WoW announces record numbers

[murdoc]

Just had a friend do the lvl 10 Druid quest. He had someone TRY to gank him, but apparently nothing happened. The NE just stood there with it's weapons out.

So maybe it's fixed? /shrug

[Trippy]

[As for the Honor system, they either have not implemented it yet for PvP combat or are not going to have it at all if you believe this post:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=124300&p=1&tmp=1#post124336

That reply is from a Community Manager, though, and not a developer and it contradicts the Upcoming PvP changes page so I don't know if I believe that.

Saw this over on Thottbot (can't find the original post):

http://news.thottbot.com/?authors=-117&sidebars=Bliz&threads=493548

It's still not from a developer but it does look like they are not going to have dishonorable PvP kills. In other words they aren't even going to try and prevent ganking and corpse camping.

[HaemishM]

It's still not from a developer but it does look like they are not going to have dishonorable PvP kills. In other words they aren't even going to try and prevent ganking and corpse camping...

... until mass cancellations and whining cause them to actually think about the issue.

I'm enjoying the game. But I cannot help being absolutely certain the game was released 3 months (6 months with Blizzard development time frames) too early.

[Fargull]

I'm enjoying the game. But I cannot help being absolutely certain the game was released 3 months (6 months with Blizzard development time frames) too early.

That is like saying the weather will change or that a MMORG launch will have issues.  True, but none the less will happen regardless...

[Viin]

How do you guys enjoy anything? Do you complain that your ice cream is too cold? Do you cry havok and brandish knives when you eat too much cake?

[Mesozoic]

Err, wow.  

No penalties for killing a lower-level PC, in a game where the quest and mob distribution clearly leads characters along a pre-determined path.  So the 50-60 crowd will know just where to go if they want to harass a level 20.  

I'm getting Mordred flashbacks.  Two friends and I started there and had a blast from 1 - 20.  Then our need for level-appropriate content took us to southern Albion and straight into the maw of bored 50s.  After a single night of being completely unable to advance or retaliate, we actually headed all the way to Gaheris.

Problem here is that it seems like at least 1/3rd of the WoW servers are PvP.  Thats going to be a lot of POed walking credit cards.

[Ardent]

I am not a PvP peen-waver. DAoC PVP bored me to tears. I played the PvE server in WoW beta. I'm an achiever/socializer, and this game feeds me what I need.

However, all my real-life friends wanted to play the PvP server. So, I decided to clear my head of all prejudices, and give it a shot.

So far I'm having a blast ... for the very reason I'm playing with my best friends. However, my shaman is now level 18, and the honeymoon will soon be very much over. Questing in contested lands is imminent, but I am determined to go into it with an open mind. Maybe (hopefully) it won't be as bad as I imagine it. Maybe with the support of my friends, we can fend off or avoid the gankers.

I am choosing not to let myself become a victim of the retards. I will find ways to get around them, or defeat them at their own game. Will it work?

We shall see.

[Signe]

How do you guys enjoy anything? Do you complain that your ice cream is too cold? Do you cry havok and brandish knives when you eat too much cake?

Somehow this boy slipped through the f13 doors without a proper hazing.  

Who's responsible?  Schild?  If you're too busy with work, you should delegate this before any more agreeable people wander in by mistake.

[schild]

How do you guys enjoy anything? Do you complain that your ice cream is too cold? Do you cry havok and brandish knives when you eat too much cake?

There's no such thing as too much cake. Therefore I disagree with your examples.

[El Gallo]

People who sign on for the prison servers have no right to complain when they get bent over the radiator.  I presume they will eventually let you transfer your characters for a fee if you want to escape anyway.  They are right that any system they might devise would either have the crap abused out of it or be no more than a coveted badge for griefers to achieve.  I am just glad they have those places to keep the undesirables out of my neighborhood.

[Viin]

Oops sorry.

What I really meant was: 0wn3rz j00! n3wb!

[Riggswolfe]

I'm enjoying the game. But I cannot help being absolutely certain the game was released 3 months (6 months with Blizzard development time frames) too early.

WoW had the longest beta I have ever been involved with. I was in phase 2 and started in march. I mean, how much longer can a beta go? Eventually they have to ship the damn thing.

Now EQ2 and its "Beta" is another story. They spent what, a whole 2 or 3 months in beta?

[schild]

Don't be stupid. They were in beta in Jan-Feb.

[Riggswolfe]

Don't be stupid. They were in beta in Jan-Feb.

EQ2 was? Everything I ever read said "Beta starting this summer". I followed it sort of half heartedly.

[HaemishM]

I mean, how much longer can a beta go? Eventually they have to ship the damn thing.

It can and should go as long as it needs to in order to ensure features aren't dropped, left half-ass implemented or the game isn't rife with bugs. I've had more bugs come up in WoW than I did in EQ2's beta, or in CoH's release. I have PERSONALLY had those bugs; I'm not claiming any game has been less or more bug-free. In my experience, CoH was the most bug-free and problem-free, moreso than WoW. It was obvious with the number of promised features that got cut, and with the number of problems WoW had with capacity that beta did not go on long enough. EQ2's beta wasn't long enough because the gameplay had serious design flaws that had less to do with bugs and more to do with "We thought this would be fun in the design stage, but the way we implemented it needs LOTS of work."

In the end, they both said their products were "good enough" and shipped them. To the MMOG market, not exploding your computer is obviously "good enough." I am guilty in this as well, because I bought on release day with the rest of the lemmings.

But at least the game is fun, which EQ2 just wasn't.

[Viin]

Haemish,

I'm curious, would you post what bugs you've encountered? Personally, I could only name a couple of bugs I've run up against. I'm wondering if I'm just so use to seeing bugs in these types of games that I subconsciously ignore them.

Off the top of my head, the issues I remember seeing almost all had to do with network/server lag (loot lag, mail lag, auction house lag) - I can't really think of anything that has it's functionality is broken.

[naum]

Haemish,

I'm curious, would you post what bugs you've encountered? Personally, I could only name a couple of bugs I've run up against. I'm wondering if I'm just so use to seeing bugs in these types of games that I subconsciously ignore them.

Only 2 bugs I know of - one of which I experienced firsthand:

* On Echo Isles, attempting herbalism collection on the middle island results in your toon getting stuck in the crouch position trying to loot herb. He can still fight and cast and such but default graphical position reverts to stooping down without the herb loot.

* Stables are still bugged for some folks affecting hunters and their pets.

[Shockeye]

Only bug I've encountered is probably connection related: corpses can shift across the map after death making it impossible to loot.

[Sobelius]

I am not a PvP peen-waver. DAoC PVP bored me to tears. I played the PvE server in WoW beta. I'm an achiever/socializer, and this game feeds me what I need.

I'm more generally an achiever/explorer type. For my PvP buck, though, Guild Wars gets my vote. It is designed from the ground up for PvP, with some pretty cool PvE content as well.

As much as I loved DAOC in its day, the 8v8 PvP in GW is a blast, whereas in DAOC it was heartbreaking for me to reach 50 only to find I had a whole new treadmill to start before becoming 'effective' (realm points/skills -- as well as ToA). At least in GW, its my choice of skills and how to use them that affects the outcome much more than my class or gear.

[Jayce]

To the MMOG market, not exploding your computer is obviously "good enough."

Actually, if you count the AO patch that forced some people to reinstall Windows, then exploding your computer is actually on the "good enough" side.

But I've only seen a few bugs.  Once or twice I had to relog to get my corpse to show up on the mini-map and/or trigger a res when I got close enough.  And a few times the game has crashed to desktop, but that's rare.  Much better than, say, sb.exe,  even months after its launch.

[HaemishM]

The bugs I've experienced in WoW, some of which are KNOWN ISSUES and have been for while:

1) Multiple instances of the herbalism collection bug, whereby I'm stuck in the posittion of collecting an herb until I logout... at which point I lose the herb I was collecting in the first place
2) Mini-map icon for corpse disappearing
3) Numerous lockups which may or may not be related to my sound card (haven't nailed this down yet)
4) Queues and loot lag which should have been knocked out by 2 stress tests and an open beta
5) Falling through the world and dying

Again, these are just my personal experiences. #3 may not be WoW's fault. #4 cannot be ignored or excused; they knew how many copies they pressed, and they only had the bandwidth/server capacity in use to accomodate HALF of that based on their doubling the number of servers the day after launch. #1 has been a known bug for a long time. #2 is fairly minor.

My point is that I saw zero bugs in my release month of CoH. Hell, I don't remember having seen anymore than "I can't find that mission entrance in Perez Park." Ever. I'm not saying it didn't have bugs, but it had less, in my personal experience, than did WoW, and had none of the release day bullshit. I saw less bugs in EQ2 than that. However, EQ2's problems are more from the design of the game than the execution, IMO. It just wasn't fun.

Note, I'm playing the fun yet slightly buggy one. Which I guess is about as good as we can hope the entire MMOG player base does. Go for fun, excuse a few smaller bugs, and hammer the unfun or Shadowbane-buggy ones.

[Viin]

Interesting, I haven't experienced any of those except loot lag and queues, and that was only on the first day.

Granted, I don't die much nor have I done any herbalism. I did have one crash to desktop that involved sending items in the mail and cancelling and dancing around on one foot but it hasn't happened to me since.

But! I'm glad you are having fun, despite these. I'd leave in a heartbeat if I wasn't enjoying myself when I played.

I think CoH was an exceptional release and I hope NCSoft's newer games are as well polished and (hopefully) continue to set the bar for good releases (and good games!).

[Shockeye]

1) Multiple instances of the herbalism collection bug, whereby I'm stuck in the posittion of collecting an herb until I logout... at which point I lose the herb I was collecting in the first place

A cow collecting herbs is just asking for trouble. You bring it on yourself, sir.

5) Falling through the world and dying

That one is funny as long as it doesn't happen to me or it doesn't happen to you while I'm waiting for your help with a quest.

Note, I'm playing the fun yet slightly buggy one. Which I guess is about as good as we can hope the entire MMOG player base does. Go for fun, excuse a few smaller bugs, and hammer the unfun or Shadowbane-buggy ones.

My opinion of WoW is that it's "good enough". It does everything well to a certain degree whereas other games do some things GREAT and other things CRAPPY. Right now I'll take overall DECENT and for me I guess that's WoW. I play the game too much and I'm afraid I will turn into HRose.

I need an intervention.

[Paelos]

I had the corpse disappearance and inability to rez myself in the first two days and all throughout the open beta. As of last night, I've yet to see it again since last Friday.

[murdoc]

I had the loot lag/queues problem the first day (not even the queues as I just went to a queue-less server) but haven't come across any of the other bugs during release.

I'm an EXTREMLY casual player however, as I expect some of these bugs appear the more you're online.

[HaemishM]

1) Multiple instances of the herbalism collection bug, whereby I'm stuck in the posittion of collecting an herb until I logout... at which point I lose the herb I was collecting in the first place

A cow collecting herbs is just asking for trouble. You bring it on yourself, sir.

However, a cow collecting pr0n is serving the best interests of man.

[Kairos]

The funny thing is that the main quest guy there (Moonstar Sunstarmoon, I believe his name was) basically says 'no funny business.  this is a peaceful land' when you first get there, which I assumed to mean the NPCs would use the Kill All Combatants rule that's up in Ratchet.  Hard to imagine Mr. Peaceful Land and his NPCs standing there dumbly and watching while noobs get slaughtered.

Problem with that is that there aren't enough guards in Moonglade to keep the peace. If you're out in the lake to get the first part of your sea cow quest, you're pretty much fucked if someone decides to kill you, for example.

[Signe]

I get the bendy disease picking herbs all the time, now.  The only other bug has been tool tip info disappearing and I think that's cosmos related.

I don't know how I survived without Cosmos' quick loot feature and tackle box.  Life has never been so good.

[Soukyan]

I get the bendy disease picking herbs all the time, now.  The only other bug has been tool tip info disappearing and I think that's cosmos related.

I don't know how I survived without Cosmos' quick loot feature and tackle box.  Life has never been so good.

I told you Cosmos was better than that Gypsy one.

[Signe]

You were right.   I don't know why I don't listen to you more!  You are very nearly always right!  How perfectly annoying of you! ;p

[Viin]

I don't know how I survived without Cosmos' quick loot feature and tackle box.  Life has never been so good.

Btw, you can shift-right click on a corpse to auto-loot everything in it. Works a lot better than the silly Cosmo "quick loot".

[Threash]

Why should there ever be penalties for pvping someone on a pvp server? come on people, there are plenty of servers out there not marked for pvp those that don't want to be killed can play on, they will still have duels and battlegrounds if they ever want to get a little pvp fix in.  Here is a good reason why i would kill a level 1 with my level 60, because they are horde scum and its a FUCKING WAR.

[Signe]

Thanks, Viin!  I didn't know that.  I seem to have lost my way with mmogs, lately.  I mostly wander around confused these days.

[Jamiko]

Btw, you can shift-right click on a corpse to auto-loot everything in it. Works a lot better than the silly Cosmo "quick loot".

Use that same method to mine or pick herbs, etc.

More tips:
More info: hitting the "V" key will bring up names and health bars above all NPCs and mobs.
Bag management: shift-B opens up all bags for easy access.
Taking screenshots: alt-Z toggles on/off the UI to make them look nice.
Managing stacks: shift-left click on a stack, enter the number, click on an open spot in your bag.

[MrHat]

Btw, you can shift-right click on a corpse to auto-loot everything in it. Works a lot better than the silly Cosmo "quick loot".

Use that same method to mine or pick herbs, etc.

More tips:
More info: hitting the "V" key will bring up names and health bars above all NPCs and mobs.
Bag management: shift-B opens up all bags for easy access.
Taking screenshots: alt-Z switches off the UI to make them look nice.
Managing stacks: shift-left click on a stack, enter the number, click on an open spot in your bag.

Taking screenshots: alt-Z switches off the UI to make them look nice.  alt-Z then also brings back your UI.