Archive for November, 2004



A thousand pictures

Following up what I wrote last night, I’m adding a couple of pictures and information of what happened on World of Warcraft Open Beta’s last day.

As I signed in, a lot of people were talking about Onyxia, which is some kind of dragon that Blizzard introduced days before the announcement of the end of Open Beta. There was this competition in which people were challenged to get into her lair, beat all the bosses and her. I doubt someone could get her but I might get the information after Blizzard announces it. It was being said that she was attacking Stormwind’s Keep, I went there but it seems I was late, there were no NPCs, a few corpses and, I could get to see one of her guards (dead, tho). I heard that there were several raids in several places that night.

111804-01

Pretty big… isn’t it? I’ve never seen dragons dragons (I’ve seen small ones only), but they should be scary :P Last night a guildmate also gave me some items that increases armor.. hehe, thanks, Xandera :D

111804-02

I couldn’t miss the chance of getting naked with all that people around ;)

111804-03

Then I switched to my rogue, that was in Ironforge. There were people gathered in front of the bank (as always… lol) and most of them were dancing, so I joined them. If you notice… I’m naked as well :P /train

111804-04

It’s not the first time I see this, but this dude was in some skeleton morph. I’m guessing it’s some kind of potion. It’s funny, they also dance like undeads (if not wrong).

111804-05

Couldn’t stop myself of showing myself as well :P /strong

111804-06

I took a picture of how my rogue looks, had to edit it a bit because it was taken during night so it was rather dark. If you notice, he has my guild’s tabard (Arsenal), and he’s standing in front of Ironforge’s Entrance (Main Hall if not wrong).

111804-07

About his stats, here’s were he was standing. He was created on late september on Closed Beta.

111804-08

Now with my hunter, that was located on Stormwind. I took the screenshot in front of all the statues (the dwarf one, of course ;) ). Ironically, my rogue was in Ironforge and my dwarf was in Stormwind, I think it would have been better if dwarf in Stormwind and Night Elf on Darnassus, :P The picture of him was edited as well.

111804-09

And his stats. He also has the tabard. I think he was created a week or a bit more ago.

111804-10

I didn’t hunt last night or anything like that. In fact, I went to bed @ 12am, which is kinda early :P

[Official] Beta Ending

Posted in WorldofWarcraft.com:

In preparation for the upcoming retail launch of World of Warcraft, we will be taking the North American open beta servers offline on Thursday, November 18. While this will mark the end of the open beta test, there will still be some work left for us to do. To provide the best experience possible at launch, we will be making numerous final optimizations to our hardware based on the data we’ve acquired during the open beta test.

During our closed and open beta test phases, thousands of improvements were made to World of Warcraft. Those changes were made through game-client patches and updates to the game’s server and database infrastructure.

As we moved closer to retail, we continued to make changes and optimize all of the code that makes up World of Warcraft until we reached the point where we felt we could create a gold master — the version of the game that’s currently being pressed onto the discs which will be available for purchase at retail.

Likewise, these processes must also take place on the server side to ensure that no out-of-date code, which could corrupt the retail version of the game, still exists. Before the retail version of the code can be installed, the current hardware must be wiped clean. This also includes the information on current accounts and characters that are being played on our test servers. So that all World of Warcraft players will be able to make a fresh start on our community site at launch, the same procedure will be taking place for the North American beta forums when the open beta test ends.

We realize that you’ve grown attached to your characters, and we’re sorry that the end of the open beta test will require you to part ways with them. However, with the retail launch of World of Warcraft on November 23 comes the opportunity to begin a new adventure in Azeroth on fresh, untouched servers. Along with that, you’ll have the knowledge that you played an instrumental role in the creation of a game of epic proportions that players will enjoy for many years to come.

We greatly appreciate all the time you’ve spent with us testing World of Warcraft, and we look forward to seeing you in-game!

Please note that this does not affect the ongoing European closed beta test. Further details regarding our plans for the closed and final beta tests in Europe will be announced on the European community sites next week.

As I was arriving to home after college, a few hours ago, my brother told me about this. When I was able to play … didn’t really feel like it :( I took a couple of screenshots of people that were dancing, prolly I’ll post them tomorrow. No word yet on what will happen with the servers and the localized rules… I’m still not sure if I’ll be allowed to play (even tho I live in what is commonly known in US as South America, but it’s really Central America). There are a lot of fights (but I have bad graphic lag on them so it would be frustrating), and seems that Onyxia hit Stormwind as well a while ago (I could take a screenshot of the corpse of one of her guards, tho).

At least these days I’ll be able to sleep ;) I still hope I can make it to retail, tho, as I’ve said before, I’m interested in getting the CE :) As for now, my highest character is a level 38 Night Elf Rogue, which was created at the end of december. Joined Closed Beta by those times (thanks, Slat), got a second character up to 26 as well (which is my dwarf hunter).

Retail plans, “if” I’m allowed to play (that’s the most important thing right now) on US Servers, I’m prolly going to be on Alliance’s Side. It’s uncertain which would be the server because, as far as I know, Blizzard haven’t released them, yet. They took the boards down because, IMO, they knew a lot of people would be posting… :(

Anyways, if I got a chance tomorrow I’ll post a couple of pictures.

Before I end this post I have to thank Slatsky (Slatter) and also all of Arsenal’s Crew. This blog isn’t going to die… well, Blizzard has the last word on that, tho. Ahhh, hopefully I can make it to retail =/

NO TO LOCALIZED SERVER RULES!!

/pray

PS: There’s always a good side of everything… at least I’m going to sleep early today! /lol ;) :P

Update: I forgot to thank Blizzard as well, for creating such an awesome game that will certainly be a hit (that is, more without the localization rules *cough *cough ;) ). I may not have a lot of experience on MMORPGs like people out there, but it’s one of the best games I’ve played up-to-date. Beats the previous MMORPG I used to play by far (which is Lineage).