The reader who posted the new PoE Beta Key wanted the puzzle to be a little more challenging. I didn't want to make it too lengthy or annoying though, so here you go:
__CW2 - W_M_C - HU_L_ - E6H__
To fill in the blanks, you need to answer the following riddles.
There are 2 letters per group, and nothing is jumbled up:
1st Group: You should already know this. All keys start out the same.
2nd Group: __ Red Ballons
3rd Group: Less __ More Pewpew
4th Group: The Deadmines instance is also referred to as __ because of it's boss.
With the Mists of Pandaria beta supposed to be announced very soon, I figured it's about time to start speculating on the Release Date.
As far as I could tell, the last time I talked about this, I put MoP down for Q4 (October/November time frame) until more information was made available.
Even though there are supposed to be 3 games released this year, things are looking down for HOTS anytime soon. I'm still hopeful for a surprise Christmas release though.
Now, according to Boubouille, Blizzard will be sending out the Beta Invites either today or tomorrow, and the F&F specific Beta will not be happening this time.
The information that I'd really like to know (to determine a release date), is the length of the beta. This will be determined by the amount of content. So, will the Mists of Pandaria beta be just like past betas (approximately 5 months long), or are they going to shorten the beta this time around?
The WOW beta was 7 months long, TBC 4 months, WOTLK 5 months, and CATA 5 months.
Assuming that this is going to be a "normal" beta, the release date should be some Tuesday in July or August. However, they've skipped the F&F Beta test this time and they might shorten the beta to get it out even sooner.
So, say that I have a specific date already in mind.. but I didn't want Blizzard to see it. What's the best way to "lock it up" until a specific day so that critics could not possibly deny it's authenticity? I've been trying to think about it, but unfortunately, critics will just claim that it was "hacked in" or something (they'll have an excuse for everything.) Anyone aware of a website where you can post a message that "unlocks" at a certain time?
* Oh, by the way, I have another Path of Exile key to give away. I'll create a new post at approx. 1:00PM PST today and put it up. First person to register it, gets it.
I've got another Path of Exile beta key to give away.
I will post it here (simple word jumble, like before) tomorrow (Monday) at 2:00PM PST.
By the way, has everyone been getting a Tribes Ascend beta key okay? Some people say they're really easy to get, others not so much. But, it's a very awesome game that more people should be playing.
* UPDATE:
Just a reminder that this giveaway is at 2:00PM PST. I'm seeing a lot of traffic at 11:00PM PST (2:00PM EST), but I won't be posting it for another 3 hours.
* UPDATE:
PoE Beta Key: FRQBT-X7LY5-UVT2V-D____
Letters: D 5 B S
If you've been reading older comments, I've been anticipating another little "something something" this coming week (Mon Feb 20 - Fri Feb 24). I figure that if I commit to a prediction closer to the date in question, there's a less likely chance of plans being altered due to one particular individual who "runes" surprises. :)
As you've known for a while now, Bashiok and Zarhym announced an upcoming trip to Paris, to "trade strategies" with the EU CM team. They're in Paris right now, and traveled a couple days ago.
Exchanging strategies is something that could easily have been done over email or video conference, though, and considering how frugal Blizzard is with things like travel expenses, I think there's another reason they're in Paris other than "just to exchange ideas". It's more likely that they're in the EU with a specific purpose, and they're probably working with the teams to prepare them for something big.
Bashiok is denying, in regular Bashiok fashion, that they are not there for anything to do with beta testing in the EU.
I didn't think about that. People are going to think we came out to plug in EU beta servers. Funny.However, that just makes me even more suspicious and I think it's actually a cover for something else going on.
Seeing as how they traveled before the weekend, rather than at the start or middle of next week, there's a very high probability of an announcement early in the week (Monday most likely.) It won't be a release date announcement, mind you.. even though they have an internal release date scheduled, it's still too early to announce it so close to this past Shareholder's meeting.
Because they are visiting Paris, I suspect that it will be an EU specific announcement or something EU related happening. And because EU has been promised beta keys in the near future, this is probably the best time to do it with all of the other excitement taking place in NA.
Back on February 6, Nakatoir hinted that there will be "more information in the following weeks about the global giveaways as well as for regional betas for you." There's a very high probability that this will happen within the next few days, and ideally early in the week since Bashiok and Zarhym need to hop on another plane at the end of the week to travel again.
Don't expect beta keys to be immediately available though. It will probably be much like the US giveaway; there will be various contests, sweepstakes, instructions, region specific stuff, twitter stuff, a lot of rules (regional restrictions), and starting & ending dates.
(Just a note, they're not technically "physical beta keys" that are being given away. It will be just like the US contests where you submit your email address, the fansite forwards their account lists to Blizzard, and Blizzard upgrades your Battle.net Account with "the beta key.")
There are also hints in that same Nakatoir posting that NA was used primarily for heavy server performance testing, which tells me that they're not going to worry about the same so much in EU. Meaning, that you should not expect as many beta keys to be given away in the EU that were given away in NA. And, they will probably be divided up (Network Team's choice) into multiple regions for varied testing (and latency) metrics.
* UPDATE (02/20/12):
Confirmed! Diablo3x.com via their Facebook account, just confirmed that they received 150 beta keys from Blizzard France and that they will be providing an update soon.
And, svenskadiablo.se also confirmed that they have received 225 beta keys that they can give away on February 20 (today) and more on March 5.
Dear www.svenskadiablo.se,Something tells me that they weren't supposed to announce these until today though and it was supposed to be after Blizzard had already made their own official announcement (just like they did in the US.) Have any other EU fansites announced (leaked?) that they have received beta keys?
We're happy to tell you that from the 20th of February, we have 150 Diablo III beta slots for you to sacrifice to your community through contests and / or sweepstakes. Additionally, from the 5th of March, you can offer a second wave consisting of 75 slots.
* UPDATE:
Diablo3.gamona.de have just posted their official announcement, and rules for their contests. So, they're giving away their (150) beta keys now.
Now, it's just sitting tight for the Official EU Battle.net forum post. I think some of these giveaways were a little premature. :)
* UPDATE:
And.. diablo3.ingame.de just announced the start of their own contest (150 keys) too! (Thanks anonymous.)
Here's a list of their authorized/official fansites, so they should be receiving keys in various quantities. I'll update the list when (if) they make their announcements.
English / D3Expert.com: http://www.d3expert.com/
English / Diablo3X.com: http://diablo3x.com/ (150 keys)
English / Gosugamers: http://www.gosugamers.net/diablo
Danish / Diablo3x.dk: http://www.diablo3x.dk (TBA keys)
Finnish / Goblin Explosives Network: http://www.goblinexplosives.net
Hungarian / Diablo III Hungary: http://diablo3.hu
Serbian / Diablo.rs: http://www.diablo.rs/
Swedish / Svenskadiablo.se: http://www.svenskadiablo.se (225 keys)
Turkish / Blizzturk: http://blizzturk.com/diablo
German / Diablo-3.net: http://www.diablo-3.net
German / InDiablo.de: http://www.indiablo.de aka ingame.de (150 keys)
German / DIII.de: http://diablo3.gamona.de (150 keys)
German / Diablo 3 Source: http://diablo3.4fansites.de/
French / GamersOrigin: http://diablo3.gamersorigin.com/ (100 keys)
French / JeuxOnline: http://diablo3.jeuxonline.info/
French / Judgehype: http://diablo3.judgehype.com/ (225 keys)
French / Millenium: http://www.millenium.org/diablo-3/accueil/news/ (TBA keys)
French / Mondes persistants: http://diablo.mondespersistants.com/ (TBA keys)
Spanish / Diablo 3 ESP: http://www.diablo3-esp.com/ (150 keys)
Russian / BlizzGame.ru: http://diablo.blizzgame.ru/
Russian / Warcry.ru: http://www.warcry.ru
Italian / BattleCraft.it: http://www.battlecraft.it (100 keys)
Polish / Battlenet Network: http://diablo3.net.pl (150 keys incl. 25 reserved)
Polish / Diablo III Poland: http://diablo3.com.pl/ (150 keys)
Unofficial, but too big to ignore:
http://tweakers.net (400 keys)
http://mygaming.co.za (450 keys)
Also, most of the sites who have "150 keys" might actually have received 225 or more. These are just the ones they're giving away for the first wave, but there's still a second.. plus the ones they reserve for staff members and friends.
I'm surprised no one from Reddit has picked up on any of this yet.. it's been a few hours now. So, if you're look for some free karma, you may want to link to this useful information in /r/diablo.
* UPDATE:
Apparently, Bashiok updated his US post this morning (02/20/12 @ 8:38AM PST) with additional (non-NA) beta giveaways:
D3Downunder: http://d3downunder.com (100 keys)
AusGamers: http://ausgamers.com (125 keys)
* UPDATE (02/21/12):
And there it is.. official Blizzard announcement regarding the EU fansite beta giveaways. :)
You can continue using that link instead of the ones I created above now.
Funny how so many fansites launched the official Blizzard contest, before Blizzard even made the announcement. And, as you can see, they aren't giving away as many keys as they did in NA.
They're still updating, and trying to collect information from the various fansites. It's still going to take a lot of time, manpower, and organization to manage all of these contests and sweepstakes from so many fansites in the EU. This is the job of Community Managers. Still think it's a coincidence that 2 CMs from HQ experienced with these contests paid them a visit? :)
I don't think they have much time to exchange strategies and pal around during the craziness this week (plus, with all of the forum outrage over the lack of keys.) I think Bashiok and Zarhym are there to help out.
Possibly the last one for a while. Will be giving away this one tomorrow (Jan 30) at 12:00PM PST.
This week and next should be quite exciting. Interesting posts here will pick up once there's finally new information available. I'm mostly looking forwards to creating some gold guides, though, once the game goes live.
* UPDATE:
Beta Key: FRY75-HWB8Z-EHN6C-9____
Letters: J E 2 Y
I will be giving away 2 beta-keys tomorrow at 1:00PM PST.
One for Path of Exile and the other for Tribes Ascend (Thanks Matais!).
You obviously won't have time for both (keys go fast), so make sure you pick the one that's higher priority for you. :)
For the Tribes Ascend key, I don't know how exactly to register it since I haven't done it myself. I assume that you'll need to create an account with Hi-Rez Studios, and then register the key there. So, you'll have to do some leg work and prepare for tomorrow.
I'll be doing another simple random letter shuffle for both keys. Good luck!
* UPDATE:
Tribes Ascend Key: F3F75A74511AFD4B42AE7C2B1
Apparently, these are pretty easy to get a hold of. So, if you have any spares that you want to give away, just post them as a comment here.
Path of Exile Key: FRSQJ-5G2PN-HBKGV-3____
Letter Shuffle: P M F P
If you win and get a friend invite, the people here would really appreciate it if you throw it back for another contest. :)
I will be giving away two Path of Exile keys tomorrow. One at 12:00PM PST and the other at 1:00PM PST.
* UPDATE:
First key: FRY46-LLKEM-BLNQL-U____
Characters: M E L G
Will post the second in 1 hour.
* UPDATE:
Sorry, guys - I fucked up. That was the one from yesterday.
Here's the one for today: FRFCM-T2VNH-5WV5H-6PTVT
No puzzle this time, I still have another coming in 30 minutes though.
* UPDATE:
Second key: FRQGV-DSQH4-W3TVL-G____
Characters: 3 X H H
If you win the POE key, you'll also get a friend invite pretty quickly (you need to check back on your pathofexile.com mail account). If you want, just post it back here as a comment and I'll put it up for another contest. Or, just give it to your friend, whatever you want. Your friend's friend invite can be sent back here too so that we can keep cycling through these for our readers. :)
Sort of a surprise giveaway.
Will be giving away this key in 10AM PST (2.5 hours from now.)
Looks like POE keys are a lot more common now too, especially with the immediate friend invites.
* UPDATE:
Here you go:
FRY46-LLKEM-BLNQL-ULMEG
No puzzle, just copy-and-paste. :) I did this one earlier because I have another large post coming up later today.
I've got another PoE Key to giveaway thanks to one of our previous winners.
I don't know the exact time I'll be giving it away, but it will probably be tomorrow some time around 1:00PM PST. I'll update this post earlier in the day with a more firmed up time, once I've worked out my schedule for tomorrow.
It looks like the winners do receive new friend keys pretty quickly. So, if you're a winner, just post in the "Content Submission" area if you want to continue this trend on the site.
* UPDATE:
Looks like I'll probably do it around 2:00PM PST today instead. Will update later today as soon as I have the chance.
* UPDATE:
In 15 minutes I'll post it here, just like usual. It will be another jumble puzzle like last time. It will be 4 characters just like last time too.. 5 characters (120 permutations) is far too annoying.
* UPDATE:
FR83B-B6RQF-M55Q2-L____
Characters: 6 4 G N
I've got another beta key from "Rpgguy", and will be giving it away at 1:00 PM PST today.
(This one will be an annoying puzzle. Check out the last giveaway for clues as to what to expect.)
* UPDATE:
Here you go. Hopefully you prepared (from my last comments) due to this being a jumble puzzle.
FR6Y5-8YZ5Z-WVBMU-B _ _ _ _
Letters are Z A P R
This one is only 24 possibilities.
Next time I might make it a 5 letter jumble. The 5 letter ones are much more brutal though.. that's 120 combinations. :)
Good luck. Please let us know if you got it successfully.
Matais has given us his Friend Beta-Key for another giveaway here.
My day is going to be a bit hectic today, so I don't know what exact time to post it. (But, I want to give you all a chance to be on the blog when it's time so I won't just post it right now without warning.)
I'll post an update in a few hours, but I'll probably give it away within 6-7 hours from now. It's about 6:30 AM PST right now by the way.
* UPDATE
It's 9:20AM PST now, I'll be giving away the beta key in just less than 4 hours (1:00PM PST).
* UPDATE
Here it is: FRKDC-GVPGR-2RE9U-F27TX
If you win, please leave a comment. :)
(Next one will be a little more difficult, I'll make it jumbled up words by the way.)
I also have that Account Giveaway too (it's not a beta key, but a fully registered account already.. I would just need to transfer ownership to the winner.) That contest hasn't been announced yet though.
Continuing on with my thoughts about manipulation and how (many) users don't view Facebook was very useful or reliable, I wanted to demonstrate a practical example of how it can be used and has been used (many times) with great success.
This is also a warning piece about the dangers of employees using Facebook, really any profile site for that matter.
Here's a very good practical example from a completely open (public) Facebook profile:
While others are saying "Facebook is unreliable for real information!!!" I think that you're beginning to see some of the real possibilities here.
The problem with WOW phishing scammers is that they don't really have any personal details about their targets, so they're left with very generalized phishing lure emails, and they try to email as many people as possible (usually using email addresses datamined from WOW gaming forums.)
But look at the dangers associated with Facebook in this case.
- You now have detailed personal information about every one of these individuals.
- You know where they live.
- You know their profession and where they work.
- You know their family members and their email addresses too.
- You have their own personal email address.
- You know that this is also their Battle.net LOGIN ID.
- And you know that they're in the Diablo 3 Friends & Family beta.
All of these users just publicly posted a ton of information about themselves and they didn't even care. This is how dangerous Facebook is, and why it is indeed reliable for useful information or leaks.
All over Facebook, Blizzard employees have been handing out F&F Diablo 3 beta invites like candy (typically 15 available each). Even to people they hardly even know. Can you see how easily certain employees could be manipulated, or how anyone with insincere intentions could get an invite too?
Here are some theoretical examples;
- Pick a group of lesser known Blizzard artists (Concept, Cinematics, Character, Environments, etc) who have Facebook accounts. Start following them on their blog or art forum, compliment them on their new postings, stroke their ego, and do it over a few weeks or months. Once they start getting use to your name/alias, send a FB invite to join them and tell them who you are ("Hey, this is uberfan98 from CGHUB! I love your art, mind if we connect through FB?") It works better before the F&F beta starts of course, but it's still possible get an invite if they haven't burned through them already.
- This isn't just limited to artists or developers, though, often the support staff or sound engineers are overlooked and they have plenty of extra beta invites available; IT Managers, Customer Service, Recruiting, DBA, Network Administrators, Web Designers, etc.
- You can also get invites through their blog, Twitter, or other profile. And, the shy or quiet ones will always have a lot of beta invites available (look for ones who blog about their cats.. just sayin'). If their blog is more about themselves, and they don't have any pictures of their family or friends, they'll have a lot available.
- People who are in a hurry can just randomly send out Facebook invitation requests to random employees to see who bites ("I'm a huge fan! Let's be friends!"). Or, because FB reveals so much about users, it's makes it really easy just to pretend to be an old friend from high school or college ("Hey! I sat behind you in.. uhhh... History, yeah that's right").
- The problem with pretending to be someone else, though, is that you need to create a backstory for your new internet identity. For example, create a new email address, create a new Battle.net account, and use a different mailing address in your registration. The overly paranoid should also use VPN during all of this. It's very unlikely that your "mark" would every confirm IP information to your location, though, and they would just look at your email address or B.Net account summary.
Facebook unreliable and not very useful? Right.
Anyone who ever says this is completely oblivious to the dangers of the internet, and they have probably revealed a ton of personal information about themselves publicly. If you were to leave a USB drive labelled "naughty pix" outside their front door, they're the kind of people who would plug it into their work computer to see what's on it (and not even consider the ramifications.)
The internet is not always a nice place, and you would be wise to remove all personal information about yourself from it. This is just one example of why (and why you should never mix your social life with work).
The key winner from the first contest (this past Monday) has graciously given us his recently received friend invite, so we have another contest!
I'll post it tomorrow at 9:00AM PST.
I know you guys really want these, so I won't hoard them for a few days. :)
(For an entire YEAR I waited and never received a beta key, and now within a week I have two accounts and 4 beta keys to give away. Is that like Murphy's Law or something?)
I'll still also have the Account give-a-way, I just need to think about the contest. Also, remember the mental note I made and be prepared for an easy/annoying puzzle.
* UPDATE
two zed el nine six four gee eee eh que dee why eff seven jay bee pee gee arr eff
("eh" sounds like the letter "A" by the way. It might be pronounced differently outside NA, which is why I'm clarifying.) :)