Post by Eorl @ 11:08am 21/09/12 | 73 Comments
While heroic adventurers hailing from Australia and New Zealand can purchase a copy of Mists of Pandaria directly from www.warcraft.com, they can also pick up the game at their favourite retailer on Tuesday, September 25th beginning at 9 AM local time. (9 AM NZST/9 AM AEST/9 AM ACST/9 AM AWST)Currently there are no plans for any local party launches like the last few expansion releases, however this might prove to be a more cosier launch for many not having to worry about the dreaded midnight times.
For a handy reference, the game servers will go live at:
New Zealand Standard Time: 7:00 PM
Australian Eastern Standard Time: 5:00 PM
Australian Central Standard Time: 4:30 PM
Australian Western Standard Time: 3:00 PM
For more info on Mists of Pandaria, check out our game page where we have a range of interviews, trailers and more.
Buy now from Games 101 Only AUD$14.95!
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Posted 11:18am 21/9/12
Posted 11:20am 21/9/12
Posted 01:18pm 21/9/12
Posted 04:41pm 21/9/12
Posted 09:05pm 21/9/12
Posted 10:14pm 21/9/12
So they are going to copy GW2?
Posted 10:18pm 21/9/12
Posted 11:41pm 21/9/12
Posted 12:58am 22/9/12
Posted 02:33am 22/9/12
Found the bit I was talking about anyway, from the CRZ faq:
No word on whether thats being used for the 85 - 90 zones on Pandaria, but I'd like to hope so, since the tech is there and it'd make sense.
Posted 10:07am 24/9/12
and,
Posted 10:14am 24/9/12
I really like the way in GW2 that PVE contention has been removed. When you think about it, the gameplay rules that say that only one player or group can get credit for killing something are completely arbitrary and exist only to slow players down and create contention. Its one of those things that hopefully will be gone from MMOs in future.
Thinking about fighting with players to 'tag' quest mobs and pickups in MOP is making me think I might delay playing for a week or so until the frenzy dies down.
Posted 10:26am 24/9/12
Posted 10:28am 24/9/12
i remember waiting hours for artifact mobs to spawn in the daoc atlantis expansion, just for some random to run up and tag it before you do. rage
Posted 10:41am 24/9/12
This thread is filled with people raging at the fact that thanks to CRZ they now regularly see other players in the world. Why? Primarily because of contention for mobs and resources. That's right - they are complaining that their MMO is once again massively multiplayer :)
CRZ feels to me like a way to cut costs. By dynamically combining the playerbase into a few zones they are no longer running an entire zone instance for a few (sometimes I assume as low as one!) players. Its a rebadged server merge process, WoW is waning?
Posted 10:43am 24/9/12
Posted 10:47am 24/9/12
Why? Its the MMO that lots of people have been playing recently, surely WoW can handle the comparisons and competition?
Posted 11:00am 24/9/12
Those people are crying because they were taking advantage of the low population on the realm to farm s***loads of resources, or get easy kills on rare spawns cos there was no competition, now they're complaining because the game's population has come back up to a point approaching where it should be. As Blizzard themselves said, when they balance the spawn rates of things like resource nodes and rare spawns they do it with a certain server population in mind, so you can't really complain now that the game is actually working the way it was intended and things like rare spawns are actually... well... rare.
Not that I'm defending tagging as a mechanic, it is pretty dated now, and there was actually a lot of stuff in Cataclysm where you'd get credit for a kill or a quest as long as you participated in killing something even if you weren't the one that tagged it. But most of the CRZ whinging is just people whinging because farming is no longer ez-mode for them.
Posted 11:05am 24/9/12
Posted 11:13am 24/9/12
Snip the rest for brevity. I saw a lot of people complaining that the world being full meant that there were fewer resource nodes and it was a lot harder to level, not people complaining about farming rares so much (although there is that element).
Seems like quite a few people start characters on quiet realms to level up and then transfer them to high pop ones. The fact that this sort of practice exists (ie, the game is more fun levelling an alt in a deserted wasteland) is indicative of the problem. Yes, its that way by design, but it doesn't need to be.
I dunno, player contention for mobs and resources is something I've been unhappy with since EQ, so its going to be aggravating for me to go back to it. YMMV.
Posted 11:20am 24/9/12
I think the fact people want to level in a deserted wasteland and have everything served up to them on a platter says more about the player than the game really.
Besides, your biggest mistake was actually reading the WoW forums, never has there been a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Doesn't really matter what Blizzard do, there will be threads full of people on the forums complaining about it, its not a particularly good indicator of the state of the game or even the opinions of the player base in general.
There will probably be some contention problems in Pandaria just cos it'll be so full, but where they can they've tried addressing it, like if you need to kill a named guy, as long as you hit him you get credit (even without tagging), and if theres a drop you need it often drops on the ground so everyone can click it and get it. Tbh it didn't bother me in Cataclysm at all, the biggest problem in Cataclysm when it launched was lagging to f*** because of how many people were in the zone.
Posted 11:29am 24/9/12
I think you missed my point. I'd prefer to level up in a deserted wasteland than have one other person standing next to me tagging mobs. It doesn't need to happen a lot to be seriously annoying. In every expansion release its been chronic and a huge pain in the arse as ten people stood around waiting for a deer or a murloc or whetever the f*** it is spawns.
Of course, you can say I'm wrong (or that I'm playing games wrong or something, I gather that's what you mean about it saying more about the player?) but its how I feel about it.
Posted 04:51pm 25/9/12
Posted 04:51pm 25/9/12
Posted 05:49pm 25/9/12
Too boring.
Posted 04:33am 26/9/12
Posted 09:52am 26/9/12
Posted 10:15am 26/9/12
Posted 10:35am 26/9/12
I think Hoggy was playing at how Rev felt GW2 was boring after a few levels.
It looks like an interesting expansion, but I'm well over World of Warcraft, 7 years of it is enough for me. I had my fun, but if I try to get back into it I realise the flaws and old technology that exists compared to what we have now.
Posted 10:42am 26/9/12
I'll be playing it through but everytime I load WoW I see all its wrinkles. They've done very well to keep it going, but she's an old girl and its time she was put out to pasture.
Posted 01:26pm 26/9/12
Posted 01:37pm 26/9/12
Posted 02:17pm 26/9/12
Ohhh, ok, I get it now.
In my defense it was 4:30am at the time and I hadn't slept for a while :P
Posted 02:47pm 26/9/12
we had a 5man group and pushed ahead quickly from the start for a while, then backed off and just cruised the rest of the way. the goal was just to be in front of the wave and have almost no contention for quest resources the rest of the way. strangely, we weren't very far behind realm firsts so it might've been interesting to see how we would've gone if we'd been trying for those. I think it turned out my shaman was the second to 90
Posted 03:03pm 26/9/12
How funny was it when Riko found out what Kiryn looked like under her mask. And the sniper mission with Kiryn was awesome too. I hope they have more stuff like that further in.
Posted 03:08pm 26/9/12
Posted 03:23pm 26/9/12
Posted 03:51pm 26/9/12
5 DVD install is go!
Posted 03:56pm 26/9/12
Posted 03:57pm 26/9/12
5 dvds? you realise you just need ot install it right? you don't need to reinstall vanilla, tbc, etc :P
Posted 04:01pm 26/9/12
Posted 04:12pm 26/9/12
Blizzard: Pandaria has been expecting you.
Hoggy: I know, father.
LOL
Posted 04:20pm 26/9/12
Sorry Rev, that's the gayest thing I've read in a long time.
Posted 04:22pm 26/9/12
8-)
Posted 05:00pm 26/9/12
Doesn't it download all the other content from the other expacs in the background if you dont install and then patch? I don't love this game enough to spend lots of quota on it.
Unlikely. This is a temporary visit, its like going back to your hometown for a reunion, its nice and all but it reminds you why you left in the first place.
Posted 05:09pm 26/9/12
i know cataclysm dvd has all the data up to 4.0
Posted 05:13pm 26/9/12
Posted 05:52pm 26/9/12
seriously, f*** blizzard
Posted 06:25pm 26/9/12
8-)
Posted 07:47pm 26/9/12
Posted 08:18pm 26/9/12
Maybe I should!
Very first quest when I got past the intro vehicle s*** was the same old same old.
Kill 8 of mob X, also kill 4 of mob Y.
Oh, and you're gonna love this, mob Y doesn't spawn as much so (lolsies!!!) you'll have to stand around in this area and argue with other players for spawns like its 2004 all over again!
The dated as f*** quest mechanics aside, the world is as usual quite well done (although the engine is really showing its age, starting to look chunky as f***) and it'll be worth a play through. In between the s***** quests there's some good use of cinematics etc to break s*** up.
Posted 08:25pm 26/9/12
Posted 08:38pm 26/9/12
Which is completely different and so much worse than the Guild Wars 2 quests of "Go kill ghosts till I say stop".
Theres plenty of quests that aren't fetch quests or kill quests, some really good ones actually, but every MMO still has fetch quests and kill quests, hell even single player games like Skyrim have fetch quests and kill quests, its kind of a staple of the genre. The difference for me is how well they can dress them up and how interesting they can make them.
Posted 08:45pm 26/9/12
Posted 09:13pm 26/9/12
That's pretty much my opinion. Playing through is fun but its a bit like going back to an old game now, you can endure its clunky quirks to appreciate its charms but they sure are annoying. Its kind of funny how often I try to double-tap to dodge when I draw agro! :)
But GW2 is nothing like that mate. You never have to wait for a particular mob type or item to spawn to complete the quest, you can engage in whatever is available from the set of objectives? You never 'argue' for spawns because there is no tagging?
You guys are hung up on the fact that you still kill / gather / interact in GW2 the same way and for some reason refuse to acknowledge that the quest system is clunky? I like MMO combat. I like the things you do in MMOs to complete objectives, no problem with that, so I'm not sure why that keeps coming up? I much prefer HAVING quests in wow to the way EQ used to be, but I also prefer the way GW2 has streamlined and improved world quest mechanics?
Posted 09:08pm 26/9/12
Sifn't bind dodge to your side mouse-button.
Posted 09:12pm 26/9/12
But then where does auto-run go?!
Posted 09:23pm 26/9/12
- There is no tagging in GW2, so you don't have that problem, ever. Its already come up 10 or more times and I've only played for an hour or two.
- When there are multiple objectives for quests (which is almost always), there are no specific completion requirements. So if they want you to kill red badgers and blue ducks and pick up green frogs, you can kill any of them you find. You'll never find yourself stuck looking for red badgers in a sea of useless f*****g green frogs because the retarded quest giver has a stupid quota.
I'm not disputing that they are asking you to kill s***. I've said that time and again, but you refuse to acknowledge what I'm actually complaining about. I get that this doesn't annoy you, but that doesn't mean that the complaint is without merit.
Posted 09:32pm 26/9/12
:P
Posted 09:36pm 26/9/12
I'm quite capable of enjoying the good bits while noting the dated bits.
Posted 09:41pm 26/9/12
The problem with the MMO genre, is that WoW has been too dominant on it, making new titles have to either copy the method that WoW has perfected over nearly 8 years time, or try to be different and fail because people don't like change. Guild Wars 2 seems to succeed because it has no subscription fee, making people feel like there is no need to log on every 2 hours to do something. Because WoW has so much influence on the genre, games aren't trying because they know if they do, it wastes huge amount of resources for a game that will go free-to-play.
I'm sure the new expansion is amazing, and has huge amounts of hard work from all the Blizzard workers put into it, but I think mine 9and possibly Hogfather's) argument is that it's now at the point that the flaws are starting to show because games like Guild Wars 2, The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic are actually being somewhat successful in showing people new mechanics are good. Gamer's are now getting out of their safe zone, and realising that technology has now enabled a range of newer and better things to do, something WoW will (and probably is) struggle with.
TLDR: The MMO genre is now changing, and WoW is showing its age, however very slowly.
Posted 09:45pm 26/9/12
Who's angry?
Posted 09:55pm 26/9/12
Posted 10:14pm 26/9/12
Whats wrong with comparisons? I'm making them too?
Posted 10:35pm 26/9/12
I don't mind the tagging though, I mean I'll admit its an aged mechanic and baggage from another time, but I think I enjoy it because I love hitting things with instant cast spells and stealing them from other people :P I mean every class should have some kind of instant cast way they can tag a mob, so I kind of see it as a "Well if you didn't get it before me, too bad" kind of thing. I realise that doesn't in any way legitimise it or make it a good thing, but it amuses me. It amuses me even more when I get in a sneaky Shadow Word: Pain on something and tag it, right as someone else pulls it, and either they don't notice or are too retarded to know, but they kill it for me and I get the credit. Or I tag something, as someone else hits it, then they realise they didn't get it so they stop hitting it, and then I fade so the aggro goes back onto them and they have to fight it. So yeah, I guess I like the mechanic cos its fun griefing people with it, which probably isn't the best argument for it being a good thing :P
Realistically though I can't say I've had that many problems with it, even in the more heavily contended areas, the stuff respawns super fast, and if you ride around a bit you can usually find a less populated area with some spawns you can hit up.
To their credit, they are continually smoothing off the rough edges and adopting new ideas/advances when and where they can, like while theres still tagging of mobs for some quests, theres a lot of quests where tagging isn't an issue, and any named mobs or boss mods don't get tagged at all; as long as you put some hits in you get the credit and can loot any items you need. Then theres other quests that are more like mini events (usually taking place in a phase) and its like an aoe sort of quest completion thing, as long as you're in the area and part of the event you get the credit. Also feels to me like they've learnt some lessons in storytelling from games like Old Republic, cos theres a lot more VO and a heap more ingame cutscenes and stuff.
Posted 10:26am 27/9/12
and levelling is NO where near as chaotic as it was with cataclysm. don't think i've even fought to "tag" a mob yet.
Posted 10:30am 27/9/12
Posted 11:23am 27/9/12
When/where were you levelling? Last night the starting area on Proudmoore was chockers.
Rev, why did you go back and delete your posts dude? It completely f**** the thread when people do that.
Posted 11:35am 27/9/12
Jubei'thos - Alliance area. Also played a little bit of the horde area and was more or less the same. cataclysm was insane at hyjal. maybe it's because i've started a day later maybe?
Posted 12:12pm 27/9/12
8-)
Posted 12:26pm 27/9/12
Posted 12:31pm 27/9/12
Crikey, if everyone did that this whole forum would implode.
Posted 02:00pm 27/9/12
you won't find it cheaper than blizzard's site. most of my usual CD key places aren't stocking it and if they do, it's $39.99.