"We are happy to announce that we will soon be accepting applicants for the World of Warcraft® Open Beta Test for North America. The open phase of beta will give people a chance to enter Azeroth and play World of Warcraft before the game is released. More details will become available in the days ahead, so stay tuned."

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

I am so excited right now, I don't think you can't even imagine my excitement.

Knowing that you're excited excites me...

... wait, did that sound funny?

I just saw some more trailers and almost started to cry when I looked at my 56k modem. :D

I got one also. It won't be that bad at all. The only real problem will be downloading uber patches (600 megs). But that is only for beta. In retail, WoW (rumors only) will supply 56kers with discs of the patches so they don't waste days downloading.

I saw some of the gameplay in Xplay. It's quite similar to other types of mmorpg out there. though maybe they didn't show all the features.

That thing is too big for me to download, so maybe I should cry as well. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Oh yeah! I've been a big fan of WoW since the stress test.

My brother was lucky enough to be on that stress test too. He had a blast, and he's kinda picky about his MMRPGs.

It does seem to follow a similar format as lots of others though.

I'm also lamenting my 56k. It seems good ole RPG enthusiasts will be the last to upgrade lol.

It's not fair. How come the BETA testing is always in North America, what about we UKers. I want to test ;(

:D

There are lots of quests in WoW, and the character progression is fast enough, not Like Lineage 2...

I had lots of fun playing WoW.

And yes I am part of that population who is only on modem.

I am planning on utilizing a DSL connection, but I will still have to look on my usage. Have to make the most of what you have... money doesn't come to your doorstep everyday. :(

I forgot to ask, are they gonna put everybody in one huge worldwide server or are they gonna divide it again like the one in BNET? like USEAST, USWEST etc?

There are about a dozen servers, each can support around 2-3k users.

Just like RO.

I think there was a European BETA testing, I'm not 100% sure. I know my dad signed up, then didn't have time due to work.

Like RO ? then it will have a botting problem then. So many people will KS you.

Europe is in Closed beta at the moment.

And Kakero, for your servers, this is where Blizzard screwed up bigtime. What they are doing is putting you on a designated server, USEAST, EUROPE, and such. It all depends on where you live. That isn't the bad part. The bad part is that you are not allowed to switch which server you are on, so if you have a bunch of American friends and live in Australia, it isn't possible to play with them because your in the Asia server. Unless however, someone buys WoW for you and you pay them, so that you have a US address which is complicated.

Lots of clans are also pissed about this. I hate it too.

Europe is in Closed beta at the moment.

And Kakero, for your servers, this is where Blizzard screwed up bigtime. What they are doing is putting you on a designated server, USEAST, EUROPE, and such. It all depends on where you live. That isn't the bad part. The bad part is that you are not allowed to switch which server you are on, so if you have a bunch of American friends and live in Australia, it isn't possible to play with them because your in the Asia server. Unless however, someone buys WoW for you and you pay them, so that you have a US address which is complicated.

Lots of clans are also pissed about this. I hate it too. </font>[/QUOTE]It's not true. It just depend what version you install.

You want to play on the american server? Buy the american version...

I think every online games have problems with macro, but Ragnarok Online was the worse of them for that. Most other games handle it way better.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/threa...040#Post385040

Not restricted my )@&)#&%)#&.

The decision will not last too long though. They made a fatal mistake.

Watch your language...

They do that because the American servers can't handle every players in the world. Game launch are always laggy. If they let everyone in the world log in then it's going to criple the servers.

They want the launch to be as smooth as possible. Games like AO lost tons of customers (me included) because the game was unpleyable at retail. They don't want bad reviews and angry customers.

Once every localised servers are up, the rush is over and there's room for everyone, they'll probably allow people to change server, once they're sure it won't criple them.

That said, it's still possible for Europeans with a little ingenuity to play in American servers.

The first step is to buy the American version of the game.

There's a lot of people arguing against their decision and maybe they'll change their idea, but I don't think the servers could handle it well.

[ 10-12-2004, 01:15 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

True as it may be, I'm sure the servers can handle it all. That was the whole purpose of stress test.

"These local servers provide low-latency, high-speed access to ensure players have the best possible experience playing the game"

Best possible experiance... I think the gamer has that opinion, not the producers. And if people want no lag at all, they can just stick to their region, no problem at all.

"This level of service is inconsistent with Blizzard’s quality standards for World of Warcraft and could result in negative gameplay experiences for players of a subscription-based game service."

Again, same point. They may have standards, but I think the players should have a say in what is going on.

Furthermore, I hope Blizzard realizes that a big chunk of the people who are interested in WoW are no longer, and are going back to other MMO's. Clans are an essential part to any online game, and a big one on PvP servers for MMO's. They are losing money, which is the sole purpose for why they are really making this (IMO)

Regardless, it will not stay. The general conscensus about WoW is that they hate the idea and are losing interest in the game. They will change it back, they can't possibly expect to let this slip by.

I've read all 24 pages of the topic that was up last night, I've heard every points.

You're wrong about the American servers being able to handle it. They said there will be a dozen server, with a intended capacity of 3k people. That make room for 36k people.

Now if I remember well, the Anarchy Online launch sold about 100k copies in the first weekend. WoW is way more popular than that. They would need hundreads of servers to accomodate every buyers in the world.

And no, this won't even affect their success or sales.

I've been playing MMORPGs for 5 years, I tried most of them, and was part of 3 launch.

I've heard such thing so many time... One of the biggest drama I saw was back in the Ultima Origin times. The game was canceled because they didn't want to create conpetition for UO. Tons of people said they'd cancel or cancelled their UO subscription, they said they would boycott EA for life, they cried and moaned. Was there any effect? Not at all. Both UO and EA are doing fine. (I'm pretty sure it was EA, the publishers I think, it was a while ago. I still mourn my Meer Fire mage that never existed)

I've heard people threatening to quit over tons of reasons. Every time it was quite dramatic, with people claiming it was the end of that company if they didn't do what the fans wanted, and every time nothing happened.

They could replace the login screen of every MMORPG with the "F" word, and people would still play.

Does it suck that they restricted servers? Yes. Will I still buy the game? You can bet on it...

Will you? Probably...

unfortunately i'm not in this beta, but i'm a pretty big warcraft fan. I was wondering if i should go with everquest 2 or world of warcraft. any suggestions?

Heh, I signed up for a WoW Guild a few months back but decided to not do it afterall. I'm still stuck on EQ, and EQ2 is going to be here before too much longer. Next year or 2006 hopefully. Everquest is the best RPG ever made IMHO, so part 2 is just iceing on the cake :D .

This does look great however, and if I get tired of EQ, may go to this.

The next phase is open beta, meaning everyone will be able to play.

Yes, I will also get it.

However, I will regrettfully not be able to participate in Open Beta. Supposedly it will be a download only option, or so I hear. If this is true, WoW is like 2 gigs. You figure out how long that would take with a dial up modem...

Don't you know anyone living in your area with a fast connection and a cd burner?

I might be able to help you, New York is not too far, it just depend on the shiping cost. I'm pretty low on money.

Personally, I'm not sure if i'll invest lots of time in the open beta.

I participated in the stress test and already know I want to buy the game, but I'm not sure if I want to play a character for 3 months, see it get deleted, and restart it at retail.

I'm not sure what I'll do. I could play a class I'm not too much interested in, so that I don't burn all the fun out of my favorite ones. I don't know yet.

[ 10-14-2004, 02:07 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

The servers could handle it if they *wanted* them to. WoW is expected to hit CoH off the number one spot and remain there for a time so if CoH could do it they can do it. Cryptic simply bought more bandwidth and converted their test-server into a regular one to cope with the masses at launch.

Dial-up is fine once you are with a reliable dial up isp. The thing is if they didn't have a set amount for each server like Luvian said then dial-up users would run into problems while broadbands race ahead in practice.

P.S. Have the rules been changed on occasional non-directed swearing? I just noticed Luvians warning above...I casually swear as a means of expression on these forums (as an adult rather than a child mind you) sometimes, so would like to clarify.

Of course they could add more resources. But then everyone would join the American servers and wouldn't go back to the local ones once they were launched later.

You know we can't just replace a cuss word with ****. Adding a few more ** don't make much difference.

That wasn't an official warning, just a reminder. It was directed at something I said, so it was indirectly directed at me. Some people could get offended at someting like that.

Don't you know anyone living in your area with a fast connection and a cd burner?

I might be able to help you, New York is not too far, it just depend on the shiping cost. I'm pretty low on money.

Personally, I'm not sure if i'll invest lots of time in the open beta.

I participated in the stress test and already know I want to buy the game, but I'm not sure if I want to play a character for 3 months, see it get deleted, and restart it at retail.

I'm not sure what I'll do. I could play a class I'm not too much interested in, so that I don't burn all the fun out of my favorite ones. I don't know yet. </font>[/QUOTE]I appreciate the effort and I would gladly pay but
a) I'd have to check with parents...
b) The patches are just as big to download. They have something like 600 meg patches every so often which would also be a long time.

I just hope they do go through with the CD patches for WoW. Or else any 56k member playing WoW will have probs.

I really doubt there will be 600 megs patches in retail.

well i hope not, but they do them in Closed beta and in the actuall real game, patches will have updated and new areas.

I know, but in every mmorpgs I played, even the ones that added whole new landmass, I don't think the patches were ever bigger than 40-100 megs max.

For a 600 megs update they'd probably do an extention.

Or maybe like in Lineage II. They give you little updates all the times before the real release date of the big update, so once it come and they unlock everything, you have almost nothing left to download because you already downloaded it in the month.

For big patches like that they would have to supply CDs since dial up users would take a long time for that. I have downloaded a 2gb file on dial up before, and it takes far too long to do.

I will be getting the open Beta. When does it come out?

They won't supply patch cd's directly but usually there are unofficial ways to grab em from friends, users etc if you really really need to. The max patches/content they will release would be 200 megs and I have downloaded that on dial-up. It is not a problem for me and this is why...

1) Any new MMORPG updater system has a 'resume' function which stores data previously downloaded allowing you to download for 2 hrs one day and resume it the next.

2) 100+ meg downloads are usually released at least a week before the patch goes live.

Start the download when you go into work, come hoime and it should be done. New content patches are monthly at most so it won't be an everyday thing. Any other patches (bug-related) are very small.

Blizzard says it is coming out soon. But then again, patch 1.13 for TFT was supposed to come out in the following weeks after TFT was released. 6 months later and they released it. And then it wasn't even complete, 1.13b was to finalize all the lousy bugs. So you tell me what soon means to blizzard.

Well... they put down the closed beta account creation server yesterday, and are updating the character databases. It look like they are getting ready.

I'm looking forward to it! I actually dont plan on playing on beta, I'd rather just start playing it when it goes live (or whatever its called). THere will be a large number of players from my old game (Earth and Beyond-EA go to hell)all going to the same server which will definitly make it interesting. I hope to see some Ironworkers there!