Does The Public Test Realm Ruin New Content?
With the Patch 3.3 PTR going strong, players have been diving in to check out the new dungeons and raids, as well as uncovering all sorts of new content and spoilers. From the new armor sets, to the ending of Icecrown, sites have been digging up all sorts of new information. However, for some of us, a new PTR begins a period of dodging popular news sites and covering our ears when our friends try to tell us about the latest and greatest. It’s hard to not come across at least some lore spoilers while surfing your favorite WoW sites.
I may be among the minority, but I hate that the Test Realm is public. For me it ruins the new content. I do not want to know what happens at the end of Icecrown, or what strategy I need to finish all the 5-mans before the patch is even released. It takes away from that new patch smell when you know most of what is going to happen before patch day. I understand the need for testing but does it really need to be open to everyone? News sites even go one step further and data mine the patch looking for new things to drive traffic to their sites. They often dig up things Blizzard did not intend to release yet. Being able to check out the latest tier sets or learning about new spell changes is great, figuring out how to one shot the latest dungeons or seeing the death sequence for Arthas is not. I want to earn that right. I want the challenge of figuring out strats for each boss, not just watch a you tube video released even before the patch goes live. It cheapens the accomplishment in my book.
I will give Blizzard credit, they have done things to curb this trend. By only allowing limited testing of bosses across different countries and changing some of the fights when they go live, they have eliminated some of the head start guilds get by spending time on the PTR. I think more needs to be done, especially when it comes to the data mining of spoilers. Possibly limit the number of testers and have them under a NDA, or holding back parts of the patch file that contain spoilers. I’m sure may people will tell me to quit whining, but I am sure there is a segment of the community that is annoyed by all the spoilers. What is your take? Do you enjoy the PTR or would you prefer to see the content for the first time on the live servers?
I personally love the PTR. It’s great for me to see what changes are coming to my class in advance and what other encounters I can expect. I don’t see what the difference is between learning them now or learning them live. I’d rather learn as much of it as I can and get some advanced warning as opposed to learning it fresh on live. The way I see it, my patch day is when a new PTR patch is released. When the real patch goes live, that’s the polished rendition that’s bug free.
But my perspective is largely due to the fact that I’m a raid leader. I have to know this stuff in order to take my guys in there. The less time I spend learning on live, the better. Personally though, if players don’t want to get spoiled about news and such, their best bet is to not visit any news sites at all until the patch actually comes out or skip reading on any spoiler’esque news items.
It it definitely a nice tool for guild leaders, and I did use it back in the day when I ran a guild. However, for those lore junkies and purists out there it is a bit of a nuisance to have to avoid all things WoW in order to avoid any spoilers. I think there is still a more private way to test it and still get it relatively bug free, they still don’t manage to catch everything as it is anyway.
This was an interesting topic I had never really thought of. During my days of casual play, I was so excited whenever a patch hit. I have lost that excitement as i press more towards a hardcore player. I read Matticus’ website, and wow.com and many others for information and keeping up to date with my class and usually some new patch note catches my eye.
I personally dont go play in the PTR, or push my guild that way, but i read up on whats going on, so come patch day, i can make my transition as easy as possible and inform any of my more casual players that just click through patch notes of their changes.
Personally spoilers don’t bother me, but i can see where people would be annoyed if they are the kind that dont want to know. I think too many people use the PTR for pre-patch experience, and would rather see a limited number of PTR testers to work out bugs, not play the new content before its official. But to each his own i suppose.
I know wow.com just posted the Arthas animation, and i didnt click the link to see. Because when i take my guildies in there and see him i want everyone to be in awe. That this is the moment we have played WoTLK for, and it is finally here, The Prince is right in front of us, and probbly about to make us wet ourselves.
Like you said, learning how the new tier works and testing it is fantastic but the leaking of some items, and animations, and graphics, and story text i believe should be stopped.
Jesus im sorry this is a really late rant without spell checking. Sorry!
I think Wrath has been different. For some reason Arthas and the whole Lich King ordeal is near and dear to people who follow the lore of the game. Especially more so than what we saw in Vanilla and BC. I think that is why people are taking more exception to spoilers now then in the past.