World of Warcraft Previews

Two more previews of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft hit the web this weekend, complete with some new screenshots. The first is at WorthPlaying:

It’s clear to me that what Blizzard calls a rough beta is what other games call a launch, and if I really wanted to be cruel I could even hint that it’s better than some games I’ve played months after release. However, WoW isn’t about revolutionizing the genre; instead it’s about applying a fine coat of polish. That’s not a slag I’d much rather play a finely tuned (formula) piece than a revolutionary pile of crap. A conversation I had with a guild-mate in Camelot, though, defined for me the approach people should take when deciding whether to try WoW. When I commented I was in the WoW beta, she asked: (Is it THAT good? I just got a point in DAoC where I’m hitting my goals, and I don’t want to start over). My advice is this: if you are perfectly happy with your current subscription game, move along, there’s nothing to see here folks. Sure, WoW may actually live up to the hype, but if you’re happy in EQ, or Camelot or whatever game you play, it’s not really worth quitting over. However, if you are one of the vocal people on the respective message boards stating you can’t wait for WoW to come out so you can finally hit the cancel button I’ve got two things to say: firstly, you can hit the cancel button now, you don’t need to wait for WoW; and secondly, the odds are pretty good WoW fixes what you’re pissed off about in that other game.

ANd the second is at LoadedInc:

A feature that has been added in the latest Beta push is Resting. When the first Beta release got underway you could play for as long as you want, have no time restrictions and basically power-game if you had no social life. That has now changed in the second release and players now have to watch how long they are playing for before the new rest penalty kicks in. Oh what an uproar this caused with many testers jumping the gun with their complaints. This is a test after all. So how does it work? Blizzard have introduced Inns, a place for gamers to rest their character. The longer you play the more tired your character becomes and there are five tiers of tiredness: well rested > rested > normal > fatigued > exhausted and it takes 8 hours to go from ‘exhausted’ back to ‘well rested’ if you log off in an Inn. You have to be at an Inn to rest, if you simply logoff you will only be restored to normal. The better rested your character is the more bonus experience points you gain when out killing monsters. Continue playing with your character fatigued or exhausted and expect to only receive half or quarter respectively normal experience points. The benefits to the overall balance? This system will prevent gamers sharing accounts to power-level their characters and will make it a more level playing field for gamers who can’t play as often as others. After around 6 hours playing the other night we found our character needed to rest around 7 hours to be fully restored to Well Rested which is quite a long time. The way round this is to play two characters but that may not appeal to some gamers. This system will more than likely be tweaked and changed but it’s an interesting development nevertheless.