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WoW started their open beta test today. Play WoW for free. The signups are down tonight, but should be up tomorrow.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

In all honesty I am starting to wonder about Blizzard. They can't keep there website up for more than a few days without a crash and some downtime and they can't seem to hold events like an Open Beta without massive problems. For example www.worldofwarcraft.com is down right now. I'm sorry but that File Planet garbage today was non-sense. The site login forms stopped working about 2 minutes after they announced that keys could be gotten there. Why in the hell do we need to go through File Planet to get into the "Open Beta"?

Sorry.. but World of Warcraft is simply going to destroy EQ2.

EQ2 only took almost 6 years to be released after the original - way too long, imo. I hear it isn't ready, and they rushed it to compete with WoW. Sony is probably nervous.. and for a good reason.

Blizzard is poised to win big with this game. They've had HUGE success with Warcraft, an extensive fanbase, and the MMO really does immerse you. I was part of the limited beta(s) and it's been quite a trip.

The graphical stylings of WoW (and the sheer attention to detail) really make it a contender. Sorry to come across sounding like a fanboy, I probably won't play due to the fact that i'm broke and i've got other things on my plate. But if I had the time & money, i'd be on my troll shaman right now.

I urge any MMO fan to give Blizzard's new project a shot, it's worth your cash. Oh, and play on Sargeras, cause I said so.

Racial traits aren't in yet

Racial traits soon to be in.

I've got a good suggestion based on the information based above.

Try out World Of Warcraft, I myself just uninstalled and removed my account from SWG because of JTL. Why? The same reasons above, and more.

- Promises not being kept (Smuggler Revamp)
- Crazy amount of XP needed to proceed
- Messed up economy where ships / houses / anything important will cost you your life savings.
- The horrible grind.

Anyways, World Of Warcraft has solved a lot of these issues. The gameplay is 100X what I've seen in SWG. The graphics are phenomenal, and your not stuck in 1 or 2 professions.

Here's the choices.

1) 9 Character Races (Tauren, Human, Dark Elf, Etc)
2) 9 Main Base Classes (Hunter, Rogue, Warrior, Etc)
3) 8 Primary Professions (Mining, Engineering, Tailor, Etc )
- You can choose two of these.
4) 3 Secondary Professions (Fishing, Cooking, First Aid)
- These are optional, but you can take them all.

The possibilities are endless.

For Example:
I have a Tauren Hunter that has Engineering and Mining as his professions. I also took Fishing, First Aid and Cooking for my Secondary Professions. These Secondary profession are free and don't hurt you at all ;)

Anyways, There is currently a open beta trial that blizzard and fileplanet have released.

WoW
Fileplanet

Check it out.

WOW!

Blue's News has links for the awesome introduction cutscene (DivX from World of Warcraft game. Also, FileShack (registration required; free or subscription required) has it. It is about 46.5 MB; AVI; 2 minutes and 49 seconds long).

Apple has this introduction cutscene in QuickTime format (non-saveable) as well.

The introduction was almost like watching The Lords of the Rings movies. Amazing! I can't wait for the free open beta! :)

Just a note on use of BT to distribute files. Blizzard has been "evaluating" a bit torrent file distribution system for some time. AFAIK it is now the planned distribution mechanism for patches and content updates in the soon to be released World of Warcraft MMO.

Many of the posts on how this system handled the 2.6 GB files they were throwing around are terrible, giving the entire distribution mechism a black eye in that community. If any of you are skilled in the coding of a BT, call Blizzard for a job! :-)

I've been having fun playing World of Warcraft on my powerbook. And for the record, even though Blizzard's system requirements say the game requires a 933MHz G4 or faster, the game runs just fine on an 867MHz G4. It just burns your lap after a while :) Anyone know where I can get one of those laptop coolers?

Heres a link for the World of Warcraft pumpkin carving contest winners

This tool could be useful for World of Warcraft Pumpkin Contest.

And then have another guy with you who acts like a rodeo clown: he uses all the mass on his ship for shields and armor,

A rodeo clown? Is that what the MMORPGers are calling "Tanks" these days?

I have to agree with the parent poster. I have played WoW for one month and am now struggling to find anything worth doing. My character very easily reached the level max within three weeks. With no hero classes or serious PVP battles there is really not much to do other than complete quests I have already done.

So much is going to be missing from WoW at release that I will not buy this game. Furthermore, all the people worshipping Blizzard should be very knowledgeable about Blizzards track record with online games. Diablo and Warcraft are one of the buggiest and most hacked games on the planet and Blizzard does nothing to stop it.

Furthermore, to the person that was speaking of the stress test and calling it an incredible success. The stress test was only a success to the developers as they realized that they are going to need to make serious changes to the game in order to sustain the level of people in the game world. Notice how they are doing an incredible amount of work on the graphics and the servers continuously. They are now frantically trying to fix the large number of problems in order to be able to release in November. Sony is releasing EQ2 a few days ahead of its schedule. Do you really think the few days would make that much of a difference? WoW is also being rushed to be done. One thing that I have to commend Sony about is at least holding to a release date while Blizzard can't even set a data for Open Beta sign-ups.

By the way, when did Slashdot start posting stories from Battlenet kiddies.

See Blue's News (direct link to Blizzard's forum thread). Don't trust anyone's words on release dates except Blizzard's.

The difference is that none of the EQ competitors were actually any good. AFAIK Blizzard was the first developer that didn't hide their beta behind NDAs before launch, and the public KNOWS the game is already more polished than EQ ever was. Those of us lucky enough to play in the stress test have experienced it first hand. Open beta starts very shortly.

and it wanted my credit card number. Why? I know World of Warcraft didn't required it. I wonder if the beta will require it too.

Hopefully this isn't too redundant, since it's an opinion piece...

IMO WoW much better than any other MMORPG's so far, and I've played most of them (EQ1, UO, AO[beta], AC1, SWG). True WoW is one of the newest MMORPG's so it has the advantage of learning from past MMORPG's mistakes.

The play in WoW is much faster paced, with very little downtime.

You're not limited very much if you're not in a group. Soloing, if that's your thing, is certainly possible with any class. And since you're not competing for drops (as much as some other games) getting a group, especially when questing, is a much easier and faster process.

Things like the 'looting rules' that are just understood (or sometimes not) in games like EQ are built in to the interface in WoW.

I can't speak to tradeskills as I didn't try any during my 10 day run in the stress test.

Quests are actually worth doing in WoW. You get a useful chunk of exp for completing them, and while some are challenging, they are not impossible to complete, again, even solo. Also when questing in groups, if you kill a mob that multiple people need a drop from, you ALL get the drop! (At least it's that way at lower levels, I don't know that it stays that way throughout the lifetime of a character, but it's a nice feature nonetheless).

I wasn't sure I was going to like it -- I tend to like more realistic looking games, such as EQ, rather than cartoony-looking ones, but I'm hooked. Wandering into the Large Orc city (I forget the name of it) is what sold me. It just looked amazing. The models have fewer surfaces than other games, but the textures are just amazing. But as we all know, fewer surfaces = smoother gameplay.

I can't wait for the open beta so I can get my fix.

If you want more info, you really can't beat www.worldofwarcraft.com.

Here's a high-res picture of the SWG data center that was hit by a tornado, as seen in those two cell-phone camera photos on the SWG site. I don't know why it's posted on the WoW site, though.

You're thinking of the Rest Bonus system that World of Warcraft has implemented. I'm not on the beta, but just hearing about this system gives me hope for the future of massive games. Finally a MMORPG that I can play a few nights a week and still somewhat compete with the professional gamers (e.g. parents-basement players).

This is the URL to the thread: Try this one

Definately, Sarusa.

I forsee the crowd thinning out quite a bit more.

There are over a half a dozen new MMOGs coming out this year alone. While the field has grown quite a bit since Everquest's first birthday (happy b-day EQ!), I'm still not sure it can support *that* many games.

Me, I'm just waiting for WoW.

is the list of playable races complete? and if so, anyone know why Night Elves are included but the regular Elves (Blood Elves?) aren't. Also, why are Undead included with the Horde? I've kinda stopped playing WC3 so I'm a couple patches behind (including the bonus campaign), so I don't know if Blizzard has made recent adjustments to the official canon or not...

Here you go, World of Warcraft, a video game Warcraft RPG.