WoW Open Beta, Sigh....
 

Blizzard posted on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com the following statement:

10/07/04
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.

Yeah....so thats the last anyone has heard anything from the Blizzard folks about the Beta launch. Why couldn't they have at least said "weeks ahead"? This does not bode well for a 2004 launch.

Any who, I figured I'd post it so you people who were planning to apply don't get left out when they finally give the go ahead.

Oh yeah, this has caused a huge uproar on the WoW forums. The CB testers (and everyone else) are getting INCREDIBLY pissed about this. People want to know when this fucking game is coming out and Blizzard won't say a damn word. It's one thing to say nothing, but it's even worse when you say "soon" and then it be a fucking month afterwards.

Blizzard's secrecy about release dates is getting very annoying. They won't release any info on beta status either (when/if each beta is getting wiped, etc.).

Hopefully some info will be released...Blizzard HAS stated that WoW WILL be coming out before the end of this year, however.

-Lasereth

I've been checking every day to see if anything new gets posted. I would really love to check it out more before buying it. I got into the stress test on the last few days and had fun from the 2 or so hours I played it. One of the guys here has been in the CB for a while now and from his standpoint shipping at the end of the year is hardly doable considering the state he feels it is in. He kinda pisses me off though, so I don't like to listen to his babbling. Either way I hope the open starts soon!

Blizzard has always released a product when it was done, not when marketing said so...anyone remember Starcraft!?

EQ2 on the other hand...early November release date officially. If you want to beta test a MMORPG, then go buy EQ2 ))

I've been playing on CB for a good 2 weeks now trying to get a good bearing for most of the low-level (1-30) so that I can help Lasereth and Bluemax blister through them. Not that experienced MMO players like those guys need my help, but if we're gonna have a good guild, they're gonna need some damn good officers (like me :)).Because everyone knows that OB (yes I had to call it that) is gonna consist of the same stupid shit as STB. Here we go with a common group setting in an OB/retail environment:

Me: So everyone has the quest that we're doing, right?
Generi-Warrior: whut
Stupi-Mage: I think I have that quset?! What qwertst were we supposed to be ding?
Me: We're doing Solomon's Law. That's what I got invited into this group for, right?
Generi-warrior: whut
Stupi-Mage: Were just fallowing U around.

It's that kind of crap that makes me not look forward to OB. Just the sheer stupidity of some unexperienced players (call them newbs or n00bs if you just have to) makes games like WoW hard to enjoy sometimes.

Heh, it wont be so bad when players come flowing in from ffxi and daoc....

at work (gamestop) we have it marked down for release in november....but yeah.

http://www.freep.com/entertainment/v...e_20041024.htm

Detroit Free Press reports Blizzard as setting releas date for Nov. 22!

Some shmuck from Vivendi said the game would come out a week after Half-Life 2, Nov 22nd, but its a lie. A Blizzard rep already rebutted it in the forum and said any release date would come directly from them. Just another case of publishers trying to push game companies along, except Blizzard doesn't exactly budge with shit like that.

Yep. Blizzard said not to believe even their OWN PUBLISHER about release dates, much less videogame stores. Ok, fine, we'll wait for you Blizzard, but at least give us some info on open beta.

-Lasereth

LOL, no doubt.

I am so done with MMORPG's. With WoW and EQ2 to take away and split my gaming friends I'll get my life back. I cannot wait.

The wait for WoW is actually worth it. I'm in beta right now and it's alot of fun. Only issue I have, is the speed you level at. Roughly 1 month into the game you can max out your char. And yes, when OB starts, there's going to be alot of newbie slaying- can't stand the little kids and whiners.

loved WoW during stress test but i only have one gripe. after playing pvp on daoc they NEED to have a free for all server. god i hope they do. makes it much more fun and less mundane imo, always having to keep on your toes.

You guys are planning on a TFP guild? Any way I can get in on it? This will be my first MMORPG I've ever played and don't want to waste my time with people I don't know.

Let me know ;)

-T

Me, Redjake, and Bltzkrieg are gonna make a guild at retail. The tentative name will be "Heroes of the Universe." That's not official, but it is the tentative title. :thumbsup:

-Lasereth

Sounds cool. Have you guys played any games together before or is this a new rise of power? ;)

Like I said, I don't even know if I'll like the game because I've never played a mmorpg, but I'm gonna give it a shot. Most likely will be playing just a few hours here and there throughout the week if I like it. We should see if Deflok is planning on getting it, I know he loves his games :D

-Tim

If we make a TFP guild, I'm in! :)

We all three play the Battlefield games online. We've also played various other games online but none to the extent of WoW or the Battlefield games.

I'm tired of every other MMORPG guild being named "Divine Divinity" or "Brotherhood of Steel" or "Legion of Holiness" or "Crusaders of Knightlihood." Instead of going with a generic name, we've decided to go with a generic name that goes beyond the regular bounds of cheesiness. Hence Heroes of the Universe. We're not just players...we're heroes. We're not just heroes of Azeroth and Kalimdor, either...we're heroes of the entire universe.

We have a few other possible names (all equally as satirical) such as "Brotherhood of the Ballistae," "The Unholy Gunmen (Horde)," and "Blackrock Raiders."

-Lasereth

Lol, I'm very glad to see that they are satirical in your minds. I figured it was at first but I realize that some people were just born cheesy ;)

Are you a beta tester of Wow? Because you said "We've also played various other games online but none to the extent of WoW" which sounds like you guys are already playing...

I'll be thinking of a few cheesy names that I can come up with.
-T

I'd play with ya'll, but I'm already with a group called "Pink Fluffy Bunnies!"

Previous guild names we've used:

Roughing up the Suspect - RPK guild on mordred, lots of us had self gratification names!
Purple People Eaters - RPK guild on Mordred

Purple people eaters was my soccer team's name when I was eight.

How's about "Brotherhood of the Tilted"

kinda makes us sound evil... I so want in on this guild in retail!

We've been representing since February! :thumbsup:

-Lasereth

I'll join the guild but it kinda expensive, 10 gold to make one. I had been playing the CB for a few weeks now. All my character are low lvls because I keep creating new characters. :lol: When the game comes out, I'm going the be a Tauren Hunter. I had the most fun with that class.

For the guild. You guys creating a Horde or Alliance guild?

Probably both...Horde and Alliance. And don't worry about the guild creation fee, 10g is pocket change to the likes of our characters in WoW. :) We'll have that money in no-time.

Oh, and I'm definitely making a Night Elf Warrior and a Night Elf Priest. I'll probably make an Undead character (undecided class) and a Troll or Orc character as well.

-Lasereth

About release dates and pushing them back:

As a programmer, I can completely understand why they don't give release dates.

The colossal scope of a project like this... the anomalies that arise from making it a dynamic game which thousands of different possible configurations (think.. connection speeds, pc speeds, etc) is pretty complex. Something like Diablo 2? Simple. Works pretty much straight across the board for the most part.

MMORPGs are a totally different beast. Not only is there client software, but there's the server software (and everything in between).

Think of it this way: if they said "Nov. 22" and it came out and didn't work, they would look bad and the fans would be pissed. Personally, I'd rather wait it out and know that when it's released, it'll be damn solid.

It's annoying, but not giving a release date is the best possible thing anyone can do to insure a solid product that works as it should when it's boxed and shipped!

That's true, but it's not the reason people are angry. Players are angry because Blizzard said almost a month ago that Open Beta would start "in the upcoming days" to be exact. That leads players to believe in less than a week. It's been a month and not one Blizzard employee has updated the status. EQ2 comes out in two weeks and Blizzard hasn't even announced OB. They're gonna lose customers unless they start OB in the extremely near future.

-Lasereth

I'm down for alliance tilted guild, if I know anything about mmorgs, its a good idea to have a community from the git go.

Exactly my stance. I'd even feel behind since some of our mates have already been playing and know what classes they like. I personally think I'd start with an alliance character but don't really care too much. Sorc and Barb were my fav in Diablo2 but I think that's totally different.

Maybe we should all post the names we have, or want to use so that it will be eaiser to find each other "in game".

I choose: Thaer Sunstalker or Sater Moonfallen for my Night-Elf Hunter, open beta here we come!

How bout you guys? Let's hear some good names!

BuddyHawks

probably a nightelf

I hate to break it to you guys, but as of now, you can't have a last name in WoW and you can't have a capital letter past your first name. I think both of these are stupid rules (in Closed Beta you can have a capital letter past your first name). There's not really a rule about not having a last name, but Blizzard hasn't suggested that there will be a surname ability, and there are currently no surnames in Closed Beta. :(

My Night Elf Priest will be Lasereth and my Night Elf Warrior will be Razerwind. I wanted to make my Undead guy Sick Jones, but it looks like it might not happen due to the aformentioned rules.

-Lasereth

I've heard they're being pretty strick about naming conventions as well. I read a post on the CB forum and saw a guy complaining that his name "DoctorD" was not allowed and changed to Blizzards liking.

Off topic, I'm trying to register to the World of Warcraft open forum (not the closed beta forum) and am having problems. I'm using my Diablo2 CD key which it says is ok. Do I need to register or just enter an account name and password at the top? Here's the link to where I'm at (look at the top right to see the login prompt). Anyone know how to register here?
http://www.battle.net/forums/wow/boa...me=wow-general

Thanks ;)
-T

I also heard something about names that take away from the "feel" of the game, so we probably won't be bumping into any "1337 d00ds" running around...

Oh, I completely understand Blizzard's reasoning for putting the rules into effect, but I think they should simply enforce their naming policy instead of penalizing others that have desired names. I hate L337 names, but why doesn't Blizzard simply post their current naming policy on the agreement notice and make people who violate it change their name?

-Lasereth

I'm all for naming policies. I can't stand a lot of names, such as; "l337d00d", "cockNballs", "XxMALEVOLENTxX", "TCIkorea", "BurbankINTLbanking", "SeattleKid", "GOKNICKS", "ProFplum", "Candlestick", "FLAMEON", "MuhamidAli", "iRogue".....etc etc. Two capitals in a first name, no. Two in a surname is "ok", and so are apostrophes. I'm a pretty big name nazi. I do not think that limited the names as their rules state are in anyway debilitating to creativity. In fact, it makes you become *more* creative. Anyone can put two X's in front of their name. It takes a little more to come up with something that has meaning to you, and not because your dog's name is "Cowmuffer" and he died two weeks ago. That's not creative...that's just sad.

I'm still on the fence for WoW. I played a very little of the stress test and had fun as an Undead warrior. I'll check out the open beta and make the decision then. I'll probably pick a warrior again but may go Dwarf this time, his name will be Malarchuck most likely. I would like to hook up with some people in the OB so as to get a good feel for things, soloing gets so boring after an hour or so. Lets keep the info going on whos in, where you are and what the names are so we can all hook up and kick some ass!

i tried to register but got too frustrated and quit. that has to be the dumbest registration process i've ever seen. i got a different registration screen when i tried to post. dont know...

you can still read all the posts... :crazy: