WoW Announces Beta Race War Server

[geldonyetich]

have u ever played the game? no so stfu n00b gg no re thx

Why no, I haven't.  Have you?

my friend told me the game pwns all and hes played all the MMOS

no so stfu n00b gg re thx wtfbbq ect

I've been in the "my friend tells me the game rocks!" boat.  Trust me, it means precisely jack and squat.

But honestly, I bare you no malice.   Truly, your blind devotion to all things Blizzard will come back to maim you in ways I wouldn't wish on anyone.    I've seen lesser fanbois than you dissolve in massive crying game breakdowns over what was ultimately their own fault for believing the hype.   No game can match hype: none.   You are killing the game for yourself by thinking one can.

By posting here, you visit the den of some of the truly jaded who know better than to count their MMORPGs before they're released.   Take it from me, set your expectations low or you'll kill any game for yourself before you even play it.

[Signe]

Johnson has completely swayed me.  I agree with every he has said and whatever he might say in the future.  I am smitten.  I can't stop saying his name, either... Johnson, Johnson... it makes me all tingly.

[geldonyetich]

I have a series of T-Shirts for you and Johnson101 (who I would bet dollars to donuts wears one of these to school from time to time).

[Signe]

Nice, Geld!  I wish I could get Righ interested in fashion. like you.  With duds like that and a fancy gun rack in the back of the F150, we'd be the envy of the trailer park!

[Mesozoic]

Its very simple for me.  I liked DAoC, but I always thought the game world was a bit lifeless, and I wished that the quests were better written and implemented.  I even tried a "quest-oriented campaign" with some RL buddies that, predictably, fell apart (to our credit we did make it with this approach until the early thirties.) Along comes Blizzard with - tada - a quest-based game set in the much more interesting Warcraft world.  Normally I would be worried about an MMO being buggy on release date, but Blizzard products are typically rock-solid at release.  As it happens, I also like the art direction.

So I look forward to it.  I don't have to apologize for the failings of the Battle.net crowd, real or imaginied.  I fully expect the game world to be filled with fucktards.  Welcome to the genre.  

My only real concern is the reported "cookie-cutter" nature of the classes.  Not good.  But its not enough to go running in circles railing against Blizzard.   And its certainly not enough to make me start a gimmick account and play "parody of the fanboi" for an audience.

[Johnson101]

Look, Warcraft is Warcraft, and warcraft pwns all so even if it was just some sucky gay EQ clone I'd still play it, but I know that's not true, so I now know that it is not true I know that the game will be 1337 pwnage and it will just be the undisputed champion of all MMOS any game with the word craft = leet uber gosu pwnage

every1 i talk to say WOW owns

blizzard would never make a crappy game cuz it wud ruin reputation

and the player base gonna be AWESOME!! no 40 yr old losers that still work at mcdonalds hopefully! just uber leetspeaking  newbie-pwning gosu finally an MMO where u dont get bashed for being a total d1ckhead i swear all those other MMOS failed cuz they had too many 40 yr old losers

[schild]

Raph can smell your money.

Quickly, hide.

[Johnson101]

even bill roper thinks blizzard pwns look

"To be quite honest, if we're out looking for a partner or a publisher or distributor, there's really no better name you can have on the box than Blizzard," he said. "I wouldn't have any problem going and talking too those guys about that sort of arrangement."

thats after he left them too he must be in denial cuz he knows blizz owns all

[Signe]

The reckless abandonment of puncuation has left me moist.

[geldonyetich]

Look, Warcraft is Warcraft, and warcraft pwns all

Somebody hasn't played Total Annihilation.

and the player base gonna be AWESOME!! no 40 yr old losers that still work at mcdonalds hopefully! just uber leetspeaking newbie-pwning gosu finally an MMO where u dont get bashed for being a total d1ckhead i swear all those other MMOS failed cuz they had too many 40 yr old losers

Heh.   First off, those 40 old losers at least have a job, which in the job market we've been suffering under this administration is a fair achievement to begin with.   Second, Blizzard can and probably will attempt to ban all deliberate griefers from WoW.     It's practically a law of successful MMORPG operating conduct long established from the days of early Ultima Online.    It's pretty much just a matter of griefers costing them more subscriptions than they are paying for.

even bill roper thinks blizzard pwns look

Yeah yeah, nobody's denying that Blizzard has a really good track record.   However, Blizzard's never made a MMORPG before.   It's a whole new ball game now.

[Kairos]

Why are people still replying to him? He's long since gone beyond the point of believability.

[schild]

Because it's fun watching Geldon get his panties in a twist while he takes Pyro seriously.










at least I think it's pyro.

[stray]

Nah. Pyro couldn't spell worth a shit even if he tried, but even then he could still make a lot of sense.

[Johnson101]

Look, Warcraft is Warcraft, and warcraft pwns all

Somebody hasn't played Total Annihilation.

and the player base gonna be AWESOME!! no 40 yr old losers that still work at mcdonalds hopefully! just uber leetspeaking newbie-pwning gosu finally an MMO where u dont get bashed for being a total d1ckhead i swear all those other MMOS failed cuz they had too many 40 yr old losers

Heh.   First off, those 40 old losers at least have a job, which in the job market we've been suffering under this administration is a fair achievement to begin with.   Second, Blizzard can and probably will attempt to ban all deliberate griefers from WoW.     It's practically a law of successful MMORPG operating conduct long established from the days of early Ultima Online.    It's pretty much just a matter of griefers costing them more subscriptions than they are paying for.

even bill roper thinks blizzard pwns look

Yeah yeah, nobody's denying that Blizzard has a really good track record.   However, Blizzard's never made a MMORPG before.   It's a whole new ball game now.

blizz never made a RTS before and they made starcraft they never made RPG before and made diablo so what makes u think they cant make MMORPG? besides EQ2 is being made by some newbs at sony its not even being made by the original creators they moved on to sigil games to make vanguard or whatever plus we all know this is sony's plan for most of their games: SOE:
make the game's first impression appealing.
Promise many cool things and worry about feasability later.
Get as much attention and publicity as possible, and hope to trap the players in an addiction.
As long as the developpement cost is refunded, the game is a success.
Put many many polygons and use special requirement-heavy features, because higher requirements makes idiots think it's a better game... these same idiots are the ones that become addicted extremely easily.


now Blizzard:
Make a good game.

and remember

there's really no better name you can have on the box than Blizzard

[stray]

SOE:
make the game's first impression appealing.
Promise many cool things and worry about feasability later.
Get as much attention and publicity as possible, and hope to trap the players in an addiction.
As long as the developpement cost is refunded, the game is a success.
Put many many polygons and use special requirement-heavy features, because higher requirements makes idiots think it's a better game... these same idiots are the ones that become addicted extremely easily.

You're basically just listing things that just about all MMO's do (Including Blizzard).

now Blizzard:
Make a good game.

"Good game" meaning if you like MMO "gameplay". Maybe it was fun the first time around, but really, they're all the same. I can only play the same thing once. Even first person shooters offer more variety amongst themselves. About the only thing that improves or changes with each successive MMO is the size and detail of the game world. That's great, virtual worlds are cool, but it still isn't good enough.

I wouldn't even say a developer has to be "original" to bring something new to the genre. They can look to single player games for all the ideas they'll ever need. They don't have to be exactly like single player games to be fun, but they need to learn at least a little from them. Compared to other genres, what MMO's offer is not "gameplay" in the slightest sense. They're "social", sometimes entertaining, even a little "challenging" sometimes -- but they're not fucking "games".

WoW might even turn out to be a good MMO, but that doesn't mean it still isn't shit. Just the best of the bunch, that's all. It's the genre that's broken, not SOE, Blizzard, or anyone else.

[geldonyetich]

Oh, my panties aren't nearly in a twist.   I'm mellow, just explaining a few logical inconsistancies.     After all, gimmick account or not, I've some obligation to set the facts straight.    Plus, I apparently have no shortage of desire to spam.

blizz never made a RTS before and they made starcraft

Actually Blizzard made Warcraft first, in 1994.  It was essentially just a fantasy knock-off of Dune II, made by Westwood in 1992.   Seriously, grab a copy of Dune II some time, the differences between the original Warcraft and Dune II were minimal.

I heard Westwood tried to sue Blizzard over these similaries, which might seem silly now that everybody is making a game like Dune II, but back then it was before the fact.    However, this lawsuit may have just be a rumor, as I couldn't google it, but then that was back in 1994 after all.    (It's probably just as well, this guy seems to believe he has a basis to believe that Dune II wasn't really the first of it's kind either, but rather just a mishmash of other games.   Suuure.)

Starcraft came in 1998.     Though you can't say it was their first or even second RTS game (they had released Warcraft II in 1996!), Blizzard still did some pretty nifty innovations, what with the three radically different sides and nice 2d multimedia presentation style.  

(Although some people were a little miffed at Starcraft's privacy intrusion measures, which apparently stole your name and email address from your system registry and emails Blizzard for some reason (some claim it was because you entered a bad CD key).)

Personally I've always wished they made a Starcraft/Warcraft that let you que up multiple building commands like Total Annhilation did.    I liked that feature.   However, looks like they're afraid that'd break the magic, because it didn't end up in Warcraft III.

they never made RPG before and made diablo

So far as RPGs are concerned, the original Diablo had pretty simple mechanics.   Only three classes, the entire character system revolving around 3 statistics.    Considering how little RPG mechanics were actually in the original Diablo, it had about as much in common with D&D as it did Gauntlet.

When everything is taken together, Diablo was really a pretty good formula, and I can't really call foul on it at all.    About the only comparison I can draw to previous RPGs was the roguelike games' random dungeon generation, and that is only one small fascet of what Diablo introduced.    For example, the inventory management system has since been cloned many times since Diablo, and Phantasy Star Online cloned a very similar mechanic for multiplayer play.     However, I think Diablo (like most games) was successful because of the sum of each and every individual part and good implementation.

Put many many polygons and use special requirement-heavy features, because higher requirements makes idiots think it's a better game... these same idiots are the ones that become addicted extremely easily.

Interesting observation.  I wish I could disprove it, heh.

there's really no better name you can have on the box than Blizzard

There really isn't.  However, the funny thing is, they're making a MMORPG.    Alas, poor Origin, back in their heyday before becoming mere safekeepers of the Ultima brand, they made games that could give Blizzard a run for their money.

[Morfiend]

Seriously, how many good threads are we going to let get sucked down before he is banned.

[naum]

Say what you will about Blizzard, but they make some pretty good games and go where no others go in supporting games that don't even have the subscription framework now. By far, they have the most successful RTS game empire, even if the C&C universe may sell just as many copies (I don't know the exact stats...), but in MP they really shine. Other RTS makers have failed getting near the bar they have set.

* Battle.net - might be infested with a lot of unsavory gamer fiends, but it's the model that others are trying to implement, albeit not as successful - nightly tournaments, a ranked mechanism that probably is the fairest of all the competitive RTS suite.

* Patches and game balancing - 2 years after and still game patches are being done, recently they released OSX installers for SC and DiabloII - may be standard behavoir for subscription based games, but Blizzard competitor games packages are few and far between, even when multiplayer killing bugs and/or exploits are evident.

* The art - yeah, all RTS is a ripoff of Dune which was born out of another RTS game (or RTS type implementation of a previous game...) but they've got their own stamp. It works for them and they have created a Warcraft universe.

Even though my caffiene pumped click fu RTS days are over, I've gotten my money worth of WCIII & FT. Even though I've only played a few MP games, just from SP campaigns, games, and watching replays of tournament games… …and I see what they were trying to do and they succeeded - while I don't like set maps and smaller battles, their game doesn't have the macroing like other RTS. It may not be a complex Empire war simulation engine, but there are counters and strategies or tactics, and multitasking is paramount.

Will it translate into a successful MMORPG for Blizzard? I don't know. But I think they'll do a better job than Verant + SOE did on their first MMORPG excursion.

Will it stand out enough in what is becoming a very crowded market for the genre? Initially, just because of the WCIII tab,  but who knows if it will have staying power?

We'll find out sometime next year, so it's probably too early to speculate anyway…

[Trippy]

Personally I've always wished they made a Starcraft/Warcraft that let you que up multiple building commands like Total Annhilation did.    I liked that feature.   However, looks like they're afraid that'd break the magic, because it didn't end up in Warcraft III.

They added queued building in a patch to Warcraft III. However it doesn't work as well as it did in TA since the resource models are different so your WC3 worker will stop building and his/its build queue will be cleared if you run out of the appropriate resource(s).

[Johnson101]

SOE:
make the game's first impression appealing.
Promise many cool things and worry about feasability later.
Get as much attention and publicity as possible, and hope to trap the players in an addiction.
As long as the developpement cost is refunded, the game is a success.
Put many many polygons and use special requirement-heavy features, because higher requirements makes idiots think it's a better game... these same idiots are the ones that become addicted extremely easily.

You're basically just listing things that just about all MMO's do (Including Blizzard).

now Blizzard:
Make a good game.

"Good game" meaning if you like MMO "gameplay". Maybe it was fun the first time around, but really, they're all the same. I can only play the same thing once. Even first person shooters offer more variety amongst themselves. About the only thing that improves or changes with each successive MMO is the size and detail of the game world. That's great, virtual worlds are cool, but it still isn't good enough.

I wouldn't even say a developer has to be "original" to bring something new to the genre. They can look to single player games for all the ideas they'll ever need. They don't have to be exactly like single player games to be fun, but they need to learn at least a little from them. Compared to other genres, what MMO's offer is not "gameplay" in the slightest sense. They're "social", sometimes entertaining, even a little "challenging" sometimes -- but they're not fucking "games".

WoW might even turn out to be a good MMO, but that doesn't mean it still isn't shit. Just the best of the bunch, that's all. It's the genre that's broken, not SOE, Blizzard, or anyone else.

If an MMORPG isn't a game, then why are they called Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game?

[geldonyetich]

Heh, if a MMORPG doesn't really enforce role playing, why include the Role Playing part?

The answer: Developer optimism.

[Kairos]

If an MMORPG isn't a game, then why are they called Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game?

The same reason that North Korea calls itself the People's Democratic Republic of Korea.

[Morfiend]

http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=209724

Here are some images of the PVP server a guy posted of one of last nights battles.

[geldonyetich]

Nice shots.   Hopefully release will be as eventful as beta.   It seems to me the best battles Shadowbane ever had were prior to release.

Looks like there's stuns in there, judging by how that "Daze" thing killed him in the sixth screenshot according to the combat log.

[Morfiend]

After giving it a LOT of thought, I think the very best way to sum up WoW is like this.

DAoC + fun - tedium = WoW

Granted, there is still some problems, and a little grinding, but one of the best aspects I have found is you NEVER have to camp a spawn for very long. You are always on the move, looking for the next part of your quest, or exploring new lands. The longest I have had to sit at a camp site so far is about 10 minutes. And that was the exception. Most often it 2 to 5 minutes. none of that, camp this spawn for 5 hours, then move down the road and camp the next spawn for 5 hours.

The quests all flow very nicely, and lead you to the right challenge for you level.


I am working on a big write up of the PVP server for you all.

[geldonyetich]

After giving it a LOT of thought, I think the very best way to sum up WoW is like this.

DAoC + fun - tedium = WoW

Funny thing is, I've heard that line before.   It lasts until burnout sets in.

However, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.     The wandering hunting mechanics sound quite good.

[jpark]

I offer a compromise:

If you liked Warcraft III you're gonna love WoW, since the latter is really the former with the same graphics in first person perspective :P

[Morfiend]

I offer a compromise:

If you liked Warcraft III you're gonna love WoW, since the latter is really the former with the same graphics in first person perspective :P

Wow, so not true. The only thing WC3 and WoW have in common is the lore.

[HaemishM]

And the retarded Blizzard fanbois, how can you forget them?