Wait, how come some people have their beta forum accounts but I had to create a new one?

Adventurer · March 2022

When I tried to relogin into the forums after I bought the game, it didn't let me, saying my account doesn't exist and I had to create a new one with the invitation sent to me from support, since at the time everyone had to receive an invite to be able to create an account (not sure if it's still the same).

I'm 100% I tried password reset and it didn't work, so I'd like to know why didn't it work? I had the same email address, so logically if I already had an account it wouldn't have let me create a new one with the same one, so it's obvious something must've happened. At the time I had assumed all beta forums accounts were deactivated, but now I noticed one of the other forum members here has a beta account from 2013!

My account was never banned btw (and if it were I wouldn't have been able to use the same email address to create a new one), I could use it and only when I rebought the game I couldn't log back in.

@ZOS_Kevin Do you if there's a way to check what happened? I'd like to see my old forum posts or use my old account/merge it, if it's possible.

Arunei · March 2022

I don't think those are beta forum accounts, it's just that the game was able to link beta stuff to live stuff. You'll notice if you go to your account page on the site, it'll show there as well when you started playing, whether it was during beta or after launch.

The main reason I doubt anyone's beta forum account is the same as our live ones is simply because we no longer have access to posts made on the beta boards. Kind of like how we can't access our beta accounts or characters in-game because the beta and live accounts are different ones.

Lumsdenml · March 2022

Wow, so long ago now! I participated in beta, but didn't buy the game until 01/2015, and that is the date on my forum profile, so not sure if others have beta firm accounts or not. I thought, though, that my character from beta was there in 01/2015 when I logged in? I know the account was the same. But, that was a long time ago and I could be mistaken...

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

Necrotech_Master · March 2022

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Wow, so long ago now! I participated in beta, but didn't buy the game until 01/2015, and that is the date on my forum profile, so not sure if others have beta firm accounts or not. I thought, though, that my character from beta was there in 01/2015 when I logged in? I know the account was the same. But, that was a long time ago and I could be mistaken...

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

april 2014 was official release, but the "closed beta" periods started as early as the late 2013 from what ive seen (sometime between oct and dec 2013)

ive been playing actively since 2014, but i didnt actually make a forum account until last year lol

Suddwrath · March 2022

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

Welp, this is news to me…guess I’d better reach out to ZOS’ HR department

Lumsdenml · March 2022

Suddwrath wrote: »

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

Welp, this is news to me…guess I’d better reach out to ZOS’ HR department

Ha ha ... like I said, a long time ago. I was thinking beta was Jan of 2014, but guess not!

Belegnole · March 2022

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

Hmm, does someone owe me a few years of back pay? I'm from 2013 as well.

wenchmore420b14_ESO · March 2022

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Wow, so long ago now! I participated in beta, but didn't buy the game until 01/2015, and that is the date on my forum profile, so not sure if others have beta firm accounts or not. I thought, though, that my character from beta was there in 01/2015 when I logged in? I know the account was the same. But, that was a long time ago and I could be mistaken...

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

Nope. I'm 2013 and not a ZoS employee. But boy if I was I'd let some folks have it!! Lol! jk
The "joined" in your forum profile is when you joined forums, not game play start date. I have seen many who were here at launch, but their profile says several years later.
My beta forums account just auto became my regular forum acct so not sure why it didn't for others.
Also, most who were in betas or closed betas will have the extra numbers and letters w/ _ESO at the end of their names.
They show which Beta you were in (what month), but not all beta players have it by their name. So don't know about that either why some do and some don't.
Huzzah!

phaneub17_ESO · March 2022

My name checks out. It's funny when people think the extra letters as part of my name, but its just the beta build of when I was invited, sadly it's the server stress test build code where all we had access to was Auridon and the roost, nobody could get above level 12 or so.

Adventurer · March 2022

Arunei wrote: »

.

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

They're not.

The person whom I saw having a 2013 account is @Kesstryl . Kesstryl how did you do it? How come your account says it was created in 2013?

Adventurer · March 2022

wenchmore420b14_ESO wrote: »

Nope. I'm 2013 and not a ZoS employee. But boy if I was I'd let some folks have it!! Lol! jk
The "joined" in your forum profile is when you joined forums, not game play start date. I have seen many who were here at launch, but their profile says several years later.
My beta forums account just auto became my regular forum acct so not sure why it didn't for others.
Also, most who were in betas or closed betas will have the extra numbers and letters w/ _ESO at the end of their names.
They show which Beta you were in (what month), but not all beta players have it by their name. So don't know about that either why some do and some don't.
Huzzah!

I was actually in the closed beta test as well, so I was hoping I could reacess my old account. It's interesting that some have it, and some don't.

dem0n1k · March 2022

Adventurer wrote: »

Arunei wrote: »

.

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

They're not. The person whom I saw having a 2013 account is @Kesstryl . Kesstryl how did you do it? How come your account says it was created in 2013?

Maybe there was beta forums!
I was in the beta.. but my 'Joined' date on this forum is when I signed up to the forum.

Tinolyn · April 2022

As I recall, you were allowed to change your forum name once they established the forums for that beta build.

This account was definitely an _ESO starter; first post - Nov. 2013.

sithus1966_ESO · April 2022

Didn't have any issues with mine and after Beta I didn't play until 2017.

Ulvich · April 2022

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Lumsdenml wrote: »

Wow, so long ago now! I participated in beta, but didn't buy the game until 01/2015, and that is the date on my forum profile, so not sure if others have beta firm accounts or not. I thought, though, that my character from beta was there in 01/2015 when I logged in? I know the account was the same. But, that was a long time ago and I could be mistaken...

Are you sure the person from 2013 was not a ZOS employee? 2013 seems early...

april 2014 was official release, but the "closed beta" periods started as early as the late 2013 from what ive seen (sometime between oct and dec 2013)

ive been playing actively since 2014, but i didnt actually make a forum account until last year lol

Exact date for closed beta (first run) was Nov. 22, 2013.

Stamicka · April 2022

Oldest I’ve seen is @SirAndy I haven’t seen him post in a long time though.

Also @driosketch

FeedbackOnly · April 2022

Arunei wrote: »

I don't think those are beta forum accounts, it's just that the game was able to link beta stuff to live stuff. You'll notice if you go to your account page on the site, it'll show there as well when you started playing, whether it was during beta or after launch.

The main reason I doubt anyone's beta forum account is the same as our live ones is simply because we no longer have access to posts made on the beta boards. Kind of like how we can't access our beta accounts or characters in-game because the beta and live accounts are different ones.

They just archive like Morrowind beta

godspeedfxb14_ESO · April 2022

So that's why I have the letters after my name.. was wondering how that happened, lol.

Adventurer · April 2022

sithus1966_ESO wrote: »

Didn't have any issues with mine and after Beta I didn't play until 2017.

I joined in 2016, so that makes it doubly surprising you could reuse yours and I couldn't.

Danikat · April 2022

My forum account is from one of the later betas (January 2014) and I was able to get it back when I bought the game in February 2015.

My oldest topic is actually from just after the game went live, when I asked why I was still able to post on the forum even though I hadn't bought the game. It was a few days after posting that my account was locked. When I finally did buy the game I had to contact ZOS to get my forum account back, but I don't remember the exact process because it was 7 years ago.

(My game account is the same as well, of course everything was wiped when the game went live but I got the beta monkey and the beta access still shows on my billing history, which is kind of weird since it was free, but I suppose anything with an account key goes on there.)

Adventurer · April 2022

Danikat wrote: »

My forum account is from one of the later betas (January 2014) and I was able to get it back when I bought the game in February 2015.

My oldest topic is actually from just after the game went live, when I asked why I was still able to post on the forum even though I hadn't bought the game. It was a few days after posting that my account was locked. When I finally did buy the game I had to contact ZOS to get my forum account back, but I don't remember the exact process because it was 7 years ago.

(My game account is the same as well, of course everything was wiped when the game went live but I got the beta monkey and the beta access still shows on my billing history, which is kind of weird since it was free, but I suppose anything with an account key goes on there.)

Oh yeah, same here - I also have the beta monkey and the beta date in my account, so it's possible there was an issue with relinking accounts for some people after buying the game. Your name actually sounds familiar, I'm sure I saw your posts in the past back then!