Testing

Basics |

World Preview

Available features:

Areas of Play: 2 New regions for exploration and adventure -- The Kingdom of Kryta and The Wilds -- each with its own beautiful environment, persistent town and instanced hunting grounds.
Player-versus-Player: Experience Guild-on-Guild war for the first time in addition to tournament and arena team combat.
Player-versus-Environment: 5 New cooperative missions that continue the Guild Wars story.
Character: New character development and abilities -- sample a host of new skills and elite skills for developing your characters and team strategy.
Leveling: Experience the Guild Wars leveling process -- the Preview event players will start at level 15 and can advance up to level 20.
Guilds: Guild functionality - during the duration of the event players will have the ability to form guilds, name guild leaders and to build their guild rank by competing against other teams in tournament combat.
Observer mode: For the first time, players will now have opportunity to watch and learn from other teams in combat by using observer mode, which allows them to monitor live tournament and arena battles

Alpha
Guild Wars is currently in closed alpha, only individuals who are personally invited by ArenaNet are able to participate in the testing of the game. They are adding individuals on a continual basis by selecting those who they consider as being involved in the community and would likely be good testers. Alpha testing is a very important process; testers are needed to find bugs within the game as well as test the game compatibility with a wide range of computer systems. Testing is mostly done on Wednesdays and Fridays, which feature events called 'All-Calls', where is all testers which can attend; do. Getting into the alpha test is no easy feat, as you must be personally invited. Current Alpha testers are under a non-disclosure agreement, which essentially means they are limited in what they are allowed to talk about. Although because the NDA is relatively lax, Alpha testers have been able to comment on numerous topics regarding the Guild Wars gameplay.

Purpose:

• Skill Balancing
• Bug Fixing
• Development Feedback
• Testing new content
• Guild Testing (since the Guild features have been implemented, there has been an emphasis on guilds)

Beta Testing
To become a beta tester, the process is very easy and straightforward and as long as the procedures are followed, it guarantees the player a spot in the beta. To enter the beta test, fans have to buy a Guild Wars pre-order from a store offering the 'pre-order product' (bunch of neat stuff, including access to the beta test). Beta testers will then have access to Guild Wars the first weekend of every month. The pre-order product will be released on the 13th of September, but the beta shall only start in november ( immediately following the world preview).

Pre-Order features:

• Pre-account registration for game launch
• The ability to save your character name for launch of the game
• Exclusive access to every Beta Weekend Event, which will take place the first weekend of each month until release
• Store-specific in-game item - varies by retailer
• Friend's Pass that allows you to invite one guest to join you for one of the monthly Beta Weekend Events
• Folded Poster
• Prima Mini Quick Start Guide
• Digital Media that includes:
  • 15 Pieces of Game Concept Art
  • 9 Desktop/Wallpaper Images
  • Several musical tracks from award winning composer Jeremy Soule created for the Guild Wars original music score