![]() Shipping ConfirmationSo, unless this is some sort of decoy or prank gift from Blizzard, I'd say it is safe to say that the long awaited expansion for World of Warcraft is a reality. There is a high probability that the box itself will in fact be empty, a mere token representing the purchase. Blizzard will instead force us all to bit-torrent the new content from their horrible horrible patcher. Ah heck, they'll force us to patch every file on the system through that thing next week anyway, so there's no escape. Seems that the days of buying MMOs (especially the expansions) in stores is almost behind us, or rather, it should be almost behind us. The recent EverQuest 2 expansion seemed to load virtually everything from online anyway, so why bother with DVD distribution? Vanguard exceeds 16 gigs in beta but SOE's slick launch program handles it all while you're asleep and thousands of beta players have taken the time to download it. Sure it takes awhile, but it doesn't fail and it requires no human intervention. The reasons for physical boxes become fewer and fewer each day. At this point it amounts to a way to build hype ("We gotta camp outside Gamestop for three day to get the box, dude") and a physical way to limit the number of keys released into the wild. Oh, and Walmart would cry and take its toys and go home if Blizzard didn't let them sell the boxes. (Walmart sucks.) Or maybe I'm underestimating the desire for a physical possession among the gaming audience. I personally could care less about the box and the CDs, but I imagine some people love that stuff. My dog is currently camping the UPS-guy spawn point. When she barks, I'll know if this expansion is real or not, and then I'll let you know. |