The Burning Crusade is upon us!

[Cap'n]

-The portal is open and the shattered realm of Outland awaits. Are you ready?
-Will you uphold the ideals of the Naaru as a Draenei and continue the battle against the Burning Crusade? Or will you take up the role of a Blood Elf and and help reclaim their power that was lost so many years ago?
-The Caverns of Time await. Are you brave enough to protect the fabric of time?

The Burning Crusade is upon us!

Hehe. I stood in line at my local EB last night and picked up my copy at about 12:15am. I think there we about 200 other people there waiting to get their hands on The Burning Crusade. We should all get extra geek points to cash in for a good trinket or something. :yes:

I installed as soon as I got home and everything went pretty well. I had the game installed, pathced and ready to go on my wifes Mac in under 15 minutes. Sadly it took well over an hour to install on my PC. For some reason it wanted to redownload the 2.0-2.0.3 patch instead of just reinstalling it from my WOW directory. Of course Blizzard's downloader was slower than ever so I had to find a shortcut. If you go into your WOW directory and look under patches you should be able to find the 2.0.3 patch there and reinstall it that way. That's what I did after sitting there forever. Sadly though there was nothing in the folder for the 2.0.5 patch so I had to wait for the downloader for that. Good news is that there has yet to be a que. Not last night or this morning. Won't last long though. :lol:

See you all in Azeroth....or should I say Outland!

[Rob]

Good-bye Cap'n. Good-bye Omegabob. Good-bye Nyghtfall. Good-bye Donjo. Good-bye Bruenor. Good-bye closet WoW people.

I guess we will eventually see you guys again. Happy Gaming!

[Chylde Roland]

Woo-hoo! I scored the Collector's Edition this morning, Future Shop had an early opening, and I got really lucky with it. They thought they were out of them, and a few people bought the regular version, then another box of the CE version floated up in the big pile of boxes... now, I must resist the urge to ebay... :lol:

Just kidding. I wanted the CE version for myself, and I'm really happy I snagged one. I also got a free Azeroth map and a starter package of this card game, though I seriously doubt I'll play it much. I mainly wanted the extras in the CE, plus the in-game pet. :):

See you in Azeroth!

:thumbup:

[DanTheManPR]

Released right at the beginning of the semester. A whole lot of GPAs are going to plummet. Good for me at least (thank god for curved grades).

[Bruenor]

Good-bye Cap'n. Good-bye Omegabob. Good-bye Nyghtfall. Good-bye Donjo. Good-bye Bruenor. Good-bye closet WoW people.

I guess we will eventually see you guys again. Happy Gaming!

This seriously made lol at work. :lol:

I'll still be around, I need something to do on downtime at work right? :yes:

Anyways, we tried to get our pre-orders at Midnight, but there were literally 400 people in line when we got there, and we both had to work in the morning so... it wasn't a big deal for us. We couldn't play all day anyways.

This morning I went to get gas and the Future Shop in the same lot was open and line out the door, blocking the road to gas station...

All I could think of was... you lucky bastards.

I'll get mine at lunch, luckily I'm at a client that is literally next door to the EB I pre-ordered from. :):

[Rafal Dudek]

I actually have my preorder paid in full at my local gamestop but I'm not sure why heh.

Any of you going to start out on some new fresh server playing all casual and stuff? Casual is the only way I can play nowadays :):

[Chylde Roland]

I'm still on Azjol-nerub, playing casually as usual. My NE hunter is Celyse, my Shaman is named Gisha.

I plan to roll a blood elf now though, probably a rogue or a mage. Will post a name later.

[Cloudw4lker]

I was there at midnight! Sure I've never played the game but my friend's brother was working at the time so I decided to pick it up with him. He had the FIRST preorder at that EB when they first started taking preorders he was working there.

For some reason his game automatically installed the 2.0.3 patch from the archive but he had to wait forever for 2.0.5 which was only 2.8 mbs?

Local EB: about 320 games, 12 collectors edition
Local Futureshop (like bestbuy): 830 with 24 collectors edition.

[Rob]

but there were literally 400 people in line when we got there On one hand I guess that can be expected, on the other hand, HOLY CRAP! When have you ever seen that for any other release of a game?

[Bruenor]

Nope, not that I can remember. For game consoles yep, but not for a game.

For all you PC Gaming is dying people out there, there's a good and bad side to this. The good side is that if you make a highly accessible, generally strong game that appeals to a wide audience, then the game will sell. These midnight madness lineups all over North America were for a PC Game. PC Gaming is not dying if the games that people want to play are made.

The bad side for all you traditionalists out there is that it's an MMO.

[Circlebreaker]

Didn't preorder, still got it this morning, no queues or anything. :): Didn't have a chance to play much yet today, but so far Outland looks pretty cool!

[Spartan]

HOORAY!

[Chylde Roland]

:lol:

I just installed, had the patches downloaded so no worries there... now I'm in a queue with 726 people ahead of me... I'd change realms but all my gold and stuff is on my toons here, which can help my new toons get a headstart. Ah well. Websurfing time until I'm in.

[Nyghtfall]

UPS truck finally arrived with my "standard edition" a few minutes ago. W00T! I'm seriously considering trying to find a copy of the CE edition though. I love what I saw of the DVD preview Blizzard has online. I'm sure as hell not paying more than retail for it though.

[Rafal Dudek]

Installed the game. I created a new char on a brand new server.

Server: Velen
Char: Ereand - BloodElf Hunter

[Cap'n]

Me and Donna have considered starting all over on a new server Zed, but it's real hard to leave all that gold and items behind. :p:

Can't see why we can't have other toons on another server though. If alot of us go over there it could be fun. I would suggest an RP server though, I find them to be much more enjoyable.

Anyway, for now those who are on Earthen Ring look us up. We rolled new Blood Elf Pallys, Etheron for me and Elivia for the mrs. We also will be trying out Draenei.....Jaloron and Arnara.


On a side note, seems like the servers can't handle the load today. At about 2pm things on ER started going downhill real quick. We had about 10 server crashes till they did a restart about 5 minutes ago. I'm not happy, but it's expected. I think for the next week or two the hours of 2pm-12am are going to be brutal. Long ques, competetion for quest targets and nodes, and just general lag. Oh well, nothing we haven't seen before.

When I take a break from the game (yeah...right!), I'll post some screens of the new areas. Eversong Woods and Silvermoon are amazing!

[MasterChief]

I'm still on Azjol-nerub too. I just started playing again though so my dude is only level 47. I'm trying to haul ass to 58 though so I can take advantage of outland

[Ojnod]

I went to Walmart at midnight to get my first copy, I have a preorder at EB for the copy I need on my 2nd account but I probably won't pick that up for 2-3 weeks when I hit 70 on my mage.

[Bruenor]

:lol:

I just installed, had the patches downloaded so no worries there... now I'm in a queue with 726 people ahead of me... I'd change realms but all my gold and stuff is on my toons here, which can help my new toons get a headstart. Ah well. Websurfing time until I'm in.


:eek:

726 People! Now I remember why I took the free transfers off when I did.

For what its worth, installed, patched, logged in and had a blast in the Outlands with no issues or problems on Gnomer.

[Retribution.]

Woo-hoo! I scored the Collector's Edition this morning
Chylde, for the love of god dont take this the wrong way and I personally have no problem with WOW, but, what is the point of getting the collectors edition to a game where the servers might not still be operating in ten years time (for example), wont that make the game null and void and the collectors edition pointless as there will be no replay value what so ever?

it's just something i've allways ponderd when I see online only collectors edition of games on sale.

[Rob]

I do not care what game it is, if I get 10 full years of playing experience from said game, then it will be well worth the money, collectors edition or not.

[Retribution.]

I do not care what game it is, if I get 10 full years of playing experience from said game, then it will be well worth the money, collectors edition or not.
True, but why pay the extra for the collectors edition at the time of purchase?

[Rob]

Well, what was extra in the collectors edition and how much extra is it?

[Retribution.]

Well, what was extra in the collectors edition and how much extra is it?
Havent a clue old bean and couldnt tell you, I just meant in regards to not being able to play it in ten years time thus not making it very collectable if you like playing games in the years to come

as in, not a retro gamers dream so to say when the game becomes.. retro :):

i'm not having a dig, I just dont see it personally being a retro gamer myself.

[Chylde Roland]

Retribution: I got the CE because of all the extras, and I have a decent chunk of disposable income (after bills and savings and retirement plan contributions, of course!). Don't matter to me if it's not around in ten years, because I'll get my money's worth during the next year of play. It came with a "making of" DVD (haven't watched yet, been playing), an AWESOME art book, which is more than 100 pages, glossy and hardbound, it also came with the game on DVD and CD, a mousepad with a map of Outlands, a couple of decks of the card game and the in game pet. I liked all the swag, and am happy to have gotten the CE version.

Breunor: Yup. I would have moved, but I like AN, and I wasn't moving with a guild, so no major worries. I got in just fine in about 20 minutes (gave me time to decide which classes to create) and had a blast. I created a BE rogue and a Draenei warrior, though I may roll a Draenei mage, since I haven't had a lot of exposure ot a magic class yet. My shammy is mainly a melee fighter, who can also heal. :lol:

Some random thoughts:
I really like the new areas, they have a wonderful distinct look and feel. The home city of the Blood Elves is a sight to behold, and perfectly suited my expectations. I also like how the elves are so "pretty," yet they have a decidedly evil bent about them.

I laughed my ass off though, as there were literally dozens of Draenei shammies running around. Everybody looked the same, wore the same clothes, armed with the same mace and carrying the same shield… it cracked me right up. I didn't see this kind of thing with pallies on the BE side. There were a ton of different classes running around, but most people went with casters, such as warlocks, preists and mages. Not too many hunters or rogues about. Vilya has a 58 undead rogue, which is part of the reason I chose to go with a rogue: the free advice.

On AN, the new areas were very crowded. At some points, you had to stand around with 5/6 other people, waiting to kill specific mobs for a quest, which kind of sucked. That will pass as the power-levellers get going and move ahead of everybody else.

I saw a level 20 BE paladin, and level 22 Draenei shaman running around. Tells me some people, at least, took all day yesterday off work so they could play. :lol: I could have done that too, but I honestly can't sit for 20 hours straight playing a game anymore. Kills my lower back and my arse, and my wife would seriously get concerned about me... :):

On the technical side of things, setting the game up was a piece of cake. I upgraded my account online, installed, ran the patches (which I had downloaded) and I was ready. Just had to wait for that queue. I did run into a small problem, but I'm not sure what I can do about it. I sent 15 gold to my blood elf, but it never arrived. I double-checked the name I typed, before sending, and in the dialog box that pops when you send a lot of gold. It just never showed up on the other end. I suspect it may have something to do with the whelp pet, because after I got the pet, I sent another 15G, and that came through just fine. So a word to the CE folks out there, get your pet before you start transferring gold to a new toon!

Other than that, things went really well. I'll be back in again tonight, I'm sure. I haven't tried much in Outland yet. I moved my 60 NE hunter to the first base out there, then parked her in the inn because it was midnight and I had to get to bed. I'll be trying that out some more later. I also want to get my shammy high enough, she's 54 now, so it shouldn't take too terribly much longer to get to 58.

[Bruenor]

Hey Chylde, did you see the message on log in. They're attempting to reduce populations by giving free transfers off over-populated realms, and Azjol is one of them.

That's nothing new, what is new is the threat of forced realm-splits if over-population on those realms isn't cured by the free transfers...

Extreme, but to be expected on older, over-populated realms when an expansion like this one brings so many people back at one time.

[Rob]

About how many realms are there now?

[Bruenor]

212 North American realms, give or take a few.

EDIT: And 48 realms are considered over-populated enough to be covered by the realm-split message. Most of those realms listed are "original" or "launch" servers.

[Rob]

Damn, Anarchy Online has 2...

[Chylde Roland]

Yeah, I caught that message. I'll probably wait and see what happens, since I like AN. I'd hate to see forced realm splits, but if that's what they gotta do, that's what they gotta do.

[Rafal Dudek]

Asheron's Call had a kick ass system in place to deal with that. If too many people were in one area, at random they got warped away close-by to their location.

[Ojnod]

You know your game is pretty successful when you have 200 realms and you have to add this into your patch notes:

World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.0.5 (01/14/2007)

* Increased the maximum number of realms that can be listed in the Realm List.

[Rafal Dudek]

Maybe. But for some reason it's not captivating me at all. I just logged into my BE hunter, completed one quest and killed a few things, logged out after 20min of playing.

Something is missing. It may be that I'm just being burned out on MMO's. The last one that truely captivated me was Dark Age of Camelot.

Maybe I should start working on my MUD again. You know, one of those text-based MMO's. =D

[Chylde Roland]

Well, the decision's been made. Off to Zangarmarsh we go!

[DanTheManPR]

28 hours have passed since release, and someone is already up to level 70 (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/17-01-2007-4522.html) :shades2:

A frenchy, too!

[NotSoFast]

28 hours have passed since release, and someone is already up to level 70 (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/17-01-2007-4522.html) :shades2:

A frenchy, too!
And Blizzard said it would take approximately as long to get from 60 to 70 as it did to get to 60 in the first place. :rolleyes:

[OmegaBob]

1: WoW BC CE contents (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/insider/11/collectors.xml)

2: A-N Transfers?

Good riddance! I am the mightiest gnome there! I care not! Leave, fools, and the realm is mine to destroy @ will! Muhahahahahahhaa n00bs!

[OmegaBob]

Good-bye Cap'n. Good-bye Omegabob. Good-bye Nyghtfall. Good-bye Donjo. Good-bye Bruenor. Good-bye closet WoW people.
I guess we will eventually see you guys again. Happy Gaming!
Sadly #1: my CE pre-orders fell through, so I was forced to purchase it off eBay (for a little more than the cost of the CE in retail - hahah). I believe it will arrive by Saturday! Yay!

Sadly #2: I have jury duty. 2-3 week trial (or longer) so my playtime may be hampered by this.

Sadly #3: A-N is mine now! All mine. The poor souls left there will soon wish they DID transfer out! Muhahahahahhahaha!

MINE!

[Chylde Roland]

Yup, you're the whole reason I'm leaving, Obob. My shammy still has nightmares of that gnome running around Gadgetzan in the buff. :scared:

[Bruenor]

And Blizzard said it would take approximately as long to get from 60 to 70 as it did to get to 60 in the first place. :rolleyes:

You know he basically cheated his way there right?

You know he had a raid party behind him, he tagged everything he could, and the raid helped him kill everything that he couldn't on his own.

Not much of an accomplishment if you need 30 people behind you all the time helping you kill everything.

So why the Rolling Eyes?

Surely Blizzard didn't foresee 30 people willingly power leveling one person to get to 70. Nor would I to be honest.

[RHooks]

We could all take turns doing this for each other!!! We would all be at 70 in a couple of weeks.

[Bruenor]

hehe.

That would be incredibly boring, I never understood the whole "race" mentality tbh.

[NotSoFast]

I know how he got to 70, but still, it's been out what, a few days now? Blizzard made it sound like it would be more to it than that, I guess. Even with the help.

[Bruenor]

It takes about 10-12 hours for a normal person to go from 60 to 61. If you use that as an average it would take 100-120 hours normal playtime to hit 70.

What was the last expansion that lasted 120 hours for most normal people? Honestly, are you really slamming Blizzard for that? :rolleyes:

Anyone can grind in any MMO, if there is a will there is a way. That's not a Blizzard problem, that's just an MMO "feature" if you will.

[Chylde Roland]

Big whoop, imho. He's powered all the way to 70, lost any enjoyment he may have had over the next year, and he has no one else to hit level 70 content with yet anyway. What a waste of time and resources, just to be "first." :rolleyes:

[OmegaBob]

I will be 71 (yes, 71 b/c gnomes are hella cool) by Sunday night!

All the while hugging my red moth, blue dragonhawk thing AND my netherwhelp!

yep

[Ojnod]

And Blizzard said it would take approximately as long to get from 60 to 70 as it did to get to 60 in the first place. :rolleyes:

Well some people have already gotten to 70 without the help of their whole guilds which means they did it in about 2 days /played. As far as I know the record for 1-60 is still 4 days 20 hours /played. My personal record is 6d 20hours so I don't think it is really gonna take the same time from 60-70 as 1-60

[Ojnod]

BTW, to all you eye rollers. You do realize that most of these people who are getting to 70 incredibly fast have already done the process in beta? Heck, that is part of the reason why it is so fast for them. And just as 1-60 was only a stepping stone for the real fun in the original game 60-70 is just a stepping stone for more fun at 70. Getting prior experience really helps. I have been busy with work and school but I am keeping up with all my guild members who have gotten twice as much time to play as I have just because I know where everything is and what quests are useful, etc.

[MasterChief]

And Blizzard said it would take approximately as long to get from 60 to 70 as it did to get to 60 in the first place. :rolleyes:

See, the thing is, Blizzard never actually said this. I don't remember how such a rumor got started, but if you can provide a source for this statement I would appreciate it. I think they said it would take twice as long as the grind from 50-60, IIRC

[Nyghtfall]

Well this just completely rocks. Rather than continuing trying to find a copy of the CE for $70, just so I can watch the DVD, I got curious and did a search on EBay for "burning crusade dvd". I just found one (http://cgi.ebay.com/World-of-Warcraft-Burning-Crusade-Behind-The-Scenes-DVD_W0QQitemZ190074564760QQihZ009QQcategoryZ617QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem), in mint condition, for $19.99, and bought it.

WOOT!

:D

[Ojnod]

Well overall I am impressed with the launch. My server had a few problems the first night but it went pretty smooth. I've never heard of an expansion with this much content (4 CDs!) and I think they did a great job of really laying out the foundation for the game in the next year or so.

[Bruenor]

Yeah, I'm actually really impressed with how the launch went too. My server had a few hiccups on the second night, mainly with loot lag which caused all the expansion areas to go down for about 1/2 hour, but other than that its been pretty smooth.

Finally hit 62, but I'm taking my time levelling. I make sure to do every quest, no matter how inefficient, and I can't say no to friends who want to run the Ramparts and Furnace (and those two instances are very inefficient for levelling after you completed the quests for them).

All in all, my 2-4 hours played nightly has been well worth it with this expansion.

[Bruenor]

Well, I was just on a site but I lost it...

Anyways, TBC apparently broke a single day sales record. It sold 2.4 Million copies in the first 24 hours worldwide, and 1.7 million people upgraded their accounts and logged on in that first 24 hours.

To put that in perspective, Gears of War sold 3 million copies for the entire month of December (still impressive though).

And who said PC gaming was dead.... :no:

[CrimsonKnight13]

I originally preordered TBC CE for $60 & now its on the way. I'll be playing it in February when I'm back in South Korea after my vacation. :D

[Ojnod]

Good-bye Cap'n. Good-bye Omegabob. Good-bye Nyghtfall. Good-bye Donjo. Good-bye Bruenor. Good-bye closet WoW people.

I guess we will eventually see you guys again. Happy Gaming!

Well, I hit 70 this weekend so I guess you could say I am back :p: I averaged 50-60 hours a week since release so now I'm ready to cut that number in half. Playing that much kinda sucks, my schedule went: Wake up, work/school, WoW, Sleep, Repeat.

[Bruenor]

So it basically took you around 100 or so hours to go from 60-70. I'm on pace for that too right now, of course there's no way in hell I'm playing 50+ hours a week. :p:

Hit 64 this weekend, will hit 65 sometime during the week, and probably 66 by the end of next weekend.

I've also been taking a day here and there for my hunter (took a day off my main to hit 61) and the odd day or two for my Barbie Elf Pally. That toon is actually my daughter's toon, she created her, I just play and kill what she tells me too. Its actually kind of cute, she sits on my lap, wearing my headphones/mic and yells into the mic to kill things like Mom and Dad do during guild runs (on vent of course). :):

I've also had to curb my bunny/critter killing ways. My daughter saw some mage crack a cat in Silvermoon City and she almost broke out in tears cause the cat died. I made a mental note not to ever kill cute critters while she's around (which should make Chylde happy).

[Rafal Dudek]

Its actually kind of cute, she sits on my lap, wearing my headphones/mic and yells into the mic to kill things

:lol: I sense trouble in the future

[Ojnod]

So it basically took you around 100 or so hours to go from 60-70. I'm on pace for that too right now, of course there's no way in hell I'm playing 50+ hours a week. :p:


Well I don't remember the exact values per level but I think it took me about 5 hrs to hit 61 since I had done all those quests twice in beta, 61-64 were about 7-8hrs a pop since I knew the quests from doing them once in beta, but I stopped for some instances and pvp and stuff. 64-67 were hell, Terrorkar is my least favorite zone in the whole game, if not it is right up on the top with the undead starting area and swamp of sorrows. The quests sucked, the zone had annoying mobs, rewards were all bad, luckily it didn't last more than a level. Nangrad took a while because I did some group questing for a change of pace. I consider myself to be a pretty fast leveler when I want to be so a group really slowed me down it probably took me 12 hrs a level until 68. 68-70 I was on a roll, most places I was pulling 100k xp/hr easy by chaining quests together so these levels took me about 8 hours each even though they required between 700k and 800k XP (Yes I know 100k xp/hr should equal 7hrs but the 8 hours includes AFK time). So then I hit 70, I had 1300 gold or so from the leveling process (I started with nearly 0) and bought my flying mount right away. They are slow as molasses, only 60%, but depending where you are traveling you may save time over riding a 100% epic mount just because you can fly over things, including mobs (no more getting dazed yay!)

Overall I would say Netherstorm is my favorite zone out of the expansion, if not the whole game. The quests were rewarding, plentiful (I quested there exclusively for 1.5 levels and feel like I barely scratched the surface), and there is an NPC in an "Eco-dome" named Shauly Pore. I don't know how you can beat that. Sadly he doesn't start out his sentences with "HEY.... buddy". Oh and it has a goblin town and goblin towns rock!

[Chylde Roland]

I made a mental note not to ever kill cute critters while she's around (which should make Chylde happy).
:D:

Good to hear! Actually, I saw a dead cat in the BE starting area, and I was pissed off, hehe... but when I play the game, I tend to leave critters alone, and I don't even go after neutral mobs unless it's part of a quest.

And holy crap, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised about donjo hitting 70 already, but I mean, holy crap! I'm not getting anywhere in that area. I've spent the last two weeks messing around with the new races, trying out new classes, and generally futzing around. :lol:

I think I have Cel maybe a third of the way to 61, and I haven't even got my shammy to 55 yet, so no outland for her for awhile. I plan to grind her to 58 though, she should have full rest experience now, so shouldn't be too difficult...

Ah well, I've always been a very casual player, so no worries. I'll get there in the end. :):

[Circlebreaker]

Heh, I've seen a lot of people at 70 already, even some bloodelves and draenei. I've been casually playing my Draenei hunter and occasionally venturing into Outland with my shaman. He's only 61 now but I haven't really had the time to play that much in Outland. Besides, all my guildies around that level are also taking it slow, playing with alts and taking the time to discover stuff rather than rushing through the levels, so there's no rush to get higher level fast. :):