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Role Playing (Games)

World of Warcraft Details Announced 51

Posted by Zonk from the oh-look-a-bear dept.
Warcry has some final details as the World of Warcraft launch looms closer. Pricing for WoW has finally been nailed down, with discounts going to folks who purchase more than one month at a time. There are also sneak peeks available, including footage from the special edition DVD and images from the Brady Games strategy guide. The guide includes Penny Arcade strips that illustrate game concepts. On character names: "I'm really sorry, Xaxziminrax. I tried to warn you, but I couldn't type your name in time. - 'Oh look, it's a bear' might also have worked."
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World of Warcraft Details Announced More

World of Warcraft Details Announced

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  • Why not link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 22, 2004 @12:48PM (#10889603)
    To the actual World of Warcraft FAQ [worldofwarcraft.com] than to some random news site that just quotes it?

  • and I'm waiting to sign up! (Score:3, Funny)

    by feed_those_kitties ( 606289 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @12:54PM (#10889668)
    I'm sitting here at work hitting 'refresh' on http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/

    So far just a bunch of 404s, but I've got my fingers crossed.

    • Unless you've already got your CD key in hand, you're probably wasting your time, considering you needed one for each of the beta phases (except for open maybe).

      If you DO have yours in hand, where'd you get it? I can cancel my preorder.

      -9mm-
      • Nope, no cd key yet. :-(

        I would *think* that the signup is by your login, since you can play on multiple machines (that would probably have different cd keys installed on them.)

        Tomorrow is going to be a fun day. *grin*

        • I would *think* that the signup is by your login, since you can play on multiple machines (that would probably have different cd keys installed on them.)

          Doubtful. Open Beta required a key to create an account. WoW accounts have access to the game servers and the ability to post on their web site.

          More than likely, they are more concerned that each account has a CD key rather than each PC that has the software loaded. It's not possible to play without logging into their servers, so why would they care if
      • Some stores have broken the release date, and many of the online vendors were apparantly permitted to ship pre-orders in a fashion to have them arrive on release day. This means that people who chose overnight shipping do already have their boxes, for all the good it does them before the servers go live.
    • The URL for signing up is:

      http://signup.worldofwarcraft.com/

      Just FYI. It'll hopefully be online by 8:30 AM EST, when I get home from Fry's with my copy.

  • $12.99 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anusien ( 705743 ) <anusien@hotma i l . c om> on Monday November 22, 2004 @12:58PM (#10889694)
    The cheapest possible rate they offer is $12.99/month for 6 months. I remember back when Evercrack was less than $10 a month for a similar package. Will they really keep it going with enough content to be worth that much? Most people I know that play MMOGs drop them after 2-3 months because they get boring.
    • The worst part is spending $50.00 or (iirc) $80.00 for the collectors edition.

      If your going to charge a monthly fee, at least provide the client software for free.

      Or at least have an option to download the client and purchase a key at a reduced rate for those that don't want another box lying around the house.

      • Re:That's not the worst part (Score:5, Insightful)

        by servognome ( 738846 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:17PM (#10889895)
        The worst part is spending $50.00 or (iirc) $80.00 for the collectors edition.
        I just accept this as the price you pay for early adoption. Same as paying $300 for a PS2 to have it the day it came out, when I can get it for half now.
        Wait a couple months the price will drop, wait a couple years and there will be a free client.
        • The worst part is spending $50.00 or (iirc) $80.00 for the collectors edition.

          I just accept this as the price you pay for early adoption.

          Normal game economics don't quite work with some Blizzard products. Diablo II is still taking up retail shelf space at $20-30 a pop four years after its release. Now I hope WoW comes down in price after a while, but realistically I expect it will hold full retail value for 1-2 years minimum.

      • The collectors edition comes with a free month, so it only costs $65.

      • Re:That's not the worst part (Score:5, Interesting)

        by macrom ( 537566 ) <macrom75@hotmail.com> on Monday November 22, 2004 @02:04PM (#10890289) Homepage
        MMORPG Economics 101 :

        The price of the game at launch covers the costs to develop them game over the last n years.

        The monthly subscription covers the cost of maintaining the game and adding content as time goes on.

        EverQuest breaks these laws by charging for expansions every y months.

        • The price of the game at launch covers the costs to develop them game over the last n years.

          Thats the official line. I would say that it a combination of habit and psychology.
          "If you're giving the game away it must not be any good"
          and
          "Well I already paid $50 for this, I need to subscribe to get my money's worth"
        • The price of the game at launch covers the costs to develop them game over the last n years.
          With MMORPGs that is rarly the case. As a general rule the software company is going to get between $15-$18 per box sold in the store, rest going to the store and the distributer. Most MMORPGs cost around $20 million to make, EQ2 cost in the $30 million range for initial setup and development, CoH cost in the $15 million range.
          So to break even on a $20 million game at $15 a box back is going to require 1,333,334
      • How do you have that option i was in the last beta but i never heard of anthing like that?
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Do you really want to compare the two?

          With HDTV, the box is manufactured by a party other than my content provider. And all the content is provided by a multitud of parties other than my content provider.

          When looked at thusly, my content provider is just the tapeworm getting fat of everyone elses efforts.

      • If your going to charge a monthly fee, at least provide the client software for free.

        Or at least don't charge the same damned inflated price as games that I can play without relying on Blizzard deciding WoW is still profitable to run. The excuse used to price games so ridiculously high is 'piracy' - where is the piracy for an online sub-based game?

        But let me say this, and hope that someone at Blizzard is actually reading it: When I go to the game store with a hard-earned $50, and I have to choose betwe

  • WoW (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Alcimedes ( 398213 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @12:58PM (#10889695)
    So, this is actually going to be the first MMPORG I sign up for. It was a little more level dependant than I would have liked, but fact is this is what peopel are going to be playing.

    Not to mention it was a lot of fun in the Beta, and they have both PC and Mac clients. That's pretty much all I needed from an MMPORG. Now to see if I stick with it.
  • Here's the link to the collector's edition sneak peak. [worldofwarcraft.com]

    Why the heck does "Warcry" get linked to? It looks like it isn't even run by Blizzard.

  • A warning on the strategy guide! (Score:5, Informative)

    by MWoody ( 222806 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @01:13PM (#10889856)
    If you buy the strategy guide, make sure you do it for the Penny Arcade stuff. In terms of being an actual guide, it's crap. Information is incomplete or outdated, and typos are at a one-per-page ratio AT LEAST. And we're talking really obvious stuff, like sentences ending halfway through and such, or huge chart titles in colored title plaques being mispelled: "Enchanments". And boy was I surprised to learn, having played the open beta, that I was losing XP when I died and Tauren have to quest for Plainsrunning (both these features were taken out several versions ago), among numerous other inaccuracies.

    In short: this guide was put together EXTREMELY quickly, long before the final version of the game, and it shows. BOY, does it show. Use http://worldofwarcraft.com for info on classes, races, etc., and avoid this book.

    ...unless you want the PA cartoons; those are quite funny.

    • well ... seriously, what do you expect? the guide obviously had to be finished before the beta test is near completion. blizzard will still make major changes, i'm sure, for years to come. look at Diablo 2. it barely resembles the game it was when it was released. strategy guides are useless for this type of game.

      having said that, i AM gonna buy it anyway, for the Penny Arcade strips =(
      • Yes, but still, there's no excuse for its horrible quality, even excusing the fact that the information is outdated. I mean, seriously, you'll see it once you get it: you can't go a page without a serious typographical error of some sort. The sort of things a high school student would catch on his first read-through of the rough draft.
  • Any announcements on Latin Americans being able to play in U.S. or other international servers? It seems we got stuck in limbo with only U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia being included.
    • I'm from South America, and I'm buying the standard edition from US via a seller at eBay. He's also selling the timecards, and is going to mail me the keys needed to play the game ( I already have the beta client installed), so I dont have to pay ~40$ on Shipping and handling.
      • Just FYI, but between closed beta and open beta, you had to download a new version. Not sure what kind of integrity check they're enforcing, but you'll likely need the installable media in order to play, or at least have someone upload it for you.

        -9mm-
        • According to some posts from Blizzard in the beta forums, you can use the beta client in retail. I've managed to find one [worldofwarcraft.com] of the posts.

          -prator
          • Yeah, the open beta client will work for the released game providing you create an account with the cd-key you bought in the store. The real question is going to be wether or not Blizzard filters ISPs by netblock.
            • They already said that you only need to have US billing address to play...if you are from US , living in another country, you can play in the US servers. So, I really doubt it. Only thing I'm worried about is that they require a CC to redeem the free month of gameplay when you sign up, or some other kind of address verification.

  • World of Warcraft (Score:5, Informative)

    by linzeal ( 197905 ) on Monday November 22, 2004 @03:40PM (#10891240) Journal
    You can click on anybody's name in text chat and it will respond to them in a tell (/t). So long as you are communicating with them in the first place or at least hearing thme it is easy to communicate with them.

    By the way, community-run guides [thottbot.com] usually do much better over the long term than paper guides anyways.

    For those interested it looks like Blizzard has also brought the World of Warcraft world to the pen and paper set [amazon.com], for those old-schoolers out there.

  • Will have it on the shelves at 12am 11/23/04. The sad part is, all I have is a wal-mart, or buy online...

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