Warhammer Online Open Beta Starts on the 7th September

Posted by Stropp on August 19, 2008

Well, it’s good news and bad news.

I was kinda hoping the open beta would start a bit earlier than the 7th of September. That just leaves 11 days before the release of the 18th, and since there is a preorder head-start of two or three days (possibly) that will be probably be reduced to 7 or 8 days of open beta goodness.

On the other hand, it’s probably a sensible move by Mythic. Open betas can be brutal on a games good PR. You always get a bunch of players who get in and rip the game to shreds. There’s always haters. Limiting the amount of time before release, limits the amount of time they get to spread negativity.

Not that there will be that much negativity anyway. Everything I’ve heard from people in the closed beta has been good. They haven’t violated the NDA by the way. When you read comments saying that they can’t wait to get up in the morning to play the beta, it’s a little obvious that the game is not going to be a disaster.

When a game is completely not ready for release, you hear about it anyway. NDAs don’t mean squat when that’s the case. Vanguard beta testers, after telling Sigil the game wasn’t ready and fearing it would be released anyway, broke the NDA to spill the beans.

The indications are that Mythic is going to drop the NDA soon anyway. When that happens, the pent up words of a million silent bloggers will be released. I expect that most of those words will be positive.

Still. I’m hanging out for a bit of a go at the game. Waiting for another 17ish days. Sigh.

Oh, by the way, you might have noticed the list of Casualties in my left sidebar. These are the bloggers who are joining up with the Casualties of War. It’s a list I intend to keep up to date, but at the rate of sign ups I might lag behind a little.

Why don’t you pay them a little visit?

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