Bim

After all the beta is done (Stress, Closed, and Open). They will wipe all the characters. Every one will start a lvl 1. What im not 100% sure is, if Blizzard, will let the closed (and mabey open), beta testers keep atleast there Character names. I think City of Heros did something like that. But they will wipe all experince from the testers though thats for sure.

This stress test was great. This game was the fisrt time i acctualy enjoyed PvP. There was no penatly for PvPing. Unlike others i play, one that always comes to mind is SWG. That has to be the worst for PvPing. Way to much to worry about when you die in SWG. Did you pay for your weapons to be Insured, did you clone? If not you have bad wounds. But then you have Battle Fatigue any ways. . . ect. Gah. But with WoW's PvP its just die, get corpse try again, die and so on and so forth. Since there was no penatly for PvPing it made it much more enjoyable.

This game is so well done. I still cant belive that classes arnt finnished and things still need to be fix. The game seems ready. *shrug* now for the wait. . . DAMN IT!! *fidgits in his chair*

__________________
"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain. Yes, you will. No, you will...not. Yesno, you will won't." -Guy in Moonside

Tempboy

So... I never played WoW.. but I was in the FF11 beta, and I thought it was a great game.

Which one's better? Or.. which one is more worth the x dollars per month?

00111000

Finally got it downloaded last night and checked it out. Had a good time with an undead warrior running around kicking some human ass. I got up to level 4 and had to quit..not sure if I'll be picking this one up though. No time for the mmorpgs these days.

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- And so he says, 'I don't like the cut of your jib.' And I go I says, IT'S THE ONLY JIB I GOT, BABY! -

Lasereth

Has anyone else noticed the extreme amount of morons playing the stress test? Jesus, I played for about an hour on a friend's account and almost died from second-hand stupidity. Here's a conversation between two people in my group:

"need stone drop"
"u need stone?"
"yea ned stone form drop"
"which"
"yeah"
"what's it caled"
"off mob"
"what mob"
"yeah"

That went on and on until I finally said "this is ridiculous" and left the group. AHHHH

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Czernobog

yea, there are plenty of idiots to go around. Fortunately there are also some really cool people too. Generally you can get the help you need, it just takes some patience.
Of course, now that the stress is over, its back to waiting for the open.....I heard a rumor that blizzard will allow players to keep characters from open beta in release, as an incentive to buy the game. Don't know if this is true or not, but its worth checking out.

__________________
Embrace the flame

Bim

After i no longer could play WoW. The game was so amazing, I felt i needed to write a review.
-=W A R N I N G=-To all ye who read these words. No spell check was used, so ye be warned!

My first impressions about the game when i first saw it (judging purly on looks) i thought it looked quite bad. For a game comming out now when there are higher poly, and basicaly more graphicly heavy games, it looked lacking and weak. I had no impression on gameplay (since i hadn't got to play). Now afterwards I found i was totaly wrong. This game has to be one of the most. . . dare i say. . . B E utiful games i have seen in some time.

The enviroments were very emersive. I played mostly in the Dwarven area, Dun Morogh, and the human area, Elwynn Forest. Each enviroment i visited felt very real. Felt like a place i can vist, flet like i was acctualy there. Every time you visited a new area, you get experince points. That added a reason to go adventure.

First off, Dun Morogh was very well done. The snow was made perfectly, and it felt very cold there. I would have like to have seen some weather effects, it would have been nice to see it snow. I usderstand why not to have weather effects, it cuts down on lag for people with not so good machines. When you enter taverns they felt really warm and comfortable, it felt very homely. Iron Forge is huge, my first impression of Iron Forge was, this place is to big. I got lost in iron forge the first time i went there. I was lost in Iron forge for about 15 minutes. After finding out that i can ask a guard for directions, it made finding stuff eaiser. I explored Iron Forge for a while looking at the great design of the massive fortress. It is quite amazing, the great forge itself is very cool.

After getting a good feeling for Dun Morogh, i left for the human part of the world. I took the griffin to Stormwind. After seeing Iron Forge i thought nothing could be bigger then it. I was wrong, Stormwind is much bigger. I wandered all over that place. Each part of Stormwind was amazing. Stormwind is divided up into many sections. After spending some time there, getting directions, running around this massive place was quite easy. Elwynn Forest out side Stormwind is quite nice also. It has a very foresty feel, with out being to cluttered woth trees. The lighting through the tress gave it a more imersive feel. Like the snow in Dun Morogh i would have like to see something ehre as well, mabey like some falling leaves, or occasional rain. None the less Elwynn Forest felt very real. It looked cool in the shade and felt warm in the sun. The occasional griffin flys trough the forest, as it swoops past you and disapears into the distance. The ambient sounds of the forest were really well done. The sounds added that extra belivibilty. The sounds were not too loud but not so low you can hardly hear them, once in a while you hear a bird sing, that small touch adds so much to a game. Unlike the Psychotic crickets from Everquest, it can be done wrong.

I also played on the Horde, and i have to say the Taurens and there home of Mulgore, were the best of the horde. The quest for the Taurens felt like they had mening behind them, and the ramping of the quest were just right. I never felt over powered, or stuck on a hard quest. The Taurens area is very Native American, it felt very belivable. There Quest also reflect a type of Native American type of style. They had Clensing the wells of evil, Spiritual quest, and Honorable quest. I rember my favorite is the spirit guid (spirit coyote). The colors are what stood out the most to me. The plain tan hide color, with white, dark red, and Turquoise. I enjoyed Thunder Bluff the most out of all the cities i visited (I say out of the ones I visited, because, I didn't see them all).

The Taurens were the only race i really enjoyed. I played as a troll, and i felt the ramping with the troll quest were quite steep. After i left the begining area i was trown into a land with creatures one to three levels above me. They have you head down to a village south of the orc and troll compound and you get some more quest there. Those quest were quite had also. I rember one being go to the islands east of the village and get a skull, and another kill a certian amout of people on that island. Going to that island there are critters one to two levels above me, and the people im suposed to kill either were to high level, where as i can handle one at a time. Or the would all attack me if i try and attack just one. I only had that problem once with the taurens, but that was my own fault, and the quest was beaten with a little tactics.

The Trolls as characters i liked. They looked very devious, and warrior like. The small touches to them were nice. For instance they didn't acctualy sit down they just kinda squat, almost like there always ready for an attack, or something to happen. I Didn't play as an Orc or Undead, so i can't coment on those.

As for the enviroment of the Orcs and Trolls. They also did a good job there. It always felt very hot. there were hardly any trees. It did fell very war torn, as i was adventuring around, i came across busted up catapults, and busted buildings. The architecture is quite unique, it looks as if was built very crudely. Like they were acctualy lacking the Technology to build correctly, unlike the humans in witch there buildings were very cleanly built.

One of the bigest things i noticed about the enviroments i visited, were that none of them were at all repetitive. I never once saw the same thing over and over. There were a couple of farms, but each one had a different feel, or look to it that made it different. There may have been more then one mine but each inside were different layouts. If i had to find somethign repetitive i would have to say the mines. Just for the fact they use the same style inside each mine. But i never went into a mine and thought i had been there already, if i haven't. It was never hard to find a town if you got a little lost. There was always a road nearby, or some trial to follow.

I played as a Hunter, Mage, and Rouge. I played other but not as much as these to get a good feel for them. I enjoyed each class each had there ups and downs. None of them were hard to play or hard to level up as. Some were easier to level up then others. Some had an easier time doing missions then others too.

The Hunter class is quite enjoyable. I picked to be a tauren hunter. You start out with a Axe and a Gun. If you pick either troll or Night Elf, you get a bow instead, not sure about the other races though. Leveling up was steady with the hunter. I was able to kill critters fairly easily. I would shot from afar and use my axe upclose. By level ten i was a skilled hunter, you get some effects you can use to help ranged attackes, and also one you can use for melee combat too. At level ten you could also get a pet which i enjoyed to have, i had a wolf I named "wolfwood". Taming a pet was easy, and controlling him was simple also. They kept you paying attetion to your pet by have the pet require food. Your pet wont just eat anything though. I had to feed mine ribs. He had a taste for meat of his own kind apearntly. I only played hunter to level thirteen, and up to that level it was still keeping my intrest and was quite enjoyable. I would have like to see some more meele skills to learn for my hunter. He felt too ranged attacker for me. I could hold my own in a fight, but all my new skills were for ranged attacks. I got very little for melee.

The Mage class is one of my two favorites. I chose to be a Dwarf Mage. You start mage with a simple wooden staff, and some basic powers. Level progression was the hardest with the mage at begining levels. Due to the fact of my spells not being to powerful yet, and mages not being goot at close range attacks. I could get off atleast two firebolts before the enemy if right in my face. I can then either beat him with my staff, or conjure up another fire ball. Down side is that if i conjure up another fireball, it takes longer since im getting hit while casting. I leveled my mage up to sixteen. At that level i got a good feel for mage and i was quite powerful, i could get enemys healt down to a quarter before they reach me, and i could now cast instand spells for quick hits. You get one spell as a mage that you cast, and you pick a spot on the gound to use it. Its a area attack spell, and that is quite nice, it doesnt hit to hard, but does some decent damage. I didn't really get to use that spell much due to the fact i got it right before the end of teh stress test. Mage was prety powerful but due to the fact of really no type of melee attack, it was nicely balanced.

The Rouge i picked up last. I chose a Dwarf rogue. The rougues are a very nice class. I enjoyed the sneaking aspect of them, and also the fact i can pickpocket, backstab, or stun a target from behind to give me an advantage. I took on a small camp of three gnolls, i was level eleven, and there were two level nines, and a level ten. I Knocked out the level ten and attacked the two level nines. By the time i got the last level nine down to a quarter of health, the level ten woke up and attacked. I finnished off the level nine, and then proceded to kill the level ten gnoll. Some times you don't even have to kill anyone to complete missions you would other wise have to kill. I got a mission to get some simmerweed from some trolls up on a hill. Now i would have had to kill each one and loot the simmerweed. I figured, "hey wouldn't they just keep it in their pocket?". So i snuck to each troll around the camp, and pickpocketed all the simmerweed i needed. I didn't need to kill a troll at all. The rogues are quite strong, but not over powered. They are not stonger then warriors, but instead use more tactics to clober enemys. At level ten you get to duel weild weapons. So I ended up with one sword and one dagger. Like with my mage i didn't get to play as much as i hoped with them since time was up. Rogue was a very nice class over all.

One thing that amazed me the most, was how it acctualy got me to play Player versus Player. First off, you have to type "/pvp" to join in on the fighting, and you are in PvP mode for 5 mins if you are not fighting. I usualy don't do any PvPing. I tried a bit in Star Wars, but the fact of making sure you cloned, insured everything, and have no battle fatigue. It seemed to much of a hassle. The you have the "leet" player that mock you and make it very unenjoyable, and you see that every one has the same composite aromor, and are all bounty hunter spamming eyeshot or what ever else is the most powerful at that time. I haven't done any Star Wars PvP in a while, so i don't know. I watch it happen though, and its still basicaly the same. In Warcraft PvP, i never felt agrovaded, or penalized for dying. It was just run back to my dead body revive and go die again. There was alway s big mixture of classes fighting. Even though my computer droped down to about one to two frames per second, it was still enjoyable. One night coldridge valley (the begining dwarf and gnome place) was under attack. So i go there and there were level "??" people, and level twenty and up. I fought and was beaten, but the horde that attacked, never mocked or anything. They acctualy started dancing and then we all danced. Well, except for me, apearntly dwarf ladies cant dance. My experince with PvP, was great, i like doing it now.

There were some bugs in this game, but none that really brought the game down at all. There was the occasional stuck in a tree or rock, or enemy stuck in a spot where you cant attack him. He just keeps evading and doesnt fight back, but you can't hurt him at all. One bug that was most irritating, was a weird animation one. With my rogue, i would throw my knives, but when i throw my arm get stuck in the ready position to throw a knife. so i switch to my dagers, but it still apears that im holding a knife, and i see no more animations for my attacks. I acctualy had to throw another knife and quickly holster it and stand still to let my arms fall down to my sides. After that the bug would go away. None of the bugs destroyed my gaming experince, just slowed me down sometimes to fix. It is expected though, it is beta.
All in all this is a damn good game. According to things i read from the blizzard forums, and their site. There is still more to add. I would gladly pay for this game as it is right now. My whole experince with the game was amazing. It never felt repetitve (unless i restared a character). The enviroments were amazing. The characters all looked unique and different. There were some bugs here and there, but that is expected in beta.

That was a long review. Heh. I miss the game already. There was more i wanted to say but its way to long already.

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"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain. Yes, you will. No, you will...not. Yesno, you will won't." -Guy in Moonside

Mantus

Starman Deluxe, nice review.

I am going though some serious withdrawal. It’s a very fun game.

The game really is beautiful to look at. I thought that graphics were going to be WoW’s weak point but Blizzard did something amazing. They sacrificed polygons and textures for performance while pushing those low setting to their very limits and it paid off big time. In other games, you end up turning down all the settings and frills if you want to max your sight range and keep the game from lagging during big fights – even on the best machines. WoW is playable while looking better then other games with better graphics. I wish more companies had this kind of vision. I see so many games now days pushing for graphics that even the best computers have trouble running (*cough* EverQuest 2 *cough*).

Bim

I agree with you Mantus. It apears that blizzard is really Knowledgeable of there audince. Lots of people that play games all cant afford to buy the newest video card, or faster machine. I have had my old, AMD 1ghz, monster for a little over 3 years now. I am very thankful that WoW can run so smothly on my computer. Doing this blizzard has opened up their game to a wider audince. I really wanted to play SWG but the fact that my computer can barely run the thing at all, prevents me from enjoying it. I know lots of others can barely run it also. Now since blizzard made a MMO not graphic heavy means practaly anyone can play. I say practaly because there are some older machinces that just cant even at that low state. The game is by no means crappy lookin', just saying that its not as insanly detailed like newer games on the market.

You can totaly see they knew what they were doing when the turned Warcraft to 3D, it wasn't supurb graphics, but it ran on lots of computers. Make the accesable to everyone, and you make more people happy and make more money to boot! But of course there are the people that do spend money on upgrading all the time, much love to them, but most of us can't afford it. Much love to blizzard. . . Much love.

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"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain. Yes, you will. No, you will...not. Yesno, you will won't." -Guy in Moonside

Lasereth

Where did you get this info? Two of the biggest MMORPG's that recently came out (CoH, L2) both let you keep your Open Beta characters. That's right...they didn't wipe after Open Beta. The wiped before Open, but not after. So basically, the moment Open Beta started was the moment you got to start your permanent character. Maybe Blizzard will do this as well...that would kick ass!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Bim

I thought they wiped them all for CoH? Friend of mine in beta told me they did. I thought usualy they wipe them clean to make it fair for others. Linnage II i have no clue, but i thought all they did in CoH was a name registration thing, to reserve names.

/shrug, i was wrong i guess.

__________________
"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain. Yes, you will. No, you will...not. Yesno, you will won't." -Guy in Moonside

Menoman

All chars were wiped after open on CoH

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Baldrick

They wiped characters for CoH after open beta. You could reserve a name while in open beta, but all actual characters were wiped for launch.

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You can be young only once, but you can be immature for the rest of your life...

Lasereth

That's odd, I was told CoH characters weren't wiped. I know Lineage 2's open beta characters weren't wiped (I played the OB ), and since CoH and L2's publishers are the same I figured my sources were correct. Oh well! Here's to hoping for a Lineage 2-style OB!

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

portwineboy

Thank god they let us keep our open beta Lin2 characters, otherwise I would have been PvP'd to death.

Starman's review is pretty much right on par with my own thoughts after finishing the stress test. I played an undead warrior to lvl 10, a tauren hunter to 6, and a human warlock to 17. I thought the warlock quests needed some fleshing out when compared to tauren hunter, but I understand this is all in the works.

I''ve played so many MMORPG releases that were buggier than this game is a few months away from release. The polish is amazing on the level of detail. There are so many little things to find. The almost complete lack of loading when changing areas is very helpful in making it immersive.

I tend to get bored quickly with these games and I've played a lot of them. CoH held my attention longest, but in the end I felt it didn't have enough content. The city didn't breathe the way areas in WoW do. The WoW universe feels alive. Sort of like what Starman said, when you come out of the cold feeling dwarf mountains into a city you FEEL warmer. Then you can wander around and find an empty little home that has a fire going and a bed that makes you want to take a nap.

Riding a griffin from one town to the next (you first need to discover routes, so it isn't that easy for low lvls) they take the "scenic" route. While this can be a bit annoying when you are in a hurry, it really is beautiful. The route from Stormwinde to Ironforge is amazing to take in.

Finally, on PvP, I NEVER PvP. I did in Lin2, to defend myself, but honestly I really don't ever care to. Everyone always seems better than me and I wind up dead with whatever penalty that entails. The lack of penalty here made go on "raids" quite often. It was great fun to show up in Horde territory (although I understand that swimming to get to Booty Bay is an exploit??? is that true?) with 50 other Alliance players and get into a huge battle. I died a lot but I also killed a few, including a sweet ambush on 2 guys who were wailing on a lower level Alliance player who got caught out alone. I came up from behind, set my minion on one and put the smackdown on the other myself. Until they were almost dead they had to clue what was happening.

Crafting is great. Again, I never craft because I feel like I never have enough time/materials to make something worth selling or wearing. In WoW I crafted all the time and sold/gave away things I made to many other players. I was a tailor and skinner. It was easy once I learned how to get the raw materials (dropped by certain types of mobs) for making cloth and linked it up with the leather I skinned. Before I went to bed each night I'd put a few things up on WoWBay, my term for the auction house ingame, and the next morning I'd have a bit of pocket money. Crafting was sweet.

I'm going to buy this and play in the open beta. If it holds my attention for 3 months it just might be a miracle, but the way this game looks today, it just might do that.

/Maude, lvl17 human warlock on Nargananon (or whatever it was called)

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If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.

bltzkriegmcanon

My problem with the game is the lack of extremely good graphics. I realize this title is meant to be played on "lesser" machines, those that are 1.5GHz and less and have a 2-3 generation old GPU. I know that Blizzard did this to grab a wider, less hardware enthusiastic crowd, and for the most part, the graphics are good. Not great, just good. The only place where the graphics are bad, not even close to good, is character models. Most every character model looks just a little better than EQ's character models did before they released Shadows of Luclin. That was 3+ years ago! How is it that an MMORPG upgrade from 3-5 years ago better than a game that's brand new?! Oh I know. It's a little thing called "bit mapping". That's was Luclin did. Everything that your character put on looked like they were actually wearing it. Take plate armor. That shit hangs off your character by at least an inch, because it's actually there. Most shit in WoW looks like it's painted onto the character. NPC character models, for the most part, look really, really dated.

99% of the spell effects simply look awesome. My roomate, BlueMax has a mage on the closed beta (Punchinelli 44 Mage) and every spell he casts looks incredible. All the shit he wears looks cool, and has that Luclin effect. Most of the shit I wore during stress test was mail and it literally looked like it was painted onto my body. Even chain mail should look like it hangs a little loose, and moves with the person.

Overall, my experience for the Stress Test was good. I got to lvl 20 before it was over with, so I know I won't be getting into closed. I just simply didn't get to play enough. Which really shows how much fun I had. "I didn't get to play enough" is a strong statement. It shows that I was getting that addiction to playing going. I was majorly having fun, I never felt once that I was "grinding", unlike EQ where grinding was a damn way of life, and every time I logged on, I felt like I was going back to a 40-hour a week job.

I will admit, however, that Lasereth is very correct about the people on the Stress Test Beta. Most are incredibly stupid. They can't work as a team. Most have probably never played an MMORPG. Many have probably never played a single game before.

__________________
What do you say to one last showdown?
- Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid 3

The password is "Who are the Patriots?" and "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." Gotcha.
- The Colonel and Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3

Lasereth

Time for some more WoW observations!

I will compare this game to EQ a lot, and I don't think it's unjustified since EQ is easily the biggest and most popular MMORPG of all time.

I remember when I first started EQ. I made a Ranger and started in the Wood-Elf city. The first thing I remember seeing was this other ranger that had really, really cool armor. He had a breastplate that had a neat design on it. From the time I started, I was compelled to get that piece of armor, and sure enough, 20 hours later I had it. I save up enough and bought the armor I wanted, and sure enough, I looked cool as hell. My time spent working towards the goal (the breastplate) was worth it.

Before I draw my comparison, I'd like to talk about the way EQ is played. How many screenshots have you seen of WoW in the first-person view? Barely any, because the third-person view works great. In EQ, the first-person view worked great and the third person sucked. So basically, EQ had the perspective of first-person which allowed players to get a really good look at other players, their class, distinct traits, and most of all, equipment! EQ is about how fuckin cool your character looked and what spells he/she had. WoW...well, the third-person rocks, but the camera is freakin 20 feet behind you! The other players look the same because you can't get a good look at their traits. Rogues and warriors look a lot alike and warriors and paladins look alike. Mages and priests look the same. Why? Because the camera isn't close enough to tell people apart!

This may seem trivial, but it all comes back to my goal of getting the breastplate in EQ. I had the goal to look cool with the breastplate. Now in WoW, it doesn't matter if I get the cool breastplate because my character won't look cool with it. No one else will care. Just another mindless ranger running through the world with the same look as everyone else. The mapping technique's absence that Bltzkrieg brought up is painfully obvious...plate armor and mail armor look the same, as if it's painted on your skin. Getting newer armor serves one purpose: better stats. 90% of the time it doesn't make your character look better or stronger. There is a very odd absence of cool-looking armor and weapons in WoW, and frankly, it makes the characters lackluster! I want my dual Glowing Black Swords from EQ! I want my giant trident Wyrmslayer! I want my dual Centi Longswords! Characters in EQ looked freakin awesome, very individualistic. In WoW, everyone looks like they just got out of a shopping spree at Goodwill using their nephew's plastic sword.

To further this problem, the whole basis of getting cool stuff is ruined by level restrictions on every piece of armor and weapon in the game. People who want to work hard to get that cool sword are screwed. Even if you do get it, you can't use it for 5 levels...in 5 levels, everyone will have it and ALL LOOK THE SAME AGAIN.

I understand that the level restrictions are in place to prevent massive twinking (putting high-level gear on low-level characters) but it really puts a damper on the people who want to earn cool stuff in the game. Many people play the game to make a character really cool, and in WoW, it's nearly impossible.

It's sort of embarassing when a level 5 paladin looks way better than a level 40 paladin. This happens all the time! Low-level characters have the ability to look as good (and better in many cases) than the high-level players. It should NOT be this way! People who want to spend the time to make their characters look neat are screwed. Picking up random shit armor off of enemies at level 5 renders you a level 40-look. In EQ, if you were new, you fucking looked new. At level 40, you looked like a walking Demi-God ready to slaughter Norrath if necessary. The environments look good in WoW, but the character models need improvement. I know it's the style of WoW, but I'd rather the style at least make your characters look neat and individualistic.

-Lasereth

__________________
"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

bltzkriegmcanon

Agreed. Even on the Stress Test beta, there were characters who were around 25 and looked better than most of the people I've seen on the Closed beta. I'll admit, there are a pretty good amount of people who look exactly like Lasereth described in EQ on the closed beta. But I guess it's just not enough. There are higher level characters in WoW who do look awesome, but it's nowhere near the amount of people who don't look cool at all.

Lasereth is also correct that in EQ, you spent 90% of the time in FPV. 3rd PV really, really sucked in EQ. Being in FPV all that time puts alot of emphasis of you looking at other people. When I played, I don't think I had a real objective of "looking cool". I guess I was at such an early stage of MMORPG-dom that I had more of a general concept of just "having fun." Which meant going out and killing shit. "Looking cool" was way in the back of my head.

I think that when WoW is released into the wild of MMORPG's, it'll be fantastic, and you'll have multitudes of freaks who wanna spend more time "looking cool" than people like myself who'd rather "have fun". Not to say that you can't do both, since often, "looking cool" is a result of "having fun" especially since 90% of play in WoW is spent on quests. I think quests are hellaciously fun. I spent, in the 10 days of play, no more than 30 minutes of just going and killing non-quest-related shit. I wasn't having a crapton of fun, I was grinding.

Overall, I'd definitely play this game if it were to retail. I think most of us who've complained about it would pay for it. But there are problems. Mostly with character models.

But, Blizzard has their reasons for that. They most likely want the same people who've been playing WC3 to just pick up this game and think, "Hey, my hardware ain't so bad. It can run the game pretty smoothly." I mean, EQ was WAY more problematic about computers not being able to run it unless you made some serious upgrades. In order to play Luclin, you had to have a pretty good setup. This game isn't a technical proving ground, it's not like Doom3 where you HAVE to get a new system or at least do some upgrades in order to even play it, much less get very fast frame rates. This isn't that kind of game. It's an extremely wide-release, "everyone with a computer from 3 years ago can play this" kind of game. It's a "Hey I can play this game with my 1.2 Thunderbird and GeForce3 Ti500 and it's not 'My Slideshow of Azeroth'." What that means for the rest of us is that "My 2.4 P4 and ATI 9700 Pro runs this game really really well, but the character models look like they should be run by that guy with the fossilized computer over there."

When it comes to the "holy shit badass" armor that you can get in EQ, and then pass onto your level 5 counterpart, "twinking" as Lasereth mentioned, that Blizzard is doing what they can to prevent that. I know that as soon as WoW is released, within, say a month of playtime, there will be more freaks with "holy shit badass" armor than you and all your friends can count on all their family's and their own hands and feet. I think the lack of differentiation in equipment comes from 2 things. Level restrictions and not everyone going on the best damn quest they can to get the uber armor. I think that the latter is a result of the former. You can only go on so high of quests before you just get wasted by the thing that you're questing for. Which is both a good and bad thing. You can't go so far out of your "league" that you get your ass handed to you everytime you get close, but then, you can't get the omega factor armor either.

At the end of the day, this is a really good MMORPG, but, like most, there's a problem in balance on many issues. Do you allow players to twink out their characters? Hell no, that results in an unfair realm where PVP is a daily thing. Do you put more emphasis on quest xp in order to circumvent the grinding problem? Yeah, it makes the grinding that has to happen in order to complete the quest seem like there's a point to the grinding, other than, gotta hit my next level so I can get new skills and maybe some nice looking armor.

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Serpent

I got to 25 in the streess test (due to the hurricane i got away with not studying much, but i did lose power for 3 days otherwise i would of probably got into the closed beta) I hav eno life =P But really, i didn't grind or anything boring like that, the game gave the feeling of being in the game, i spent alot of time fishing too.. Doubt i was high enough though like i said to be in the closed beta, as there were quite a few people ahead of me.. I found it really easy to level off quests, so i traveled around and did all the quests i could..

Also as for looking different, when i got up into the 20's i found it really difficult to find any armor and weapons (hardly any one hand weapons for my duel weilding hunter) Also armor was hard to come by unless you knew someone who could make it (which i found, that was pretty cool) There is still alot of work to do on that game and i don't think the developers have really settled on much..

dauvin

Anyone here get admitted into closed beta?

I may have a chance, if the 39(!!!!) paladin gets DQ'ed. I got my paladin up to 27 (I stopped playing around Wednesday).

The game is nice, and they really seem to listen to people's concerns (i.e. change to crafting/professions).

Leveling really was kinda easy, I play games hardcore, but I still usually level slow, and yet I got to 27.

One thing that I wish I did was change what I focus my crafting on. I did pretty much everything BUT mining/smithing; I had tailor and leatherworks in the mid 100's and never wore a single thing I made. I also had maxed basic level herbalism, alchemy, survival (well, almost, high 60's).

My one major gripe was group size. I wish it were just one bigger, and that the group exp bonus was larger (I guess thats two).

Bim

Hunters could Duel Weild!? I had no clue! That's awsome! ^_^ What level can you duel Weild at?

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nothingx

Personally, I disagree with the way they've chosen to select individuals for admitance into the closed beta. I understand that they're looking for players that are able to devote large amounts of time to testing the game and will have a higher probability of discovering bugs, but quantity isn't quality. It doesn't matter if someone plays the game 24/7 if they never report a bug when they see one. I think they should go back and look at who contributed the most at discovering bugs and offer them a slot in the closed beta.

By the way, I really loved playing this game. I want to write a giant review like the rest of you, but just don't have the time right now.

Bim

I belive the contest was quite unfair. What they should have done i have a easter egg contest. Find X Item on a random loot, and presto! You're in close beta. Even have, who ever has the most rabbits feet, get into closed beta. Some thing more fair, something all could have had a chance in winning.

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Lasereth

Yeah, choosing the powergamers to get into the closed beta is a crock of shit. That's just adding an unvaried amount of gamers into the closed beta which produces unreliable results. I figured they'd simply choose a random amount of people to get in. The competition was a good way for people to play the stress test massively, but overall, it really hinders the information gained from closed beta.

-Lasereth

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Mantus

They still havent notified the winners of the contest - perhaps they will be the first into open beta

[edit]

Found this really cool vid on the WoW forum:

http://www.stud.aitel.hist.no/~palsf...l_badlands.avi

I think you need the Xvid codec to view it.

portwineboy

I didn't mind the character models. My experience prior to WoW was Lin2 and all of the character models in Lin2 look exactly the same. Exactly. You could sometimes tell who was high level based on the weapon they were carrying but Lin2 had absolutely no distinctions between newbies and 40th lvl people. A female dwarf was a female dwarf.

I looked that the "Resident Cynic" column on Gamespy today I noticed he uses the same term I did to describe the world, polished....but he also points out that they need more options in the character creation/look.

I agree, but not the the extent as you guys. I really liked the way my Warlock looked in new and better robes and the green shirt I made her. I guess I'm so used to Lin2 my standards are lower. I didn't play enough with true armor wearing classes to really form much of an opinion though.

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Apokx

That's a very good point.You do however get the random sampling from the 1000 beta accounts being given away by Nividia.

Bim

The character creator was quite limited, I was a little disapointed. Till I figured, if they have put in a more extencive Create a Player. Then that would have asked for more hardware power. I'm not saying lots of power. Just the fact that your machine would have to decifer more varities of characters. It would have to account for every ones slight height adjustment. People variation in hair or body color. Depending on how complex they got it would cause lesser machines to lag. Basicaly it all comes down to porformance of machines. I'm not trying to say im satisfied with the limited choices. Just that i understand why so limited, and hopefuly others do to. Hope that made sense.

After playing for a while though, players started looking more and more different. Espicaly when people started mixing to other lands. But atlast i would have like to see some more hair styles, and faces in there. I am way to torn on this, in one hand i would like better porfomence, then on the other, i would like a more extencive create a player. Hehe, i don't know, im confusing my self on the subject.

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