Wrath of the Lich King Alpha in the wild?
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 11th 2007 at 9:36PM
Take this with a gigantic shaker full of salt, but a sketchy guild site host named Ejeet Networks claims to have received screenshots of the downloader for the Wrath of the Lich King alpha (watch out for the automatic music player on their site, too). Again, this means almost nothing-- even if the downloader is really out there in the wild, it hardly means the game is anywhere near done, or that anyone but Blizzard employees are still playing it at this point. But Ejeet says the DNS server for the WotLK beta is online and answering DNS resolution, and they claim that a "Swedish contact" sent them screenshots of the alpha downloader.Personally, I call shenanigans-- their first screenshot says version .1, and then the Properties screen they have says version 2.0.3.70, so which is it? They also claim that since the Properties screen says "{c} 2004-2008 Blizzard Entertainment," that's proof that we'll see Wrath in 2008, but that's hardly true as well. I have no doubt that we'll see the beta in 2008, but I'd bet money we won't see the expansion itself until January 2009. I'd love to be wrong, but them's the breaks.
But I leave it up to you-- as much as I disagree, these could be proof that Blizzard has an expansion alpha up and running. Anyone else spot any other weirdness that could rule these out as fakes?
Thanks, Dan!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Expansions, BlizzCon, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Medros Oct 11th 2007 9:51PM
I stick to my summer '08 predictions, as I doubt WLK will take longer to develop than TBC did.
Arras Oct 11th 2007 9:57PM
Spring/Summer '08 for beta with a planned release for holidays '08 (like for TBC - around Thanksgiving/Christmas time), but delayed until early January '09
it's possible that downloader is an internal piece of software for their test environment, but it's useless to anyone outside of Blizzard's network.
Barod Oct 11th 2007 10:02PM
I agree with Medros. I think they learned a lot from the release of BC and that includes speeding up the process of getting good content out. It's been shown that /played time is down and this could've been the case longer than we've known. Getting people back into the game is probably one of their primary concerns so a sooner rather than later release is probably the more realistic choice.
Tristan Oct 11th 2007 10:27PM
I like what amazon.co.uk says.
http://home.insightbb.com/~tristan.smith/wotlk.jpg
Wildhammer Oct 11th 2007 10:32PM
"Early 08" is MMO speak for "Sometime mid 2010".
Thane W Oct 11th 2007 10:33PM
Anyone can code this, come on now...
Arras Oct 11th 2007 10:34PM
So if you go to ejeet or whoever they are and look at some of the other screen shots they have you can see this is a total fake.
the supposed client download has none of the Blizzard trademarks and is rife with spelling and grammar errors. I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole
Raogrimm Oct 11th 2007 10:39PM
@1
I would not start planning for 2008 Summer, I was at Blizzcon and only "a part" of a region was a available for players to mess around in. I say earliest realease date if Blizzard threw caution to the wind would be November/December 2008, and at a more reason date some time around January-March 2009 as from what I saw with the new graphics they are adding such as the new flame effect this alteration could have unseen problems until beta goes live, just as what happened with sound engine. Its a pain but if it means the game kepts up todate with new graphics and stays on the cutting edge, its a price developers and players will have to endure.
vlad Oct 11th 2007 10:54PM
@6 yup, 10 minutes in visual basic
Liel Oct 11th 2007 11:12PM
The last expansion took way too long because blizzard was working to work on the infrastructure when the game became more successful that what they thought it would.
I think people jumped all over the expansion like crack and burned through it so quick because there was no non raid content updates since launch.
A lot of people I know will probably return for the expansion but most are on hiatus until then.
Merus Oct 11th 2007 11:33PM
It's really hard to tell, because a lot of this stuff can be excused by it being an alpha.
Whomp Oct 12th 2007 12:42AM
"sketchy guild site host named Ejeet Networks " I hope that when you say Sketchy you really mean your jeolous. because bashing another company is really poor business ethics. This is not the way to report anything. you want to report on a possible leaked alpha for Wrath of the lich king then do so , but don't be bashing anyone else in the process. its like if i made a submition to some online new company and said wowinsider was hired by slave labour in china.
whoever wrote this disgusts me and if i had my way i would have him fired . but since i don't i will settle for this comment post.
Snide remarks such as "watch out for the automatic music player on their site, too" are also very un called for .
And better yet for the most unprofessional award.
"Personally, I call shenanigans-- their first screenshot says version .1, and then the Properties screen they have says version 2.0.3.70, so which is it? They also claim that since the Properties screen says "{c} 2004-2008 Blizzard Entertainment," that's proof that we'll see Wrath in 2008, but that's hardly true as well."
This is True unprofessionalism at its best.
as far as i am concerned wowinsider is a farse and shouldn't report anything more than how a sewage truck overturned on a freeway.
WoWinsider you really need to learn some ethic.
Pook Oct 12th 2007 12:58AM
Blimey Whomp what the hell do you come here for then...
As for your "Snide remarks such as "watch out for the automatic music player on their site, too" are also very un called for."
I couldn't disagree more strongly, a large number of ppl that visit this site, do so from work where load and frankly obnoxious music is usually undesirable.
C.A. Oct 12th 2007 1:19AM
@Whomp
Guess what buddy, this is a blog not a newspaper. That usually means more informal and full of personal opinions and views. If I were you I would get my act together grammatically before you go after someone else's writing. He needs to "learn some ethic"???? Get off this site moron...
Dave Oct 12th 2007 1:24AM
You're really underestimating what this expansion is going to need to test if you think 2009...
This game has NO new races, a SINGLE new class (arguably the most difficult thing) and only a single continent's worth of new zones. The PVP isn't instanced, so it doesn't even need a real test. They patch in the raids once the game is released (as usual) so they don't even need to finish those. The bulk of the expansion and testing is simply Death Knights. You're only testing 10 levels, 25ish in the case of the Death Knight i suppose, so you need nowhewre near the length of testing that it took to get a Blood Elf from 1-70.
The beta for this will be mercifully short. I wouldn't be surprised to see a month or two at most of the portion of the beta most people get to experience. Remember that they did have a closed beta for quite a while with BC that didn't have plenty of content active so it's not like they won't start testing before it's done...
2009 is a really really doomy gloomy prediction. I'd say anything less than a fall 2008 release will be nothing short of disaster, and realistically it'll be out by the Summer. I think we'll see Sunwell patched in around Dec/Jan and 6mo later, we'll have the expansion. Longer, and the'll probably lose anyone who gets bored and stops subscribing between now and then permanently to other games and they know it.
Mike Schramm Oct 12th 2007 2:07AM
I hope you're right, Dave, but my gut agrees with Arras-- scheduled for holidays 2008 but delayed to January. I'd love to be wrong and spend the summer in Northrend, though.
Karail Oct 12th 2007 4:12AM
Blizzard have said many times that they plan to release an expansion every year and even with their "its done when its done" policy I cannot see them not releasing this expansion in 2008.
Shadout Oct 12th 2007 10:31AM
Summer 2008 sounds most likely to me too.
Hell, think they will rather release it unfinished than delay it to 2009.
If they learned just a little from TBC release it shouldnt be that difficult to know which stuff to finish first and which to save for first patch after release either.
While I doubt they have many of the zones finished by now (probably still only working on the first few which was shown at Blizzcon), you cant really conclude that the stuff you saw at Blizzcon is all they have. It would be PR suicide to actually show all you have at once, for a product thats still 1 year away.
Blizz is also well known by now, to only release information of stuff thats pretty much 100% done, while they state things can always change, they usually simply wont talk about stuff that can change, because they learned the hard way how their customers can whine endlessly if a single letter is changed in something they told about earlier.
At Blizzcon you might get a little information that goes against that rule, but then its most often minor stuff.
Before Family and Friends beta started for TBC you hadnt really seen much details of anything else than Blood Elves starter zones either.
Ladorius Oct 12th 2007 7:41AM
I enjoy reading about people's opinions to be quite honest. That's why i come here. And here's my opinion on Whomp. He's an asshole! LOL....its my opinion and I have a right to it in my own comment box.
Chris Anthony Oct 12th 2007 9:18AM
Whomp, disclosure time: are you an overzealous fanboy who doesn't actually understand the ethics of journalism and business, or a paid shill for ejeet? Either way, you owe Mike an apology.
-Chris A.
http://www.etherjammer.com/blog/