Closed Beta ends
#1
Hope you all had fun! Stress test will be starting soon. See http://www.worldofwarcraft.com for details.

-Bolty
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#2
Bolty,Oct 28 2004, 06:40 PM Wrote:Hope you all had fun!  Stress test will be starting soon.  See http://www.worldofwarcraft.com for details.

-Bolty
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Here's the mail too (got it shortly after servers went down for maintainence):

Quote:Greetings!



If you are receiving this email, you are one of the valued testers currently in World of Warcraft’s closed beta test. This message is to inform you that the beta servers will be coming down at 3:00 PM PDT on Friday, October 29 and will remain offline for a few days in preparation for another stress test. Your account and characters will be active for this stress test, but a new client download will be required. After the game servers come down on Friday the 29th, you will be able to log in to the community site and download the new client.



Once the beta-server preparations are complete, we will announce the start of the stress test, and the servers will come back online. When that happens, you will be able to log back in, download a quick patch, and then continue playing. Please keep an eye on WorldofWarcraft.com for more information about the stress test in the days ahead!



We want to take this opportunity to thank you for all the hard work you’ve been putting in to make World of Warcraft a better game. You’ve done a great job, and without you, the classes would not be where they are today, places like the Barrens would not be as rich as they are today, and the changes implemented from your suggestions would never have taken place.



We hope you've been enjoying your exclusive look at World of Warcraft these past few weeks and months, and we hope you'll take some satisfaction in knowing that you’ve played a big part in shaping its destiny. We'll see you again online soon!



Sincerely,

Blizzard Entertainment
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#3
Bolty,Oct 28 2004, 09:40 PM Wrote:Hope you all had fun!  Stress test will be starting soon.  See http://www.worldofwarcraft.com for details.

-Bolty
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This game is not ready for retail.

Good luck, Blizzard...

-Bolty

P.S. Guild Wars free weekend! Let's go! :)
Quote:Considering the mods here are generally liberals who seem to have a soft spot for fascism and white supremacy (despite them saying otherwise), me being perma-banned at some point is probably not out of the question.
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#4
Bolty,Oct 28 2004, 09:40 PM Wrote:Hope you all had fun!  Stress test will be starting soon.  See http://www.worldofwarcraft.com for details.

-Bolty
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I wonder though if we'll still be able to test high level Pally and hunter talents before everything gets locked down...
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#5
What a kind email. Maybe their apologetic way of saying "Sorry, but screw you."

I'm looking forward more to GW than WoW, anyway.
ArrayPaladins were not meant to sit in the back of the raid staring at health bars all day, spamming heals and listening to eight different classes whine about buffs.[/quote]
The original Heavy Metal Cow™. USDA inspected, FDA approved.
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#6
Bolty,Oct 28 2004, 09:28 PM Wrote:This game is not ready for retail.

-Bolty
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In a sense maybe, but I dont think you understand that beast that is MMORPs(I do think you understand WoW itself, quite well).

In its current state WoW is better than most MMORPs out there(maybe better than all of them.)
Ever MMORP is an on going evolving process, for a couple of reasons.

1 People become bored and quit paying if there isnt constant change.

2 The players learn and change so the devs make changes in response. This never stops. Diablo demosntrates this. There are a multitude o cheesey ways to level fast in Diablo - thats not a problem though because the game doesnt depend on other players beyond your friends. In a MMORP everyone effects everyone, so you have to sttay on top pf the world.



Those 2 elements make MMORPs a sort of eternal "beta" . Its really not worth waiting for perfection if you can just keep if fun and steadily improve the game.
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#7
Tal,Oct 28 2004, 07:43 PM Wrote:I wonder though if we'll still be able to test high level Pally and hunter talents before everything gets locked down...
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This email seems to indicate that characters will not be wiped during the stress test (which will start Monday from the sounds of it). This means that high level Hunters and Pallys will get a chance to look at those talents.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
Reply
#8
Bolty,Oct 28 2004, 07:28 PM Wrote:This game is not ready for retail.

Good luck, Blizzard...

-Bolty

P.S. Guild Wars free weekend!  Let's go!  :)
[right][snapback]58544[/snapback][/right]

It's a lot more ready for retail than EQ2.

Time will tell as well, they say they're holding stuff back from us, we'll have to see.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#9
I agree the game is not nearly ready, but the marketing people apparently do not. As of now I expect that I will pay for what I used to get for free.

My latest is that just now I was doing a corpse recovery in Felwood when the server crashed. When I logged back in my ghost was in Stormwind. That's a pretty long swim. This time I wasn't even on a gryphon.
"I may be old, but I'm not dead."
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#10
Lissa,Oct 28 2004, 11:37 PM Wrote:This email seems to indicate that characters will not be wiped during the stress test (which will start Monday from the sounds of it).  This means that high level Hunters and Pallys will get a chance to look at those talents.
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I can only hope so as I now have 50 of those bad boys to spend. ;)
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#11
Lissa,Oct 29 2004, 01:55 AM Wrote:Here's the mail too (got it shortly after servers went down for maintainence):
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Oddly enough (I guess) I have not received that email. Perhaps it was sent to my patron, DeeBye. Thanks again, old friend, for making it possible for me to play in the beta.
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#12
Thenryb,Oct 29 2004, 09:32 AM Wrote:Oddly enough (I guess) I have not received that email. Perhaps it was sent to my patron, DeeBye. Thanks again, old friend, for making it possible for me to play in the beta.
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You are very welcome :) I hope you had fun with it.
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#13
Lissa,Oct 29 2004, 03:47 AM Wrote:It's a lot more ready for retail than EQ2.
I'm going to break a lance for WOW here ;)

I haven't played WOW (beta) or EQ2 (beta), but from what I've read, heard and seen in the Game-TV specials/previews so far, neither WOW nor EQ2 are ready for retail yet - not even close if one considers how complex such MMORPG's with multiple races and "ever-quests" are.

It seems that both Sony and Blizzard want to have their new game flagships out before Christmas. Since WOW and EQ2 are from the MMORPG genre, where most people want to concentrate on one game for financial and time reasons, pressure is high for both companies. The one who has the foot in the customer's door first, makes the deal. As a result of this extremely competitive situation, which is new for Blizzard because their previous titles (Diablo, WarCraft, StarCraft) have been more or less competitionless, WOW will be their first game that can not be considered "finished by Blizzard standards". However, as Ghostiger stated already, WOW seems to be better than most (or all) MMORPG's out there even in its current state, and every MMORPG is an on going evolving process that is practically never finished (an "ever-quest"). In addition to unfinished content and balancing, EQ2 - according to various reports - seems to be also a *lot* more buggy than WOW is at the moment.

The second and obvious plus that WOW has compared to EQ2 is its graphics. In light of WOW, EQ2 seems to be just a graphical hodge-podge of random fantasy elements. It lacks the strong art direction that is typical for Blizzard games. The live-previews of EQ2 looked certainly impressive, and the graphical and animation *details* were better than that of WOW here and there, but they come at the price of very costly hardware. While WOW - according to the tests in TV - is playable in good graphical quality on 3 to 4 years old "high-end" systems (example: GeForce Ti4200, Pentium 4 2Ghz, 256-512MB RAM, 56K modem), the sytem requirements for EQ2 are STELLAR (example: GeForce 6800 Ultra, Pentium 4 3GHz, 512-1024MB RAM, DSL modem) if you want to play it at the level of detail that makes it look better than WOW (the poor art direction and fantasy hodge-podge aside). You can't enjoy EQ2's full graphical quality if you don't own a state-of-the-art high-end PC, and how many potential customers own such a system? The moderators of the live-preview said that EQ2's performance *might* improve until the final release candidate, but I doubt that there will be a significant difference in system requirements.

WOW's third plus are its (familiar) WarCraft backstory and storyline, which are amazingly deep and interesting compared to other games, and its unique, cartoony feel. EQ2 has nothing comparable, so the "Immersive Gameplay" award goes to WOW as well.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Whether or not I personally will play WOW remains to be seen, depending on the time (and money) I can afford for the quite costly entertainment next year. 200+$ per year (provider costs not included) for one game + playing fees makes you think twice before you buy. Some merchandising stuff like the amazing looking "Jungle Troll Voodoo Priest" action figure (which would fit nicely into my current set of 7-inch WarCraft III figures) and the new WOW artbook (from the "Collector's Edition") are definitely on the shopping list, though. If I should make a recommendation for someone who wants to play one of the new "commercial" MMORPG's now, I'd say buy WOW - it will certainly be worth the money if you are into that type of games.

"Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays." -- Friedrich von Schiller
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#14
I don't know why people keep comparing WoW to EQ2. EQ2 is obviously going to be rushed, and probably will be buggy and unfinished in a lot of areas. Most people here know that and would probably not think about spending on EQ2 in the first place.

I think the actual question is rather is WoW worth spending $200 or so a year? Right now, to me, and probably few others, such as Bolty, the answer is no. And there are alternatives, including other games and even Guild Wars with no monthly fee.

We will see how balanced and finished open beta patch will be, and make decision then. But right now there is simply soooo much unfinished stuff it makes me sad.
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#15
lemekim,Oct 29 2004, 06:07 PM Wrote:I don't know why people keep comparing WoW to EQ2. EQ2 is obviously going to be rushed, and probably will be buggy and unfinished in a lot of areas. Most people here know that and would probably not think about spending on EQ2 in the first place.

I think the actual question is rather is WoW worth spending $200 or so a year? Right now, to me, and probably few others, such as Bolty, the answer is no. And there are alternatives, including other games and even Guild Wars with no monthly fee.

We will see how balanced and finished open beta patch will be, and make decision then. But right now there is simply soooo much unfinished stuff it makes me sad.
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It also depends on what Blizzard plans to do during the Stress Test and Open Beta. Stress Test will not see the Closed Beta characters wiped, so we still will have a chance to test some of the high end stuff (espcially the Hunter and Paladin Talents along with the Warlock Felhunter and Inferno). Also, it will depend on when Blizzard actually starts the Open Beta and if they plan to wipe characters after Open Beta or not (if they start Open Beta by the 15th, don't wipe Open Characters, and ship by Dec 15th to the 18th or there abouts, even with SoE releasing EQ2 early, Blizzard still has a little more time to work out bugs AND get enough people hooked to keep SoE out of the running...plus, a lot of people are rather mad at SoE due to SWG alone and the fiasco that is/was). Right now WoW is more polished than a lot of MMORPGs that have come out recently and if Blizzard plays there cards right, they could potentially break the record for North American subscriptions (break the world wide subscriptions will be difficult considering how many people play Lineage/Lineage 2 and FFXI).
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset

Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
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#16
Now that the closed beta has ended, is this "stress test" they're starting actually the Open Beta, or is it only for the closed beta testers?
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