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[Aoi]

That's a really short stress test, with a pretty short warning. How're they testing this... leaving one server on at half load? Seeing the response of the community to an event with no announcement and a short duration?

[Greiger]

My guess is that some of these are completely unplanned. 

Like this one might just be something along the lines of "Well we're gunna have a bunch of people working a few hours weekend time in the monitoring center anyway.  Might as well turn the servers on, get a little bit more data and let players screw around a bit while we're there anyway."

They could also be testing the fix for those connection issues that lasted about an hour the stress test before last and wanna make sure it works without making employees work too long on a weekend.  Arenanet employees don't want to work on a weekend any more than we do.  Especially when the game isn't live yet.

[Ozyton]

Huhm, that's 2 PM Eastern time right?

If that's the case maybe I'll try to join in and try it out, assuming that's what pre-purchasing allows.

[Greiger]

By my math yea, 2 to 3.  And yea if yer pre-purchased you should be able to.  I suggest downloading the client now (or overnight) though.  My client is currently 15.9 GB, that's a lot to try to pull down at the last minute.  Also if you have the time you might wanna run the launcher once more 10 or 15 minutes before, just to catch any patches they throw out overnight.

[Ozyton]

I already downloaded it earlier, fiber optics helped download it at a decent speed so I should be all set assuming I can wake up in time. Got sick yesterday and it's worse today, so... gotta wake up... >_<

EDIT: Oh, I haven't seen anything aboot this anywhere. Does your character carry over from the betas into the full game?

found it

[Greiger]

Nope, they will wipe before the 25th.  Pr-purchasers still get three days head start over the rest though.  We start on the 25th, the peasants start on the 28th.

[Carcanken]

Just prepurchased the game and had to go through 1 day headstart to 3 day headstart issues because the clerk didnt know the difference.

I hope there is going to be some other test so I can try this game out. 

[Moogie]

You're a bit late for that. If you wanted to try it before committing to a purchase you should probably have waited for some sort of trail to become available after launch. That's what most MMOs end up doing.

Still, if you were interested enough to prepurchase at this stage, I think you'll enjoy the game. So far, it's been pretty much everything they've promised. I can't wait to get a 'real' character and play without worrying that I'm spoiling the experience for myself.

[Drakale]

I think you still get a 1 or 2 days head start for the preorder so there is that.

[SeaBee]

Yep, Guild Wars 2 head start is August 25th for pre-purchases (3 days before the regular launch date), one day head start for pre-orders (thanks Moogie for clarification).

My favorite things about the game are pretty much centered on them keeping their promises in their "Manifesto" video.

Since the game is NOT designed around a subscription, they don't get anything for building grinds and treadmills into the core design. Instead, they want people to keep playing (and buy expansions in the future) because they're having fun. They won't force artificial time gates into everything (like WoW -- see point caps, raid timers, daily caps etc.) for the sole purpose of extracting another monthly fee. I appreciate that.

Oh, and I love the two primary forms of PvP they have. Huge server-vs-server-vs-server (WvWvW) battles on massive maps, and small-scale Scenario PvP, where twinking isn't possible, to create a more level playing field.

I guess we'll find out how well it does in a few months once the "new car smell" has worn off, but I expect I'll still be enjoying it.

Edit: Moogie corrected my dates for pre-order vs pre-purchase, thanks!

[Niveras]

You know, I never looked at that - the caps, timed content release, weekly raid limits - in that light before. It seems so damn obvious now that you mention it. The argument always seemed that the limits helped keep players from playing excessively, losing their life to the game, but I guess it just so happens that it also gets Blizzard another paycheck from the player. Given Blizzard's last five years, I'm certain somewhere there's a bean counter working over a spreadsheet to determine how best to stretch those treadmills to keep players playing, particularly as it relates to the costs of server maintenance. Somewhere along the continuum between 0 hours a week and 35+ hours a week, that $15 a month might actually turn a loss. So, suppressing play times without causing the player to quit is a profitable goal.

Also, I'm quite certain flouride is mind control.

[Moogie]

Yep, Guild Wars 2 head start is August 25th for pre-orders (3 days before the regular launch date).

Just a clarification, though I'm sure everyone who needs to know already knows it: preorders is 1 day headstart. Prepurchases get the full 3.

[Greiger]

Fluoride is not mind control if it was we wouldn't know about it.  There is actually something else, in the air, it has no official name and does not exist according to anyone who has any knowledge of air or atmospherics (they are all infected). 

It has been getting dumped into the atmosphere pretty much since the industrial revolution, but has only became saturated enough in the air recently because "overseers" have been using environmental laws to force companies to install emissions control devices that have small systems for converting the pollution into trace amounts of the mind control chemical before throwing it into the atmosphere.

The chemical is absorbed through hair follicles, and tin foil is a cheap an effective blocking materiel.  All body hair is capable of absorbing the chemical, but it is mostly absorbed through hair on the head, and what is absorbed through other hair alone is not enough to overcome our body's defenses.  So a wrapping of tinfoil to protect the hair on the head is a powerful solution.  Shaving one's head is also theoretically an option, but has not yet been empirically tested.  Fight the man!

Yea, I always thought the same thing.  "Oh blizzard doesn't want us wasting our lives away playing their game so they make it boring and grindy with arbitrary time based caps on purpose... wait a minute..."

[Ozyton]

Daw, it's over. I liked what I saw so far though =)

Didn't really experience any lag either

EDIT: Oh yeah, while the way events and quests work seems nice I came across something that might be a little annoying. Somebody ran up to me telling me to kill this giant fish, and just as he had finished talking he thanked me for killing it. If it's something that can be done later then I won't mind but it still seemed like there could be a way for them to make sure that doesn't happen somehow.

Wish it was longer than an hour, I spent half that time screwing with the character creator

[SeaBee]

The one hour thing is such a tease! I was having a good time in WvWvW, even though my team was getting pushed back pretty steadily.

I still can't pick a "main" character. Even when I play a class that I think will be terrible, it ends up being a lot of fun -- especially once you get ahold of different weapons. That's never happened before ... in most MMOs, I can only tolerate a couple of the classes.

And thanks, Moogie! I edited my post above.