Project Lore

Playing on the public test realm isn't for everyone. Of course, we love to keep track of Project Lore posts so we know about exciting upcoming features such as Ulduar, dual spec and tons of new achievements. But we may not be as keen about suffering through significant bugs while knowing that any progress we make in-game ultimately will be lost. I, for one, prefer to keep tabs on progress of the PTR through WoW's official test realm forum. There are plenty of players who are quite willing, for any number of reasons, to play on the PTR despite its drawbacks. And their reports back to Blizzard through the forum provide us with a glimpse of how things are coming along. Bugs, no matter how insignificant, can be frustrating for the players. But my favorite posts are the ones reporting bug hilarity. Such as this one:

Two of my characters I use regularly on the PTR are now pantless on the character selection screen. Both are Death Knights, one is a level 58 gnome female on the PvP server, the other is an 80 tauren female on the PvE server. It doesn't seem to matter if I take my pants off in the game or not, my character selection shows 'em half naked.

And, to my surprise, Blizzard poster Dresorull responded:

Completely intended! Not actually... this is currently being investigated as a bug. Thanks for the report.

Glad they're on that one! Also in the realm of toon vanity, I've also seen mention of the character selection screen not displaying weapons, of minions freezing mid-animation when a player goes AFK and of emote sounds not timing correctly with the animation. Again, not game-breaking errors, but annoying nonetheless. And I'm sure Blizzard appreciates being told of bugs large and small. That's what the PTR is for. Even Blizzard has posted a non-comprehensive list of 15 known bugs. Now on to the more significant reported bugs. Issues range from clams not opening and pets disappearing to the deletion of glyphs. And that's once you get on the PTR. Many complaints stem from issues with logging on, such as new passwords not working, patching errors or locked-out characters. Granted, I never accept a post at face-value because some of these issues may not actually be bugs. But I'd like to think most PTR players know what they're doing. Even on the regular servers, new bugs are constantly being discovered, and oftentimes exploited. Regardless, from what I've seen, it looks to me like Blizzard still has a lot of work ahead of them on the PTR. In my opinion, it's probably about the same as previous PTRs, because you have to start somewhere. But what do you guys think? Is this, as one poster ranted, the "worst ptr EVER?"

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2008 has been the best year ever for Project Lore, mostly because it was the year that Project Lore made its debut to the world. All of us here would like to take a moment today to wish everyone happy and safe holidays. Without you the fans, Project Lore would not be able to exist, and we hope that you continue to join us in the coming year. So keep on sending emails and leaving comments, because we love reading them (most of the time ;). We have a lot of exciting endeavors that we are working hard on for 2009, so keep watching into the new year. We also wanted to let you know what was coming up on the site over the busy next couple of weeks. Our normally scheduled programming will continue through Saturday, and after that we'll be showing you guys the Best of Project Lore. We hand picked our favorite episodes of Project Lore - the ones we had the most fun taping, the ones we with the best fan reactions, the ones we hope you show to your friends to get them hooked on Project Lore too. So tune in, and thank you for being a part of Project Lore. Happy Holidays! -The Project Lore Crew

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