World of Warcraft: Beta Begins

[negitoro]

Emails went out.

I was wrong apparently. It's an all world push... both Alliance and Horde... but our old characters are still all locked.

Anyone else get in ?

[NoFace]

I'm in the beta, but I only played it for a few days before boredom got the better of me. I felt like I was playing EverQuest with better graphics. Almost 5 years later and this is the best the genre has to offer? No thanks.

You should really sell me your beta account then

[negitoro]

I wish I could provide impressions on the second push by now...

But the installer still has over a gig left to download...

This push, just like the last, has so many changes, they decided to rewrite the entire client. So we have to redownload the whole thing. The files are over 2GB in size and are distributed over a Blizzard proprietary version of Bittorrent. It's actually quite interesting to see something so mainstream adopting Bittorrent...

[Kidnemo]

I'm in the beta, but I only played it for a few days before boredom got the better of me. I felt like I was playing EverQuest with better graphics. Almost 5 years later and this is the best the genre has to offer? No thanks.

This is exactly how I'm afraid I'm going to feel.

[Victrix]

Nope, this is a new push, but apparently its not the second phase. No email for me.

[Six]

This is exactly how I'm afraid I'm going to feel.

And myself. So what's up with that? I think just about anyone that's recovered from the effects of EQ can list three full pages, single spaced in 8pt Times of problems with the game.

Why can't anyone move past the EQ model? Is there a way to balance the risk/reward system while providing alternate means of entertainment that aren't totally broken?

WoW interests me just like AC, DAoC, AO, E&B, and SWG did. I didn't play any of those other games for more than three months. Maybe my immune system detects the MMOG and beats it down, fearing another bout with EQ.

That being said I still want that e-mail.

[negitoro]

Not having been an EQ player in the past or an MMO player at all, I can't really comment on whether or not WoW solves or perpetuates problems inherent in the MMO model... I can, however, say that there ARE problems with the way the game is right now... but at the same time, the difference between this push and the last was so big I don't doubt the game will be polished by the time release comes out.

Here are some initial impressions on the 2nd push... I haven't really played MMOs before so cut me some slack if I mention something that kind of stupid...

- Graphics have been cleaned up a little more and the environments are still beautiful as heck (for an MMO anyway). The biggest change is that they streamlined the data storage method so the memory usage has been reduced whenever there's a lot of stuff on the screen. Capital cities used to chug HARD and crash frequently. Now it's far smoother.

- As a result, it seems the system requirements are getting a little more reasonable. It used to be that anybody with less an gig of RAM had a tough time in the aforementioned cities... now I think we're definitely getting a little more reasonable.

- Frame rates have been evened out. People used to be getting 60 fps are now getting 30. People used to get 15, are now getting 30. LOL.

- Server-client interaction is worse than ever. It's not lag per se... but rather you can be doing something and the screen will freeze or everyone will be running in place and you'll wait a minute for data to catch up. It was bad in the last push in the capital cities... now it's bad everywhere.

- There's a new skill point system. Rather than tying your skills to your level, it is now tied to skill points that are obtained by killing monsters. You get a skill point every so often when you kill monsters rather than getting 1 pt every level. So now you can get maybe 2-4 points a level (at least early on - it'll probably be more at higher levels) or so depending on how much of your level was monster XP or quest XP. However, accordingly, it's now much harder to get master skills... e.g. the 3 levels of Leatherworking used to be like 2/5/7 SP ... now it's like 10/75/200 or something ridiculous like that.

- You can use skill points to boost attributes and learn new weapon skills. Learning to use a sword takes 30. Learning bows take 50. etc etc.

- There's a new XP fatigue system. Characters now have to go to an inn while they log off to get 'rested'. The more rested they are, the more XP they get from killing monsters. The more you play, the more you get tired. Players need to rest like EIGHT hours to rest up too. Ugh.

- You can't trade quest rewards. When you finish a quest and get a choice between 2 items you can't use, you can't give it to a friend who can. You can only sell it to an NPC vendor. On one hand, it's kind of nice that high level items don't flood the market and makes crafted items more valuable. On the other hand, it really limits what kind of money you can earn and gear you can have.

- There's a slew of other interesting additions... it's now easier to travel the land... there's more paths for Griffons to fly by default rather than earning each one... there's auto updating maps to reflect places you've been...

- Horde races are interesting. But it seems like there's not enough difference between the races right now. Taurens are gigantic but it doesn't seem that they're that much stronger and they still use 2 handed weapons in 2 hands, despite how big their hands are. Undead can swim forever, but still need to rest

- Horde people can't have Alliance people on their friends list. You can't even talk to people from other Factions. It makes finding your friends to quest with a little harder.

[NoFace]

- There's a new XP fatigue system. Characters now have to go to an inn while they log off to get 'rested'. The more rested they are, the more XP they get from killing monsters. The more you play, the more you get tired. Players need to rest like EIGHT hours to rest up too. Ugh.

I just want to make sure everyone reads this and can bitch accordingly. That shit sucks.

[epmode]

I just want to make sure everyone reads this and can bitch accordingly. That shit sucks.

and i just wanted to make sure everyone reads this and realizes that it's not such a horrible thing after all.

[Roufuss]

- Horde people can't have Alliance people on their friends list. You can't even talk to people from other Factions. It makes finding your friends to quest with a little harder.

And you people bitched because FFXI had people on different worlds.

I find this to be L-O-L funny.