Who likes secret info? LOTS OF IT!

[Graeme]

I know I do, damnit!

http://12.129.232.213/

For some strange reason Blizzard made their newest page, and their newest news item, but hid them both. Then they made it so the DNS redirect took you to a page could not be found. But certian browsers that have something or other disabled could view these pages, and shala, we get this. Ping that site, and you get the fabled BETA SITE!

Ahh yes everyone, bask in the glory. It's wonderful, isn't it!?

Edit: It's not as secret as it was 20 minutes ago, but damned! Just take a look at the application form!

http://12.129.232.213/account-welcome.aspx

And this!

http://12.129.232.213/images/account-creation/installer-screen.jpg

Eeeep, eep, and all those emotes, and the auctions, it's all just flowing in, ahhhhh...... sweet sweet WoW info :D.

EDIT #2: Kat finally dropped the bomb here:
http://www.battle.net/forums/wow/thread.aspx?FN=wow-general&T=1404885&P=1&ReplyCount=10#post1404885

Guargh! It's soon. And apparently the DNS lookup has to do with the ISP, not the browser.

Edit #3: Forums!
Edit #3 ii: Forums have been disabled apparently. I got to see them though, and posts of certain alpha people :D. So there! :tu:
You can get to certain forums if you're crafty:
http://12.129.232.213/board.aspx?fn=wow-general

[Ark-templarius]

Clicking the USA link leads you to the official site. :)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

[BSTRhino]

Holy *bleep*!

That is incredible! I see you actually download the software. It just proves that the beta test is almost here, I can't wait! *chokes on excitement*

[AJ]

I'm assuming their beta downloads will be utilizing torrent files possibly, as they've shifted to those for all of their multimedia downloads, etc.

[BSTRhino]

Oh come on AJ, show some excitement.

I can't wait to hear everything about the beta. I think it's a great marketing tool that they're going to give everyone public access to read the beta forum. "stop teasing me!" all the non-beta testers will say.

What I'm wondering about is whether the beta test will reveal the first part of the storyline. Because... if it does... then it's a bit of a spoiler. Maybe they could have a short storyline specific for the beta? Like the precursor campaign in the shareware version of StarCraft.

[Graeme]

Clicking the USA link leads you to the official site. :)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

Just saw that they updated that :D.

What I'm wondering about is whether the beta test will reveal the first part of the storyline. Because... if it does... then it's a bit of a spoiler. Maybe they could have a short storyline specific for the beta? Like the precursor campaign in the shareware version of StarCraft.

I would assume the beta storyline would be non-existent. Since it's meant primarily for testing, they wouldn't really need to feed the testers any major-plot developing tidbits of story. The quests they'll have available for testers, I doubt, will be ones that affect the plot in any sort of way - just fun things to do to test out bugs.

Of course, that's also all speculation :P.

[Ark-templarius]

Their login server and forums are online.

I really don't care about WoW, but come on.. it's a Blizzard beta. :)

[Graeme]

Their login server and forums are online.

I really don't care about WoW, but come on.. it's a Blizzard beta. :)

Don't really care about WoW!? I take that as an insult! How could you not care about WoW?

You should've seen the #wow and #worldofwarcraft IRC chats last night. They were madness, totally packed.

Edit: 14 people in the world server!

[BSTRhino]

Their login server and forums are online.

I really don't care about WoW, but come on.. it's a Blizzard beta. :)
Go read some FAQs on it! You'll be hooked! Like me :)

[dunchy]

I really don't care about WoW..


:with:

[Ark-templarius]

MMORPGs = Spending money
Money that I don't have. :P

The game really looks nice, but I don't want to get hooked because of the above reason.

[BSTRhino]

Very wise TemplarTenshi.

There are still 17 people on the world server. How exciting! If you notice there are 18 or more, post it. Gosh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep for the next few nights, because I really want to be there when the beta opens.

[SoldierPrime]

I'm assuming their beta downloads will be utilizing torrent files possibly, as they've shifted to those for all of their multimedia downloads, etc.

It's the only reasonalbe way, saves them plenty of bandwith when mass distributing. The leak was 2 gigs, and that is a fugging long time. But what i have seen in the media one is that they need more seeds, or at least some people who are willing to host.

For some reason my interest in WoW ahve decreased a little becuase it reminds me of D2 which i haven't played in forever. I don't know if i want to get addicted and sit there every night doing quest as shini and dunchy don't want to do. It just seems so much easier to jump on a UT2004 server whenever and play for any amount of time... If i get the beta YAY, but i don't think i will continue to play the game after it is released, there are other ways to play it without that nasty fee =o ;)

[Graeme]

There are still 17 people on the world server. How exciting! If you notice there are 18 or more, post it. Gosh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to sleep for the next few nights, because I really want to be there when the beta opens.

There were 31 people on the server earlier today :D.

If i get the beta YAY, but i don't think i will continue to play the game after it is released, there are other ways to play it without that nasty fee =o ;)

If you're thinking about private-run servers, free from Blizzard, think again. The people trying to emulate the EQ servers have been going at it for years, and still haven't completely emulated the Everquest servers. Considering that WoW is showing to be a lot more intricate and much more well-designed, you can be sure it'll be near impossible to emulate their servers. Nice try though ;).

I don't really see what the big fuss about the money will be. I mean, even if it's ~15 dollars a month, that's like an hour and a half of work for me. Considering I spend more on movies every month, I'm sure I can spare the change. I'll just cut back on movie-viewing to play WoW :D.

[BSTRhino]

I would believe WoW is set up in a client-server fashion, where the server pretty much does all the processing. Pretty intricate processing too, I highly doubt anyone would be able to emulate it.

And I'm not planning on getting to involved in it. But I do want to be part of the 2 year storyline, and the epic server wide battles.

26 people! Lucky them!

[GeYadrON]

im hesatating to buy the game. cuz when i do im gonna play soooo often :D
my study will go to ruins

[Graeme]

Wondering if anyone has seen this yet:

http://www.wow-ra.com/funny.jpg

;), someone was having a bit of fun with the world servers :tu:. Or someone just felt they had to photoshop it :P.

[BSTRhino]

Heh, that's not -real- is it?

Mr. Plow is in the thread! Hello!

[SoldierPrime]

If you're thinking about private-run servers, free from Blizzard, think again. The people trying to emulate the EQ servers have been going at it for years, and still haven't completely emulated the Everquest servers. Considering that WoW is showing to be a lot more intricate and much more well-designed, you can be sure it'll be near impossible to emulate their servers. Nice try though ;).

Oho, and what if it has already been done before? :\
I really don't know how much farther it has goten, as i said i lost interest for some reason. Maybe running around with no weapons was lame ;)

[Graeme]

As I said, it may have been partially done. It will NEVER, and I repeat, NEVER be completed. End of story. The servers are way too complex to emulate that simply . . . .

Edit: Just saw your question BST, yes, that is real. I just got confirmation from one of my friends. Blizz had that up for a bit of time last night:P.

[Mordecai2k]

oh my gosh! the title screen is sweet ;) :P