WOW Lich King heads for beta
At least a few of the 10 million-plus World of Warcraft fans invariably shed a tear when it was revealed that Blizzard Entertainment's teaser campaign leading up to last weekend's Worldwide Invitational pertained to Diablo III, and not the Wrath of the Lich King. Said gamers can dry their eyes, given that Blizzard has officially initiated beta-testing sign-ups for the second expansion to its massively popular, massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
;)
According to Blizzard's community site, the Wrath of the Lich King beta will differ from previous closed beta tests in that WOW players with an active account will be required to opt in to participate in the test. The developer also notes that opting in does not guarantee a slot in the closed testing period.
As detailed in GameSpot's recent preview of the game from this year's WWI event in Paris, Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a new class playable by all races: the Death Knight. Available to all players of level 55 and above, this unholy champion works its will through rune-powered spells and also has the ability to command an underling.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has not yet been dated. However, Blizzard parent company Vivendi said that it expected the expansion to ship during the second half of 2008. Retailers are under the assumption that the next expansion to one of the all-time best-selling games will arrive for the PC and Mac in November.
63 Comments
aww are you people only hatein on wow cause you still cant get into a kara guild let alone a heroic group 
>Wow is a game that takes time to get good
>Wow game takes time get good
>Wow takes time good
>Wow good
>good
^^ Hahahahahahahahaha, half the player base is preteens, that just finished learning basic math in school that day..and they're your guild leader!
all i hear from people that hate wow is "whaa whaa whaa i can't get into a good guild to get to end game content whaa whaa whaa my level 70 warrior can't do heroics whaa whaa whaa". Just because you suck doesn't mean the game sucks ... just a thought. Wow is a game that takes time to get good at and it seems most people that whine about it don't want to spend that much time on one game. It's not for everyone, but WoW is a disgustingly addictive game that only becomes so once you figure out there's more to playing it than just mindlessly pressing keys. Sorry it isn't as simple as ... say ... screaming obscenities over a microphone in halo 3? ... Pressing X to continue? ... Spelling?
i just hope all this stands up to the hype and is worth the wait
Hey Lone_wolf, I'll buy your account if you want to sell it, just give me the steps to how you want to give it to me. ANyway, I'm having a bad problem with thinking of getting back into this game. I've quit twice or three times, but its calling me back!!! AAAAAHHH Maybe if I had a 70 I'd get this game day one so I wouldn't be bored, but sadly I quit at 53, and can't get myself back into lvling
While I do think that WoW has lost its charm, i dont think that Age of Conan is the game thats gonna knock it off its throne. That game isnt too good imo. Its just very bland, sure the graphics are pretty but the environments are lame. I never got past level 20 because i just couldnt bring myself to play anymore of that train wreck of a game. Im sure this expansion will sell like hotcakes, but count me out. I never hit 70 because i just enjoyed leveling characters, oh well. Now that i think about it, i should sell my account =P Who wants a level 67 hunter, 60 Mage, 63 Pally, 58 Warrior, 43 Rogue, 44 Druid, and other low level alts? =P
Cool. Maybe it will bring me back into the game. I am really getting frustrated just trying to get the equipment I need to survive BC Heroics. Of course, my Pally and Shaman aren't doing well in that area. Hopefully, my hunter and priest will do better.
Hey mortal medic - they're raking in over $100 million per month - and you think they're making the genre stagnant? Looks to me like they're giving gamers what they want and getting boatloads of cash to boot.
"A face only a WOW fan could love."
Not true. My avatar has been Arthas for years on another forum. I'm a WC3 player, never played WOW.
Kind of off topic but...maybe 'WWI' was not the most wisely chosen acronym?
hahah, nice post mortal medic.
Since wotlk is first to beta, it looks like its coming out first of the new blizz games. Its not entirely suprising considering how much money WoW makes.
Woot, should be fun i almost have my druid to 70 now as well! Rather than raiding all the time for endgame content i just level a bunch to 70 so i have a choice in what i want to play when the exp hits shelves
Jamesallenyz431, don't get offended I badmouthed a popular game, it isn't hard. I have provided evidence that they are just making the MMO market stagnant via decrepit game mechanics that either everyone else has done, is not a new mechanic, or just causes more problems. If (and when) WOTLK makes millions and stays popular, it will just prove my point. They will do whatever it takes to just keep the players there. It doesn't mean making a good product, just mediocre enough to make them more money.
If you really read what the blizzard employees posted, and what the community asked for, you would realize a lot of what is in WoW isn't coming from Blizzard. The new titan's grip talent CAME OFF THE INTERNET! They admitted it. They saw a fake WOTLK talent someone else had made, and used it. That isn't new. That is something someone else made. They didn't come up with the idea, they just ripped it off.
Have you ever read the forums and asked why all the armor sets have been previously used (i.e. using other tiers for arena armor, season 4 already on NPCs at launch of Quel'Danas patch, etc)? The blizzard posters will say "it cause we are working on wotlk" (please note, this has happened before).
How can you expect them to have gotten WOTLK so perfect in a short amount of time (with this apparent HUGE staff), if they cant even get a few extra guys to make new armor?
Like I said, Blizzard has taken a 5 pound steak out of the freezer, put it in the microwave for 55 seconds and declared it safe for consumption by the masses.
To put it rather bluntly this expansion will be lapped up by fans (and addicts) around the world, but the matter of the fact is that Blizzard are just milking the franchise dry before they move on. There can't be a warcraft 4 since they've messed up the lore and timelines so much, this is probably why Diablo 3 started production.
In essence this expansion will be the death-knell of WoW, it's had a good run but shortly it will begin losing customers to better, shinier next-gen MMORPG's like Age of Conan.
Nice.
blizzard should hire Mortal_Medic, he seens to have this mmo figured out. the expansion will make them millions and im sure they arent gonna be disappointed with that no matter how much u think its gonna suck. the new features they put in the games arent ideas from the fans its stuff from the lore and previous warcraft games, so settle down and let them do there thing, because throwing a fit isnt gonna change blizzards game plan at all. (2020 blizzard is gonna build there own thunder bluff to scale)
It's all great and dandy that they are offering up beta finally, but what is it going to matter? There's a texture glitch in the moat of Stormwind still!!! Evade bugs are still all throughout the game, both Old World AND Outlands. Abilities are still glitched! I mean, when it comes down to it, I would rather have Blizz fix the game they currently HAVE rather than worry about putting out a new expansion!!! Seriously...
...and it's not like the beta is going to do anything but just give the public a taste of what there is to come in the expansion. They aren't going to fix any of the stuff in there. I love how Blizz always talks about releasing games when they are "ready"...and yet the games are glitchy as hell. The concepts and gameplay, sure, are pretty top-notch in at least TWO of their franchises (that would be Diablo and, as much as I hate it, Starcraft).
All I'm saying is...whatever. It's coming out later this year, millions will play it...I'll at least have a subscription to it until Diablo III is out and I can play a REAL game again.
@scak4life: There ARE people like me who find raiding to be far too time-consuming, uninteresting, and boring. I mean, by all means, if scripted encounters are your thing, knock yourself out. Coming from DAoC and Guild Wars, where PvP was GOD, I quite enjoy that Blizz is finally putting a little harder focus on their PvP...even if it is still lacking HORRIFICLY in all the important ways. WSG is still a horrible BG idea, as there is no time limit to it and leads to ridiculously and unneccesary long matches of nothingness. EOTS is way too simple to play on, as all you need is a 7 man zerg force going around and grabbing nodes. AV is a PvE instance labeled as PvP. The only REAL PvP in the game comes from AB...and even then...all you need is LM and BS...then fill in with farm or ST. = /
Arenas are a joke, as any 2v2 team of resto druid/arms warrior or ret pally/rogue or disc-holy priest/rogue can rack up a 2200 rating without even putting out effort. And now, frost mage/SLSL lock teams are made a million pounds easier with the latest patch changes.
In turn...Diablo III is where the best stuff is going to be at...so we've just gotta patiently wait.