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World of Warcraft Open Beta Sign-ups

Posted by Zonk on from the ironforge-dwarves-represent! dept.

freakout writes "After years in development, Blizzard Entertainment announced on Thursday that they will soon be accepting applicants for the FREE World of Warcraft Open Beta Test for North America. The open phase of beta will give people a chance to enter Azeroth and play WoW before the game is released in mid-November." Perhaps you could play with your spouse?

33 comments

  1. NOT happening now.... by will_die · · Score: 1

    This was just an announcement that they will be accepting applications in the future.
    Thier is nothing you can do now to increase or decrease your chance that your future sign up will be selected.
    My guess is that they will handle it like they did the previous stress test, which used fileplanet.

    1. Re:NOT happening now.... by Slime-dogg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's the open beta. It's pretty much: "You sign up, you get to play." Blizzard gets everyone addicted, closes the beta, and makes a killing on their release.

      --
      You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
    2. Re:NOT happening now.... by pyrros · · Score: 1

      This is somewhat unfair to blizzard. Most mmorgs have an open or semi-open (eg. fileplanet members only) beta for the last month before launch.

      Also, I don't think you are guaranteed a place. I seem to recall searching through forums for a Diablo II open beta (or was it Strees Test) cd-key because I didn't get in.

    3. Re:NOT happening now.... by JVert · · Score: 3, Funny

      Their only flaw in this logic is if I get too immersed in the game I will lose my job and not have enough money to pay for the game when it does come out.

      But other then that... GREAT IDEA!

  2. Comeing Soon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Umm, All it says if "Check back soon".

    Where do they get that its open?

  3. How much by xiopher · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How much will the service be once it goes GOLD? I played the stress test through fileplanet and it was wonderfull. Also in other news fileplanet says they will have Matrix online beta signups. Can't wait

    --


    7680 MB Disk,192 GB Transfer,
  4. so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    uh anyone know how soon is soon?

  5. That means it's by Etone · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...Time to start refreshing the Beta page every 5 seconds.

    I remember when Closed Beta signups were taking place, that was a disaster. I think I had to click "Submit" a few thousand times per page to navigate the signup app. If you want in here, you'd better be in first.

    -E-

    1. Re:That means it's by j0nb0y · · Score: 2, Informative

      You could have waited until day 2 or 3 of signups. The signups were open a week, and participants were chosen *randomly*, not according to signup time.

      --
      If you had super powers, would you use them for good, or for awesome?
  6. I played during the stress test by brutusbuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    WoW was more stable, polished, interesting, and entertaining during a BETA in which they were TRYING to abuse the servers than SWG is today.

    Congrats to Blizzard. I wish you success.

    SOE, rot in hell. :)

  7. Its called lifestyle. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Perhaps you could play with your spouse?

    and from the Article.

    A curious offshoot of this is the husband and wife who play together, on the same server, many times in the same Player Association (PA - a group of players who play together as a group) and still choose to romance others. Their motives can be for fun, the thrill of "safe" relations outside of the primary relationship, or a genuine sense of role-playing not connecting what goes on from between being Out of Character (OOC) or In Character (IC). More expected, though, is the RL couple who also pairs off in the game.

    Lifestyle goes MMPOG! Of course do you really want to swing with Orcs?

    1. Re:Its called lifestyle. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Little Gnome Luv'n

    2. Re:Its called lifestyle. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Other than the big hands and feet, how about a Drawf Hottie!

    3. Re:Its called lifestyle. by L7_ · · Score: 1

      its the hair.

  8. People don't seem to understand. by Rallion · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the open beta. You don't have to worry about not getting accepted. You will. It's open. This has been planned since before the beta schedule started, and, I repeat, 'open' means everybody gets in.

    1. Re:People don't seem to understand. by cephyn · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is that like open source? I don't want to be a part of any closed betas! They're so proprietary and evil! And think of the insecurity! Now people can play WoW and be secure! Open Beta is the way to go!

      When can I modify the beta?

      Seriously though, since you didn't reply to a parent, who doesn't get that this is an OPEN beta? And why would you correct them, if they can't figure it out, they don't deserve to play! ;)

      --
      Moo.
  9. It's Open beta vs. Closed betaa by Llevar · · Score: 1

    Open meaning anyone who wants to can sign up and get an account and closed meaning blizzard chooses who gets an account.

    1. Re:It's Open beta vs. Closed betaa by will_die · · Score: 1

      Except with MMORPG that is not really the definition used.
      First it is more marketing then anything else. Also for most MMORPG open beta means they will be opening it up to X amount of people, and usally it is first come first served.

    2. Re:It's Open beta vs. Closed betaa by Rallion · · Score: 1

      Except that that's how Blizzard has been defining Closed. Apart from the very unfair 'first-come, first-served' thing.

  10. check out my totem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    K, TAUREN TAKE YOU TO LOVE SCHOOL NOW LIL FUZZY.

    Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
    Response: Not yelling per say, it could just mean a really loud deep voice.

  11. it's a marketing scheme... by dfenstrate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Get everyone addicted, then charge for it! mwah ha ha...

    The first hit is always free, kid.

    (BTW, i just joined the beta three weeks ago.... I'm hooked.....)

    --
    Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
  12. It could be staggered entry.... by GrnArmadillo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've heard that companies have staggered entry into open betas in the past. This will probably be a short open beta (2-3 weeks) with the game's impending release (no official date confirmed, but holding the beta now all but confirms that it will make the holidays, meaning around 6-8 weeks from now to RELEASE tops). Getting into the first wave may make a big difference in how much free trial you get before having to decide if it's worth buying a $50 game that shuts off if you don't subscribe.

  13. For those who have played... by daemon_mf · · Score: 1

    How is it? On it's own merits, and compared to other MMORPG's? Does it seem like they are fixing some of the problems associated with this type of game? And, what I really want to know is how much do you feel like you are immersed in the Warcraft universe?

    1. Re:For those who have played... by jorenko · · Score: 1

      I'm not too well travelled when it comes to MMOs, but I've had at least a few minutes in a few of them. Anyway, here's what I thought of the stress test:

      Graphics: What graphics? No graphics, just art. Lots of really beautiful art.
      Sound: Music is just enough to keep you excited without noticing it too much. A lot like Warcraft 3's in most places, but that's to be expected. Sound effects are pretty standard, but not bad by any count.
      Quests: Perfect. This game really got the quest system down. Everyone's said a lot about it, and you can learn about it on their site if you want details, but know that it is Good.
      Immersion: Between the above qualities and all the little touches that should up everywhere, it's pretty easy to get caught up in the world. I'd say the only thing you need to do to help this is to quit the general chat, as there is a lot of newbie questions and repetition in there.

      Out of all the MMOs I've at least seen, or tried, this is honestly the only one I could consider paying for. Not to say that I won't be one of the first on this Open Beta once they start it, of course.

    2. Re:For those who have played... by Slim+Cognito · · Score: 0

      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.

      --
      Slim Cognito
    3. Re:For those who have played... by RogueyWon · · Score: 1

      This game should have been awesome... best in it's field. As it is, after playing the stress-test, I can't help but feel it's confined to second place in the "traditional MMORPG" market. Don't get me wrong, it's very good. The graphics are great... very stylised, very "Warcraft". It's nice to see a game that doesn't go for the realistic look and isn't afraid to look a bit different. The world seems pretty huge and it's nice not to have any load times at zones. Spell effects and whatnot all look excellent. On balance, I'd rate it higher than Everquest, Anarchy Online, Dark Ages of Camelot and Star Wars Galaxies. Indeed, it's better than virtually any other MMORPG I've played. With one exception. Final Fantasy XI leaves this game choking in the dust. The notable thing about Square's first venture into the MMORPG market was how little attention they'd paid to the predecessors. As a result of this, they came up with some gameplay innovations that future MMORPGs ignore at their extreme peril. After experiencing FFXI's unique and flexible jobs/subjobs system, I can't find the words to express just how contraining it felt to be limited to a single class for my character, with creating a whole new character being my only way of trying annything different. The party combat felt very flat and uninspired... everybody felt much more of a generalist than in FFXI. With no unlockable classes, the incentive for experimenting later in the game is much diminished. The game-world may be faster moving and faster loading, but it suffers from a serious lack of depth. In the week I played, I found few cities to rival the size of even the small towns in FFXI and nothing at all to compare with the larger cities. Ultimately, if you've never played FFXI, you'll probably love this. If you played FFXI, but the lack of serious PvP was too much of a put-off for you, you'll love this. Otherwise, Square's title is far more rewarding.

    4. Re:For those who have played... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FYI, you are going to keep getting moderated as a troll no matter how on topic or insightful your posts are while you have the ipod link in your sig.

    5. Re:For those who have played... by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 1
      It's good, but I'm still not sure if it's great. I've been playing in beta since the last push, so far it has been fun. But... I haven't really seen anything "new" yet.

      What I mean is that it's highly polished. What it does, it does great. But it still feels like the same thing (having played most major mmos). It's very solo friendly, and has great group encounters (instanced dungeons).

      I'm trying to decide between WoW and EQ2. I never played EQ1, but 2 looks cool. Feel free to invite me to beta if you have a buddy invite :D

    6. Re:For those who have played... by iCEBaLM · · Score: 1

      I currently play FFXI, and I did play in the WoW stress. I liked WoW better for a number of reasons:

      1. Solo at any level.
      2. Making money in game is not a chore and isn't a huge pain in the ass like it is in FFXI, especially with the chinese gil farmers.
      3. Everything about the game is fun, there are no parts that I dreaded doing but had to do to continue on with the fun parts.
      4. PvP is just WAY TOO FUN in WoW. FFXI's lame attempt at PvP, Ballista, is so horrible, many jobs dont even have a hope in hell (thief, summoner, white mage) but this is not the case in WoW, every job can contribute and fight any other job.

      Unles Squeenix gets rid of the gil farmers I'm going to have to dump it, I can't make enough game money to actually play it because the gil farmers have monopolized every source of income, and I'm not buying gil from them just to play a game I already pay for.

    7. Re:For those who have played... by felonious · · Score: 1

      This game is truely great. I've been in the closed beta quite a while and still can't get enough of the game itself. The graphics aren't state of the art but they still aren't really alcking. I'd rather have gameplay over visuals. After the newness of D3 wore of it was boring if you know what I mean.

      There is plenty to do at all times whether it's questing, killing, PvP, PvE, auctions(totally addicting), polishing up your trade skills-my favs mining, skinning, alchemy, and the subskills-1st aid and fishing. I love smelting the minerals I've collected into bars which I sell at auction. it's a lot of fun. You can buy new recipies for most tradeskills as to do and create more items. You also have raids/instances/etc. I'm leaving out plenty but trust me there's much more.

      The learning curve on this game is minimal and this is coming from a FPS freak. I'm done with that genre and stuck in WoW.

      Above all this game is stable beyond belief. I experience very few crashes and all I do when it happens is reboot and I'm good to go.

      The continents are massive and in no area is there much lacking other than stuff still in development by Blizzard. I predict this will the biggest game of all time which means it'll have to beat another game by the same company which is proof they know what they're doing. I'm not fanboy but this game is everything promised and more.

      I highly recommend WoW above any other game out there.

      --
      You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
    8. Re:For those who have played... by Rallion · · Score: 1

      Blizzard games never do much in the way on innovation. I'm up there among the most rabid Blizzard fans, and I still acknowledge this. For their games, the polish itself is what makes their games unique, not the features. And hell, I like it that way.

  14. Not going to play open beta by Zed2K · · Score: 1

    I played the stress test and really liked it. Liked it so much that I want to wait till its released. If I play too much in open beta then I won't want to play it when its released and there are more people playing.