# World of Warcraft open beta signups live--sort of!



## Pielorinho (Nov 2, 2004)

So, the good news: you can now sign up for the World of Warcraft final stress test!

The bad news: you have to do it through www.fileplanet.com, which means paying at least seven or eight bucks for a membership to the site. They make it look like you have to pay at least sixteen bucks for ninety days, but if you poke around you may be able to find alink to a cheaper signup, for seven or eight bucks. Try refusing their initial offers and see if they give you the cheap rate to lock you in; or try signing up from their main page instead of signing up through their WoW pages.

The worse news: they somehow didn't anticipate that they'd get a metric crapload of site traffic with this beta signup, and so they're really far behind on processing the signups. It was three hours after I signed up that I received email confirming my account, and now it's six hours later and I still haven't received the code that'll let me actually download the beta.

The good news again: if you aren't as much of a Blizzard crackhead as I am, you can save your money and wait a week, and the Open Beta will begin.

ANyone else a Blizzard crackhead like me?
Daniel


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## CrusaderX (Nov 2, 2004)

Do you have to download a new client?  I assume the stress test client from the September stress test won't work?  Or will it?


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## Pielorinho (Nov 2, 2004)

You need to download a new client.
Daniel


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## caudor (Nov 2, 2004)

Yeah, I'm all signed up and downloading the client now.  It was not painless.  I was in the first stress test, and I'm looking forward to exploring the horde this time around.

It is nice that if you are in the 2nd stress test, you are also automatically signed up for the open beta as well.

I'll see you guys online.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 2, 2004)

Not painless at all .  I stayed up till a little after midnight, feverishly stabbing my finger at the "Send/Receive Mail" button, waiting for the stress-test invite.  Finally I went to bed, where i tossed and turned until around four in the morning, when I couldn't take it any longer and got up and went to check my email again--and discovered the invitation had come in about thirty seconds after I'd gone to bed the first time.

So I started the download, which took a good fifteen minutes because their site is slower than a sloth fossil and because there were needless layers that you have to go through before you gain access to the file.  And I got up this morning to discover that it had stalled out sometime during the night, at a little over 16% downloaded.

Refreshing the webpage for the download jerked it back into consciousness, and when I left the house this morning it was at 24%.  Please, sweet Blizzard, gimme the dang file by the time I get home tonight!

I'll need something to distract me from the news.
Daniel


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## Thanee (Nov 2, 2004)

Will the open beta just be a normal download without all that fileplanet crap?
 Does _open_ beta imply, that everyone who signs up will actually get in?

 Anyways, while I am looking forward to World of Warcraft, I guess I can wait a few days (or weeks) still. 

 Bye
 Thanee


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## Pielorinho (Nov 2, 2004)

*Thanee*, I'm afraid that you may not be eligible for this open beta if you're in Germany; my understanding is that they're restricting this OB to American and Korean servers, and won't be opening the European ones for another few months.  Sorry!


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## KainG (Nov 2, 2004)

Final Stress Test FAQ 

Open Beta FAQ 

Gotta say that I'm a bit relieved that open beta hasn't started this week, cuz I got a school project to finish by the end of the week and if I was in open beta, I doubt I'd get it done.

Thankfully, OB should start next week, and by then I'll be having a few weeks off and spend 24/7 on WoW


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## Pielorinho (Nov 4, 2004)

Woot!  Finally last night I finished downloading the program.  It took me 48+ hours to download it over the Blizzard servers, but I finally got it.  For some reason, Fileplanet was agonizingly slow for me on my home machine:  the downloads never exceeded 150 kps, and hovered around 2-6 kps most of the time.  

But yesterday at work, on a lark I tried downloading from Fileplanet, and got a consistent 1.2 to 1.5 MPS download.  I don't know whether FP upgraded its servers, or whether I just have a rockiner connection at work.

Anyways, I'm playing now, and am thrilled!  It is incredibly fun and addictive, even when I'm just running around chopping the heads off tigers and selling their pelts to furriers.  This is a game that's going to make me lose sleep.

Anyone else playing?  I'm playing Horde on Server 13, but I can't remember my character's name .  I'll post it later, in case anyone wants to say hi.

Daniel


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## Mystery Man (Nov 4, 2004)

Just watched the opening movie...

Blown away....

can't speak....

must...pllllaaaaaaay.....


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## Pielorinho (Nov 4, 2004)

It's freakin' gorgeous, ain't it? 

Lemme know your character name, and if you're Horde, I'll add you to my friends list.
Daniel


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## Mystery Man (Nov 4, 2004)

crap it's gonna be after lunch some time. Just got busy here at work. Guess I have to start _working_. Bleh...


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## Dreeble (Nov 4, 2004)

Heya:

 Blizzard always makes such incredible cutscenes.  I really loved the motion of the bear and its fur.  Just great.

 I signed up at Fileplanet Monday night and 20 hours later got my key.  Download from Fileplanet servers took a little over 2 hours.  It downloaded at 350kbps, I think.

 I started on PvP East 4 on the Horde side as a Trolly Shammy (named Dreeble, of course).  I like the troll voices (hoot mon).  It's a super friendly game to people new to mmogs, I think.  I played EQ for a long time and it's much, much easier getting in to this.  I just turn a big circle in towns looking for all the mobs with big "!"s above their heads and it's off to the races.

 There are tons and tons of quests, but I'd really like to start seeing more types of quests in these games.  Something along the lines of an investigation (murder or whatever).  Maybe borrow stuff from the Clue boardgame, randomize stuff so online guides don't lead to the only answer, and if you keel the right person (always gotta be keeling) then you get a good quest reward, otherwise, oops.  Stuff along those lines.

 Love the Warcrafty-style cartoon graphics, love the "Zugzug".  I'm wondering if any Night Elf female NPCs say, "I'm not in season!"

Take care,
Dreeble


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## Mystery Man (Nov 4, 2004)

I'm playing a Tauren shaman, named Loxoz on test8.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 5, 2004)

Okay, double-checked my character's name:  Aghund, on Server 13, an orc warlock.

Have y'all started using the auction house?  As soon as you've got a bit of coin, check it out:  I discovered, belatedly, that it's a fantastic source of cheap, great equipment.  Far far better than what you can get from the vendors in-game.  I'm now trying to sell my first item on the AH.

Also, if you're playing Horde and you find yourself in Sen'jin village, talk to the witch-doctor in training.  It's hilarious.

Daniel


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## Thanee (Nov 5, 2004)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> *Thanee*, I'm afraid that you may not be eligible for this open beta if you're in Germany; my understanding is that they're restricting this OB to American and Korean servers, and won't be opening the European ones for another few months. Sorry!



 That's sooo mean! 

 How can they do that to us! 

 Bye
 Thanee


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## Pielorinho (Nov 5, 2004)

Sorry, friend!  It does look like they'll be releasing it in Europe "Shortly following" the 11/23 release in Australia, New Zealand, and the US.  And there's a closed beta still going on in Europe; I'm not sure if or when they'll be doing an open beta for y'all.

Daniel


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## Captain Tagon (Nov 7, 2004)

Pielorinho, how did you get the file transferred from work to your home comp? I'm trying to move it over currently but the file is huge.


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## Angcuru (Nov 7, 2004)

I don't think I want to pay extra cash to start playing a week or two earlier. Plus Fileplanet is on my hate list.  So I'll just wait for the final release.

So, once it's out for retail, howzabout we all here at ENWorld play on a specific server, so that we can all team up for fun-time goodness?


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## Captain Tagon (Nov 7, 2004)

Well, one reason I'm playing the beta is to see how well the game runs on my dial up connection. Better to shell out a few bucks and see for sure than either totally missing out on a game I can still play or not buy the retail version if I can't play.


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## Angcuru (Nov 7, 2004)

Well, my patience has run out.  Just subscribed, and I'm now downloading at 372K/s, oh yeah!  Will post character information when I'm all set up.


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## Angcuru (Nov 7, 2004)

Well, it's all installed, updated ect.  But there don't seem to be any servers/realms/whatever to play on.  Are they doing maintenence, or have I been gipped?


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

*Angcuru, *you managed to log on just as they're installing the final patch--and it's a beauty, including racial traits!  I'm trying now to log on, but having difficulty.

*Captain*, I didn't actually transfer the file from work to home:  by the time I got it at work, that evening I finished the home download.  However, I think that many CD-burning programs will automatically divide a large file up into multiple CDs for you; someone more tech-savvy than myself will have to explain.

*Angcuru*, or anyone else, if you play a character who uses cloth armor in the Horde on server 13, send a message to Aghund:  I'm doing a lot of tailoring, and will either give you sweet equipment for free (or for whatever donation you'd like to make), as an ENWorld special .

Daniel


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

Oh, and *Angcuru*, the open beta, the free one, begins tomorrow--get your seven bucks' worth of play in tonight!

Daniel


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## Captain Tagon (Nov 8, 2004)

Yeah, I got it burned on to four CDs but I unzipped the original file then had to individually rezip certain files and stuff. Lots of work but well worth it. I played at home and it worked find, just has some graphics problems. I'm installing Direct X right now on my school comp so I'll have it up and running tonight to see if it works. Right now I'm playing a Dwarf Hunter on Server 16, but I might have to make a Horde character on 13 to get free stuff off my fellow Western Carolinian.


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## EricNoah (Nov 8, 2004)

Where's the best place to check on the status of the free beta test (when it starts, etc.)?


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## mattcolville (Nov 8, 2004)

Maybe it's because I've been playing the game for the last 9 months, but honestly, I'd wait on the Beta. I mean, the game goes LIVE in 2 weeks. I'd save yourself the trouble of A: downloading and then B: playing for two weeks only to start over again.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

You can find out about the beta at www.worldofwarcraft.com.  It's scheduled to go live sometime today.

If you want to get a head start on downloading the client, I *think* you can get it at http://www.0sanity.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=3.  But don't quote me on that, and virus-scan it before running it; it's put up by a fan, I think .  

Daniel


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

Oh, and *Matt*, I totally think you're saying that because you've been playing for months .  I'm one of the goobers that paid an extra eight bucks to get into the game *seven days early*.  

Blizzard has said that the open beta will be the same core game as the one you buy in the box come retail; although you'll need to buy the gamebox in order to get a key for playing it, you won't need to reinstall or re-download the game if you're in the beta.

Daniel


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## EricNoah (Nov 8, 2004)

I got WOW.exe but it can't run because it is apparently missing other files.  Which probably isn't surprising.  So I'm not sure it helped.    I have heard rumors that the recent patch may push back the start of the open beta...


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

Ah well--worth a try!  I read a post from Blizzard today saying that they thought the open beta would begin today, so I'm still guessing it will.

Daniel


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## Pielorinho (Nov 8, 2004)

It's he-e-e-re!  For some reason, Fileplanet is saying there's a limited number of keys, which doesn't sound very open-beta-like to me.  And WoW's beta page is down.  But it looks like you can go to FilePlanet right now and get into the beta for free--once their servers quit crashing due to the entirely unexpected overload .

Daniel


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## EricNoah (Nov 8, 2004)

I'm there ... and, as you report, it's crashing!  and as reported, www.worldofwarcraft.com is also down!  Yipee, let the frenzy begin!


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## EricNoah (Nov 8, 2004)

The fileplanet.com keys are gone!


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## Angcuru (Nov 9, 2004)

The keys are gone?  Guess Blizzard only wanted so many people one their servers or something.  I mainly got into the beta to make sure I wanted to invest in playing this game.  After an hour of play, I pre-ordered the Special Collector's Edition from Amazon.     So much neat stuff.....I pity them Everquesters.

Oh, and I'm playing as Thordar, a gray-bearded dwarven hunter on Test 3.


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## LazarusLong42 (Nov 9, 2004)

Well, I got my key, and I'm still in the process of downloading.  Which doesn't surprise me.  Now I have to figure out how to easily get 2.5 GB of information from work to home... or re-download at home, which seems more likely.  Thankfully, I have cable...

Matt:  I'm going to use the beta period to evaluate whether I'm willing to pay $10/month to play this.  This'd be my first MMORPG.

EN:  Good luck getting your key; FilePlanet had a limited number of keys, but Blizzard is *supposed* to have gobs more... of course, their servers are getting hit pretty hard right now.  2 AM may be your best bet...


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## mattcolville (Nov 9, 2004)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> Oh, and *Matt*, I totally think you're saying that because you've been playing for months .  I'm one of the goobers that paid an extra eight bucks to get into the game *seven days early*.
> 
> Blizzard has said that the open beta will be the same core game as the one you buy in the box come retail; although you'll need to buy the gamebox in order to get a key for playing it, you won't need to reinstall or re-download the game if you're in the beta.
> 
> Daniel




I don't believe that's the case. I know some of the guys at Blizzard and according to them, you will have to reinstall.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 9, 2004)

*Matt*, that may be--but I'm almost certain I've read official notices on the WoW boards that you wouldn't have to reinstall.  It may just be that the programmers and the PR people aren't understanding one another; if Blizzard has a weakness, surely it's with their pre-game PR department .

*Lazarus*, make sure you're evaluating on the right cost:  if you buy six months at a time, I think it'll be $13/month.  Month-by-month will be $15.

Daniel


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## Captain Tagon (Nov 9, 2004)

Well now I'm having a problem installing DirectX, so that isn't working. Everytime I try to upgrade it in order to play the game, it says a cabinet file can't be trusted.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 9, 2004)

*Matt*, I just double-checked:  Blizzard's response to my question was


> No, you will not have to install from the CD at retail if you have a patched up beta client. You will still need to purchase a box to create an account at retail, however.



Daniel


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## Mystery Man (Nov 9, 2004)

Boy I sure am glad I got in early.


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## EricNoah (Nov 10, 2004)

Tried to download yesterday and it was going to take like 15 hours. So I think I'll skip it, wait for a few days, whatever.  Reading the forums was not encouraging - lots of people with lots of concerns!


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## Pielorinho (Nov 10, 2004)

Yeah:  since last night, the game's lag has been just about unbearable.  The servers are down right now as they perform some maintenance on them, and everyone is hoping that the maintenance will fix the lag problems

I'm desperately hoping that the game doesn't see these kinds of problems on its release.

Daniel


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## Dreeble (Nov 11, 2004)

Heya:

 The lag has been pretty bad the last few days.  Initially, for me at least, it was very annoying, but not deadly.  Last night, the lag got me keeled.  I wish the mobs were as affected by the lag as the player.

 Also, last night I crashed out 5 or 6 times.  3 or 4 of those times all I was doing was running along, no spell casting, no nothin'.  Annoying.

 Lastly, the open beta has closed, unfortunately.

Take care,
Dreeble (Ouchbark, 14th lvl Cow Shammy on East 4 PvP).


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## Thanee (Nov 11, 2004)

Looks like the open beta is at least open to anyone, since I had no trouble to get through to the download (it's still running, tho, kinda slow, but should be finished today).

Bye
Thanee


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## Pielorinho (Nov 11, 2004)

Cool, *Thanee*--lemme know if you're able to play when it's done!  My understanding is that in retail, the main limit on playing will be that you'll have to have a credit card accepted by US banks.  (When I was in Scandinavia last year, I know that many places refused my Visa, since it drew on US banks and apparently the two systems aren't connected yet).  

However, I expect the European launch to be pretty soon after the American launch--and I expect it to go more smoothly, since Blizzard will have had time to iron out many of the kinks in their servers by then.

Daniel


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## Thanee (Nov 11, 2004)

Well, I can tell you for sure, that the open beta isn't limited to US, I know several german people who play it already.

 Hopefully it will be possible to play on every server from everywhere. 

 Bye
 Thanee


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## Dreeble (Nov 11, 2004)

Heya:

 Well, that's weird.

 "World of Warcraft Open Beta Signups Closed - Nebu on 11/09/04"

 That's the second notice on the www.worldofwarcraft.com website.  Oh, well.  If other people get in, cool.

 The 7 people I play with (plus hopefully 4 or 5 from City of Heroes eventually) all decided to move from East 4 PvP server (which consistently had high lag and a waiting queue of hundreds) to Central 26 Normal server.  Big different.  Still a bit of lag once in a while, but no crashes at all for me.  Tried an Undead Rogue and had way fun. 

Take care, Dreeble


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## Krug (Nov 12, 2004)

11/23 street date! Woohoo!


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## Thanee (Nov 12, 2004)

Dreeble said:
			
		

> "World of Warcraft Open Beta Signups Closed - Nebu on 11/09/04"



 Yeah, I heard it closed within 24h of going live. There was only a limited number of accounts available. Obviously, either the number of open beta accounts was rather small, or the crowd of applicants rather huge. 

 Luckily I registered an account right after I read about it and so could sneak in before it happened. Download is finished, too, I'll take a look at it this evening (that is in roughly 5 hours).

 Bye
 Thanee


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## Pielorinho (Nov 12, 2004)

They closed the open beta with half a _million_ members.  I don't know how that compares to other beta tests of online games, but it sounds pretty chunky to me.

*Thanee*, I'm switching my time between Aghund on server 13 and Goroshko on server 35 (the roleplay server); both are Horde characters.  Drop me a /whisper if you want!
Daniel


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## Thanee (Nov 12, 2004)

I have created a character (Rahja) on server 35, alliance, tho. 

It was kinda laggy earlier, however. Well, not much of a surprise considering the physical distance.

Bye
Thanee


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## Enforcer (Nov 13, 2004)

So it looks like all the keys are gone. "Early bird catches the worm" I guess. But, if somebody happens to not like the game and can give me their key, I'd be a very happy guy.


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## Thanee (Nov 15, 2004)

Have played for a while now (Rahja, Human Mage Level 11, server 35) and so far it's been quite some fun. Even the graphics are cool, altho I really disliked the WC3 gfx change (WoW is much better and it fits very well). Only combat could be a bit more exciting... like in NWN or SW:KotOR, where they have a much better "real time - round based" system.

 No idea, what kind of talents I should be learning, tho. Probably will just bring down the casting time for my fireballs, they take so annoyingly long to cast. 

 So you're all playing Horde? Sorry, but the Horde races really have little appeal to me. 

 Bye
 Thanee


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## Mystery Man (Nov 15, 2004)

I have a human priest up to level 14 and they seriously lay down some smack, they take it you know where in the armor dept though. You really have to buff yourself. Fun game, the first MMorPG I may actually buy!!


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## evildm (Nov 16, 2004)

I was in the last stress test, so it's nice to be back. I'm playing a 16th level human warrior in Westfall named Gryffin, a 5th level Tauren shaman in Mulgore named Greathorn, and sometimes an 11th level human priest named Corgan. All on server 19. 

I love this game so much, I've already preordered the collector's edition and gotten all my friends addicted.


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## Pyrex (Nov 16, 2004)

Speaking of WoW, anyone found any good preorder deals?  Best I've seen so far is $50 from Amazon.


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## Cerebus13 (Nov 17, 2004)

I'm curious, how many people are going to be buying this game when it goes retail?  Been polling various communities to see how many people are playing...and maybe even gather up the lonely ones with no guild if they wanted to .


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## evildm (Nov 17, 2004)

Cerebus13 said:
			
		

> I'm curious, how many people are going to be buying this game when it goes retail?  Been polling various communities to see how many people are playing...and maybe even gather up the lonely ones with no guild if they wanted to .




Having been enamored with the original stress test, I preordered the collector's edition at the beginning of November (along with HL2, which I picked up yesterday!).


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## Pielorinho (Nov 17, 2004)

I'll definitely be playing, most likely playing several Horde characters on an RP server and then an alliance character or two on a PVP server.

The RP server has its own problems.  Too much of the roleplaying is, well, _awful_:  people who think that appending "mon" to the end of every sentence equals roleplaying a troll, or people who think that orcs have to talk like Cookie Monster.  "Me get killed by big scorpion!  Me dead now!"  Argh!

But worse than them are the roleplay police, where you get conversations like:

[Agzax]What level should I be before trying the Wailing Caverns quest?
[LordOCD]Please review the standards for this RP server.
[Agzax]Huh?
[LordOCD]This is a roleplaying server.  Do not engage in out of character dialogue here.
[Geniusboy]SHUT UP YOU $@#!  I CAN TALK HOWEVER I WANT!
[Ghandi]Try level 15
[LordOCD]I'm going to report you to the GMs.  We want to be able to enjoy a good rp experience here.  Are you mentally defective or something?
[RandomTauren]Mooooo
[RandomTauren]Mooooo
[RandomTauren]Mooooo
[RandomTauren]Mooooo
[RandomTauren]Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
[Agzax]Thanks, Ghandi!

Makes me craze, it does .  Still, it's better than a lot of the just awful and obnoxious talk on the non-RP servers, and occasionally you'll encounter someone who can stay in-character without constantly hamming it up.

And fortunately, it's real easy to leave the chat channels. At this point, I only log into them when I have a specific question; I ask it in the least-statty way possible; once I get my answer, I thank whoever helped me and leave the channel toot sweet.

Daniel


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## Thanee (Nov 18, 2004)

In the alliance territory it was quite ok. You only have to disable general chat sometimes.

When will they learn to make OOC the default channel... Doh! 

Bye
Thanee


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## Macbeth (Nov 19, 2004)

I only got to play for 5 hours on a friend's account, just before the Open Beta closed (yesterday), but now I'm hooked. Played a 6th level Gnome Mage. Levelling was mercifully painless (6 levels in 5 or so hours, but it may have been easier since it was the beta). I had a great time, and I am now seriously considering playing WoW. If I do get on, I hope to see other EN Worlders.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 19, 2004)

The levelling speed was reportedly the same as it'll be in retail, but of course it takes far longer to complete the higher levels:  by level 14 or 15, it takes a couple hours of laid-back play to go up a level.  (And by laid-back, I mean questing, fishing, checking out the auction house, chatting with friends, exploring, etc.)  

C'mon, Tuesday!
Daniel


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## CrusaderX (Nov 20, 2004)

I was in the stress test back in September, and it played like a rather finished game back then.  I haven't played since that stress test, though, so I'm wondering if the game changed much since then?  I assume bugs got cleaned up, and that sort of thing, but is the game as of the September stress test pretty much the same game that we'll see next week?  If there were any kind of major changes or additions, what were they?


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## ShadowX (Nov 20, 2004)

As a veteran of quite a few MMORPG, I felt that it failed to answer the most pressing question, why play this MMORPG over any other?  Of course, by nature of being a Blizzard game they may draw people who have never played an MMORPG and thus are not jaded and this question does not apply.  I could not find anything here that was original or fresh over the benchmark of MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot.  WoW only advantage is the benefit of starting fresh compared to the entrenched player base of DAoC.  Here are a few things that could use improvement:
1.  More depth in character development and solo/group tactics.

2.  Better balance of classes.

3.  Rewards for Alliance vs. Horde war and closer scrutiny of PvP design.

4.  More high level content, though I base this on others comments as I was only able to get to level 24 in the open beta.

5.  Either tone down the dungeons or get rid of instances.  I have come to dislike the supposedly revolutionary instances, maybe its just poor implementation.

Things I liked include: the beautiful graphics, both technically and stylistically, a robust quest system though the quality varies, and high level of polish even before release.


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## Thanee (Nov 20, 2004)

Hmm... is it right, that it will be basically impossible for europeans to play on US servers and vice versa?

Bye
Thanee


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## mattcolville (Nov 20, 2004)

You can easily get from 1st to 5th level in about half an hour, maybe an hour.

5th to 10th takes a little while longer. Maybe two hours.

Somewhere around 13th level, it starts to level out. I played two characters to 35th level and I was averaging about 2 hours per level at the end. With some notable exceptions. Sometimes I'd get stuck for days without levelling. Sometimes I'd be able to grind out a level in about 45 minutes.


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## mattcolville (Nov 20, 2004)

ShadowX said:
			
		

> As a veteran of quite a few MMORPG, I felt that it failed to answer the most pressing question, why play this MMORPG over any other?




Polish.


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## Pielorinho (Nov 20, 2004)

*ShadowX*, admittedly I haven't played any MMORPGs before, unless you count the MUSHes and MOOs of the early nineties (which I hated, by the way).  However, if you're looking for revolutionary advances in Blizzard titles, you're looking in the wrong place.  They don't make revolutionary advances; on the contrary, they're famous for taking a cliched concept and perfecting the snot out of it.  I can't address your specific criticisms, since they're rather general, but I can say that I didn't experience any of these areas to be problematic.  Course I'm a Blizzard fanboy, so that that with a grain of salt .

*CrusaderX*, the changes since the stress test include:
-*A durability System*.  Armor and weapons now degrade, just as they did in Diablo.  You have to pay money to vendors to get them repaired.  Blizzard added this in as a money sink:  without it, they feared that endlevel players would accumulate a ridiculous amount of cash, and would drive up the prices at the auction house so that new players couldn't possibly afford  to buy anything on the open market.
-*The death penalty*.  Capital punishment has been abolished.  Ha ha, just kidding!  Slaughter of one's enemies is still _de rigueur*, *_of course.  No, I mean that you no longer lose experience when you resurrect via the spirit healer.  Instead, you take a 25% hit to the durability of all weapons and armor you're wearing or carrying, and you suffer resurrection sickness (a 75% penalty to most stats and abilities) for a length of time dependant on level.  If you run back to your corpse, there's no resurrection sickness, and you suffer only a 10% durability penalty.
*-Only two tradeskills per character*. In order to avoid having everyone specialize in every skill, you can only choose two skills per character to learn. You can drop a skill at any time in order to learn a different one, but if you ever decide to resume the first skill, you have to start from scratch.  Certain skills--fishing, first aid, and cooking--don't apply to the two-skill limit, meaning anyone can learn them.
-*Miscellaneous details*.  There are now voices for most NPCs, although they're very brief--just greetings and farewells.  Every class has talents.  Abilities have undergone some changes. 

Daniel


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 21, 2004)

Pielorinho said:
			
		

> -*Miscellaneous details*.  There are now voices for most NPCs, although they're very brief--just greetings and farewells.



Yes and no.

Keep clicking on them.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 21, 2004)

ShadowX said:
			
		

> I could not find anything here that was original or fresh over the benchmark of MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot.



You can get up to 50 percent of your XP per level from quests alone in DAoC (not including miscellaneous monster whacking during said quest)?

It's a new one on me, and I think it's a major difference between it and other MMORPGs. Instead of a game centered around killing 10,000 whatevers to get the next level, the smart way to go is to go engage in the storyline instead.

Lordy, I can't think of something that would be a BIGGER deal.

And, since you're a DAoC player, doesn't having the ability to actually GO to the opposite faction's land, instead of entering a no man's land limbo to see them, have any appeal? An Alliance member can go adventure in the Wailing Caverns or Shadowfang Keep, for instance, instead of only having part of the world's content open to them. At the same time, though, there's the same sort of consensual PVP available (especially when the battlegrounds go live -- the leaked maps look AMAZING) that DAoC has, but with a lot more robust PVE game to start with than DAoC had at its launch (and, depending on who you ask, more robust than they have now).


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## Thanee (Nov 21, 2004)

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
			
		

> Keep clicking on them.




That's something you need to do in every Blizzard game, anyways. 

Bye
Thanee


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## Mystery Man (Nov 22, 2004)

*it ended too soon....*

Well I had a lot of fun with that beta.

After the first of the year, I'll probably end up purchasing my first mmorpg game since Ultima Online!


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## Thanee (Nov 22, 2004)

Ah, nice, they announced today, that they will make it possible for europeans to play on the US servers, too. 

Bye
Thanee


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## Pielorinho (Nov 23, 2004)

Cool, *Thanee!  *Hopefully I can see you in Azeroth before too long!
Daniel


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## The Goblin King (Nov 23, 2004)

one more day one more day one more day....

*rocks back and forth in chair hugging knees


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Nov 23, 2004)

The Goblin King said:
			
		

> one more day one more day one more day....
> 
> *rocks back and forth in chair hugging knees



UPS.com is gonna ban me for a Denial of Service attack, given how often I refresh the tracking page ...


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