How will the FP fiasco change your perception of Blizzard?

[Stangonline]

Just curious if the way the "early" stress test beta has been handled will make you more critical of WOW after retail?

Will it lessen your tolerance for bugs? Will it change the overal length of time that you would subscribe to WOW?

[Khal'jur]

Somehow it makes me want WoW even more :cheesy:

[1have2much3time]

Not a worldwide release...

Forced servers...

All racial traits might make it into release...

Pay to play stress test... !

It's been going down for a while for me, but i'm not a dreamer and i know Blizzard isn't the perfect company everyone seems to believe they are. I will be super critical of bugs/expolits/cheaters/delayed patches/etc. anyway because i'm gonna be paying per month for the game.

~1have2much3time

[Stangonline]

Somehow it makes me want WoW even more :cheesy:
Yeah, I want it too. It goes to show, if you want to pull off some shady deal - at least make it easy for people to give you their money. When you are shady AND incompetent, people get pissed.

[Stangonline]

Not a worldwide release...

Forced servers...

All racial traits might make it into release...

Pay to play stress test... !

It's been going down for a while for me, but i'm not a dreamer and i know Blizzard isn't the perfect company everyone seems to believe they are. I will be super critical of bugs/expolits/cheaters/delayed patches/etc. anyway because i'm gonna be paying per month for the game.

~1have2much3time

I guess thats my point. Having a few bugs and perceiving Bliz as a great company that does everything they can to help you out makes you tolerant. Garbage like this, I believe, changes the perception of Blizzard for a lot of people and could change overall subscription lengths, espcially if there are any bugs to work out.

Jeff

[billobob]

Er, how is the FP fiasco BLIZZARD's problem? It seems to be a FilePlanet issue to me. If anything, this is a good sign, because it shows how overwhelming demand for WoW is. I remember that there was a similar option where you could subscribe to FilePlanet to get into Lineage 2 closed beta, and response to that was fairly small.

[krazor]

I dont put too much blame on Blizzard for this. Sure they made it so that fileplanet subscribers only can get in the stress test but they are having a free open beta in about a week. No one is making you pay your money to file planet. Blizzard needed help distributing the file for the final stress test so theyy turned to fileplanet. Now if Blizzard decided, "Hey, lets make the open beta only for subscribers and make people pay," then youd have something to be angry about. If anyone is most to blame its fileplanet, not Blizzard, for not giving instant access and keys and such. Also, everyone who went to fileplanet is a little to blame cause if thousands of people hadnt signed up at once, their servers wouldnt have crashed (not that that much difference though, fp should have been prepared for the masses of people who would sign up). If you cant wait 7 more days (think, youve already waited 4 years) and decided to pay, thats your choice. No one is forcing you.

[Hydro]

Because of this fiasco I will not be posting at this forums anymore. I will be giving the rest of my CB time away. I will be cancelling my pre-order, and will never buy another Blizzard game.
Ciao, it was nice posting here, but I am gone forever.

[Drannok]

I already had an account with FP and in about an hour and a half I had my cd-key. Now all I'm doing is waiting for the download to complete. Probably will be done by tomorrow morning and I'll be good to go, woohoo. Sorry for those that are still waiting for cd-keys but hopefully FP will hand them out to you. I personally have never had problems with FP before. I myself do not put blame on Blizzard for this because they have nothing to do with the billing process for FP. I agree with Krazor... no one is forcing you to pay. I also think that it was FP and not Blizzard who made the ST available to only subscribers.

[Arioch]

You missed an option: "No -- I had no trouble downloading the game, and am ready to play."

[Stangonline]

I dont put too much blame on Blizzard for this. Sure they made it so that fileplanet subscribers only can get in the stress test but they are having a free open beta in about a week. No one is making you pay your money to file planet. Blizzard needed help distributing the file for the final stress test so theyy turned to fileplanet. Now if Blizzard decided, "Hey, lets make the open beta only for subscribers and make people pay," then youd have something to be angry about. If anyone is most to blame its fileplanet, not Blizzard, for not giving instant access and keys and such. Also, everyone who went to fileplanet is a little to blame cause if thousands of people hadnt signed up at once, their servers wouldnt have crashed (not that that much difference though, fp should have been prepared for the masses of people who would sign up). If you cant wait 7 more days (think, youve already waited 4 years) and decided to pay, thats your choice. No one is forcing you.

I've been in project management too long to simply blame fileplanet. This was/is a money making scheme. The popularity alone would have filled up the FP "Free" servers to the point that people would have subscribed to get it early without feeling screwed. Now, we've subscribed, AND we have to wait longer than the typical non-subscriber waits for other popular downloads.
From a project management standpoint - B and FP should have come to some kind of SLA (service level agreement) before hand. If they didn't, Blizzard dropped the ball because its not only FP that looks bad here (to most). If they did have an SLA, SOMEONE should step up, issue an apology, refunds, and run an open beta how it should be run....OPEN.

If the system ran smoothly, not many would complain - eat the $ and play. Yes, its FPs fault that it isnt running smoothly, but Blizzard put themselves in a vulnerable position.

Should I even mention that FP only offered the quarterly subscription onthe first link?? ALSO - I saw the price at $15.95 one minute, then it changed when I refreshed the screen! ?? Keep telling me that this isn't a money move... and a poor one....right.

[bleachy]

I'm not mad at Blizzard at all.

I'm f'ing pissed at FP though.

I already had an account for nearly a year now, was perfectly content with it.

But then I sign up, and 3 hours later I still don't have my key, and 27,000 others already have started DLing.


I hope to god they get me my key by the time I get home from school tomorrow or I will do something bad.

[cmsciulli]

Because of this fiasco I will not be posting at this forums anymore. I will be giving the rest of my CB time away. I will be cancelling my pre-order, and will never buy another Blizzard game.
Ciao, it was nice posting here, but I am gone forever.
Hydro, are you serious?

[Stangonline]

So much for playing the game "TODAY!"...

[Diminished]

Anybody else tired of my avatar?



hehehe...we should all lighten up

[Shaggy]

no way man, they just couldnt handle our numbers. its the internet. it has some limits...at this time...

[zkajan]

Er, how is the FP fiasco BLIZZARD's problem? It seems to be a FilePlanet issue to me. If anything, this is a good sign, because it shows how overwhelming demand for WoW is. I remember that there was a similar option where you could subscribe to FilePlanet to get into Lineage 2 closed beta, and response to that was fairly small.
because Blizzard chose to make this association without looking into FPs capabilities,or if the did look they thought them adequate/didn't care tehy were inadequate. that removes a TON of credibility from Blizzard

[DisposableHero]

Because of this fiasco I will not be posting at this forums anymore. I will be giving the rest of my CB time away. I will be cancelling my pre-order, and will never buy another Blizzard game.
Ciao, it was nice posting here, but I am gone forever.

Thats insane, it didnt even effect you being a CB tester in the first place. Way to over-react.

Honestly my thoughts on the whole thing are "ohh well, just another week". I am really busy this week so that might make a difference, but the thing is... unleashing all the people who want to play on the servers wouldnt allow anyone to actually play the game anyway. The servers would constantly be down etc... Im not even sure I will want to play in the Open Beta because of the insane server downtime caused by thousands upon thousands of people playing at once. As soon as retail comes then all the people who dont want to cough up money will be shut down, which is fine by me. Look at the havoc that this news has raised on the official Community Site and this site... the community site is still unavailable.

There are wayyyy to many people going crazy about this game and open beta, its going to make it hard for anyone to play once it finally does open up.

One thing I will say though, I wish they would have either A) let the old stress testers in - I mean, why not? or B) done the same thing as they did with the first stress test as far as sign ups (none of this "get a FilePlanet subscription" BS). For one, why is this stress test any different from the last? Why cant this one be as big as the last one? There is no reason to restrict the amount of people more than they did during the last ST... the servers ran great, as far as Im concerned.

I think because FP is hosting the game file to take the pain off of Blizzard's bandwidth (yes I know, torrent... but bear with me), they (FilePlanet) are greedy and making people pay to get a chance to use their bandwidth. I dont think this has much to do with Blizzard other than they just wanted to dump off the bandwidth load on FP. I think after tonight, they will see that they didnt get enough people to really stress the servers and maybe add some more. I for one will not pay $19.95 for one week of a game and then have it free the next week and then have it cost $50 more the week or two after that (not to mention subscription costs). Also I have a thing against lining the pockets of Gamespy and that whole evil network :)

I think during this week they are going to let in other stress testers unpaid, or they will at least open up the beta beginning of next week, which IMO is soon enough for me.

Everyone needs to learn some patience :) Some people here have been waiting for this game since its initial phase of development several years ago, me included.

[ShotgunSurgeon]

personally I'm surprised FilePlanet was so swamped, but I'm also surprised the official web site went down a few times too :)

[1have2much3time]

Because of this fiasco I will not be posting at this forums anymore. I will be giving the rest of my CB time away. I will be cancelling my pre-order, and will never buy another Blizzard game.
Ciao, it was nice posting here, but I am gone forever.

^ Sometimes it's hard to detect sarcasm over the net but this one was easy. No-one would ever do that.

~1have2much3time

[Anjin]

I don´t think that FP fiasco is going to tarnish their reputation, not in my eyes anyway. You must remember, this game has been in development for quite some time and Blizzard hasn´t yet recieved a $ from it.
So, I understand why they decided to proceed this way and try to scale down some of the costs...

However, there are some other things that concern me, and that might destroy that good Blizz reputation, which has taken years to achieve. From the days of diablo and onwards, some distinct patterns have emerged, in my opinion, and those patterns are: blizzard is unable to maintain proper communications with their game public (think about all "soon" and "we don´t know / we can´t tell"), they are very secretive about anything they do (always prefering to let silence speak for them), being perfectionists (which is in a sense good thing - but when you develope mmorpg´s, you must be aware that it´s hard to achieve that perfection right away, rather you must work toward it).

There is also some concrete things that concerns me, that are connected to localization and those are: their support in EU. If we look at their US page, forums and all posts from developers and then compare it to EU, the difference is enormus. The presence of devs on EU (specially english board) is abyssma, lack of information, etc etc. There has also been some problems with contests (not everyone has recieved their 3 keys), despite numerous contacts with EU branch of Blizz.

So, to conclude. This is a new dawn, and Blizzard must realize that they have legendary game in the making, but also that if they don´t improve on some of the practices they used to (which could pass on battle net boards in the past, but not today not now and specially not in MMORPG) it will be their undoing.

[DisposableHero]

^ Sometimes it's hard to detect sarcasm over the net but this one was easy. No-one would ever do that.

~1have2much3time

Lets hope it was sarcasm... I found Schlong to be a great community member and probably a great player/tester as well. I mean the guy gave away precious CB time to random posters on this forum for free, thats pretty chairitable and for that he deserves a :winner:

[AcidPope]

This is classic Blizzard. Only non fans will be affected. Sucks hard I have to shell out cash I don't have though to get in. Sure I can wait a week, but I want that guarantee of a spot in the open beta.

[ScytheNoire]

i think this does put Blizzard into the negative column because of FilePlanet charging money for it. this is suppose to be a free Beta, and by giving in to FilePlanet, they are seen as doing wrong. face it, people don't like the way FilePlanet, GameSpy and IGN operate (or the majority don't).

Blizzard closed everything for the weekend, and yet, come Monday, things are a huge mess. it makes no sense and makes you wonder what the heck they were doing all weekend.

also makes you wonder how messy this launch is going to be. things could be a huge mess and really screwed up. i don't think things are going to go smoothly and i think they are only going to get worse. Blizzard is showing they aren't capable of handling big pressure and hugh responsibility by the way they have been handling the Beta.

disappointment is an understatement.

[Baryonyx]

You missed an option: "No -- I had no trouble downloading the game, and am ready to play."
Seconded. My only issue was the slow Blizzard registration, but that cleared up by 9:30 ET, and I was in the past 3 hours or so.

[Scorch_Hellfire]

finally... an intelligent thread about this... unlike a lot of people who just want to complain about what happened... i really dont care... im not going to be stupid and pay to play on the st when i can just wait a week and play it for free... im not one of those who are willing to kill just to play this game for a few hours just to get their fix... ive been waiting to play this game for a long time... and i can wait a for another couple weeks... or even a couple months if thats what it takes... no problem...

[blindcside]

you guys might say "OMG i hate blizz so much i'll never buy thier stuff again!!!!!1111oneoneoneonk"

is this true? no. have fun buying wow in a couple weeks and i'll see you in game. stop acting like this is some outrageous thing that was a huge mistake of blizzard.

they make fun games, and you buy them. that is how this whole relationship works.

[Dooplanger]

you guys might say "OMG i hate blizz so much i'll never buy thier stuff again!!!!!1111oneoneoneonk"

is this true? no. have fun buying wow in a couple weeks and i'll see you in game. stop acting like this is some outrageous thing that was a huge mistake of blizzard.

they make fun games, and you buy them. that is how this whole relationship works.
you forgot to mention that blizzard is not a charity, how much do you think it has cost them to run the CB for so long? They go to fileplanet to host the open beta client, because fileplanet has the hosting power and money to do so.
Are you guys made because fileplanet decided to charge people for the first week of the stress test/open beta or because blizzard turned to fileplanet for help?

[Tso Za Naoa]

I don't see what the fuss is with this arrangement. Blizzard and FP are big companies that are in a partnership that allows them to compliment their strong points in making business. Blizzard wants to get the ST/OB out, but they need a mass distributer to do it, since Blizzard's network is not set up to serve as a large file transport service. FP needs to sell their services in order to stay in business, and they need content to do that. This arrangement makes complete, perfect sense.

Blizzard gets what they want, FP gets what they need, and in a week everyone else gets a chance to get what they want, FREE WOW. Win+Win+Win, so whats the problem?

And as a side note, there is no law that says that when Blizzard makes a game, they HAVE to give you an Open Beta. It's free, its awsome, and its all out of the generous hearts of Blizzard! And it has been reiterated 999* times!

*Reiteration #1000

[Eiger]

Blizzard has everyone so far wrapped that it just doesn't matter - unless lots of people don't buy the game. That's not gonna happen. So it just doesn't matter.

[Stangonline]

Being that Blizzard is so creative - don't you think they could have spent the last weekend distributing the game to a handful of Mirror sites, like most companies do?? -instead of arranging a partnership with a company that OBVIOUSLY couldnt handle it by itself?

I mean, its been 12 hours and I STILL dont have a key! You people who claim Blizzard is not responsible for any of this...and that its all file planet, are morons, or just too young to realize the obvious. Maybe thats the issue.. Im 31 - im old enough to have morals and principle... to know when im being sheisted. Most of the WOW players are much younger and most of you would play this game if Blizzard came to your house, beat up your parents and handed you WOW retail. Like I said, I have principle....many of you have a "Principal". Not a flame on you guys at all - What I am saying is that different age groups will view this differently.

[rebb]

My perceptions of Blizzard has already dropped due to their "US/NZ/Aus/Whatever"-only policy on testing.
Mad props to the Guild-Wars guys, they seem to be more able at providing EVERYONE with a chance at testing their game - looks like Blizzard lost some real talent when they left for NCsoft...

[Rhocky]

Blizzard has everyone so far wrapped that it just doesn't matter - unless lots of people don't buy the game. That's not gonna happen. So it just doesn't matter.

I've canceled my pre-order from Amazon. If we're getting the same kind of dicking, and most definitely if they allow OB to carry over into release, I will not be buying the game ever. There are other games that appeal to me that will come out, I can pass the time with them, or I can -gasp- do something other than gaming with my time.

If things shapen up, I'll probably have to wait a week or maybe more before I can find it in a store. Oh well. I don't mind waiting a week *in itself*, if it's because I get the game later. I realize that, after months down the line, it won't make a damn bit of difference. Especially since the first week will be the laggiest in the starter areas. What I would mind, however, is if people were allowed in a week before me, or before anyone, because they paid fileplanet for it. Having to start later than them would very much upset me, if we both paid for the actual game at the same time. That's if they carry over, that is. (Tyren has been characterstically vague on this.)

[Menethenes]

What I still dont get... and please someone educate me if im way off is.. why did we have to redownload the client? Just how much of this 2.6 gigs is new stuff? Isnt the majority of it the same old textures and art and core programming? Why couldnt they just patch the original stress test files?

And WHY couldnt they just renew the old stress test beta keys?

This and this alone makes me think it was a shady deal between bliz and FP to make some cash.

M.

[Vaporwolf]

no impact here. been a FP subscriber for a while (like getting into betas and they've been offering a lot of chances lately, plus I like getting demos). Besides there wasn't a huge mess up with the last stress test (other than people freaking out because "they had to pay to play" which wasn't really true then). So Blizzard probably didn't expect there to be a huge problem this time.

So just another 13 hours till my download is done (curse my slow connection) and I'll be in game and happy. :drool:

[pjmosling]

Being that Blizzard is so creative - don't you think they could have spent the last weekend distributing the game to a handful of Mirror sites, like most companies do?? -instead of arranging a partnership with a company that OBVIOUSLY couldnt handle it by itself?

I mean, its been 12 hours and I STILL dont have a key! You people who claim Blizzard is not responsible for any of this...and that its all file planet, are morons, or just too young to realize the obvious. Maybe thats the issue.. Im 31 - im old enough to have morals and principle... to know when im being sheisted. Most of the WOW players are much younger and most of you would play this game if Blizzard came to your house, beat up your parents and handed you WOW retail. Like I said, I have principle....many of you have a "Principal". Not a flame on you guys at all - What I am saying is that different age groups will view this differently.

I agree. Blizzard is to blame for the fiasco in the first place, but FilePlanet's horrible execution of the process didn't help. Think of everything that happened. Blizzard makes everyone uninstall a perfectly good beta application so they can make a little bit of money off the Stress Test. FilePlanet probably bought the release license from Blizzard for the Stress Test, in some form. Then FilePlanet gets crushed in signups, and they actually use this for well-documented profiteering, such as the $7.90 subscrptions link mysteriously leading everyone to a $15.95 subscrtion for about 5 hours, and the few hours where FilePlanet intentionally raised their prices in response to immediate demand. This is obviously a shady, underhanded moneymaking venture. Granted, there's absolutely nothing wrong with FilePlanet OR Blizzard wanting to cash in on the Stress Test and Open Beta. Blizzard, especially, has worked long and hard on their game. The problem, and what has indeed damaged my view of Blizzard and FP, is the execution of their plot. Making promises with absolutely no intention of following them isn't good morals OR good business.

[Grendel Rose]

Okay first things first here, as far as we know their could have been extreme changes to the client under the surface to prepare for larger amounts of players that would have been difficult or nigh impossible to simply put in as an update, in addition a clean installer means that everone is starting from the same place, no UI mods, no changes to it client side.

Second issue, yeah I get that people are angry that they payed money and can't play, but what I don't get is why you wouldn't simply wait a week, it's not like your missing out on a ton of stuff here, but to each their own I assume.

As for guild wars, it's kind of hard to compare, first off they started distributing the client around a week before the event, second because everything is streamed there isn't going to be a massive strain on your servers all at the same time with people attempting to download the game. Third there's a massive difference in popularity here, many people would want to try WoW just because it's a blizz game, regardless of what they know. Guild wars is reasonable well know, but doesn't suffer from the same problem.

[Stangonline]

Okay first things first here, as far as we know their could have been extreme changes to the client under the surface to prepare for larger amounts of players that would have been difficult or nigh impossible to simply put in as an update, in addition a clean installer means that everone is starting from the same place, no UI mods, no changes to it client side.

Second issue, yeah I get that people are angry that they payed money and can't play, but what I don't get is why you wouldn't simply wait a week, it's not like your missing out on a ton of stuff here, but to each their own I assume.

As for guild wars, it's kind of hard to compare, first off they started distributing the client around a week before the event, second because everything is streamed there isn't going to be a massive strain on your servers all at the same time with people attempting to download the game. Third there's a massive difference in popularity here, many people would want to try WoW just because it's a blizz game, regardless of what they know. Guild wars is reasonable well know, but doesn't suffer from the same problem.

Its not like we snuck some money into FP or Blizzard and bought a CD-key on the black market.. This option was OFFERED to us and it is BROKEN. FP gave the false impression of being able to pay, smoothly download the 2.6gb file, then play WOW... "TODAY" was the word used over and over...

[Baryonyx]

FP gave the ... impression of being able to pay, smoothly download the 2.6gb file, then play WOW... "TODAY" was the word used over and over...
And for some of us, that was exactly what occurred. Of course, I had an account before this was offered, so I didn't have to worry about any account FP setup issues.

[Pai Mai]

Being that Blizzard is so creative - don't you think they could have spent the last weekend distributing the game to a handful of Mirror sites, like most companies do?? -instead of arranging a partnership with a company that OBVIOUSLY couldnt handle it by itself?

I mean, its been 12 hours and I STILL dont have a key! You people who claim Blizzard is not responsible for any of this...and that its all file planet, are morons, or just too young to realize the obvious. Maybe thats the issue.. Im 31 - im old enough to have morals and principle... to know when im being sheisted. Most of the WOW players are much younger and most of you would play this game if Blizzard came to your house, beat up your parents and handed you WOW retail. Like I said, I have principle....many of you have a "Principal". Not a flame on you guys at all - What I am saying is that different age groups will view this differently.
No, because this way they don't have to pay FP for the mass advertising of the game. It's all about money, nothing more nothing less.

[Donsta]

I'm not mad at Blizzard at all.

I'm f'ing pissed at FP though.

I already had an account for nearly a year now, was perfectly content with it.



I'm with Bleachy on this one. :rant:

[Lalanthiron]

And for some of us, that was exactly what occurred. Of course, I had an account before this was offered, so I didn't have to worry about any account FP setup issues.

Agreed, I've subscribed to Fileplanet for quite a while, and its a really good download service. I have no regrets about subscribing at the first stress test and will be subscribing again when this runs out. I got my key in about 2 hours, and it took me all night to download, I'm installing as I write this. And yes.. Look at the response!!!! EQ2 Beta went on Fileplanet.... they barely noticed a twitch in their traffic. WoW goes up and their site almost crashes, Blizzard have stopped trying to keep WoW.com online (they just put a pageholder in because SO MANY PEOPLE keep trying to get there). They've got a winner in their hands, and if they released it tomorrow they'd break 500K first day. Go 1M the next.

I love Blizzard!!!! :winner:

[SeraphimSilver]

One thing is certain, like Rhocky said,

If Blizzard allows Closed Beta Accounts, Stress Tests Accounts and Open Betas Accounts to keep their characters in Retail, I'm not going to buy the game I've been waiting since the day they announced it.

Most Korean games do that, they keep any beta account database for retail to keep players, which is such a bad move.

[Hydro]

Hydro, are you serious?

Of course I am, I am never posting again past that pos... erm. Well no. It would take God himself coming down and telling me not to play WoW for me to quit now, after 2+ years of waiting!
I just think it is silly to blame Blizzard for FilePlanet's problems, especially since part of the point of this stress test is to prepare their servers so this will NOT happen on release.

[ixidore]

i first apologize for nething that was said before i just sorta scanned through most of the posts so if im repeating ideas and "kicking a dead horse" sorry

i agree with the ppls that are mad at FP and not blizzard. though i think this is bogus that FP is taking advantage of ppl that want to play this game that they would give away their first born. blizzard was looking for a safe, reliable, well known, and frequently used download site. they looked to FP for support and FP screwed up big time FP shoulda knew that this game has a huge devoted fan base, imo blizzard should have looked to more than one gaming sites like FP just to be safe.

[Hydro]

Lets hope it was sarcasm... I found Schlong to be a great community member and probably a great player/tester as well. I mean the guy gave away precious CB time to random posters on this forum for free, thats pretty chairitable and for that he deserves a :winner:

:) Whoopie!

[Tyran_Harasvelg]

Everyone will have probably forgotten about all this within the next year.

[Hydro]

Everyone will have probably forgotten about all this within the next year.

Forgotten about what?

[Tyran_Harasvelg]

Forgotten about what?
Dunno. I forgot.

[VodooQuaker]

This is a classic example of a company trying to earn a quick buck and failing misserably. I bet Blizzard got $$ from file planet to exclusively be the download client. Plus the lack of respect to the players, you have to suscribe to Fp, $15+ bucks....... What more could Blizzard do to disrespect its faithful following of Warcraft fanatics than making them pay extra to a different company in order to get a extra week in the game. I will still be playing retail wow but this has tainted my image of Blizzard on the whole.

Dont forget to go vote today!!!!!

[Domhnull]

My wife had all the problems folks are having with Fileplanet, but she does finally have her key and the game is installed.

Bottomline for me: when I load the game and play all of this stuff just becomes unimportant. The game is great!

[Etra]

1.) People are complaining too much

2.) It's file planet's doing for making you pay for the stress test. Blizzard has nothing to do with it.

3.) Some of you people are acting like Blizzard just stabed your eyes out because "OMFGZ0RZ NU RACAL TRATS!!" Honestly people...Blizzard never even promised this for retail and your acting like they swore on their soul they would be.

I'm going to play retail, this whole stress test (server downage and what not ::COUGH STRESS TEST:: ) doesn't affect my decision.

Also, I didn't feel like reading the other posts. :p

[DisposableHero]

1.) People are complaining too much

2.) It's file planet's doing for making you pay for the stress test. Blizzard has nothing to do with it.

3.) Some of you people are acting like Blizzard just stabed your eyes out because "OMFGZ0RZ NU RACAL TRATS!!" Honestly people...Blizzard never even promised this for retail and your acting like they swore on their soul they would be.

I'm going to play retail, this whole stress test (server downage and what not ::COUGH STRESS TEST:: ) doesn't affect my decision.

Also, I didn't feel like reading the other posts. :p

You didnt miss too much ^^^^ :)

People who think Blizzard is taking a cut off of this are mistaken im afraid. I mean we may never know for sure, but I HIGHLY doubt they are making a cent off this other than the money they have saved on advertisement/hype production and server costs for hosting the files, which is hardly illegal/evil.

*Comment on racial traits* Looks like they will be in in the next patch anyway so no one can use that as a stupid argument. Blizzard had said for a long time that racial traits were NOT going to be game alterting or balance shifting aspects of character development. To put this in words people may understand... orc warriors do not "m4j0)21y PvvN" human warriors because they get a racial trait of "ub3R 1337 D4m4g3". People who are basing their characters purely on racial traits might be dissapointed by it, but Im sure it makes it many times easier to balance.

[ArcaneSorceror]

0MGz0rzzzzzzzzzzz
Die ! You shall all BURN,This is a new error of hate against Americans!1!!!11111!!1111111 ( btw I'm Eur0pe4n :P )

[Solaquin]

Of course Blizzard is getting something out of this arrangement, and of course they had a say whether FP would make people pay (be members) in order to download the client and join the FST. People are discussing this as if Blizzard just handed over the files and said, "Here, do what you want with this." That's not how these things work. If Blizzard had wanted the FST to be free for anyone to access, they could stipulate that as part of the agreement in which FP hosts the file. FP already benefits by having exclusive hosting rights, which is a big feather in their cap and would still have resulted in a pile of subscriptions just for the member-only download mirrors.

I'm sure it was more like a negotiation process. Blizzard probably got a reduction in the cost of having FP host the file for giving FP exclusive hosting rights, and another fat reduction by letting FP run it so that only members could be in the FST. So it's not just FP that is to blame, Blizzard (specifically their marketing department, since they would be the ones working out publicity-related deals) shares significantly in this. edit: actually, now that I think of it, this could have been Vivendi's decision. It's certainly their style.

Am I still going to buy the retail game? Yes, it's a good game and worth the monthly fee. Do I think less of Blizzard over this? Absolutely. Making people pay to play a beta is dodgy by itself, but when the fee for a week's play of beta winds up being more than the monthly fee for retail will be, that stinks.

[Stangonline]

2.) It's file planet's doing for making you pay for the stress test. Blizzard has nothing to do with it.


Right.... It was an arrangement made between FP and Blizzard. I think its likely that Blizzard profited in it in some way - but regardless of that - pertnering with FP and having FP fail miserably still puts egg on Blizzards face.

Tell me - dont you think they could have patched the existing build, and offered the full download to different mirrors out there. They would only have needed to run the CD-Key distribution, which would be a no-brainer.

Still, IMO - if you think that Blizzard had nothing to do with this and didnt profit, your a moron.

[Mastgrr]

Things like these are always going to make a certain people mad. I say "Big deal...". I mean, I couldn't care less since the Open Beta isn't that far away from now either. There's nothing to cry about.

I remember the situation when SC Ghost was announced and people were going "Blizzard betrayed us! They owe us!" because it wasn't slated to be released for Windows/Mac. Thank god that calmed over.

Sheesh...

[Etra]

Lets get this straight, 'k? Here is the scenario:

Blizzard: Will you host our open beta client for us and distribute the beta keys?
FP: Sure--but theres a catch.
Blizzard: Okay--what?
FP: Because of the high amount of bandwidth your client needs, we're going to let our paid accounts download it one week in advance. Then the normal members can download it. Deal?
Blizzard having no other choice since they cannot host it unless they want to do the whole BT thing and use a crap load of bandwidth (obviously since the site was crashing every 2.4 seconds last night) giving out keys, says:
Blizzard: ...Fine.

Same exact thing happened with the first Stress Test too. Deal with it, either way, if your not buying the game because of something that happened during a STRESS TEST, your the real moron.

Edit: By the way, only way they profited was with less bandwidth usage. =P

[Harken_Dell]

This File Planet fiasco has only raised my estimation of Blizzard. Those guys are very smart.

Obviously, this is why they're not touching direct downloads from a server with a ten foot pole, and why they're using torrents. Also, this fiasco just goes to prove that WoW has enormous demand. It also demonstrates that the File Planet-Blizzard partnership could prove very profitable if File Planet can figure out how to handle the bandwidth.

I don't see any reason why we shouldn't expect Blizzard to team up with File Planet to defray costs. The last game they released was the expansion pack for WC3, and with all this MMORPG development time they must be hemorraging money. In addition, it's clear that the Final Stress Test only lasts for a week at most, so Open Beta isn't too far away.

If anything, the File Planet fiasco has amused me, and made me hotly anticipate getting my retail version of the game all the more!

Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Squarebob Spongepants]

Won't change my perception of Blizzard either way. If anything, it would've changed my perception of FilePlanet.

_______________________________

The game is ready for lunch.

[valenciastud]

Let me start out by saying that Blizzard is one of the best gaming companies in the world, rivalled only by rare back in the Nintendo 64 days. That's why I hold them to a slightly higher standard than the asses at SOE and other such gaming monoliths.

I'm dissapointed on a number of fronts, so here goes.

Blizzard promised us an open, beta, which WILL NOT BE HAPPENING. Argue with me all you want, there will be no open beta. Open beta means anyone can and will be able to play during a given time period. What reasons could they possibly have for not allowing everyone to play? Are they scared they won't be able to handle the capacity? If they can't handle the capacity during the "open" beta, when will they be able to? This is not an issue that can be ironed out AFTER the release. Guild wars this passed weekend had a 99% flawless open beta and they had no need to outsource anything to anyone. (Let the flames begin).

This so called stress-test is really a fee test. There is absolutely no reason why file planet or blizzard should be charging for the test, and then screwing it up for just about everyone that paid. What is blizzard scared of? They've now severely truncated the open beta and limited the stress test. If they can't handle the masses now, what about on day one of the retail release? This is sorry execution.

Don't give me this crap that Blizzard doesn't have to give us an open beta, and its quite generous that they are giving us anything. There is no generosity. They've made a promise, and they've gone back on their promise. Unless blizzard changes their position and allows everyone to download and play the client during the open beta, my pre-order of both collection editions is cancelled. The balls in their court now, lets hope they live up to their once flawless name.

[Arioch]

I find it amusing that a technical failure constitutes a "broken promise" to many of you. Blizzard never promised you a second Stress Test... they promised you an Open Beta, which doesn't begin until next week. If next week comes and you're still not able to get into the Open Beta, then you have something to complain about... but that hasn't happened yet. If some of you paid for a new FilePlanet account expecting to get into the Stress Test and weren't able to, then I understand your frustration... but this is a failure by FilePlanet to allocate enough resources for the demand, and has nothing to do with Blizzard. That people would claim that they're cancelling their pre-orders over this is beyond absurd. Get a grip.

For myself, I already had an FP account, and I signed up around 2PM PDT yesterday, got a key immediately, and started downloading right away. The download took 4.5 hours, and after install and a small patch, I was able to get on an play right away. It was a little odd that the "stress test" servers were very sparsely populated... and obviously Blizzard is having trouble with their homepage and forums... but otherwise I haven't had any problems.

[Masamunae]

Blizzard promised us an open, beta, which WILL NOT BE HAPPENING.
What the hell are you talking about?!?!?!? Are you seriously that stupid? Final stress test, and open beta are 2 COMPLETELY SEPERATE THINGS!!! Open beta starts next week, and that will be a free download from Blizzard. What you and so many other gerbil brains are confused about is that fact that Blizzard is offering a free download to previous closed beta testers and fileplanet subscribers. Where you in closed beta? no. Were you a fileplanet subscriber before Blizzard announced it? I'm guessing not.

So how about you do us all a favour AND STOP MAKING THINGS UP! It only makes you look like a ****** more and more and frustrates the people trying to find honest answers to their problems. Instead they get to wade through 10 miles of useless tripe posted by gerbils who think the world is ending.

And for the record. I'm a closed beta tester who still hasn't gotten to download the client, so I'm in the same boat as everyone else. And no I will not pay money to download the client a week early, I can wait a week.

[GodOfGophers]

I am totally amazed by the comments on this and other boards. I think it's hilarious that people feel they were ripped off by Blizzard, as if they owed the players something. They don't. It's their game and they can do with it what they choose. If you don't like it don't play. No one here really cares if you don't.

As for FilePlanet. I've been a subscriber for a VERY long time and this is the by far the worse experience with them I've had, I had to wait maybe 4-5 extra hours to play. So what?!? My life still goes on.

The people who said that this would cause them not to buy the game are lying. Or else they are just freaking goofy.

[Hydro]

The people who said that this would cause them not to buy the game are lying. Or else they are just freaking goofy.

They are lying. They wouldn't be posting here if they really intended to shrug off the game. I would hope that no one is that... just dumb.

[borrokii]

If some of you paid for a new FilePlanet account expecting to get into the Stress Test and weren't able to, then I understand your frustration... but this is a failure by FilePlanet to allocate enough resources for the demand, and has nothing to do with Blizzard.

I am sorry Arioch but it does in fact have to do with Blizzard. Blizzard made the choice to do enter into business with FilePlanet. If they had done their research, as they should have upon entering into a contract with another company, they would have found out that FilePlanet was unable to handle the demand their product has created. I have been waiting nearly 20 hours to receive my Beta key, and when I get home from work 9 hours from now it will be more than a day before I can even download the game. I have not received a response from File Planet asking for more information. I understand it is not Blizzards fault, but it is their responsibility.

[Dynamix]

File Planet is a great service, community and company. Not saying that they are the only service that could handle the file.

The Problem was not with people uploading the files! They were not ready for 1/2 million hits and 1000's of registrations in a 2 hour period. I dont know any file sharing network that could handle it.

I Got my CD Key and Im happy. I had to wait over night but I dont care. When I get home I get to start playing and im happy that I paid for it.

Most gamers also play other games! If you play any FPS namly (BFV, BF1942, COD, or DC) you greatly appreciate the over 1 MBPS download and no wait. Also its not FP fault for the KEY DELAY. Bliz is working to keep up with the demand.

So if you mad that your CD key is taking for ever, dont blame FP and dont ***** about geting the game early! You could wait a week or two and play beta/release.

[ramrally]

I'm disappointed in Blizzard because they used to hold themselves to a higer standard. However, in the last few months, they have been tarnishing their once sterling reputation by pulling crap like having a stress test cost their customers money. Nobody should have to pay to stress test a game, except the game's developer/producer/publisher. However, Blizzard teamed up with fileplanet (does vivendi have interests in fileplanet?) to make money off an beta test. That is wrong in itself. In addition, fileplanet dropped the ball, which does make blizzard look bad for selling out to a service that has infuriated so many people and failed in its objective.


totally off topic here, but i hate the way closed beta testers act so high and mighty in game and on WoW boards... especially last stress test, and I'm sure it'll be that way in this stress test (i haven't got the client d/l'd yet). get off your high horse closed beta testers!

[Stangonline]

I am sorry Arioch but it does in fact have to do with Blizzard. Blizzard made the choice to do enter into business with FilePlanet. If they had done their research, as they should have upon entering into a contract with another company, they would have found out that FilePlanet was unable to handle the demand their product has created. I have been waiting nearly 20 hours to receive my Beta key, and when I get home from work 9 hours from now it will be more than a day before I can even download the game. I have not received a response from File Planet asking for more information. I understand it is not Blizzards fault, but it is their responsibility.

This is more of less what I am saying. They did profit from saving money on bandwidth - but what I am talking about is responsibility, more than anything. Blizzard could have sent the file to a bunch of mirrors out there and it would have spread like wildfire. Instead, decided to go with a single host for the download. It got botched, yes... Blizzard or FP SHOULD be coming out with some kind of apology, statement, whatever. Like I mentioned before - Im sure that B and FP have soime kind of SLA - and I seriously doubt it was met at all.

I finally (16 hours later) received my key and my download is almost done (started that about 20 hours ago), the only thing remaining is to get to FP and get a refund on all but $7.90, which is what they should have offered everyone to begin with. FP did not act in Blizzards best interest, and if I was B, I would be VERY pissed right now. Sad part is, its guilt by association. If Blizzard does nothing but ride this out, they are just as guilty as FP is for being underhanded scammers.

[Kwah]

Hol crap, all the hate. Have any of you people even played a game released by EA in the last 3 years? Battlefield Vietnam Anyone? Blizzard kicks ***.

[valenciastud]

What the hell are you talking about?!?!?!? Are you seriously that stupid? Final stress test, and open beta are 2 COMPLETELY SEPERATE THINGS!!! Open beta starts next week, and that will be a free download from Blizzard. What you and so many other gerbil brains are confused about is that fact that Blizzard is offering a free download to previous closed beta testers and fileplanet subscribers. Where you in closed beta? no. Were you a fileplanet subscriber before Blizzard announced it? I'm guessing not.

So how about you do us all a favour AND STOP MAKING THINGS UP! It only makes you look like a ****** more and more and frustrates the people trying to find honest answers to their problems. Instead they get to wade through 10 miles of useless tripe posted by gerbils who think the world is ending.


First off, I don't appreciate you referring to me as having a gerbil brain. Everything I said can be corroborated by information on the main page of www.worldofwar.net . I'm not going to stoop to your level of calling names, but I'm sure in reality more than just your brain in tantamount to a gerbil.

I don't care that Blizzard is offering the file planet download, I would never pay to help test someone else's game. My point in the previous post was that if Blizzard is going to enter into a lucrative download agreement with another company (i.e. fileplanet) they need to take responsibility when the crap hits the fan. They really should have had a contingency plan.

My real point, and one that I hope you fully understand, is that the open beta IS NOT truly going to be open. Only the first X number of people are going to be able to register and download the client. This is not an open beta. I have participated in beta tests for games that were invented probably before you were even born, and the only thing that really pisses me off is a company that goes back on their promises. Blizzard announced yesterday such a plan.

[Shakey]

I would like to know where some of you people get off getting angry about this. This isnt even the "free open beta". Thats next week. This isnt extortion. This is business. Look at the response. If no one was making money of this someone would be very poor in terms of hosting the file. Also you have the choice to pay to play it. There is no written rule that says a company has to give you anything. They are offering you an open beta next week. This stress test is obviously not that open beta. I dont see where all this anger is coming from. Its like Blizzard OWES you something. Which is ********. They owe you nothing. Choose to play the game or do not. There is no need to get angry and make stupid comments about how your thinking different about Blizzard from now on. Be lucky they are letting you play for free in a weeks time. All this hoopla is a waste of time and emotion.

[valenciastud]

The beta next week is only open in a very limited sense of the word. While people will not have to pay for it, only the first X number of people will be allowed in, then Blizzard is pulling the plug on registrations.

[Hydro]

The beta next week is only open in a very limited sense of the word. While people will not have to pay for it, only the first X number of people will be allowed in, then Blizzard is pulling the plug on registrations.

It will most likely include 100,000+ people though, so I don't think it is going to be as bad as everyone says.

[Arioch]

I am sorry Arioch but it does in fact have to do with Blizzard. Blizzard made the choice to do enter into business with FilePlanet. If they had done their research, as they should have upon entering into a contract with another company, they would have found out that FilePlanet was unable to handle the demand their product has created. I sympathize with your plight, but since even FilePlanet themselves didn't know they were going to have this problem, I think it's somewhat unreasonable to expect Blizzard to magically detect that there would be a technical problem. It seems reasonable for Blizzard to take FilePlanet at their word that they would be able to handle it. I suppose you can blame Blizzard if it will make you feel any better, but yelling at Blizzard won't get you your key from Fileplanet any faster.

And to the rube who keeps shouting about the open beta not being open: again, this is not the Open Beta. Blizzard has not broken any promises yet. If the Open Beta comes and you can't get in, then you'll have something to complain about; until then, cease and desist.

[powermongor]

Even SOE never pulled this crap, but thats only probly cuz it never occurred to them...

WoW is the only game that many of us are interested in atm. They know that. It's all SOE's fault for not making EQ2 a good game to compete with WoW. The gamers are powerless...

[garebear2571]

It's been going down for a while for me, but i'm not a dreamer and i know Blizzard isn't the perfect company everyone seems to believe they are.

They always have been and always will be a perfect company. Even the perfect ones make mistakes :). It hasn't changed my faith in Blizzard at all. Of course this whole thing was a fiasco ... were you expecting the stress test/open beta to run perfectly smooth without any problems?

I probably have it worse than most of you IF my predictions are correct.

Let's assume OB starts next monday and I don't make it. Well I'm going to assume that OB lasts 2 weeks and release is the week of Thanksgiving (US). Well I'm actually going to be out of town visiting relatives that WHOLE week. So when I get back, it'll be the day after the biggest shopping day of the year (the day after Thanksgiving). This means all the stores will most likely be sold out when I come back, so I'll have to wait even longer until they restock. Not to mention the Best Buy nearest me now doesn't sell computer games anymore (although all other Best Buys in Houston do sell computer game still ...). The only gaming stores near me are Gamestops and I hate those places. They probably won't have any copies of WoW in stock for a good couple weeks. Which means I'll have to waist my time either calling stores or driving to them to find out if anyone has a copy of WoW.

If I don't make OB, I probably won't get to play WoW for 2-3 weeks AFTER release (assuming release occurs in the week that I'm out of town).

So this really sucks, but in my mind, Blizzard is still perfect and untainted.

... Even though I've been following this game since 2001 ...

~Gare

[Masamunae]

First off, I don't appreciate you referring to me as having a gerbil brain.
First off, I don't appreciate stupid people. Secondly, I love how you attempt to insult me by calling to light my insult, and then "subtely" insult me. Although it wasn't subtle at all, and only reinforces my opinion that you do indeed have a gerbil's brain.

My point in the previous post was that if Blizzard is going to enter into a lucrative download agreement with another company (i.e. fileplanet) they need to take responsibility when the crap hits the fan. They really should have had a contingency plan.
Lucrative for who? If you are insinuating that Blizzard is making money off of this, again it's reinforcing my opninion that the gerbil brain and you have much in common. Blizzard CAN NOT advertise a free download and then make money from what this other company is doing. They would open themselves up to lawsuits that way.

Also, there is nothing forcing you to buy a fileplanet subscription, so the only reason this will make any money for FP is because people are impatient.

My real point, and one that I hope you fully understand, is that the open beta IS NOT truly going to be open. Only the first X number of people are going to be able to register and download the client. This is not an open beta. I have participated in beta tests for games that were invented probably before you were even born, and the only thing that really pisses me off is a company that goes back on their promises. Blizzard announced yesterday such a plan.
Are you really that god damned stupid?! First off, I've been playing video games since Intellivision.

Second, how the hell is Blizzard going back on their "promises"? You are making this **** up in your head and ranting about it and expecting people to listen to you seriously? What point? Where are you getting this mysterious information that Blizzard is going to limit the amount of people in the open beta? Give a link to the exact phrase where BLIZZARD has said this. Until then, shut your mouth because the only thing coming out of it are incoherant gerbil thoughts. You are wasting everyone's time with your inane ramblings of unproven conspiracies.

People like you are only happy when you have something to complain about. Go away, and stop wasting our time.

[garebear2571]

Even SOE never pulled this crap, but thats only probly cuz it never occurred to them...

WoW is the only game that many of us are interested in atm. They know that. It's all SOE's fault for not making EQ2 a good game to compete with WoW. The gamers are powerless...

I have to ask, what the hell are you talking about?

It sounds like you are implying Blizzard is INTENTIONALLY causing this chaos. First of all, Blizzard isn't actually doing anything, it's really just Fileplanet. Secondly, do you really think Blizzard/Fileplanet honestly thought that this many people would subscribe to FP just for the stress test?

Second, think about it this way: if this is frustrating the fans and gamers so much, then think how Blizzard feels right now. I garuntee you that Bliz is having a lot more trouble than you.

But hey, if anyone wants to give up on WoW for something as stupid as this FP chaos (the poll indicated 4 people were not going to play WoW in release), be my guest. You'd just be using up precious server space anyway after launch :lol: .

~Gare

[Solaquin]

I imagine that Open will have a huge number of spots available; maybe not on day one, but if not they'll be adding them on probably a daily basis. The main testing aspect of an open beta is to ramp up the server architecture to handle the number of people who are going to want to play at launch. That means new machines, new servers, and some new code that needs to be at least run through its paces under a load to make sure it's all set up properly and running smoothly.

I can see someone being incensed enough to mean it when they say, "I'm not going to buy the game because of this!" However, I think in the large majority of cases cooling off a bit will change their minds about it.

[ScytheNoire]

Even SOE never pulled this crap, but thats only probly cuz it never occurred to them...

:lol: best quote ever about BetaGate

[Squarebob Spongepants]

Where are you getting this mysterious information that Blizzard is going to limit the amount of people in the open beta? Give a link to the exact phrase where BLIZZARD has said this.
Possibly from the Open Beta FAQ. (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general&T=496203&P=1)

Will there be a limit to the number of people who can play the World of Warcraft open beta?
Yes, we will have to limit the number of players. However, a maximum number of players has not yet been determined. At this time, we simply recommend that if you wish to play in the open beta that you download the game and create an account as soon as the open beta is ready. Once we fill our servers to capacity, we will remove the World of Warcraft downloader and account-creation pages.
I can't say I'm surprised. I always doubted that Blizzard would allow an unlimited number of people to download and play the OB. After all, we're talking about a limited number of servers here.

_______________________________

The game is ready for lunch.

[]:S:A:R:A:[]

i think the "file planet fiasko" indeed damages the image of blizz as well as fp.

ppl are used to having stress test and ob free for all, it´s like that in most games. yet, the raw numbers of players wanting to get into the st or ob seem to bigger then in other games.

however, charging ~15$ so that ppl can play ~1 week teints the reputation of blizz (they have to agree to such a move). imo this is playing with ppls addiction to that game and therefore highly irresponsible.

aside from this, there´s sth that would really piss me off:
i´d hate it, if the game went live without racial traits. with the stats upping automatically, racial traits will be in the center of decision when creating a char (especially for pvp ppl)

[MercenaryEDK]

Ok im not wasting my time reading through all this but
A) Fileplanet is great the stress test was really meant for current subscribers as one of the bonuses of subscribing, they didn't relize that so many people would subscribe just to play WoW stress when open beta was in a week they were expecting some but not the amount they got
B) Blizzard had nothing to do with teh fiasco really cause for me who was already a subscriber it wasnt a fiasco, it was either this or closed beta wouldnt have closed so soon and tehy would have skiped right to open, thats one reason why closed beta people can still use their characters right now at least to my knowledge.
C) Something else but i lost my train of thought
D) Whatever you feel like adding as long as its not hurtful to anyone :evil:Edit
O yea I remember you don't have to pay for open beta when it comes out in a week, in fact i didn't have to pay anything special for this stress test! It was free for me seeing as i have a fileplanet account plus blizzard just gave Fileplanet the keys they didn't tell them well make it subscribers only.....

[Vantorax]

This uproar will be forgotten shortly after once the game is out. I mean, how many people really remembers how WindowsXP started? You had to pay to test the first two public release candidates. Curses were chanted toward Microsoft. Doom was predicted. But 3 years later, it's all forgotten and all is well.

I say in a few months from now, nobody will be talking about it anymore.

[Rhocky]

Ok im not wasting my time reading through all this but
A) Fileplanet is great the stress test was really meant for current subscribers as one of the bonuses of subscribing, they didn't relize that so many people would subscribe just to play WoW stress when open beta was in a week they were expecting some but not the amount they got

Right. They only really intended current subscribers to join for the most part, they weren't targetting a new audience with it. That's why they created a whole new page about how you could sign up for as little as 7.90 or whatever to get into the WoW stress test. /sarcasm

B) Blizzard had nothing to do with teh fiasco really cause for me who was already a subscriber it wasnt a fiasco, it was either this or closed beta wouldnt have closed so soon and tehy would have skiped right to open, thats one reason why closed beta people can still use their characters right now at least to my knowledge.

Huh? Blizzard had nothing to do with their partnership to Fileplanet, and the exclusive beta, because you were already a member and don't think it's a "fiasco"?

C) Something else but i lost my train of thought

Really? That didn't stop you for A) or B).

D) Whatever you feel like adding as long as its not hurtful to anyone :evil:Edit
O yea I remember you don't have to pay for open beta when it comes out in a week, in fact i didn't have to pay anything special for this stress test! It was free for me seeing as i have a fileplanet account plus blizzard just gave Fileplanet the keys they didn't tell them well make it subscribers only.....

Oh I'm sure Blizzard had absolutely no idea. That's why they mentioned in their post that stress test would be limited to subscribers, but that open beta would be free to anyone. You know, that post that was up on worldofwarcraft.com BEFORE Fileplanet had their post about it up? Oh yea. Blizzard was quite obviously oblivious.

Might I recommend a formula? Fileplanet fanboism + too much money to waste - critical thinking = stupid comments.

[Solaquin]

I never imagined that "Fileplanet fanboism" might actually exist. It's like discovering there are people who enjoy eating their own poop. Weird.

edit: not to imply that Fileplanet fanbois enjoy eating their own poop, that'd be too weird for words. They may well be masochists though...