WoW retail... update?

[Nunul]

I know I am a day early, retail being tomorrow, but I am hoping for info as it becomes available [;)]

Two things are hinging my decision to purchase on:

1. Content within the retail manual. My experience with the Shadowbane retail manual, and the lack of any credible/accurate data in it left me quite gunshy to put it mildly. Essential information was left out of the retail manual and was put into the $29.95 Brady Guide. Unacceptable. Even the Brady guide had crucial errors. I am well aware of the fluid aspect of mmorpgs, but there is a basic amount of info that must be had to avoid horking a character. The WoW Brady guide even has an option for $5 more to get online updates as it is added to the game. And Blizzard cannot supply this to subscribers why exactly?

2. Bittorrent updates. It's simple. If the same horrid speeds are expected for each and every update, I'll pass. I don't care if it is a 20mb or a 200 mb patch. I am not whoring my bandwidth for a subscribed service.

I am honestly hoping these things are non-issues upon release. I love the game and Bliz has never let me down before. I am willing to purchase for $49, pay a $15 per month subscription, but the two above points are game breakers for me.

[Konoko]

I'm not sure who good the manual is. I did look at the one in the open beta and it seemed to be pretty good. Most of the questions I had were all more about in-game stuff (like what exactly do hawk owls and great horned owls do for ya?)

These are more class-specific and in-game stuff that I don't expect a manual to cover.


As for downloads of updates and such, I didn't have any problems with the bit-torrent stuff. Fast and worked well. There was only one update that I recall for the open beta and it downloaded quite quickly.

For yourself (and any others that are having problems?) I would talk to Blizzard about other options. Maybe they will or do have some kind of alternative. Or maybe if they're notified of the problems you're having, they'll have a solution.

I know a number of people who here that didn't have any problems. Maybe it's something with your provider or something? It's hard to guess - that's why I think contacting blizzard might be your best option. If everyone with similar problems contacted them, they might have a fix or whatever for ya.


I don't have any game-breakers myself. The issues you state aren't even on my radar :)
I enjoyed the open beta and had some fun. I've pre-ordered the collector's edition. It'll come via the mail so I don't expect it for a week or more.


But for those playing the first week, I think it'll be pretty tough on some of the newbie quests with everyone trying for the same thing. I know I had a couple times like that with the open beta on the first couple days. I'm sure it'll just be compunded with the full retail version the first week or so.

[Himitsu]

1. Content within the retail manual. My experience with the Shadowbane retail manual, and the lack of any credible/accurate data in it left me quite gunshy to put it mildly. Essential information was left out of the retail manual and was put into the $29.95 Brady Guide.

I don't know what kind of information you're looking for in a manual but I have purchased most of the games Blizzard has put out (Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Diablo 2 and all of the expansions) and all of their manuals are excellent and detailed. I don't think you will be upset with the manual for World of Warcraft. In fact, I think you will read the entire manual and be very happy with the contents.

The WoW Brady guide even has an option for $5 more to get online updates as it is added to the game. And Blizzard cannot supply this to subscribers why exactly?

If you're saying that Blizzard doesn't have an online guide you're wrong because recently Blizzard put up its Knowledge Base (http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowGM/) with detailed and updated information on many aspects of the game. Best of all it's free! The community site at worldofwarcraft.com is excellent and if you have any questions it's probably listed there.

If you don't find the information you want then you can go to Blizzard's forums or to go other sites such as my personal favorites, worldofwar.net or thottbot.com, which are also a great place for information.

2. Bittorrent updates. It's simple. If the same horrid speeds are expected for each and every update, I'll pass. I don't care if it is a 20mb or a 200 mb patch. I am not whoring my bandwidth for a subscribed service.

I don't know what you mean by "whoring your bandwidth" but I don't think it's going to be a problem. I think you had bad speeds because there were fewer people uploading when you tried to download than when I and most others did so you had a lower download speed. When WoW goes retail I think the problems you had will be nonexistant.

Even you do have problems there will more than likely be official and unofficial mirrors of the patches so you can use ftp to grab the patch if you really want to.

[Drablak]

To answer some of Nunul's questions, I find that the manual is good and well made. Of course if you want more details you have to look at fan sites, but it's as complete as you can expect. I didn't see any essential info that was left out. Contrary to CL's manual, it's pretty close to the real thing ;)

In terms of downloads, when I installed the game it downloaded an update. It was 20MB and it took 43 secs to download. It was so fast actually that I didn't get a chance to check the offered options, but there was a button to set the peer-to-peer settings and a help button to explain the options.

I find that it wouldn't install the game as it saw my Open Beta files (even in the trash!) and wouldn't offer to install before I emptied the trash. After the installation (quite long) and the download (quite fast) it installed the patch (medium long) and I could play.

[Kiriel]

I actually didn't install the retail discs at all. I just ran the open beta and it worked :)

I hear that they are still using the bittorrent thingie for updates though, so I'll have to find one of those programs that caps the upload so that my webserver is safe from their grabby program.

FYI, on the Sentinel CL folks have posted they're going to Stormrage for alliance PvE and Warsong for horde PvP. Not sure if anyone posted that here yet.

[Konoko]

I did the same as Kiri. I heard the open beta worked fine and you didn't need to re-install. You just ahd to recreate an account to use with the key from the retail game.

I'm on the whisperwind server in CST. I might pop over to the ones you CL types are on and create a char there but right now i'll just stick with the people I know from around town here. We've got a guild going already :)



So who all from WoD is playing WoW?

[Drablak]

I actually didn't install the retail discs at all. I just ran the open beta and it worked :)
I wasn't sure and didn't want to have problems later on because of a stray file.


I hear that they are still using the bittorrent thingie for updates though, so I'll have to find one of those programs that caps the upload so that my webserver is safe from their grabby program.
It's still bittorrent but it was a different interface that let you adjust settings. As I said the update was 20M and it was too fast for me to really look into it.

[Nunul]

I've decided to wait for Sandy Claws to bring me a copy. That gives them at least a month to work out any lingering (lag) bugs and server populations mellow out a smidge.

Hanging out on the LOTR Gondor versus Mordor Neverwinter Nights PW server till then. May actually begin DMing on it in the near future...