Can someone please post this in the unreachable land of the whiney children? This place is also known as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft closed beta forums. I have never seen so many unintelligent children complaining about nothing.
The main issue is the aspect of the release date and the game being “Not Finished”. Anyone who says that WoW is not finished enough for release must have never even played an MMORPG before. Out of every MMORPG I have ever played I found one that loaded and ran without a noticeable problem, that was FFXI. This was only because it was live for over a year in Japan prior to its North American release.
I played the stress test, WoW was ready for release then, if not before. For all of you beta “testers” out there, a beta test is designed to evaluate the basic functions of gameplay and balance, that is all. If the core program functions, a game may release completely unbalanced, then be fixed later. This creates problems, but as many of us who have played other MMORPGs know, it is very common. Blizzard decided to take a few extra steps on this, and have managed to create what should prove to be the best product in this genre to date. Beta does in no way involve an evolution to a perfect product.
Most MMORPGS are brutal at launch. Although this is changing, I remember AO at release; it was insane, completely insane. When you zoned you might spawn in the middle of the next zone. Crafting combinations given in quests would not work. In game quests and content were broken, or timed out at 20 hours instead of the intended 20 minuets. And yet with all these flaws, they got the game under control in a few months. Nerfs were rampant, and skills were taken, then given, then taken. It was a problem and many more arose, but overall they were successful. Now this game has enjoyed nearly 4 years of global success, winning industry awards, and maintaining a spot in the top 10 rated games at MMORPG.com. They also had an ongoing test server and that place was a web of Swiss cheese, from here they completed the patching prior to releasing it to the main server, kind of a continuous beta. Problems in a beta are numerous, and that’s the way betas are supposed to go. Once the problems stop the game or patch is released.
Betas are not for the select few to wander around ganking each other, or complaining that their cape doesn’t come in blue. These are the petty complaints you meet after release. Beta testers should be falling through the earth, creating craft items from a bugged combination of items, discovering then reporting exploits, and testing all the quest content for holes. I think the children need to reprioritize their gameplay. If this game is truly doomed stop complaining and start debugging. Your petty ganking complaints do no good, your “this game is not ready” is useless unless you point to a specific game mechanic that is missing. An example would be, my warrior lost his attack ability when I equipped this set of chainmail, not some rant about undervalued talents (I played fine without them in stress test on many characters). Even if some game content does not meet your expectations the only important beta function is that the content functions as it is intended to. Does the –10% mana trait really work on every spell? DO YOU EVEN CARE? From what I see, it does not look like it. Most of you are too busy complaining about how the Druid’s heal traits might be a little tiny bit better than the Priests’. How about you priests shut up and think, “Gosh we have talents, there are classes in this game who don’t have any traits yet, I think they are more important than my arrogant little butt.” Copy and paste this to every petty complaint there is.
A game has to function at release, every MMORPG is bound to have problems, that’s half the reasoning behind patching. The other half being content. If the core program of the game works ship it, everything after that is finesse, a pure bonus to those who pay for the game. It is also a good way to increase sales, but eventually the risk/reward ratio says just ship it.
Lastly I hate you all. Those of you who complain constantly got into a game that has probably been the most anticipated even in computer gaming history and you don’t even care. You sit back and complain untouched on your mighty throne not paying for the game, and not caring about how your actions effect any but yourselves. I hope that not a one of you end up in the live game as you really don’t belong there.
There, now read that and flame me to death you worthless masses. I could care less what your opinion is and honestly no one else does either. Blizzard succeeded in making a game it will be wildly successful because it is what people want to see. They could have released without talents, they could have released with ¼ the content they have now but they didn’t. They made a good decision to add this as it will allow for a much better out of the box experience, but the game is, and has been ready for a commercial release for months now.
With all this being said, I know there are great numbers of players out there who have dedicated themselves to making this a better experience. They have tested many of the monotonous parts of game design while the children touting the windmills with their power, or grief killing for no reason but their own sadistic pleasure. Spending 14 hours at the alchemists’ table testing every plant combination is beta testing, spending weeks on a PvP server killing those 30 levels below you is not. Those of you who have honestly tested the game and its content, you are our heroes. You are the silent few whose voices should have been heard over the clamor of children. The quality of the stress test speaks wonders of your effort and Blizzards dedication. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
That’s it for me. I do hope someone posts this in the unreachable forums, as the voices of reason have been denied a chance to respond within those forums for too long.