it's nice they are still taking popular community made features and making it part of the game by default with Guild Calendars

FP Bleentastic has cake

@Aye Mak Sicur: Calendary? I love that word.

Aye Mak Sicur

@Ken Hikari: Damn you Blizzard! Nobody EVER used a guild calendary before WAR!

Aye Mak Sicur

@Mohican: I bet you have to be at the Gym in 26 minutes too, don't you?

baberg

@DragonNinja: It's just such a tired, boring argument to make though. I'm sorry your friends don't hang out with you anymore but the vitriol towards this game from some people is hilarious to me.

Seems kind of silly to toss this stuff in game live now but my priest could probably use a haircut.

NakedLunch

And by "Don't let it," I mean it's actually possible to play it, have high level characters with great gear and maxed out skills, and still have a social life. I'm a filmmaker, actor, photographer with my own business, I have a day job, I'm married, I have a son, and I have hundreds of friends and an active social life. I also have two level 70's with great gear and maxed out skills in many venues. Whenever people act like wow is crack that you can't control it really annoys me. Play at your own pace, and turn it off at the right time. I know a lot of people don't have that kind of self control, but I honestly enjoy the game more when I take it in personalized/planned doses.

Mohican

@Mohican: Not playing it at all is a more surefire and cheaper way though. :)

Fozziedave

Here's how you play wow without it ruining your life: "Don't let it." (boy, I could make some money with that)

Mohican

If they release this on the day Warhammer ships, most WoW customers would stay to check it out for a few days/weeks/months and then maybe get around to checking out Warhammer later. EA just got trumped.

Rubezh

@DragonNinja: ... and you are writing comments on a web-board with the screen-name "DragonNinja." Not sure the trade-off is as huge as you think. ;-)

Mohican

Guild Calendar? Really? Do they seriously need to make a sign that says "We understand that WAR is coming out, but we are going to nab features from it to try and keep our fan base from falling even more".

So sad.

Ken Hikari

@Tim Reilly: Yes I know that I was playing at the time. However it was still released incomplete and buggy against Blizzards' motto of "only when it's ready" which would indicate it was rushed out to compete with Vanguard. Remember, at this stage people had had 4-5 months, I think, of the new talents and everything and it wasn't so new anymore. So assuming it was pushed to compete with Vanguard isn't big stretch.

Fozziedave

Nice. I'll drop mining on my paladin to get inscription then. Inscription + enchanting is going to be so overpowered.

Anaralia

@Fozziedave:

BC had 80%+ of its content in place when it was released... There was a similar patch released before BC was released, in order to patch everyone up to BC code before launch day.

Tim Reilly

1 thing Kotaku always does right is select the funniest picture to go with the headline. Thats a win Mr. Fahey, a win.

The bigger the lie, the more they beleive!

@Mohican:

Weeks, so I assume somewhere around 2-4? I could be wrong, but thats the first time span that pops into my head. There are several bug fixes and tweaks that need to be made, that have not been fixed in months. Sorry, it's just the vibe I get from playing what they have out right now.

Inferno-X

@Mohican: They aren't pushing anything out, the patch doesn't even have a date yet.

Internally I'm sure it does - September 16th, 2 days before Warhammer launches.

Blizzard aren't stupid. They know that Warhammer will at least temporarily eat into their subscription numbers and are doing what they can to make sure people have something "new" to come back to if they only partially like WAR.

baberg

@DragonNinja: And it's a damn shame that people let a game ruin their life like that. Although, a good friend of mine has a great social life, and stopped playing earlier in the year because he'd gotten insanely good at WoW to the point where it was boring. It keeps the faith :)

Aye Mak Sicur

@Inferno-X: They aren't pushing anything out, the patch doesn't even have a date yet.

Mohican

I got my beta for warhammer which will be a good way to gauge if I will play it. I am already pretty much resigned to giving lich king a go, but I expect it will only hold my interest for a month or so before it becomes the same old nothing to do at max level but grind hinor/arena pts/etc... that month is usually pretty fun however.
Not exactly amped for all the new talents as most of them do nothing for my warrior which is the most fun to play.

penetraitor

prob drop end of sept, same time Warhammer goes live

Heisindc

LOLz.

People are saying this patch is going to try and "steal" a game's thunder? Hahaha, so apparently when Blizzard PATCHES their game, it's as big as a another game's full retail release! Owned. This is why they're the best developers out there.

dj_fantastica

@NakedLunch: But oh so true, I "had" 2 friends that started playing WoW about a year or so ago, they're only on MSN one or twice a week for about 10 minutes, they say they'll give you a call and then don't (with the excuse that they forgot), if I go round to either ones house they are AFK in one of the towns so they can get straight back to playing when as soon as I'm gone.

It's really quite sad, we used to go out on weekends for a few drinks, now they spend the whole weekend doing raids and PvP.

I've given up on them, so did some of their other friends, one was dating a nearly nice girl until he started playing the game and she is now dating one his pals.

DragonNinja

@Pezdispenser: real smart buddy! pledging your allegiance to an unreleased, unproven game.

Warhammer looks keen, for sure, I may have to try it, but I will never cancel my wow account till I am the last toon on my server.

Mohican

DO WANT

dj_fantastica

I'm in the beta currently and I'd like to note that several skills are not yet implemented, some spells are broken, and the barbershop has issues (you can't zoom out to see your character in the chair, missing hair textures). So, I find it interesting that they're pushing this out so soon when it's not working at the moment in beta, perhaps to steal some of WAR's thunder? Careful Blizzard.

Inferno-X

@Aye Mak Sicur: correct, and you forgot to mention that BC was actually PUSHED BACK from the original release date so they could patch some things up. of course, some people are going to believe what they want to believe, because blizzard is the "evil monolith" that just cant seem to die, or be viewed in any positive light just because they're successful.

uppitycracker

Sounds nice, but I've already pledged my allegiance to Warhammer.

Pezdispenser

More like too cool for School.

Kankel

@NakedLunch: No, he's just letting everyone know that he's too cool and everyone else is a bunch of nerds? BAMF

Ranged360

@NakedLunch: I don't know,but thank you for the compliment.

Kankel

dang, and I just ordered my figureprint last week!

Lombax

@Kankel: do you have a program that inserts that response into a comment section every time a wow related post is made on the internet? it's a very cutting and original critique.

NakedLunch

@Fozziedave: Actually, the reason they didn't release the whole thing at once was so that people couldn't power their way through it all in a few months. They're trying to hold on to some kind of narrative here, and that's not easy when 25 poopsockers are ploughing through raid dungeons faster than they can make them.

Aye Mak Sicur

Must...fight...the urge...to start...playing wow again

dmcshinobi

@Kankel: It's not worth it, really. ;)

SmilingPolitely

Does a haircut require farming hair from enemy mobs or players? Because that would be awesome.

WTS Green Nelf hair PST

Aye Mak Sicur

This feels like an "Oh crap, a potential rival is coming, release something!" type thing. Similar to how Burning Crusade was released without a load of content and buggy so that it could come out before Vanguard did.

Fozziedave

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords...
Nice reference at the end there.

Mustakrakish

I should try to not have a life so I can play this game.

Kankel

I for one don't think anybody will complain about moving obstacles or terrain hazards in arenas. Just like they didn't complain about that tornado.

penetraitor

Nice.

Shane-Meh

Start saving those mats!

Tim Reilly

@Mohican:
I've worked you out..

You don't need sleep do you ;)

flukielukie

@ManjiKengo: blizzard has made it a lot easier to raid engame content and not be bogged down by having to spend hours farming mats for flasks.

I raid 3 nights a week and maintain a very active social life. As a gainfully employed adult, I don't have a whole lot going on from 6-9 on nights when I have to work the next day so wow fills the void.

Besides all that, why even make the comment in a wow post is my point. It's like making a Y2K joke. How are people still entertaining themselves by calling WoW people losers?

NakedLunch

@ManjiKengo: sadly I'm not super recovered though. Every once in a while I feel the itch for it, and I get on private servers to deal with the fits. It usually takes 10-20 minutes of the game to make me realize why I quit in the first place.

ManjiKengo

@Mohican:

Real smart buddy, assuming I haven't done any research, asked around, or played during the preview weekend.

Pezdispenser

We as gamers are always upset when the public makes broad, sweeping statements about us based on isolated incidents. When a gamer shoots someone and we all get labeled as killers, we get understandably angry.

And yet, here we are committing the very same crime against WoW players. A small amount of players become addicted and alienate themselves from their friends, and because of that small number of unfortunate cases, the rest of us are labeled as outcasts, unable to carry on a social life or hold a job.

Yes, some people lack the self-control to stop playing, but for the sake of your own credibility, don't take those people as an indication that we're all like that. We aren't, and we're sick of being treated like it.

QualityJeverage

@NakedLunch: Dude, the game sucks peoples souls away. If you can't realize this then I'm sorry for you.

I'm a recovered raider from preBC. I understand where all this strife is coming from. 2 long years, I'd ignored my friends when they'd come over. 2 long years I was grossly sleep deprived. 2 long years of having to spend 6 hours a day getting enough materials for 2 hours of potions.
I remember back when death made you lose your flask. Shit was the breaks.

Half way through Naxxramas, I took a good long look at my life and what I'd become and said "fuck this noise" and left the game. I came back for BC for 2 weeks. 2 weeks is what it took for me to say "eh, shit just isn't fun."

If you're one of those casual wow players, awesome. good. all the better for you. but realize that there are some folks so far gone in the raiding that it can break them.

ManjiKengo

@Durandal: Except that would represent a full-blown paradime shift of WoW's focus. WoW is and always has been PvE first, PvP second. PvP has been receiving consistent boosts in recent times with the advent of arenas, and Blizzard has received nothing but venom for that.

The fact is, WoW's playerbase consists of 80% "PvE first, PvP second" players who are content with the game's direction and 20% "PvP first" players who are playing the wrong game, but suffer from a serious lack of decent options (Age of Conan? har har har.) WAR is providing that option, but it's hardly a "Mistake" for WoW to cater to their primary players.

Moonshadow101

Insert witty comment about live servers getting 375 inscription before the test servers.

Johnny_Under

I don't see what the big deal is? Some people can work and have a life and still raid end game content in WoW. Maybe I'm just lucky but I am a responsible adult, I have a job, six kids and I have three level seventies with max skills and gear in WoW. Also I am a millionaire and regularly bed supermodels while in my free time working with an international team of scientists on a cure for several vicious blood-borne illnesses. So I really think all you people with harrowing tales of how WoW ruined you life and killed your dog need to stop lying to everyone and just admit that you are the problem and not some video game that never ends. Grow up, take responsibility and admit that, since my experience is different, it invalidates everyone else's.
Ciao!

Oreot

@DragonNinja: Oh, looks like someone drank your GAWD DAYMN APPLE JUICE.

Fuck! How could I have seen that movie and the sequel and the even crappier spin-off? I blame Checker Fred.

Erwin

Also: Hope anyone buying the expansion likes playing with Death Knights, because they'll be everywhere. EVERYWHERE. DPS and Tanking? Yeah, raids of 15 DPS DKs, 5 tank DK's, and 5 Priests will be great, I assure you!

Durandal

Warhammer sounds, to me, like it's learning from WoW's mistakes.. which oddly Blizzard isn't. For example: People, by and large, dislike raiding. I know they THINK that isn't true, but it is.

I've done two raids in my life: AQ-20 (made it to third boss, quadruple wipe, stopped; That troll one... in STV. Made it to the fourth boss, triple wiped, stopped. Never went back to either, mostly because it took [i]six. Hours.[/i]

Leave raids in, that's great -- but stop making them the be-all end-all of endgame content. There's nothing quite as.. 'enlightening' like facing a Resto druid in raid epics against your dude in season 2. It's sobering, to be sure.

Durandal

@ManjiKengo:

Well jee wizz who's fault is thats then when other players don't have that problem at all?

a_pink_poodle

If you don't mind, I'd prefer to BE one of them Death Knight overlords.

Eruanno

As a WoW player stuck in the desert for a job, this might be a good time to ask a question. My employer provides satellite internet, but blocks WoW. I'm looking for a reliable, high speed internet card to allow me to play during my downtime. Any suggestions for providers? Currently I'm in the desert of Utah, and will be in the remote areas of the west. Any advice would be appreciated.

Also to keep it on topic, what would the inscription job give us? I was only able to make it to level 60 before starting, and haven't gotten past the first area of Outlands.

runner73

@flukielukie: only occasionally and when absolutely necessary. ;-)

Mohican

Mohican wins the thread.

rainofwalrus

Giev a pinkie hair !!! :D

SuPerNaKe

@baberg: haha I built a crossfit gym in my garage... how'd you guess.

Mohican

@Pezdispenser: haha. hey, they've got me wanting to check it out... looks like they've really spent their time on it.

Mohican

@Ken Hikari: Except the fanbase hasn't been falling, it's been growing non stop.

And you're retarded if you think they shouldn't put in cool features like a guild calender just because another MMO did it. Just plain retarded. There is nothing wrong with copying the good features of other games.

Dalren

@DragonNinja: I tried to regulate my time by only raiding 3 nights a week. We got pretty far and I was pretty good, but when it became obvious that my guilds skills were lacking to go any further in the PvE content I started shopping around and guilds were telling me that because I only wanted to play three nights a week I wasn't as good a cantidate as others...

That's when I realized that MMO's suck up your life and time.

warf0x0r

@Fozziedave: Actually it wasn't that buggy, and they did the same thing before the release of BC, there was a content patch which patched the game up to 2.0, and had all the new talents, the only difference is that with this patch (which will be patch 3.0) they're including more than just the new talents.

nonbreakingspace

@Oreot: I will say that I maintain my participation in wow by ruling out raiding. Occasionally I will "help out" but I stick to a HARD, FAST rule which says I may not log in and raid more than twice a week, and never do so two weeks in a row. Nothing I do in real life was made up, I just wish people would blame themselves when they can't control something more often than they blame the something.

Mohican

One thing I'll say for those who don't play WoW... it sure gives them more time to comment.

About a game they don't play.

Win!

PositivelyGreg

I think it's funny that people are already crowning Warhammer as the successor to WoW. I couldn't list them all, but among the supposed replacement games (and their fanboy exhortations) were: Vanguard (finally a REAL MMO), Archlord (Real PvP that WoW NEEDS! L2pvp, bliz!!1!11!!), Hellgate London (OMG the graphix!), LoTR (Frodo > Arthas), and Age of Conan (b00bies + pvp = teh roxxors), and the saddest of all, Auto Assault (Finally a MMO that does vehicles RIGHT).

Blizzard has never been in a hurry to do anything. I am also participating in the beta, and the game looks extraordinarily polished. Most MMOs release with less content than this expansion pack alone already has (see ALL of the above games), but Blizz is only leaking out a few minor things to get you acclimated to the new travel paths.

It's undeniable that they're doing it to keep up the excitement, but my guess is that it's utterly independent of any other games. Why would an eagle worry about a fly?

For the love of crap,

MikeKelley

@Durandal: If you want a pure PvP game with no raids whatsoever you should stick to non MMO's.

Dalren

@Oreot: lol

Mohican

@ManjiKengo: hrm, wrong website. Meant to link

[www.wowjutsu.com]

ManjiKengo

@a_pink_poodle: "other players don't have that problem"

Excuse me while I cackle a bit.
[worldofraids.com]

@NakedLunch: I got you.

@Oreot: I see what you did there. I chortled.

ManjiKengo

@Oreot: "since my experience is different, it invalidates everyone else's."

is this a joke or are you so dense you completely missed the point? also, I haven't laughed that hard since my pet died. great post!

NakedLunch

I'll probably try Lich King but I honestly hope WAR is good enough to drag me away. I've only been playing WoW for less than a year and it's discouraging that so much of the playerbase is jaded/burnt out from playing so long.

Would be awesome joining a new, GOOD (as in, not AoC) MMO where there's genuine enthusiasm and not so much focus on goddman add-ons and raid schedules and everything else that sucks the fun out.

Silverbackne

@NakedLunch: True. I can't stand that particular addon though...

Dalren

@Dalren: also, the guild calender has existed in addon form for a long time in WoW now.

NakedLunch

We don't need WOTLK for talents? Then I'm not buying it lol! DKs aren't that fun and neither is northernd. Oh wait, level 80. -.-

Shockadin

The end of WoW as we know it

BC started it and LK will keep the ball rolling.

Murderdolls

As I mentioned in a different post. I'm in the beta for WOTLK and played 3 days of the preview weekend of Warhammer Online. IMHO, Warhammer is a lot more polished than WoW was at start, but it simply cant hold a candle to Lich King. There is so much lore and fun in the Lich King quests now that I actually enjoy reading the story lines and getting into them. Lich King is simply badass if you enjoy PVE and don't care much about pvp.

Friscodude

My boss actually has a week booked off for when it launches, though according to the manager hes "going on a delightful vacation to some place up north ,north something".

underground_slacker

Releasing significant upgrades to live WoW with items coming from an upcoming expansion.. where have I heard that before?

Oh yeah, that's right, the month before TBC where releasing all the talent trees put every guild on hiatus while everyone flocked to PVP to get the new PVP grind rewards.

When I left WoW a month and a half ago, Skywall Horde was already in a deep slump. The former raiding guild of prominence had all but blown apart. There's all of two guilds running tier 6 content on Skywall Horde now and one of those two can't even fill a roster regularly. There's a ton of Kara guilds though, getting their nice badge gear...

This will only perpetuate the slump as people play with their new talents and then decide they don't want to bother with the old shit anymore now that they've gotten a taste of the new.

I said it before and I'll say it again: It is not in Blizzard's best interests to believe that people who leave to "wait out" the expansion will come back. Like all addictions, once people have been gone for a while and realize they don't NEED to be in Azeroth or Outland (or Northrend) it is less likely they'll bother renewing. I knew quite a few people who left pre-TBC to "wait until" the expansion only to never return to the game on any server.

Captiosus

@Friscodude: This is a point I've made to my friends before which works both ways. The two games cater to different groups. As a gamer who is more interested right now in fighting with and against other players instead of the monsters in dungeons, Warcraft can't hold a candle to Warhammer. If your interests lie in fighting with players and you typically only have the odd hour to spare or no consistent schedule of free time week in week out it's worth giving Warhammer a try. If you can put up with the not insignificant amount of time required to participate in guild raiding and PvE is what makes you hot in the pants, then WoW has you covered.

Phaelog

@Friscodude:
>Lore
>World of Warcraft

Haha, no.

Golbleen

In other words Wrath won't come out before WAR so Blizzard is releasing a portion of it's content early in hopes of player retention in the face of major competition.

Sardu

[GENERIC BLIZZARD HATE COMMENT]

I recently started palying WoW again to finally get a 70 before Lich King comes out. Man, I hate Blizzard. On the other hand... Titan's Grip \m/

And HAIRCUTS! You can't do that shit in real life, believe me, I've tried.

OddyKnocky

whats the big deal? the same thing happened with burning crusade. All this patch will do is prepare us for the expansion. Almost all mmos do this.

MINIBOSS

@Sardu: Uh, no. They did the same exact thing with the previous expansion. Anyone who played before BC launched should remember getting their new talents, a bunch of draenei and blood elf NPCs and quest givers showing up in cities, high level mobs showing up outside of Karazhan, sweeping changes to the honor system, and the Invasion at the Dark Portal event which sent streams of demons through the Dark Portal and Doom Lord Kazzak around to attack the capital cities as a precursor to the release of the expansion.

Essentially, they release content which is accessible without purchasing the expansion a month or so before it ships, filtering in upcoming content by patch, since people will be required to update whether or not they purchase the expansion or install it immediately at launch. This allows people to simply "install and upgrade" on launch night without having to download patches or deal with down time, because the game has already been upgraded to version 3.0.1.

Suzaku

Holy crap, I can get a HAIRCUT?! Totally worth 15 bucks.

ShadowMoses

Just...stop...posting.

All of you. Seriously.

SeedyROM

@Mohican: Thank you for confirming that people who don't have control of their schedules can't play WoW by any means since it involves set raid times with 24 other people.

I played WoW since beta, and I think most people will agree with me that BC destroyed the game for casual gamers. You can't experience end-game content without putting in 20+ hrs a week raiding with the same people...on the same boss...using the same strategy...shit just gets old man. PvE is WoW's focus, and that's okay, but really you can train a monkey to raid because you know exactly what's going to happen.

Friscodude: You do know that Warhammer has been around LOOOOONNNNNGGGG before the Warcraft universe existed right? Think about it this way, they made an MMO based on a table-top game, whereas WoW made a table-top game based on an MMO.

Every single person that gets Wrath should be pissed if they maxed out their toon with BC. You're basically back to zero, congrats, deposit 15 bucks here every month and wait for next xpac. Welcome to the vicious cycle.

JCVD

@JCVD: If your goal is to "max out your toon", you're playing MMO's for the wrong reasons anyway. Gear becomes outdated with expansions, that's the way MMO's work.

Gear is for simply powering up your character in the now, it isn't meant to be incredibly long lasting and isn't even important. Gear is simply a tool to let you progress through the game and take down bosses easier. It's not something you work torward so you can "beat" the game.

Dalren

They released the 2.0 patch (Burning Crusade) Also before release. Which had the talents/spells just like this patch. It is not Blizzard's retort to Warhammer.

As you can see.

[www.wowwiki.com]

Patch 2.0.1 (Burning Crusade) was released 3 months before launch date of expansion.

Emtee

@Fozziedave:
What? Did ANYONE see Vanguard as any kind of threat?
I don't know what you're talking about at any rate, besides a few bugged mobs here and there the release went fairly well with pretty much everything they said would be in it. The only thing it took them time to sort out was the arena system.

As for introducing some of the stuff early, it's a good idea. Especially releasing inscription early, it took ages in BC for there to be a decent amount of jewelcrafters and even now there's not many of them.

Odin

Some nice stuff but not enough to keep me playing until the actual expansion. There really isn't any new "content" like dungeons in it, and stuff like new talents and haircuts probably won't entertain you for long if you're bored of the existing stuff already.

Nirual

@ManjiKengo: Except that's not even remotely close to what the game is like now. 30 minutes of dailies and you have enough gold for the week.

My guild raided 2 days a week and was progressing just fine through Black Temple (we're on hiatus until the expansion). It's not impossible to play the game, see the end-game content, and only play twice a week.

Blizzard realized their mistake pre-BC and they fixed it. You don't need to sit at your computer 12 hours a day. Our top horde-guild atm only raid 3 nights a week, 3 hours per night. You can do PVP in increments, you can pound out 30 minutes worth of dailies every few days and have your epic flying mount in a couple weeks.

WotLK is continuing this trend.

I understand you may feel jaded as a pre-BC raider. Hell, I was an officer in a hardcore raiding guild. It did consume my life. Not anymore, though. You can play casually and still see everything now, and even moreso in the expansion with 10 man versions of every raid dungeon. Don't have the time to commit to a 25 man raiding schedule? Np, get 9 of your friends and go kill Arthas.

Hahaue

Should I lvl a MS War, Lock or a Hunter for WotLK?
I've got a 70 Shammy and Druid but never want to heal for a raid again.

Final

@JCVD: Why should they be pissed about getting new content? That's moronic. It would be like reading to the end of Lord of the Rings and then getting pissed off that The Two Towers starts on page 1 instead of of 378.

Suzaku