Not releasing server names til release?

[Riggswolfe]

Good god. This is gonna make organizing guilds a huge pain in my ass.

[MrHat]

I agree.

I'm trying to convince several of my rl buddies to join up w/ me.  But they want to be on the same servers as existing guilds.  But those guilds no longer no either.

I figure, I will probably be getting the game first.  And it really doesn't matter to make a new character if it's a problem.  At least it isn't random selection.

Oh, and shouldn't your subject end with a period and not a question mark?

[Jacob0883]

Maybe he is asking for confirmation?

[Riggswolfe]

Trying for an attitude of disbelief.

[Rasix]

Maybe he is asking for confirmation?

MARK IT ZERO!

[Jacob0883]

Sorry, this one is lost on me.

[Kageru]

/shrug.

Seems fine to me. They want guilds to look at the dynamic state of the servers on opening day rather than make an arbitrary decision, based on the coolness of the name, well before launch. Doesn't seem like it's too much effort to check your guilds web-page before you long in for the first time.

[Disco Stu]

Why couldn't they just name the servers like they did in open beta? Is it really critical that the server names are cool? Hell why not just name them with number for the first two weeks then change the names after if it really is that important. Blizzard has a fun game on their hands but its almost like there's two groups. The people who made the game who have their heads on right. Then an entirly seperate group of people responsable for everything outside of the game who are the biggest bunch of fuck ups known to man. Fileplanet, Bit Torrent, no server names, a whole bunch of shit that serves no purpose other than to annoy the shit out of their players.

[Kageru]

They want people making the decision as the servers are filling up, not now when the order of servers is unknown. Their system is eminently logical and I can't see a reason, barring crushing insecurity, why you would need to select your server 5 days in advance.

[Mesozoic]

As long as we're on the subject, is anyone else here headed for an RP server?

[bhodikhan]

I've never been much for RP servers. However, in WOW I found myself having more fun playing. I guess I'm burnt out by the year of beta I did. Creating funny RP dialog for my gnome warrior and flirting with all those tall women was too damm funny.

The additional feature (if enforced) is that there will be fewer b.netters running around.

Once you've had a gnome you never go back!

[Soukyan]

As long as we're on the subject, is anyone else here headed for an RP server?

Most likely.

[Paelos]

My guild just decided to pick a sever in the West Coast that was second in alphabetical order from the top, I believe. Really, most server choices are arbitrary anyway at launch other than saying "I PLAY ON CONQUEROROROR, NEWB!"

[El Gallo]

This is asinine.  Not an enormous deal, but an incomprehensibly stupid one, much like their 24 hour clock fucktardery.

Yes, lets make people in 12 time zones wait until the day of release to get together and decide what server they are going to play on.  Assclowns.  It's just SO MUCH EASIER to let everyone know ahead of time "hey, lets play on server ABC"

It's even worse for more casual communities, where you can't count on everyone to check the same website every day.

The "server load" argument is BS, since right now all everyone is saying is "we'll join up at the lowest numbered/alphabetically first server XXX time zone", which will crush those servers.  See: that giant PvP guild list.

[Signe]

I probably won't play on an rp server.  I always get the 'village idiot' reputation when I do.  I think I might not be very good at rp, or something.

[Rasix]

My friends and I will probably hop on a mid-low initially pop West Coast plain vanilla server unless for some reason they find some East Coast friends to play with then we'd go Central.

In the event of them picking a PVP server, I'd probably not buy WoW.  Which oddly enough, I wouldn't care that much about.

[schild]

I'm surprised this many people have time to play WoW. Right now I'm staring these games in the eye. They need to be beat. Now.

Halo 2
Halflife 2
Vampire: Bloodlines
Katamari Damacy
Fatal Frame II Directors Cut
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4
Castle Shikigami 2
Links 2k4(3?)
Top Spin
Tales of Symphonia
Baten Kaitos
DOA: Ultimate
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Sims 2
THUG 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Alien Hominid
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Now do you all see why we need advertisements? If I didn't have to work as much to buy all this stuff I could be writing reviews. That said - what a stellar fucking year for gaming.

[trias_e]

My friends and I did the same, picking the first PvP server going alphabetically in mountain time.

And yeah, I really can't remember a better year than this for gaming.  Both for publicity and recognition (halo 2 and doom 3 were in my local newspaper for starters), and quality.  

It seems like most of the games you listed are console Schild.  I suppose I should break down and buy an Xbox or something...but is it really worth it?  I just keep replaying old SNES games and old PC games repeatedly for free.  I don't know if that makes me a bad person or not.  But hell I haven't even heard of some of those games you listed.

[Aslan]

Good god. This is gonna make organizing guilds a huge pain in my ass.

It's my (first-hand knowledge and) understanding you are used to huge pains in your ass...

[sidereal]

As long as we're on the subject, is anyone else here headed for an RP server?

Hail and well met, sir!  I also will be braving the many dangers of Norrath amidst such dedicated adventurers.  Allow me to purchase you an ale and regale you with my character background!

OOOOOC:

Probably.  I have to weigh the benefits of having a code of conduct to justify getting the clownshoes to leave me alone vs having to hear people endlessly mangle middle english over public comms.

[HaemishM]

See, this is why you shouldn't play an MMOG on release day. Wait a few days and let the server shuffle settle down, then pick one with fewer loudmouth public assholes like Furor.

Not like if I play, I won't be playing on release day anyway. Because if I play, I will. Yes, I'm a dumb fuck.

[Aenovae]

I'm surprised this many people have time to play WoW. Right now I'm staring these games in the eye. They need to be beat. Now.

(snip)

You left out Burnout 3, Star Ocean: Til the End of Time, and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal...unless you beat those already.

I'll tell you right now that Tales of Symphonia takes at least 40 hours to beat.  Nocturne takes at least 70 hours of painful, repetitive levelling to beat.  I recommend you play that one for the first eight hours or so and quit before it gets bad.

Edit: Oh yeah, and Otogi 2!

[Riggswolfe]

I'm surprised this many people have time to play WoW. Right now I'm staring these games in the eye. They need to be beat. Now.

Halo 2
Halflife 2
Vampire: Bloodlines

Sims 2
.

These are the only ones I'm playing. I'll be waiting for MGS3 to port to XBOX. And then there's KOTR2 coming soon. EQ2 and WoW are both probably gonna have slow sales at first due to this I'm thinking. Actually my local EB told me that EQ2 is selling slower than they'd hoped.

[Disco Stu]

I'm surprised this many people have time to play WoW. Right now I'm staring these games in the eye. They need to be beat. Now.

Of all of the games you listed Half Life 2 is the only one I'll be playing. I might have tryed halo 2 if I owned an xbox (I think waiting for a pc port of the original ruined it for me, the pc verison was below average at best). Of course I may be picking up an xbox soon if KORTOR 2 hits the shelves when I have some money that doesn't need to be spent on my Alcohol or gambling addictions. Other than that I really have nothing that I HAVE to play.

And from what I've seen/heard not realeasing the server names might actually cause more congestion than not. Every guild/group/person I've heard who has picked a server has said something along the lines of 'first server east or first server center or first server pasific' no guilds are going to the '4th east or the 7th center'.

[ajax34i]

The east server with the most vowels in its name! Yeah.

Don't have an Xbox, and I am going to wait for the PC version of KOTOR2 in February.

[Righ]

My guild just decided to pick a sever in the West Coast that was second in alphabetical order from the top, I believe.

I hear they are choosing symbols. I'm going for the server that looks least like TAFKAP.

[Jamiko]

Someone who knows someone who knows someone said one of the Central PvE servers is going to be called Blackhand. I'm sure that helps everyone.

[ajax34i]

Server Names

[Righ]

If you have a client, the servers have been live for about an hour.

[schild]

If you have a client, the servers have been live for about an hour.

How long did it take for the first maxed out character? ^_^

[Mesozoic]

17 pvp servers and only 2 rp...yikes.

[Soukyan]

41 in all. That's quite a lot on release. Either they have cheap hardware or spared no expense for this one.

[Kageru]

17 PvP and 2 RP sounds like an extremely accurate assessment of their target market. I don't know where they're drawing their population from but the interest in PvP, even though they never got the honor system working in beta, is immense.

.... of course it always is, for a while at least.

[Trippy]

41 in all. That's quite a lot on release. Either they have cheap hardware or spared no expense for this one.

That's a lot of servers even for a mature game. In comparison EQ has 48 servers not including Test.

[Mesozoic]

17 PvP and 2 RP sounds like an extremely accurate assessment of their target market. I don't know where they're drawing their population from but the interest in PvP, even though they never got the honor system working in beta, is immense.

.... of course it always is, for a while at least.

DAoC has three RP servers out of 19 total servers; as I remember the original two RP servers were always pretty busy. So 2 out of 41 seems low.

As for the PvP, 17 out of 41 seems really high for an alternative ruleset. They must have a great deal of confidence in their PvP implementation.