To all of you who are getting all hot in the pants at the prospect of the new World of Warcraft expansion, you're in luck. Blizzard announced on Thursday that invites for the "Wrath of the Lich King" beta were being sent out, and the servers prepped for the onslaught of people wanting to appease their addiction. From what we've heard the invites are being sent out randomly, but I'm guessing a handful of guilds are getting in on the action.
Now, I just have to ask. Why the fuck would someone want to participate in a beta for an MMO? We all know that beta characters get wiped, items get taken away, and like the slutty girl in high school, you're ultimately tossed aside for something better. I realize that there is a ton of testing that needs to get done, but I don't understand why people would want to sacrifice so much of their time into something that will net them absolutely nothing but veiny e-peen.
I'm sure all the WoW players reading this right now are foaming at the mouth and screaming "WHAT ABouT KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT TO DO WHEN THE RETAIL VERSION COMES OUT!?!" Yeah, you could offer that as an incentive to bust your ass in the beta, but doesn't that ultimately ruin the experience when it does hit shelves? I knew a couple of people that spent nearly 100 hours testing out "The Burning Crusade" expansion, and every single one of them came to regret it. It made playing the retail version almost seem like a chore, and it only took about two weeks for them to uninstall the game, and post in the forums how they uninstalled the game. Sure, they came back about a week later after realizing real life fucken sucks, but still, it made their expansion experience pretty horrible.
While I commend the people that do actually go into the beta to find bugs, I also realize that there is only about 5% of the player population that really give a fuck about that. Most people that play WOW are more concerned with their personal player growth, and will just use the beta to ensure some advantage when it launches. If WoW wasn't such a pissing contest of retarded proportions I would totally condone beta participation, but we all know exactly how this is going to end. The intensely hardcore players are going to study the thing inside out, level to 80 in about 11 hours, and then cry like babies about how Blizzard has shitty content. It happens every single time, and it will happen again.
Kim Fidler
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I completely understand that notion. Repeating your steps is the basis of playing WoW, and while it can be superficially addictive, it gets old fast.
Beta-playing a new expansion when you know you'll have to do the same thing over for your main character doesn't sound like fun to me - not for WoW or WAR or any other MMO I can think of.
The element of discovery in these games is really one of the highest aspects of these games to me - it's what keeps things fresh enough to continue wanting to play.
I signed up for beta. I know my character will get wiped anyway, but I don't care. I don't play just to have a high level character, I play to enjoy the game. People think it's weird, but I enjoy experience grinding. I don't look at it as an obstacle towards getting high level, I look at it as playing the game. This might be why I only have one level 70 character after playing WoW since release... I constantly roll new characters.
Mmmmm, I never looked at Lich King Beta like that. I was interested in the beta but now maybe I won't try it.
I remember how happy I was when I got into the first WoW beta. It was so fun. And the second I had to start paying for it...yeah..fuck that. Same with 90% of MMORPGs, I don't think any game is good enough to pay over a hundred bucks a year to play.
@-PL-: Wow, that's not something I'd expect to hear!
I'm curious, as a person that enjoys grinding, why only one 70? I'd expect you to go ahead and continue grinding all the way back up!
I *hated* grinding and I had 2 70s, 3 almost there (didn't have the willpower to finish the couple days left for each), and there had to be something like ~10 level 13-40 characters across 3 servers.
Completing the starting zones twice really made it impossibly hard for me to do so again. All enjoyment was sapped away for me and I could barely bring myself to grind/level a character when all I wanted was the experience of a higher level class.
There's so many grinding-based objectives, even after reaching 70, that I just couldn't take it anymore.
That's just my opinion, though.
I was the same as you Arttemis. I had two level 70s, and a level 60, and it totally killed my love of the game. It's a shame because I think WoW is a great game, but it really gets ruined by the way people play it.
I think that's why there is so much excitement around the prospect of getting another Diablo. A great online game, that doesn't require the amount of effort that WoW does, and is much easier to pick up and play.
For now, I'll probably rely on "Too Human," when it comes out next month to get my "PH4T L3WTZ."
I'm here to spread the great word of Warhammer. If you're into PvP that is. =)
WoW is like heroin minus the positive side effects.
The main reason I only had one 70 is because it was a priest, and people persuaded me to keep logging on to help with quests/instances/BG/etc. My priest was actually holy spec from 1-60, I rarely soloed with that character. All of the levels were from running instances. When BC came out I specced shadow and soloed from 60-70.
I don't push my characters to 70 because I don't make getting to level 70 as a goal. My goal is to log on, play, and have fun doing it. I can easily do this in a beta test, or live retail. I create a lot of characters, and I have friends on four different servers, so my leveling is pretty spread out. You might be surprised at how fun an MMO can become when you just play it for the game, rather than as a means to an end (hitting level cap).
Not trying to sound like I'm on a self-righteous high horse, just debunking a common misconception of MMO's. It is a social experience accompanied with a game. Playing it like it's a job defeats the whole purpose of playing a game.
@-PL- : That's one way to look at it, but it's definitely not a universal solution. The mechanics of most MMOs simply aren't nearly deep enough for me to "just play it for the game."
Reaching the level cap was never the objective - even though having access to all the talent points to fully enjoy the class is pretty important to me.
Instead, I wanted access to all the dungeons at end game. There's far more content for level 70s (or at least 60-70) than all of 1-60.
The biggest reason people are hooked on the game, I think, is because of the seemingly endless pursuit of gear (while in a social atmosphere). That can't really happen until you even get level 70 --- at which point, there can be a bigger disparity between a 70 blue and 70 purple item than there is between a 20 green and a 30 purple item.
The mechanics just don't lend themselves well enough for me to enjoy it as-it-is without considering the goal of getting new gear. The social experience doesn't change that either...
Which is most likely why I'm so fucking excited for Diablo 3! Still with the social experience, still with the nearly endless pursuit of gear, but with (in my opinion) genuinely fun gameplay mechanics to go with it!
"Sure, they came back about a week later after realizing real THEIR life fucken sucks, but still, it made their expansion experience pretty horrible."
fixed
/fail.
supposed to be their real life fucken sucks.
btw, I don't play wow.
Giraffywaffy: Actually looking at that now, I should definitely change that. THEIR lives DO fucken suck.
I've managed to resist the lure of WoW for this long, I think I can hold out. I've been incredibly curious, especially since getting a newer computer that can actually handle it, but the horror stories scare me away.