Sucks cause I would love to get it otherwise.

I wouldn't mind some consolidation and adding some new ones...a Tera and GW2 sticky maybe.  Warhammer is dead and it seems silly to have 2 Aion stickies.

I never saw any indication of scaling due to number of players fwiw.

There are 5 man dungeons as well.

I saw some scaling...usually the number of mobs spawned during public quests.  Needs some work but overall it worked pretty well.  Human area was the best overall (by far) but I still loved the atmosphere and area of the Norn.  I did find as a ranger that it was much easier to tame a lot more animals early in the Norn area.  Overall I can't wait for it to be released.  I'm confident most of the issues will be fixed long before then.

My early impressions from yesterday and this morning.

- Love the game.  The graphic style wasn't initially to my liking but it's a lot more detailed than I gave it credit for past the first impression.  Love the maps...not so hot on the character interaction or cutscenes but I've really never loved that style.  Reminds me too much of little big planet.
- Music, effects and sounds are awesome.
- Playing the Norn and I love the story, setting and style.  Love starting with a white wolf too. 
- Character customization at the beginning is pretty decent.  Hate the different options not scaling though.  The tattoo and other boxed selections are about the size of a postage stamp at my resolution.  Also seems silly to have to scroll to multiple pages for things like hair color, etc when over half the screen isn't being used.
- Did I miss the option to change my characters voice?  My female Norn Ranger sounds like a 80 year old Florida native who smoked all her life.
- Getting used to the interface but it's more stylish vs useable.  I would prefer a cleaner option (option, not replacement) that gets rid of the blurs, claw marks, scratches, random lines, etc. 
- PvP was great and quick.  Took me longer to figure out how to leave and go back to the playing world than it did to join in the first place. 
- Game is not ready for prime time.  NCSoft is definitely not ready for the huge numbers of people who are going to hit this especially when it launches.  Lots and lots of complaints about lag, slowness, GPU not being used, parties zoning and being broken apart, etc. 
- Combat is pretty responsive but "floaty" at the same time.  Character running is the same.  Like I'm an inch above the ground always.  Most of it is probably lag and graphic slowdown at this time.  Need to tone down the spell effects though.
- I like sharing kills and getting bonus XP for helping kill something (or being helped) and also being able to share loot even when you're not grouped. 
- Really need a manual or more tutorials or something...there is a ton of stuff hidden away and I still don't know how to do half the things I want to do.
- Some of the classes are really, really, really squishy.  My Ranger can easily go down in about three seconds.  Can't imagine how bad it is with cloth.

While it may seem like a lot of complaints above I don't want to give the impression that I don't like the game.  I'm loving it and I'm glad I pre-purchased.  I'll gladly be playing this once it's live.  I only hope it's a few months before that point so most of the problems are actually fixed.  Say what you want about SWTOR but they set a new standard for stability and bug free playing when it launched especially for a MMO.

Well, I'm going back to playing

I got excited earlier because I clicked login and it went to a connecting screen for about 20 secs...then went back to the "hey stupid, beta starts tomorrow" message

I have like three old ones if the ones above fall through...just let me know and I'll see if I can find them.

I'm on there under Mara...Human Archer.  I'll be hitting one of the light RP guilds at start (joined Dark Sun Rising).  There's a good list here:

http://tera-forums.enmasse.com/forums/celestial-hills/topics/Celestial-Hills-RPPVE-Official-Guild-List

EDIT:  Managed to hit 22 and run one complete instance.  Like it a lot, has some areas that could be tweaked but no major problems.  Leveling is slowing down some but still quick and the Korean grind is definitely gone.

Which server would I reserve my name on?  Is the list of servers in beta the same as live?

I picked the only RP PVE server listed...there are 10ish servers listed now including 3 PvP but I'm hoping the RP server will be a little better with community policing and attitude.  No way I'm going free for all PvP after my experiences in beta...people were camping new players almost immediately and chat was middle school level at best.

today until 4/15.  Why isn't there a MC within 5 hours of me.  Stupid in store only sales  

Here is the rip from Slickdeals with the total deal

ASUS P8Z68-V LX LGA 1155 Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard (SKU: 812289) Comes out to $69.99+tax http://www.microcenter.com/single...id=0371775

Intel Core i7 2600k (SKU: 200154) $199.99+tax http://www.microcenter.com/single...id=0354587

Total: $269.98+tax

Here's the other Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Z68 (SKU: 525667) for $109.99 + tax

I'm pretty sure anyone can register for the open beta by creating an account and using the code "TERABETA" as the key. 

I'm still amazed at how fast their download servers are...got the 4 GB patch tonight in under an hour.

Total scam...and now they have work history, address, names, driver license, birth certificate, identifying info and ready to go picture ids.

Either way good luck.  I would start monitoring credit now...maybe sign up for one of the credit monitoring companies by the month that will let you know anytime a new account is opened or account info changes.

Thats so sad...

It seems that for once, there is an MMO I won't be part of from day one, but the blatant money grab, the xp boost from DAY ONE? is too much for me. 3 character slots and more if you want to purchase them? Lifetime option from day one as well and NO mention of monthly subscription fee? Very, very strange....

I'm weary of the XP boost too but at the same time it doesn't have "traditional" leveling and that boost could be something minor like 1%.  Also, I think Conan was practice for just about everything going into this game including the cash shop and F2P.  They have done a decent job with it and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it launched F2P with the lifetime option giving cash points and expansions, etc.

Eh screw em.  I've tried for years to get the damn bag of crap...had it tonight and the fu*king server didn't process it quick enough...gone.  It was fun when it started but now it's just frustrating and them joking about how bad the servers are or joking about the order button refreshing the page instead of placing the order is just old.

It's on

Gimme...stupid waves of invites.

Yeah, with some population I'd still be playing too.  Huge world and classes that were actually different (a bard that actually got to compose songs...who would think it).

After all these years of playing MMO'S it's par for the course. The very nature of the beast is to segregate, and separate differing play styles, in effect instigating elitism. I would love a development team to create a MMO, basement to roof, according to their dreams and desires for it. Instead we get insipid games trying to be all things to all people. This in my opinion, is a root cause of the major problems with MMO'S.

The insipid games work and make lots (and lots) of money.  I love the niche hardcore games...but many of them are lucky to have 25,000 subs and 3 servers.  I love sandbox games but every one I've played turns into a mass PvP kill zone that's impossible to advance in if you don't start at the beginning.  WoW works because it fills that niche that the majority of gamers want (and prove it with their wallets).  It's casual where you can play 5 hours per week.  It's dedicated were you can play 40 hours per week.  I know people who do nothing but play the AH and fish...others who do nothing but concentrate on PvP.  It has 3+ hour raids and 20 min dungeons.  And it's huge where you could easily take at least three characters to max level and still not cover every area (until the very end).  Yes the truly hardcore make fun of it but honestly they make up about .5% of the market and the big names could honestly care less about them.  They spend so little in comparison that the casual players will continue to rule.

I think the problem with SWTOR is that it tried to be WoW with a Star Wars skin but it copied WoW of 2008 and not WoW of 2011.  I think 1.2 will go a long way towards fixing a lot of complaints but on the other hand how many people have already left to go back to something else...100,000?  300,000?  I'd be honestly surprised if they truly stabilized at the 1.7m mark and that it's not closer to 1.2m in a couple more months.

BTW, Rift seems to be the closest to the game you mentioned.  It's smaller, dev lead by people who actually care about it, have regular and frequent updates and has become more popular in the past six months instead of less.  It's not even close to perfect but it's the closest I can think of in a commercial MMO

This is the list of books I put together a few weeks ago to help my snap out of my funk.  There are sure to be some on the list you'll enjoy (it's a mix of apocalypse, sci-fi and fantasy).  Of course I'm in the middle of reading The Hunger Games now

Black Easter by James Blish
A Canticle for Liebowitz by Miller
Non Robot/Foundation Asimov
Dueling Machine Ben Bova
Any of the earlier Pern books
Friday by Heinlein
John Campbell
I, Zombie by Curt Selby
John Crowley - Little, Big
The Heechee saga by Frederick Pohl
Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis
The Parafaith War by LE Modesitt Jr.sci-fi
Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith
Solaris  by Stanislaw Lem
David Gerold, a bit in the vein of Heinlein's short story, "All You Zombies"
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Olaf Stapledon's "Last and First Men
The Sirens of Titan  by Kurt Vonnegut
The Fifth Sacred Thing - Starhawk
H. Beam Piper's Federation
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
The Lilith's Brood series - Octavia Butler
End of eternity - Asimov
Babel-17 by Delaney
A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren
Finder, Bone Dance and Falcon, by Emma Bull.
Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-precious Stones - Samuel R. Delany
Michael Moorcock - Corum, Elric
The Witches of Karres, by James Schmitz
The Last Planet, by Andre Norton.
C. J. Cherryh - Morgaine
The Chronicles of the Deryni, by Katherine Kurtz.
Fritz Leiber's The Big Time
The Family Tree, by Sheri Tepper
The Musashi Flex series
Andre Norton - The Stars Are Ours, 2250 AD
Scott Westerfeld's The Risen EmpireSilk Roads
Shadows, by Susan Schwartz
Harlan Ellison - "Phoenix Without Ashes"
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
The Demolished Man, also by Alfred Bester.
L. Sprague de Camp - "Lest Darkness Fall
All The Myriad Ways by Larry Niven
Godstalk, by P.C. Hodgell
Jericho Moon, by Matthew Woodring Stover
Heroes Die, by Matthew Woodring Stover
The Face in the Frost, by John Bellairs
Gloriana, by Michael Moorcock
Magic Casement, by Dave Duncan
The Overman Culture, by Edmund Cooper
The House in November, by Keith Laumer
Re-birth (AKA The Chrysalids), by John Wyndham
Hawksbill Station, by Robert Silverberg
Children of the Star trilogy, by Sylvia Engdahl
The Changeling, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Ericb - you can already get this with widescreen support, the original games, Bg1 and Bg2 in BG2's engine even with the expansions as well. Either through tutu or Baldurs Gate Trilogi.

Yeah, I'm running a tutu install now with all of them.  It's not bad but it still could use a lot of work and as many times as I've been through it I would really like some new areas and abilities

One of the best things would be if they merged BG1, TOSC, BG2 and TOB all into one massive game with upgraded graphics and new areas.  Please don't forget widescreen support   Can't wait for this...just hope they don't screw it up.

I checked the first couple pages and didn't see anything...remember Spring Forward is tomorrow morning at 2am (Sun 3/11/12).  Enjoy your lost hour of sleep everyone 

Endgadget is reporting that HBO Go will hit on April 1st;  really been looking forward to that one coming.

I can't wait for HBO Go to become a self sufficient streaming service...it's the only thing keeping me from cancelling DirecTv at the moment.

This pisses me off...a lot.  I recently reactivated both my account and my wife's account not more than a couple weeks ago.  The free transfers, faction, free mount, gold and free lvl 80 would have been extremely helpful.

I'm really disappointed the "coming soon" features are still coming soon.  I quit playing around a month ago (in the 30s with 2 characters) while waiting for the dungeon fixes and UI changes.  I don't understand why we're still waiting especially when they've shown a working UI scaling design in a video over a month ago.  Meanwhile we get bug fixes like not being able to leap to a hologram.  Also the changes they took out from beta (that were working) that still haven't made it back in...honestly with that much money and talent and months of work you can't get a working search field in your AH?  It's very clear this is their first real MMO and I can cut them a little slack but it's getting to the point of just coming back 6-12 months later instead of a month.  So much missing or still broken. 

If I order this on Amazon and use the Beta key does anyone know if I can still cancel it before release if I don't like it?

I've read on their forums you can pre-order from enmasse and cancel with no issues but it's unknown with other 3rd party vendors.

I'm trying to go a full install (with TOSC) for a tutu conversion and I'm missing two files from a scratched CD.  Anyone have area1100.bif and area110a.bif handy?  These are the BG1 versions and not the BG2 versions. 

Finished the starter area as a mystic then got a berserker up to level 8. I generally do not play melee classes in MMOs but I had a blast and a half with the zerker. I'm actually thinking of giving the lancer a go when the next beta comes around.

While I like the mystic a lot, my concern is that they might not be much in demand at higher levels, which is often the case for hybrid classes in other MMOs.

Don't know how it will apply here but I've read the Mystic is highly regarded in Korean-Tera and in some cases preferred over the Priest.  It helps that there's only two healing classes and the mystic provides a lot of offensive buffs.

I've also read the warrior may go full dps with a 9th class being introduced as a second tank class.

I'll second the no way in hell I'll play on a PvP server when it goes live.  First thing people did this past weekend was get to max level and then camp the 11-12s at lumbertown for hours.  Also the stories of guild vs guild...except it's not 1 guild vs 1 guild but more like 16 guilds vs 1 guild in some cases.

Sounds good to me...Ball took an established story line with very few distractions and subplots and then ignored it for most of the last two seasons while totally changing (destroying) major character and story arcs from the books.  Too much has changed to fix a lot of it but at least they have the chance to start going in to the right direction again.

Rally the Troops starts 2/27.  Basically a two week free return for veterans or extended free trial (up to lvl 40) for new accounts.  Today is the last day to claim veteran rewards if you have any pending (and I hate having to do it from the website account and not in-game).

Man tough crowd.  Now whatever you do, don't try this:

That's awesome

Thanks, that reminds me I need to get the beta client installed...Wow, their servers are fast, I've never pulled 1 MB / sec before. Looks like it will take roughly 6 hours. Download must be roughly 20-22 GB.

My patched and installed version is 23.6 GB as of tonight.  Don't know if there will be any more patches before CBT2 tomorrow though.

I've played about 4 hours tonight and I have to say I like it a lot better over the last CBT.  I don't know if it's the fixes and graphics upgrade (slight one anyway) or just hitting the new areas and leveling up but it's really clicking. 

There's a pretty substantial patch already out there for this weekend's time so if you're in the beta event make sure you start it and update before Friday afternoon.  It went fairly quick the other day but will probably be much slower tomorrow.  Be interesting to see if the performance stands up with the higher res features enabled.

Soo....why would anyone play the euro version? IP blocked or?

Well, the EU has been F2P for a few months now but NA is expecting a large influx of non-US players when they go F2P.  They posted some pretty incredible numbers for Lineage II when it went F2P...something like 4X profit and thousands of new players.

I'm looking forward to playing again...I only stopped because of the incredible grind when you hit the 20s on.  Supposedly they are reducing the xp curve (again) when 3.0 launches.

This seems to be the main difference

Aion EU
http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/features/;jsessionid=4f923146bec5637e057635421a72

Some game options will be limited however: amongst other things, you will only be able to create two characters, you won't be able to use certain chat channels and you will be unable to carry out any private trading. All possibilities can however be unlocked with the purchase of a Gold Pack.

Aion NA
http://truly-free.aiononline.com/truly-free/index.php

No subscription fee. Play for free!
No account restrictions. Visit any zone, chat in any channel, sell any amount of stuff on the trade broker—nothing is off limits!
Robust countermeasures to combat game abuse. We're dedicating a ton of resources to preventing account theft, botting, and real money trading.
No hassles. Create your account, download the game, and play!
No harassment. Don't worry, we won't hound you with constant offers or promotions.

I watched all 9 episodes over Sunday-Monday and I think it helped avoid some of the complaints about it being slow and plodding.  It doesn't compare to season 1 but watching season 2 together at once really helped with the flow and I have no real complaints   Looking forward to the next episode.  Can't believe Dixon is becoming one of my favorite characters...please don't let him go down the a-hole path.

Well, it's official as of today...Aion NA is going F2P with the release of 3.0.  They're also going to use the L2 model (totally free) vs the current EU model.  I'm actually looking forward to playing it again.  No set dates yet except for Spring 2012.

I'm really looking forward to playing again next weekend.  I'll try the PvP server but there's no way in hell I'll go that route when it's live in May.  Honestly I didn't notice any real problem with the dialog or voice acting...it's no SWTOR but as good as any other MMO I've played recently.

If nothing else it's a MMO that's truly trying to be different and not just create another cookie cutter middle of the road game.  Will it break the top 5 MMOs in North America...no, not a chance in hell.  But it will get a decent following and give everyone else something to think about.  It will also probably push Aion NA into going F2P just like Aion EU did and maybe finish off FF14.

Hmm...wonder where they got the inspiration

http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451460413/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1329518579&sr=8-3

Some great iPad items today. Army of Frogs HD and Assassin's Creed Recollections are free. GTA Chinatown Wars HD is on sale for a dollar.

GTA shows limited time offer in the description but the price is listed at 9.99.  Looks like it's over.

I'm down for it...but I'll warn you that I've read enough books (probably approaching the 5 figure range) that I'm not very critical anymore and I may overlook things that bother a lot of people

Don't forget the free DLC for playing on Valentine's Day and President's Day (14th and 20th this month).