Beta JournalsThe Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 1: A Tale of Two Starting Zones
Beta Journals - RSS 2.0Having completed a rather lengthy download and install, I log into the Beta client triumphantly ... only to discover that the servers are down. Whoops. That was anti-climactic. So, I go off and do something else for a while - and when I next return, the servers are up! Joyous day of days!
As excited as I was to kick off my second Grand Beta Adventure, though, this little incident did strike a tiny warning bell in the back of my mind regarding the server stability. Said warning bell would be proven quite right as my adventure continued - while Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and even the instance servers are all fine and dandy, Blizzard seems to be running Northrend on an older server they'd been using as a doorstop before realizing they needed something to host us Beta-ers on. Adventuring sure is fun when your spells won't cast - but really, it's fine; there aren't any mobs around to cast them on anyways!
But, *cough* I digress. Where was I?
Ah, yes. Logging in. Coincidentally enough, I entered the Beta servers in roughly the same place I'd left them the last time, back in Shattrath. Of course, Outland is passé and so 2007, so we couldn't have that! I had to get to Northrend! The question, then: ...how? Of course, I'd heard about the new zeppelin routes, so being the practical Mage I am, I teleported to Orgrimmar and rode to the zeppelin tower, where I proceeded to wait. The zeppelin to Grom'Gol came, and I waited. The zeppelin to Undercity came, and I waited some more. By the time the Grom'Gol flight had arrived a second time, I was beginning to get antsy.
Then I turned around, saw a second zeppelin tower on the other side of Orgrimmar's entrance, and felt slightly silly. After regaining the tattered shreds of my pride, I mounted up and rode to that other tower. Within a minute, another dirigible (this one with fancy headlights and a balloon painted like a shark's mouth) had arrived, and my journey had truly begun!
An interesting observation - the zeppelins and ships that one uses to travel in the Old World of Classic WoW are now not only named but crewed with NPCs with whom you can actually interact. (Sadly, I couldn't find Captain Placeholder - but I didn't look very hard, so maybe he's still there. We shan't give up hope!) For instance, the boat from Auberdine to Stormwind (formerly Menethil) is the Bravery. It's a very nice touch that makes Azeroth feel a bit more alive and real ... of course, the new vessels that lead to Northrend are, like the ships and zeppelins of old, completely empty and unmanned. It's a bit jarring, and sort of perplexing that Blizzard would go and flesh out this old content but leave the new stuff bare-boned.
Ah, there I go again. Apologies. Ahem. Yes! I was on my way, my way ... to Northrend!
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