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Blizzard's World of Warcraft Beta Goes Live
craenor writes "Perhaps the most anticipated entry into the increasingly crowded PC MMORPG market, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, has just reached the live Beta stage, for those select players lucky enough to be picked. In a distinct change from the existing trend in Beta tests, they are not going to require NDAs for participating players, and everyone will have read access to the official Beta forums while testing takes place." The WoW site includes a basic game FAQ for beginners, and BitTorrent is now live as Blizzard's Beta distribution method of choice, as the mentioned earlier on Slashdot Games.
My favorite Vaporware vanished in thin air !!
r.
Hooray! Another reason for me to camp in the basement of my parents house!
...among geeks, is WoW the most anticipated MMORPG, but the most anticipated MMO among the general populace was Star Wars: Galaxies, and we all know how that turned out. But, then again, Lucasarts and Sony are pretty hit-or-miss, but Blizzard has a flawless record. Still, beware the overhyped crap.
It's interesting how they will turn to some open source alternatives for file distribution (Torrent), alleviating the strain from their network, but vehemently attack others who try to improve the gaming experience and lessen the strain from their network.
I belive WoW is going to be running on another network on not Battlenet to keep the traffic flow on bnet down could be wrong thu.
And already, some idiot is auctioning off his beta test account...
Ebay auction
It's not Warcraft Warcraft (with commanding armies, building forts), it's more of a traditional MMORPG in the Warcraft world. Commanding big armies around in a world with hundreds of other people would be neat, but probably unfeasible.
What are you talking about? WoW is an RPG, not an RTS. It has nothing in common with the mechanics of the original warcraft games. To be clear: You dont order groups of units around, you play a single character at a time.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I remember when that first came out it ran like crap over bnet and they weren't expecting it to be as hard on their servers. Are they gonna test this with like 10,000 people and open it up to over 1,000,000 when it's finally released and realized hey this wasn't such a good idea we should have done more testing?
Warforge will open the beta...
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
...Is precisely the reason why the best thing to do whenever a game like this is released is to wait a few months before buying it. In addition to the advantage of seeing how the hype meshes with reality, there's the added advantage of having the later version patches available. Let other people find the bugs for you. The prestige one gets as an early adopter just isn't worth the monetary price or less-refined level of quality that comes with it (IMO).
Sono koro, bokura wa, sore ga sekai no shinjitsu da to shinjite ita.
FreeC**** is not really shut down, it is named stratagus now. There is also a game named Magnant(www.insectwar.com) which isn't free though but based on stratagus. Probably means more trouble to come when someone will try to freeclone Magnant.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
I read it on their forum. Completely seperate. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow- general&T=715&P=1&ReplyCount=5#post715
See.
It kinda looks like "warcraft 3 meets Cartoons meets another camp-the-spawn-level-threadmill-game", but I suppose the beta will be fun, assuming my internet connection gets up and I have been picked.
Do they send out emails TODAY to the lucky 'winners', or have they been sent out ages ago?
// instant - "I for one welcome our new Decaff Coffee-Flavoured-Coffee Overlords"
The gryphon riding looks really cool. Another thing that seems rather inventive is the death system, where upon your death you become a ghost and wander/go resurrect yourself. That seems interesting to me, and it'll be fun to see mountain giants from UNDER their nose, rather than from DOWN their nose. It seems to look good, I'll have to get the game before I can tell any more really.
This is bad, bad news. Now the game is one day closer to being finished which means it's one day closer to when I can buy it, which means it's one day closer to the day I won't be able to leave my computer ever again.
Blizzard game are like the purest of drugs. I got hooked on WarCraft I by a free demo in the store (the first one is always free) and I've been a junkie ever since.
My lowest moment ever was turning down sex with my girlfriend the first week that Warcraft III came out because I didn't want to step away from the game. I fear it will be even worse with World of Warcraft. : (
-Colin
You, a seemingly regular (over 650 posts with a highish UN) Slashdot poster, DENIED sex.... WITH A CONSENTING FEMALE!!!! You've got some nerve, posting that on here... ;) But seriously, that is pretty low man, most girls would be gone at that point :P.
Slashdot is proof that Sturgeon's Law applies to mankind.
Can we have a -1, Completely Misinformed mod option?
Over them suing bnetd?
Well, I guess posting all those snippy comments on Slashdot really showed them who was boss. So now it's back to the usual fawning at their feet, is it?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Since I was playing in Alpha I can give everyone a bit of insight as to what WoW is like. First off Blizzard has done a simply wonderful job. The game runs smoothly and if the server crashes, which it may occasionally, its back up in no time. The game play stretches from the familiar, where it has been perfected, to the brand new, to the silly (fishing). The graphics are wonderful and go more for style than realism, which is appropriate to Warcraft. The feedback mechanisms are streamlined, the download process is excellent (if long). The game holds you by the hand a bit much, but other than that I can't really complain. There will be a simply massive amount of info coming out in the next few days from Alpha testers freed of NDA's. So check out the shots and descriptions and see for yourself. Its a great game. Period. -Ian
You are thinking of lineage 2 (www.lineage2.com) by NC Soft :)
http://www.freepokerchipset.info
Anyone noticed Guild Wars?
:-) The gallery is all unretouched graphics with interesting lightning effects making some people think they were post-processed.
Developed by ex-Blizzard employees, and in the same spirit as Battle.net in terms of a free multiplayer service. New extra features can be bought (this is how the MMOG is financed), but they won't be necessary to play with those who have them.
It has pretty graphics too.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I was holding flags while playing SubSpace and had been running for about 2 hours. My gf was watching TV in the living room, waiting for me to finish the game and got bored. So to try and convince me to hurry up, she crawled under my desk and started blowing me.
:)
I kept playing as best I could under the circumstances, and lasted an easy 90 seconds before getting my ship annihilated. I was upset for a few seconds that she ruined my game, but then I came to my senses and bukkake'd her.
Then started playing again
Talisman
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
World of Warcraft, has just reached the live Beta stage, for those select players lucky enough to be picked. My luck must be running out. I just remember the days, when I was lucky enough to be picked to spot bugs in Beta software.
City of Heroes has a preorder->beta system setup, as well.
I can't speak for everyone else (amazing that), but I'm still "boycotting". This particular game wasn't anything I'd go for anyhow, but..
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Ah, those were fun days. The only time I really ever played WC3, the only time it really had a draw for me, was during the beta, when I played on the unsanctioned servers. The game was spanking new, and there were weekly patches that changed unit balancing. It was great fun, analyzing the changes to figure out who had the unfair advantage at the time ;-). When the humans got call-to-arms, my friends and I figured out an extremely cheap stragegy: build a new human castle right near the enemy's base, perform the call to arms, and do a peasant rush on their undeveloped base! Surprisingly, it worked about 50% of the time (and pissed people off 100% of the time). The adapt-or-perish nature of the beta was what made it so enjoyable to me. Apart from that, I didn't find WC3 all that novel (micro-managing heroes isn't my cup of tea), and I stopped playing pretty soon after it left beta.
I suppose the point to this post is that beta games can be just as fun, if not more, than the final product. Oh yeah, and Blizzard sucks for going after BnetD.
Here is a positive review from an alpha tester.
My bad. That's the one I was thinking of.
Personally I despise paying for an online game. I just don't see the point in paying a monthly fee for it if I'm already paying to get the game itself?! Besides, IMHO there are already tons of games out there that provide multiplayer for free. My only fear is that monthly fees for online content will spread into the traditional multiplayer arena.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
Once brought back to life, you can go back to your corpse and grab your stuff, assuming someone else hasn't looted it.
I was a "hardcore" mode Diablo II addict (in HC mode, you only get one life to live and when you die, that's it--you lose everytihng and you're level one again). I'd go for days w/ minimal food and rest--it was insane. Anyway, that's beside the point--I never had more fun with a game. It was the first time a modern game went beyond a FPS shooter game (ie, instant action), while combining a persistent character, while causing you to exhibit real survival-like behavior. When I played for those hours--and days straight--I was having *tons* of fun and laughs constantly and consistently...
So many of these games these days have you sit there for hours w/o even raising your heartbeat--I don't understand how people let themselves play them! In Diablo II hardcore, I'd stand up after a few hours of play and feel like I just had a two hour-long workout (and I'm shape, before you jump on that one).
Looking back, there wasn't a *single* hour or loss of a character where I didn't have hoots of fun. What other games (and/or game formats) can boast that? Sure, some of the deaths were painful and sad at the equipment I lost, but that's what real battle and gaming is--it goes beyond fun and enters the realm of glory.
Glory isn't something that you can save to file, accumulate from killing a high xp monster a hundred times using hours of free time, or get from nice equipment. It's when you and a couple others that you've been fighting alongside with rush in a room where the outcome is unknown and is also for keeps--you get one and only one chance. And when you fought off the odds, the glory was yours. And when you didn't, and fought to the end, the glory was still yours. I bowed down--and fell in love--with a game that could let your experience that.
G-Force music visualization
I was a hardcore mode Diablo addict too. There is a lot to be said for making death a major inconvenience in games. I find that in a lot of games now I reach the "what is the point of this game?" phase a lot more quickly now after playing D2 Hardcore.
If you can just run in and hack away without regard to strategy because you know death is no big deal, where's the fun? If everyone is running around with ultimate items because it's impossible to permanently lose your gear, where's the game economy?
D2 Hardcore was perhaps a bit too severe, because you have to recognize that there are times you will die through absolutely no fault of your own, like a lag death or because some loser is using a hack of some type. They should definitely make it more like hardcore than softcore, though, with very serious penalties for character death.
This is still the little arm of Vivendi - you may remember them as the company that used the DMCA to kill bnetd and tried to kill freecraft?
Yeah, but their games are good, so no-one cares. If their games were buggy and sucked, then people would be screaming injustice everytime Blizzard made a move.
I for one was never at war with them, they create awesome games.
People need to stop thinking of Slashdot as one big collective with the same thoughts and goals. Its a website full of unique people, they think differently.
Some of them are upset over bnetd, others couldn't care less.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Is a Linux port planned? I don't care wether it's Transgaming working to make it a "5" on WineX or a company doing the port or Blizzard themselves providing a Linux client, but it is one of the first game I feel like I'm gonna miss :(
We've always been at war with Eurasia.
Oh, please. Most games companies would quite happily sell their proverbial grandmother's kideneys or daughters into slavery rather than do the right thing. Blizzard, however, is an exception.
Time after time, Blizzard has chosen to let a product launch date slide rather than release an incomplete or buggy game. And time after time, when those products have finally been finished they've turned out to be masterpieces.
Can you name one bad game that Blizzard has made? Can you name another developer that has released three games that have free online multiplayer play that are as popular as Warcraft III, Diablo II and Starcraft? Heck, Starcraft is almost six years old now and Blizzard still supports it! There are even people playing the first Diablo online at Battle.net and how old is that game now?
Blizzard objected to bnetd because it allowed people to play online without CD key verification (ie, without needing to buy a copy of the games concerned). When you consider that the initial purchase of those games (and the almost unnoticeable banner ads on Battle.net whilst you chat) are the only source of income that Blizzard has, it's hardly surprising that they weren't too keen on an online service that directly threatened their existance.
If Blizzard has big $ signs permanently on its collective mind as you suggest then perhaps you can explain why it lets people play its games online for free rather than charging a single penny for the privelege?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
If you were a smart virus author, you'd title the email it contained "World of Warcraft Beta Application Accepted."
Don't recall it being posted anywhere.
Can't find a link to signup anywhere
Anyone got a link for a signup page?
I've been Alpha testing this game for four months, now that the beta is out my NDA is lifted.
I suppose I should say something meaningful now, but all I can think to really say is that if you like fantasy RPGs, and questing, it's definitely worth giving it a try.
I've been having a lot of fun, and after four months, I'm still excited about playing.
---
I support spreading santorum
Zug Zug
Some people have no principles whatsoever. As long as you keep them fat and happy, they'll take whatever you dish out.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
It allowed you to play the game without paying for a copy.
This may be ok for a game that's been out for years, but bnetd had warcraft3 before it was in stores!
God spoke to me
The term "Lucky Bastards" comes to mind :-)
$8.95/mo web hosting
you may remember them as the company that used the DMCA to kill bnetd and tried to kill freecraft?
Unlike MMORPGs, Blizzard only has the sale of their games to provide revenue. They provide BattleNet free of charge, and it is superb. While bNetd was great and all, it DID make it so people didn't have to buy their game and have a unique cd-key. Having played D2 for a couple of months now (and getting thoroughly addicted to online play on BattleNet), I'm certainly in Blizzard's corner...their games are superb and people should pay what they're worth.
Could the bnet thing been handled better? I dunno, I didn't hear all the inside info, but I seriously doubt that Blizzard wants to release their cd-key algorithm, and since that's the only way I can see them being happy with bnet, I don't see another way they could have handled it.
--trb
FFXI (Final Fantasy X1) is a wonderful MMORPG. I picked up FFXI to pass the time until WoW came out. Now that I've been playing it for almost 6 months now, I gotta tell ya... I don't see myself switching unless WoW is absolutely amazing.
p ://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?cat=16f fo.warcry.com/
As an old EQ player, I can't tell you what a breath of fresh air FFXI has been.
The UI is a bit odd at first but once you get use to it, it's more than functional... it's actually nice. Just takes some adjustments.
Here's more:
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/gameplay/
htt
http://
"A mind is a terrible thing to taste."
They aren't going to even have a PVP server?
How exactly do they expect to get the DAOC players, the AC Darktide players, the original UO PVPers, etc., who feel that it is more important to have something to do other than play a stupid single player game with IRC?
Is that it? They can't be more creative than that? You just described the quest system in every MMORPG that exists for the most part. Heck, even Asheron's Call 2 (which most consider a failure) has all those quest types in game. Please tell me something that is different about this game!
But I'm curious.
Freedom of speech is a right.
Freedom of religion is a right.
Where exactly in the Constitution (or elsewhere) was "Freedom to play Starcraft without buying it" a right?
For the record, I also think Blizzard's business plan (via battle.net) was not only not a bad one but a good and even fairly visionary one for its time.
Their business model was an excellent and exceedingly fair one. If you bought a copy of legally, you were able to play on BattleNet. BattleNet gives you the option of a private game, a public game, a password restricted game, a game with imposed limits, etc. You have plenty of options and the few times I've had issues with BattleNet, they have been fixed very quickly. bNet didn't provide substantially different services from BattleNet, except that it circumvented duplicate cd-key checks.
--trb
While I never played on Bnet.d, I have to disagree with you about there being no other reason to play on it. Blizzard servers may not be strained now, but when I was playing Diablo II lag was sometimes a real problem, especially for playing hard-core (once you're dead, your character is dead).
As previously mentioned, there are plenty of reasons other than not owning the game to want to play on non-Blizzard servers. A chance for reduced lag is one. Having different standards of acceptable behavior is another. Also, having a smaller pool of players makes meeting people online more likely. Moreover, if this is hosted for a local ISP, you are more likely to meet people in your area.
The comparison of BNet.d writers/users with virus writers is unfounded; a better comparison would be with the writers/users of no-CD hacks or software. Some people may use them for pirating, but many others use them for convenience. Given current hard drive sizes, there is no reason to require a CD or even DVD to be in the drive to play a game or use software. It adds only slightly to the security against pirating, and removing it is a convenience to the end user. (Requiring the CD be in the drive, but providing no copy protection on the CD, which I've often seen, is silly; real pirates will just copy the CD and the rest of your users will be inconvenienced.)
Another major thing you've missed about "improving the game experience" is that Blizzard was changing the balancing with each patch, which made a few of my friend's characters impotent (excessive concentration in skills that were nerfed with a patch). I don't know whether each patch was reverse engineered or not, but I assume that each server running Bnet.d had the choice of whether to implement a new patch.
Also, from the ISP's point of view, every player they could get on local Bnet.d servers was less external bandwidth they had to pay for. I don't think Diablo II was that bandwidth intensive, but it probably didn't hurt.
Then don't buy it and don't play. I doubt many people really care if you do or not.
But don't go out and steal it just to play and then the next day spout off in your holier than thou attitude about bnetd and freecraft.
Here's a link to an alpha tester's report. It's a VERY long read but it's also a really, really GREAT read. If you're interested at all in what WoW is and isn't as it starts beta, this is must read material.
2 6
http://www.graffe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155
I think you were the first person to mention stealing anything here. I hope people refuse to give Blizzard any support with this - financial or emotional, until they resolve their actions towards others.
I definitely don't suggest anyone steal anything. I also don't suggest anyone commit copyright violations, which is what copying non-free software is - not robbery. I hope people just avoid Blizzard in general, although of course they're free to do whatever they want.
You're right that no one will notice my boycotting Blizzard, beyond my friends, who think I'm nuts. But I'm going to refuse to be part of the problem here, and I'm going to try to educate as many people as I can about how they can not contribute to the problem as well.
The "heros" aspect was newish, but I think it detracted from the game, really. If I want to play an RPG I'll play an RPG.
What bothers me is that after all these years of RTS games they still don't have the improvements I was looking for after playing my first. Specifically, ways to avoid micromanagement. I want
- User definable attack priority lists. I want to be able to tell each unit, or unit type, or group what priority to assign to which enemy types.
- User alterable aggression levels.
- The ability to set the level at which my damaged units will retreat and get healing.
- User definable "response zones" so that I can establish a rapid reaction force and order it to aid any attacked unit inside its response zone, or to ignore attacks in certain areas.
- The ability to order units with special attacks to bloody use the damn attacks so I don't have to fricking micromanage each damn unit's special attack. WC3 at least gave you the ability to set *some* specials to work automatically, but it wasn't very specific. I'd like to be able to order my special units to use X amount of their mana/energy/whatever for defense, Y for offense, and Z for support. Again, on either an individual basis, a unit type basis, or a group basis.
None of this requires true AI, none of this is impossible for today's programmers. Some of what I want existed in the game Dark Reign (aggression levels, for example). Why has the actual mechanic of playing RTS games been left unimproved since day one? If I want a game where I have to be twitchy I'll play an FPS game. I don't want to micromanage anything. That isn't strategy.I figure that its much more important in a *strategy* game to set proper "standing orders" than it is to individually tell each and every grunt specifically what to attack. The commander should be thinking about the big picture, where to expand, what unit mix to use, the broad strokes of the attack, where to put forward staging areas, where to place support units (repair bays, etc), not focusing on individual units.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
Companies like MMORPGS because of zero piracy (everybody have connect to a central server to play) and everybody have to pay to play it.
Oh, and good luck building your own pirated server lol
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
No. Diablo II is played on their servers. Characters are stored on their servers. Warcraft III routes all packets so your IP is not exposed to other players.
Perhaps you are really describing bnetd?
And I'm not alone. That was Blizzard's misstep.
What does the (insert Blizzard's game name here) end user license agreement say you can and can't do? I admit I haven't read mine in a while, but I suspect there's a clause forbidding you from doing the above.
In our capitalistic system, dollars vote. (How literal that is depends on how cynical you are.) If Blizzard's EULA forbids you from doing something you think you should be able to do, instead buy the product of a company that doesn't. That's your choice.
The problem I have with this whole argument is that some people seem to think that you can divorce the way Blizzard does business with the products they create, and that's completely not true. They make great, widely popular games with strong player loyalty and community support. These things are true, in part, because of what they've done with battle.net.
We could debate all day whether the open source movement or even just a less "evil" company could have concieved of and delivered games equal or superior to those Blizzard has produced, but the reality is, they didn't. Blizzard did. Either live with the way they do things, or play a different game. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
In this case, I'll pay for it. At least at first. I think that it's justified, because you aren't JUST paying for access, you're paying for support, for (most likely) damn good servers using sophisticated techniques, and most importantly more content. BLizzard's creating a huge team just to provide patches, content, plot development and other changes for many years to come--the plot is already planned out for three years in advance, including the opening of the Dark Portal and the world of Dreannor. Oh yeah.
Anyway...I do understand the concern about the model sprewading to other arenas...but I think it's not something we really need to worry about. Most games these days run on independent servers. Blizzard themselves provide the best gaming service around, IMO, and it's free and will stay that way for the forseeable future. That's one of those things they're dedicated to, and it will make many pay services look bad by comparison. Again, I see where you're coming from, but it'll take more than a slew of MMORPGs to change the system.
Of course they will - but they will call it a "release" and you'll have to pay to test :)
I can tell you exactly why WarCraft 3 came out the way it did.
Marketing exec: Hey, guys, let's mix two of your biggest sellers: Diablo and Starcraft.
Devs: We'll get right on it, regardless of whether or not it's a good idea! Diablo * Starcarft = profits of both put together!!
If it would EVER get finished, the Star Wars Combine is what you've described.
"Mission Accomplished" -- George W. Bush May 1, 2003
Does this mean I didn't get accepted as a tester?
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
Here is a good first impression on the game, from a guy maybe a little too exicited about it, but still a good overwiew IMO of why WoW will be different than other MMORPG. Different as in being _fun_ to play.
:-) Please don't ban me for saying elite hackers....
F N=wow- general&T=1266&P=1&ReplyCount=7#post12 66
Here it goes:
"Well I have played for about 5 hours now, starting last night.
So far , I am a very happy man. About a month ago I played through the KOTOR for the PC, and the game was so good, I just could not bear to play anything else. So I did something that I have not done my whole life. I stopped playing games for about a month.
Needless to say, I was very happy when I got the magical email last night!
Now I have had a very mixed experiance with MMORPG's. I have found them tedious, and almost like working.
I loved SWG for the first 6 months, but the developers absolutely ruined that game. I guess so many people quit, they offered a free 14 day trial to come back a few weeks ago.
I guess if I can give you game developers at Blizzard some advice it would be this. People will be paying to play this game. SO if they get really annoyed, they will walk away, and propably never come back.
Listen to the good players, and not the PvP griefers. Listening to the Griefers ruined SWG, which had enormour potential.
But it seems that you all have started on a much better footing, by making the priest better. The ignorant developers in SWG would have made every other class as week as the Priest instead of making the Priest better. SO GREAT JOB BLIZZARD!!!!
The interface is just sweet. I did not even have to read the instructions, I just jumped right in and started playing. Another great job!
It seems that you all have taken the glorious simplicity of Diablo2 and mixed in the best parts of WC3. The game is fast paced and exciting yet it is still a MMORPG. NICE another great job.
I love the level up system. it is nice that as you use a weapon, shield etc. that you automatically get better. Plus you get to level up, and then train your skills!. The only problem I hae with the trainers, is that they are sometimes hard to find. Maybe would could slap them on the map? or have a town/city map? Other wise, once again NICE!
I guess what I love most, is that I actually feel like I am in Azeroth. The game has style! SWG drove me nuts, because there was no quests, no loot, and it was mindless killing of space bunnies! I really love how you all have made the game quest driven. And not stupid quests at that. They have a final fantasy (console not the crappy MMORPG) feel to them wich is nice. I feel like I am trying to accomplish something, and not just level up and get more cash. ONCE AGAIN SWEET! You guys are just L33t HAXXORS.
The graphics are just beautiful, and the battles are actually.....ARe you ready for this? FUN. Most MMORPG's are like beating your head into the wall. It is a combination of the hack and slash of Diablo 2 and the smoothness of TFT WC3. I love the skill set up, and they seem well thought out. I am a human warrior. (I cannot wait to get Wirl Wind.)
I do have one question. What kinds of abilites are on the rings? Are there any that are SOJ like? Are there any leech rings?
Lastly, I just want to thank you all for allowing me the priveledge of being a part of your world, and allowing me to BETA test this game.
Also my last Suggestion. Please keep the game non-tedious.
Other than that, so far this BETA is better than any MMORPG that I have played 2 year after release. YOU GUYS AND GALS ROCK.
Keep up the good work"
Original link
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?
"Sockets are the standard networking API, also useful for stopping your eyes from falling onto your cheeks" zeromq.org
I see your "stupif fuckker" and raise you a "sardonic remark"
Make it a -2, but I whole heartidly agree. ps WoW looks great. I choose to be 'redundant' rather than 'off topic'. :)
What I meant was that I'm afraid companies will cease independent multiplayer support (such as individual servers) in favor of locking their online play into entities like The Zone, MPlayer, etc. and then charging us out the wazoo to use them.
I admit, for something like that to happen a lot would have to change from the way multiplayer is viewed today. In addition to that they'd have to be providing a whole lot more content that whats available today. And to make that last point a reality they'd have to virtually eliminate user created content, which is something I dont see going away anytime soon due to the outcry and backlash most game developers would recieve from today's gaming community. Of course there are the publishers holding the proverbial carrot on a stick in front of the development houses making them do things they don't want. I can see the development teams crying, "it was the publisher that made us do it", kinda like the securom fiasco with Ubisoft.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"