I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them. That's why I would never dream of game design as a career. Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life. Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.
1. Very Mature Post
2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
You are exactly the type of gamer I am referring to; if you weren’t, it would not have pissed you off enough to spout back your bitter tears. Three billion my ass, the only thing you implement is a deep fryer.
I think people whining about charging for the beta are acting ridiculously and their accusation is baseless.
Funcom isn't charging for it -- the keys were reserved exclusively for fileplanet subscribers. Existing subscribers already saw value to the service and for them the key was a perk. People running out to subscribe just for access and then complaining that they aren't getting value for the service because they only wanted the key....are silly. The key is a perk of the service as a whole -- if they didn't do research before making the purchase, well the old saying holds true: a fool and his money part quickly.
Whether it is called an open beta or a fileplanet beta is meaningless.
“To that I can only say we were one of the first gaming companies to start Torrent distribution a few years ago with Anarchy Online, and of course we know a lot about Torrents, but setting up this for such an event would have served to make us lose focus right before launch. It would not have helped any of us, and running Torrents are about a lot more than just letting the world do it themselves. It needs a lot of work to get it right, and ensure good speed and a smooth customer experience.
Man, if that ain't BS then I don't know what BS is...
"It needs a lot of work to get it right, and ensure good speed and a smooth customer experience."
Publishing a torrent "needs a lot of work to get right"?
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Who is this guy trying to swindle, cavemen? My grandma?
Originally posted by sassoonss well fileplanet download manger is total crap
notan excellent way to distribute 12gb file sthe least for the past 4 days i wastrying and got barely 2gb installed
blessed are the people who put a 1 file download link on the web Was able to download in less than a day
The download manager had me downloading at ~150KB/sec. I killed it and selected another link and was getting 600+KB/sec. I guess the only thing it's useful for is resuming downloads? Anywho, it downloaded over night. It was 12.5GB in size and over 20GB when installed. Crazy.
If bandwidth and management costs were the primary motivators for FunCom deciding to outsource then why were all of the Technical Beta Testers -- who already have the General Beta Client installed and patched-up, ready to go -- not promoted to General Beta?
I think that what this really comes down to is a miscommunication. I agree that this largely comes down to player expectation of what an Open Beta means colliding with tremendous excitment for the launch of this game. I know that my girlfriend and I are so stoked on Conan that we can hardly wait to play it. Knowing that other people are playing it right now in closed beta and that other people will be playing it soon in open beta kills us. The 17th seems like an eternity away. But what Funcom owes us is not the opportunity to play now, but the opportunity to get their game right at launch, in whatever form that takes.
The product we paid for, or will be paying for, doesn't come out for another 2.5 weeks. Just because we preordered, just because we want to play now, just because we feel like we'd make good testers, doesn't mean that we deserve to be playing the game in some form of beta right now. And that goes for any of us. They already have a group testing mid and end-game content called closed beta that they're hosting 100% internally. As a result open beta through Fileplanet going farther than early levels would start being redundant. The game needs to test their launch capabilities, which means maintaining a massive number of Tortage instances being created as people make and remake characters that they plan to take up to high levels. The download has to be the full client because building and testing something they won't be using for launch doesn't do them a bit of good in catching and fixing potential bugs.
As for having to pay for the beta, well, yeah, it's frustrating. Like I said, I want to play now too! But while it would be easy to call foul play on Funcom for using a term that has historically not required payment in many of our experiences, it actually does make sense. Having Fileplanet host the download means that Funcom's customer service and network staff can focus on in-game problems rather than dowload problems specific to the open-beta. For Funcom, the difference comes down to whether they get 50,000 testers and don't have to worry about managing the distribution, or getting 50,000 testers and having to dedicate a team to focus on in-house distribution, a team that would otherwise be working on improving the game. From the perspective of a company trying to make the best product they can make by the 17th, it's a no-brainer.
For those of you who would truly be willing to give up on AoC altogether simply because, like the majority of us who will have to bide or time with other activities until the 17th or the 20th, we didn't get selected to play 13 levels of a pre-release, unfinished, version of the game, you might want to take a step back, take a deep breath, and try to deflate your egos a bit. Funcom is a business, and they've done what they felt made the most business sense to create a product that people will want to play and involved as many potential players as they felt was necessary in the process. Hosting the beta through FilePlanet is not about you, it's not an attack on you, it's not disrespecting you, your wants, or your needs. This is about Age of Conan and what is right for Funcom to make it a good game by launch. I would love to see more people show the ability to be grown-up enough to accept that.
Regardless about what you think of this "FilePlanet Beta" (it certainly, by definition, isn't Open Beta), it is just one more sadness that does not point to a smooth launch but, more and more (as someone said above in this thread) like FunCom, in spite of what they've said to the contrary recently, have *NOT* learned much since their embarrassing disaster with the Anarchy On Line launch which was so painful it lasted more than six months after AO'srelease and when the dust settled nearly everyone had left AO to play DAoC and EQ.
What was sad is the eerie resemblance of FunCom's MO RE: AO and AoC. Both blockbusters, out-of-the-box innovative and sadly, promise a lot, changed/removed much of what was promised and delivered little at launch.
Age of Conan, most clearly, now less that 3 weeks from going live, is not and, in spite of what assurances FunCom gives us to the contrary, will not at all be ready for release on May 20th.
I'm not pre-ordering AoC, nor will I buy AoC right away (if at all). My vast experience with this game clearly shows it is very prudent to wait until at least late June - end of July and then relook to see how AoC is doing.
The only people whining are the kids unable to spend a measly $15 for a sub and who just wanted to "play" the game before it's released. 90% of them would never be playing the game upon release and now are just flooding nonsensical bs because they didn't get to try out a great game for free.
Get over it. The game is already running smoothly and this is really just their final hoorah to test things out.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
Good for Funcom! I have always thought that the majority of "beta testers" were nothing mroe then a brag-fest for school kids on recess. Glad they're making it exclusive to Fileplanet members. "open beta testing" is a joke as it stands and I would like to see less of it made availble in the future since it does noting to improve a game.
Honeslty, why are the brats so upset about not trying a game that's not ready?
I wish they would have put the "play to only level 13" somewhere on the Open beta page. It would have been nice to know honestly.
Thank you for proving my earlier point.
How many different "features" did you run through prior to griping that you can't level higher? Did you notice any bugs? Did you report them? Did you try to grind levels out as fast as possible? Any text errors?
I wish they would have put the "play to only level 13" somewhere on the Open beta page. It would have been nice to know honestly.
Thank you for proving my earlier point.
How many different "features" did you run through prior to griping that you can't level higher? Did you notice any bugs? Did you report them? Did you try to grind levels out as fast as possible? Any text errors?
um I havent even got in game yet since the servers arent up till the 1st of may.
I was wondering if the 13 level cap was to keep some of the actual content secret. Maybe unlike other MMOs maybe the story line of the PVE is actaully good and want to keep it secret till launch. It could be for the reasons otheres have said about the game not being full finished, but I would like to think they want people to actualy enjoy the PVE story line instead of doing it because its the only way to lvl up.
its just an interesting disappointing decision, I mean isnt the current level cap 80 or something? thats about 10% of the game. I mean you dont even get off the newbie isle before 20 (from what i read).
Like i said I wish they would have made it more clear I went through all the pages a second time for the sign up and NO WHERE did i see "play up to level 13 only".
to me thats borderline false advertisement and nearly a scam.
Are we all forgetting that Funcom is a business ? They are not making a game as much as making a product that will get a lot of money.
As a businessman myself, I applaud their smart moves and many of them are most likely due to investors being on their back for the last 4 years while it has been in development. I'd assume the FilePlanet gathering is a good faith gesture in order to get some additional upfront income. They want to squeeze us for all that we are going to give us, and you would ALL do the same thing if you were in their position.
Picture you are the CEO of funcom, or better yet an investor that has had money on the line for the last 4 + years. This is how the real world works people.
You can make sooo much money even before the product is launched.
Pre-orders are a joke, but people buy them. 5 dollar eary access fee is a joke but people buy them. FilePlanet subscription is a COMPLETE joke, but people buy them. However ... the worst is the collectors edition. Why the hell would you pay an extra 40 dollars for a map and some cheesy in game junk ... but people buy it.
Heres how it works - at board meetings people come up with ideas and say "Would People Buy It ?". Which means that if there was not a market for it, that it would have never happened.
To those who are complaining - you are living in the world that you created. Its called Reaping What you Sew.
Great Job to the Marketing, Branding, and Launch team of AoC. I praise your business skills - I'd offer my services as a consultant, but its obviously not needed.
Are we all forgetting that Funcom is a business ? They are not making a game as much as making a product that will get a lot of money. As a businessman myself, I applaud their smart moves and many of them are most likely due to investors being on their back for the last 4 years while it has been in development. I'd assume the FilePlanet gathering is a good faith gesture in order to get some additional upfront income. They want to squeeze us for all that we are going to give us, and you would ALL do the same thing if you were in their position. Picture you are the CEO of funcom, or better yet an investor that has had money on the line for the last 4 + years. This is how the real world works people. You can make sooo much money even before the product is launched. Pre-orders are a joke, but people buy them. 5 dollar eary access fee is a joke but people buy them. FilePlanet subscription is a COMPLETE joke, but people buy them. However ... the worst is the collectors edition. Why the hell would you pay an extra 40 dollars for a map and some cheesy in game junk ... but people buy it. Heres how it works - at board meetings people come up with ideas and say "Would People Buy It ?". Which means that if there was not a market for it, that it would have never happened. To those who are complaining - you are living in the world that you created. Its called Reaping What you Sew. Great Job to the Marketing, Branding, and Launch team of AoC. I praise your business skills - I'd offer my services as a consultant, but its obviously not needed.
yet if this was SOE you know that rabid haters would be all over.
Frankly, being in consulting, i think Funcom is doing a HORRIBLE job at instilling confidence among its potential buyers, while do a great job in promoting
I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them. That's why I would never dream of game design as a career. Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life. Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.
1. Very Mature Post
2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
You are exactly the type of gamer I am referring to; if you weren’t, it would not have pissed you off enough to spout back your bitter tears. Three billion my ass, the only thing you implement is a deep fryer.
/point
/laugh
So Mr Janitor/Implementation Manager, how much do you think it costs to implement an ERP across 120 countries and 300 legal entities and 8000 users, $50K? That's what, twice the biggest budget you ever had?
Another key to leadership that you're obviously lacking is to know when you don't know something, and not just keep on getting deeper and deeper into your obviously embarrassing ignorance.
Make sure you don't mix the recyclbables with the trash again.
I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them. That's why I would never dream of game design as a career. Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life. Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.
me for example im quite fit lol(toots his own horn) have my own 2 bed room apartment in manhattan, freelance for both a Production company, and a indie game dev company. so I believe my "professional background" has some clout and credbility unlike some fry cooks. I ask certain questions or "highlight" certain anomalies within a individuals comments, on what they are doing and whether or not their behavior or comments are questionable at best.
Would it be fair to say that you are more of the competitors point of view?
Personally I try to keep up with this, but reading through the myriad of children's screams about how unfair this is, or how Funcom is involved in a master conspiracy (waiting for the UFO theories), and how unethical Funcom is, makes it impossible to actually get a balanced view on this. While the children (well the immature adults at most) keep screaming it really reduces the credibility of any posts on that side of the issue.
I feel for the guy, his team is busting there humps and the lard ass idiots that live in their Mom's basement and could not get a job beyond Pizza Hut actually are given the credibility to question them. That's why I would never dream of game design as a career. Enterprise software designers work less hours make more money, and when they are called into question, it is from a professional...not some mouth breathing fry cook with no life. Said it many times. Love games hate most gamers.
1. Very Mature Post
2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
it must make you feel good inside when you lie on a forum about video games. I know it makes me feel good!
~ ~
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
<---Points to the Mature rating on the game again and futher reiterates that the primary reason for using fileplanet as an intermediary is for age verification purposes.
I was hoping this would be a mature game with mature players, but after some of the posts I've been reading I am sadly disappointed. What the hell are you all complaining about? That you have to be a fileplanet member to assist in the stress testing of funcom's servers? It's not going to be a lot of fun you know. Crashes will be a daily occurance. Your characters will all get wiped before the three day head start. Most of the time between now and the head start will be sluggish at best as they will be trying to fit everyone into one or two servers to see what kind of a load they can handle. It's not about finding miscelenius bugs in the code anymore, they've done that part already. Now it's just about stress testing the servers. Seeing how many people they can have in one area, which is why they have the level cap, so you won't be grinding xp and spreading out. This isn't about marketing or bug testing, it's about a controlled stress test.
Comments
1. Very Mature Post2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
You are exactly the type of gamer I am referring to; if you weren’t, it would not have pissed you off enough to spout back your bitter tears. Three billion my ass, the only thing you implement is a deep fryer.
/point
/laugh
pffft I dont like Fileplanet at all now before it was totaly FREE FREE to get into a FREAKING beta jeeez.
I think people whining about charging for the beta are acting ridiculously and their accusation is baseless.
Funcom isn't charging for it -- the keys were reserved exclusively for fileplanet subscribers. Existing subscribers already saw value to the service and for them the key was a perk. People running out to subscribe just for access and then complaining that they aren't getting value for the service because they only wanted the key....are silly. The key is a perk of the service as a whole -- if they didn't do research before making the purchase, well the old saying holds true: a fool and his money part quickly.
Whether it is called an open beta or a fileplanet beta is meaningless.
Man, if that ain't BS then I don't know what BS is...
"It needs a lot of work to get it right, and ensure good speed and a smooth customer experience."
Publishing a torrent "needs a lot of work to get right"?
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
Who is this guy trying to swindle, cavemen? My grandma?
well fileplanet download manger is total crap
notan excellent way to distribute 12gb file sthe least for the past 4 days i wastrying and got barely 2gb installed
blessed are the people who put a 1 file download link on the web Was able to download in less than a day
so...
Torrent files, so easy, a caveman can do it.
If bandwidth and management costs were the primary motivators for FunCom deciding to outsource then why were all of the Technical Beta Testers -- who already have the General Beta Client installed and patched-up, ready to go -- not promoted to General Beta?
I wish they would have put the "play to only level 13" somewhere on the Open beta page. It would have been nice to know honestly.
I think that what this really comes down to is a miscommunication. I agree that this largely comes down to player expectation of what an Open Beta means colliding with tremendous excitment for the launch of this game. I know that my girlfriend and I are so stoked on Conan that we can hardly wait to play it. Knowing that other people are playing it right now in closed beta and that other people will be playing it soon in open beta kills us. The 17th seems like an eternity away. But what Funcom owes us is not the opportunity to play now, but the opportunity to get their game right at launch, in whatever form that takes.
The product we paid for, or will be paying for, doesn't come out for another 2.5 weeks. Just because we preordered, just because we want to play now, just because we feel like we'd make good testers, doesn't mean that we deserve to be playing the game in some form of beta right now. And that goes for any of us. They already have a group testing mid and end-game content called closed beta that they're hosting 100% internally. As a result open beta through Fileplanet going farther than early levels would start being redundant. The game needs to test their launch capabilities, which means maintaining a massive number of Tortage instances being created as people make and remake characters that they plan to take up to high levels. The download has to be the full client because building and testing something they won't be using for launch doesn't do them a bit of good in catching and fixing potential bugs.
As for having to pay for the beta, well, yeah, it's frustrating. Like I said, I want to play now too! But while it would be easy to call foul play on Funcom for using a term that has historically not required payment in many of our experiences, it actually does make sense. Having Fileplanet host the download means that Funcom's customer service and network staff can focus on in-game problems rather than dowload problems specific to the open-beta. For Funcom, the difference comes down to whether they get 50,000 testers and don't have to worry about managing the distribution, or getting 50,000 testers and having to dedicate a team to focus on in-house distribution, a team that would otherwise be working on improving the game. From the perspective of a company trying to make the best product they can make by the 17th, it's a no-brainer.
For those of you who would truly be willing to give up on AoC altogether simply because, like the majority of us who will have to bide or time with other activities until the 17th or the 20th, we didn't get selected to play 13 levels of a pre-release, unfinished, version of the game, you might want to take a step back, take a deep breath, and try to deflate your egos a bit. Funcom is a business, and they've done what they felt made the most business sense to create a product that people will want to play and involved as many potential players as they felt was necessary in the process. Hosting the beta through FilePlanet is not about you, it's not an attack on you, it's not disrespecting you, your wants, or your needs. This is about Age of Conan and what is right for Funcom to make it a good game by launch. I would love to see more people show the ability to be grown-up enough to accept that.
Regardless about what you think of this "FilePlanet Beta" (it certainly, by definition, isn't Open Beta), it is just one more sadness that does not point to a smooth launch but, more and more (as someone said above in this thread) like FunCom, in spite of what they've said to the contrary recently, have *NOT* learned much since their embarrassing disaster with the Anarchy On Line launch which was so painful it lasted more than six months after AO'srelease and when the dust settled nearly everyone had left AO to play DAoC and EQ.
What was sad is the eerie resemblance of FunCom's MO RE: AO and AoC. Both blockbusters, out-of-the-box innovative and sadly, promise a lot, changed/removed much of what was promised and delivered little at launch.
Age of Conan, most clearly, now less that 3 weeks from going live, is not and, in spite of what assurances FunCom gives us to the contrary, will not at all be ready for release on May 20th.
I'm not pre-ordering AoC, nor will I buy AoC right away (if at all). My vast experience with this game clearly shows it is very prudent to wait until at least late June - end of July and then relook to see how AoC is doing.
The only people whining are the kids unable to spend a measly $15 for a sub and who just wanted to "play" the game before it's released. 90% of them would never be playing the game upon release and now are just flooding nonsensical bs because they didn't get to try out a great game for free.
Get over it. The game is already running smoothly and this is really just their final hoorah to test things out.
Just because every car has similar features doesn't mean that Ferraris are copies of Model Ts. Progress requires failure and refining.
Good for Funcom! I have always thought that the majority of "beta testers" were nothing mroe then a brag-fest for school kids on recess. Glad they're making it exclusive to Fileplanet members. "open beta testing" is a joke as it stands and I would like to see less of it made availble in the future since it does noting to improve a game.
Honeslty, why are the brats so upset about not trying a game that's not ready?
How many different "features" did you run through prior to griping that you can't level higher? Did you notice any bugs? Did you report them? Did you try to grind levels out as fast as possible? Any text errors?
Look at the bright side most of you have something to troll about for the next month now! Doesn't that make you excited?
How many different "features" did you run through prior to griping that you can't level higher? Did you notice any bugs? Did you report them? Did you try to grind levels out as fast as possible? Any text errors?
um I havent even got in game yet since the servers arent up till the 1st of may.
I was wondering if the 13 level cap was to keep some of the actual content secret. Maybe unlike other MMOs maybe the story line of the PVE is actaully good and want to keep it secret till launch. It could be for the reasons otheres have said about the game not being full finished, but I would like to think they want people to actualy enjoy the PVE story line instead of doing it because its the only way to lvl up.
its just an interesting disappointing decision, I mean isnt the current level cap 80 or something? thats about 10% of the game. I mean you dont even get off the newbie isle before 20 (from what i read).
Like i said I wish they would have made it more clear I went through all the pages a second time for the sign up and NO WHERE did i see "play up to level 13 only".
to me thats borderline false advertisement and nearly a scam.
Are we all forgetting that Funcom is a business ? They are not making a game as much as making a product that will get a lot of money.
As a businessman myself, I applaud their smart moves and many of them are most likely due to investors being on their back for the last 4 years while it has been in development. I'd assume the FilePlanet gathering is a good faith gesture in order to get some additional upfront income. They want to squeeze us for all that we are going to give us, and you would ALL do the same thing if you were in their position.
Picture you are the CEO of funcom, or better yet an investor that has had money on the line for the last 4 + years. This is how the real world works people.
You can make sooo much money even before the product is launched.
Pre-orders are a joke, but people buy them. 5 dollar eary access fee is a joke but people buy them. FilePlanet subscription is a COMPLETE joke, but people buy them. However ... the worst is the collectors edition. Why the hell would you pay an extra 40 dollars for a map and some cheesy in game junk ... but people buy it.
Heres how it works - at board meetings people come up with ideas and say "Would People Buy It ?". Which means that if there was not a market for it, that it would have never happened.
To those who are complaining - you are living in the world that you created. Its called Reaping What you Sew.
Great Job to the Marketing, Branding, and Launch team of AoC. I praise your business skills - I'd offer my services as a consultant, but its obviously not needed.
yet if this was SOE you know that rabid haters would be all over.
Frankly, being in consulting, i think Funcom is doing a HORRIBLE job at instilling confidence among its potential buyers, while do a great job in promoting
2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
You are exactly the type of gamer I am referring to; if you weren’t, it would not have pissed you off enough to spout back your bitter tears. Three billion my ass, the only thing you implement is a deep fryer.
/point
/laugh
So Mr Janitor/Implementation Manager, how much do you think it costs to implement an ERP across 120 countries and 300 legal entities and 8000 users, $50K? That's what, twice the biggest budget you ever had?
Another key to leadership that you're obviously lacking is to know when you don't know something, and not just keep on getting deeper and deeper into your obviously embarrassing ignorance.
Make sure you don't mix the recyclbables with the trash again.
me for example im quite fit lol(toots his own horn) have my own 2 bed room apartment in manhattan, freelance for both a Production company, and a indie game dev company. so I believe my "professional background" has some clout and credbility unlike some fry cooks. I ask certain questions or "highlight" certain anomalies within a individuals comments, on what they are doing and whether or not their behavior or comments are questionable at best.
Would it be fair to say that you are more of the competitors point of view?
Personally I try to keep up with this, but reading through the myriad of children's screams about how unfair this is, or how Funcom is involved in a master conspiracy (waiting for the UFO theories), and how unethical Funcom is, makes it impossible to actually get a balanced view on this. While the children (well the immature adults at most) keep screaming it really reduces the credibility of any posts on that side of the issue.
I support FC and am tired of the complainers over this small fee.
If you can't handle 8 bucks how can you handle a monthly fee?
There are enough free games out there should be no complaints.
Running servers are not cheap.
2. I work implementing an ERP project with a budget of about $3 billion
3. The reason your company has 'cutbacks' is probably because it puts narrow-minded people like yourself in positions of authority.
it must make you feel good inside when you lie on a forum about video games. I know it makes me feel good!
~ ~
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
<---Points to the Mature rating on the game again and futher reiterates that the primary reason for using fileplanet as an intermediary is for age verification purposes.
I was hoping this would be a mature game with mature players, but after some of the posts I've been reading I am sadly disappointed. What the hell are you all complaining about? That you have to be a fileplanet member to assist in the stress testing of funcom's servers? It's not going to be a lot of fun you know. Crashes will be a daily occurance. Your characters will all get wiped before the three day head start. Most of the time between now and the head start will be sluggish at best as they will be trying to fit everyone into one or two servers to see what kind of a load they can handle. It's not about finding miscelenius bugs in the code anymore, they've done that part already. Now it's just about stress testing the servers. Seeing how many people they can have in one area, which is why they have the level cap, so you won't be grinding xp and spreading out. This isn't about marketing or bug testing, it's about a controlled stress test.