Actually islands are made (EQ2's was atleast) to combat goldseller simply by forcing them to pay for each and every account.

Compare to WoW that doesn't have this and how much crap it is in the towns there....

Standard for beta inviting is:
(Meaning they might not do it like this, but it's the common standard so it's a bit of a lead atleast.

Friends & Family first.

Focus group 1 - Generally a wide selection of random computers,
meaning if you have a pre-built computer your chances are lower.
This is to see what works and wht doesn't
This group is repeated a few times first then goes onto group 2.
They return to this from time to time

Focus group 2 - Generally a specific computer setup, meaning all are at equal odds, as it's not high-end nor low-end but generally some specc that runs it fine.
This is to see that it's all stable.

Focus group 3 - High-end and low-end, the best and the worst get in, to optimize the client.
Often very late in development.

These three groups are chosen after the developers needs, meaning you have no idea what they're going for..

Then we have Group 4 - Networking.
When the needs are met by the focus groups and the client is fairly optimized they invite a HUGE chunk of people at the same time, these are not chosen, just randomly drawn.
This is Only to try to crash the server. (Worst group to get into)
This group is repeated a few times until the server crumbles - often noted by players by the fact that more servers are opened.

Lastly we have group 5 - The rest
When it's all done, the optimization and the crashing of the server they start tossing in people now and then for two reasons,
one for bug reporting and balancing (Done all the time but not a main focus at first)
And second is to promote - Generally you will see small chunks of people from the same place get these invites - this promotes them to chat with eachother in school and such about how great the beta is, leading to advertisement.

And after this it's usually open beta.

Hope it helped!

If you signed for six months, you Will be billed for six month,
you ain't getting away from that...
Now I don't know what LoTRO costs per month but I wouldn't complain until the 6 months are over or they exceed the total amount those 6 months cost.

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Originally posted by trentonx
200 effected players is quite a bit.
 
one player on the forums paid 200$ to get his computer repaired.
He just came back to the forums with tears in his post. happy tears! he called them up and they gave him a free year.
 

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If CCP really wanted to up their looks they'd pimp that story on the mainpage.

All in all CCP has shown how much they care and sorted it out and helped every single one who needed them when it all went to hell,

that's GOOD PR.

Buy a US box - create account - install - voila.

Ganking smacktalking and grinding?

Either it's EQ2 or EvE if WoW isn't good enough for you

The issue that arose was due to this much code: "."

That's it,
people make mistakes, they went out, solved it and informed people as good as they could,
get over it and start cleaning up your own backyard instead.

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Originally posted by Xion187
why dont you people ever give up i swear theres paymeant involved ,all well i cant wait to see what you say when beta starts
lol its sli XD

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.zZ

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Originally posted by Distaste

BTW China plays for free so figure that into your estimates of total players.

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Originally posted by MR-Bubbles

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Originally posted by Sramota

Anyone know how to get rid of all the jagged edges?
It's horrible :(

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You get rid of those by initialising Anti Analising [assuming your card can do this graphical trick].

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Anyone else noticed that there's always 60-80% of the prizes going to the US...?

Anyone know how to get rid of all the jagged edges?
It's horrible :(

TR has as much potential as AA did...

I really hope they can pull it all off,
really.

Pessimistic,
it's just more of the same and the 'great new features' turns out to be 'this is roughly not the same thing all over again'

Blizzard have never, nor will they ever, give a rats ass about other games releases.

You know, I've always wondered,
do you get a complimentary Doomsayer Bell (TM) with that attitude or do you have to buy it on the side?

"-This is our product and this is what we charge for it.

-Hey, we have the exact same product with the exact same name and content and we add the very same content whenever you do!"

Yeah there's a few lines in the big book that frowns on that you know.

In other news, FoM is still around....

...

wow...

Then again so is Neocron 2..

I prefer WoW..
CoH is.. I dunno... MORE monotome than WoW

And that's Bad.