World of WarCraft (New WoW movies!)

[Nevlonniel]

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/)

(Yes… I’m extremely crazy & horribly addicted…)

>>> Wanna see some WoW movies? Well, look no further than WarCraft Movies (http://www.warcraftmovies.com)! If it's been captured ingame, it's more than likely here! <<<

A few good movies by those crazy yet well organized Sturmgenadierians (http://www.sghq.com/wow/)!
Gnome Vasion 2 (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=417)
Dembones (http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=613)

A WoW Movie (http://www.grimmshadow.net/swf/zasz/WoWSkindredNobody.wmv) to wet your appetites!
(Thanks for sharing your findings with us, Zasz)

View the World of WarCraft Trailer (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/trailer/)!

Here are some WoW comics to tickle yer funny bone:
Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth (http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/578/578734p1.html)
Hereos of WoW (http://www.worldofwar.net/comics/heroesofwow/)
The Story of Trojand the Brave (http://www.actiontrip.com/comics/thestoryoftrojandthebrave.phtml?pic=1)
Angst Tchnology (http://www.inktank.com/): #1 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/08-27-03.gif), #2 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/03-31-04.gif), #3 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/09-03-04.gif), #4 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/10-18-04.gif), #5 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-05-04.gif), #6 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-12-04.gif), #7 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-24-04.gif), #8 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/11-26-04.gif), #9 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/12-01-04.gif), #10 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-04-05.gif), #11 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-21-05.gif), #12 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-22-05.gif), #13 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-23-05.gif), #14 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-24-05.gif), #15 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/02-25-05.gif), #16 (http://www.inktank.com/images/AT/cartoons/03-02-05.gif)
VG Cats (http://www.vgcats.com): #1 (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=134), #2 (http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=135)
GU Comics (http://www.gucomics.com/): #1 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030331), #2 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030402), #3 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030404), #4 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030411), #5 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030429), #6 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030508), #7 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030513), #8 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030612), #9 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030624), #10 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030814), #11 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030828), #12 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20030923), #13 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031016), #14 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031120), #15 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031209), #16 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20031225), #17 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040108), #18 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040127), #19 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040128), #20 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040217), #21 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040304), #22 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040322), #23 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040325), #24 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040331), #25 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040402), #26 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040406), #27 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040409), #28 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040415), #29 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040419), #30 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040423), #31 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040426), #32 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040429), #33 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040430), #34 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040503), #35 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040507), #36 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040519), #37 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040525), #38 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040608), #39 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040615), #40 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040624), #41 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040625), #42 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040630), #43 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040708), #44 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040714), #45 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040716), #46 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040726), #47 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040816), #48 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040819), #49 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20040824), #50 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041018), #51 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041027), #52 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041029), #53 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041110), #54 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041118), #55 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041124), #56 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041125), #57 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041201), #58 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041203), #59 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041206), #60 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041213), #61 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041223), #62 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050105), #63 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050111), #64 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050113), #65 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050118), #66 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050126), #67 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050131), #68 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050208), #69 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050221), #70 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050228), #71 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050304), #72 (http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20050309)

A funny live-action movie concerning Loot Lag (http://www.accesswave.ca/~rclancey/wow-lootlag.gif).

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Now that the Open Beta (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37213) is over, the Wolrd of WarCraft is ripe for the picking!

So far these are the people from the boards that have purchased the game and have handed their minds & souls over to WoW:

player name:
realm (type) [time zone]; name, sex race class


US SERVERS + Australia & New Zealand

Rie (me):
Aggramar (Normal) [Central]; Brielle, female Dwarf Paladin
Bronzebeard (Normal) [Pacific]; Tinuviel, female Night Elf Druid
Durotan (Normal) [Eastern]; Azure, female Troll Hunter
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; Nevlonniel, female Night Elf Hunter
Frostwolf (PvP) [Pacific]; Melienne, female Night Elf Druid
Hyjal (Normal) [Pacific]; Selarra, female Undead Warrior
Icecrown (Normal) [Mountain]; Sonja, female Tauren Druid
Kel'Thuzal (PvP) [Mountain]; Amariel, female Night Elf Hunter
Mal'Ganis (PvP) [Central]; Morva, female Tauren Hunter
Shadowsong (Normal) [Pacific]; Jancy, female Gnome Rogue
Terenas (Normal) [Mountain]; Luthiane, female Human Warlock
Thunderhorn (Normal) [Central]; Gorvana, female Orc Shaman

Joe:
Aggramar (Normal) [Central]; Groyn, male Dwarf Hunter
Bronzebeard (Normal) [Pacific]; Gandelf, male Night Elf Druid
Durotan (Normal) [Eastern]; Xyzzy, male Troll Priest
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; Legolamb, male Night Elf Rogue
Hyjal (Normal) [Pacific]; Murray, male Undead Mage
Icecrown (Normal) [Mountain]; Longhorn, male Tauren Shaman
Shadowsong (Normal) [Pacific]; Lonn, male Gnome Warlock
Terenas (Normal) [Mountain]; Beren, male Human Paladin
Thunderhorn (Normal) [Central]; Grimmlok, male Orc Warrior

Viscera:
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]: Azshalle, female Night Elf Druid
Kel'Thuzal (PvP) [Mounatin]; Baudihillie, female Human Paladin
Mal'Ganis (PvP) [Central]; Elerogrond, male Undead Mage

Tondry:
Archimonde (PvP) [Central]; Banhammer, male Dwarf Paladin
Dethecus (PvP) [Pacific]; Fellhoof, male Tauren Warrior
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; name, male Night Elf Rogue

Khendon:
Dalaran (Normal) [Eastern]; Vargthia, Dwarf Paladin

Dyzm:
Bronzebeard (Normal) [Pacific]; Xhan, male Human Paladin
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; Minimage, male Gnome Mage
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; Zakatiel, Human male Paladin
Hyjal (Normal) [Pacific]; Vardlokkur, male Undead Warlock
Mal'Ganis (PvP) [Central]; name, male Troll Warrior
Shadowsong (Normal) [Pacific]; Hward, male Dwarf Hunter

Zasz:
Azjol-Nerub (Normal) [time zone]; Nuitari, male Human Mage
Azjol-Nerub (Normal) [time zone]; Ayresaelian, male Night Elf Warrior

Figrin:
Doomhammer (Normal) [time zone]; Dergan, male Dwarf Paladin
Doomhammer (Normal) [time zone]; Ruhntar, male Tauren Druid

Silus:
Kilrogg (Normal) [time zone]; Kirrah, sex Human Paladin
Kilrogg (Normal) [time zone]; Kaiya, sex Night Elf Druid

Firebird1:
Malygos (Normal) [time zone]; Drik, sex race Paldadin
Malygos (Normal) [time zone]; Radghast, sex race Mage

10 DAY FREE TRIAL (US servers)

Shawn:
{trial started on 3/13/2005; ends 3/23/2005}
Elune (Normal) [Eastern]; Nupraptor, male Night Elf Druid

EU SERVERS + Great Britain

Peter McCoy:
Thunderhorn (Normal) [England]; Hengist, male Dwarven Warrior.
Thunderhorn (Normal) [England]; PaiMei, male Gnome Mage.
Thunderhorn (Normal) [England]; Calcazar, male Human Mage

(If anyone else is planning on buying the retail, please post here so that I may add you to the list. This will allow me to place a list of the players, their character names, and what server we will be playing on so that others may join us.)

WoW Realm Forums (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/realmforums.shtml) & Realm Status (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/serverstatus/).

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Helpful links:

World of WarCraft (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/) - News items and updates for WoW can be found here at the Official Website.

WarCraft world map (http://www.blizzard.com/wow/townhall/worldmap.shtml) - This will aid you greatly in figuring out the layout of the land. Note: Only capitol cities and major towns are listed. Smaller hovels are not listed.

Unofficial WoW Database (http://www.thotbott.com/) - A collection of all sorts of information and tidbits, ranging from locating an item in-game to finding where a certain object is dropped, whether by a creep or quest.

Unofficial WoW Cartography Map (http://www.worldofwar.net/cartography/) - A collection of all regions and their respective roads, points of interests, etc.

Alliance & Horde Races (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/races/) - The Alliance has 4 races and the Horde has 4 races. Each one has their pros and cons, but in the end, each faction is evened out nicely.

Classes (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/) - Each race has four to six classes to choose from. Some races have different classes from other races.

Professions (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/) - Professions are in addition to your class. You can have up to two professions. They aid greatly in aquiring more money.

Money - 100c (copper) = 1s (silver); 100s = 1g (gold).

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And most importantly...

Lets have some fun! :D

[Darth Viscera]

Human Paladin

Why are we going to play on a pacific server? If there's any chance that Europeans (read: Yog) will be able to play on North American servers like in beta, we should pick an eastern server so that they can get a 250ms ping rather than a 550ms ping.

Also, we should consider just joining the goon guild rather than creating a swfans guild. On the one hand, if we created our own guild we would have what, 10 players max, while the goons would have 500 players on average and a vast, VAST player infrastructure as with the goons on Lowca in SWG. I mean, we already went through the experience of having a very small guild in Star Wars Galaxies. We should do it right this time and join the goons from the outset. Also, goons can sponsor a non-goon for membership into the goon guild.

[Nevlonniel]

I guess I wouldn't have any problem joining an eastern server. Just means when I get on in the evenings, less ppl on those servers. :D

As for the goon guild... who and what are they?

Personally I'd rather start our own guild so we have control over it AND we know the ppl in the guild. I've always wanted to be in charge or semi-in charge of a guild. I figured I'd do it with WoW.

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Nevlonniel
As for the goon guild... who and what are they?

Personally I'd rather start our own guild so we have control over it AND we know the ppl in the guild. I've always wanted to be in charge or semi-in charge of a guild. I figured I'd do it with WoW.

Goon Squad is a cult which formed in the early 1980's in order to combat the evils of what was then referred to as japanimation as well as to protest the massive use of high fructose corn syrup in North America. In SWG, the goon guild on Lowca was the most organized, experienced, largest guild across all the servers, even receiving a TIE Fighter for having won that treasure hunt thingy. They had like 500 members. Their weaponsmith was the weaponsmith correspondent.

Having control over a guild that has a few people that you know really well isn't all it's cracked up to be in my experience. Better to be part of something much larger, with experienced people on at all hours of the day, and a much bigger sense of community. Plus, goons give each other goon discounts and had a topless vendor. Beat that, hotshot :p

edit~2,385 people in goon squad now. Guess my 500 estimate was a bit off.

[Nevlonniel]

Well, um ,I don't need the topless vendor to get my groove on. But the discounts do enough to turn me on.

So... we can go ahead and be goons then. So long as they're nice to me. :p

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News flash for you WoW players/fans/addicts... Guess where Joe and I are gonna be at midnight PST tonight? We're gonna be at the World of Warcraft Midnight Store Signing! (Yay! Me no get sleep tonight! Yay!)


World of Warcraft Midnight Store Signing - Indoflaven on 11/19/04

The Blizzard Crew lined up to sign boxes at last year's launch of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Come meet the developers of World of Warcraft at the Fry's Electronics store in Fountain Valley, CA on Tuesday, November 23. Starting on Tuesday morning at 12:00 AM PST, Fry's Electronics will open its doors to local gamers and give them the chance to be among the first to purchase a copy of the game and meet the developers in person.

The festivities will begin at 10:30 PM on Monday night, and the line to enter the store will be cut off at 1:00 AM, so be sure to get there early. We will be raffling away Blizzard recommended NVIDIA BFG GeForce 6800 video cards and backpacks, lift tickets to Bear Mountain ski resort, as well as a complete Alienware Area 51 computer. Local radio station, KROQ, will also be there to play music at the event, and food and beverages will be available.

If you'd like to attend, please be sure to visit:


Fry's Electronics
10800 Kalama River Avenue
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
714-378-4400

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

[Pierce Tondry]

I'd go to that to win free stuff and smack some of the devs upside the head. But I suspect it's only half of what it's cracked up to be.

[Nevlonniel]

I've already got my uber copy of WoW on pre-order and should be picking it up some time tomorrow at GameStop... buuuuuuut...

I just had an idea! I'm gonna cancel my pre-order, buy the uber copy from Fry's and have the devs sign it. Might as well make the $80 worth it.

Joe's also gonna get his copy of WoW tonight, though he's just going with the plain vanella $50 one (he gave me the choice of Elf box or Orc box, and I told him to go with the Elf... come on, it's me! What didja think I'd tell him to get??)

EDIT: Slight change of plans. I keep preorder, go tp Fyr's for dev signing and get uber copy there. BUT in the event I can't get into Fry's or they run out of uber copies, I have the preorder (which I can cancel at any time, even after the game has arrived) at GameStop guaranteed for me. So I have a back-up.

<-- Yes, is very crazy

Anyways, I'll give ya an update about tonight tomorrow when I'm completely zombified at work (yeah, I'll be going in to work, though thankfully NO ONE will be here save for maybe three ppl... none of which I have to worry about).

[Nevlonniel]

o_O Ooooooo... lookit all the pretty colors... :headache

:x

Well, here I am at work, trying to keep my eyelids from crashing to the ground while my eyes sting like all get out.

Last night oe and I went to the midnight signing at the Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley. Thankfully, Fountain Valley is all of about 20 min from where we live, so we split at about 8:30 and arrived at Fry's, oh, I'd say about 9pm.

When we got ther, we noticed cars circling and circling and circling, in and out of the lot, around the streets... parking had vanished within the Fry's parking lot. We however decided to take a chance and went into the lot. Lo and behold, some fellow was pulling out as we rolled in, so needless to say we took the spot he vacated. God bless him.

It was about this time we noticed the line... or more like LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE (I'm probably missing a few more thousand I's, but in the interest of keeping this thread from crashing, I will refrain from holding down my I key infinitely).

Anyways, yeah, the line was long. Excrutiatingly long. Apparently ppl had started lining up at about noon. So, picture this... a very loarge rectangular building. The entrance is in the center of one of the longer sides of the rectangle. The line starts there. And it wrapped around one side, then the back, then the other side, went down to the end of the parking lot (we were here), then bends to go down to the other end of the parking lot, then bends again to go to the front of the parking lot, past the first corner of the building, and the second, and the third, and then bends to go down the street. Essentially the line wrapped around the building and parking lot twice (even though the tail wasn't in the parking lot). Some guy was running down the line with a counter and estimated we were about 900. So we estimated with that info that there were something like 3000 ppl in line for the midnight signing. :eek

But, luckily, the time went by rather quickly. We had fun chatting with ppl around us, laughing at the ratio of guys to girls (about 95% guys, 5% girls... I feel special), and just overall acting incredibly silly. The group of guys behind us had us constantly cracking up with the various random things they said. Needless to say, they looked like sleep-deprived collage-age guys. No wonder they were so random in their comments.

At 10:30pm, they started the "festivities". I say this word in paren, because really, the "festivities" were only good enough for maybe the first 2-300 ppl in line. They had a radio station there blasting music, but from where we were, we couldn't hear squat. Eh, no matter. The guys behind us were plenty enough entertainment. They also had a hot dog stand where thankfully the lines weren't as horrendous to stand in.

Oh, and it was COLD out there!!! (At least for me) I guess it maybe dropped to about 40 degrees or so. But for us Californians, that's painfully cold. My face, hands, and feet had gone numb. My feet were so cold, my poor little toesies were hurting. :( But, Joe and I took turns going to the car, turning on the engine, and blasting the heater all while polluting the air.

Then at midnight, the doors opened and they began to trickle ppl in. I;d say the line moved something like 10 or 15 feet every 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning. But as the hour drew on, it began to move a teeny bit faster (like 15 feet every 30 sec to 2 mins).

Never the less, it took us 2 hours to get from where we were to the front door where we were first greeted by blissful heat. I can't BEGIN to tell you how good a heated building feels after standing stiff in the cold (I also can begin to imagine how I'd have done if it were snowing! :x )

Well, we finally get into the building, and the line moves us along the red line on the floor to the cash registers where you get to a cash register and ask for whatever version of the game you want. I got 1 Collector's Eddition and 1 Night Elf box (for Joe). It was funny in that they had to do two seperate transactions for the games (I guess for record keeping? I dunno). But while one guy was ringing up the CE, the register next to him began to ring up the NE. I successfully monopolized two registers without even asking. :D

Ok, games bought, then we head back towards the door, make a sharp turn, and follow the line along the blue line to where all the developers are. I got my CE signed by EVERY dev that worked on the game (including the Game Masters). Now my Collector's Edition really IS a Collector's Edition!

By the time we finished with the signings and chatings, it was an hour later from when we'd first entered the building.

When all was said and done, we had gotten to the Fry's at 9pm, and didn't leave until 3am. 6 hours. And I got up at 8am today to go in to work. So I'm functioning on 5 hours or so of sleep.

But that wasn't the end. Oh no. Then we went home, and went to load up the game. Mine loaded fine, but Joe's HD is dead (here enter colorful exletives) even though it was working fine a few hours before. Go fig. He's picking up a new one today (we'll worry on how to retrieve the info on it later). So, anyways, I loaded the game and got my main character started on the brand new clean servers! (check first post in this thread for more info)

So, whenever you guys are ready, I'm ready to once again plunk myself into the World of WarCraft!

(Just be warned it may take Joe some time to get on due to having to reinstall WinXP. We're still trying to figure out why it just failed when it had been working fine before we left for Fry's. It's very very weird. And this is like the 3rd HD that has failed on him within the last year. O_o )

[Phantom]

I just got my copy, haven't played it yet though. Is it as good as it looks?

[Pierce Tondry]

Yes. Just don't go Warrior. That class needs some fixing.

[Nevlonniel]

Well, it looks like Joe's comp is actually cooperating. The HD that went bad actually only went bad in the sense it wouldn't boot. But the data stored on it is still ok. So he bought another HD to be able to boot off of. So, essentially, everything's ok.

Sooooo... we may actually get on tonight to play! :D

[Nevlonniel]

I was there! I was there! :rollin

GameSpy article on the WoW Midnight Signing in Fountain Valley, CA. (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/world-of-warcraft/568625p1.html)

[Khendon Sevon]

I'm playing on the Dalaran server with a lot of friends from school.
My character is a dwarven paladin named Vargthia, if anyone wants to do some questing.

Meh guild: http://wow.roxxu.com if anyone's thinking about having a full time character on that server.

Of course, the Dalaran server is down right now :( Otherwise I'd start my charter and whatnot.

[Nevlonniel]

I may start a character there on Dalaran eventually. Right now I'm still focusing on my character on Elune.

[Nevlonniel]

Was there ever any doubt? :)

http://www.blizzard.com/press/042427.shtml

[Zasz Grimm]

look for me a little around mid-to-late december.

[Nevlonniel]

Will do. Just look me up if you get on one of the servers i'm on. (All my name and server info is in the first post)

[Nevlonniel]

I'd like to make a correction to my Midnight Signing story (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=37318#post695834) up in post #8.

I initially said there were about 3000 ppl there. Well, my estimates were wrong. Try more along the lines of 7000 ppl!!!

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ (news story titled "World of Warcraft Launch Party Photos")

Wow... we're all nerds and have no lives. :lol

[Nevlonniel]

I found a really neat site last night just before playing WoW. Someone essentially has gone through the entire game and put together all the regions, roads and points of interest in one place. Just click and know where you are.

DO NOT CLICK the link below if you do not want to be "spoiled" as the link could potentially be considered a spoiler for the game.

Unofficial WoW World Atlas (http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?z=b)

(This actually helped Joe out yesterday as he was having trouble finding Razor Hill. The quest wasn't very specific as to where to find it. Thank gawd for ppl that have no lives and can put sites like this together. :D )

[Pierce Tondry]

Oh, and my characters are:

Banhammer: main Level 30 Dwarf Paladin, Archimonde server (PVP)
Fellhoof: primary alternate Level 14 Tauren Warrior, Dethecus server (Normal, I think)

And Level 6 Night Elf Rogue on Elune whose name escapes me at the moment.

[Lady Vader]

You're on Elune?? *smacks him* Why didn't you tell me??? (aside from now) :p

[Darth Viscera]

Kalimdor Map (http://www.worldofwar.net/cartography/worldmap/kalimdorcont.php)

I was part of an excellent raid a few days ago on Mal'ganis, after the Alliance sent 3 guys to raid the Crossroads and we wanted payback. We met up in the Crossroads, 50 or so of us, and struck north into Ashenvale Forest, Night Elf territory. From there turned west, and killed all the night elves in the outskirts of Astranaar, but avoided the city proper due to the high level guards. We continued west to the Zoram'Gar Outpost, and there got a flight path before getting back onto the road and going north. Soon we passed into Darkshore. We claimed an island connected by bridges to the north and south as our fall-back point, and from there raided Auberdine. Ahhhh, life is good :smokin

[Nevlonniel]

Visc... you have stumbled upon another wonderous map! *adds it to helpful links*

[Zasz Grimm]

I'm on Azjol-Nerub

My characters are as follows:

Level 14 Human Mage

Level 6 Night Elf Rogue

Level 7 Undead Warrior

[Nevlonniel]

For your enjoyment/amusement:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-12-31&res=l

[Darth Viscera]

Maybe I was a bit premature.

Blizzard released a patch on December 21 that for thousands of people made the game unplayable. You'll be logged in for a few minutes, then you'll get an error and crash to the desktop and have to reboot. I was one of the unlucky ones, along with about 4 other dudes from my guild. Blizzard has insisted that it's not their fault, and that the customers' hardware is to blame in every case, and they offer useful cut-and-paste advice such as "Run Scandisk and update your video and sound drivers, and if you have any other programs running, please close them."

Here's what I've done to try and produce an error-free WoW experience:

*updated drivers bla bla bla basic driver troubleshooting stuff
*underclocked my system to well below factory defaults
*Got an indication from Blizzard that perhaps a memory error was causing the bugginess, ran memtest86 on my memory modules, found an error in 1 of them, RMA'ed the module, installed replacement module (tested to be error-free), no dice, same exact behavior
*Tried using a different video card
*Built a new computer from scratch using spare parts I had just lying around
*Flattened and reinstalled WinXP SP2

(of course, my system is proven stable in Prime95 and all other apps and games)

no dice no dice no dice. The bug is in the latest WoW patch, but Blizzard is impervious to reason, and isn't putting forth any effort to fix it, no matter how much an emergency fix is needed. Here, have a look at a thread where everyone is complaining about the bugginess of the game:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-tech-support&t=86013&p=1&tmp=1#post86013

Stay as far away from this game as you possibly can. No, scratch that. Run away.

The very idea that a game company would actually release a game-breaking patch 4 days before Christmas and then refuse to acknowledge the situation or release an emergency fix for the next 3 weeks is just way, way beyond me.

:verymad

edit~oh yeah, and Blizzard's automatic error reporting tool is, yep you guessed it, broke. I hope that someone out there can enjoy the irony of this with me.

[Yog]

Holy crap! Just when I have been thinking lately that I should subscribe to WoW some time this spring/early summer.

Luckily, I am doing well without any MMORPG subscription for the moment (I sure as heck am not missing SWG). I am having too much fun in the european beta of City of Heros :D

[AmazonBabe]

Stay as far away from this game as you possibly can. No, scratch that. Run away.

Well, that's one side of the story, and one opinion.

I for one have experienced absolutely NO problem with the new patch, and I have even been enjoying Cosmos, the fully customizable utility tool for the game, again with no problem. And my computer hasn't crashed with the game, nor have I had to send any error reports. (I have sent in-game bug repors, but that's been for uncooperative quest NPCs or what have you. Very minor things.)

Even my sis, who's using an inferior computer and dial-up, hasn't had any problems.

And after reading part of that thread on the WoW boards (which, btw, I've been watching from time to time), that's still only a handful of ppl (albiet a large handful, but definitely not even a quarter of the amount of ppl playing the game) having problems, and some of them seem to have fixed whatever problems their computers were experiencing and have even posted their fixings/findings. Now, that's not to say more aren't having problems, but perhaps Blizzard is right... perhaps it is the way ppl have configured their comps (and from some of the fixes suggested, that seems to be the case in most instinces). They were probably thinking uber-comp to play the game, when in reality WoW really doesn't need that much oomf.

Anyways, I'm siding with Blizz on this one.

Sorry you had to be one of the unlucky ones Visc, and I'm sorry you weren't able to enjoy the game as much as I. :\

I for one (as well as Joe), am one of the very lucky ones. And I'm completely addicted. And I'm completely in love with this game. So much so, in fact, that I have decided I will be unsubscribing from SWG. :D

[Yog]

That the game works for a majority of subscribers is all fine and dandy. However, the serious nature of the bug does raise a concern for potential new subscribers. Its not very reassuring to know that there is a risk of ending up with an unplayable game even though the system requirements are met; an otherwise fully operational computer able to run every game and program and being updated with the latest drivers. Imagine spending the cash buying this game, then having to deal with the frustrations Viscera described. He went through loops and bounds trying to get it working.

I brand it "bug" btw, because judging from the thread linked, it occurs on a wide variety of systems from home built to stock Dell and Gateway. If you look at the techical support forums, there are several multipage threads about this problem, so its not as obscure of a phenomenon as one might hope.

But most importantly, the problems started occuring at patch day, which is a clear indication the problem lies within the game client rather than system specifications. Telling people to replace or underclock their stock/factory settings memory is not a satisfying solution. Its the game client itself which needs to be either rolled back or updated for an emergency fix due to the game breaking nature of the error.

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
long post

It's not my computer. Believe me, I have tried every single fix or recommendation that has been posted on the forums, none have alleviated the problem. This isn't a simple matter of one quick fix that I neglected to find on the tech support forums. For thousands of people who have high-end systems, the game is broked. It's not a CPU failure, it's not a memory failure, it's not a matter of data corruption, it's not a heat failure, it's not an issue that can be solved by updating your drivers. It's simply a matter of this: "Performance issues occurring with certain CPUs have been resolved" in the 12/21 patch causing more problems than it fixed.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game, when it works. I think that the hundreds of hours I've spent diagnosing and troubleshooting my computer and contacting manufacturers to RMA faulty memory modules and the like to try and get WoW to run again are a testament to just how much I like it. Ironic that since release I've spent 95 hours in-game on my character and twice that period of time trying to get things working again.

[AmazonBabe]

:\

It's sad, I know, for so many to be experiencing probs. And, Yog, you're right that a lot of this happened after the most recent patch.

I guess it just kinda confuses me how me, with my comparable specs comp-wsie to everyone else, hasn't had any problems.

Obviously, yes, there is something wrong with the patch, but at the same time, it might be something like a sleeping death that only awakens due to some hardware in someone's comp?

[Morgan Evanar]

I imagine with certain video card/chipset/driver versions the whole thing goes to pieces, but that is an indication of awful coding.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

lol

^_^;sorry...

... lol

[Silus Xilarian]

Im rockin in the same boat as Visc. Im just glad my free trial isnt over yet.

[Darth Viscera]

Oh Blizzard, how I hate you so.

I was finally able to log into WoW. My character was in Undercity, and I hopped onto a waiting zeppelin outside Lordaeron. "This must be my lucky day", I thought, "I won't have to wait 5 minutes for the zeppelin to Orgrimmar."

There must have been about 15 other dudes on the zep with me, and at first the ride went off without a hitch. Then, our zeppelin rode out into the sea. Apparently the hampster that powers the servers that govern zeppelins and trams at Blizzard's datacenter chose that moment to die, because as we were deep at sea and about to enter the loading screen to Org, the zeppelin DISAPPEARED. One moment we were all looking out to sea, waiting to zone, and the next moment we were in free fall, falling hundreds of feet down. No doubt the lowbies all died on impact due to the long drop, but I was wearing my stamina clothes, so I only got 99% of my health sucked away.

So there I am, stuck in the ocean, as far from land as I can get without going into fatigue mode or whatever that is, my ping bar is red which means the server hampster is definitely code blue, and I try to look on the bright side. "Well, self, at least you haven't suffered an error #0." Then I turn around to get my bearings and try to swim back to Tirisfal Glades. The other dudes probably died on impact and rezzed at the spirit healer, lucky bastards. Suddenly:


This application has encountered a critical error:

ERROR #0 (0x85100000)
Program: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe
File: ..\..\..\..\engine\source\Tempest/cmath.h
Line: 148
Expr: "x <= 255.9999f", x = 1069542.375000

Oh. LOL! You know, this would be pretty funny if I didn't feel like choking somebody right about now YOU STUPID STUPID BLIZZARD

[Khendon Sevon]

I haven't had any problems with WoW. None of my guild members have had problems, either.

Visc, maybe WoW doesn't like you? You should give this some serious thought... have you sacrificed any pigs or cattle to the WoW gods? This is an important thing to remember, do it once a month, at least.

Seriously, though, what have you tried out?

My specs:
Asus NForce 8x
AMD XP w/ Barton core 2500+ (overclocked to 2700+)
512mb Ultra DDR
80gig 7,200 RPM Maxtor
Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 256mb

with that it runs fine

my friend has basically the same setup ('cept he's way, way far beyond me in overclocking) and runs a Radeon 9800 (don't remember which exactly) and he's stable and fine running the game.

So, what have you tried?

[AmazonBabe]

I really have come to the conclusion, what with half the population having probs, and the other half flitting along just fine with daisys and ice cream, that yes there is a potential problem with the coding from the newest patch, but it is definitely being triggered by the setups some ppl have on their comps.

As it is, all servers will be coming down for some magical mainainance overhaul come this Thursday for a good 16 hours (I'm betting it'll be longer). Perhaps then the ppl that are having problems will finally be fixed.

Visc - I have gotten the same red bar for, and while the latency says something unforgivable like 1200-something, for some reason the game still ran fine. There were at some points where I'd get stuck in the all powerful lotting crouch position, but it would clear up after a few minutes. And if it didn't, all i had to do was logout and log back in again, with no probs either way.

Maybe Khendon is right. Maybe you haven't been appeasing the Blizz gods as of late. Or maybe your comp is possessed. O_o

As for the falling in the middle of the ocean, that actually happened to my sis as she was taking the boat to Minithel Harbor. Sudden;y the boat disappeared and dumped some 20 odd ppl into the middle of the ocean. Of course fatigue started to set in. But most ppl are smart and used their hearthstones to teleport outta there. My sis just went to moonglade as she's a Druid.

Anyways, I do hope those ppl that are having problems get them fixed soon. :)

[Khendon Sevon]

*Imagines floating around in the animated water with sharks all around, hearthstone counting down to its next usage.* Thank goodness dwarves are expert swimmers! Aye, not like them elves, hmph, they never were worth a lick in a race.

Eh...
It could be some odd server side problem--though that doesn't seem to match up with some of the descriptions of errors.I haven't encountered anyone on my server that's having crashes or lock ups; a good portion of my school plays and not one is experiencing anything unusual.

[AmazonBabe]

Ooooooo! I'm gonna go waste MONEY!

http://www.zboard.com/us/products/products_detail_worldWarcraft.htm

:D

Actually, I changed my mind. What with my bday coming up, I won't waste my money. :lol

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Khendon Sevon
My specs:
Asus NForce 8x
AMD XP w/ Barton core 2500+ (overclocked to 2700+)
512mb Ultra DDR
80gig 7,200 RPM Maxtor
Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 256mb

Abit NF7-S v2.0 (nforce2 chipset)
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred B core 333mhz FSB (underclocked to 15x133 down from 12.5x166 to try for error-free WoW)
1024MB Corsair Value Select CAS 2.5 DDR (set in SDR mode to try for error-free WoW)
120gig 7200RPM Western Digital IDE
Nvidia Geforce 6600GT AGP 128MB (set at 4x agp instead of 8x agp, fast writes disabled to try for error-free WoW)

If you're thinking of upgrading to a Geforce 6600GT-128, don't do it yet. That's the quickest way to get an error 0. WoW is not certified to run on Forceware 66.xx yet, just 61.xx, and it's the 66 series that adds support for the 6600. The way it's meant to be played my tukhus.


it is definitely being triggered by the setups some ppl have on their comps.

Nope, it's not that. Read through the specs of the people that are suffering this issue. Pentium 4s, Athlon XPs, Athlon 64s, VIA chipsets, Intel chipsets, Nvidia chipsets, ATI graphics, Nvidia graphics, good memory, bad memory, Win XP SP1, Win XP SP2, PC, Mac, self-built computers, Dells.

There's no narrowing it down or confining it to a certain piece of hardware. These errors are across the board. It's a software issue. Someone put some bad code in the CPU optimizations part of the 12/21 patch.

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Is WoW a pay to play? Just out of curiosity...

[AmazonBabe]

Kieran - Yes. $15/month. (First month is free with purchase of game.)

Visc - I guess I'm just trying to understand why it seems to be all fracked up for some, while others (like myself) have escaped unscathed.

[Khendon Sevon]

I'm sure Blizz will fix it soon enough, especially if so many people are having difficulties.

I just find it odd that it's not happening to everyone when it affects so many different setups. I vote for it being some crazy thing with their network.

[Gav Mortis]

I'm downloading the European final beta to play until it is released officially here on Feb 25th.

[AmazonBabe]

Gav, I so wish we could play together, but I dunno if they're sharing servers overseas. :(

Khendon - Well, they're gonna be fixing SOMETHING. At 4am PST this Thursday, all servers are going down for a 16 hour maintainance. It could be longer though if they find something nasty.


But all that muckiness aside, I wanted to share the stories of Flintlocke with ya. :) http://pc.gamespy.com/flintlocke

[Gav Mortis]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
Gav, I so wish we could play together, but I dunno if they're sharing servers overseas. :(

I hope we'll be able to play together. What is the most commonly used server for us SWFreaks? :cool

[Kieran Devaneaux]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
Kieran - Yes. $15/month. (First month is free with purchase of game.)

Damn! Looks like I'll be waiting.....

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Gav Mortis
I'm downloading the European final beta to play until it is released officially here on Feb 25th.

You might want to get a US copy off eBay (if they come back in stock anytime soon) because I think that the European version will only allow you to play with Europeans, and won't let you log onto US servers, which have swfans people on them. All depends on how important that is to you. Just FYI.


Khendon - Well, they're gonna be fixing SOMETHING. At 4am PST this Thursday, all servers are going down for a 16 hour maintainance. It could be longer though if they find something nasty.

I don't know if they're releasing a new patch today. IIRC, after they released the 12/21 patch they said they were taking a break from coding new patches until February. Or something like that. And Mal'Ganis, the server I'm playing on, is only scheduled to go down for 4 hours, probably because it's only got 10,000 players rather than the 20k of the high pop servers.

[AmazonBabe]

Originally posted by Gav Mortis
I hope we'll be able to play together. What is the most commonly used server for us SWFreaks? :cool

Well, if you look up at the top of this loooong thread, you'll noticed I have compiled a list of eveyone that has stated they are playing and what servers they are playing on.

For convenience sake, I created two characters on eastern servers to allow those from europe to play without much lag, if any. Those servers would be Elune (on this server, I play a Night Elf, Alliance faction) and Durotan (on this server, I play a Troll, Horde faction). I figured this would also allow those from europe to choose which side they wanted to play, and yet still allow me to join them one way or another. The servers I play on are PvE servers (Player vs. Environment, where your PvP flag is only on when you turn it on by choice or engage an enemy player or get too close to an enemy NPC).

I know some of the other fellas are playing on PvP servers where your PvP flag is on regardless of who you are, where you are, or what level you're at. Essentialy, you're fair game to anything and everything (except the weather, as they haven't implimented weather features yet... they really should allow blizzards in the mountains just for the pun). But AFAIK, non of the PvP servers being played on by SWFreaks (as you so eliquently put it :lol ) are eastern servers.

So, either way, try to do what Visc said and get a US copy of the game so you can play on US servers (if that's the route you'd like to take). And if you do take that route, you can join me on either eastern server, or any of the other conglomeration of servers we all participate on. :D


(Just so you know, my Night Elf is pretty far along (well, only lvl 23, but that's far along seeing as how I play 8 characters in the span of a week and a half), but I just started my Troll (she's only lvl 10.)) :)

[Figrin D'an]

I suppose I should probably mention that I have been playing this. Yes, I cracked and bought it, despite the monthly fee. After debating the matter, I decided it was too good a game to pass up.

My characters (thus far):

Ruhntar, Lvl 28 Tauren Druid, Doomhammer server

Dergan, Lvl 8 Dwarven Paladin, Draenor server


And, for the record, I have has precisely zero technical problems with the game, although I certainly feel for those who have.

[AmazonBabe]

Fig! You big-not-been-telling-me-you've-been-playing! :mad

And why for didn't you get on any of the servers I was on? :cry

[Silus Xilarian]

i guess i should post my characters.


server - Kilrogg

Kirrah - level 24 Human Paladin
Kaiya - level 20 Night Elf Druid

Ive have a few very n00by characters scattered around randomly, but they are just going to be deleted, so no point listing them. =]

[Zasz Grimm]

Update:

Server: Azjol-Nerub

Nuitari - Level 22 Male Human Mage
Ayresaelian - Level 25(and rising) Female Night Elf Warrior

Other characters are too newbish. Either deleted or dead.

[Silus Xilarian]

My problems are fixed. I did exactly the opposite of what blizzard said and it worked like a charm =)

[Darth Viscera]

can you elaborate?

[Morgan Evanar]

He had a linksys network card and he rolled back to older drivers.

[Darth Viscera]

Ah. I tried something similar to that 2 weeks ago, didn't work. I went into my BIOS and disabled the NF7-S's onboard NIC and installed an old Linksys 10/100 v4.1 card into a PCI slot, installed the only drivers that would allow me to get a connection on it (Linksys drivers from 2000, XP's builtin drivers don't work), and tried playing WoW with it, and got the same error I've been getting for the last 33 days.

[Morgan Evanar]

Uh, you know you could have just downloaded drivers from Linksys instead?

[Darth Viscera]

Yes, that is what I am saying that I did in order to get it to work when Windows XP's built-in drivers did not work.

[Grev Drasen]

This thread needs more screenshots.

[Yog]

Agreed

[Darth Viscera]

http://img179.exs.cx/img179/5623/wowscrnshot0105051912485cs.th.jpg (http://img179.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img179&image=wowscrnshot0105051912485cs.jpg)

[AmazonBabe]

I got a whole folder of screenshots. But I don't think zipping it will mak it any smaller ^_^;

I shall endeavor to host some and post em up.

[Zasz Grimm]

Visc! I love your interface!

I require it! Which is it?

[Yog]

Awesome screenshot Visc. Having some fun with goonsquad I see :)

[Lady Vader]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Visc! I love your interface!

I require it! Which is it?

Welcome to the world of Cosmos. While there are still some bugs to be worked out, they are minor and few, but they make a wickedly SWEET interface!!!

You may dl it here:

http://www.cosmosui.com/

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
Visc! I love your interface!

I require it! Which is it?

a mixture of CTMod for its extended menu bars, and Cosmos, and then the allinoneinventory cosmos addon too.

[Zasz Grimm]

I have GypsyMod. While not bad, I'd prefer yours.

And thanks LV/Visc. I'll get it before I play WoW again.

[Grev Drasen]

Post more screenshots for us WoW-less people to drool over. :(

[Zasz Grimm]

really wanna drool?

watch this.

http://www.grimmshadow.net/swf/zasz/WoWSkindredNobody.wmv

It's on my hosting. LV, you can put this in the first post, if you want. I doubt my BW will be hit that hard. If It dissappears, it's because my hosting is being fixed. But it will be back.

I watch this video whenever I get extremely discouraged from playing WoW. Out of the mood, etc. It makes me wanna play, so I can raid like they can.

[Darth Viscera]

http://img194.exs.cx/img194/9474/wowscrnshot0112050630056tn.th.jpg (http://img194.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img194&image=wowscrnshot0112050630056tn.jpg)
An alliance sheep snuck into Ratchet and came up and attacked me outside the Crossroads for no reason.

[Silus Xilarian]

Friday night, upwards of 50 Horde (possibly more) brought the fight to us in Stormwind city. Of course, all they really accomplished was a zone crash, but it was cool for a minute or two.

I'll poke my friend and see if he got a screeny or three.

[Darth Viscera]

http://img32.exs.cx/img32/9476/fpr32qn3xf.th.jpg (http://img32.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img32&image=fpr32qn3xf.jpg)
A raid a few weeks ago, had to create 2 full raid groups to accomodate the xbox-sized goon horde, 80 players. All aboard the mantrain.

[AmazonBabe]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
really wanna drool?

watch this.

http://www.grimmshadow.net/swf/zasz/WoWSkindredNobody.wmv

It's on my hosting. LV, you can put this in the first post, if you want. I doubt my BW will be hit that hard. If It dissappears, it's because my hosting is being fixed. But it will be back.

I watch this video whenever I get extremely discouraged from playing WoW. Out of the mood, etc. It makes me wanna play, so I can raid like they can.

HOLY CRAP! I WANT IN ON THAT SERVER!!! Talk about PARTY TIME! *here insert male Undead headbanging while playing an air guitar*

I'm definitely putting that in the first post! Thanks for sharing, Zasz! :D

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
HOLY CRAP! I WANT IN ON THAT SERVER!!! Talk about PARTY TIME!

No you don't. Now that everyone knows about it, everyone will want in. That's what is happening on the Doomhammer server (which has my primary character). So many people heard about all the cool guilds on the server that they started creating characters in droves. The result is massive login times, since people have to be queued in line just to access the world server.

That said... fun movie. I'm sure the lag was horrendous, but slaughtering major cities like that is rather amusing.

[AmazonBabe]

Well, if it's a PvP server, then no, I don't want in. But from my gathering, the dude recording the whole thing wasn't getting killed, so he must have been on a PvE server.

In either case, if the lag is bad, then I just don't play on it. I have 8 main characters as they are all about the same lvl, so I don't mind which I play. And lucky me, they're all on diff servers, so...

eh :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Archimonde is already nuts anyway, from my understanding (thats the server it was filmed at)

I like Azjol-Nerub. It's nice and stable. Guilds are rising, getting more gutsier. Whenever I hit 40, imma raid hard inbetween leveling splurges. Hopefully I'll assemble my own video, one day.

[Grev Drasen]

How bad is Kel'thuzad?

I think I'm going to put my Alliance character on there as my primary, and I'll find some other PvP for my Horde alt. I never really have that much fun on PvE servers, and I've never really had experience with the Roleplay servers.

[Drake Shadowstalker]

Can someone compare WoW to other MMORPG's? I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy it. EQII is a pile of trash and I don't like it anymore, I want something else.

[Darth Viscera]

Eve Online: The Second Genesis - tedious, grinding, not fun, does this game even have quests? (apart from agents), really good graphics FROM THE FUTURE, game works and doesn't crash

Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided - tedious, grinding, not fun, no good quests (for example, one quest was "Drive around in a 10km circle 10 times and I'll give you a prize which sucks"), good graphics, game works and doesn't crash

World of Warcraft - not tedious, you don't feel like you're grinding at all, excellent quests which you actually want to do, very interesting content which sucks you in and doesn't let go, cartoony graphics (this isn't really a bad thing in this case, because it has a style all its own, and holy crap, this game runs smoother performance-wise than SWG or EVE could ever hope to), but the game crashes and is not playable with any degree of stability for 100% of all Darth Visceras.

[AmazonBabe]

but the game crashes and is not playable with any degree of stability for 100% of all Darth Visceras.

I'm not a Darth Viscera. ^_^; :D

Drake: I've played A few MMORPGS (though I can tell you now the list is growing).

I participated in the GW alpha, though I can't really compare that to anything as it was only one time.

SWG is fun to a point... then it gets to the grinding and you essentially lose interest cause it takes so damn long to get anything done or to actually lvl to a decent lvl. You get frusterated very easily.

WoW by far has completely captivated my attention, and stolen my soul. You lvl quickly with fun quests. The world does indeed have a cartoony look, but that was done for two purposes: to give it a fresh new look and toalow it to run smoothly without requiring the latest and greatest in computer technology to run it. It is true that some ppl are having problems logging into the game due to some weird coding that seems to urp with particular configurations on some machines. I have been one of the lucky ones not to experience this, but unfortunately Visc hasn't faired so well. Aside from that, the game is fantastic.

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Drake Shadowstalker
Can someone compare WoW to other MMORPG's? I'm trying to decide whether or not to buy it. EQII is a pile of trash and I don't like it anymore, I want something else.


Let me put it this way. I don't like MMORPGs. Via friends, I have tried and either simply not liked or as much as hated all of them. They tend to be repetitive and not fun, because leveling is such a pain in the behind, and you end up dealing with jerks who prey on lower level characters and make in-game life generally miserable.

But... I really like World of Warcraft. It's actually fun to play, which is the key factor for me. A lot of things that have made past MMOs unbearable are all but gone from this game. It's a very smooth game, without a lot of hassle to grind XP and farm areas for supplies or that one really cool drop that everyone wants. I think that has helped make the overall atmosphere a lot more friendly. There is still the occasional jerk who only looks out for himself, but there are a lot of good players, and some great and very well-organized guilds. The only major complaints I have: hardware issues (fortunately I have not had any), and some servers are really getting taxed from overpopulation, causing login queues (like I mentioned earlier).

I have always hated the idea of paying a monthly fee for a game, yet another reason I stayed away from other MMOs. WoW is the first game I can actually say is worth it (and you can get a slight break on the fee if you buy 3 or 6 months of time in a block).

[Darth Viscera]

http://img181.exs.cx/img181/1606/in4ud.th.jpg (http://img181.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img181&image=in4ud.jpg)

[Yog]

Thats some serious cooling you got there :lol

[Lady Vader]

Um... O_o

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Lady Vader
Um... O_o

An attempt to diagnose my WoW errors. It was suggested that the 11 fans in my system were inadequate to keep things cool, so I pulled aside the side panel and had a house fan blowing in, and still suffered the same error.

[AmazonBabe]

:lol Ok, the fact they told you 11 fans were insufficient to cool your system is just wacked. I only have 3 (4 if you count the CPU fan) in my machine, and it's even in an alcove, so it gets pretty darn toasty. And it runs just fine.

11 fans not enough my behind. :rolleyes

[AmazonBabe]

Wanted to share some WoW comics I found with you guys (in case you hadn't already seen em already). :)

Hereos of WoW (http://www.worldofwar.net/comics/heroesofwow/)

Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth (http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/578/578734p1.html)

[Darth Viscera]

Eureka! I think I've got it!

Now, in every system which suffers from my error, World of Warcraft is trying to call memory address 00642AFA in Wow.exe.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread-search.aspx?SearchType=2&searchtext=00642AFA&x=0&y=0&ForumName=wow-tech-support
^^^list of posts where people list errors which start with memory address 00642AFA.

Now, what are the odds of so many people who play World of Warcraft having errors in their memory sticks at exactly memory address 00642AFA? 1 in a trillion trillions, at least.

Basically, WoW's code is calling up BS memory addresses.

[AmazonBabe]

Well, someone point it out to them already. And if they already have, then do it a bajillion times more!

[Darth Viscera]

I pointed it out to them.

Visc: Did you know that your program is calling bogus memory addresses?
Blizz: Memory address? I have no clue what that is. Have you tried reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling Windows?
Visc: uh huh
Blizz: oh. well do it harder
Visc: :huh
Blizz: *hangs up*

[AmazonBabe]

Poor Visc. :(

On the upside... i found a secret "portal" that takes you underneath SW! Ok, well, I didn't find it. One of my guild members where my human is found it quite by accident when he left autorun on to get a snack. :D

If and whenever I can actually get on your server, Visc (where there aren't long ques) then i'll show you (assuming it's the same for all servers and you haven't already found it yourself).

[Zasz Grimm]

3 levels from 40. It seems so unattainable. Then again, I'd probably be 40 if i actually played, and didn't come home and sleep.

=/.

But I have Sword Of Serenity. With Demonslaying. I love it.

[Figrin D'an]

Got my Tauren Druid to Lvl. 40. Will be buying a mount soon (need a little more money first). Haven't played my other characters much recently.

I'm finding playing Horde characters is much more fun than Alliance characters. Some of the quests are a bit more interesting, at least thus far. Although, much of it is also because Alliance characters outnumber Horde characters about 5-to-1 on average, and far too many people are either night elves or human paladins. It gets kind of boring seeing them grow like a disease on the servers. At least it's still fun to kick their butts on a regular basis.

[Zasz Grimm]

As I play alliance, you are right. Which is why I play the 'gimped' class. I play as a female Night Elf Warrior. Who has defeated every paladin I've ever dueled thats my level, or one or two higher. And the same with rogues and hunters. (Never dueled spellcasters)

There are far too many paladins. I can't wait till they're nerfed soon. Forcing paladins and warlocks in the next patch to do an insane quest for a free mount is awesome. I have to shell out 90 gold, why shouldn't they?

While alliance outnumber horde 5-1 as you say, most Horde players are more experienced, and are higher levels. (I've seen this on my server.)

But I see where your coming from.

[AmazonBabe]

Ya know, I'm sick and tired of ppl blah-blah-complaining about Warlocks and Paladins having free mounts. It gets old REALY fast. :rolleyes

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by Zasz Grimm
While alliance outnumber horde 5-1 as you say, most Horde players are more experienced, and are higher levels. (I've seen this on my server.)


This is generally true, even on Doomhammer, where the Horde is vastly outnumbered. Despite that, we still win a lot of skirmishes because we seem to be better organized, and have just have some really, really good players.

My own story demonstrating this trend: my Tauren Druid, lvl 38 at the time, solo took down a lvl 35 Night Elf Priest and a lvl 38 Human Paladin. It wasn't easy, but the fact that I beat both of them simultaneously.



Originally posted by AmazonBabe
Ya know, I'm sick and tired of ppl blah-blah-complaining about Warlocks and Paladins having free mounts. It gets old REALY fast. :rolleyes

I personally don't really care about them getting free mounts, because mounts are more of a status symbol than anything, and everyone knows that Warlocks and Paladins don't really have to work for theirs like everyone else does. But, it does kind of stink that everyone else has to shell out a ton of money while they don't. So, making a hard quest for it would at least be more fair than it is now.

[AmazonBabe]

Yeah, no objections to the hard quest. And besides, if you're part of a good and helpful guild, getting that quest done shouldn't be that difficult. Just call over your lvl 60 buddies and voila. :lol

I guess what i was trying to say is so many have complained about the free vs the shelling of 80g-1000g (gawd, I can't even imagine getting that much money... I so desperately want the warhorse for my undead warrior, but 1000g??? oy! O_o :lol ), it's just gotten to the point where it's so old, I don't care anymore. The subject is way past dead and beaten (not really here, as this is the first time it's been brought up... but at the WoW forum, I'm sure you could find 2 pages worth on the subject). :)

[Nevlonniel]

WoW Launches in Europe 2/11/2005!

Current News (http://www.wow-europe.com/en/) (scroll allllll the way to the bottom for most recent news)

Press Release (http://www.blizzard-europe.com/press/050202.shtml)

Dru, Jen, and the lot of ya... time to sell your souls to WarCraft! >D :p

(I didn't see anywhere in there whether the European servers would be allowed to mix with the US servers, but then again, I didn't look nearly hard enough. In either case, you can still enjoy the game if you so choose to sell your soul to it... hell, it's better than selling your soul to the Devil ^_^; )

[Yog]

No, you cannot play on US servers with the European client..

To play with Americans, you need:

1. American version of the game
2. American billing adress or a creditcard (optionally gamecard, and those dont grow on trees in Europe)
3. Cloak your IP adress during account registration (per proxy)

Doing the steps above will give you access to American servers, but effectively shut you off the European servers until Blizzard creates a solution for playing on both type of servers, which has an unknown ETA and may or may not be a service you have to pay for.

[AmazonBabe]

Yeah, it's kind of a bumber, that.

But at least you CAN play if you want to. :)

[Silus Xilarian]

The only reason I can think for them to do this, is to keep the europeans from flooding the american servers, with are already taking a beating.

Im guessing at some point they'll allow characters to transfer between servers (free or not is hard to say), and then we can mingle a bit.

[AmazonBabe]

Or I could let you borrow my personal mail box addy to get on a US server. :p

But, yeah, it's possible they may allow Europeans to mingle with the American servers. That'd be nice if they did, if at least to allow you guys that are over there an opportunity to play with us. :)

[Yog]

A little update on the European launch. 280,000 copies of the game were sold the first day. Thats a number far exceeding what the experts estimated as overall size of the European MMORPG market. Throughout the weekend, the number grew to 380,000. Concurrent users have so far peaked at 180,000.

Right now, most of the games stores in Oslo are simply sold out for the game, and a new batch of copies are not expected for several weeks. On a computer hardware forum I frequent, users are reporting sell outs for all the major chains, and its become a sport to report places where copies have been spotted for sale. Usually, copies are sold out quickly after such reports..

According to Blizzard, in addition to the problem of printing copies fast enough, their servers cant handle the flux of potential new users, so they are going to keep the shipping of new copies on hold for a while until they can build more servers up/upgrade servers to handle the stress.

Finally, this is how it looked like at launch night where I live: http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/42/423/423150/wow_ko.jpg

[AmazonBabe]

Wow (no pun intended... or IS there?). Even over-seas it's a phenomenon. O_o

[Peter McCoy]

I got the game just over a week ago and I love it. Sadly I can't play with any of you guys in the US as it's a European version. But I'll post up my characters for any other europeans in the game.

Thunderhorn server (Normal); Hengist, male Dwarven Warrior.
Thunderhorn server (Normal); PaiMei, male Gnome Mage.
Thunderhorn server (Normal); Calcazar, male Human Mage

[AmazonBabe]

Good show, ol' chap! I'll go ahead and add this to the first post so it makes it easy for those playing on EU servers to join you. :)

[Firebird1]

Look up either
Drik a lvl 30 Paly or Radghast a lvl 27 Mage on Malygos.
If you want to play with me.

[Zasz Grimm]

Every body update! Where are you with your character?

I recently quit my job, and went on a mad leveling spree. My character is level 47. I fully intend on getting 50 in two or three days.

[Figrin D'an]

My main (Tauren Druid) is lvl 52. Otherwise my Dwarven Paladin is lvl 12, and I have an Undead Priest that I've just started.

I've got some screencaps I should post.

[Figrin D'an]

Here's a few random screencaps:


Shortly after getting my mount, in Bloodhoof Village:

http://www.thegjo.com/WoW/MountUp.jpg



Low-angle shot of Thunder Bluff at Night:

http://www.thegjo.com/WoW/ThunderBluffAtNight.jpg



When venturing into Un'Goro Crater, watch out for giant dinosaurs:

http://www.thegjo.com/WoW/AdventuresInUn'GoroCrater.jpg



An important location in Warcraft/Azeroth history, just be careful about getting too close:

http://www.thegjo.com/WoW/TheDarkPortal.jpg

[AmazonBabe]

Oooooooo! The Dark Portal!!!

There are rumors abound that state if you get something like 20 lvl 60 Warlocks all casting some spell 9forgot what), you can open the portal. only thing is while they're casting, big nasty evil baddies spawn, so you need a virtual army of lvl 60 everything elses protecting the warlock so as not to interupt the casting.

I should find the link where I read this rumor. Sounded inteersting, even if it really doesn't work.

I wonder if I can bribe a Blizz employee to tell me the secret? :lol

[Darth Viscera]

My main character, an undead mage on Mal'Ganis, is at level 37. I've become frustrated with leveling her because I keep getting ganked during quests. Non-stop gankage. Also, knowing that you're going to crash while playing kinda takes a lot out of your desire to play.

I'm starting to wish there was a Ye Olde Goone Squade on a PvE server.

[ReaperFett]

Some of you may be thinking, "Should I try Matrix Online?"


I give up. I tried to post a few threads being constructive, but this is just stupid. I forced my self to slay thugs for 3 hours so I could hit lvl 10, the lvl where most long time beta players said the game would "get better".

First of all, I should NEVER, EVER have to wait for a game to "get better". It should be fun right out of the box (see WoW and CoH). Second . . .yup, you guessed it, the game did not get any better.

This game is terrible, and nowhere near ready for launch. The missions are almost completely bugged and/or broken. The game difficulty is rediculously high. The lvl grind is slower than EQ. Vendors with lvl 6 abilities are in areas full of lvl 20-23 mobs. There was never, and has not yet been any documentation on half of the stuff in the game (Data Nodes and Data Mining, anyone? We could if WE KNEW HOW THE **** TO DO ANY OF IT!).

New players to this game won't last through the free month, I can guarantee it. And, as a manager at an Electronics Boutique, I will make sure to let the public know of the shoody wokrsmanship on this shoddy game.

As a last note, if you like MxO, more power to you (all six of you), I'm not trying to make everyone hate it, I'm just trying to get the devs to open their eyes before tomorrow comes and there are 40,000 people on these boards bitching and not just me. And if you don't believe me, well, just wait till tomorrow . . .

http://mxoboards.warnerbros.com/forums2/thread.jspa?threadID=557&tstart=0


Doesn't sound too hot :p

[AmazonBabe]

Originally posted by Darth Viscera
My main character, an undead mage on Mal'Ganis, is at level 37. I've become frustrated with leveling her because I keep getting ganked during quests. Non-stop gankage. Also, knowing that you're going to crash while playing kinda takes a lot out of your desire to play.

I'm starting to wish there was a Ye Olde Goone Squade on a PvE server.

I seem to remember way back that this was the reason I chose a PvE server. I just had this gut feeling ppl would power-lvl so they could gank the living poop out of lowbies.

Come join me on Elune, Visc. Trust me... there's as much fun as the PvE servers, not as much lag, and certainly no ganking (unless you WANT to be ganked... in that case, just turn your PvP flag on).

:)


Some of you may be thinking, "Should I try Matrix Online?"

Actually, most of us are too busy thinking "WoW" to even think about trying something else.

*points to self* :D

[Figrin D'an]

PvP server players should experience less ganking when the Honor system is put into place. The only bad aspect that I can see occuring is many high-level characters basically camping outside of cities/towns waiting for players to come out in order to get "honorable kills."

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe

Actually, most of us are too busy thinking "WoW" to even think about trying something else.

*points to self* :D

That happens to me and my room-mate everytime we go to hastings to rent something. We go to the Xbox section and we look at each other... "We have WoW. We're not actually going to play a different game."

And we go look at movies. Never fails.

[AmazonBabe]

PvP server players should experience less ganking when the Honor system is put into place. The only bad aspect that I can see occuring is many high-level characters basically camping outside of cities/towns waiting for players to come out in order to get "honorable kills."

The new honor system has been put into place. And there is still a lot of ganking going on in PvP servers.

It's because players aren't getting penalized for killing lowbie players. They only seem to be getting penalized if they attack NPCs. Also, it would appear that the Honor system doesn't really have penalties. I read something yesterday on the WoW boards by one of the Mods (paraphrased): "We didn't want to be too harsh about the penalties." PvP players have yet to see something where ganking will really be discouraging to their playing habits.

EDIT: Found the thread/post: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=1951843&s=blizzard&tmp=1#blizzard

And then of course there are those that don't give a squat about the Honor system and do what ever the hell they want.

(Story from some poor soul on the WoW boards: He was running through some region, forgot which, and he passed about 3 undead. No biggy. Even one of the undead stopped and waved. Then 2 high lvl horde came by and ganked the living daylights out of the poor soul, and then proceeded to camp at his body for 30 min. This seemes to be an often occurance on PvP servers, not just with players, but NPCs as well.)

It's a danger you face when on a PvP server.

I'm afraid that, while I have created characters on a few PvP servers, that I will not be using them. This new system doesn't seem to be detering ppl from ganking lowbies, and I would just find it too frusterating if I kept getting killed while doing quests and trying to lvl my character. Granted, I'm gonna miss out on the awesome raids PvP servers tend to have (though recently, PvE servers have been stepping up to the plate and doing some pretty fun raids), but then again, I won't have to deal with the lag most PvP servers are facing due to their high populations.

It's a trade off, but I think I'll be sticking to PvE servers strictly.



That happens to me and my room-mate everytime we go to hastings to rent something. We go to the Xbox section and we look at each other... "We have WoW. We're not actually going to play a different game."

And we go look at movies. Never fails.

I totally hear ya Zasz. When joe and I are thinking of buying a new game, we just rethink with "Are we REALLY gonna be playing this new game? We know we'll just go back to WoW and forget the new game even exists." So we end up not buying the game. :lol

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
The new honor system has been put into place. And there is still a lot of ganking going on in PvP servers.


Uhh... no, it hasn't. The only part that has been implemented is that you can buy items from the accessories quartermasters. But, nobody can use the stuff yet because the minimum rank requirement is sergeant.

Once active, it won't eliminate cheap ganking, but it will cut it down significantly. There will be always be some that will want to be infamous in their dishonor, but the majority will want the cool armor, so they'll focus only on ways to get their honor ranks really high.

[Zasz Grimm]

Like watching high levels kill other high levels, and more or less own them? Watch this level 60 Rogue from Goon Squad, on Mal'Ganis totally rip it up.

[Zasz Grimm]

Adding another video. This time, it's me and my roomy at the wheel.

[AmazonBabe]

Don't tell me you're one of those that gank's lowbies...

[Zasz Grimm]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
Don't tell me you're one of those that gank's lowbies...


Sure did. Gladly.

But that only comes from not being able to quest in hillsbrad. Because people think it's fun to go kill some horde. Horde quests there are 20-30. Alliance 30-35.

[Darth Viscera]

it wouldn't be a problem if it were lvl 30-35 alliance ganking hillsbrad, but it's not. No, it's groups of 15 level 60 stealthed rogues!

[Lady Vader]

Thanks, I'll stick to my PvE. :)

[Zasz Grimm]

Add- all my movies have been taken down. I've approached maxed hosting.

[Figrin D'an]

Honor system went active with the new patch, as I'm sure everyone knows. Going to be kinda rough for the first month or so, as everyone tries out the new features, but I expect things to quiet down somewhat after that point. The novelty of it will wear off by then, and only those serious about building rank will continue to do heavy PvP.

Got 81 honorable kills in the first night, though. Not too bad.

[Yog]

I immediately went on the Earthen Ring server after server startup, and discovered some rather massive latency problems, ping ranging from 400-1600ms (normally, its about 200). I also noticed some other glitches, like the reputation tab giving me a database error.

Anyway, with the new honor system in live, naturally there were raids and PvP carnage everywhere, from Ogrimmar to Crossroads, UC and Tarren Mill. Screen lag was amazing. Still I went through with the fun. At the end of the night, I had accumulated 55 honorable kills, much more kills than deaths. Thats despite the fact I am still only a level 30 shaman.


Here are some sample screenshots..

First one from Under City:
http://img249.echo.cx/my.php?image=raid25nc.jpg

.. and here is how that battle ended (corpses everywhere):
http://img249.echo.cx/my.php?image=raid39qw.jpg

Then another raid at Tarren Mill:
http://img249.echo.cx/my.php?image=raid19ul.jpg

[AmazonBabe]

Dude, the PvP even on PvE servers was outstanding! I have never seen so much carnage on the PvE servers (and I play on 10 of them for gawds sake!)

EVERY server I logged into had massive carnage outside of the major cities and towns. I think ppl have gone nuts with this new Hnor System. It's actually amusing to watch! :D

[Figrin D'an]

Originally posted by AmazonBabe
EVERY server I logged into had massive carnage outside of the major cities and towns. I think ppl have gone nuts with this new Hnor System. It's actually amusing to watch! :D


Except for when 400+ people decide to cram into a place as small as Tarren Mill, and lag the entire region beyond playability.

[Lady Vader]

For some reason, that doesn't happen often on the servers I play on (rumor has it they have multiple servers actually running for the PvE regions).

The PvP servers I've attempted to play on have been aweful when it comes to lag in the cities and towns. Hell, my characters on those servers are still lvl 5 and below cause I can't get anywhere without freezing every 3 minutes. :(


*has a mental image of 400+ ppl cramming into Tauren Mill :x *

[Yog]

To clarify, I am on a roleplay server. Meaning, one would not normally expect huge and frequent zerg raids lagging the server down etc. But after the patch, its been non stop PvP action. The +400 figure Figrin posted is not an exaggeration. Obviously, when you go into an area like that, the framerate becomes a complete slideshow. Furthermore, it seems to have affected the general stability and latency of the server as well.

[Lady Vader]

Man! And RP servers aren't as heavily populated (afaik) as PvE or PvP servers. O_o

I get the feeling those ppl that hadn't been playing for a few months suddenly came back after the patch went live.

[Darth Viscera]

I built a new (old) computer that will play WoW without errors (so far). LV, I need you on Elune stat.

[Silus Xilarian]

I gave up on my 47 pally for now. Couldnt play without falling asleep.

My druid is up to level 42 now, and i swear she could kick my pally's rear in a one on one fight =D

[Figrin D'an]

Got my new RAM today... 1GB of PC3200. Needless to say, game performance has improved quite a bit.


I have a few characters floating around at lower levels, but I haven't been playing them a lot. I've been focusing on my Tauren Druid, who is level 60, has quite a bit of good gear and is a better healer than a lot of priests. I've managed to figure out a pretty good talent build for high-level instance grouping and PvP. It's been kinda of strange... for the longest time, I was horrible in duels and PvP against equal level characters, but since I've hit level 60, my success has been much, much better.

Next on the list... epic mount.

[Yog]

Yeah, RAM seems to be the biggest bottleneck in this game

[Lady Vader]

Visc... I'll see if I can get on tonight. Sorry i didn' see your message 'til today. ^_^;

What's your character's name on Elune?

[Darth Viscera]

Azshalle.

I just woke up at 3am, so I probably missed you tonight

[Lady Vader]

Yeaaaah... kinda...

Ok, I'll try to catch you later then. :)

[TheHolo.Net]

This thread is long enough now that it is getting to be a strain on the Data Base. To continue this thread please start a new one and I will make a link to the new thread in this post.

This thread is now locked.

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