jimmyblake.com

It is now Tuesday, three days after the official launch of the Warhammer Online Open Beta and several months after I purchased a pre-order Collector’s Edition guaranteeing access to the Open Beta programme.

The game launches in six days and I am still no closer to getting on-line. I have downloaded the 10 gigabytes of Beta client and all I need is the pre-order codes validated.

GOA’s CEO wrote a long letter to all of the Beta fans apologizing and then deriding them for being so upset and disappointed. GOA have been busy rewriting history on the War Europe Website by retroactively posting entries to make it look like they were busy on Sunday night.

GOA CEO promised yesterday that the authentication system would be sorted out by introducing a new system that would email you the confirmation after submission of your Open Beta key - this was supposed to happen ‘a short while’ after submission.

The new server went live at 16:00 CET and I promptly registered my Open Beta code about 10 minutes later - it is now 16 hours later and no code. Very very very disappointed. Everyone was hoping that the mess made of Dark Ages of Camelot would not be repeated, but it looks like GOA are going for the record here.

Unlike World of Warcraft, I never made it into the Warhammer Online closed beta.  As a long-standing Warhammer and Warhammer 40K player I’ve been waiting patiently for years now for the release of this game.

I brought one of the limited edition pre-order box sets that gave me a ‘guaranteed place’ in the open beta.  I was therefore somewhat suprised to hear that a release date of September 18 has been announced yet there is still no sign of an open beta signup.

I went to check again today at GOA (the European component of the development team) but the site has been down all day - maybe we are finally getting the open beta.

September 18th - can’t wait.