I don't have a sub. Would love one.

Thanks in advance.

I have 3 codes for free launch week

I should check this out tomorrow when I have more time and am not tored

the beta ends tomorrow morning sometime. The game doesn't go live till 11/4 at 5 pm CST.

so are the codes basically worthless?

The codes are for launch week. Nov 4-11.

Yeah, they aren't beta codes. They are codes to give others a free month of play, I believe.

Who do I have to buy a beer around here to get one of the codes?

Check your PMs.

The code is just for the live launch week for free. Just one week free, not a whole month

Just PM and I'll send you one of the 3 I have.

Thanks Claude (and others who offered)!

not sure why they shut down for almost 2 weeks

They addressed this in the most recent WoW Forever podcast.

For those who don't watch/listen to those, i recommend it. Great discussions with the devs. Gets into a lot of the reasons for certain decisions and overall intentions of the game. Everything I hear during these is very encouraging.

I would mark where they addressed this question, but I don't remember where it's at:

wish it was open a few more days after the MC gear was given out

They need to figure out the layering. I was in a large raid group and in the middle of a fight with a world boss. I died and got layered out to a layer by myself. Not fun. It took me like 5 deaths and res runs before I couldn't aggro and use the Hearthstone. A few other times the raid group got split in different layers. We were split into 3 different layers.

Here

So are the beta testers gonna get to keep their gear and levels or will it reset for everyone?

It resets

So what's everyone playing come launch? Highly leaning towards dwarf shaman (never leveled as alliance in any version of the game) on pvp or rp pvp.

Eww...

If I play. Human warrior - tank.

Ala Leeroy Jenkins.

Gnome Priest, probably on the RP PVE ruleset. I'm too old for a gankfest and I don't care about RP stuff, but usually the percentage of shizsticks is lower.

Still have 3 codes as well.

Have been curious about WOW for a long time, but have been hesitant to get stuck in, mostly because it didn't seem a good fit for casual gaming. Given the level cap and stated focus on horizontal development, WOW Forever is sounding attractive.

For you WOW veterans or those that have played the beta, is WOW Forever casual gaming friendly? Will I likely miss much if I wait 30 or so days after launch to jump on? Is there any advantage to joining in on Launch or very soon after?

I think so. I have the usual family, career, and church obligations so my play time might be 60-90 minutes a few times a week and I had no problem feeling like I had made progress while having fun.

A regular group of like-minded individuals is honestly the way to go, but timing and availability can be difficult to coordinate.

I'm down to try with some other TexAgs olds if there's interest.

ETA: I think it's odd that Blizzard is giving the codes for launch week, as I expect it to be an unmitigated charlie foxtrot. Waiting awhile is probably not a bad plan, as the 1-12 zones should clear out after a few days and there's no race involved.That said, I'm going to at least get my priest and druid created tomorrow 10/27 along with my mage bank alt (must have imo).

The devs have been describing their philosophy with WoW Forever as "beer and pretzels". Meaning they are aiming for a more laid back and casual experience with WoW Forever. It will not be near as complicated as current retail, according to all the information we currently have.

I think the idea is it's a WoW version for the older gamer with a career and family. I would recommend trying it out because the barrier of entry is fairly low. Get a key from one of us with several to spare and give it a shot.

We don't really know what the end game experience will be, yet. They plan to have 10-man, 20-man- and 40-man content in the end game. The only issue a casual may run into is getting a raid spot in endgame. Even if you're in a casual group, the raid spots are limited. If you happen to be online and can do a raid, there will need to be an available open spot with your group.

However, I would still jump in just for the leveling experience. one of their core pillars is "Journey before destination". They want to get back to the original leveling experience of vanilla. This entire experience is something you can do by yourself and with others you meet along the way.

I haven't played in a long time so I don't know how effective running dungeons in a pick-up group is. Ultimately, raids do usually take several hours to complete, so you do need to be able to commit some time to them. If you are constantly needing to leave in the middle of a raid, people won't want to keep inviting you to them because it stops it for everyone.

PvP is something you can do more solo and on your own time, and there are several ways to get geared through only doing PvP.

The only disadvantage you would have starting 30 days later is that you would be a little later at hitting 60, if you want to raid with a specific group who will be getting there way before you. But there will ultimately always be others leveling at your pace and timeline. The game is meant to be social, so meeting others, questing with others, doing dungeons with others, and PvPing with others is what you are meant to be doing. To this day, I still remember a few people I met on my journeys back in 2005-2006.

It's not a race to 60. Kick back and enjoy the grind. Mess around with your professions. Explore. Do some PvP. Just enjoy your experience, if you decide to give it a go.

ETA: If you are not aware of terminology, a "raid" is an end-game dungeon that requires 10, 20, or 40 others to complete. Throughout the leveling experience, there are MANY dungeons that are 5-man. There are mechanics in the game to help you find groups for these and, though there are definitely some toxic people here are there, the vast majority of players are very helpful and open to giving you advice.

Will we have a guild?

There are gonna be a host of grinders who end up maxing out basically as if they play 24/7. They'll always be the downside of it.

What's it projected to cost per month?

The problem is finding 10 people who agree on ruleset and faction.

Forever doesn't require a seperate sub from the standard WOW game.

OnlyForNow said:

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There are gonna be a host of grinders who end up maxing out basically as if they play 24/7. They'll always be the downside of it.

What's it projected to cost per month?

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I don't follow. Why would blasters be a downside for others?

The sub costs are literally the same since 2005, I believe. Pretty amazing that Blizzard hasn't really messed with subscription costs for over 20 years.

Meaning, if they are setting this up to be casual based and not intense based.

Really is major factor in PVP but that's what I meant. You'll have 75% of people play and level casually while 25% (maybe that's high) will try to max out to lvl 60 AFAP.

Also, what's a blaster?

To blast - to degenerately play a video game as efficiently and as much as possible, foregoing other things in life. Basically, what many of your best streamers are doing.

I still don't understand why others hitting 60 so quickly would really effect the average person so much. People like that usually have their own guilds and groups that are also blasting. They will be in the high-end raiding guilds with others who are at their level.

Sure, you may encounter one of these super geared guys in a battleground here or there, but that is simply the case in an MMORPG where some people are more hardcore than others. Hell, that's how it should be. It has absolutely zero affect on your leveling or dungeon experience with others who have a similar life and play style as you. Also, if you are getting to 60 a month after the blasters, then you will most likely be entering into a more stable lvl 60 economy when it comes to prices on the auction house.

Again, I see absolutely no reason why 25% (I think that' s a little high) of the entire population playing a game harder would have that much of an effect on the others. The BG queueing is already going to set pre-mades up against other pre-mades, so it's not like little you will be solo queueing up for a BG and have to contend with a full group all wearing full inventories of epic gear.

Followed you until the last paragraph.

I only played WoW vanilla and Burning Crusade mildly between 2004-2007.

So if I understand the name reservation system correctly, you can reserve up to 3 names before launch starting today at 3 PM CST.....but you have to pick your ruleset, race and class.

As I am new to WOW I'm not part of an established group that I am trying to follow to a particular ruleset and not 100% sure which ruleset will be best for me, I'm thinking of making a character for each ruleset.

At the moment I'm leaning

Skyborne Hunter for Normal
Undead Paladin for PvP (so Horde)
Taurin Shaman for RP

My hope is that as a new player, those choices will allow a decent way of experiencing all that WOW Forever has to offer while I settle into which ruleset I enjoy most.

Is this a sensible approach?

I'm up for one of those free codes if there are any left.

let me know if i need to pm someone or email you.