My PC is getting on in years, and I really need to see how the WAR client will perform on it before I commit to a box. Looked around at my options to get into the open beta, and they seem to consist of joining Fileplanet, or pre-ordering. If you have to pay money to get into the beta, it's not really what I would call "open." Oh well. Five dollars later I had a pre-order box from Gamestop and some sort of in game bonus item at launch if I decide to commit.
I get home and discover, to my horror, that there is no beta client in the box. Instead there is a starter pack and a set of rules for a collectible card game I will never play. Better than nothing I guess. Did my usual weekend of online and offline socializing, finally got around to trying to get the game started on Sunday.
In the box is a code to activate your beta account. Went to the Mythic WAR website and activated my code. Then followed the links to download the client. Those took me to Fileplanet, where I was asked to enter my beta key again. Entered my key again....and it had already been used...by me...because Mythic's beta website is a confusing POS.
When you get to the beta access website there are three bullet points in a box, labeled 1-3. If you click the link in the first bullet point you waste your beta key. If you click one of the two links in the third, you use it correctly and get to download the client. I didn't realize the website was a puzzle game . . .
It was too late to get a CS rep on the phone, and I don't have time to wast on something like that during the week. Looked around at my other options, and all I could come up with was a Bittorrent download for the client. OK, grand. Started up the download.....and discovered that it would take at least two solid days to get done. Nine gigs on Bittorrent sucks. Ok, whatever, I'm in no rush.
Three days later, get home from work horribly late. The download is done. Hooray! Install the client get it patched up, and supposedly I only have to wait an hour for the servers to come back up. An hour later they are still down. Hit the Herald, and the time has been pushed back an hour and a half. "Screw that" and I crash. Get up a little after noon, thinking foolishly that I might get to run around and at least see what my frame-rates are like before I run out the door. The servers are down again, indefinitely.
My impression of WAR so far? Mythic does not have it's shit together for this close to launch. Yes I know it's a beta. Maybe my impression will improve once I actually get to log. But their system for getting into the beta sucks (is it open or isn't it?) and their system for downloading the client sucks ("Oh sorry, looks like you wasted your key..."). Server downtime timed perfectly to keep me from logging for another day is only the straw.
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