[WoW] I Was a Teenage Alpha Tester

Thanks Whiz... very much what I wanted to hear.

I suppose my next question is on the Herbalism offshoot tradeskills, namely Alchemy and Enchanting.

Would it be too much of a generalisation if I were to say that the difference between them is that potions, which is what Alchemy is all about, affect the toon itself and enchantments from Enchanting work on the equipment (armor and weapons) of the toon?

Besides the expected health and mana potions, I have heard that Alchemy will at some stage allow things like invisibility potions and language potions. Which leads me to ask that besides the expected damage and defence enchantments, what can we expect to see as the other products of Enchanting?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tidybowl

I suppose my next question is on the Herbalism offshoot tradeskills, namely Alchemy and Enchanting.

---

Well, it's the gathering tradeskill that supports them, but it's also used for some Poison Making recipes, and I wouldn't be surprised to see herbs show up in others once in a while, too.

Quote:

---

Would it be too much of a generalisation if I were to say that the difference between them is that potions, which is what Alchemy is all about, affect the toon itself and enchantments from Enchanting work on the equipment (armor and weapons) of the toon?

---

That's a fair characterization. In some cases, Alchemy makes subcomponents for tradeskill recipes, but yeah, it's 99.9 percent potions.

Quote:

---

Besides the expected health and mana potions, I have heard that Alchemy will at some stage allow things like invisibility potions and language potions.

---

And swim speed, armor buff, strength buff, two very different running speed potions, etc.

Quote:

---

Which leads me to ask that besides the expected damage and defence enchantments, what can we expect to see as the other products of Enchanting?

---

Add stats and resists to armor, add raw HP and mana to armor, add damage to weapons, add more damage to specialized targets only (like to beasts), temporarily imbue armor with damage absorption, etc.

Both recipes aren't in a final state, but Enchanting is still in the process of getting a lot more enchantments.

With racial bonuses out of the picture at the moment, I was wondering whether there was any reason to be of one race as opposed to another.

For instance, do the shorter stature of gnomes and dwarves make it easier for them to say, slip under certain obstacles like broken fenceposts than taller races like Taurens and Humans? However, I expect they don't see as far ahead in the field. ;)

So would it be accurate to say that Enchantments are WoW's answer to Augments? Do you know if Enchantments can be removed from an item if some better enchantment comes along?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Orbomaxx

So would it be accurate to say that Enchantments are WoW's answer to Augments? Do you know if Enchantments can be removed from an item if some better enchantment comes along?

---

You certainly can. If you wanted to, say, put a leather armor patch on some boots that you already had augmented with +1 Stamina, you get a pop-up warning you that you're about to overwrite your previous improvement on your gear.

(Leatherworkers can make patches of light, medium and heavy leather that add armor class to boots, pants, gloves and breastplates.)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tidybowl

For instance, do the shorter stature of gnomes and dwarves make it easier for them to say, slip under certain obstacles like broken fenceposts than taller races like Taurens and Humans? However, I expect they don't see as far ahead in the field. ;)

---

During the tri-Horde push, you often heard tauren bitching about small orc huts they had trouble getting in and out of, while orcs and trolls (who walk very hunched over) could get into and out of just fine.

In constrast, dwarves and especially gnomes see a lot of the sides of counters and, as in EQ, find themselves having to hop around a lot in order to get up onto some surfaces and slopes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

Having said that, no one likes PVP more than a lot of the folks at Blizzard. Even the folks swinging their e-dicks the most can't keep up with them -- it'd be wise for everyone just to wait and see what the result is before angsting too much over it. I suspect we'll a) see instanced PVP that will please the consensual crowd and b) PVP servers that allow team-based and maybe even FFA PVP for those who really want that stuff as well..

---

I think I would find that enjoyable - I quite liked the RvR in DAoC, just not all the time ( too much of a good thing and all ).

On the other hand, I don't believe that it's possible to make both the hardcore PKers and the PVE people happy no matter what you do. It's the same reason the red servers in EQ didn't work well and the same reason that the hardcore PK crowd sneer at instanced PVP areas - they don't want opponents, they want victims. The PVE crowd do not want to be victims. I'm not really sure how you would get around that, but I will be interested to see what Blizzard come up with.

By the way - thanks to all the alpha testers for the great writeup, this thread has been an excellent read.

Thank you for taking the time to write the review and answer questions!

I noticed that you mentioned a "level-based aggro" system to keep lowbies from entering high-level zones (e.g. a level 1 gnome enters a level 50+ zone and mobs from all corners trip over themselves in their haste to be first to eat him).

My concern: how exploitable is this? If a guild needs to cross a dangerous area, can they just create an "aggro mule" to draw the mobs to the far corner of the zone, thus allowing the rest of the guild to pass in relative safety?

Or can two level 1 characters play an 'aggro mule" leapfrog game on their own? For purposes of this example, say a "zone" area is roughly square. Newbie 1 starts out at the NW corner of the square. Newbie 2 starts out in the SW corner of the square. Newbie one steps over the "zone line" and all the mobs come a'runnin'. After a second, Newbie 2 races along the bottom of the "zone wall" in safety, from SW corner to SE corner. Newbie 1 steps back over the "zone line" and the high-level mobs "forget" about him and start to go home. At this point, Newbie 2 steps back inside the "zone" and the system repeats: mobs now go rushing for Newbie 2 in the SE corner, while Newbie 1 passes in safety along the "zone wall", NW to NE.

Are there controls in place to prevent this?

Thanks again for letting those of us who didn't get into the beta (and were careless enough to miss the application date!) live vicariously through you! :-)

Safe journeys to you.

The agro range isn't quite that large. :) You notice the level agro the most when you are in a group. I was the lowest member of the party in a little adventure we took into a mine the other night at lvl 15, the rest of the party was lvl 17-20. During any fights, i would get the most agro, i would also pull mobs if i got too close to them and we weren't ready, so i hung back from the rest so that wouldn't happen. It's not that you are an agro magnet across the zone, but compared to the rest of your party, and depending on the level difference, you could be very well labeled an "Agro Magnet".

As far as training mobs away to let others pass by, that is certainly possible, provided your trainer has the ability to withstand some damage or has an availble immunity spell (priest/paladin). However, there really isn't any reason to do this in the game. Generally, if you stick to the roads, you are more than 50% of the time safe from harm if you are careful and watch where you are going and what is around you.

The monsters only chase you for so long, and then turn around and head back.

Also, some of them run pretty darn fast, so a level 1 won't last long with even just one of those things catching up. There are special moves some monsters get, such as Hamstring which is also a Warrior ability, which slows an opponent. Then it's clobberin' time. ;)

After the horror that was Hillsbrad Foothills in the undead push, they've gone through and made roads more of a safe passage everywhere there's a road that anyone would patrol to keep clear (each faction can meet patrols they REALLY would rather avoid in the Arathi Highlands, of course).

And the two level 1s wouldn't work, because by the time you got the first one back as a ghost or whatever, the progess you'd made would be over.

Having said that, Pedi and I live by the "I aggro them, you go pull the named" (or whatever) system. Way too much Scooby Doo growing up.

Quote:

---

They joined the bandwagon too late, and will join EQ and UO in the backseat is all i'm saying.

---

I bet every other game developer out there wishes it was doing as "poorly" as EQ and UO. And when I played UO, it was full of PvP (I actually quit literally a day or two before the split into Trammel and Felucca). I still remember running to the Columbine Memorial on the Napa Valley shard, and getting PKed on the way. Great fun. Yeah. Right. While there are undoubtedly a number of reasons that EQ clobbered UO, one of the biggest is non-consensual PvP. The majority of players don't like it, and that's pretty much all there is to it.

I don't think there should be straight PVP (unless there were some MAJOR consequences for unwarranted kills) and I don't think there should be "PVP only" servers. I think consentual and instanced PVP is a good idea. And I think it would appeal to some people who might not generally want to PVP at all.

For instance, if a one-time world-event (that was a major part of the story) were to happen and there was an open RvR battle for those that wished to join, that could be fun. If you wanted to fight, you could. If you didn't want to, you didn't have to. But it would be interesting to see the world change depending on who won. Not necessarily make the lives of the losers miserable, but maybe make it so that the winners would get something nice. Even if it's just the fact that the Orcs pushed the humans out of the city and the humans have to take up residence somewhere else.

Those who decided not to fight wouldn't have their lives changed dramatically, but they'd be a little upset they didn't help their "team" and at least do their part. It would be ideal if something like this event didn't happen on a regular basis. Something like a GM event, except much rarer (uber rare. Uber ultra mega rare).

I dunno. The idea that the world could change (even if just a little and not inconvience others too badly) by such an outcome would be intriguing to most folks, even the ones who normally don't do PvP. Like I said, it would all be 100% consentual and those who don't want to do it don't have to. But again, they'd most likely feel like draft dodgers and feel left out of a very rare occurance.

I think it could be fun. There is no griefing involved. There is no "I just want victims" mentality 100% of the time. It's there for those who want it, and it doesn't need to be engaged by those who don't.

This idea sounds perfectly fine for a game that's set in the world of warcraft.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Numbuk

For instance, if a one-time world-event (that was a major part of the story) were to happen and there was an open RvR battle for those that wished to join, that could be fun. If you wanted to fight, you could. If you didn't want to, you didn't have to. But it would be interesting to see the world change depending on who won. Not necessarily make the lives of the losers miserable, but maybe make it so that the winners would get something nice. Even if it's just the fact that the Orcs pushed the humans out of the city and the humans have to take up residence somewhere else.

---

There's a nautical invasion of Durotar by Admiral Proudmoore's followers that's heavily foreshadowed. I wouldn't be surprised if it was something along the lines of what you're suggesting.

Has there been any talk of allowing any other horde races to become mages besides the Undead? Seems to me that not allowing any devout horde players any kind of choice in mage races will make many choose another class or choose the other faction which allows more choices per class.

Trolls can be mages, as of the tri-Horde push. They don't seem to have updated the official site yet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

Trolls can be mages, as of the tri-Horde push. They don't seem to have updated the official site yet.

---

Oh good. I sent official feedback about that - and hadn't heard anything (and as you said, it hadn't been updated.) When I saw that Trolls couldn't be mages, I was all 'Um... aren't the witchdoctors essentially mages?'

Anyway - good to hear :)

I'll probably still stick with Tauren - but Trolls are a very close second (if they could only be druids - lol :)

Oh, do Trolls regen? Or was that a racial ability that is being revamped?

Demetrius

When trolls were made playable, all racial abilities were stripped out, so we never knew what was intended. There are "trolls' blood" regeneration potions in the game, though, so it's a good bet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Velk

I think I would find that enjoyable - I quite liked the RvR in DAoC, just not all the time ( too much of a good thing and all ).

On the other hand, I don't believe that it's possible to make both the hardcore PKers and the PVE people happy no matter what you do. It's the same reason the red servers in EQ didn't work well and the same reason that the hardcore PK crowd sneer at instanced PVP areas - they don't want opponents, they want victims. The PVE crowd do not want to be victims. I'm not really sure how you would get around that, but I will be interested to see what Blizzard come up with.

---

Couldn't agree more. I think it's very important to make the distinction between open PvP and team based RvR. DAoC basically has instanced and separate team PvP that people that do not want to take part in it, can avoid it their entire time in the game. I expect that WoW will have 1000x or more the PvE content DAoC had, so that it would support a PvE only gaming population.

I like the RvR when I want to do it, and I also like just chilling and PvEing, whether it's levelling or raiding in peace. Although to be honest, nothing gives a thrill so much as levelling/xping in a place where a PK can pop you at a vulnerable time, but more times than not, you want that /ding and you don't want to be bothered.

I hope that there are goals and a reason to RvR other than just to kill other factions. Just having a "battlegrounds" model of team PvP would get exceedingly old after a very short while. Maybe having rewards that are unique only to RvR play, just as there will be items that one can only acquire through raiding or dungeon crawling. Or possibly better yet having a system where RvR performance can maybe translate to your home lords rewarding you with a raid level item from the royal treasury. Basically giving identical rewards to players that want to PvE only, or to RvR only or a mix of both.

And I hope that the game is flexible enough to provide viable and meaningful team PvP for those that want it, those that want to just dabble in it, and those that never want to experience it at all. I have many friends that span the whole spectrum on this issue, and would like a game where all of them could be included.

Those that want to gank lowbies, well you have Shadowbane (or what's left of it after you got your hands on it). Don't paint team PvPers with the open griefer PK brush. It's not really accurate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Attyla

I hope that there are goals and a reason to RvR other than just to kill other factions. Just having a "battlegrounds" model of team PvP would get exceedingly old after a very short while. Maybe having rewards that are unique only to RvR play, just as there will be items that one can only acquire through raiding or dungeon crawling. Or possibly better yet having a system where RvR performance can maybe translate to your home lords rewarding you with a raid level item from the royal treasury. Basically giving identical rewards to players that want to PvE only, or to RvR only or a mix of both.

---

The announced plans since the beginning have been that they want to give PVP folks rewards that are comparable to what the non-PVP folks get (so no one is penalized for their preference) but with unique looks so you can see that their cool soulbound shield, or whatever, is the mark of someone who's been smiting the Horde up and down the coast.

I find this to be a good compromise -- make PVP something WANT to do, but don't force it upon them.

Hi peeps and greetings from Bulgaria with this first post.
I would like to ask someone who played alpha/beta to give more info on tauren playing in a group and more specificly a tauren shaman.
Is the role of a tauren shaman like the role of a aura pala in diablo II or something elce?
What Char Class is best to chose if i want to play in WoW like a aura support pala in D2 ?
And last one (lame) why can't i chise ava ? ;D
Thanks for your time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

so no one is penalized for their preference

---

That is what killed DAoC for lots of people. You are penalized if you don't engage in PvP. Remove the penalization and add unique looks and DAoC would have kept a great deal more of its players. It still remains how to balance classes against both each other and the environment. Nobody has managed to do that yet, maybe Blizzard can.

Whilst I'm sure the damage output of the totems and direct spells of the Shaman are probably not up there with those of the pure caster classes like the Mage and the Warlock, I was wondering whether it is still possible to play the Shaman as well as a pure caster, without resorting to meleeing with your mace/staff.

This obviously precludes the use of the melee-centred spells like Flametongue Weapon, Frostbrand Weapon and Rockbiter Weapon and the Stoneclaw Totem unless you are in a group.

Would just like to get an idea how well a Shaman will do in a situation where he's either solo or in a small group and will be required to go toe-to-toe rather than just be a support character/buffer for a large group.

Hello,

I just finished registering in order to post a reply to this review. 8)

Simply put, it was the most well written, concise, yet amazingly detailed post I have read in many, many years (right up there with the best of Usenet :))

I am currently playing AC2 (after a 3+ year of absence from AC1and an even longer absence from EQ) .. I kept hearing about WoW, knew vaguely that it was a new on line RPG but didn't think much of it.

I followed a link (to your review) on my allegience board and was drawn in by the depth of your post.

Thank you for a truly wonderful and informative piece of net-literature.

Either you have a trunk full of notes, or a memory like an elephant, but you brought the game to vivid life in your review. Id say if your career of choice doesn't work out, you have a good shot at any magazine in circulation.

I am definitly going to play WoW on release :) Oh and your suggestion about combining Survival with Bandaging is an extremely good idea, I hope that Blizzard knows your value.

Thanks,

-Shiva

Found a felhunter! (Warlock pet)

http://www.huntel.net/rnielsen/humans/felhunter.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tidybowl

Would just like to get an idea how well a Shaman will do in a situation where he's either solo or in a small group and will be required to go toe-to-toe rather than just be a support character/buffer for a large group.

---

I soloed my troll shaman quite a bit. While lots of people felt shamans were underpowered, I thought they did fine. Having said that, I did melee in addition to dropping earth and fire totems and using my nukes.

Soloing without melee would be tough, and I don't know anyone who did it successfully. But then, that'd be like playing a paladin in EQ and not using spells -- the class is balanced when all of their abilities are used.

Very nice info, well done and thanks to all contributors. :)

I noticed that there's a few questions that haven't been fully answered, here or in links. This page has info on a few things, most notably PvP and Repuation (Faction for EQ'ers - but not the same).

http://worldofwar.net/articles/visit2004/

A wee bit old, and of course everything's subject to change, but it's got a few details I've not seen elsewhere, or only hinted at.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Orbomaxx

So would it be accurate to say that Enchantments are WoW's answer to Augments? Do you know if Enchantments can be removed from an item if some better enchantment comes along?

---

You might say the opposite -- Augment's are EQ's answer to Wow's Enchantments. I've been following WoW since it came out (long-time fan of the Warcraft series :)), and I am about 80% sure that the 'armor patches' in WoW were known for a while before EQ augments were announced.
They could very easily have been concurrent development, though. And in any case, 'boosting my armor' is hardly a new idea at all.

One thing I do know for sure: WoW's 'instances' were announced long before EQ's Lost Dungeons of Norrath was announced. I wouldn't be suprised if EQ will take (or has taken) other aspects of WoW as well.

Most MMO games that come out end up serving as idea-beta tests for EQ expansions. In that case of instanced dungeons both AO and DAoC did it before WoW was announced. This has allowed EQ and WoW to learn how to do it right ahead of time.

Hi i'm yet another who signed up just to reply to your knowledge on World of Warcraft. I've recently quit Anarchy Online (200 fixer) then I went to play FFXI (45 theif), which I quit after I flipped through my dictionary of "Fun things to do" and waiting 2+ hours to get a team started, let alone a good team started, wasn't in there.

I was a level 45 mithran theif in FFXI, and I went over the first 4 pages on this topic and didn't read too much about how a rogue solos in WoW.

Cause in FFXI I was awesome at being a theif/rogue, but they couldn't solo for shiznit (How can I sneak attack *primary/main theif damage attack* if after the first hit I can't sneak?) Also like you say in WoW, Theif/Rogues are a popular class to be in FFXI so gettin into a party in FFXI as a theif felt like being picked last in gym class. (Too many theives not enough parties)

So I was wondering how they were able to make Rogues able to solo in WoW. Cause they gave warriors the defensive/offensive stance and mages/warlocks pets etc. What about Rogues?

P.S. I really wish I got in WoW's beta I'm not gonna play another MMORPG till WoW is out so I'm stuck playing Single Player games, not that the new Ninja Gaiden isn't fun =p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nokturnal

So I was wondering how they were able to make Rogues able to solo in WoW. Cause they gave warriors the defensive/offensive stance and mages/warlocks pets etc. What about Rogues?

---

Rogues have a lot of offensive moves that result in higher/faster damage output. They also have the ability to stun a mob in order to run behind and backstab. Some of the moves require stealth and being behind a mob. Rogues also get DoTs and abilities that increase dodge for fifteen seconds. They also get sprint (faster running speed) for fifteen seconds. At level 20, they get poison they can apply to their daggers (slow, DD, DoTs, etc) for even more damage.

Rogues operate like mages -- low hitpoints, but high damage output. I soloed my rogue up to level 22 and was able to solo most mobs up to four levels above me. It wasn't always easy, but I didn't struggle either.

Even though warriors have offensive and defensive moves, rogues get a lot of moves of their own to rival the warriors. I was skeptical about rogues being able to solo, but much to my surprise and delight, it's not a problem for the class. Remember that Blizzard has said every class should be able to solo and they've kept true to that statement. ;)

Firstly, like so many others have said, fantastic write-up Whiz. Far and away the best I've seen.

One question I have regards character facial customization post-creation. Are you able to change your facial appearance anytime you want after creating your character?

I think WoW as a game by considering the design in its own right is fine, there isn't much wrong with it and a lot "right". The graphics, aye can't really fault them either, maybe they are a bit too low poly for my tastes but that is the nature of PC games written for the lower spec machines. The sound, aye again, it does the job.

However what worries me is the technology being used at the heart of the game which is the network transfer protocol. I've had this worry even through alpha. From a technical design and implementation point of view I have my doubts it will work well enough to do the job when there are proper player numbers being used. Which is a shame. I think we may very well get an Anarchy Online style "rethink and technical redesign" at some stage shortly after proper launch.

What makes you say that Fnagaton?

Because their protocol choice is notorious for getting completely choked, being prone to packet storms and has no provision for distinguishing between "unreliable out of ordered fast data" and "reliable in order data". This lack of provision means that it is more likely that lag spikes occur because there is a lack of tolerance in their network topology. I've written a couple of network libraries to cope with massive distributed data driven problems (like those in MMO games) there just seems to be something not quite right about it all when I look at WoW with my technical network hat on.
Don't get me wrong, I hope that by the time it is properly released these problems won't happen, but my gut tells me otherwise.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Seriph

Firstly, like so many others have said, fantastic write-up Whiz. Far and away the best I've seen.

One question I have regards character facial customization post-creation. Are you able to change your facial appearance anytime you want after creating your character?

---

Nope, can't change your mind once you create the character. You can delete the character and make a new face, but you'll be starting over from scratch. ;)

(I personally never liked EQ allowing faces/hairstyles to be changed at anytime after the Luclin expansion.)

Another Shaman question if you don't mind...

Ancestral Recall seems like a nifty thing for those bathroom and phone breaks. But does it work the other way for when you come back - i.e. does it allow you to get back to where you left off? Or do I need someone to do a Ritual of Summoning?

If Ancestral Recall is in WoW yet, it's beyond the levels I've seen.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fnagaton

Because their protocol choice is notorious for getting completely choked, being prone to packet storms and has no provision for distinguishing between "unreliable out of ordered fast data" and "reliable in order data".

---

I'm not a programmer, but I work for an ISP and do some network troubleshooting. Just out of curiosity, what protocol /is/ Blizzard using?

It's been a while since my Cisco classes, though, so I'm kind of scratching my head wondering what else there is besides TCP/IP. Or is it just how they've implemented it?

He's talking about an application level protocol. The level that things like FTP and Telnet work at on top of tcp/ip or udp/ip. I assume it's a blizzard in house design thing.

Fnagaton, can you point to any references about the blizzard client/server (if in fact it is specific to blizzard and not more general) protocal blizzard is using in WoW?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yyidth

Fnagaton, can you point to any references about the blizzard client/server (if in fact it is specific to blizzard and not more general) protocal blizzard is using in WoW?

---

hi, you must be new here.

Not nice, Milaru.

Hello,

I just HAD to register and reply to this thread. Whizbang, your write-up was truly amazing. I began to picture what you were saying in my head and it really made me
interested in WoW again. I had played EverQuest since August 1999, but stopped playing in October of 2003 due to real-life stuff. I am hoping to get back to MMORPGs as I really enjoy this style of game.

Once again, thanks for your comprehensive write-up, Whizbang! I read it from start to finish and then spent hours reading the rest of the thread. 28 pages takes a while to read through ;) Thank you Pedi, Savanna and Vashanti and everyone else for the enthralling information as well.

Saidin
-Old Mage on The Tribunal server

Quote:

---

Will there be a bank? How much will it hold?
Yes, there will be a bank with ample storage space to hold multiple player items. This option will allow players to store as many items as they need without requiring them to create additional characters to store surplus items.

---

this right there will make me switch from AC2 :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shiva

this right there will make me switch from AC2 :)

---

Also, you can pay to have additional "bag slots," which means you can load up as big of a bag as you can with items and put it in a paid bag slot, which effectively increases your bank size. It costs more with each new bag slot of the bank you open, though.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vashanti

Also, you can pay to have additional "bag slots," which means you can load up as big of a bag as you can with items and put it in a paid bag slot, which effectively increases your bank size. It costs more with each new bag slot of the bank you open, though.

---

real money or in game money?

In game money.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shiva

real money or in game money?

---

in game money i believe



and does anybody else think the felhound picture (which I missed earlier due to Pedi's bandwidth being hammered) looks kinda like a zergling? Not that I think its a bad thing, it'll always remind me of the good old starcraft days.

This is a great great write right now you have me sold (as long as i can 2box!!!!) hehe . Me and all my friends and family that play online games im gonna get to place this as soon as it comes out, god i cant even wait for it hehe :). Great great write and lots of wonderful info in this thread hell i only managed to make it through like 20 pages so far :).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yyidth

He's talking about an application level protocol. The level that things like FTP and Telnet work at on top of tcp/ip or udp/ip. I assume it's a blizzard in house design thing.

Fnagaton, can you point to any references about the blizzard client/server (if in fact it is specific to blizzard and not more general) protocal blizzard is using in WoW?

---

Unfortunately the references involved point towards hacking sites that emulate the server and I would get warned or banned if I posted the links and may get Graffe's in to trouble.

Or the information that was obtained through reverse engineering the EXE, while sort of permissible under European law, is almost certainly not under US law and if I posted that information it may get the Graffe's board in trouble.

If a moderator would like to come along and let me know what they consider to be OK for me to post?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fnagaton

Unfortunately the references involved point towards hacking sites that emulate the server and I would get warned or banned if I posted the links and may get Graffe's in to trouble.

Or the information that was obtained through reverse engineering the EXE, while sort of permissible under European law, is almost certainly not under US law and if I posted that information it may get the Graffe's board in trouble.

If a moderator would like to come along and let me know what they consider to be OK for me to post?

---

I'd rather have no information on the website that promotes hacking or helps hackers in any way.

Thanks,
Graffe

No problem, then I shall zip my lips. :)

Just e-mail the pertinent info to the interested parties. Leave Graffe out of the loop. Everybody gets pie and goes home happy.

mm i might not now a thing but if your worries comes from what you've experienced from a server's emulation , or infos about it ( but wich anyway should be , at least for now , way less effecient than the original ) , isnt this a little early to be so alarmist ? and also does those concerns got real material and weight ??

Cold blessings all the way from Norway to Whizbang for the outstanding post.

Just a slight selfish question here:

Anyone know if there will be opportunities for Europeans to get access to the general Beta or will it only be for language specific versions?

Oh and Blizzard:
If you are interrested, I will teach you to ski, kill polar bears with your hands and catch salmon in the fjords wearing nothing but a pointy hat, if you get my sorry ass into Beta =)

Orome of Norway
Ranger of many servers

My question is how large are the servers and how many are there planned to be. This all sounds so great that my only fear is it will be too crowded! No matter how good a game is, overcrowding can kill it right off..

well people keeping saying how huge is the world and blizzards work i'm pretty confident both the world and servers will be enough , now its true thats its their first experience in the genre , lets jsut hope there woud be the less mistakes possible

Well it sounds to me like there is only 1 newbie zone for each race, and some races even share those with others. That isn't going to go over well when they open the doors and there is 378 level 1 dwarves and gnomes all fighting over the same 15 rats/bats/etc... :(

Also, are they going to make the standard MMO mistake of having each character locked to a specific server or will we be allowed to play with our friends on different servers?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

Well it sounds to me like there is only 1 newbie zone for each race, and some races even share those with others. That isn't going to go over well when they open the doors and there is 378 level 1 dwarves and gnomes all fighting over the same 15 rats/bats/etc... :(

---

Your definitely a glass is half full kind of person. What if WoW really, really sucks and tries to make everyone mad and quit the game? :P

I believe its been mentioned many times that WoW will have dynamic spawn rates that will adjust based on amount of people in the zone for newbie areas.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

Also, are they going to make the standard MMO mistake of having each character locked to a specific server or will we be allowed to play with our friends on different servers?

---

Standard MMO mistake? If this occured, an uber guild could farm every server if this was the case. Or are you talking the FFXI style system where you couldnt start a character on any server without that stupid game pass thing that your in game friends would have to buy? If so, I agree 100%.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by camrael

Your definitely a glass is half full kind of person. What if WoW really, really sucks and tries to make everyone mad and quit the game? :P

---

It's "you're" as in "you are" and I don't think they would try to make everyone quit. It's more like something that just happens if they don't plan ahead properly.

Quote:

---

I believe its been mentioned many times that WoW will have dynamic spawn rates that will adjust based on amount of people in the zone for newbie areas.

---

Excuse me, I've never seen that mentioned here. It sounds ok but doesn't really solve the problem of overcrowding. If anything it makes it worse - more mobs + more people just means even more lag.

Quote:

---

Standard MMO mistake? If this occured, an uber guild could farm every server if this was the case. Or are you talking the FFXI style system where you couldnt start a character on any server without that stupid game pass thing that your in game friends would have to buy? If so, I agree 100%.

---

No I mean, with most MMOs your character is locked into 1 server only and you can't play on the other servers with that character. So when you find out you have friends on another server you would have to start your character over to play with them. As for uber guilds, I don't see how they can "farm" more than 1 server at a time, so as long as there are as many servers as "uber guilds" it shouldn't be a problem. If anything, being able to move your characters to another server helps solve this problem because if you have 2 "uber guilds" on a server, one of them can go somewhere else.

You do know that each server is actually a separate computer, right? There's gonna be some crazy networking problems if they just allow people to move wherever they want between servers. Locking characters to specific servers isn't a "mistake", it's a necessity. Ideally, we'd be able to all be on one server with enough content and bandwidth from that one server to allow everyone to be fully functional.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

It's "you're" as in "you are" and I don't think they would try to make everyone quit. It's more like something that just happens if they don't plan ahead properly.

Excuse me, I've never seen that mentioned here. It sounds ok but doesn't really solve the problem of overcrowding. If anything it makes it worse - more mobs + more people just means even more lag.

No I mean, with most MMOs your character is locked into 1 server only and you can't play on the other servers with that character. So when you find out you have friends on another server you would have to start your character over to play with them. As for uber guilds, I don't see how they can "farm" more than 1 server at a time, so as long as there are as many servers as "uber guilds" it shouldn't be a problem. If anything, being able to move your characters to another server helps solve this problem because if you have 2 "uber guilds" on a server, one of them can go somewhere else.

---

Thanks for the grammar lesson.

grammar is what you use when you don't have the brains for anything else :(

400 people in a wow newbiezone will be fine, the first couple days may suck but oh well.

Whizbang has addressed the overcrowding in other posts

I'm guessing based on what I know of other MMOs, I have no inside knowldege of WoW's server structure. Most MMO "servers" are actually clusters of several seperate computers. I know it's not trivial to copy a file from one computer to another.. oh wait it is trivial, in fact it's probably the most basic function of computers and networks :P But seriously, if you plan ahead for characters to move, it shouldn't present any problems - any technical problems anyway. I know that EQ made the mistake at first of not having the character files very portable and they had to spend a lot of effort to rework the server/database system to allow it.

The "one server" idea is neat, but it wouldn't work even if we had the network and processing power to do it. You can't just throw 20,000 people into one small area, you wouldn't even be able to see with all those people, not to mention it would probably cause most people's PCs to melt down or blow up....

You would also need a nearly infinite amount of content (zones) for all those people so they are not all in the same place. That would require far too much development time, to build and populate all those zones (and test! omg..) so they do the trick of creating 1 zone and multiplying it to N number of servers. I don't have a problem with that, as long as they have enough servers for everyone.

Just a quick question. Can the melee classes dual weild? I haven't noticed any screenshots of them doing so or heard anything about how dual weild stacks up with two-handed weapons yet.

You don't seem to understand what I was getting at....

Quote:

---

Ideally, we'd be able to all be on one server with enough content and bandwidth from that one server to allow everyone to be fully functional.

---

That with enough content thing covers the idea of having thousands of people crowded into one zone. You see, there'd be tons of different newbie zones. This theoretical game would be even more real-world persistant than any other incarnation before it. Furthermore, I was giving an example of an ideal situation. I'm pretty sure that my ideal can also stretch to cover computer power to process that much shit happening at once.

Each of those "clusters" that you described is essentially just one computer in multiple boxes unless the only thing connecting them together is something as flimsy as a network connection. Can't modern supercomputers pretty much be described as just a bunch of regular computers connected at the hip?

Oops, ok I see that now, I was just thinking aloud. Like I said, the "enough content" part is the hard part - you've got to have world builders to build it all. I suppose you could generate some random landscape, in fact I played an MMO game called "Terra" that did exactly that, their world was essentially as large as the entire surface area of the Earth! The problem was, it was all empty and devoid of life. I think Warcraft is going for more of a "hand crafted" feel with their world :) Anyway this is an interesting discussion (moreso than the grammer one...) but I don't want to derail the thread any more. Suffice to say I hope WoW plans ahead for the ba-zillions of players it will have! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Orome

Anyone know if there will be opportunities for Europeans to get access to the general Beta or will it only be for language specific versions?

---

War3 beta wasn't restricted to just the languages they eventually localized it to, as I recall. Since everyone in Scandanavia speaks better English than we do in America, it should be no problem. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

My question is how large are the servers and how many are there planned to be. This all sounds so great that my only fear is it will be too crowded! No matter how good a game is, overcrowding can kill it right off..

---

If you're in beta at some point, you will get crowded, since they are consciously stuffing everyone onto the same server until they can see "hmmm, that's too many damn people" and then open another one.

But throughout alpha, when we raised concerns about crowding, we were told they wanted a server load that was about what we had then, extrapolated up from how little of the races was open at that point (and fewer people on each than 2 x current beta population, therefore). So doing rough math, it looks like the plan at that point (things subject to change, etc. etc.) you can guess there'd be about 3k people on each server, or about what most EQ servers are.

And yeah, the content is much denser, and once you get out of the first little part of your newbie zone, people spread out pretty fast.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lornick65

Just a quick question. Can the melee classes dual weild? I haven't noticed any screenshots of them doing so or heard anything about how dual weild stacks up with two-handed weapons yet.

---

Rogues, hunters and warriors all can learn dual wield at some point.

Two handed weapons are apparently going to be getting a little love as well.

Hi. Just registered for these forums thanks to this topic. Two questions:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

Rogues, hunters and warriors all can learn dual wield at some point.

---

Does this mean that hunters are now available to play in beta? Previously you stated that hunters and druids could not be played yet. If they are available now, could you provide more information about them?

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/svanaf...ealchemist.jpghttp://mywebpage.netscape.com/svanaf...ha/unlearn.jpg http://mywebpage.netscape.com/svanaf...herworking.jpg
My second question involves skills. Based on these three images in this thread (on pages 10 and 13), and what I rad in the first post, I am confused. From what I see, every level up you get talent points and skill points. Talent points are used to increase stats and gain "feats" (using D&D terminology- essentially one time only abilities that grant you bonuses, such as increased speed or bonuses to skills) while skill points allow you to incrase ranks in trade skills, such as from Apprentice to Journeyman to Expert. From the screenshots, it seems to require one skill point for Apprentice, 3 for Journeyman and 5 more for Expert. Additionally, each skill level requires a rank in that skill to be a certain level; these seem to be in the hundreds (125 and 225 for Apprentice to Journeyman and Journeyman to Expert based on the screenshots). These can't be skill points then, or people would be able to level all skills quite easily. Are these then based on how many items you create, or how often the skill is used? And about skill points: how often are they gained? My current best guess is one every two levels, which would give you 30 by the time you hit maximum at level 60; this would also allow you to max out 3 trade skills and get Apprentice rank in three more, which fits with your comments that no one person can gain more than a few trade skills at maximum. Are my guesses correct? If not, how does this system work? Also, how many talent points are gained every level, and are they used for feats like I thought, or is that different, like Diablo 2 abilities?

Edited screenshots to feature third shot found in this thread.

3k per server? So by my calculations, they will need about 100 servers! :) Seriously, what does Bnet get on a slow night? Double that, and multiply by all the former UO and EQ players that are coming out of the woodwork! ;)

Ok, maybe 20 servers..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Does this mean that hunters are now available to play in beta? Previously you stated that hunters and druids could not be played yet. If they are available now, could you provide more information about them?

---

Hunters will be available two pushes from now. But you can find images of them dual-wielding released by Blizzard, and there's a few hunter NPCs in the game now who dual wield.

OK, about the skill point/talent point thing:

Every level, you gain 1 skill point. (Human special ability was to be gaining one extra one every five levels, but like all racial abilities, it's currently disabled.)

Skill points can be spent on tradeskills, non-standard weapon skills (like daggers for mages, staffs for warlocks or swords for paladins) or for learning to ride another race's mount.

Now, when you buy a tradeskill (variable costs depending on the tradeskill and level of the tradeskill), all you're really doing is raising your potential skill cap. You start off with 0 for your cap, naturally, and at apprentice, you can raise it to 75, journeyman to 150 and expert to 225. You still need to practice your skill to get it up that high, though -- my human paladin is making runed copper belts until such time as his skill gets to 100 and he can learn the next recipes I want.

And yes, talents (which use a different point system entirely) are mostly combat related things, like raising stats, raising defensive skills, learning how to use weapons in specialized ways, or picking up better ways of killing certain types of opponents.

I just thought of something else, but I'm not sure it'll be answerable. From reading it seems people can stack debuffs and dots on creeps, and each person is limited by what they can stack from their abilities, but that some of the same abilities from different people will stack (I think that last part is right). Is there a limit to how much you can put onto a single creep? Like in EQ there was a limit at 15, but it got raised to 30. (I only ask because I was reading something about a Paladin being able to stack Holy Strike debuffs up to 6 times on a single creep and that plus some dots and stuff could add up really quickly on big things)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

Also, are they going to make the standard MMO mistake of having each character locked to a specific server or will we be allowed to play with our friends on different servers?

---

I actually think it would be a pretty bad idea to allow you to move servers at will, and I bet a lot of MMORPG veterans would agree with me. Servers form communities of their own. Even at 3k people or so that is getting to be a pretty large community. If you allow people to move at will, or if you have servers that hold an order of magnitude more people, you destroy that community. And community is what keeps these games going.

If you're worried about playing on the same server as your friends, coordinate with them from the start. I doubt this will be like FFXI where you are assigned a server and have to "earn" a pass onto another server... that was the most boneheaded decision I think I've ever seen in MMOGs

That does seem to be the conventional wisdom. If anyone can defy that, it's Blizzard. But regardless, I hope there is at least some method of transferring servers, whether it's for a fee, and/or you can only do it once per month or so... I will surely try to coordinate with my friends before the game goes live, but I also might make *new* friends that play, a year-2-3-whatever from now. (I know, making new friends is probably a foreign concept to a few of the posters here :P)

Thanks for the info Whizbang! Your post raises a few more questions though. You said that hunters are coming in two pushes. About how often do pushes come?
Also, how many talent points do you get per level? I'm guessing that stat raises are one talent point per one stat point; how much do abilities cost?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Skif k'Sheyna

I just thought of something else, but I'm not sure it'll be answerable. From reading it seems people can stack debuffs and dots on creeps, and each person is limited by what they can stack from their abilities, but that some of the same abilities from different people will stack (I think that last part is right). Is there a limit to how much you can put onto a single creep? Like in EQ there was a limit at 15, but it got raised to 30. (I only ask because I was reading something about a Paladin being able to stack Holy Strike debuffs up to 6 times on a single creep and that plus some dots and stuff could add up really quickly on big things)

---

Right now, only one of each type of DoT -- from anyone -- can be on one target at a time, due to the way effects work in WoW. As you might imagine, priests and warlocks are pushing for this to be looked at and revised.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Thanks for the info Whizbang! Your post raises a few more questions though. You said that hunters are coming in two pushes. About how often do pushes come?

---

The original theory was once every 10 days. That lasted all of one push (human). In practice, they're four to six weeks.

Quote:

---

Also, how many talent points do you get per level? I'm guessing that stat raises are one talent point per one stat point; how much do abilities cost?

---

From level 2-9, they cost 10 points each, and you get 10 talent points per level.

From 10-19, they cost 15 points each, and you get 15 points per level.

And so on, with points raising 5 points per 10 levels.

Thus you can go back and buy up a bunch of lower level stuff for cheap, or buy just one thing at a high level. It's a good system in practice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Walk

It's "you're" as in "you are"

---

Oh, goodie goodie, the grammar police have arrived.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

Right now, only one of each type of DoT -- from anyone -- can be on one target at a time, due to the way effects work in WoW. As you might imagine, priests and warlocks are pushing for this to be looked at and revised.

---

That's an issue, hope that high on the list for fixing.

What are the naming possibilities? Can you insert spaces to have a first and a last name (like AC2?) Can you use underlines? Do you get a last name later in the game (like DAoC?) Or is it all only one name, so we will see

Princess
Princesss
Priincess
Pryncesz

etc.? I would like to see last names allowed.

You cannot do anything but letters and, at least until recently, apostrophes. Last names will be a seperate field, as with EverQuest -- it's not determined how/when characters will get their last names, though.

Certain names are restricted too, from what I've read, such as "Thrall" and "Drizzt". The former for obvious reasons, and the latter because it's a trademark. Which probably means we'll see tons of people called "Gandalfe" and "Arthass"

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neener

Certain names are restricted too, from what I've read, such as "Thrall" and "Drizzt". The former for obvious reasons, and the latter because it's a trademark. Which probably means we'll see tons of people called "Gandalfe" and "Arthass"

---

Ahahahahahah Arthass. I just keep reading it as Arth-ass.

"Yeah man, I really kicked his Arth-ass!"

Ahem. Don't mind me, it's late and I'm loopy. Still following this thread closely, though. :)

trademark names such as gandalf and more are tolerated as long as the companies holding the rights dont sue or anything , in such case , blizzard is out of trouble with the name policy and you're on your own , now what are the odds to see that happen :p ???

The one thing I'm having a problem with when i see screenshots is that right now it seems as if you can have a few or even all the letters in your name capitalized other than the first. I dunno, I just don't want to be running around with guys whose names are full caps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoLucifer

trademark names such as gandalf and more are tolerated as long as the companies holding the rights dont sue or anything , in such case , blizzard is out of trouble with the name policy and you're on your own , now what are the odds to see that happen :p ???

---

Well, I'm just going by what Katricia said on the official forums. The thread about Drizzt has been deleted now, for whatever reason, but on the 16th of March she commented:

"That name will not be allowed. Trademarked I'm afraid :) --- unless you happen to be Mr. Salvatore."

and when someone mentioned they might well be Mr. Salvatore, she replied:

"Then I would guess you could get permission from Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro (old TSR) to use it and we could unlock it for you."

And that's the issue, really. They've clearly got a list of locked names that they consider to be problematic.

I'm certainly not going to complain. It really irks me when people try to recreate their favourite character from popular fiction in an MMORPG. It really bugs me, for some reason.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Neener

I'm certainly not going to complain. It really irks me when people try to recreate their favourite character from popular fiction in an MMORPG. It really bugs me, for some reason.

---

Dmitry is trademarked too you rat bastages!

Quote:

---

I'm certainly not going to complain. It really irks me when people try to recreate their favourite character from popular fiction in an MMORPG. It really bugs me, for some reason.

---

I think very often people simply don't think about the effect their name is going to have when they create an mmorpg character. I suspect that MMO veterans will be less likely to make such a name, since they'll better understand how much they'll be stuck with it after creation.

And not everyone that plays video games is a fountain of creativity, nor feels the need to impress everyone else with the originality of their name. On the surface, playing Drizzt or Raistlin or one of your favorite literary characters does seem like a neat idea... You spent all day reading about them and perhaps day dreaming that you actually were one of them, and an online game gives you the chance to turn your dreams to reality.

Of course, MMO veterans will be more likely to know that, in reality, it's really hard to follow through on that sort of roleplay and there are drawbacks to naming yourself after a popular character. Your name 'Grohmm Hellskream' will be similar to the 98675 other Grom Hellscream variants on the server, and your name will become ultimately more forgettable, not less. While naming originality is generally overrated (really, wtf does it matter?), it does help add to your individuality, which, as it turns out, is somewhat important in an MMORPG. Again, veterans will tend to understand this better than newbs. Also, in order to get the name you want, you may have to engage in some creative misspelling. That may sound like a neat idea at first, but later on you may wish that you could have a real, complete name rather than a jumble of text that vaguely resembles its origin.

edit: And I do not mean to slight people who like using unpronouncable word jumbles for their name. They are an entirely seperate issue.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Goladus

I think very often people simply don't think about the effect their name is going to have when they create an mmorpg character.

---

I think a lot of times people just want to start playing. THey create a new character and enter

Princess <Server: Name is already in use.>
Rachel <Server: Name is already in use.>
Jane <Server: Name is already in use.>
Sarah <Server: Name is already in use.>
etc.
etc.

until finally, we get

asdfggh

as a name. I would strongly like to see beta users suggest that first and last names be allowed, and characters unique by both, not just first.

Me and a friend of mine would like to play with only the two of us...

Is that gonna be possible, or do the monsters get too strong or do we have to accept that other players join 'our' party (or dropout when they have to go)?

Grtz Martin!

(nice info here btw http://www.start2dance.com/forum/htm...s/beerchug.gif )

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Thwick

The one thing I'm having a problem with when i see screenshots is that right now it seems as if you can have a few or even all the letters in your name capitalized other than the first. I dunno, I just don't want to be running around with guys whose names are full caps.

---

yeah it might be a bit embarrassing to be in a group with J0oRpWned :)

Im still looking forward to WoW so much though :) ..I might try to get in the final beta, bet its out for christmas

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shiva

yeah it might be a bit embarrassing to be in a group with J0oRpWned :)

Im still looking forward to WoW so much though :) ..I might try to get in the final beta, bet its out for christmas

---

I group and associate only with people that have nothing to do with Dewd names or dumb names like "Bigchest", "Rockin" etc.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by martinbraun

Me and a friend of mine would like to play with only the two of us...

Is that gonna be possible, or do the monsters get too strong or do we have to accept that other players join 'our' party (or dropout when they have to go)?

---

Pedi and I duo more than half the time, and there are very few times where we cannot manage to do any yellow quest or below together. On elites, or oranges, we typically have to get more help, but not always.

One of the nice things about everyone in a group getting quest rewards off of nameds or for doing kills is that grouping is very fluid. Many a time, when we've been contemplating "shit, we need more to do this, and no one else is on," someone wanders up, or a partial group shows, and we hook up, accomplish the goal, and split up again.

Duoing is very doable in WoW, and I expect to see a lot of buddies or couples really enjoying the game because of it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by camrael

I group and associate only with people that have nothing to do with Dewd names or dumb names like "Bigchest", "Rockin" etc.

---

My troll shaman is named Woot. :(

I only did it so that every time said it in General chat, I could respond "Yes?" Amazing how that curtailed the use of that word during tri-Horde push. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

My troll shaman is named Woot. :(

I only did it so that every time said it in General chat, I could respond "Yes?" Amazing how that curtailed the use of that word during tri-Horde push. :D

---

Haha, thats a good tactic.

For me its not a question of being snobby, but I like good immersion, and seeing silly names that arent fantasy based AND original take that away from me.

I am sure that beastlord named Dewdrokkin is an awesome guy.

Quote:

---

I actually think it would be a pretty bad idea to allow you to move servers at will, and I bet a lot of MMORPG veterans would agree with me. Servers form communities of their own. Even at 3k people or so that is getting to be a pretty large community. If you allow people to move at will, or if you have servers that hold an order of magnitude more people, you destroy that community. And community is what keeps these games going.

---

Thats a possibility. But it's also possible that -- in our theoretical example --sub communities form, evolve, thrive and dive, against a backdrop of the joined larger framework. In other words, people cluster, not by server, but by common interest.

As for names. Well I am of two minds really. Names don't really bother me too much, but I do tend to gravitate away from generic misspelled character names from fantasy books and movies. Like begats like. Lately though I have been enjoying more and more the company of some folks whose names are slightly less serious. Hell, I have a mule named Geehaw and an old alt was "Mostly Harmless"; the Froglok Paladin (who fell in love with an orc girl...).

That's the great thing about these kinda games though. You tend to filter towards others with a similar approach to the game. Names are part of that. As long as Blizzard doesn't allow numbers or special characters then it's all good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by camrael

Haha, thats a good tactic.

For me its not a question of being snobby, but I like good immersion, and seeing silly names that arent fantasy based AND original take that away from me.

I am sure that beastlord named Dewdrokkin is an awesome guy.

---

I'm actually the same way. My troll alt in retail will be named something different. I just view alpha/beta as a time to screw around with what are, by definition, short-term characters.

I'm actually intending on going to an RP server mostly to cut down on bad names.

I may do the same, always annoyed me to no end.

I was always the guy who /petitioned people like

Solroisghay
bignuts
likmahsakk
Frodddo
etc

I really hope theres a naming policy.

I dont really want characters with names like

Lord_Arthasssss
GromHellscreem366
Computer(Insane)
Closed
IHaveBigPeenis
Gadonkadonks
etc