Seniath’s Blog

As some of you may know, last week saw the release of Echoes of Doom, Patch 3.01 for World of Warcraft. Much like the pre-Burning Crusade patch, Before The Storm, this introduces many of the new features in the upcoming expansion including new talents, the new profession and achievements.

Yes, that’s right. World of Warcrack Craft just got that little bit more addictive, thanks to the introduction of this much maligned system of e-peen flexing (oh, and let’s not forget the Bejeweled addon. It’s like they don’t want me to alt-tab ever). For the most part, these merely award ‘Achievement Points’ (much like GamerPoints on the 360), however some have more material rewards, such as new titles, mounts, tabards and pets. I elected to work on the Loremaster achievement, purely so I could become known as ‘Loremaster Seniath’. Quite fitting, I feel, being the lorelol nerd that I am.

As a result, however, I have probably spent more playing WoW in the last week than I have in the last year. In fact, I was up till 3am on Sunday morning playing. This is indeed a worrying turn of events. I’m sure it’ll pass quick enough. In fact, I know it will; I’ll be too busy playing another game till 3am this Sunday.

…Of Sinarel, the Blood Elf Death Knight.

So, yes. As you may or may not have read in my previous entry, I decided to plunge into the Wrath of the Lich King demo beta and try out the new ‘hero’ class, the Death Knight. Unlike the Death Knights of old, these are not fallen Paladins, or the spirits of dead Orc Warlocks fused with the reanimated corpse of a human knight. Instead, seemingly, the Scourge is letting any Tom, Dick and Harry into their ranks; any race can become a Death Knight these days (the sight of a female gnome running around with Saronite armour and glowing blue eyes is rather… odd). Anyway, follow the cut for my thoughts on the first few hours of life as a member of the un-living.

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Remember back when I had two WotLK keys available? Turns out I actually only had one; the code from the Blizzard WWI wasn’t a beta key in and of itself, it was just a code that would guarantee me a key in the next wave of invites. I didn’t discover this till after I’d bought a months worth of game time and decided to use it for myself. Having missed the last wave, I was left with a month paid for, and nowt to do.

That was all about 28 days ago now. My month of free time is just running up. But, once again, I woke up this morning to find a WotLK beta key in my mailbox. Seemingly, another wave has gone out and my WWI code has been redeemed. The question becomes, once again, what to do now. I want to play in the beta, but fear that I may burn out and not bother with levelling when the full game comes out. Alternativly, I could just dick about with a Death Knight or something. Will have to ruminate on it.

Edit: I ruminated long and hard:

Congratulations! You have successfully upgraded your World of Warcraft account. You are now ready to experience all the exciting new content that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King™ has to offer…

Not that it matters, since the character copy queue is currently full, and the average wait to copy a character is 18 days. Looks like I’m never going to get a go in the beta, perhaps as the Fates intended?

When I got back from the Blizzard WWI, one of my thoughts was “what the hell should I do with this Beta Key”. The collector in me wanted to keep it (I mean, new pet!), but the poor graduate in me wanted to sell it for something like £100. However, I never got round to selling it, and the price has since dropped somewhat. But that’s not the point here. The point is; if I was asking myself then what to do with one, how the hell am I supposed to know now what to do with two. This morning I woke up to be greeted by this email:

Wrath of the Lich King™ beta test

You have been selected to participate in the beta test of World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King™. Welcome!

My account is inactive. I have little desire to play in the beta (fearing that I will burn myself out on it, and not want to play the game once it is released). The irony is certainly not lost on me.

So, the question is: what do I do now?

Edit: On a similiar note, Blizzard debuted the WotLK intro today at G|C:

Initial thoughts? Pretty as ever, but it lacks the excitement and urgency of the Vanilla and TBC intros, while at the same time having little of the spine-tingling nature of some of the War3 ones (Arthas‘ Betrayal, I’m looking at you).