WoW Beta Stress Test

[DrDel]

I am one of the unlucky few on this forum who didn't get into the WoW beta first round (about 6 months back)....

... I was lucky enough to get a fileplanet cdkey and download the stress test beta a couple of days ago... from what I hear at noon today PDT Blizzard was supposed to email out the account information to log into the WoW client... I haven't received an email yet... what gives?

anyone know???

[Dave Long]

You didn't skip work for this, did you? :)

--Dave

[DrDel]

no, I just got home from work... but I did skip a baseball playoff game tonight with the fiance's team in order to play............ what gives? wtf do I get my blizzard WoW stress account!!??!

[TrodKnee]

I never got an email either. Go to this link to create an account https://12.129.232.20/accountcreation and you should be able to get in if you have a key.

[Kunikos]

Play the server with the shortest name.. starts with Y...
I made a few characters and have yet to decide on which I want to play as...

--
edit:

It's Ysera.

[DrDel]

I am playing on a server that begins with a "N"

as a human paladin....



...how does XP work in this game? is it the guy who hits the mob first that gets credit for the kill and can loot the corpse?!?!?

[HRose]

...how does XP work in this game? is it the guy who hits the mob first that gets credit for the kill and can loot the corpse?!?!?
Yes, if the portrait is grey it means that the mob isn't yours.

[Michael Fortson]

Sounds like good fix for asshole killstealers, and one a bit less resource-intensive than Mythic's CSR-enforced policy (and far far better than SOE's we don't give a shit policy).

[Euri]

I'm also playing on Ysera. Had the fewest people when I logged in. Playing a Tauren Shaman (level 8 now) named Dirbas

[Kunikos]

I am a female Human Warrior named "Grannie" and I look like an old lady... haha :lol:

Union Carbide is playing as CheriPoptart, a female Priest.

Oh yeah he said I should dl a patch from http://www.cosmosui.com.

[Sunny the Unemployed]

Make sure you check any junkmail folders you may have. My game key email was in my junk folder for a day before I realized what had happened.

[EviLore]

I created a human mage...sorta bored to death, since it's nearly impossible to find creatures to kill or complete quests with the camping being worse than damned everquest ever was. Yay stress test.

[Hump]

Make sure you check any junkmail folders you may have. My game key email was in my junk folder for a day before I realized what had happened.

I never received mine, I assumed it got blocked out by the mail filter. Didnt really matter as all I had to do was register my name/other info to log-in.

Anyhow, the game just isn't my cup-o-tea. I've tried time and again to get into Fantasy based MMOG's but they all have bored me to tears so far. WoW isn't any different.

[gnmarsh]

someone explain the camping to me please. Any character created will be wiped at the end of the stress test. So maxing out a character really can't be the goal. Yet when I tried to complete the very first quest I figured out how to get I couldn't because of the people camping the creatures. Now the people doing it were lvl 5-6, so it's doubtful they were on the quest. I went and explored quite a bit, came back 45 minutes later, and the same people were still there. Creature would spawn, one hit kill later they were dead.

Are there macro's people are running already? I thought the point to wow was you had all these quests you could do and you didn't have to kill the same creatures over and over, like you did with lineage 2.

[VegasRobb]

I've been chatting with some friends who were able to get in.

I swear they were going through a religious experience. Is it that good?

[stusser]

No. It's a refined everquest, that's all.

I must say that for a stress test it's amazingly stable though.

[Nick Walter]

someone explain the camping to me please. Any character created will be wiped at the end of the stress test. So maxing out a character really can't be the goal. Yet when I tried to complete the very first quest I figured out how to get I couldn't because of the people camping the creatures. Now the people doing it were lvl 5-6, so it's doubtful they were on the quest. I went and explored quite a bit, came back 45 minutes later, and the same people were still there. Creature would spawn, one hit kill later they were dead.

Are there macro's people are running already? I thought the point to wow was you had all these quests you could do and you didn't have to kill the same creatures over and over, like you did with lineage 2.

I think in any MMOG there will be a small group of tards who feel compelled to "win" by having the highest level characters, the nastiest PK'ing guild, the most uber items, etc. I'm sure to these people the idea of macroing their spawn camping so they can level up while afk or surfing for porn is quite attractive. They are probably using the stress test to fine tune their macros so that they can beeline right to the maximum allowed game level within 3 weeks of launch.

Playing to win at any cost leads to quite different behavior than playing because the game is fun.

[TheWombat]

AFAIK there are no working "action" macros in WoW at the moment, though that could certainly happen I guess. Action macros are not that big a problem any more in current generation MMOs, really. Most likely people are too lazy to move out and do other things. The newbie areas in WoW are designed so that you can go from 1-6 where you start, then you get quests sending you to the next area, where around level 10-12 you get quests moving you out further, etc. If you ignore that and camp the newbie grounds you get a diminishing returns situation very rapidly. The one thing that borks this up is resource gathering. Unlike, say, DAOC, where a mob that is gray to you (worth no experience) will not drop any loot, here they always drop, and if you are skinning or looking for low level stuff like linen you sometimes have to kill low level mobs to get the materials.

I'd disagree that it's just a "refined EverQuest," though, unless you mean that it's a fantasy-themed MMO like EQ. It's much more streamlined, the dynamic is very different in terms of soloability and grouping, and it's much less class-centric. True, if the whole MMORPG style of play doesn't grab you WoW may well not either, but for many of us with lots of hours logged in other MMOs it's becoming the poison of choice because it's actually fun to play more often than not. I've put in far too many hours in the beta over the past few months and to me it's certainly the most fun of any of the other MMOs I"ve tried.

[mouselock]

I'd disagree that it's just a "refined EverQuest," though, unless you mean that it's a fantasy-themed MMO like EQ. It's much more streamlined, the dynamic is very different in terms of soloability and grouping, and it's much less class-centric. True, if the whole MMORPG style of play doesn't grab you WoW may well not either, but for many of us with lots of hours logged in other MMOs it's becoming the poison of choice because it's actually fun to play more often than not. I've put in far too many hours in the beta over the past few months and to me it's certainly the most fun of any of the other MMOs I"ve tried.

Only about an hour invested, so maybe it opens up, but I would point out that it is just a "refined EverQuest" when compared to, say, SWG, which is a far, far different game design. (Yes, SWG can be about combat grinding, but from the absolute start there are other ways to go too; I already feel like WoW is all about the combat, and anything else will be incidental. That's a qualitative difference for me. I'm still running around whacking frigging little beasties! Argh!)

[Jason McMaster]

the 1 hour "refined Everquest" qualification. Excellent.

[VegasRobb]

Was there something about the 48 highest level people getting to continue on in the beta? I tried asking my WoW friends about it, but they're all passed out or zombie-like from staying up till 5am last night.

[Alan Au]

*** insert non-sequitur comment about the pitfalls of XP-based leveling systems ***

- Alan

[Gary Whitta]

the 1 hour "refined Everquest" qualification. Excellent.
I watched the first two minutes of The Lord of the Rings last night, and clearly it's just a refined Krull.

[gnmarsh]

I made quite a bit of experience from collecting grapes, no combat required. That could be because the spawn mechanic appears broken and the npc attackers that should have been there didn't appear, but that quest was pretty fun.

[Talisker]

Was there something about the 48 highest level people getting to continue on in the beta? I tried asking my WoW friends about it, but they're all passed out or zombie-like from staying up till 5am last night.
Second story down (at the moment) (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/).

[TheWombat]

Well, yeah, it's all about combat mostly (even the crafting is strictly geared to help you fight, really). So in that way it's the same as nearly every other MMO, SWG excepted I suppose But the feel is certainly far from EQ's hidebound, rigid, constrictive (add more synonyms here) format I think.

[Ranulf]

The key to enjoying the game right now in the stress test is... not to play human or elf characters since its mobbed. I had much more fun in the dwarf town than trying to level in the human city which was the worst. Undead was somewhat tolerable in that you could do it solo. Only way to finish quests in the human city is to group up to share the quest and get credit for kills that way.

[Matt Perkins]

(mini rant)
I haven't played SWG personally, but from everything I hear, it doesn't hold a candle to WoW in terms of usablity and smarts (meaning, smart UI, smart questing, etc). And fricking Verant runs that thing. How can anyone can play a game Verant runs, I don't know.



As for WoW... it's a lot like Diablo 3D. It's very streamlined. The point of the game is combat. The quests are about combat, the special items are about combat.

That being said, I like it. It's very much a Blizzard game (we don't do new, we do the old better). After having played DAOC until recently and having played every other major MMORPG at one point or another (except SWG), WoW is like a breath of fresh air. Almost every little detail is done right (from lots of quests you don't feel like you just walking out and killing to gain levels, to the interface being almost perfect imho).

It'll never be an in depth MMORPG, but it'll be great coop for those liking combat. I can't wait until my wife and I can play together.

[TrodKnee]

It's very refined, and very deep as far as content goes. Huge, pretty world, lots of interesting landmarks and interesting, unique cities. Seems to be a large variety of good looking, well animated critters to smash. Easy to play and smooth grinding so far. Quests are numerous and interesting and detailed, if a little fed-ex-ish.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that the gameplay itself is somewhat shallow. Almost totally combat oriented with some tradeskills thrown in for flavor. It seems like character customization options are minimal, and aren't even as complex as Diablo's skill branching system. No sign of there being any kind of interesting social interaction or politics. I have little hope for the PvP.

World of Warcraft is the MMORPG version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

[Jason McMaster]

You don't get into customization until later on when you have different weapon choices. The PVP is pretty cool, actually. There's a lot of different abillities to learn as well as your, uh, what are they called, other traits or whatever. Anyway, there's a lot more to it than people think.

[Ben Sones]

Only about an hour invested, so maybe it opens up, but I would point out that it is just a "refined EverQuest" when compared to, say, SWG, which is a far, far different game design. (Yes, SWG can be about combat grinding, but from the absolute start there are other ways to go too; I already feel like WoW is all about the combat, and anything else will be incidental. That's a qualitative difference for me. I'm still running around whacking frigging little beasties! Argh!)

I've been playing for quite a while now, and while WoW is certainly combat-centric, there's not much grinding (unless you want it). Because of the approximately fifteen-hojillion quests, you can spend pretty much 100% of your playtime on quests. And yeah, some of them are of the "kill X number of beasties" variety, but plenty of others aren't. I sometimes have as many as nine or ten quests running at a time. It's a much, much more directed experience than EverQuest.

[Matt Perkins]

Oh, side note...

Don't start in the Human or Undead towns... Or at least know they aren't the best towns to start in. The Tauren and Dwarves both have great starting towns in terms of quests, things to do, and layout. imho. And no monsters exist human town, that I could find, they were ALWAYS camped out.

[Jason McMaster]

Undead is an ok start area, Dwarves have the best though IMO

[mouselock]

I've been playing for quite a while now, and while WoW is certainly combat-centric, there's not much grinding (unless you want it). Because of the approximately fifteen-hojillion quests, you can spend pretty much 100% of your playtime on quests. And yeah, some of them are of the "kill X number of beasties" variety, but plenty of others aren't. I sometimes have as many as nine or ten quests running at a time. It's a much, much more directed experience than EverQuest.

I'm kind of to the point, after all the other games I've played where the primary interaction mechanics (i.e. the ones with all the complexity and depth) are combat oriented, that any game with the same base setup feels like grinding. I've really been sucked into SWG (after a friend talked me into trying despite having zero interest in the game) because it really feels like there's something to do other than whack shit to make it dead.

I like the whole crafting thing, running around, searching for good resources, building things that are of importance to the game (as well as other people). I wish the actual crafting portion (as well as the combat of this and every game) had a bit more of an in-depth feel, but it's a fine line to make complex interaction without it becoming twitch.

I will say, however, that WoW already oozes atmosphere and polish. I started as a night elf, and for similar numbers of polygons to what EQ offers, the difference in environment is staggering. The little wisps, the models, the textures, the final elimination of annoying feelings of "That's the wall of fog so you don't see the draw in" is all gone. However, it was still me running around whacking the wee little beasties and waiting for them to respawn. I'll give it as much time as I can during the stress test to see how it goes; I don't have anything against it at all. I just think I'm tired of the EQ game model, and no matter how polished and directed it is, it's still the EQ game model. (Due in no small part, I'm sure, to some of the ex-EQ players who are directing it.)

[mouselock]

the 1 hour "refined Everquest" qualification. Excellent.
I watched the first two minutes of The Lord of the Rings last night, and clearly it's just a refined Krull.

Hey boys, you're allowed to like the game without my opinion having squat to do with it, y'know?

I'm tired of games that revolve around simply pushing buttons to have things fall down dead, no matter how well that game may do the button pushing part. If there's a real purpose to other stuff besides having things fall down dead, great! However, I sure as hell don't see any counter arguments such as "Actually, you could choose to eschew the combat oriented lifestyle altogether and set up a farm in the rolling plains of Azeroth wherein you could grow wheat which is necessary for supplying the military machine, all the while idling your days away fishing at the local watering hole and occasionally dabbling in local politics."

So inasmuch as it seems to be primarily focused on combat and a revolving loop wherein you kill/quest/run through dungeons in order to become more adept at combat, that's a refined EQ to me, sorry. Nobody's really forcing you to agree, but the fundamental gameplay was still "Find something, make it dead, find something again, make it dead again." Compared to what I've been playing recently, there's a real difference in what you can do from the get-go.

It's not a fucking religion, y'know? It's a really slick game. It just may not work so well for me. If you're interested in pointing out the ways in which it might work better for me, I'm all ears. If you want to make sure your virtual ego is, however, protected from the ignoble slings and arrows of folks who might not be as gung-ho about your game as you are, please, carry on!

[HRose]

I just think I'm tired of the EQ game model, and no matter how polished and directed it is, it's still the EQ game model.
What you expected?
Tigole and Furor were guildmasters of two of the most important guilds in EQ. Now they work at Blizzard.

The game is clearly aimed to players of EQ, FFXI and DAoC. It's like throwing in a shaker all those games, with a bit more intelligence and concrete talent.

[TheWombat]

Rather, it's a refined typical fantasy MMO I'd say, as to me EQ has a very particular quality to it. But that's splitting hairs probably.

Personally I can understand how someone burnt out on kill-level-kill cycles would be less than thrilled with WoW, however well done it is. I'm not quite burnt out on the basic concept yet I guess :)

One thing that you probably won't get in the stress test though is the (at this point incredibly rudimentary and only existing as a set of mechanics) PvP dynamic. That has the potential to do a lot more for the game to give it purpose, though it's still a combat purpose to be sure.

[Euri]

I just think I'm tired of the EQ game model, and no matter how polished and directed it is, it's still the EQ game model.
What you expected?
Tigole and Furor were guildmasters of two of the most important guilds in EQ. Now they work at Blizzard.

The game is clearly aimed to players of EQ, FFXI and DAoC. It's like throwing in a shaker all those games, with a bit more intelligence and concrete talent.

Wait wait. When did Furor start working at Blizzard? Tigole left Legacy of Steel long ago to work at Blizzard I know, but Furor was still doing his EQ thing up until a few months ago.

As for Wow:

Yes, it's a polished EQ type game. That is the aim, that is what they are delivering.

[HRose]

One thing that you probably won't get in the stress test though is the (at this point incredibly rudimentary and only existing as a set of mechanics) PvP dynamic. That has the potential to do a lot more for the game to give it purpose, though it's still a combat purpose to be sure.
I'm not holding my breath. Blizzard continues to talk about the "PvP reward" but they never talk about a goddamn *purpose*.

They cannot build another complete treadmill for the PvP because they don't have the time nor the focus to do so. And peoples need a sense for the actions they are supposed to do.

Right now you can do PvP just because you choose so and it's a grief fest *exactly* because griefing is the only actual impact you can have on the world.

I'm still wondering how Blizzard is supposed to hold their subscribers without rising the level cap continuously. Right now the whole game is based on the treadmill. What when you reach the top?

[mouselock]

I just think I'm tired of the EQ game model, and no matter how polished and directed it is, it's still the EQ game model.
What you expected?
Tigole and Furor were guildmasters of two of the most important guilds in EQ. Now they work at Blizzard.

The game is clearly aimed to players of EQ, FFXI and DAoC. It's like throwing in a shaker all those games, with a bit more intelligence and concrete talent.

Wait wait. When did Furor start working at Blizzard? Tigole left Legacy of Steel long ago to work at Blizzard I know, but Furor was still doing his EQ thing up until a few months ago.


If you check the boards, it was around the time FoH left EQ. It wasn't really well publicized. And yeah, I agree with the sentiment that the people behind WoW very much are likely responsible for it being "EQ done right" or however folks want to phrase it so it doesn't get their panties in a bunch.

I think the future of these games is dichotomous; on the one hand you'll have games which distill out one essence and make it very polished and slick (WoW, EQII, Vanguard, CoH), on the other you'll have ones which are trying to break out of what's current and introduce orthogonal content but that content can often be, well, glitchy (SWG, ATITD.. erm, Ryzom maybe? Not as many in this camp.)

I'm more interested in the latter I think because it just smacks of having more for me to do. I've played EQ for 4.5 years now; I've just hit my limit of "It's a nifty world as a background for a specific narrow type of gameplay" being substantive enough to pique my interest. Now I want to see games like this that have multiple different gameplays (and real ones, not just window dressing like, say, EQ's crafting or quest system). That's a much harder order to fill, so I expect we'll see many more games along the DAoC/Vanguard/WoW line than the other. But I think the expansive games are what's going to drive the field into new and interesting directions (and customer bases).




As for Wow:

Yes, it's a polished EQ type game. That is the aim, that is what they are delivering.

Yeah, I was hoping they'd sneak something substantively new in though. Ah well. I'll check it out more; it's a damned finely crafted game, regardless of what it is underneath, and at the free for a week price worth spending some time on. :) (Blizzard is very, very good at the finely crafted game part. Guild Wars still has this same potential for more or less the same reason, too, though it's dropped off the radard since E3. Anyone with more info there?)

[Foom]

Furor at Blizzard (http://www.corpnews.com/comic/brent/01/)

Been around a while, but still cracks me up :P

[Jason McMaster]

the 1 hour "refined Everquest" qualification. Excellent.
I watched the first two minutes of The Lord of the Rings last night, and clearly it's just a refined Krull.

Hey boys, you're allowed to like the game without my opinion having squat to do with it, y'know?

I'm tired of games that revolve around simply pushing buttons to have things fall down dead, no matter how well that game may do the button pushing part. If there's a real purpose to other stuff besides having things fall down dead, great! However, I sure as hell don't see any counter arguments such as "Actually, you could choose to eschew the combat oriented lifestyle altogether and set up a farm in the rolling plains of Azeroth wherein you could grow wheat which is necessary for supplying the military machine, all the while idling your days away fishing at the local watering hole and occasionally dabbling in local politics."

So inasmuch as it seems to be primarily focused on combat and a revolving loop wherein you kill/quest/run through dungeons in order to become more adept at combat, that's a refined EQ to me, sorry. Nobody's really forcing you to agree, but the fundamental gameplay was still "Find something, make it dead, find something again, make it dead again." Compared to what I've been playing recently, there's a real difference in what you can do from the get-go.

It's not a fucking religion, y'know? It's a really slick game. It just may not work so well for me. If you're interested in pointing out the ways in which it might work better for me, I'm all ears. If you want to make sure your virtual ego is, however, protected from the ignoble slings and arrows of folks who might not be as gung-ho about your game as you are, please, carry on!

I'm just saying that maybe you should play it for more than a hour before dismissing it. And no, it's not ATITD. The quests get more interesting as the game progresses. Sure, it's mostly combat but it's not everquest. The game that's more focused on the ever and not so much the quest.

[mouselock]

I'm just saying that maybe you should play it for more than a hour before dismissing it. And no, it's not ATITD. The quests get more interesting as the game progresses. Sure, it's mostly combat but it's not everquest. The game that's more focused on the ever and not so much the quest.

It's still a quantitative rather than qualitative difference in my book. It's an "amount of polish" issue, rather than a "oh, looky, this is new". I'd actually classify it as more like DAoC than EQ, but I don't think anyone is arguing that DAoC and EQ aren't in the same mold, as is WoW.

Since I'm not likely to get there in the stress test, how do the quests get more interesting? Do they just tend to lead you through different places/activities, or is there some new quest idea other than the fed-ex/kill/visit location base concept? (I have trouble figuring out how any quests couldn't be broken down into the above parts, frankly, though I guess if they're put together cleverly enough it could feel different.)

Oh, and why is "refined everquest" necessarily a dismissal? Everquest was and is a very good game. They've made mistakes, and people are surely going to tire of it, but in my mind "refined EQ" is pretty high praise, because EQ got a whole boatload of things right for a very long time, making it an incredibly solid base to start from.

[Erik Andersson]

It's still a quantitative rather than qualitative difference in my book. It's an "amount of polish" issue, rather than a "oh, looky, this is new".
Polish and refinement are qualitative differences to me. You don't seem to be interested in quantity or quality, you just want something different.

[Kunikos]

Um... Best MMORPG ... EVAR...

I played all Friday and stayed up all night and into the next day playing this game. I went from level 2 human warrior (the aforementioned Grannie) all the way up to level 15 (where I was grouped with a level 15 gnome rogue and a level 17 human priest and we were beating down ogres east of the Loch-- where incidentally there are very nessie looking dinosaurs in who will bite your ass in half if you get too close).

http://img89.exs.cx/img89/1089/most-respected-thinker.gif

[Kunikos]

http://img85.exs.cx/img85/2369/WoWScrnShot_090404_072140.jpg

Grannie stands over the naughty dwarves who wouldn't use their indoor voices.

[TrodKnee]

I still don't understand how they can create such a deep, beautiful world so full of environmental content yet have so very little in the way of character customization. There is less than 10 different classes (compare to 30+ in DAoC) and they offer no variety between two members of the same class. I understand there are 'skills' and 'talents', but I shouldn't have to wait unil high level before earning the possibility to slightly vary my character. I still don't think you will find much difference at all between two high level characters of the same class. You don't raise your own attribute points, there is no branching or pathing of skills/spells, and since the only cost for class skills/spells is cash every character of the same class will have all the same abilities. And the skills/spells themselves are quite bland, for example mages get about 10 different types of fire damage spells with minimal variety.

Very pretty, very vapid. The only way I see myself playing this game is possibly because my favorite guild (ShadowClan) will be there...it will take some good roleplaying to distract me from how shallow the game is.

[olaf]

I still don't understand how they can create such a deep, beautiful world so full of environmental content yet have so very little in the way of character customization. There is less than 10 different classes (compare to 30+ in DAoC) and they offer no variety between two members of the same class. I understand there are 'skills' and 'talents', but I shouldn't have to wait unil high level before earning the possibility to slightly vary my character. I still don't think you will find much difference at all between two high level characters of the same class. You don't raise your own attribute points, there is no branching or pathing of skills/spells, and since the only cost for class skills/spells is cash every character of the same class will have all the same abilities. And the skills/spells themselves are quite bland, for example mages get about 10 different types of fire damage spells with minimal variety.

Very pretty, very vapid. The only way I see myself playing this game is possibly because my favorite guild (ShadowClan) will be there...it will take some good roleplaying to distract me from how shallow the game is.
Well less classes means, at least in theory, better balance. Not that the classes are at all balanced right now, but I think its obviously a lot easier to balance 8-10 classes vs 20+

The talents, at least on paper, do provide a lot of room to customize characters within classes. They used to start at level 2 also, which isnt very long to have to wait to get started on them. Now they start at 10, which in WoW still isnt that far off. Probably 10-24 hours of playing time for 90% of players.

The problem with talents now is that if you are building your character for a specific role, say the role that is intended for the class in a group setting (ie. tank for warrior, healer for priest, DPS for rogue, etc.) then there really is only one 'right' path to go talent wise. This needs to change.

I dont like that the took away being able to boost your own stats, choosing which ones to raise. They need to add that back in, with more variety. They probably took it out because most people were maxing all the relevant stats anyway.

Finally, I am surprised at the almost complete lack of cosmetic character customization. They need to add dyes and shit like that into the game.

olaf

[Kunikos]

I still don't understand how they can create such a deep, beautiful world so full of environmental content yet have so very little in the way of character customization. There is less than 10 different classes (compare to 30+ in DAoC) and they offer no variety between two members of the same class.

You know, many of those "30+" are really just minor differences from each other (ie different names for the class, skills, and varying effects). Also, historically DAOC hasn't had quite that many, since each expansion has added two per realm.

[Kunikos]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

http://www.readthequestlog.com/

[Poops McGee]

Haha....RTFQL!

[Kunikos]

http://img88.exs.cx/img88/9456/WoWScrnShot_090404_221857.jpg

Ancient Protectors are cool. They so beeeg.

[olaf]

The beta server has been taking a shit all day today. I am saddened. Holiday. Lots of booze. Lots of time. No WoW. :(

olaf

[Kunikos]

What server are you on olaf?
Come into chat if you are bored!

[olaf]

What chat? I am on the beta server. Not the PvP or the stress test ones.

olaf

[mlatin]

i'm rather enjoying the game, thus far. i catassed it last night and did 1-11 in essentially one session. it's given me the perspective that, up til about level 10 or so, you can solo pretty easily. beyond that, your pace is going to be really slow going if you solo. with groups, it's not so bad post-10.

i had some concerns about the game; i always like to try before i buy.. and, fortunately, the experience with playing even this short stress test beta has been a pretty good one so far. this may be the game for me that finally breaks me away from asheron's call 1 (sorry turbine).

edit: lvl 11 human warrior breastess on Ysera, named Yelena.

[olaf]

i'm rather enjoying the game, thus far. i catassed it last night and did 1-11 in essentially one session. it's given me the perspective that, up til about level 10 or so, you can solo pretty easily. beyond that, your pace is going to be really slow going if you solo. with groups, it's not so bad post-10.

i had some concerns about the game; i always like to try before i buy.. and, fortunately, the experience with playing even this short stress test beta has been a pretty good one so far. this may be the game for me that finally breaks me away from asheron's call 1 (sorry turbine).
Soloing really depends on your class, financial status (in-game) and knowledge of the game and its mechanics. I think any WoW vet could solo to 50 easily with any class. But, certain classes are a lot easier than others to get good xp with.

edit: Not to sound elitist but, for example Mages solo great. Warriors do too, but it takes cash as they are more gear dependent than some classes.

[TheWombat]

Keep in mind that racial traits and differences are not in yet, really, and neither are race-specific spells/abilities, so that's one area where differentiation will (supposedly) emerge by the time the game goes retail.

One of the main reasons, though, why WoW classes are all fairly similar is that everyone has to be able to solo. That's the theory behind the game, in many respects. That, and the desire of Blizzard to avoid like the plague what they see as overly-static combat dynamics of the typical MMO, where you mez everything, and pull one mob at a time, and where everyone has one defined role to play. While there's some of that in the game (warriors are expected to tank, mages are expected to do damage from afar, etc.) everyone is expected to mix it up, thus you have healers with good damage abilities, warriors with area of effect attacks, several jack of all trades classes, etc.

So you won't be getting the uber-specialized classes of EQ or DAOC where you have one job and that's it. The Blizzard take on combat is more chaotic and less planned, with everyone running around and fighting more or less, so every class has to have a degree of self sufficiency.

That, and PvP balance. While still a work in progress (majorly) PvP makes balancing classes a nightmare.

[Ben Sones]

i'm rather enjoying the game, thus far. i catassed it last night and did 1-11 in essentially one session. it's given me the perspective that, up til about level 10 or so, you can solo pretty easily. beyond that, your pace is going to be really slow going if you solo. with groups, it's not so bad post-10.

You'd be surprised. The Talent system also allows you to make your character more or less suited to soloing. I'm playing a mage specializing in Frost Talents, and I can solo very well, even at 17th level. All the classes solo well compared to other MMORPGs, but some are better than others. Warlocks are a great solo class, for instance.


I like the whole crafting thing, running around, searching for good resources, building things that are of importance to the game (as well as other people). I wish the actual crafting portion (as well as the combat of this and every game) had a bit more of an in-depth feel, but it's a fine line to make complex interaction without it becoming twitch.

I'm glad that it doesn't, actually. WoW puts the crafting emphasis where it belongs--on gathering resources, primarily (which in turn requires that you go out and explore). Feeding your skills with the required resources is the big limiting factor in WoW's crafting system. What it doesn't do (thankfully) is force you to sit around for hours on end hitting the craft button. Item crafting is fast and never fails, provided that you have the resources you need. It's the first crafting system in a MMORPG that I've ever enjoyed using.


I've really been sucked into SWG (after a friend talked me into trying despite having zero interest in the game) because it really feels like there's something to do other than whack shit to make it dead.

My problem with SWG is that while it gives you all sorts of non-combat stuff to do, none of it is even remotely entertaining. WoW has a narrower focus, certainly, but it's a far more successful design because I enjoy all the activities that it offers. Games like Galaxies make me feel like I'm playing through the boring parts to reach the good part that never seems to come. I like the idea of having more stuff to do in theory, but I'll take a game that does less but does it better in practice.

Re: "refined EverQuest": yeah, basically that's what it is. Although it's a very refined EverQuest--sort of in the same way that Half-Life was a refined DOOM.

[Poops McGee]

I'm havin' a blast with it. They've done a great job with always having a carrot just out of reach, be it a new skill or a new item or a quest you've almost finished. I haven't played an MMORPG for such long periods of time at once since EQs early days. It's like crack coke-aiyeen.

Oh, and big ups to games with underwater content.

Treefoot, 15 Tauren Hunter, Tich-something or other server

[TriggerHappy]

Are you guys getting in for the stress test? I downloaded the client and got a key, but no account activation e-mail or anything.

[Edit : Nevermind, Fileplanet never sent me the follow up E-mail, but I found the page.]

[HRose]

I agree with Ben Sones comments. WoW is an excellent game even if with a narrow ambition.

What I criticized and still is felt as a major issue is about the massive aspect. WoW is mostly a single player/cooperative game that gives you a lot of immersion within the world only thanks to a wonderful work with the landscape. But it does very little, then, to offer gameplay that is "something else" than just whack-a-monster. The interaction with the environment is close to zero.

This is why I hope (with zero faith) that Blizzard will pour some ambition, in particular after release, into the "endgame". For example implementing a good PvP system. Because even if I love the treadmill I still consider it just a treadmill and I absolutely need a reason and a purpose to go on. I want the war to become real and I want something to fight for that is different from reaching the next level, getting better loot and gaining a new skill.

What I fear, and I'm writing about this everywhere, is that WoW will die at this point. They probably won't expand it. Instead they'll probably choose a "flat" development where they'll add more quests, loot, zones, monsters and then rise the level cap to excuse this process. All this is "flat development" because the old content will be simply cannibalized by "new shinies" and the actual depth of the gameplay will never develop. Exactly what "kills" the whole potential of the genre.

Instead I agree with the crafting system. Also for me this is the first time I'm playing with it and simply because they fixed the obvious.

Other (stupid) games like DAoC "had" to limit the possibility to achieve everything and to do so they simply choosed the stupidest, easiest solution possible: turn everything into a timesink that only a few players will endure.

This happened with the whole crafting system that is just a time/money sink with ZERO gameplay to offer and with the artifacts that, again, just require timesinks. Everything in the game is designed only from this perspective. Recently they tried to fix the "death rush" in the PvP and they simply added a second res sickness that creates another timesink. They tried to fix the population unbalance and, again, added insane timesinks in the keep upgrades. And the whole "free level each week" is exactly another solution "time based" where they basically say:
"Sorry, we are unable to make your game fun, so we give you free levels"

They move between "we need to slow you down so we add a timesink" and its obvious consequence "the game is too slow, so we cut down the time". Schizophrenic in the incapacity to offer a game.

WoW, instead, only has parts of the games where it can offer you gameplay. The crafting *is* gameplay, it isn't a loss of time. Instead of creating a hole for the incompetence of the design they, at least, tried to fill the hole with a gameplay that becomes fun.

As I said my expectations for the genre are set *extremely low*. This is why I love the game even with its narrow ambition and gameplay. But considering the stupid mistakes that are part of the genre, WoW is "teaching" really obvious but crucial lessons.

Should I remember that SWG launched being broken *in every single part* and, after a year, is still broken from the ground up?

WoW isn't even on the market and can please or not. But it works and delivers exactly what it promised. Peoples are talking and commenting the game instead of ranting about lag, server and client crashes and broken systems.

The stress test is definitely a big success from this perspective.

[mouselock]

.

I've really been sucked into SWG (after a friend talked me into trying despite having zero interest in the game) because it really feels like there's something to do other than whack shit to make it dead.

My problem with SWG is that while it gives you all sorts of non-combat stuff to do, none of it is even remotely entertaining. WoW has a narrower focus, certainly, but it's a far more successful design because I enjoy all the activities that it offers. Games like Galaxies make me feel like I'm playing through the boring parts to reach the good part that never seems to come. I like the idea of having more stuff to do in theory, but I'll take a game that does less but does it better in practice.

Depends on what you're into. Right now the stuff that interests me in SWG isn't so much the "Playing the game as the game is" but the "Playing the meta-game". What do I craft in order to make money given the choices I've made. What kind of other cool stuff can you do (for instance, apparently one thing architects do completely outside the realm of making relatively straightforward structures is build really complex buildings using what's in the game). There's some cool stuff out there. Likewise I've seen some really nicely set up interiors. Now, I understand many folks may not be all that interested in effectively an MMO Interior Decorating game, but to me it's the breadth of choices available, after doing the EQ thing for so long, that's interesting. Chances are if I want to play I can log in and do something that's interesting. If I don't want to do combat, I'm still okay. That's not the case in EQ, DAoC, CoH, and still from what I've seen isn't the case in WoW. (Then again, I'm decidedly not into the "accomplishment through building up one's character" power/reward structure, which makes many of these games hard. I'm a socializer/explorer, and WoW seems more to be Achiever based in it's design grounding.)

Does look very slick though. Dated yet beautiful.

[Aszurom]

Personally, I don't think PVP would be too hard to implement. Orcs, trolls, undead vs humans, elves, dwarves. Ready, fight! Just toss up a server with that config and the PVP junkies are happy. This wouldn't be brain surgery or anything.

[TrodKnee]

The PvP junkies want Free For All, nothing less makes them(us) happy. That's all.

The PvP 'lite' players (such as DaoC regular server types) are happy enough with Horde vs. Alliance...as long as they don't get smeared because of imbalances in the system. Every class needs to be viable in PvP, one side can't overwhelm the other(Alliance is sure to be much more popular than Horde), players need to be able to level up and shop in relative peace, death penalties can't be too harsh, the ability to grief needs to be kept in strict check, etc. and so on.

The 'lite' PvPers outnumber the hardcore types by a large margin, and they are much more difficult to please.

[Matthew Gallant]

The beta has a Horde vs. Alliance PvP server.

[Ben Sones]

It does. I play on it. Down with the Horde!

[DrDel]

it is Monday Sept 6th and I was just on a WoW server... they closed down all stress test beta servers.. the stress test is over! *wah!*

[Kunikos]

Now, I understand many folks may not be all that interested in effectively an MMO Interior Decorating game, but to me it's the breadth of choices available, after doing the EQ thing for so long, that's interesting.

Mouselock wants to be in Queer Eye for the Geek Guy.
:lol: :lol:

[MRUS]

it is Monday Sept 6th and I was just on a WoW server... they closed down all stress test beta servers.. the stress test is over! *wah!*


What have you been smoking? :lol: They took down half the stress servers to pin point some problems. I just logged out too, so I don't think they are done yet.

[TrodKnee]

Well I just spent over 4 hours trying to level from 8-10 doing quests in the snowy areas around Ironforge. That was some of the worst grind I have ever experienced in a MMORPG. Do I remember correctly that people in the early beta were talking about how much better leveling is in WoW than in other games? The quests stunk, there weren't enough of the required 'kill X number of Y" monsters around for the small handful of people in the area. Other quests were way too difficult for their level, with lots of high aggro mobs around to make things really dangerous. When I did die, the travel time to recover my corpse was way too long and frustrating. Combine that with the constant travel searching for the right monster to hack and you get alot of irritated aggrivation. Something must be outta wack here...I can't believe people say that WoW is so much better than EQ when from what I can tell there is even more of a grind, and things can only get worse as you get higher level.

[Equis]

Don't think I've seen it anywhere else in the forums, but can any of you lucky bastards in the Beta lists down the things you can do in "WoW"

Like quest variety and so forth.

Unless, of course, you guys had to agree to an NDA or something.

[Matthew Gallant]

TrodKnee, think you might have missed some quests or something. You never really have to grind in WoW, there always should be a quest for you to do. It can get a wee bit lean quest-wise around level 30, but not at 8. Try exploring a little more where possible and look for some quests. You probably should have a quest by now to fly to Stormwind; there will be a lot more quests there and in the countryside surrounding it.

Equis, there are your garden variety quests to deliver things, collect x amount of beast guts, or kill x number of centaur cheerleaders. But there are also quests like getting a 10 of one kind of fish, which is easy if you're a fisher and a little more time consuming if you're not. There's a quest like that that's easier if you're a miner too.

There's a quest for taurens where you have to basically drink a hallucinogen and follow the pink elephant (it's actually a ghostly wolf). An escort quest, essentially, and there are a few other escort quests that involve leading a prisoner out of a keep or riding (well, walking) shotgun for a caravan. At least these escort quests the attackers mostly attack you and your escortee can usually fight (the ghost wolf couldn't)

One quest I did just today was called Test of Faith; when I accepted it, I got teleported to a really high mesa and I was supposed to just walk off a plank there. So I did, and right before I hit the ground I was teleported back to the cave where I found the quest. That was the easiest one so far, and also pretty different from the norm.

[Poops McGee]

Do any of you guys playing know if hunters can tame named beasties? I just though of this last night, but my server was down so I couldn't test it out. Thinking of going back to my starter area and trying to tame one of the named beasties there.

[TrodKnee]

You never really have to grind in WoW, there always should be a quest for you to do.
I don't think you understand...the quests were the grind. I will admit having 2 quests that were kinda cool. One was distracting a guard and switching a keg, that was interesting. The other was one I got from the very top of a mountain (I did plenty of exploring) in which I had to get past this Yeti creature and grab this guys stuff. That was cool only because it gave me a perfect use for my new polymorph spell.

The other quests were all fed ex or 'kill X number of Y monsters'. These either had too few monsters for the few people doing the quests, which meant alot of running around looking for the right monster; or the monsters were in a dangerous location with lots of high aggro range buddies to help them out, which meant more than a few deaths and lots more travel time. So instead of spending alot of time in one place killing the same monsters over and over, in WoW travel time is the grind.

I guess if there really are tons of quests available, then I could discard the bad ones and only do the good ones. But I explored all the areas around Ironforge, so then I need to travel all around the world only doing the cool quests? Sounds like that requires some offline research in order to avoid the in-game grind.

[saebriel]

Head East towards Loch Modan if you're still in Dun Morogh. Did you do the "Leper Gnome" quest from the gnome near Kharanos and the Brewnall quests, etc? Usually the quests + killing should get you closer to 10 than not but some people get lucky and finish early (usually around 8-9). At that point, you go over to the next area, which in your case should be Loch Modan. (Humans go to Westfall, Night Elves to Darkshore / Auberdine) I recommend you pick a partner and take on those quests (in LM). GL :)

Jena

[mouselock]

Now, I understand many folks may not be all that interested in effectively an MMO Interior Decorating game, but to me it's the breadth of choices available, after doing the EQ thing for so long, that's interesting.

Mouselock wants to be in Queer Eye for the Geek Guy.
:lol: :lol:

Hey. nobody was more surprised than I to see my wookie's latent interior decorator tendencies surface. Now the trick is to find someone to sell me a lavender bandolier!

And pretty pink ribbons with which to braid my fur!

[Guido Jones]

You know, many of those "30+" are really just minor differences from each other (ie different names for the class, skills, and varying effects). Also, historically DAOC hasn't had quite that many, since each expansion has added two per realm.

Sure this has already been covered, but there's only been one expansion that's added classes so far (Shrouded Isles). Also, while some classes may look similar from the outside (The duel wielding class!) the mechanics for the classes actually differ a lot between realms.

[Uncle Larry]

Am I not supposed to be digging this game? Because I can't stop playing it :?

[mlatin]

i dig it. i'd play more if i knew it wasn't going bye-bye very soon. after catassing the first 10 levels or so, i began playing at a slower pace, doing a lot more exploring, trying out different tradeskills and such, and have made it to level 16 with ease. i really like it a lot. :)

i guess my only complaint would be finding people to group with. i definately intend on getting involved with a guild if/when i play after things go retail, and maybe it'll be easier to just get a little group action going when things aren't so rushed like they are now.

[EFlannum]

WoW used to be a much much more enjoyable game. I think when you heard that levelling was different and wasn't a grind people were referring to the old WoW. Characters used to be able to take on multiple monsters their level and emerge unscathed, while it wasn't like CoH you felt very powerful with almost any class. Combat was fast and fun. Leveling was very quick. Then a bunch of people began to complain that the game wasn't "hard" enough, Blizzard had a few personell changes and the game steadily got more difficult, more grindy, and more equipment dependent. While I still think its a good game, when I started in Alpha I thought it was the greatest game ever. Blizzard made a choice to cater more to the eq power gamers and I hope it doesn't backfire on them because for a while they had a game that was totally appealing to casual gamers.

[NI]

WoW used to be a much much more enjoyable game.
Great quote for a game that's not even out yet!

[DrDel]

I have 3 lvl 11-13 characters.. I keep rerolling my characters because I find the grind starts around lvl 11 and I really start to lose interest...

[Kunikos]

Dunno. I'm around level 16 right now. It is kinda grindish unless you group, then it's fun because your downtime is so short so you feel like you're just messin up groups of mobs left and right. I like to take on the Elite quests with groups, such as the Mo'grosh Ogre Mercenary camp.