I think it has to do with the downtime, as you rarely are sitting around and always have something fairly interesting to do. No experience/level loss helps too. Has anyone tried playing EQ again after playing WoW for a while? I bet it was torchure.

EDIT: BTW, I never played a game that I didn't eventually become bored of. My interest in any game is measured in months, not years. I still know a successful MMORPG when I see it.
This comment was edited on Oct 25, 13:05.

Yeah, now it's Blizzard's turn to announce the open beta start date, November 8th

I'd be surprised if the OB was more than 2 weeks.

As for "it's not ready", they still have a few more weeks to fix the bugs and add more content/talents/traits. The low level content and gameplay is pretty solid and will give players a good first impression. Class balance is a neverending cycle. Even after release they'll still have time to add more high level content and PvP. I'm sure there will be someone who gets to 60 in two weeks and bitches (they'll probably still pay to play, because there's nothing else better to do). Eat an entire cake in 2 minutes and you get a stomach ache.

The bottom line is, there's nothing better out there for MMORPGs and fortunately/unfortunately that's what counts in the game market. WoW is a fun game and I can see the people who played EQ for 4 years flocking to this instead of EQ2. WoW will spoil you and you won't want to go back to the grind. I see Guild Wars being fun, but I don't see it as a replacement for a MMORPG just as I didn't find Diablo 2 as a replacement. Maybe D&D online will have a shot in the future, but anyone who's experienced UO/EQ/DAoC/SWG will see that WoW will be the new MMORPG king.

This comment was edited on Oct 25, 12:36.

Heh, did this thing even have a beta test period?

I can't find that original USA Today/CNN gallup poll on USA Today's website or CNN's website. The only places I can find it mentioned is that canadian web page and other liberal web pages. I'd expect that from canada.. where 40% of Canadian teens think America is "evil".

http://www.torontofreepress.com/2004/weinreb063004.htm

The thought of Teresa Heinz as a first lady bothers me more for some reason.

It's all about timing.. who is going to be past the 270 mark on Nov 2nd.

http://electoral-vote.caida.org/

Hah, that electoral count is all based on Florida going to Kerry.

http://www.electoral-vote.com/states/florida.html

Looking at that... I don't know how anyone could predict a lead by either candidate there. Florida is already a mess. I don't want to think what it'll be like on Nov 3rd.

I'm glad I haven't been following this, otherwise I'd be very confused right now.

Oh come on Halsy, that's an obvious case of "reverse psychology".

The only votes that count are those by American citizens and Kerry has some work to do if he's going to win:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/bush_vs_kerry.html

I could care less what the global view is. Everyone is out for their countries own self interests. That's the job of a government.

Hey world, stay the hell out of our election. Otherwise, we'll vote Bush just to spite you.

Is this the patch that makes people show up to play?

Well, I'll tell ya War.. it all started with a plan by DrEvil.. that son-of-a-* REMOVED *. Then Zephalephelah decided to be a * REMOVED * and get into it. Joe Blow couldn't resist the urge to * REMOVED * with everyone. I just wish GWB would just * REMOVED * nuke Joe's * REMOVED * * REMOVED * and get it over with.

Creston is right. They're gonna get * REMOVED * by simulaneons connections. And those * REMOVED * Yankees better hurry up and * REMOVED * win already.

I thought the box people could still play without steam if they only played single player. But steam would be needed if they played multi.. and steam would be required from then on. Maybe they changed it..

It would be funny if the box people were the only ones playing on the 16th due to clogged authorization servers.

Is this the announcement that makes HL2 fun?

It's going to be fun watching everyone try to activate their copy at the same time on Nov 16th.

This thread has been submitted for certification. If approved, you will all be declared certifiable.

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: sitting at your desk, doing your job like you do every morning, minding your own damn business, may be hazardous to your health.

10 bucks says Mount St. Helens errupts, sending a huge lava fireball 200 miles away, landing on the Valve corporate offices, taking out all their PCs including their version control server with their only source code archive.

20 bucks says someone blames Bush for it.

2:15pm EST - Half-Life 2 CDs placed on desk!
2:17pm EST - Half-Life 2 CDs moved out of way of coffee cup!!
2:19pm EST - Half-Life 2 CDs handed to Larry!!!
2:19pm EST - Larry holds Half-Life 2 CDs!!!! Declares "woah".
2:21pm EST - Half-Life 2 CDs looked at by 10 other people!!!!!
2:21pm EST - Group "woah"
2:30pm EST - Half-Life 2 CDs do everything they goddamn can except go gold!!!!!!

4:00pm EST - Half-Life 2 was finally released to the masses today after the notorious Blue's News Reader Gang raided Valve Corporate headquarters. No one was seriously hurt in the scuffle, although witnesses report the crowd was yelling obscenities and repeating the phrase "steam this".

Rich has been recovering from an injury sustained in the line of duty as a police officer. I believe GG was a way for him to do something productive and take his mind off the pain of rehab. It's been a long road for him and he's run into other health problems along the way and continued to try to get back to where he could lead GG again. The regular GG users haven't heard from him in a long time and one can surmise that RL issues have completely taken him away from the world that is GG. With things obviously not getting much better, it was probably only a matter of time that GG itself was shelved. The way it was shelved was surprising to many, but life is like that.

Now, I think something else, with a different name and ownership, might end up being created to replace the void. That's probably for the best, as I think it takes any pressure off Rich to spend effort on something more trival than getting his life back.

BTW: I don't know Rich and never posted on GG, but I did follow GG for a number of years. Thanks for the memories GG and good luck Rich.

gg GG

This comment was edited on Oct 15, 10:22.

Woohoo... DNF 2 !