Blizzard is such a tease...

[VincentSDSH]

In the cold small hours of a certain Tuesday morning, twixt the too-tired-to-do-anything but not-tired-enough-to-sleep, a hapless mod developer decides to see what might possibly be interesting on WoW Interface. New mod perhaps? Developer question? Even, maybe, the beta invites being up -- naa, that would be a bit soon, wouldn't it?

Yet, lo and behold, a pretty red button sat smiling on the page, waving and beckoning our weary mod author forward with the sweet, sweet scent of beta -- concealing, of course, the hours and hours of work and head-banging that will inevitably follow.

Excited, the author clicks on the link and...realizes that age-old problem of "mods that don't break": Gosh, Skippy, we haven't updated the .toc on this thing in ages!

An edit of the .toc here, an upload of the mod there and volia! ... our poor author is told to chill out, wait over there, have come coffee: your mod isn't green-lit yet, no beta signup for joo!

A sigh of despondency floats on the air as the author knows 'these things can take time.' A forum post here, a little checking out of new mods there, and a what-the-hell check of updated mods and hey, HEY, HEY: it's been green-lit!

Like a druid on a gnome-gnom, our author pounces on the beta button and it the resultant page is gleefully devoid of red text and beta, ah, the beta has been signed up for! "Check back often: WE WILL NOT BE NOTIFYING YOU" is, of course, taken a bit too literally and an involuntary click of the refresh button occurs. "Bah, ya daft old fool: you just signed up 3 seconds ago!" says the brain but the hand, ah, the hand is ever hopefully. Several more refreshes are done amid admonishment from the rational sides of the brain.

Alas, rest must come and our author dreamed the dreamy dreams of a mod author in waiting. The blissful new functions, the updated and improved APIs, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth while screaming "why, oh why, did they have to modify that api in just that way: alas, poor function call, I knew it well: a return code of infinite mirth and useful data, now corrupted and co-mingled in..." Ah, morning, alarm clocks, and a Tuesday awaits!

There our author sits, staring at source code and slowly sipping the morning's caffeinated lifeblood of coffee: sweet, wonderful coffee: proof God exists and wants us to be happy and alert. A thought happens: should I? A hand creeps toward the other keyboard and... No, no, this is silly -- the blues said 'maybe Thursday' for the next beta round and it's still only...Tuesday.

Inevitable conference call with the client. Chattering away about this and that function, the other test result, and is the user training on schedule...yadda, yadda: same old version-release dance. Perhaps...yes, perhaps I can sneak in a refresh just...just for the sheer, unadulterated hell of it, our author thinks. I'm not excited, I'm not dizzy with antici....pation, it's just..well...there's a lull in the conversation, yes, that's it, that's all it is!

Refresh.

HOLY MOTHER OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITS: can it...can it be? A pretty little number staring back at me?

For the ten thousandth time, our author praises the invention of the home office and teleconferencing. "Time to start the beta download 'cause, hey, it's never small, is it? Then the patching... then..." goes out author, plotting out the evening's beta upgrades and digging out notes on the re-write that was planned for Cata, oh, yes, there was much going on in that poor author's brain.

A question answered and a bit of explanation and the conference all was running on auto-pilot again. Yes, http://battle.net please, mr browser! And with dispatch, I tell you! goes the author while a little, tiny part of his mind says 'er, um...yo, hey! author-boy, you might wanna..." but, alas, it is lost in the din.

Betakey, betakey, betakey, betakey, betakey, betakey, betakey is the happy thought as the browser says "log in or create new battle net account, push the pretty yellow button"

Then...

Then...

Tuesday.

I've always hated Tuesdays....

Blizzard. You...tease...

*stabs battle.net refresh button*
*foot tap, tap, tap*

*stabs battle.net refresh button*
*foot tap, tap, tap*

*stabs battle.net refresh button*
*foot tap, tap, tap*