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WOW + 56K Dial-Up Modem?
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08-05-2004, 10:19 PM
How well does WOW perform when a 56K dial-up modem is used? What I'm interested in is the performance with a full-blown scenery/landscape with a good amount of houses, trees, monsters and characters with fully detailed textures at max. resolution.
"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
08-05-2004, 10:45 PM
Oh my, you must be praying every night before bed time for that confirmation e-mail, aren't you? ;)
Anyway, I heard from some people it's a lil slow but not such a big of a deal. P.S: You're not alone on the praying :)
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
08-05-2004, 11:26 PM
Quote:P.S: You're not alone on the praying I'm trying satanic worship right now, changing to nature-appealing sacrifices next week... :lol: Greetings Nuur
"I'm a cynical optimistic realist. I have hopes. I suspect they are all in vain. I find a lot of humor in that." -Pete
I'll remember you. 
08-06-2004, 12:33 AM
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but resolution and level of detail won't have any bearing on how playable WoW is with any given connection. All of that is totally client-driven and is completely based on hardware.
While I don't have dial-up, I do happen to have the world's slowest cable connection (128 kbps up/64 kbps down -- roughly twice that of a 56k connection). My latency is usually around 150-200 ms, which is completely playable. WoW is very forgiving with high latency. I've played in some high lag situations of 500+ ms, and it really wasn't that bad. If you can comfortably play D2 with your current dial-up connection, I see no reason why you can't play WoW just as comfortably.
08-06-2004, 12:35 AM
Its a tad slow using a 56K for the actual game connection, but easily playable. I was using a 56K connection during the first two phases here and only got a cable connection in time for the third phase. Most of what you listed for the "full-blown scenery/landscape with a good amount of houses, trees, monsters and characters with fully detailed textures at max. resolution" is a matter of your computers performance in rendering these images from the bulk data files of the game, not the realatively small data packets that tell the game where some of these things are (some are fixed on the maps).
What will hurt you is that the distribution of the game and the patches are very large files being distributed by a bit-torrent system. With 56K connection you could be looking at a 200 to 300 hour download (7-10 days) to acutaully get the game. I was able to take my main box to a friends house to use his cable connection to get the earlier phase downloads done in a somewhat more reasonable time.
08-06-2004, 01:37 AM
NuurAbSaal,Aug 6 2004, 03:20 AM Wrote:You better not be sacrificing bunnies!Quote:P.S: You're not alone on the praying Leave the bunnies alone dangit! :ph34r:
"Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards, and seal the hushed casket of my soul" - John Keats, "To Sleep"
08-06-2004, 08:40 AM
Quote:Its a tad slow using a 56K for the actual game connection, but easily playable. ... So, a 56K connection seems to be sufficient for playing the game, but ... Quote:What will hurt you is that the distribution of the game and the patches are very large files being distributed by a bit-torrent system. With 56K connection you could be looking at a 200 to 300 hour download (7-10 days) to acutaully get the game. ... ... this worries me. Apart from the fact that a 200 to 300 hour download would disqualify me immediately from participating in the WOW Beta (because I use a 56K modem with a 60 hour/month "Surftime 60" rate), what does Blizzard plan for the distribution of WOW game patches and "content updates" once the game is released? An initial 200-300 hour download is obviously not necessary because the basic game is distributed on the CD's in the box you buy, but what impact will future updates have for 56K modem users that don't have a flat-rate (a cheap flat-rate for 56K modems wouldn't be possible anymore in Germany anyway since DSL has been introduced)? Since the game shall be playable via a 56K modem all the time, I'd assume that patches and content updates with all the required data are quite huge and must be downloaded before you can continue to play. Has Blizzard thought about this yet? The advertising for WOW says that "WOW will be playable via a 56K modem", but that is obviously just one part of the equation how usable WOW will generally be if you own just a 56K modem without a flat-rate. If content updates come monthly (as advertised) and game patches quite frequently (I'd assume), I see a significant disadvantage for 56K modem users (without a flat-raet) ..
"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
08-06-2004, 10:22 AM
TaiDaishar,Aug 6 2004, 03:31 AM Wrote:Heh, I'm flying to Spain in 5 days.NuurAbSaal,Aug 6 2004, 03:20 AM Wrote:You better not be sacrificing bunnies!Quote:P.S: You're not alone on the praying Let me ponder for a second, play the beta of this thing or go to the beautiful beaches of Alicante for 3 weeks with a bunch of friends and no worries whatsoever. *Ponders* See ya all in mid September! ^_^
08-06-2004, 10:54 AM
:ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:
"I'm a cynical optimistic realist. I have hopes. I suspect they are all in vain. I find a lot of humor in that." -Pete
I'll remember you.
08-06-2004, 12:31 PM
NuurAbSaal,Aug 6 2004, 12:20 AM Wrote:I'm trying satanic worship right now, changing to nature-appealing sacrifices next week Next week? Heh, I am way ahead of you then... :P
- SoulEdge -
"*burp* too many pots, I need to pee..." 
08-06-2004, 02:22 PM
Hi,
. . . what does Blizzard plan for the distribution of WOW game patches and "content updates" once the game is released? Supposedly they will use the patch tool that has been distributed (twice, I think) and tested. And if they do it by reasonable amounts, it may not be too much of a drain on your bandwidth. However, if you do have a limit to the time per month you have or if you are paying by the hour, I can see how WoW's periodic upgrades could mess you up. Four 100 MB patches a month (just guesstimating) would represent over 1/4 of your monthly 60 hour allotment. Still, 60 hours per month seems a bit low to play a MMOG of any type even without worrying about upgrades. --Pete How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?
08-06-2004, 03:45 PM
Its much easier to justify exspensive bandwith to service paying customers than it is for a beta. After all 99% of the beta issues can be dealth with fine by only using cable connection customers.
When people are paying for a product they will be upset if every patch takes 24 hours of downloading. Much of the country doesnt havent calble or satilite and Blizz knows that. 
08-06-2004, 04:53 PM
I don't imagine that they are worrying about this. I'm not aware of any ISP in America that's not on a "flat-rate" plan. Honestly, I'm surprised they still exist. Maybe the European team will have some solution, but I doubt that it's something that's on the mind of the American developers.
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