I never did get around to using my code for the recent stress test, or "Density Test" as Amazon like to call it. The times were very inconvenient for me. I don't think any of them co-incided with a period when I would normally be at the keyboard. I knew that when I decided to download the game, although I did think I might make the effort and stay up a little later than usual just to see what was what. In the end that never happened. I like my sleep too much.
Even so, I thought it would be worth the trouble of installing the game since I was going to have to do it for the Preview anyway. And then Amazon announced the Preview would be using a different client so we could go ahead and delete the one we'd just installed. It seemed a bit odd in as much as you'd think the information gained during the Density test would relate to the iteration of the client used in the Density test but I'm sure they know their business.
There's what seems to be an unecessarily complicated matrix explaining who gets to play when:
- All Pre-order Customers- August 25.
- Everyone else - August 25-29.
Also, 2016? Were they really taking pre-orders in 2016? If you'd asked me, I'd have said it was no more than a couple of years ago that I first heard of New World, but that just shows either how time flies or how poor my memory is. Both, probably.
A quick check shows I was writing about the announcement almost four years ago. Not to honk my own horn but I called it from the start : "It does seem unlikely that Jeff Bezos will want to restrict the potential to the relatively small FFA PvP market when there's a much greater restricted PvP and pure PvE audience to tap." Yeah, got that right, although I don't guess Jeff Bezos intervened personally. Then again, maybe he did.
I'm very keen to get my hands on the current shop-window edition of New World, partly because I've missed playing it. I was a little miffed never to get an invite to the second alpha, not least because the trickle of information that leaked out seemed very encouraging. Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to the Preview because for the first time I'll actually be able to talk openly about what I see there.
Not being able to blog about my time in the first alpha was frustrating; not being able to post any of my gorgeous screenshots, even more so. Now, finally, I'll be able to say whatever I like and put up pictures, too.
Still can't talk about anything that happened before, which is mildly annoying because comparisons of how things have changed would obviously be meaningful and illuminating. I imagine some unavoidable subtext will leak through, even if unintentionally. Hard to preclude it completely and I'm not sure I'm going to try all that hard.
Checking Steam, the new client seems to have updated while I was writing this post, so now all that's left to do is wait. As a pre-orderer I should be able to log into the game on Tuesday at around five in the evening, a highly convenient and sociable time.
There are five regions for the Preview:
It's a long time since I played an MMORPG that gave me a choice of East and West Coast U.S.A. For cultural reasons, I always prefer to play on American servers if given the choice but from the U.K. ping to the Eastern Seaboard can often be better than ping to Central Europe so it's a done deal.
The Preview lasts a generous ten days, which should be more than enough to give it a good shake. I'm looking forward to it.
Watch this space for further revelations. Er, better make that just revelations, I guess. Not like I ever revealed anything before. No, not at all.
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