WoW Poll: What Version of Cataclysm Are You Buying?
By maryvarn on October 28th, 2010Posted In: NPC Blog,Polls,Video Games,World of Warcraft
Blizzard posted an FAQ about the digital version of the Cataclysm expansion today. If you order it the data will start downloading once it’s available, and theoretically you should be able to play at 12:01 AM PST Dec 7 in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Europe and Russia will be set at 12:01 AM CET Dec 7.
The PST part means us East Coasters can’t play until 3am.
But it’s still very tempting to not have to wait for a package or go to a midnight release.
John and I both preordered the Collector’s Edition from Amazon. I’m a little nervous about it, as it STILL says it won’t deliver until a week AFTER Dec 7. *grump* Hopefully that’ll get sorted out. But I sure don’t want to be punished by having to wait a few days after spending $80. And we sure don’t need two art books sitting around. But we both definitely want the Lil’ Deathy pet!
So what are you guys doing?
I would go to a Gamestop at midnight, but their support for PC games has gone from bad to worse. I went there for Civilization 5 and they didn’t even have it. Now that we can get digital download at midnight, i won’t have to feel like a sucker for giving evil Gamestop a cut of the profits.
The standard boxed edition is £5 cheaper than the digital download here; okay, so I may get it a little later than the digital download but at least I’ll have the discs in case I need to re-install everything, and will have saved £5!
That would be a selling point for me too (on physical media) if WoW didn’t need the internet to be played in the first place. Since it does, I can just re-install off Blizzard’s website if I have to.
I bought everything up to Wrath on physical media, but to this day I haven’t actually taken off the tape that seals the disc in its slipcase for any of them.
A friend has a discount so she’s buying the CE for me… sending me the code by email and I’ll pick up the box next time I visit her
I wouldn’t buy CE otherwise (full price).
I’ve pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition from Wallyworld. It is supposed to be delivered to my house on the 7th. The only thing I wish Blizzard would do is allow me to download the game before I receive the boxed CE so I would be ready to go at midnight! Blizz did say at the convention that they would let people buy the digital download and have it pre-downloaded before it goes live. That is really cool, but I do all the goodies that are in the CE.
I have a good chunk of cash coming in December so I’m probably going to end up getting the digital download version along with the CE version I already have pre-ordered. I’ve never had an issue with Amazon game day delivery but I really want to be playing at midnight with the rest of my friends AND I want the CE goodies.
Does that work though? If you tie your account to the standard digital version, I thought you couldn’t go back and link it to the CE edition for the pet. Anyone know?
As far as I know, the CE edition can be added to your account. I had some old friends who got WotLK release night and then a friend bought them the CE version so they added it on.
I’m not 100% sure though since the new battle.net system is out. I’ll check on it and let you know what I find out if no one else replies.
Here’s what I’ve found:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27397543048&sid=1
So, in the past they’ve did it with no issue and it should be exactly the same this time around. Blizz is typically very good with their customer service so I’m willing to take the risk.
Thanks, that’s great!
The ideal would be if preordering the CE came with the ability to digitally download the same time as everyone else.
Of course that would take a lot more coordination between Blizz and the retailers.
As it is, they’re kind of splitting the hardcore people. Hardcore people want to play ASAP, but they also want the CE, and it sucks to have to pay twice to be able to do that.
Yea, I agree. I wish there were an option that if you upgrade with the CE, you can get your money back or be able to use the money to extend your current account time. Of course, at it’s core, Blizzard is a corporation and I highly doubt they’d give up profits that easily.
In fact, I just made this a suggestion over on the forums but again, I doubt it’d happen.
great minds think alike. i just am surprised that blizz is throwing the brick and mortar retailers under the buss with releasing it at the same time, ney, before the retailers with the pre download.
im going to try to be happy to get the boxed CE on the day of release… i mean really, we all know the game is going to chug at midnight anyways with everyone trying to play and it will take 3-5 days min for blizz to fix all the bugs that they didn’t see coming!
Strange…every time I post here and include my website URL in the box marked “WEBSITE”, it apparently gets flagged as spam and never gets published. Oh well…WordPress/ComicPress are finicky that way.
Anyway, what I HAD said earlier was that I intend on getting the physical retail version…that way, I might be able to get it on SALE!
Weird, sorry! This is your website, right? http://tales.net16.net/
Yep – dat be da one, mon!
(Just channeling my inner troll)
I caved in. I purchased the digital already, and am just waiting now for December 7th to arrive.
…
…
SO WHY ISN’T IT HERE YET???
Digital – not that I have any finicky hangups about it being “the future,” it’s just the most economical… CE perks are cool, but I haven’t bothered with any of the others offered in the past, so I tell myself: why start now??
as for the ability to pay at 12:01 PST… well I may find myself on at 3am then, though I try to avoid that level of nerdiness normally =P and we’ll figure out where to makeup that sleep when we get closer!
“John and I both preordered the Collector’s Edition from Amazon. I’m a little nervous about it, as it STILL says it won’t deliver until a week AFTER Dec 7″
Did you remember to update your order to release day delivery?
Yeah, it’s so frustrating! Whenever I click on “Change Shipping Speed” it goes to a page that doesn’t show any options to do ANYTHING. Bleh.
Try emailing Amazon, they have fantastic customer service. I emailed to ask about the CE availability since I got a worrying email and they emailed me back reassuring me my pre-order went through and upgraded my shipping free of charge (even though I have Prime so it was pointless haha).
They just emailed me back:
“I just checked your order and fount that we don’t have release date delivery for this item.”
im just glad the fans of NPC are uber cool and mostly want the CE!
Hmm, do I click “Undecided” or “Still don’t play”.. finally reached the end of patience with their crappy idea of service down in Oceania and cancelled my pre-order.
The main reason i want the CE (besides the pet ofcourse, i mean COME ON ITS AWESOME) is the artwork, i really wanna get into digital art and stuff but dont really know how
and i try and practice my drawing from these 
You need to add an option for recovering WoW addicts who will be curled up in a fetal position during the midnight release trying to resist the urge to go down to their local electronics dealer to get a new fix.
That’s how I’ve been for the last year or so. I finally broke down two weeks ago and bought a game card and a preorder for the basic game. Parents aren’t exactly happy, since I’ve also been jobless for this last year, but I’ve saved up enough so that, even if they’re not willing to buy it for me, I can pay for it myself.
Collector’s Edition. I’m basically paying $30 for the soundtrack. Still peeved that EB/Gamestop said they didn’t have any more TBC CE preorders, and now I can’t get a CD of the soundtrack because Blizzard won’t bother releasing it.
Shimarenda the iPodless
I, too, am after the soundtrack. The pet is only a bonus.
And I’m iPodless as well, though I don’t really miss it.
I had preordered my CE online after the Gamestop I went to said they couldn’t preorder anymore. I happened to be in the same store again and the guy asked if I played WoW. He said they were able to preorder more CEs so I went ahead and did that. Looks like I should be able to pick it up if they do a midnight release. The idea of standing in line at midnight with a bunch of fans seems like fun, tbh. So if you have a Gamestop nearby it might be worth checking to see if they are getting more so you can have it on the release date. Beats waiting for delivery.
I actually quit as of 4.0.1. I’m just too lazy to respec, regem, and relearn all my toons… just in time for them to finally buff my classes (lock/healers)
Also, I can’t afford the expansion in either form.
I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition from Amazon a while ago, so was pretty annoyed when the pre-load feature was announced at Blizzcon.
Luckily, WoW Insider just released a guide to pre-loading the game (which has been approved by Blizzard) so I’ll just do that, and upgrade my account when my CE arrives. http://bit.ly/8XqTwd
I’ll use an option thats not listed here: Online+standard retail. I get to download the game, get my key at midnight and the box comes a few days later, for IIRC 37€
(Well, checked digital in the poll now.)
I got the basic edition. Personally, even though I wasn’t playing the game when it came out, I basically relate all CE-type in-game bonuses to the Sparkle-Horse.
“You paid X amount of money for some fancy bit of fluff that no one can get otherwise, basically announcing to the world that you have no real life beyond this game.”
I wouldn’t mind seeing the art book or whatever other tangible little bonuses the CE has, but pets and mounts just never seem to announce anything positive in-game, even if some or most of the jeers are made out of jealousy.
I still don’t play wow.
Just a quick thought – I had to manually change my preorder on the CE to release date delivery, and that gave me a delivery date of Dec. 7th… if you haven’t made that change manually to the order, that might be why it’s still listed as coming a week later for you.
(d’oh! Never mind! I should have read *all* of the other comments… someone already mentioned it…)
As a denizen of Seattle, it’s digital all the way, to let me start playing ASAP. For Wrath I did Midnight Release, standard version, but definitely Digital for Cata.
I wonder if they got too much backlash for making people on the west coast wait to play until 3 hours after the East Coast last expac.
I’m doing the digital download, but not because “it’s the future”. I moved to Europe last year, but I still play on my US server, and I’m nervous that buying a physical copy here won’t work properly for me. Digital download means I’m guaranteed to be ready to play at the same time as most of my real-life friends back in the States. I’ll miss the midnight release party that I went to for the last two expansions, though. I even won a copy of one of the WoW graphic novels at the Wrath release for my gnome rogue costume!
I tried to pre-order a copy of the CE, but all of the stores in my area had reached their pre-order limit…several weeks prior. I’d still like to get one, though…
Don’t know when you went to the store Tim, but it might not hurt to double check. When I initially went they were at their limit, then it changed several weeks later.
Ordered the regular version online. Besides, even if it doesn’t show up on time (Starcraft 2 showed up a couple of days early), what are the odds that I’ll be able to log in at midnight?
I got the CE but I’m not in a rush to play — school night
Anyway, I’m ok with missing some of the server lag, etc.
I’m looking forward to flying in Azeroth, discovering new fishing opportunities and building up my rogue’s talent tree
I just want the pet