimum, then you'll be very be very pleased using the Gold Auction House. But if you want valuable items and the best gear, then you'll have to use the Cash Auction House.
The game is all about character development and improving upon yourself, and human nature drives us to create uber powerful characters and compete. So, this system is practically forcing players into the Cash Auction House. It's the only way to advance.
I don't feel one way or another about this system, I just think it will be interesting to see how players will react to it when it's live.. but I just don't want you surprised when you find out the items you need to advance will only be available for real money.
A former Blizzard employee (kidr3volver on Reddit) has posted screenshots (and now a video) of the Diablo 3 beta.
Source of the information can be found here.
His IMGUR album is located here. And you can watch the Beta Player Character Screen video here.
According to his IAMA, "the majority of my life in blizzard was under the account and billing/tech department but have some general GM experience as well".
I don't think kidr3volver was too serious about protecting his identity though. According to previous Reddit posts, he publicly revealed his name and date of birth: Joshua Shields, 1986 (jshields1986). According to his public Google+ profile, he worked for Blizzard Entertainment in the Account and Tech Services department from 2010-2011.
Here's his LinkedIn Profile and a screenshot and here's my favorite part:
Learn and review departmental policies and procedures.He probably received an earlier beta invite through the "Friends & Family Members" closed beta invite, considering that he's not currently employed by Blizzard.
Maintain security and confidentiality of Blizzard Entertainment internal information and customer/account.
His jshields1986 unique alias is all over the internet as well, and there are plenty of pictures of both him and his cat.
http://cheezburger.com/jshields1986/
http://www.quickmeme.com/user/jshields1986/oldest/
http://s634.photobucket.com/albums/uu64/jshields1986/
http://imgur.com/user/jshields1986
http://www.resumebucket.com/jshields
jshields1986@gmail.com, jshields1986@yahoo.com, etc. etc.
This is a really good example (and a warning) of how important it is to protect your identity and "internet footprint". Information about you is all over the web, and it just takes one slip up to link all of your aliases to one identity.
Unless this is all an elaborate conspiracy where someone borrowed this persons alias in an attempt to frame them. For example, he worked with Joshua at Blizzard, didn't like him, and now it's payback time. :)
** Update:
Kidr3volver has been going through and deleting all of his Reddit posts. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled the images and YouTube video too. (It's already been reposted though.)
And, Blizzard has just deleted one of the Diablo 3 discussions on Battle.net. Never had a chance to read the entire thing and it was up for about 5-6 hours.
Here's the one that was deleted: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118271920
Interestingly enough, they still kept the original older posting (7 hours old now) that contains all of the personal information about the leaker: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3118161991
I had thought it was against B.Net forum rules to post that sort of stuff there. I wonder why they deleted the newer post, but not the original?
It might have had something to do with the comments made by Sixen on the forum (he's a Community MVP.) They were talking about favoritism (i.e. friends that hooked them up with invites) for Beta selection: [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3]
Sixen was also originally telling everyone that there was no Diablo 3 Friends and Family "F&F" Alpha/Beta, then changed his tune when corrected by forum users:
"There will not be a Friends and Family Alpha or Beta. The game is going right from Internal Alpha to Public Beta."** Update:
"Nevermind, apparently I'm wrong, there will be an F&F."
"Nope, the info I had changed."
Confirmed; he just pulled his YouTube video.
There's another copy here for your viewing pleasure.
Notes taken from the Activision Blizzard Analyst Day [Source]:
* Introductory music for Kotick was hilarious. "PLEASE WELCOME.. *intense energizing action music*.. BOB-BY KOOOO-TICK!!!!"
* Kotick used the term "game changer" which was a pun that wasn't supposed to be a pun. I am disappoint.
* Apparently, Battle.net only has "15 Million (+) Monthly Active Users". Doesn't anyone else find that very low? This includes all Diablo players, StarCraft 1 + 2 players, WoW Starter Accounts, and World of Warcraft (including WoW China) active players. The ones that have B.Net accounts anyways (which is required for SC2, WoW and Starter Accounts).. but 15 million? That's it? Based on their vanity figures, I had thought it would be closer to 25-30 million at least. Since Starcraft 2 has 4-5 million active B.Net accounts right now, that only leaves 10-11 million players for the rest of their franchises. Guess that confirms Daeity's previous estimates regarding REAL PLAYERS versus "Subscriptions". :)
In September of 2002, B.Net had 11 million active users. And in September of 2004, they had 12 million active users. [Source]
So, B.Net Monthly Active Users has only increased about 3 million in the past 7 years. Wow.
* Activision boldly claimed that COD has more players (30 million unique players) than any Facebook game, and higher engagement than all top Facebook games. Once again, these are vanity figures and don't reflect actual active players and could have just been registered users.
But they're wrong. As of Feb. 1, 2011 CityVille had ~98.5 million MAU and Farmville had ~53 million MAU. Those are ACTIVE USERS, not just registered users.
What statistics did they even compare to?
* Activision claimed that their preorders for COD: MW3 are significantly higher than previous games and all other competitors. This is old news though. Based on their statements, MW3 preorders should be at least 7 million.
* The Skylanders transmedia MMO is targeting the "37 million online and gaming households with children aged 6-12". They received this statistics from the "2011 Gamer Census Data" but I couldn't locate this anywhere online. Maybe an internally researched census?
Skylanders is basically Pokemon candy cigarettes intended to get children hooked before being introduced to "adult cigarettes".. that is, Call of Duty. Gotta get them when they're young.
* There are about 100 developers working on the new Halo MMO right now. They're also building their own gaming service portal for the game (a "Battle.net" for Halo).
* Mike Morhaime was up next. Mentioned that they have 4,500 employees across 10 global offices. 800 of those employees are developers. The rest, as you know, are Customer Service.
* Mike detailed some other Blizzard vanity figures:
Blizzcon 2010 had over 25,000 attendees and over 500,000 viewers paid for the virtual ticket. Their Facebook page has over 1 million users following it.
* They're working on "Blizzard DOTA" and still working on the Marketplace for B.Net.
* Made some very interesting remarks about "nonlinear subscriber growth" and "erosion of player base." Nonlinear growth meaning negative growth but stated in a positive light. He mentioned that subscriber numbers are impacted by seasonality and new content, but that they're working on increasing retention initiatives and new regions to expand their service. It just sort of came out of the blue too, he didn't talk about subscription changes. These comments worried a lot of the attendees.. it's like he's preparing them for low subscriber counts at their next quarterly meeting.
* Continuing with the low subscriber number, he mentioned that NetEase is working on penetrating their Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in China. But there's risk involved, and their computer systems and IGR (Internet Game Rooms) are built for less performance heavy games like WoW. :)
* They've seen a 60% increase in new account creation due to the new World of Warcraft Starter Edition. Can't wait to see if they modify their "Subscriber" definition.
* The Diablo 3 Beta will be going into beta later this month. It will be starting during the last week or so, with beta invites going out at least 1-2 weeks in advance. So, Mid-Sept beta invites..
* Rob Pardo said that "Loot = BIG PART OF DIABLO". WOW has an "Achiever Economy" where players need to work for their items or have the best skill, whereas Diablo has a "Merchant Item Economy". The gameplay focus on items concerns me; I hope it doesn't sacrifice other important aspects of the game.
* Blizzard is expecting users to be able to sell items for $5, $10, and $50 on the Cash Auction House. The Gold Auction House will be for normal sales and most common items. The Cash Auction House will be for the best items and hardest to get.
* They seem to be aware that there's a clear segregation between the Gold AH and Cash AH in that the Gold AH will be used for low level items and the Cash AH will be used for high level items. For those who are complaining about the Cash AH, supporters will say "The real money auction house is optional." Well.. yes, optional for cheap items. All of the best items will be sold for cash and they'll also cycle through the system. Rob Pardo said that the "really powerful items will be bought and sold all the time."
* Rob Pardo is hoping people will use the Battle.net Account Balance (RMAH) to support their World of Warcraft subscription, buy B.Net games, and virtual items.
* The 3rd party payment provider partner has still not been announced yet because they don't technically have one yet. What concerns me is that they haven't finalized any deals yet, but that they're "getting close to a deal right now." The beta is starting soon, but they still haven't finalized the Cash Auction and Player Banking systems. Without a partner, what kind of shape is the technology and infrastructure? This can seriously push back the retail release date of the game and should have been finalized a long time ago. It sounds very last minute.
* Rob Pardo reiterated that the Cash Auction House is in place because players wanted it. "Why? PLAYERS WANT IT!" He also said, "Players really want this, and if we don't do it, someone else will."
* Thomas Tippl mentioned that the following investments will be out within the next 2-3 years: Diablo 3, D3 Expansion Pack, StarCraft X2 and X3, World of Warcraft X4 and X5. Titan MMO will incorporate mobile and social elements and will not be out in 2-3 years (i.e. 2014).
* Thomas Tippl said that the Map Marketplace will launch at the same time as the first SC2 Expansion Pack.
* Other than the World of Warcraft expansion packs, Blizzard also has new "Value Added Services" in the pipeline to enhance player experience.
* The Bungie MMO will be multiplatform. Since it trailed Skylanders information, it seemed to be that Thomas was indicating the Bungie MMO would be multiplatform like Skylanders. So, all consoles, plus PC, plus a "Web World" (or a web based method to access your account and possibly play elements of the game.)
* During the QA Period, the "nonlinear growth" question came up again. Mike Morhaime stated that the 12M to 11.1M drop was across the board but that "We don't break down regionally." They have done so in the past though.
* Regarding "continuing content", there will be a major update coming later this year. Meaning the X4 announcement at Blizzcon.
And, that's all folks. Some interesting stuff though.. especially that B.Net figure.