SOE, A Grace Period Please?

I picked up the pre-order box for Pirates of the Burning Sea, downloaded the client, and have been playing the game since the “Pre-Boarding” party began.

That is pretty much the same story I told when Lord of the Rings Online came out. I bought the pre-order box, played through the pre-release, and then went straight into the game.

Pretty much the same, but not exactly the same.

With Lord of the Rings Online, after the pre-order period ended and the game went live, Turbine gave all players with pre-order keys a two week grace period in which to purchase the full box. We did not have to rush out on day one, a Tuesday (why is that the industry standard day for releases… and patches?), to get the box. We could at least wait for the weekend.

I wish SOE had picked up on that idea.

But no, when I tried to log on tonight, I got this:

No code, no play.

Not unexpected, I suppose. This is the first time, that I know of, where SOE has done the pre-order play period thing. They might not have thought to look at how other companies have done it.

I have a pre-order box, but I am stuck at home with a sprained ankle (I get to learn how to use crutches again), so I cannot just run out to the store and pick up a copy. That will have to wait a week or so.

Since sailing is out of the question, maybe I’ll go see if Turbine fixed that video drive crash problem they have been having. I still haven’t picked up my horse.

Through The Portal Lightly

Last week, as part of the off-night activities, most of the instance group brought their characters through the dark portal and into the Outlands. I got to see that the portal looks just like it does in the splash screen:

The trip was something of a celebration of one year of The Burning Crusade, something of a celebration of one year of Potshot, something of a lack of real goals for the night, and something of a desire for new goodies!

Okay, it was mostly about new goodies.

We went in and did about six quests, each one of which handed out an item at the end that was so obviously superior to the equipment we had in the same slot that there were no questions asked in trading up.

Go us!

Not that the new shiny equipment made our Saturday instance crawl any easier (more on that later this week), but it was nice to have.

However, this was not my first trip into the Outlands. No, I ventured in about a week before. Not in search of shiny new gear, because at that point we had not, as a group, made the decision to do that, but for shiny new skills.

Vikund, my paladin, is a miner and an engineer and I had managed, at last, to get both of those skills to the pre-TBC cap of 300. That meant I needed a trip through the portal to train to the next level.

So I went exploring on my own.

I made it to Honor Hold and got my first glimpse of the strange Outlands sky.

That, and the stuff that comes flying out of the sky.

As I stood there, about a dozen of these things hit the town. I did not see anybody actually get smacked full-on by one of them, but I staggered around stunned for a bit after a near miss.

Gaff showed up while I was out there and showed off his druid flight form, which he has had for almost a year now.

I was really impressed. It looked like as much fun as he described back when he got it.

I was so impressed I got out my level 33 druid later that night. Then I saw nothing but Stranglethorn Vale quests in his log and put him away again. Maybe later.

After that, I ran around and found my trainers, mined a little bit of Fel iron, and then headed back to Stormwind with my new skill caps.

Of course, I am getting close on fishing and cooking now as well. I will have to make a trip out for those skills as well.