World Of Warcraft Beta

[Grimm]

Found here.

At 6:00 pm PST on Wednesday, January 28th, the signup period for the World of Warcraft Beta Test will officially begin. We will provide a link to the beta-test application right here in the news section at that time. Testers are not going to be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, so you will be able to submit an application and receive equal consideration anytime during the signup period, which will end on Wednesday, February 4th at 6:00 pm PST. Please note that multiple submissions from the same household will result in complete disqualification.

For this initial phase of the World of Warcraft beta test, we will only be able to accept applications from Canada, Korea, and the US. The test for Europe and other countries around the world will happen later this year. Please do not contact us for further information regarding the beta test; we will be posting a FAQ in the days ahead.

Unfortunately, the beta testing is not starting in Europe, so we will not all be able to play together at the same time.

I am definitely getting into this beta, I want to get into an MMORPG eventaully (at least for a little while) and WoW is most appealing to me so far. If its not what its cracked up to be, I may try my hand at FFXI, as I have recently been getting into the FF games.

[Jefe]

first come first serve = win

definitely gonna try and get into this

[JHunz]

Dude, it says it's not first-come, first-served

[Nuketheplace]

Hrm I might sign up.  I would be instering to play a MMORPG and bata test one of the most hyped Blizzard games.

[Path]

I am going to attempt to get into this beta, but since I just started playing NS again recently, I would not be horribly disappointed if I was declined. That said, I'm nearly fanatical about WoW, doing everything short of going to thier forums, which seemed to have a large concentration of idiots. I ran far away from that scary scary place.

The one thing that is important to know, and I can tell you, is that these games can become incredibly addictive. At first the game itself, especially one of this quality, will keep you there long enough to get you tied into the community. The community is where they get you. For comparison, if you had to play NS with completely random pubbers every game, every single time, I know I'd lose interest in NS rather quickly. The community compounded with the game makes for a very potent mix.

[@gentOrange]

Me and my friend back home are both signing up. I look forward to slaying some elven scumm!

[Grimm]

Glad to hear it Agent, its nice to know there are others out there who also want to spill some Alliance blood.

[lolfighter]

Just don't be disappointed... Remember, this is a MMORPG. It starts out with a rating of -2 out of 5 stars and has to prove its worth to even be worthy of the title "sucks". The concept of it getting 4 stars almost defies logical mathematics. Better stop writing before I turn the universe inside out...

[Uranium - 235]

Just don't be disappointed... Remember, this is a MMORPG. It starts out with a rating of -2 out of 5 stars and has to prove its worth to even be worthy of the title "sucks". The concept of it getting 4 stars almost defies logical mathematics. Better stop writing before I turn the universe inside out...

I was at -2 out of 5 simply because it's by Blizzard, the same people who brought us such 'ROLE PLAYING' games as 'Diablo'...

[Geminosity]

MMORPGs are only initially addictive.  Once you get over the fact that the funny numbers you're so proud of pumping are not only pretty much meaningless in the end but that the game is practically playing itself, you enter a new stage of addiction that stops you from leaving... the 'social' addiction =P
Most people don't stay in MMORPGs for the game... they stay for their gaming friends and the lil sorta social life they've built up.

PSO had that one down to a fine art... no matter how much you played the game (which while far from perfect still beats the pants off any proper MMORPG I've ever seen) the whole chat system was so well thought out that having a gossip with others was easy and fun enough to extend the game's lifespan about one-thousand fold.
Ragnarok was also rather social too, which is half of why I place it so highly in my MMORPG favourites.

From the teaser Blizzard released a while ago, though...  The characters are gorgeous, the environments are lovely, yet the combat looks like any other MMORPG; standing about, taking turns to thwack each other with you numbers doing all of the sweating for you.  You'd think, just for once, that some developer out there could actually MMORPG combat look less static and dull but not WoW; that's for sure -.-
I suppose it wouldn't matter quite as much if MMORPGs didn't revolve so heavily around combat (trade's becoming popular of course but it's usually about making weapons and armour which is... yup, you guessed; combat related! =3 ) but they all are... it's always about the fighting which in itself is entirely lacking in grace or excitement.  If they can make planetside then they can use the PSO combat system... I suggest devs start doing that instead of just having the typical 'omgnumbersandIgettopressabuttoneverycoupleofminutestomakemefeellikeIactuallyhavesomeimput'.

end of rant =P

[Malevolent]

I want in on this one. I've followed this game a little, and I'll always try to beta test a game that looks somewhat interesting.

[Satanic Monkey]

I will try to sign up for this beta , but whether I get in or not , I don't really care. How come Blizzard is focusing on Warcraft , why not a StarCraft mmorpg or even StarCraft 2. I know blizzard is working on StarCraft: Ghost , but come on. Starcraft>WarCraft  B)

[Grimm]

I'm with Satanic Monkey on that one, I very much like the Starcraft story/setting/atmosphere more than the Warcraft stuff. But hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Anyway, its always a good idea to try out a beta of a game to test how the game plays, rather than just judging it on poor quality .avi files. *cough*Gem*cough*  :p

[Geminosity]

~makes faces~
It wasn't poor quality, at least not the one I watched.  Course... if you think that Blizzard decided that for the first ever trailer they were gonna release for the game for thousands of expectant fans on the internet, they were going to pick out the most dull and uninspiring moments of combat to tempt your tastes then my lil observations won't worry you =3

[Grimm]

It wasn't really 'poor quality' as in 'bad', just the compression of the video and such made it look worse than it actually is. I'm still surprised that more game videos aren't set up with that one video program... Blinks or Binks or somethingerother. The one that the Halflife  2 videos are in.

[Grimm]

Signups are started!

og og og!

[Nuketheplace]

And the blizzard website goes down...

I really can't get to the signup page theres that many people.

[Grimm]

Yea, same here =\. Oh well, just let some time pass and  try again later, maybe before I go to bed.

Edit: Or maybe sometime before the end of the week's alloted signup time...

[Forsaken]

I too will be hoping to get accepted into the WoW beta, it looks promising.  My roommate is also beta testing the new super hero mmorpg City of Heroes and it looks very impressive, and a bit of a deviation from the standard camp for the phat loot type of gameplay.

[Grimm]

Yea, the superhero MMO looks pretty spiffy. Theres also a Matrix based MMO in the works, dunno how thats gonna turn out.

First day of WoW signups, the signup link was borked from being hit so hard, then eventually blizzard.com went down for a bit, and I heard that battle.net and the starcraft sites were down too (all on the same server).