World of Warcraft open beta signups live--sort of!

[Pielorinho]

Ah well--worth a try! I read a post from Blizzard today saying that they thought the open beta would begin today, so I'm still guessing it will.

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

It's he-e-e-re! For some reason, Fileplanet is saying there's a limited number of keys, which doesn't sound very open-beta-like to me. And WoW's beta page is down. But it looks like you can go to FilePlanet right now and get into the beta for free--once their servers quit crashing due to the entirely unexpected overload .

Daniel

 

[EricNoah]

I'm there ... and, as you report, it's crashing! and as reported, www.worldofwarcraft.com is also down! Yipee, let the frenzy begin!

 

[EricNoah]

The fileplanet.com keys are gone!

 

[Angcuru]

The keys are gone? Guess Blizzard only wanted so many people one their servers or something. I mainly got into the beta to make sure I wanted to invest in playing this game. After an hour of play, I pre-ordered the Special Collector's Edition from Amazon. So much neat stuff.....I pity them Everquesters.

Oh, and I'm playing as Thordar, a gray-bearded dwarven hunter on Test 3.

 

[LazarusLong42]

Well, I got my key, and I'm still in the process of downloading. Which doesn't surprise me. Now I have to figure out how to easily get 2.5 GB of information from work to home... or re-download at home, which seems more likely. Thankfully, I have cable...

Matt: I'm going to use the beta period to evaluate whether I'm willing to pay $10/month to play this. This'd be my first MMORPG.

EN: Good luck getting your key; FilePlanet had a limited number of keys, but Blizzard is *supposed* to have gobs more... of course, their servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. 2 AM may be your best bet...

 

[mattcolville]

Oh, and Matt, I totally think you're saying that because you've been playing for months . I'm one of the goobers that paid an extra eight bucks to get into the game seven days early.

Blizzard has said that the open beta will be the same core game as the one you buy in the box come retail; although you'll need to buy the gamebox in order to get a key for playing it, you won't need to reinstall or re-download the game if you're in the beta.

Daniel

I don't believe that's the case. I know some of the guys at Blizzard and according to them, you will have to reinstall.

 

[Pielorinho]

Matt, that may be--but I'm almost certain I've read official notices on the WoW boards that you wouldn't have to reinstall. It may just be that the programmers and the PR people aren't understanding one another; if Blizzard has a weakness, surely it's with their pre-game PR department .

Lazarus, make sure you're evaluating on the right cost: if you buy six months at a time, I think it'll be $13/month. Month-by-month will be $15.

Daniel

 

[Captain Tagon]

Well now I'm having a problem installing DirectX, so that isn't working. Everytime I try to upgrade it in order to play the game, it says a cabinet file can't be trusted.

 

[Pielorinho]

Matt, I just double-checked: Blizzard's response to my question was

No, you will not have to install from the CD at retail if you have a patched up beta client. You will still need to purchase a box to create an account at retail, however.

Daniel