f13.net

Humm. They where just talking about all the cool stuff in the next patch, now all of a sudden, closed beta is over. Maybe they are trying to beat EQ2 to release.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

Wanna bet money VU said "Blizzard, we can't let Sony beat us out the door. Release. NOW!"

I noticed they've also updated harassment/exploitation policies. I smell release coming.

Hah. I'd love it if they did. I don't think SOE counted on Blizzard, the king of delays, laying down a trump card at the last minute. First and mostly finished.. smells like doom to me.

Smells like the start of open beta to me. I was pretty much expexting Nov.1 open beta leading up to release on the 15th. Should neatly puncture EQ2's early release advantage.

... The beta boards must be going absolutely crazy ape psychotic. Should be fun to watch.

I don't take sucker bets.  No talents for 2 classes, warlocks still missing their pet tree, no patch this week, servers are still mildly unstable with no idea why and they're closing beta?  Oh yeah, pappa VU said, "Look if YOU don't ship it, we can find someone else who will."

And yes, I just checked the boards and they're going apeshit. So much so that they're crashing from all the people getting on them.  Very amusing.

Actually I think the servers are down for maintenance tonight and when that happens the forums pretty much go offline too. Of course, that could be because people are going apeshit because the servers are down.

Blizzards forums are impressively bad. You can tell the servers are down because their forum collapses about 10 seconds after.

I imagine the open beta download will include all the stuff they've been working on, so that wil be fun to see to.

wow, just wow.

I'm actually pretty excited at the thought that I may get to play for real soon.

IMO Blizzard doesn't need to release in order to beat SOE, just start open and very content-limited beta that will transfer to release when ready before EQ2 releases. Say beta where any player allowed to reach level n (where n<10 to 15), limited to few class/race combinations and only few newbie areas. This way everyone can start playing WoW before EQ2.

This is very well put lol.  Too true!

If you have played EQ2, you would not be concerned with such trifles.

Apparently it won't be limited in any way. It looks like the closed beta testers are carrying over into open *with* their characters. So basically the new and old communities will be merged on the new servers. It's an interesting idea and speaks of a lot of confidence. Established high level players saying nice things about the game, and being goals for the new arrivals, sounds like good advertising.

Greetings!



If you are receiving this email, you are one of the valued testers currently in World of Warcraft’s closed beta test. This message is to inform you that the beta servers will be coming down at 3:00 PM PDT on Friday, October 29 and will remain offline for a few days in preparation for another stress test. Your account and characters will be active for this stress test, but a new client download will be required. After the game servers come down on Friday the 29th, you will be able to log in to the community site and download the new client.



Once the beta-server preparations are complete, we will announce the start of the stress test, and the servers will come back online. When that happens, you will be able to log back in, download a quick patch, and then continue playing. Please keep an eye on WorldofWarcraft.com for more information about the stress test in the days ahead!



We want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the hard work you’ve been putting in to make World of Warcraft a better game. You’ve done a great job, and without you, the classes would not be where they are today, places like the Barrens would not be as rich as they are today, and the changes implemented from your suggestions would never have taken place.



We hope you've been enjoying your exclusive look at World of Warcraft these past few weeks and months, and we hope you'll take some satisfaction in knowing that you’ve played a big part in shaping its destiny. We'll see you again online soon!



Sincerely,

Blizzard Entertainment

Yeah got that email too. Reads very much like beta is over and release is on the way.

Say what you want about how similar these games might be, but man it sounds like it just going to be a world of difference in playability and polish between EQ2 and WoW.

I believe the apeshit has moved on to something worse with wonderful post titles such as:

WoW not suitable for any auidence!
never thought I'd be this disappointed
Blizzard doesn't like warlocks?
Blizzard is a whore because my mother said so and she would know
Developers - Get rid of this class
Well then, no talents yay.
My Pallys stick is bigger than yours
 "You can't do THAT without a mage"

and of course my favorites

Any way to change e-mail? (The game will be in open beta and someone asked this?)
Blizzard can suck my @*#! for releasing a unfinished game


Yah well some of these have def. been deleted now, but the fun it has been at BlizzCo.

Are they saying we have to download the whole 2 1/2 gigs AGAIN?

I find my quality of life improves dramatically with each day I ignore the Blizzard boards.

Nooo! damn their unreliable boards. That's high quality soap opera I'm missing.

And yeah, I would be putting money on them getting people to download the client again, that seems to be how they've handled large changes before. What you download is probably what's going to be the master for duplication too, so we get another indication of whether they've been holding stuff back.

Well, shit... I must be living large then.  I've ignored that horrible board since it started up and I saw people threatening to commit suicide if they didn't get in the beta.  I usually enjoy a bit of board insanity, but that was too scary even for me.

They patch tomorrow.  Those talents are going in.  Pets?  Maybe.

Sounds to me like they're preparing for a stress test (which will most likely be an open beta period). I don't see anything in there about release. It's easy folks. They prep the patches and servers for the stress test over the weekend. Put the official open beta announcement up on Monday. Servers come online. Talents are in, pets are in. Servers are optimized. 80 million players sign up for the open beta and test it. They release as planned on whatever day it was they chose. All is right in the world.

Smartassing aside, I'm hoping for the open beta so I can see how this performs on my new video card and test out some other race/class combos before release day. Yada yada yada...

That's what it looks like to me. And if the stress test is going to be done with the release canditate then its an extremely solid way to do a last test of what's actually going in the box. So on release day they can have a well tested patch for anything they messed up.

Not to mention that open beta takes the wind out of SOE's early release, without cutting short blizzards testing time. All seems rather clever, but they still need to dump VU. They still haven't got their international situation worked out which is really lame.

Isnt it marvelous that a whole new generation gets introduced to the wonders of a MMRPG release?

I hope this one really sucks.

interesting factoids:

From the WoW Information Minister (not really a factoid but worth a chuckle):



Methinks they will leave the free talent retrainers in for the first month of paid beta.

From some French website via the FoH board:

Patching and testing for an open beta vs an closed beta, though.  Those in the open will expect that to be what the game is at release.  Unless Blizzard REALLY focused on those talents, they're more likely going to be overpowered (like all talents have been when first introduced) and the subsequent cacophony of "OMG I WuZ NURFED" will be much louder.



Not surprising.  If you go and read WoW's new exploitation policy (http://worldofwarcraft.com/policy/exploitation.shtml) they included a section that specificly targets data mining (http://worldofwarcraft.com/policy/exploitation.shtml#dsmdm) of the type Thottbot was doing.   I've read that some parts of the UI cusomizations in Cosmos go directly against the 3rd party apps (http://worldofwarcraft.com/policy/exploitation.shtml#utps) part of the policy.  Blizzard hasn't made any sort of public official statement to the questions various posters have asked, but I'm sure on release Cosmos will be missing a few functions.

Remember, there are human beings with actual emotions developing these games. Have a little heart.

I saw my friend who works for Blizzard last week. He had a glazed, zombified look in his eye. He spoke in a monotone about his 14 hour work days, and the last time he had a day off was in September.

These guys have been working the skin off of their asses for months now. Yes, MMORPG launches are typically a mess, but now that I have personal experience with the toll these games have on the people that develop them, I do hope this one goes as smooth as possible. After months (no, years) of nightmarish work, they really do deserve it.

The "Death march" phase of a software project I believe that's called.

Yes. And it's not unique to MMOG projects.

Is that when the megacorp marchs to the bank and the employees fall over dead?

Same here.

It's just that the MMOG "Death March" doesn't end when the game releases.

Two of the biggest name MMOG's releasing obviously early and fucked up within two weeks of each other? I expect a black hole of whining to swallow the earth. Maybe this will be the death knell of doom the industry needs to unfuck itself.




Nahhhh.

A tremendous amount of cynicism and asshattery is being spewed across message boards (including this one) regarding the releases of WoW and EQ2.

Everyone just needs to relax. Both games are nowhere near as broken as the squeaky wheels claim. They will be released, stuff will break, other stuff will work just fine, people will enjoy playing or not for their own reasons.

Just quoting this for posterity; it will be nice to remember this cute optimism when both of these not-ready-for-prime-time players hit the markets to the screams of childen and the lamentations of women.

I think Haemish just gets his shits and giggles predicting doom and gloom for the industry...  "Bring out your dead MMOs, bring out your dead!"  

Yet, in reality even the most half-assed MMO titles (i.e. Horizons, AC2) manage to keep festering along, like some Frankenstein monster assembled from the carcass bits of half-digested fanbois.  Seems like only games owned by EA actually die and get buried properly in a deep grave.

....

So this is your first major MMO release with us, yes?

Nahhhh because people are f'ing sheep. These are the same sheep that if you took Madden 2004-5? whatever gave it a new cover and put in cheerleaders with bigger boobies and changed NOTHING else would still pay another 50 dollars for it next year.

Jeez take all the fun out of life why don't you.

Man I have ww2ol fanboi tendancies at times and Lum's 'Taxi to Victory' still makes me giggle.

Actually, no.

I'm just tired of the torrent of bullshit coming from both the fanbois and the patronizing cynics. And I'm tired of my own bullshit, lord knows I've smeared enough of it here and elsewhere.

I guess I'm just in the mood to tell everyone, including myself, to lighten the fuck up.

Why the fuck did I go to the Blizzard forums?  I knew I would be instantly assaulted by teh stupid...

I haven't played enough EQ2 yet to decide, but WoW is going to do fine on its release except maybe for the stress on the servers. It'll need some balancing, but most content is there and its fun.

In case anyone cares, the designers at blizz updated their info on raid content:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/raid-article.shtml

Sounds pretty interesting, we will see if it is pulled off.

Balanced PvP?  Here, meet PvE mudflation.



So, basically, Vex Thall, WoW style.  Woo hah.  No thanks.

Alkiera

Raids have raid strength monsters? ohz nohz!

This obsession with bugspray must stop!

What's the alternative? To "wait and see"? To give this or that game a chance? Why? We've waited, we've seen, and we've played the same fucking stupid game over and over again.

It isn't that some of us have a problem with any particular game's flaws. It's that we think the whole genre is shit, broken from the bottom up. The only reason why we stick around and talk about them is that we see potential, not in any of the games, but in MMO's in general. And everytime it isn't delivered, we get a little pissed.

So really, man...It's Hope, not Hate :)

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/contests/costume-reallife-contest/04-winners.shtml

I guess I knew that there were people like this. I just wish they wouldn't show up on the internet.

I feel so violated.

So you had to come here and violate the rest of us?  

Cheers.

For most of us this is a hobby but there are a few people here at least where this industry is their day job or they would like it to be.

For anyone with an aspiration to be a leader in any industry sooner or later you have to take a stand and choose something (e.g. a game in this case) to support while recognizing its faults.  Or make one yourself.

But painting all options with the broad brush of misery is the mistake of anyone in any industry who ends up being a talker - not a "doer".

I find the posts of misery entertaining - with some insight.  But for the posters themselves - if you are genuine that in the real world some day you will be taken seriously - you have to pony up.  Pick a horse and back it or make one your own.

The "all options are shit" approach is a very common problem for folks that are bright - but lack practical focus.  In this position these people never amount anything imo - and quickly become irrelevant unless they change their course.  You have to be careful not to paint yourself into a corner of inaction trapped by your own critical eye (a very common problem among professional researchers and professional investors - both industries I have worked in).

Otherwise it's good fun for me - but hey - I am not looking to make my mark on the gaming industry.  If you are - my suggestions is pony-up.

How come some of the women in these pics look kinda hot, but all the guys look like losers who live with their moms??

Who gives a fuck. They just did a contest for a video game. Not only should they all win a copy of WoW but they should be taken out of the gene pool as well. Bleh. Would you all dress up for copies of WoW? No? Didn't think so.

I didn't think those outfits were all that bad.   It's not cosplay, it's for Holloween.   Not that I even bothered trick or treating for probably about a decadde, but I can't really fault them for having holiday spirit.

You don't need to trick or treat to wear a costume.  Ever heard of costume parties?  Going out to a bar dressed up?

I'm a creature of habit with my yearly costume; very little effort, not many people do it.  I buy some gray hair spray, wear my robe, let my pants fall around my ankles.  I then carry with me a remote control, an paddle ball game, an ashtray, and a chair.  Works out perfect, I have somewhere to sit all night, and I've got my own ashtray.

So sad yet comforting at the same time: It looks like even the socially inept can find a niche for themselves in this world.  This type of nerdiness transcends gender and if people like that are having fun, more power to them (I guess it beats jacking cars or holding up liquor stores).

If I ever find myself encountering one of them and hear the infamous "Lightning Bolt!" (in a non-joking manner) as a Nerf dart hits me, I highly doubt those foam divorce-therapy bats they're wielding will protect them.

Diff'rent Strokes for Diff'rent Folks, I guess.

Heh.  I think a porn site featuring game characters would make a ton of money.

I'm already working on my "Custer's Revenge" montage.

Commercial porn sites featuring game characters would need to get the okay from the companies who own the character trademarks.  Otherwise, Nintendo's Porn Division (http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-10-29&res=l) is liable to come knocking.

When I looked at the succubus woman, the first thought that occurred to me was that her top was the same colors and a similar pattern to Fironia Vie's.

I should probably be put down.

Apparently cleavage was the tiebreaker

Cleavage is always the tie-breaker. There is no ills in this world that cannot be cured with a liberal application of a pair of breasts the size of your head.

Look here. We KNOW these two releases really shouldn't be releasing this early. We know they aren't finished, nor are they in a release state. Both have some serious issues or missing content that should be there in release, in a world in which the industry gave a fuck about its own standards of quality. Are they playable in beta? Sure. So was Shadowbane.

The fact is that no matter how bad the release is, the MMOG market has shown that it will reward shitty releases. It's goddamned hard to kill most MMOG's, even when the ineptitude of the development team, hosting apparatus and publisher is clearly evident. Will WoW or EQ2's early release "kill" the games? No, because most players are either too stupid to give a shit, or too needy to realize they're being sold a half-eaten day-old eclair. Look at Horizons. Big shit sandwich, bankrupt dev company, STILL IN BUSINESS.

I find no shame in calling doom and gloom on these releases, because they will be shitty and go upwards from there. But I will laugh when they aren't the huge successes many in the industry believe they will be.

I think those same people are still betting The Sims Online will be bringing in huge numbers Any Day Now™.

Blizzard are quite clever. Their creation of a fan art section, an active and loosely moderated forum (in which developers actually post) and competitions that invite and celebrate player contribution are excellent community building. In comparison SOE make it quite clear that the fans are quite seperate and to be "managed", their wining and dining of community leaders opening divisions within the player base.

Just another reason why WoW will set records in the American MMORPG market.

You know....I played the WOW beta for over a year.  

Now that the beta server is dead I'm happy. It's hard to explain. While I love the game and it's artwork (I work in the CG industry) I am mentally exhausted from playing various characters in a world that is devoid of any real character. The emperor does indeed have no clothes.

I think the game will be very popular. I had fun testing, playing, and exploring. However, I never want to see it again. If I have to do the same quests (which are no different than those of COH) one more time I'll just die from frustration.

I was relieved to delete the directory off my system.

Christ! I think EVE-Online is more interesting at this point in my life after being worn out by WOW.

Don't even get me started about the combo of bnet kiddies and PvP. The nightmares still haven't stopped from thinking about THAT!

You did play it for a year. It can't be that bad.

I'd be happy to find a game i get a year of enjoyment out of. Most last me a couple of weeks at most...and they cost the same 49.95.

You played it for a year? OMG I'm... atonished? Troubled?

Somebody didn't come pre-burned out from EQ, hmm? ;)

I don't really envy the beta testers much - they got to play the flawed messy game.   Release should be interesting because they'll have most of the bugs worked out.  Much like City of Heroes and Dark Age of Camelot, it'll all be about expansion post-release.

I'm getting dragged into World of Warcraft because a good buddy of mine's playing the game.   However, if you have to chose yet another massively multiplayer monster slayer simulator, I'm not really certain if WoW is really all that better of a choice than EQ2.   It sort of goes back to my City of Heroes complaint: City of Heroes is an awesome game, but not so great of a MMORPG.    World of Warcraft is a pretty good game, but it's trying also to emulate a successful MMORPG, and in the previous stress test I was left with the impression it falls (http://www.grimwell.com/index.php?action=fullnews&id=179) short here.  

Who knows?  Maybe the feeling of lack of purpose within the game will go away once I know my character is permanent.   Perhaps my lack of satisfaction with the majority of the classes I played before had to do with the disciplines not being fully implementated at the time.   If World of Warcraft's previous stress test just didn't "click" with me, then maybe it will if I look deeper.   If I felt the socialization was poor before, maybe it would improve if I get involved with a guild.  Ect.

Oh well, I've made up my mind, here's hoping I won't come to regret it.  Honestly, if I'm looking for the best bang for my buck, I might as well hold out for Guild Wars.

I pick Darkfall.  On paper, it is 90%+ of what I am looking for.

Now where can send my money to, to make sure it gets released?

I would move the Greece in a heartbeat, if they felt I could help them.

I think I get a division now. Those who consider MMORPG's to be a subset of games will match them against single player games and find them lacking. The polish is not at the same level, the world is not active enough, there's too much grinding and repetition. And too much of the game is focused on having to deal with other people rather than the game. They'll also happily write a review at level 10 because they have experienced many hours of the gameplay. They probably visit websites that discuss games in general.

Then there are some who see MMORPG's as a completely seperate form of gaming. The point is to be a part of the global experience, which means dealing with other people and a lot of preperation and progression (even if in some games the fun never comes). The game can't have the same polish and mechanisms of single player games because it has to be durable and eternal even if this means the content is spread much more thinly. They'll tend to ignore any review from someone who isn't well on their way to the level cap. They probably visit websites specialised to the game / community of which they're a part (I always wondered why people hung around the FoH board).

You can see this in CoH and GW, those are games first, with the focus on the immediate gameplay and no pressing long term goal. EQ and WoW are of the second type, it's not as much where you are as where you are heading. The CoH gamer will consider EQ boring, the EQ gamer will consider CoH ultimately pointless, and they'll both be right. The CoH gamer loves the immediate identity of the character generator whereas the EQ gamer wants to build that identity out of increasingly more uber gear.

I guess it can also be argued that due to the time and money invested to construct a world, and the fact that the profit is in subscription fee's, it is natural that games tend towards the second group. Which is perhaps why some here hope the GW funding model, where money = content *now*, will work.

If darkfall ever gets released, which from their website looks like a 50-50 chance, I'm definitely going to be reading the boards. That game design should be extremely entertaining in practice.

Just out of curiousity what content do you see WoW as missing? It is missing talents for two classes but they are in the next patch. (if they don't show up in the stress test we'll know that was BS) and it is missing 1 or 2 warlock pets.

I also don't see any serious issues in WoW. I can't remember the last time it crashed or did something bad to my computer. Probably early summer.

I just think maybe a bit of your burnout is bleeding over.

EQ2 feels slightly less finished than WoW. However, both of them feel much more complete than alot of other launches I can think of. (EQ1, AO, SWG, I can think of more if I put my mind to it.)

Golly.

I played a guildmate's account for about the last 8 days and wowie did that sucker crash a ton.  Lots of crashes to desktop, sadly.

As far as bugs go, I didn't really see too awful many things.  However, the one glaring problem I found was a loss of status updates.  I'd stop running but the game thought I was still moving.  I quit fighting but the game didn't realize it.  I was done casting but the game was sure I was still doing so.  And it wasn't confused for a couple seconds, I mean it didn't realize it ever.  Also, mobs warped around a ton due to the same issue, I imagine.  This killed me repeatedly, because the mob would register as having moved past me and I'd get the fateful "The target must be in front of you" message about 4 times, then he'd appear in front of me and I'd be dead.  Not fun.

Mind you, this was as recently as Thursday night.

I hope they aren't rushing this game out.  I had a blast playing my undead mage, I got to level 19 and I liked the quests and the storyline for undead.  I don't know if I will buy this, but if I do, I'd be plenty pissed if this stuff was still an issue.  Maybe it can be tuned during a stress-test, I don't know.  Still, I am underwhelmed by such seemingly basic issues still occuring so late in the beta testing.  Although I've only played a couple of their games, I've always heard Blizzard's titles were tested fanatically and not released until ready - maybe they decided it wasn't worth it to apply the same quality to their MMOG.

--Masuri

*shrug' It's just "cosplay" (http://www.cosplay.com/) related to an MMORPG instead of anime or console RPGs. What's the big deal? Certainly looks more socially "ept" than sitting in front of a computer pretending to be strange people.

Cosplay gets the same level of respect as furries around these parts.

 "Why?" you ask.

Because of 35 year-old men who weigh 280 pounds and stuff themselves into Sailor Moon outfits.

The difference is, I can sit at home in front of my computer and do anything I like and nobody has to know about it. For these folks it's a very public lifestyle.

So because they engage in their hobby around other people, i.e. in a social setting, they're "socially inept", whereas you who shut yourself in a room alone for your hobby are "sociable"?

Did I miss the memo about it being Bizarro Day?  :P

Not necessarily, but if you feel like dressing up like some queer fucking anime character at least have the decency and good judgement to keep your ass out of public view.

Really, that's just common sense.

Can we still dress up as medieval people?

BTW most of those costumes were quite well made and was good to see people not going about it half-assed.

You missed the relevant point of my post methinks.  The key word there is "social." Society doesn't have to know anything about one, but can know everything about the other.

As far as society at large goes I could be cleaning the kitchen, writing a letter to my mother or watching CSI like everyone else.  Unless I bring it up in a social setting,  it's nothing that society is aware of.

Dressing up like a anime character and parading around the local square is another kettle of fish altogether.

Yay! YET ANOTHER thread derailed into the furry/dress up/loser debate!

Quick, I think there's a thread on page 3 somewhere that hasn't had this dead ... no, mummified ... horse beaten into submission! Hurry!

The missing talents will not have proper time to be tested. By some accounts, content for the true catass bastard will run out really quickly. You do not add new things like that to classes in the two weeks before release. It smells of the "supR seKRIt" gold client that is supposed to cure all ills and make everything rosy automagically before release.

In other words, same as it ever was.

I saw no evidence that any of the people from those photos were parading around the local square.  For that matter, most cosplay nuts seem to confine their activities to gatherings that for the most part consist of like-minded people.

But even if it WERE out in public, I'd say having the cojones to engage in their hobby out in public makes them far more socially capable than someone who locks himself in his basement.  Nine tenths of being "sociable" is self-confidence.

I certainly won't mind if catassers bypass WoW altogether. I like that the game doesn't cater to their obsessive/compulsive playstyle.

Agreed, AcidCat. One of the appeals of WoW to me is that maximum level is actually achievable in my lifetime.

Haemish,

I see eye to eye in a lot of your posts, but so far with WOW, the only bitch issue is the lack of talents and non-tested raid content.  At least that I have seen, but I have not heard any of the SOE patented lies that have been handed down.  To the best of my knowledge Blizzard has not played the super secret card, they have played the lets be honest and admit what works and does not so far.  Hell the fact the beta has been NDA free for how bloody long is pretty damn remarkable.  So far the only one playing the Sekret Card is SOE.

I do agree that Blizzard should not push the product out the door, but what I saw in the stress was very playable (at least on my box).

I'm sure WoW is playable. I've seen it played. I'd like to get in the open beta just to experience it myself. Friends of mine love it. But having watched it, I can't muster one iota of actual interest in it, only wanting to play the beta just to say I've played it.

But EQ2 is playable. And both have what I consider vital pieces that have not been tested yet and can't be tested properly by release. That's one of my main pet peeves with the MMOG industry. I'm not going to pay for a beta that is being called release. From all I know about WoW, talents are a pretty big deal for classes.

Horizons is playable. If that's the highest and lowest definition of a game it's not a very useful one.

To me the fact that one is incomplete (remaining talents in the next day or two) and one has systemic problems (is this actually fun? what is the the real difference in the classes) and is incomplete puts them in entirely different categories.

No MMORPG, barring unlimited time and budget, will launch with enough content to keep the hard core occupied forever. But they're also the most tolerant of a hamster wheel as long as the pellets are fresh.

Yup Yup, that was the aim of my post.  Horizons was never playable, at least not in what I would term a 'Fun' fashion.  World of Warcraft is fun for me and will have my greenbacks.

Stress test is open for fileplanet subscribers.  The actual OPEN stress test will come later.

I mainly found that WoW wasn't a giant "potential" of fun but actually delivered in most regards.  I didn't find myself trying to level so I could actually enjoy the game (as made blatant in EQ2) and liked the pace and overall straight-forward gameplay.

 I did run into the occasional mob that seemed to fly past my avatar and out of hitting range and I really hope that gets fixed before release but, if that's the only game-shattering flaw I encountered in a stress test (several weeks ago), that's not half as bad as the corrupt TCP/IP problems, non-highlighting gates in Freeport, crashes, broken quests, missing people & aimless instructions I encountered in EQ2 (which is due to ship in less than a week).

I feel more confident in WoW's stability and overall superior game design over SOE's LevelQuest 1.5 w/ the shiney that runs and looks like arse on high-powered systems.

Heh.. file planet is broken.  I've got a sub and I went to download it, and I can't I can't even login. I keep getting a "server is too busy message."

The irony overwhelms me.

Evidently, Fileplanet has 'broken' their customer support also.  People were complaining that clicking their support link to find out where their final stress test email is directed them to a blank page.  I tried it and that's what I get, too!  heh.

I don't know if you need the email to direct you to the download (I can't remember!) but I assume you would.

I finally got through.. when you get all signed-up the next page says that keys will be released shortly, and in batches.  When your batch is released you will get an e-mail, but not before that.

  Since Fileplanet has broken from all the people trying to access it (Good god they must be making a mint off of this) a lot of people are probably timing-out before reaching this page.

x * 100k * $8 or $16 = mint, yes.

On the other hand, same x * 100k * 2500 MB = huge bandwidth costs.

Thanks, Merusk.  I went ahead and signed up and got through right away.  They must have a ton because they still seem to be available.  I thought that contest was a different thing altogether but it looks as if you are automatically entered when you sign up for the stress test.  I don't really fancy having an NPC named Signe around... it would confuse me.

I'm pretty sure that everyone who wants a key will get one, or already has one by now.  I might be able to hold on to this one for a change.  Although if schild or Haemish need it for another write up, I don't mind.

Well one thing is for sure:  As of now, Blizzard's forums fucking suck.

no... that would be blizzards forums continuing to suck.

Oh wait... wrong game.

At least with the forums sucking so badly, its ONLY the forums sucking. Not the forums AND the posters.

Any first time WoW people need any questions answered, you can ask me or PM me, I have been playing quite a while.

Screw BitTorrent.  Fileplanet servers for teh win.  If you go back to Fileplanet and "re-apply" for the Stress Test, it will issue your key immediately on the page and provide a download link on the same page as well - at least it just did for me, and this is after saying that it would be issuing keys in waves via e-mail.  I'm getting 380kb/sec from the server... definitely beats the 80kb/sec I was getting from BitTorrent.

Strange... I'm getting on Fileplanet what you got on BitTorrent.  Slowest I've ever seen it.

I downloaded from the "undercity" server on Fileplanet at about 350kbps.  No complaints here.

Zip file is 2.5 GB.  Unzips to a 4 GB installer.  Delete the zip file after it's unzipped, you won't need it.   The installer says the installed game is at 6.6 gbs, I think.

Well, signup server is lagged to snot.  Might have to wait until late this evening or early this morning in order to actually register an account.

The very fastest I've been able to get from Fileplanet is a steady 60 kB/s. Which, unfortunately, is superior to what I was getting on BitTorrent.

Oh, well.

I wish I was at Blizzard HQ right now...
...Looking at the signup server..
...Watching the hard drive go BRRRRRZZZ!!....
...Smoke coming out of the exhaust fan...
...Frantic technicians trying to quell the fires...
...and I'd be sitting there with a bag of popcorn going, "LOL"...
...and they'd be like, "STFU, I PK U IRL!"...
...and I'm like, "WTFBBQ! LOL!"

I can't even subscribe to gamespy... serves me right or something.

That'll teach you to do... that thing.. you did?

You know, it'd look pretty bad if a writer from grimwell.com were to ask Schild on F13 to make a World of Warcraft stress beta board.   I'd be like, OMG, WTFBBQ.  Then I'd probably talk about knickers and misspelled butter substitutes for awhile.

I think WoW did what DV has been trying to do forever. It pushed Geld over the edge.

I've been dangling over the edge for awhile.     It's funner there.
It's just, sometimes, the rope breaks.

Anyone got the link to download the file from FilePlanet? Still waiting for my damn email, but I figure I can at least start downloading the file.

Here it is. (http://www.fileplanet.com/files/140000/147141.shtml)

The link on the left will let you purchase and download the uncensored version of the new Leisure Suit Larry while you wait the dozens of minutes it will take you to load up the next page of the World of Warcraft account creation signup.

Ahhh...Thanks, but no worky. Must need a cookie.

Good God.  People on the WOW boards are arguing that they should be able to keep their beta characters in retail.  Thats exactly the kind of thing that would keep me away.  

Its bad enough that it feels like the game has already been out for several months..I feel like a WoW serf for not having mystical foreknowledge of the game's details - If I logged in on day one and saw a level 60 wandering around...

So?? How does that affect the enjoyment of the game for you? The content is still all there for you to enjoy. So what if someone has done it before you. Hell, I just finished Halo. How many other people have already been through it once or more?

I don't play MMOG's to compete for highest level on server with catasses (or previous beta testers).

Like it or not, being high level is the reward in these games.  People got into beta by sheer stupid luck.  I do not agree that people who got into the game early by luck, who got to play for several months without paying a dime, are also owed some kind of advanced character.  

I don't care to be penalized by comparison because I paid money to Blizzard as soon as they would take it (release day).

They won't get to keep their beta characters. Blizzard doesn't want that much backlash and they don't want to hear the end-game bitching immediately at release. If they make the catasses grind again, they can buyt themselves a couple weeks.

0% chance that people will be allowed to keep their closed beta characters.  I thought there was a decent shot that they would let people keep their open beta characters, and fire up the hype machine to have a Lineage 2 style "free release" this weekend, just before EQ2 launched.  However, that was before I realized that Blizzard still hasn't added in the patch they are talking about (the content in current stress is identical to that in closed beta last friday) and that both the torrent distribution and fileplanet distribution would be a disaster.  So now I think that it is rathe unlikely that you will be able to keep your closed beta characters, either.

While I agree that it is highly unlikely that Blizzard will allow beta characters to transfer to release, this little tidbit from the beta FAQ is interesting if just for the fact that they still haven't given a positive answer this late in the game....

Their post about being "unsure" of whether you keep your open beta character is just their clever way of making sure you choose Open Beta WoW over EQ2.  IF the characters are guaranteed wipes people might be more inclined to try out EQ 2 for the weeks before WoW release.

My guess is they throw them some bone at least.  It could come in the fashion of a gift (special item) or some special title or attribute (skill or power that people don't get until a higher level.)

That wouldn't make them gods at all, but would give them some sort of "treat" to make them feel special.  As if being in the beta to begin with wasn't special enough.

My opinion?  Ban the ones complaining.  They can't be anything but bad for the game ongoing.

Yep, I'd agree with that, but personally if they let people keep their open beta characters I could really care less. Doesn't affect me at all. Maybe I'm special....(hmm the short yellow bus just pulled up at my house.)

I agree also about Open Beta and EQ2. Also, if by some random act of god they do not wipe beta characters, they will probably have their own servers. Which I dont know if I would want to play on a server of all beta people or not. Would be a hard call. I hope they just wipe.

I'm guessing they will offer something on the lines of a character name reservation from open, like City of Heroes tried to do.

Actually, if they did a name reserve or a 3-day headstart like CoH I'd be more than happy.

Personally, I think that 3-day headstart ought to become a standard. If nothing else it cuts down on newbie zone crowding. (Which will be a huge problem in the early days of WoW).

Just reloaded and checked out the changes. Some stuff is amazing. I love the tram between Stormwind and Ironforge. I noticed they added voices to NPCs. (just greetings, not full voices like in EQ2). Little tweaks like that. The opening cutscene is typical Blizzard. Awesome animation.

I think the game is ready for primetime personally. Get those last few talents in and just balance in the first few months of release. The fun factor is there, most things seem to work. I'm guessing a mid-late November release based on what I saw.

I'm enjoying WoW.  It's so fucking mindless.  An MMOG couldn't be any easier.  It almost plays itself.  If I could get voice recognition to work perfectly, I'd play from the other room and just shout at it now in then while I cook dinner or watch TV.

The only disagreement I'd have with this signe is the sheer number of skills you have to select. Hell, I have 4 hotbars setup because I just have so damn many. I have to remember "I want to use battle shout, shit, better switch to hotbar 2, now back to 1 to follow up with Overbear, now time for Heroic Strike, how's my rage meter? Perfect, Sweeping Strike, followed by Mortal Strike..."

That's my thought process as I play. Most involved warrior I've ever had, hands down.

What level are you? If you're 1-10, yep, it's easy, but what MMORPG isn't at that level?

Once you get into your teens, you have to be a lot more careful about adds and the real strategy starts to kick in. Plus, as Riggs states, the sheer number of combat options you have really makes combat fun. As a druid, sometimes I feel like no 2 combats are fought the same way, because there is such a wide variety of ways to kill stuff.

Everything I've read suggests WoW starts out really easy, and stays pretty easy if you solo. It gets progressively harder if you do instances and the top instance is, I think, still unbeaten.

There was a good response by one of their CSR monkeys in regards to beta testers talking about what gifts they should receive for being beta testers. He said they should post in the public (ie. non beta) forum about what the people their felt they deserved.

Signe is right.

All mmog's are mindless in PvE.  That's the nature of the beast.  It really hasn't improved much over the years... though CoH did make some strides by making the pace of combat decision making a bit faster.  I found WoW to be quite easy... even with a number of combat choices.  I could make plenty of decision errors and still win fights.  PvP is what I choose for my fun.  The margin for error is smaller and tends to make the decision making process a bit more crucial.

My experience has been that PvP fights are even more onesided than PvE fights. Typically, he who spends more time in the game wins.

Assuming that you meant PvP vs PvE, then I agree.  What makes pvp fun for me in games like DAoC is beating people when I have significantly less time invested.  I do lose a lot, but still win my share of fights against players with more time logged.  

The argument that time = power in mmog's is true for the greatest majority but it's still possible for skill/tactics to play a role.  Granted, right now that role is a small one in mmogs.

I'm picking weirdo characters on purpose.  I have a Cow Druid... wish my udders were slightly larger... a gnome fighter and an Undead Priest... pity my heals don't kill, that would make it even better.  It's a ton of fun.  I think I'll play this on release, at least until EQ2 cooks a bit longer.  I'm still very undecided about EQ2.  I kinda sorta almost like it, but it's not nearly as much fun as WoW.  Considering how fickle I am with games, I don't expect any of them to last more than a year.  They never do with me.  I get antsy at high levels.  Well, GW will probably last longer as the PvP is very attractive and I do like a good slaughter.

I knew you were familiar!

(http://www.mgnet.karoo.net/nursie.gif)

Yup, I decided last year that it's stupid for me to get excited about things in MMO's that might happen any time over 3 months.

Three months of play out of it is good enough for me.

A woman in my guild has a maxed out priest and she is quite capable of dealing massive damage. Something to do with the shadow line of talents? Dark talents? Don't know. I don't play priests obviously.

Yep, priests have a shadow line of talents which makes them pretty deadly apparently. There's even one which the damage you do becomes a group heal which some shadow priests were using for PvE. The line got reduced a little and priest talents are up for some changes as I understand things.

Of course at the moment talent re-configuration is free and instant, which won't be the case in live. So being a PvP specialist will come at some cost in terms of PvE.

man, I hope they keep in some means to do a talent respec. Even if it's a quest or you have to pay or something. Talents are one way to gimp your char. I've changed my talents like 4 times trying to find a mix that works for me. I'll miss that.

Both of you missed the funny.

15 yard penalty, loss of down.

It must be because I'm at work and distracted but I have no clue what you're talking about Rasix.

They have announced there'll be a method of respeccing, but it doesn't exist at the moment as far as I know.

I think he was making some sort of duck joke.  He's not been quite right since all his camels died, poor old sod.

Ahhh...the infamous duck joke!