back to article UK WoW fans plead for Lich King Collector's Edition

UK gamers are up in arms and venting spleen in forums over fears that the Collector's Edition release of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will not be be released in Blighty. According to a statement from publisher Blizzard Entertainment, the CE version will only be available in “select regions”. We contacted the firm …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bundled DVDs

    Aren't bundled DVDs classified seperately anyway? Especially as all videos must be classified, but not all video games must be.

  2. Andrew Moore
    Unhappy

    Reminds me of Bladerunner The Collectors Edition

    aka "The Suitcase". I managed to buy from a company that shipped from the states.

    Shouldn't have bothered. It was crap.

  3. Nordrick Framelhammer
    Coat

    Awwwww duddims

    Awww, poor widdle World of Warcwaft pwayers. Looks like they will have to find some other way of trying to look cool in their parents basements. What will they spend their lunch money on now.

    Mine is the one with the laughing gnome in the pocket

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    The other thing to note is...

    ...that Wrath of the Lich King Collectors Edition is not the same as Limited Edition. Calling it a Collectors Edition means it shouldn't be a limited supply.

    So why is Blizzard leaving the UK out in the cold?

    The same thing happened when Burning Crusades Collectors Edition came out.

    Blizzard hasn't learned from their mistakes.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Give it a rest

    You'd think WOW was the only MMO out there that deserves a story on the Register?

    Nothing at all about the recent debacle that was the Warhammer beta (only a minor - OH SHIT HMV IS SCREWING CUSTOMER'S - story).

    There's plenty of other MMOs out there we'd like to see stories on - involving technical hitches, new ways to play or even good, old fashioned rants about them.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Given the repeated paucity of these CEs in the UK

    I for one have given up trying to find them here. I've got a couple of accounts, but while the original WoW had a few, BC seemed to have less than ten and there's no sign of any showing up anywhere in the North West, this Tauren Shaman won't bother even whining about it any more.

    Thecowking.

    Alien because you're more likely to see one of these before a Wrath CE.

  7. M W
    Thumb Up

    Not All Doom And Gloom.

    Quote from a Blizzard Poster in said thread on the forums

    Stock allocations for UK retailers are being finalised these days, and we’re certain that once the retailers know the exact number of boxes they’ll have available they’ll be happy to put up pre-order offers for you guys :-)

    http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=5902000254&pageNo=12&sid=1#226

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Yes .. we're just a bit irritated

    The wow-europe forums http://forums.wow-europe.com have been a bit full of "so when is it coming" messages, and not just from the UK.

    After Blizzard changed their website login pages to have a full page screenshot of the product and then a subsite showing a large amount of information along with country-by-country suggested suppliers, a lot of people .. you know just a few million of us, were charging around trying to find a trace of the Collectors Edition.

    Given the total farce that the deployment of the previous "expansion pack" titled The Burning Crusade, especially within the UK where we were forced to rip out bits of he CE version packaging and send it by post to Blizzard to get our special in-game items, we had hoped that the CE of Wrath of the Lich King would be managed a bit better.

    Cue on 16th Sept when the announcment went out and we can see Amazon.com selling the USA configured sets, but nothing on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

    Well slowly the irritation builds, with some regional Amazon (and other suppliers) showing up "if you want to know about this product then click here for information" buttons in their ordering system.

    The epic thread is here

    http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=5902000254&sid=1&pageNo=1

    Several pages (with some items being erased by content moderators) with day-after-day of comments, questions, complaints and growing irriation from wow players in Europe, and specifically in the UK about the total lack of comment.

    None of the forum postings had any reply AT ALL by content moderators until finally on the 24th Sept we get single line "Stock allocations for UK retailers are being finalised these days, and we’re certain that once the retailers know the exact number of boxes they’ll have available they’ll be happy to put up pre-order offers for you guys :-) " from a Content Moderator.

    Needless to say we're unimpressed with Blizzard, Activision, Vivendi etc and their thoughtless lack of communications and customer relationship managment.

    Oh and why do we want to pay about 2x for the CE version?

    Nice packaging, booklets, cd/dvd content and a in-game item.

    Ok if you're not a WoW addict then this may not seem much, but its go the players dribbling.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    El Reg strike again..

    So it's not available in the UK and then you post an ad link to 3 retailers selling it....class

  10. Lupus
    Thumb Down

    Nothing new there then.

    The EU always gets screwed over by Blizzard. Beta servers located in Canada resulting in unplayable lag; useless GMs who don't have a clue... and so on.

    I couldn't even find the BC CE in the UK when it came out.

  11. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

    @Stu

    They're for the regular version, Stu, not the Collector's Edition.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: Awwwww duddims

    Diddums to you mate. Why so much hatred for Blizzard and WoW? Did a nasty GM touch you in your special place?

    Or maybe you were trying to be funny/condescending. You failed, by the way.

    Mines the one with the obvious troll in the pocket. Being obvious.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Who cares?

    [rant]I'm a self confessed WoWaddict, raiding three times per week at least and spending any spare time I can muster logged into game. I enjoy the challenges the game offers, I like the universe it's set in and for the most part the players within the game. However, for the life of me I can't see why anyone would give a monkey's about buying these so called collector's editions!

    "Blizzard hasn't learned from their mistakes."

    If you think this, then go ahead and vote with your wallet!

    "Oh and why do we want to pay about 2x for the CE version?

    Nice packaging, booklets, cd/dvd content and a in-game item."

    Packaging to sit on the shelf/in a cupboard, booklets that contain mundane information freely available on the web (and if it's not yet, it will be after release), cd/dvd content that will doubtless be on youtube if not the wow-europe site itself and an in game item?

    Oh dear, blizzard have you hogtied good and proper. You didn't grind Scholo for the mount too, did you? Or buy the card game just to get your mini pet?

    Yes, sometimes WoW players worry me. Just save yourself £20 and get the regular edition when it arrives and stop giving wow a bad name with the sheer level of knurdness you display![/rant]

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    careful

    "to list the CE version for sale in the UK because he’s got the money burning a hole in his pocket"

    US and EU versions are different, as my friend who bought a UK version of the BC expantion for a US account found out the hard way. The US WOTLK Collectors Edition will only work on US accounts.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    meh

    I remember when Warcraft was just a game where you chopped some wood, mined some gold, built some farms, etc. I'm guessing WoW is a bit different these days.

  16. Neil B
    Flame

    @Mike Bird

    "Needless to say we're unimpressed with Blizzard, Activision, Vivendi etc and their thoughtless lack of communications and customer relationship managment."

    I'm sorry, did I slip onto the WoW forums without realising? This kind of juvenile emotive crap should stay on the official forums where it belongs.

  17. Victoria Jacotey
    Paris Hilton

    EverQuest expansion also

    It appears that Blizard might be following in SOE's footsteps. For a few years now it appears that anyone outside of America has to resort to purchasing Everquest expansions on ebay.

    This can pose an annoyance as we need to wait perhaps more than a week to be able to play with friends and guildmates who are already exploring the expansion, leaving you with nothing to do than sit in the guild lobby or do faction tasks.

    Today I called play.com and they have not got the Seeds of Destruction expansion on their release shedule, nor have game or gamestation. Amazon.com lists it, but will not ship to the UK, the UK amazon site does not list the expansion either. This has also been the case for the previous 7 expansions!

    EverQuest is regarded by many as one of the better MMORPGs out there and on the servers that I play on (Xegony and The Nameless), we have begun to have a large influx of people who have moved from WoW to something with much more content and greater challenges. It is shocking that SOE appears to neglect users who reside outside of the USA - particularly when they have a dedicated UK-based server!

    SOE does have an online store that allows for a digital download via the launchpad system. However, many people on the forums have complained regarding SOE's version of the exchange rate which does not match the exchange rate set by the financial markets.

    This means that anyone purchasing from outside of the USA can expect a hefty markup with SOE pocketing the difference. Some players have worked around this by setting the currency on the station store to USD and allowing the credit/debit card providers to do the exchange more realistically. However, SOE has recently put a stop to this practice by locking the options to choose your currency and to change your billing address to perhaps that of a friend who lives in the US.

    Paris, because she knows how to mass market digital content effectively.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    @Tony Smith

    I realised that as soon as I hit send. My mistake..Oh hum...still the DVD sounds rivitting..

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    @ AC - Re: Awwwww duddims

    Struck a nerve there did he? Come on now, lets have some perspective here! I can hardly escape the geek label myself, but even I find it incredibly uber-geeky to be getting stressed about a 'Collectors Edition' of the latest MMORPG release. Nordrick's post made me laugh and you should be laughing too, because if you can't laugh at yourself life is going to be very hard for you (when you finally leave home).

  20. thief21

    Available Now

    http://www.worldofwar.net/n/417433/wotlk-collectors-edition-uk-pre-orders-and-competition

  21. yeah, right.

    WoW

    You know, this World of Warcrack thing is getting out of hand.

  22. Scott Evil
    Thumb Down

    the CE is soo great because....

    Its got frilly bits on?

    You get a little pet to run around with you?

    You get a you tubable (like tbc dvd) "A making of" DVD!! ?

    You get better packaging?

    All the players getting in a global huff over this?

    They sound like the whiners on the server i play on

    BSteppes EU

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not just Blizzard

    Quite a few game manufacturers seem to be unable to co-ordinate US and international releases of the collectors and special editions of their games. I don't play WoW but I've played enough MMOs in my time to have seen this over and over again and it never ceases to amaze me. At the very least one would expect the companies involved could make a simple statement on their forums as to if/when they are going to release any non standard versions of their games to the international market. That alone would save them an ton of bad press and upset customers.

  24. Vernon Lloyd
    Paris Hilton

    WTF

    Got an email from Amazon.co.uk (where I bought WOW and Burning Crusade) saying it was avalible for preorder to be released on 13th Nov. Ordered mine on 16th Sept.

    I really have no idea what all this fuss is all about.

    Paris cause she at least attempts to have a life

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Not just WoW y'know

    Europe -- and the UK especially -- seems to get screwed whenever any "limited edition" thing is released in the States. It takes long enough for "standard" products to reach here, and it doesn't just apply to computer games either.

    So stop bitching you can't get the latest expansion for WoW yet and just consider yoursleves lucky you get the stuff at all.

    As a long-time, responsible paintball and Airsoft enthusiast, I am now considered to be as dangerous a threat to the public as a a drug-crazed maniac carrying a real firearm. At least you lot get to enjoy your hobby without the danger of getting shot because some dumbass idiot cannot tell the difference between a real, metal gun and a plastic imitiation.

    Seen carrying what looks like a "real" gun? Nero and Caeser would be proud of the "Kill 'em first, answers ain't important" bullsh*t passed into law last year.

  26. Graham Lockley

    having trouble with this

    At what point did WOW replace Real Life(TM) ? More importantly, whats the IT angle ? Ahhhh, obsessiveswith no tan and a fear of reality, its a Tech Support story :)

    WOW is up there with Sad Life for those whose social skills could use a little honing so all this bitching about expansion packs is rather non-news.

  27. ratfox

    Why not buy the US version?

    Why don't people who complain buy the US version? Or won't the US version work with Europeans servers?

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Blizzcon tickets and the 4am F5 key fiasco

    This ohh so reminds me of trying to get Blizzcon tickets too, 10,000,000 subscribers and 15,000 tickets.

    They tease and they tease but they just dont care .. sob sob..

    Cuddling my Lurky doesnt help either

  29. Dz
    Boffin

    Play EVE Online Instead

    it's much better than WoW! None of the kiddies have figured out how to play EVE properly yet so it's no fun for them!

  30. Rob
    Go

    Blimey bit much isn't it

    Avid player of WoW (although don't play it enough compared to some people), can't really see the point of a CE. I'd get a collector's edition of something with the thought that I might want to sell it a few years down the line when it's value has increased, can't really see that happening with a computer game.

    @ratfox, aye they usually have US and European server regions, the 2 don't allow mixing and matching of game clients.

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