WoW Stress Test if you are FilePlanet Subscriber

[Sky]

This just in.....all other mmogs just got 100,000x more playable :P

[Nebu]

Blizzard announces a way to REALLY catass to victory!

It is a good idea for bench/treadmill testing and I'm surprised noone has done this publicly sooner.  I wonder if we'll see any casualties?

[Liquidator]

Game seems great so far.  Environments are lush and detailed, sound is nice, music is great, interface is smooth and clean.  

I haven't had any lag problems or crashes.  There are sooooo many people though, it's hard to find anything to kill in the newbie area, at least up in Dun Morogh.  The idiots are out in full force.  There is a troll camp out near Anvilmarr, and I went up to kill a few Trolls and this game keeps trying to KS me.  To make a long story short, he said "dood this is my camp... im camping this area,, so u are the one KSING" -- I can't believe this guy is so retarded that he thinks he can claim a camp with so many people trying to find stuff to kill.  Argh.  Hopefully release wont be like this, but I'm sure it will.

[kaid]

Well its all stuff they need to see. COH and many other games ramp up spawn times in newbie zones for the initial week or so and tests like this let them see exactally how bad it is and how much tweaking needs to be done for initial log 2 crush action.

kaid

[Morfiend]

e’re looking for the greatest of heroes to step forward and demonstrate their skill and valor. If you can prove your worth by becoming the most powerful members of your faction classes, then you could win the chance to continue your adventures in Azeroth beyond the completion of the stress test!

Blizzard will be holding a competition during the stress test to determine the three highest-level characters per class in both the Alliance and Horde factions. At the end of the stress test, three players of every Horde class and three players of every Alliance class will win entry into the World of Warcraft closed beta test. In the event of a tie, total experience accumulated will determine the ultimate winners.

In the interest of fairness and in accordance with the World of Warcraft Beta Test Agreement and Terms of Use Agreement, players are not allowed to share accounts. Any character that has been leveled up through shared playtime by multiple players will be disqualified from the contest.

The competition will run through the entire duration of the stress test. At the end of the stress test, Blizzard will notify 48 lucky winners of their acceptance into the closed beta test.

Wow.  What a way to endorse catassing for the next seven days.  Go Blizzard!  Wouldn't a more constructive competition something like the person who submits the most detailed and accurate bug reports?

I see it as a clever way of checking if the treadmill is indeed too short, like many have complained.  If someone hits the level cap, then expect a HUGE increase in leveling time in the next patch.

Right now WoW takes roughly 14 days (336 hours) /played to hit lvl 50. I havent had a chance to poll any of the lvl 55s yet. It CAN be done in shorter amounts of time. Some of the major Twinks, and players with strong guilds backing them can do it in 10 days /played. I think that is a pretty good leveling curve. Add in the Hero classes for the ubber catasses, and I think it is fine.

Also, I think people WILL be sharing accounts, like roomates and stuff. With this kind of incentive, you can almost bet that the 48 winning accounts will be active 20 hours a day for those 7 days. So I bet we will see players in their high 40s by the end of the week.

[HaemishM]

So you're saying the winners will be Korean?

[Soukyan]

At 40 hours per month played, that's a bit over 8 months to max one character. Meh. Too long. With the sheer variety, I would once again not have the opportunity to experience all the different race/class combos. Ah well, it has its good points, too.

[ClydeJr]

Started a cow shaman last night, got to level 6. The game is very beautiful if you like the Warcraft cartoony look. So far, the combat isn't that impressive, pretty much like DAoC. The noob areas are completely full and its tough to find anything to kill, especially if you have one of those "bring me 8 bodyparts from this foozle" quest. All of my quests have been the kill x foozle type or a fedex type, but the story for each one has been interesting, either based on taurean culture or the path to be a shaman. One of my quests involved taking some drugs and seeing/halucinating some earth spirit.

Its pretty, it has a nice story, but its nothing new. I'm going to stick with CoH until I get bored and maybe go back to Planetside later.