WoW beta email.

yes

lol you idiot there were 2.2 million beta signups and there are only 10000 beta slots, go buy a lotto ticket and you can buy a wow beta account from someone with your guaranteed (lol) winnings, f*****g idiot.

Spink wrote:

lol you idiot there were 2.2 million beta signups and there are only 10000 beta slots, go buy a lotto ticket and you can buy a wow beta account from someone with your guaranteed (lol) winnings, f*****g idiot.

lick my nuts, d*****t.

wellspoken wrote:

Spink wrote: lol you idiot there were 2.2 million beta signups and there are only 10000 beta slots, go buy a lotto ticket and you can buy a wow beta account from someone with your guaranteed (lol) winnings, f*****g idiot. lick my nuts, d*****t.

He's got a point. There's going to be very few (if any) people here in beta. People are going to say they did get in just to say they did.

is ed part of the lewt eq guild crews that got some reserved beta slots?

NinjaBurger wrote:

wellspoken wrote: Spink wrote: lol you idiot there were 2.2 million beta signups and there are only 10000 beta slots, go buy a lotto ticket and you can buy a wow beta account from someone with your guaranteed (lol) winnings, f*****g idiot. lick my nuts, d*****t. He's got a point. There's going to be very few (if any) people here in beta. People are going to say they did get in just to say they did.

Will they not be informing you if u didn't get in?

Blizzard said there was 400k signups and that included Korea and duplicate entries. Dont know where you got 2.2 million.

WoW to hold open beta
Post by masta_blasta @ 06:45pm | 56 Comments | AusGamers News
Blizzard have announced on the battle-net forums that World of Warcraft - their new MMORPG (for those living on Mars) is going to go to an open beta eventually.

This means that Blizzard will be able to properly stress test the WoW servers as they recieved 2.2 million beta applications for the 10 thousand slots that they held. Blizzard are yet to state how long the open beta will be for but most likely it will only be for a week or two at the most.

Source

Fires of Heaven

Here's the full text of that article, from www.ocregister.com (Go Orange County! I miss it =( )

Blizzard enters a new world
Irvine game developer's first entry into massively multi-player games attracts 400,000 for beta testing.


An Orc
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
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By TAMARA CHUANG
The Orange County Register


IRVINE – In the secret world of Azeroth, Hiorc the Orc roams the land trying to make a decent living as a warrior. The ghastly, green female orc is not above killing a few mottled boars for pelts and other goodies.

She's part of a fantasy game land, "World of Warcraft," set in a period akin to the Middle Earth of J.R.R. Tolkien. The game sprang out of the creative minds at Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, one of the most successful computer game developers in the world.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T



"World of Warcraft" is Blizzard's first attempt at a massively multi-player online game, or MMOG, an online gaming genre ruled by titles such as "EverQuest" and "Lineage."

Fans are already eagerly awaiting its summer launch, and some 400,000 people volunteered this week to test the new game before its public debut.

Blizzard plans to offer gamers a world where characters have occupations, buy and trade goods, eat and sleep. It's a world where hundreds, even thousands of gamers can play one another at the same time.

"We have a whole trade program, which feeds the (Azeroth) economy," explained Jeff Kaplan, associate designer, as he demonstrated "World of Warcraft." "There's a ton of other stuff you can do in the game if you don't want to just kill."

To make sure this imaginary land looks like a thriving medieval metropolis - and to find any remaining technological kinks - Blizzard needed thousands of beta testers - people who will try out the new game before it goes on sale. Based on comments from users, programmers can fix character flaws, add new quests and ensure that every acre in Azeroth is in good working order.

"We need to test how well the hardware is holding up and how well the world zones hold up," Kaplan said.

The meaning of 'Massive'

MMOGs are more than just online games that pit one player against another or against a computer. Players pay a monthly fee to immerse themselves in a strange Internet land filled with hundreds, even thousands, of other players. Such games have become a lifestyle for some, including followers of "The Sims Online," where gamers live life, make friends, buy clothes and go to work. For others, MMOGs are a way to surround themselves in a genre they love, from the Middle Ages of "Dark Side of Camelot" to the sci-fi theatrics of "Star Wars Galaxies."

"World of Warcraft" has been in development for four years, with 60 full-time Blizzard designers and engineers working on the game. Including folks who added their cinematic prowess, sound expertise and other administrative duties, some 500 people have lent a hand in the game's development.

Blizzard must whittle its pool of 400,000 applicants down to 10,000 beta testers. The company will look for players with a variety of computer systems, processors, graphics cards and online access, as well as players from different regions.

"Most games don't even sell 100,000," said Rob Pardo, senior vice president of game design.

Beta testers get the thrill of playing the game before everyone else, and their suggestions help the development of the game, said Kaplan, who had the enviable job of inventing missions for players, designing dungeons and adding elements such as the slithering snakes in the caves.

Blizzard plans to support thousands of players, with multiple computer servers handling all the online traffic. Each server can support 2,000 to 3,000 players.

"One of the key elements (of an MMOG) is we need massive amounts of people to play because they contribute to the local economy," Kaplan said. "Our world is massive."

No kidding. The world has 60 zones, which are like cities. To get from one zone to another takes time. For example, when Hiorc the Orc travels to the land of Orgrimar, she lucks out and finds a winged lion offering a taxi service. It takes her a few minutes by air. By foot, it would have taken her a half hour, Kaplan said.

"At the same time, we didn't want to make it too big so that it seemed sparse," Kaplan said. "The social experience is what keeps people coming back."

Game companies are embracing this type of massively multi-player world for a good reason - money. "EverQuest" from Sony Online, which charges around $13 a month for access, is one of the most popular MMOG sites, with 430,000 subscribers. Blizzard hasn't determined how much it will charge.

Worldwide revenues for online gaming are expected to jump to $1.3 billion this year, up from $960 million last year, according to The Themis Group, a market researcher in Connecticut. By 2008, revenues are projected to reach $4.1 billion.

REACHING A LIMIT

Despite such growth, some are worried. Gamers can spend hours at a time playing MMOGs. And with more games in development - at least five are set to launch this year, including "EverQuest II" - competition for players is fierce.

"If you talk to people in the industry and at the game developers' conference, there's a concern that there are too many games here and they are cannibalizing the market," said Dave "Fargo" Kosak, executive editor of Irvine-based GameSpy.com, a Web portal for the gaming community.

Some MMOGs have already felt the pain. "Motor City Online," an MMOG from Electronic Arts that let players build and race cars, shut down in August. Cyan Worlds unplugged its "Myst"-inspired "URU Live" game Wednesday because it didn't attract enough subscribers to pay for administering the site.

That said, the industry thinks Blizzard's new game has a better chance at success because the "Warcraft" series has a massive following as a regular computer game and many of its players might not be regular MMOGers, said Richard Ow, an industry analyst with The NPD Group market-research firm.

" 'Warcraft' as a brand is very popular and strategy games are one of the strongest genres of games," Ow said. " 'Warcraft' (compared to other MMOGs) is different dollars."

Added Kosak, "'World of Warcraft' is probably one of the most eagerly anticipated MMOGs among gamers. The ('Warcraft') franchise is really strong. The developer has a great reputation."

That includes Korea and doesn't include the final numbers without duplicates that I'm still waiting for. =] I bet 275,000 as my guess