Recruit-A-Friend

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Originally Posted by Tyler

What size is the game these days? I don't have a particularly fast download speed, so I try to avoid large games.
I've always been keen to try out WoW, (I don't know why, I've heard so many bad things about it) but I've never really been arsed to get a trial or pay for it.

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You can use the Streaming client - i.e., It's a small download itself, and it downloads as your play... it first downloads the areas you're in... and while you're questing in them areas or w/e, it downloads w/e in the background.

Pretty good.

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Originally Posted by DawsonByrd

Blizz really could of done a better job on file systems though lol, compress the shit out of their stuff the client is rather large when it shouldn't be. But yes the ingame updates are nice.

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Is there any point to that though? It's a big trade off because at some point you need to decompress the data which takes processing time. File storage is very very cheap now, £50 for 2TB, if WoW is around 20GB that's ~50p to store it. It's very little when compared to upgrading a processor in order to deal with the increased load time. Not to mention the extracted files would need to be stored in RAM which is also much more expensive that HDD space.

Compression is the enemy of load times, and most people would rather pay more upfront and to not be inconvenienced when it matters. For the same reason people get faster internet connections really. (I <3 my fibre optic)

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Originally Posted by Robert

Then you clearly don't understand it.

Basically you download the barebones of the client, the character models and the main artwork and interface etc. Then you can play the game straight away. It means people with slow connections an play in an hour instead of days. Once you are ingame you are then downloading the new data as it is needed. Zone into an instance? It will take longer for you to load as it needs to download it first. It splits the front end capital time investment to basically nothing, and adds it back in, in small chunks when you need it.

I personally wish more games would do the same.
Release of a new 500mb patch? No problem, you can still log in straight after its downloaded the critical files, and download the rest while playing.

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I understand rob, there just this thing called "lag"...

I wouldn't suggest playing WoW. Not only is it like crack but it's a dying MMORPG. If you're really keen on playing a game try out Rift.

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Originally Posted by nzrock

I understand rob, there just this thing called "lag"...

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I'm in-game AND downloading as we speak. It doesn't lagg at all, but as Robert said it does take a little longer to enter an instance for example.

On top of that, my internet speed sucks at the moment (barely 300kb/s).

Playing on Thunderhorn (H), in case anyone is intressted.

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Originally Posted by King Grub

I'm in-game AND downloading as we speak. It doesn't lagg at all, but as Robert said it does take a little longer to enter an instance for example.

On top of that, my internet speed sucks at the moment (barely 300kb/s).

Playing on Thunderhorn (H), in case anyone is intressted.

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300kb is still pretty damm good...

You only need 150kb to fast load a 10minute 480p video.

What I'm speaking out for is for people with net below 150kb...

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Originally Posted by nzrock

300kb is still pretty damm good...

You only need 150kb to fast load a 10minute 480p video.

What I'm speaking out for is for people with net below 150kb...

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It wont make them lagg, only slower at some points.

Slow connections handle WoW well without lag. The load times of instances and similar are just longer.

I would love to play WoW cataclysm to its fullest..
Unfortunately, my computer won't allow me ..
Feels so bad.

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Originally Posted by Kahvi

Slow connections handle WoW well without lag. The load times of instances and similar are just longer.

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Exactly.

Bump.

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Originally Posted by King Grub

It wont make them lagg, only slower at some points.

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Then you obviously had never try to play a MMO while DLing something at 150kb or lower speeds -_-;

Buuuuuuuuuump.

Boomp.

I should be getting my old gaming PC back this week and I've been rather tempted to started again and see how it goes. If I do, I'll give you a shout. Only thing would be I'd be no where near as active as you. It's gotten very easy to level anyway though hasn't it so that shouldn't be a problem.