Breakfast Topic: Knowing about the Wrath beta
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 22nd 2008 at 8:00AM
Well, it's here -- we've been waiting for the Wrath beta and all the information that'll come with it for a long time, and soon we'll all be headed to a pre-release Northrend to see what there is to see. But how much is too much? Iris asks on WoW Ladies, and we're asking too, "How much do you want to know about the Wrath beta?"A few people have already asked us for a non-Wrath RSS feed, and we're working on asking our tech guys if that's possible (it's very possible to get RSS feeds of any of our categories by adding "rss.xml" to the end of any of our Category listings, but it's not so easy to get a feed if everything but a certain category), and we're doing as much as we can to keep major spoiler information behind the breaks and out of sight if possible. But the information's out there, and just like the Burning Crusade beta, odds are that you'll have heard a little bit about what's happening in Northrend if you read any WoW sites at all.
The good news, of course, is that Blizzard always keeps a few aces up their sleeve -- even if you drowned yourself in the latest and greatest Wrath leaks and information, it's a guarantee that you'll find at least something in the live version of Northrend that you didn't hear about before. But until then, just how much do you want to know? Are you planning on playing the beta nonstop in the hopes that you do so much you don't have to buy the actual game, or are you keeping ears and eyes closed for the next few months in hopes that you'll enter a completely new and unfamiliar world whenever you install the next expansion?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Talents, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
doug Jul 22nd 2008 8:05AM
The only thing I'm remotely interested in hearing about early is the Death Knight, I don't want to know anything about Northrend because I want that same feeling of awe and wonder I got playing vanilla WoW and BC for the first time.
Green Armadillo Jul 22nd 2008 8:08AM
IIRC Massively has (or had) a no-WoW and a no-SL option? You could probably tell the tech folks to copy that code, provided you're tagging everything properly as you go.
kunukia Jul 22nd 2008 8:14AM
I am hoping for a Beta invite. I can play stuff over and over; I still occasionally start a level one Dwarf or Gnome toon, because I love Dun Morogh.
And, as a hunter I am so excited about new pets and the huge revamp of how hunters and their pets work...
So, I will read anything on WotLK, happily, you can't spoil it for me!
Cyanea Jul 22nd 2008 8:14AM
The only things I want to hear about ahead of time are the new talents and changes to my favorite classes (Hunter, Warlock, and Druid). I don't want to hear anything about Northrend, or anything more than just the basic lore because I want to experience it all first hand as I go.
darian Jul 22nd 2008 10:34AM
Ditto. The fewer screenshots of Northrend I see, the better. Just talents and class changes for me.
I'm also avoiding Death Knight information. I already know the basics, but I want to avoid inundating myself with all the fine details until I actually get to spin one come release.
I've actually stopped going to the leak wiki because of their SS of the day feature.
Samba-man Jul 22nd 2008 8:16AM
yeap, another lich king post...
I cant believe there is nothing else happening in World of Warcraft at the moment WoW Insider guys?
Ask also the tech guys to give us a option to filter out some authors... I definitely would like to avoid being upset in a monday by a kid that doesnt know how to reply a mother's question...
Thanks.
Falcio Jul 22nd 2008 8:51AM
Yeah, latest expansion to the WoW universe and quite possibly the biggest news about WoW going on right now. They should totally cut back on it.
Give them a break. The beta's been out less than a week, so why shouldn't they cover it as much as they can? Give it a few days and we'll be getting current-WoW posts. It's a given.
Even the bloggers want to keep that mysticism of Northrend up come expansion.
Samba-man Jul 22nd 2008 8:54AM
/Falcio
You are correct :)
I guess i will slowdown my daily visits to WoWinsider until a week or two.
Peace
Larry-Steve Jul 22nd 2008 8:19AM
Its a bit of a toss-up for me. I played vanilla WoW's open beta, but didn't play WoW at release. I played WoW for the first time a few months before BC was released, but stopped way before the release. Picked it up again after Black Temple was implemented and stopped because the grind to 70 was a lonely one for a game that was supposed to be an MMO. Started again about two months ago, so this is the first time I've been with the community when such a large piece of new content (a freaking expansion) was 'released'.
Its rather exciting to know all the new things that are coming with the expansion and have the possible oppourtunity to play the beta. As a closed beta tester for WAR, I know the necessity of changes throughout beta stages to truely make a game enthralling. But with WoW, there is so much to these expansions that even by staying current with all the new beta info and at the best, playing the beta, like you've said, there will still be things in the live release that give you the same feeling you had when you first heard the first hero class to be implemented was the Death Knight.
There are also a few rumors floating around that have yet to be confirmed by anyone in the alpha or beta, so even if you are following this as closely as some of us, we'll all still be waiting for the live release to actually see if rumors are true.
Jeni Jul 22nd 2008 8:28AM
The only thing I'm interested in right now is Wrath. I'll either get my information here or somewhere else. There's LOTS of places with Wrath info. If you guys don't want to do Wrath, the only thing I'll be coming here for is Shelbi's crafting columns.
Samba-man Jul 22nd 2008 8:38AM
Yeah, i feel a bit selfish now from my previous post.. So probably you and a lot of other people are seeking for Wrath information.. So the idea of rss division would be indeed awesome.. because as for me, i am bored as hell, that everytime i get to WoWInsider page, i get to see some repetitive news about Wrath... if it was really new stuff, then maybe it could be cool, but its been always same subject things..
Also there is the people that dont want to see spoilers.. I am luckily not one of them :)
Milonus Jul 22nd 2008 8:35AM
Couldn't you just get every contributer to add a "notwrath" tag to every post that isn't wrath-related and then people could rss feed based on that?
dfv Jul 22nd 2008 8:42AM
I agree - I know you guys are all pumped about the coming new content, but it totally spoils it for people. The last thing I would ever do is play the Beta - it just makes the new stuff seem old even faster.
I would opt in for a nonwrath rss feed, but I suspect I'm in the minority.
Oblitherax Jul 22nd 2008 8:47AM
What he said.
Percinho Jul 22nd 2008 9:35AM
congratulations, you win. :-)
Darrien Jul 22nd 2008 8:35AM
Engadget does no apple/iPhone feeds. Synergy go!
Coh Jul 22nd 2008 9:04AM
There is only one thing I am interested in knowing about. What do the new dire bear and dire cat models look like. If I could find that out I would want to see nothing more of the Lich King until I chop his head off in a raid.
BitterCupOJoe Jul 22nd 2008 9:17AM
I'm interested in class and gameplay mechanics, possibly profession information, and a smallish sample of gear, so I can know what level of gear is actually worth getting before Wrath, i.e., how much of the stuff I'm currently wearing is going to go in the dustbin as soon as I hit Northrend.
Other than that, I'd like to skip most of it. I don't want to know much in the way of plot spoilers, and I figure by the time I get into the dungeons and want to know about the bosses, there'll be places I can snag just strategy from without much in the way of spoilers.
Jeni Jul 22nd 2008 10:37AM
Truth of the matter is simple...there's nothing new to talk about in WoW except Wrath. I do NOT want to play beta because...I kinda feel like I'm wasting time. I want to play my own characters, I want to get my priest up to 70 to join the mage and the druid. I want to pvp. I want to collect mats for inscriptions... I don't want to play test...but I DO want the scoop on Wrath! The best way for me to do that is to come here, go to the wiki, visit mmo-champion...etc. Here I get colums and feedback on the stuff I read on the other two sites. I'd appreciate it if you kept the Wrath stuff coming!
William Jul 22nd 2008 9:29AM
I'm hoping for the new and unobserved while knowing that I already have read too much to be "innocently entering the unknown territory that IS Northrend".