WOOHOO Beta over

[Tacks]

Beta is ending tomorrow and CHARACTER WIPES...thank god

[Tae-Bo]

r u fucken serious

[Tacks]

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Likewise, these processes must also take place on the server side to ensure that no out-of-date code, which could corrupt the retail version of the game, still exists.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

[Tae-Bo]

what am i going to do for 5 days

edit: half-life 2 8)

[Durothil Skyreaver]

Can't wait to see the cluster fuck that opening day will be.

[Antilus]

yay i can sleep now

[Langston]

QQ~ I shall miss my shield.... it was 70% of my armor and it looked cool.

[Tikker]

opening day will be a clusterfuck for true

[DangerPaul]

5 day weekend for me the day after opening weekend, hopefully things will be somewhat smooth

[Langston]

Yes it will... but the way I look at it is this:

- Day 1: All of the preorders will be online and about half of the "rest" of the people. Newbie areas will be total chaos of ks'ing and low mob population due to inordinate numbers of people trying to get the first few levels out of the way
- Day 2: The power gamers will be level 10 already and cleared out into the early hunting grounds. The casuals will start showing up more... newbie grounds are still fucked.
- Day 3: Power gamers are high teens and gone from their starting regions. The casuals have sprawled themselves all over the starting regions and the /1 General chat becomes reminiscent of LOIO in the Kunark days. The people who were screwed out of pre-ordering or because stores ran out of copies will start to come online... and they'll be disgusted.
- Day 4: The late comers are begging God to forgive them for whatever past transgressions they must have committed as it is obvious that He is punishing them with the massive n00b population and the glaring stupidity that is the groups, chat, and styles of the players they have to steer around as they try to progress. God will laugh at them, and they shall feel his anger.
- Day 5: The second wave of n00b explosion begins. All of the n00bs have called their friends and told them "OMGZ!!1! U HAV 2 PLAY!!!11one" and they further overwelm the starting areas. Late-coming power gamers commit suicide in a Jonestown-esque fashion.
- Day 6: The first level 60s start to appear. They stroke their e-penii and everyone worships them... except for the normal people who are still beating their heads against the desk while they run to their corpse after being trained by that idiot troll hunter named "B33stmastr".
- Day 7: the folks who didn't preorder have finally finished their time in Purgatory and have reached their 20s and can comfortably start playing the game like normal folks might. The n00bs are still trying to figure out where the harpies are in The Barrens and everyone that started with playing a Paladin is re-rolling.

[The Kizzy]

that is a pretty good summation

[brinstar]

day 45: brinstar buys his copy and logs on to do the same quests a third time because he can't bear the thought of playing anything but undead warlock

and i had JUST gotten my succubus right before the servers came down last night

[Harrison]

I'd give it 12+ days for the first level 60's...

Which sickens me.

[Langston]

It won't take 12 days.

[Jazendar]

you have to realize there are some serious gamers out there that are taking 2 weeks of comp time just to play this game. They will have buckets of soda and cofee and cookies and donuts waiting for them when they get the first yawn and loud music to keep them awake. I give it 5 or 6 days before the first level 60's, like Ugzugz said.