EU WoW: Like EuroDisneyLand

The EU WoW Site wrote:

Account Creation Pages Down
11/02/2005
We are aware that some players are facing problems when creating their accounts, especially with regards to the process of payment validation. Due to the heavy load on the system, we are therefore forced to take those pages down temporarily. While the pages are down, those players who have already created an account can continue playing the game. We are investigating the situation and will come back to you with more information as soon as we have it.

Hrm.

Odd. They didn''t have any problem with the NA launch account creations that I heard, and I can''t imagine the Euro launch is bigger.

Numbers are pretty staggering.. its now estimated over 1 million subs worldwide..

Numbers are pretty staggering.. its now estimated over 1 million subs worldwide..

That''s just awesome. Good for Blizzard. Still, I am thinking it''s about time for some new content to be unleashed. Oh, and some bug fixes would be cool. Playing on a low-med pop server, I don''t have it bad, but still.

And give my mage a lvl 60 water spell! And a death star!

Still, I am thinking it''s about time for some new content to be unleashed

they did allready... Maraudon was released about a month and a half ago..

or you mean in addition to that?

Have you finished Strat or UBRS? How about Molten Core?

edit

I am personally jonesing for Battlegrounds...that cant get here soon enough!!

I, too, am disappointed by the amount of new content Blizzard has released. Look at EQ2 for a nice side-by-side comparison, where you''re seeing pages and pages of patch notes every week. If you think EQ2 is a fluke, look at CoH. If you respond that they''re both flukes, DAoC has had lots of subscriber content and patching, too.

WoW hasn''t even managed to get their servers shipshape yet. I''m on a smaller server these days, and I''m still assailed by severe bursts of lag.

Are WoW boxes available in stores again? If not, that''s another strike against them

Yeah, okay, Mauradon.. but what has Blizzard done for me *lately*?

Are you dissapointed by the additional content because you''ve run out of content yourself or are you dissapointed by content because the content patch log e-penis isn''t nearly as big for WoW?

Content logs or even number or size of content added is a meaningless benchmark. The only real benchmark is if you feel there are plenty of things in WoW to do, if not then they need to add more content for someone who plays your playstyle. However, I haven''t heard anyone complain about the lack of things to do until very high level, and it sounds like Battlegrounds fix that.

If you''re not personally having a hard time finding things to do, it''s like complaining that a game that has 80 hours of gameplay should have 100, when you''ve only played 10.

Pyroman, I feel your response was unreasonably harsh. There are things that could and should be done to the game that would very materially affect me beyond content that may or may not be unnecessary to me.

- The above server lag issues, for instance.

- I spent 40 minutes of this weekend shooting and chopping centaurs in half trying to help a guildie with the Counterattack quest. It''s busted.

- Broken mineral nodes. The ones that lock you into a crouch, unable to loot anything, until you either find another node to mine (or, if applicable animal to skin or I imagine herb to gather) or relog.

- Corpse issues. Like having no corpse, or having a corpse after you give up and resurrect. The latter happened to me today, and was merely annoying.. the former is a fairly real problem.

- Enhancements. How about the option to have healing appear as green numbers over people''s heads? No mod can do it, afaik.

This is, of course, just off the top of my head. I''m fairly sure that were I paid to do so and willing to wade through the sewers of the official forums I could come up with a real list.

And this is the sort of thing filling those CoH, EQ2, DAoC, et al patch lists.

- I spent 40 minutes of this weekend shooting and chopping centaurs in half trying to help a guildie with the Counterattack quest. It''s busted.

It''s not busted...thats a rumor spreading around because people aint doing it right.. I admit the quest isnt very clearly worded but its not busted we had some lowbies finish it the other day. Check out the forums I believe someone posted some info about how to finish it.

Are WoW boxes available in stores again? If not, that''s another strike against them

Yes noticed some boxes at my local Compusa yesterday....not sure how widely available it is though.

Yeah, okay, Mauradon.. but what has Blizzard done for me *lately*?

Not sure...but sounds like your past patience...perhaps give EQ2 a try and quit WoW.. that would solve any problems you may have with the game. Or perhaps take a break for a bit and try again in 6-8 months.

- The above server lag issues, for instance.

- I spent 40 minutes of this weekend shooting and chopping centaurs in half trying to help a guildie with the Counterattack quest. It''s busted.

- Broken mineral nodes. The ones that lock you into a crouch, unable to loot anything, until you either find another node to mine (or, if applicable animal to skin or I imagine herb to gather) or relog.

- Corpse issues. Like having no corpse, or having a corpse after you give up and resurrect. The latter happened to me today, and was merely annoying.. the former is a fairly real problem.

- Enhancements. How about the option to have healing appear as green numbers over people''s heads? No mod can do it, afaik.

None of this has anything to do with additional content. I was specifically addressing your disappointment with the quantity of Blizzard''s additional content. If you think the game is buggy, that''s something else entirely, however that''s not what your original post or my post was talking about.

I''ve found the game so far to have TOO MUCH content! There are areas that I''ve travelled through where the quests are all grey, and i wonder to myself, how did i never visit this area? (IE: Astranaar at lvl 40). I think getting to 45-50 is quite easy, as there are many things you can do to get to that point. 50-60 slows down a LITTLE bit, but Maraudon is great for high 40s-low 50s, and once you have exausted that, you''re good to go for BRD. You definitely can spend some time there and in Azshara questing. (keep in mind, this is for Alliance) and Ungoro Crater once you hit 50. After BRD, around 56-57 you can start LBRS, UBRS at 58, Scholo and Strath at 59-60. I''ve also had a LOT of quests in W Plaguelands, E PL, Azshara, Burning Lands.

I guess my point is, I just can''t see that there''s not enough to do. I''ve still to visit the Molten Core, Onyxia''s Lair, and still haven''t killed all the baddies i hope to either. Even going through and doing same instances again really are not that bad! I''m currently working on my complete set of Wildheart (druid epic set). Got the BP and legs so far.

Or how about tradeskills? I know they aren''t a huge payoff, but it''s always something else you can work on. For alchemy, to get some of the higher transmute spells ... 1 is bought in BRD, another in Scholomance, 1 when you get to Honored with Argent Dawn, the other when you get to Honored with Timbermaw Furbolgs.

Or how about the lvl 60 mount you can get from the quest guy in Northern Winterspring? Totally unique mount ...Frostsaber I believe.

Take some time, go explore areas you have not been in!! Me and Dr_Awkward took some time to go explore Deadwind pass, found a HUGE tower in the southern end of the zone which is currently a locked instance. Really cool and kind of freaky zone, and a lot of fun to fill in the map!

So, don''t sell yourself short on the game. Levelling is not the only thing that''s available to you ... there really is a lot. And if all else fails and you get burned out on your current char, start an alt! My hunter alt is only lvl 8.5 but fun so far!

"Pyroman[FO" wrote:

""]If you''re not personally having a hard time finding things to do, it''s like complaining that a game that has 80 hours of gameplay should have 100, when you''ve only played 10.

I don''t think that''s what he''s saying at all. Additionally, if that argument were true then we should never expect MMO designers to create new content because it isn''t feasible for most folks to see every piece of content in the game.

I don''t think ''content'' is the right choice of word here - rather, folks want the game to be dynamic. Whether that be from balancing changes, new content, or something as trivial as a new spell effect.. whatever.

I realize that this is marketing, but from Blizzard''s Feature Page:

A dedicated live team will create a constant stream of new adventures to undertake, lands to explore, and monsters to vanquish. This content ensures that the game will never be the same from month to month, and will continue to offer new challenges and adventures for years to come.

Again, yes, it''s marketing jargon, but it speaks to what we as MMO consumers have come to expect and, thus far, they aren''t delivering like comparable offerings (EQ2 with it''s John Holmes sized e-penis-log-notes).

Pyroman, shrug, then my original post was ambiguous. I apologize for my poor writing skills.

Gameguru, the quest is de facto broken. According to the information provided by the quest, there is no mystery or trick or riddle, you simply kill invaders. Therefore, the information provided by the quest is incomplete or incorrect. Therefore, it''s broken. Period. Being able to make it work by some method someone stumbled across doesn''t make it a quest that is working as intended.

..and I must say that I feel that ordering me to leave the game because I can find something wrong with is unnecessarily hostile.

I do indeed wish my game to be dynamic, as Chum puts it. SOE, Cryptic, Mythic, and others have all figured this out. When is Blizzard going to get it?

Or, to put it another way, if I put my $15 a month into one of those games, I get a stream of bug fixes, enhancements, and new content. What''s Blizzard done to earn February''s $15? Keeping the server up is less service than I''d get elsewhere.

Regarding new content, by the way.. you''ve caught me at a poor time in my current character''s life for such an argument. I''m running a 28 orc hunter, and I''m finding that I have to ignore entire zones that I''ve had quests explicitly send me to in order to remain sane. I''m not even completing the quests I''ve found in Thousand Needles, my current leveling zone, simply because of a very personal playstyle issue: I enjoy standing around repeatedly killing mobs more than the constant walking across the zone mandated by completing quests.. and even so, the quests I have completed have been challenging, fun, and of course new to me. This is why I''m still paying that $15.

On the other hand, I''m off on another server in a guild that''s very different from GWJ (albeit just as friendly and worthwhile).. one where the majority of the players are level 60. I hear them doing the same content over and over and over again, because there''s really a pretty limited selection of content at that level.. and I wonder if they''ll have burned out before I catch up.

And yes, I know, Battlegrounds is a step towards providing some of that.. but it''s not here yet. Actually, they''ve already been simulating battlegrounds - apparently they go to zones such that there''s both an Alliance and Horde flight master and, coordinating via forums and IMs, stage what they call simulated battlegrounds. Which isn''t really relevant to anything, but I do think it''s interesting

..and I must say that I feel that ordering me to leave the game because I can find something wrong with is unnecessarily hostile.

Are you referring to GameGuru''s post of:

perhaps give EQ2 a try and quit WoW

I don''t think he was being hostile at all. It seems as though he was simply suggesting that if WoW isn''t making you happy, try a different game.

Gameguru, the quest is de facto broken. According to the information provided by the quest, there is no mystery or trick or riddle, you simply kill invaders. Therefore, the information provided by the quest is incomplete or incorrect. Therefore, it''s broken. Period. Being able to make it work by some method someone stumbled across doesn''t make it a quest that is working as intended.

I disagree, I just finished that quest with my 23 Orc Warrior. They all(centaurs) come screaming in, you need to keep killing them till the Centaur Warlord shows up, then you kill him, poof quest finished.

Unless of course I missed something and you are playing on the European Servers... but there was nothing tricky about that quest, as far as I could see

Gameguru, the quest is de facto broken. According to the information provided by the quest, there is no mystery or trick or riddle, you simply kill invaders. Therefore, the information provided by the quest is incomplete or incorrect. Therefore, it''s broken. Period. Being able to make it work by some method someone stumbled across doesn''t make it a quest that is working as intended.

..and I must say that I feel that ordering me to leave the game because I can find something wrong with is unnecessarily hostile.

I do indeed wish my game to be dynamic, as Chum puts it. SOE, Cryptic, Mythic, and others have all figured this out. When is Blizzard going to get it?

Hmm...I''m trying to put this nicely.. the games been out for what 4 frickin months? I''m pretty sure Blizzard is right along the lines of everyone else who did their first product. Give them a break.

Besides.. added content and bug fixes hardly qualifies as Dynamic.. they are simply adding static new content or balancing fixes. IMO there are ZERO MMOG''s that can qualify as being Dynamic.. Horizons came the closest.

I didnt order you to do anything.. I suggest that if you were so unhappy with the game that you should try another product.. afterall they seem to be doing exactly the things you want done.

Why pay to play something you dont find worthwhile?? Its a pretty bizzare idea if you ask me.

I stated about the quest that the wording was not clear..but in itself the Quest is not broken Blizzard simply needs to clean up the description....and for the record theres a few more quests like that where the description is wrong or vague enough that if your not experimenting you may think the quest is broken. I''m sure Blizzard will get around to fixing them.. but I would hope their giving the other more important issues priority.

"Svald" wrote:

Gameguru, the quest is de facto broken. According to the information provided by the quest, there is no mystery or trick or riddle, you simply kill invaders. Therefore, the information provided by the quest is incomplete or incorrect. Therefore, it''s broken. Period. Being able to make it work by some method someone stumbled across doesn''t make it a quest that is working as intended.

Are we thinking of the same quest? Here''s part of the Thottbot entry on Counterattack!:

Face the Kolkar invaders, and end their threat in the Barrens. Kill them until their leader, Warlord Krom''zar, appears. Defeat him and bring me a piece of his banner as proof.

That seems pretty complete to me, though I could be wrong. You guys realized the centaurs attacked in two different groups, and that Krom''zar isn''t constrained to appear in the same group every time, right? Or was that the trick you were referring to?

"Svald" wrote:

..and I must say that I feel that ordering me to leave the game because I can find something wrong with is unnecessarily hostile.

Guru can be abrasive at times, but all he made was a valid suggestion, and a politely worded one, at that. If the game makes you miserable, or if you feel that you''re being ripped off, then why not try something else? It''s not like WoW is the only show in town. I don''t see how that was hostile.

Gameguru, let me try saying the same thing a number of different ways in a row:

I want my MMORPG to have a big patch notes e-peen.

I want the standing, known bugs to be fixed.

I want to see developer effort put into the game beyond merely keeping the servers up.

I want bug fixes, game enhancements and, yes, new content would be nice.

I want stuff to change, for the game to be dynamic, if you will allow me the use of that word.

I want to get the same level of service for $15 a month in WoW that I''d get for $15 a month in numerous other MMORPGs.

That concludes the list, and those *should* all read as essentially the same aspect of the game to you at this point. That''s what I want. Not some illusionary ''dynamic''ness that Horizons has. I want the lengthy list of bug fixes and stuff accomplished that *most* other MMORPGs have.

I shoudl cut Blizzard some slack? Well, consider City of Heroes.

Cryptic is a relatively small and new company, and they were breaking truly new ground with City of Heroes. (Offhand list: setting, sidekicking, allowing vertical movement, exceptionally high degree of character ability customizetion. And more!) World of Warcraft is being developed by one of the most famed companies in the gaming business, and is, much more than CoH, a refinement of what has come before.

Four months into City of Heroes'' history puts us at Issue 2, their second *huge* patch. They''d also released pages and pages of ''minor'' patches by then, of course. Blizzard''s record isn''t even comparable.

Blizzard is a legend of the gaming industry, they''ve been around for years, and their game has four or five times as much money pouring into it as Cryptic''s does. And yet they''re being outperformed, in this particular regard.

You say I should give Blizzard a break. Why? If anything, Cryptic deserves the break - they had a tougher and more rawly experimental game to work with, with far less resources.. and in this regard, their record simply crushes Blizzard''s.

Regarding whether I''m enjoying the game, I wrote a paragraph about how I''m enjoying my 28 orc hunter, I consider the topic closed, thank you. City of Heroes, DAoC, etc all have faults too.. and I discussed those while I was enjoying those games. Just because I enjoy a game doesn''t mean it''s perfect.

If the information available in-game is insufficient to complete the quest, and it''s not a deliberate puzzle, the quest is broken. You could instead say ""the quest text is broken"", but I feel that that is functionally equivalent. Regarding the ''just kill centaurs'' solution, by the way.. I was 26 when we did this, so I was able to hack and shoot level 16-18 centaurs apart pretty darn quickly. My guildie estimated afterwards that we were killing 10 centaurs a minute. For 40 minutes.

Buzzvang, both groups got slaughtered liberally. The previously mentioned guildie has successfully completed the quest in the past, so we were aware that the named mob could appear in either location and that both groups of centaurs needed killing.

Buzzvang, both groups got slaughtered liberally. The previously mentioned guildie has successfully completed the quest in the past, so we were aware that the named mob could appear in either location and that both groups of centaurs needed killing.

Then I stand corrected.

Wait wait, it''s a *good* thing a new game had to release two ""huge"" patches in four months? Blizzard''s bugs are annoying but not gamebreaking and the fact they haven''t had to release huge patches since retail is a commendation to their QA and beta process I think. Yes, there a few broken quests, some abilties that need fixing and they are fixing. But stability fixes outweigh the others, and I think rightly so.

Hell, I tried to do the gather 5 kodos quest in Desolace for like 45 minutes and could never get it to work, later finding out it was broken. Annoying definitely, but at least I didn''t spend 45 minutes in a queue or with server downtime that night.

I guess all I''m saying is let''s not blame a company A for not releasing a patch that fixes 50 things, just because company B did. Maybe company B has 500 bugs, while company A only has 25. It''s not apples-to-apples.

Buzz, for what it''s worth, according to said guildie you''re absolutely right - doing that *should* complete the quest. Neither he nor I know what went wrong. Thanks for providing the correct answer.

LeapingGnome, this is why I provided handy, conveniently available in this thread examples of common bugs and an enhancement Blizzard could provide us with.

However, CoH''s patches weren''t just bug fixes.

Issue 1 included two new zones, a new trial (roughly equivalent to a WoW instance), instanced outdoor missions, the ability to change your costume, and three new villain groups.

Issue 2 included what they call two new zones.. but the Shadow Shard itself is actually four, and the Hollows is two.. another two villain groups, three trials, new mission artwork, capes, auras, and the entire badge system. *scrolls down some more* Oh! And it allowed instant transfers of inspirations, improved the enhancement UI, vastly improved the LFG system..

Blizzard, meanwhile, hasn''t gotten around to implementing a LFG system that''s even as good as the one that came with CoH at release.

And they have four times the money pouring in.

And the servers still lag for thirty seconds at a time.

Svlad, I''ll be the first to admit I''ve never played a MMOG before WoW, so I can''t compare. All I''m saying is it''s not right to say Game A must be better because they have a 200 fix patch while Game B only has a 20 fix patch.

Yeah CoH released all that after a month,

However, just to fan the fires of discussion....

Up to level 25 in CoH

CoH had about 5 different instance templates.
CoH had about 10 different mob models.
How long was the Dr. Vahzaloc(sp) Plauge quest bugged for( still was when I left the game).
How long were the trials bugged, that if the leader left the group the trial collapsed.
New mission artwork = sliding doors in the lab missions.
3-4Mission types
kill n street mobs
door instance
fedex( talk to contact x )

you say that Blizzard has not released big long content patches as opposed to CoH''s. I would say that CoH had to in order to keep people entertained in a shallow static world. I would argue that WoW has 10 times the content that CoH has today.

Don''t get me wrong CoH was a fantastic game, in fact the best part ofthe game was creating and customizing characters. It was great for about the first 3 months, then it became even more of a grind then EQ or DAOC ever was.

I think Blizzard should not be compared with Cryptic because WoW has 8 times the load burden that CoH has. Also, WoW has been out for 2.5 or 2.67 months and not 4.

It would be nice for Blizzard to add a little kick to the game but not necessary. I have completely dominated the Alliance side quests for 1-25 save for the Gnome and Dwarf area. I have put 9 characters through the paces of 1-22 on the Alliance side, including 4-5 more that attained level ~16. I am at about 70% mastery on the 1-20 areas on the Horde side. I have leveled 2 characters to the 20''s on the Horde side one Warlock to 16, and one Rogue to 13.

I have put as much time or more into this game as any of the level 60 characters that are bored or frustrated with the high end game. I insist they have no basis for complaining about lack of content. Where they err is in thinking that getting to level 60 is completing the game. Like I said above, I have spent as much or more time in this game as they have and I still have 2/3 more levels to explore on both Horde and Alliance side. I have completed 4 out of the, how many, 15 instances?

Especially if your character is a 60 Paladin or Rogue, you have not even begun to get a taste for the classes. I have much more respect for Atrocities or Strekos, in that they have leveled a Priest and Warlock respectively to the high levels, soloing alot, than I do for someone who relishes in taking their 60 Rogue in to slaughter the IF bankers because he is bored with everything there is to do.

At best, it could be argued a level 60 character has seen half the game. If you refuse to start an Alt on the opposing faction, you have no right to complain of lack of content. Note I didnt say, that the player doesnt want to do it. I said if they refuse they cant complain.

I want my MMORPG to have a big patch notes e-peen.

I''m sorry you lost me there..

Your beyond reasonable complaining when your complaints include the fact that Blizzard doenst have to patch or change as many things as other companies and thats a BAD thing.

I''m breaking this out 2 times in about 1 week... I dont think thats a good sign..

IMAGE(http://gameguru.shackspace.com/megarolleyes.gif)

Svlad, GG does this anytime anybody says ANYTHING about WoW. You can get riled up about it... or look at the source and laugh.

Blizzard Europe have issued a statement this afternoon announcing that the servers are reaching capacity and queues are now appearing as we have seen on the North American servers.
As new players from all over Europe are eagerly logging on to our realms in great numbers, those realms are showing the first signs of reaching their maximum capacity. We are aware of queues on some highly populated realms (as Illidan (FR), Eredar (DE), Ravencrest (EN)); these queues happen when a realm reaches its maximum number of concurrent players. We recommend that those players wishing to create new characters do it on a lower populated realm. In addition, if you are planning to create a guild, please ask your guild's members to join you on low populated realms.You can find the currently recommended Realms below.

PvP Servers: Dunemail, Dragonmaw and Deathwing.
PvE Servers: Any server

We''d like to thank you in advance for helping to achieve best possible game experience for everyone. We are already working on expanding the current number of available realms to further reduce waiting times and improve the situation.

In related server news, apparently the EU sign-up page is bugged again (thanks Krollin) and it appears the EU forums have been wiped.

Looks like they didn''t learn their lesson from the NA launch.

CoH WAS ground breaking, and DID update regularly.

How many of us are still playing it?

I''m happy with my WoW, thank you very much.

The only thing I miss from CoH that WoW doesn''t have are the attack effects. They were so damn nice looking.