11.13.08

[Mirajj]

WoWHead has changed it's background, in an official Blizzard ad, to announce the release date of the Wrath. Plan that vacation time now!

[Lissa]

WoWHead has changed it's background, in an official Blizzard ad, to announce the release date of the Wrath. Plan that vacation time now!

Considering there is nothing up on either Blizzard.com or WorldofWarcract.com, I'm skeptical. And given how many bugs there seem to be right now between WotLK Beta and what is being seen on the PTR, that adds even more to my skepticism.

[Mordekhuul]

Considering there is nothing up on either Blizzard.com or WorldofWarcract.com, I'm skeptical. And given how many bugs there seem to be right now between WotLK Beta and what is being seen on the PTR, that adds even more to my skepticism.

Blizzard confirmed that the release date announcement was an official Blizzard ad.

Be skeptical that they'll stick to their plan, but not that it doesn't come from Blizzard.

They have also said 3.0.2 should hit live sooner than later, and indicated mid-October as likely. There better be some furious patching on the PTR over the next few weeks to hit mid-October!

[Tal]

Blizzard confirmed that the release date announcement was an official Blizzard ad.

Where?

[Mirajj]

Where?

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

I'll leave it as a little more official looking linkname.;)

[Mordekhuul]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/preorder/index.htm

[Tal]

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

I'll leave it as a little more official looking linkname.;)

Wow that was not there when I went looking.

[Pesmerga]

Wow that was not there when I went looking.

Sure it wasn't...

Discrediting Mirajj and Mordekhuul was just your first step on the road to World Domination!

Well, back to the drawing board.

:P

That said, I have to go pre-order my collector's edition...

[Tal]

That said, I have to go pre-order my collector's edition...

Anyone found it online yet? No luck with CC/Best Buy/Gamestop and Amazon for me.

[Mordekhuul]

Anyone found it online yet? No luck with CC/Best Buy/Gamestop and Amazon for me.

Me either. I guess I'll stop by gamestop on the way home or tomorrow and see if they know anything about the Collector's edition yet.

I have too much vacation left right now, and must burn it before the end of the year, so I'm thinking a week off Nov 17-21 would be a nice coincidence ;-)

[TheDragoon]

It's interesting to note that when I went to the different company websites to see what their delivery dates were they all said vastly different things. Gamestop said that they would guarantee delivery on 11/13/08 if you buy overnight shipping (if your area has overnight shipping), Best Buy showed an estimated delivery date of 11/3/08 to 11/8/08, Circuit City showed a release date of 11/3/08, Amazon.com showed a release date of 11/3/08 which is when they would pick it up from Blizzard, ship it to their distributors and then pass it along to the customer, meaning it could take 1 day to several days from the "release date" to arrive.

So I get the impression that Blizzard wants to have a worldwide release on 11/13/08 but that they are probably shipping to vendors on 11/3/08. In the past (TBC, for example), I know some people were able to get their boxes prior to the release date by ordering online with certain companies. My TBC experiences were with Best Buy and Gamestop. I preordered a copy of the TBC collector's edition from Best Buy for delivery to myself (priority shipping) and a copy of the normal edition for delivery to my girlfriend (standard shipping). I received an email saying the normal edition had shipped on the 12th (release date of 16th). However, on the day before the release date, I called Best Buy to see what the status on the collector's edition was since I had not yet received an email saying it had shipped. They said that it was on backorder and that it might ship in 2-3 weeks. Thus, I was forced to go down to my local Gamestop and preorder a copy around 8pm the night before the release. I was able to pick up the Gamestop copy the next day on the way home from work. Later that evening, I received an email from Best Buy saying that the collector's edition had shipped. The day after release, my girlfriend's standard copy from Best Buy was delivered. Two days after release my Best Buy collector's edition copy was finally delivered. Obviously, I was not particularly happy with how things worked out with Best Buy since they gave me misinformation the day before release (saying it was on backorder) and then everything was delivered AFTER the release date. Also, the priority shipping that I paid extra for just meant that they shipped it later, resulting in that copy arriving a day LATER than the normal shipping. Conversely, the pick-up from Gamestop was a snap, despite the fact that I preordered the night before release.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a company that can actually deliver on getting the boxes out to people? Or, even better, did anyone manage to get their hands on a copy of TBC earlier so that you can have it installed and ready to roll once the switches are flipped online to allow for use of the expansion? I'm thinking that I'll probably try to order a collector's edition from one company and a standard copy from another (one for my girlfriend, one for me) to help out our odds of getting at least one of them on the release date, but I just need to figure out how to do that. :)

[LavCat]

Me either. I guess I'll stop by gamestop on the way home or tomorrow and see if they know anything about the Collector's edition yet.

I have too much vacation left right now, and must burn it before the end of the year, so I'm thinking a week off Nov 17-21 would be a nice coincidence ;-)

I have the collector's edition on order from ebgames with overnight delivery:

http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDeta...duct%5FID=72700

[LavCat]

Does anyone have any suggestions on a company that can actually deliver on getting the boxes out to people? Or, even better, did anyone manage to get their hands on a copy of TBC earlier so that you can have it installed and ready to roll once the switches are flipped online to allow for use of the expansion? I'm thinking that I'll probably try to order a collector's edition from one company and a standard copy from another (one for my girlfriend, one for me) to help out our odds of getting at least one of them on the release date, but I just need to figure out how to do that. :)

Shame on you for how you treat your girlfriend! Girls like pets too!

So far I have had good results preordering from ebgames. The shipments arrive on release day, as I recall. The ebgames website says powered by gamestop, so maybe they are the same entity.

[TheDragoon]

Shame on you for how you treat your girlfriend! Girls like pets too!

Actually, since she didn't start up her copy of TBC until after I got the CE, I gave her the key from that box so she ended up with the netherwhelp pet. She also has the phoenix pet, now, so I think she'll be ok with me picking up the WotLK pet. :)

[TheDragoon]

I have the collector's edition on order from ebgames with overnight delivery:

http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDeta...duct%5FID=72700

Also, as you noted earlier, the EBGames and GameStop websites seem to be run together, thus the Game Stop appears to have the collector's edition up now, as well.
GameStop.com

[Tuftears]

... so I think she'll be ok with me picking up the WotLK pet. :)

Shows what you know.:)

[Concillian]

Be skeptical that they'll stick to their plan

I'm not skeptical.

They've announced the date, that WILL BE THE DATE. They rent space on brick and mortar shelves for a specific date. That contract must be in place well in advance, and they can't sell it back.

Ready or not, here it comes.

[Kevin]

I'm not skeptical.

They've announced the date, that WILL BE THE DATE. They rent space on brick and mortar shelves for a specific date. That contract must be in place well in advance, and they can't sell it back.

Ready or not, here it comes.

Yeah, 6 million subscribers. This is likely the last X-pac. If it comes out buggy they'll fix it with the live team and still make money hand over fist. Even if they piss off a bunch of the subscribers they should be confident that D3 and SC2 will calm some of those ruffled feathers and still bring them in a ton of money while they work on their next cash cow. And based on what I've done in beta, even with the bugs it won't be any worse than any other major patch that has bugs in it anyway.

They can easily afford whatever hit they'll take. And since even with the bugs, from what I've seen every class and every spec will get buffed in whatever gear they wear so people won't care as much. Even with WF not procing on the MH and even with only rank 5 procing at the right right on the off hand my enh shaman still got a DPS boost and more flexibility in being able to off heal in a pinch.

If any classes is weaker than what they are now I'd like to see it. That is not to say that the rankings of relative strength between classes/spec didn't change (marks hunters got quite the boost and beast may now be the weakest raiding spec believe it or not, but beast in beta is still stronger than beast on live).

[Lissa]

Yeah, 6 million subscribers. This is likely the last X-pac. If it comes out buggy they'll fix it with the live team and still make money hand over fist. Even if they piss off a bunch of the subscribers they should be confident that D3 and SC2 will calm some of those ruffled feathers and still bring them in a ton of money while they work on their next cash cow. And based on what I've done in beta, even with the bugs it won't be any worse than any other major patch that has bugs in it anyway.

They can easily afford whatever hit they'll take. And since even with the bugs, from what I've seen every class and every spec will get buffed in whatever gear they wear so people won't care as much. Even with WF not procing on the MH and even with only rank 5 procing at the right right on the off hand my enh shaman still got a DPS boost and more flexibility in being able to off heal in a pinch.

If any classes is weaker than what they are now I'd like to see it. That is not to say that the rankings of relative strength between classes/spec didn't change (marks hunters got quite the boost and beast may now be the weakest raiding spec believe it or not, but beast in beta is still stronger than beast on live).

IMO, this will be the last expansion pack done this way for WoW. Wrath will tidy up all the story lines from WC3 which makes it possible to setup WC4 and then WoW2. They still haven't announce their 4th project and that's either going to be something along the revitalization of Ghost or it's going to be WC4. While they may throw a bone later on that will open level 90 and maybe 100, I don't think that expansion will be sold like tBC and Wrath. WoW is coming on to the typical end of life cycle that MMOs go through (about 5 to 6 years).

[Bolty]

WoW is coming on to the typical end of life cycle that MMOs go through (about 5 to 6 years).

Yep, those sales figures really show that WoW is in a major decline.

:P

What surprised me this time around is that Blizzard is so willing to throw the pre-expansion patch out there. Before TBC, this didn't have the impact it will now - completely thrashing arena balance and making Season 4 a joke. I guarantee there are going to be some ubercombos the moment the patch comes out that just can't be countered, because this many massive changes all at once can't be balanced at all yet. If you're playing one of those ubercombos, you're in luck. If not...oh well...

I have no idea if Priests will be part of an ubercombo. I'm betting not though since the core issues of Priest survivability in arenas aren't changing. Priests will gain armor and other defensive abilities, but still no ability to escape forces them to be reliant on their specific-class arena partners to peel. It'll be a wacky few weeks though as arena balance is completely turned on its head.

-Bolty