In the interest of full disclosure, I want to share that everyone's World of Warcraft trial experience will not be the same as mine. I wrote yesterday that their streaming client allowed me to play immediately without requiring a huge download. Not so for everyone.
Yesterday afternoon, College One tried to sign up for the trial and was asked to download a 3.5 gig install file. After a little digging, we learned that the streaming client automatically tests your computer. If it decides your computer isn't fast enough, you must download the full trial in order to play.
Hopefully she'll leave a comment on here and share the frustrating tale of install files and updates ... but let's just say that as of 1:00 a.m., she still hadn't been able to log on and actually play the game.
Just a heads up for any of you thinking of giving WOW a try. I'd hate for anyone to think I was being misleading ...
Any fool can fall - few can lay
Any stud can reproduce - few can please
Anyone can pay - few can lease
The Who - It's Hard
Well.... since you called me out and all :P
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about WoW for awhile, but never did it, mainly because I'm broke. I knew that I would love WoW, because I used to play Ragnarok, a game that is basically a cute, less intense version of WoW. Sadly, I was too broke to pay for the free download and the 8 dollars/30 hours. When Thirty was talking about how she had caved in and was playing it, I decided to cave to (though mainly because I wanted to follow her around in the game and annoy her.)
The download started somewhere around 4:30, I think. This is when we figured out that my computer was too slow to stream. Part of me was upset that I would have to wait for this download, however, a part of me was alright with it if it would allow me to play the game faster. The file size however, was giving me doubts whether my computer would be able to run it. At 5, we went out to dinner, and I left my computer running to continue downloading. When we got home (mmm... tasty D'arcy's ponyshoe), it still wasn't done. So I left it running and just watched Thirty play.
Finally, at 7:30, it finished downloading. Thirty went back to base camp to meet me once I created my character. So I clicked on the icon.... and it started the installation of the game. So I waited. And waited.
FINALLY, at 10:30, it finished installing. yaaaay! So I clicked it, and it opened the main screen. Typed in my username, password... And then it determined that I needed to download an update. That finished at 11:30. However, as soon as I clicked "finished" for the update downloader, it decided that I needed to upload a patch. That went till 12:00, then, horrible oh horrible, with 26% done, I accidently hit the cancel button while trying to scroll down to read more about the patch. So it had to start all over again. That finally finished at 12:50 am. Finally! Time to play!!
Nope, not so fast. Apparently, I needed another update download. 1:00. Then, I needed another patch update. 1:05.
Finally, FINALLY, at 1:08 am, I was able to log on and create my cute little character (are WoW characters supposed to be described as cute?)
I do have to say though- I knew this was going to be a huge game, and I had my doubts at first about how it would work on my computer. A couple years ago, I decided to try out this "second life" thing that there were a few whispers about (this was before it had hit mainstream). It ran so slow, it was basically an outline of a human running around a white screen because it took so long for backgrounds to load. So WoW, this huge, insanely popular game? Yeah, no hope.
I must say, this game runs wonderfully well. No lag time (though I've only been on when there hasn't been thousands of others logged on at the same time) and my slow computer runs it wonderfully. I am really pleasantly surprised.
And now, off to go kill some more things!!
(don't tell Thirty, but I kinda broke our agreement.. I wasn't supposed to level up past level 4, but I completed a quest last night thinking "hey, I'll just do this one thing then quit for the night so I'll still be 4.... and he gave me experience for a reward that pushed me up to 5. Shhhhhh. It'll be our secret. Maybe I'll make a new character, she'll never know...)
~College One
What? Level 5? [shaking fist] Why ... I oughta ...
ReplyDeleteAm I still level 4 or did I level up to 5? I can't remember ... I know I'm only 4 trolls away from completing that one quest ... and I have to find two more items to complete the other quest ...
Damnit ... now I'm going to have to go home and play ... heh heh
Stop playing now! Stop leveling up!!! LOL
I can't help it!! They just keep impaling themselves on my sword!!
ReplyDelete~College One