The WoW Review

Server 4: Beta Fun   Scripted instance bosses!

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Beyond has been one of the first servers I tested before this website was ever created. I had been playing WoW on retail for over 3 years with extreme raiding, farming, rep farming etc. I wanted to try a server where I wasn't grinding for months on end to level 70 to achieve only the bare minimum Tier 4 set, with heroic epics.

World of Warcraft and Blizzard has always been known for their game styles, artistic creativities, and attention to fine details, Blizzard's release of their first MMORPG was groundbreaking. MMOs are a strange beast. They are designed to make you play as much as possible, yet addictiveness does not always equal fun. In the field of pyschology, there are several kinds of rewards systems, and the one that seems to be the most successful is the random reward introduced at a random time. Sometimes you click the button, and nothing happens. Sometimes you click and get the food pellet. It's this mechanism that fuels the slots in Vegas, and when you walk away empty, as is statistically inevitable over a long enough stretch of time, you tell yourself that the overall value was the experience itself, since you come away with nothing tangible. MMOs take away your time and they never deliver a discreet conclusion.

With that said, and the amazingly hard time sink in grinding, is what brought me to Beyond. I have to admit one of the most amazing additions to Beyond-WoW is their shopping malls. I have seen quite a few in my time and I have seen horrible copy cats as well.

Beyond has everything you can think of from copper ore to demon stones, that drop from Black Temple. All of this accessible through a simple click of the mouse from a local vendor at their Shopping Center.

The population on this server seems to lean more towards horde then alliance. So, if you are coming to Beyond to pvp and experience the game while in great gear, then make an alliance toon!

I guess with any Private Server, population is a key ingrediant to a successful project. This one is a bit horde heavy but it has true potential. I would have to say Beyond is the true foundation to WoW Private Servers. To put it in Laymans terms, if private servers were categorized into a single piece of copper, Beyond-WoW would be bank vault that carries it all.

On so many of our reviews we always try and talk to the GMs of each realm. We want them to be apart of this review process as well. We enjoy their input. One thing I underestimated about Beyond WoW is how much work they really put in. This is one of the FEW servers that actually deserves to be #1. That is where this website comes in. WoW beyond deservers to be in the #1 spot on voting sites. I personally have tested wowscape and aniwow and I will not regret saying, I will not be returning to them. Our readers know for a fact I will not disrepect any server if I have never experienced it myself. Lets put it this way. If you are the #1, top Private Server, yet a TRUE WoW fanatic couldn't even play their realms longer then 2 hours? Something has to be wrong there.

Wowscape for example, my latency was over 1k at DIFFERENT times. I couldn't even attempt to level and get out of the BE leveling area. I was too busy with a Krick in my back. (Gotta love Oxhorn)

I am going a bit off topic, but I think all of you get my drift. Beyond has certainly amazed me when I talked to the wonderful Owner, Pandemic. I was shown instances that they are working on, 4 Devs working day and night to bring the WoW PS Community something more intense then retail could ever offer. Currently in the works are obstacle courses, new scripted bosses, raid instances are being recreated back to basics of real raiding! I am biting my nails waiting for this one. I have tested over 40 Private servers, this is the one that DESERVES recognition and receives our stamp of approval.

Reporter: Inkchallenged

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An Interview with Owner GM Pandemic

Q2: "How many players on average use this free service?"
GM Pandemic: Since our start We have seen over 600,000 signups no way to tell if they are all individual and during the week we average around 500-600 players weekend into the upwards of 1000 on the fun realm and an average of 50 on the blizz-like realm.

Q3: "How many GMs are on consistantly?"

GM Pandemic: We usually keep no less then 2 GM's on at all times. We try to base our Support on 1 GM per every 100 players online. Thats just during the week. On the weekends normally 5-6 at any given time as we rotate our hours. We have 3 UK based GM's that stay on during the early monring hours.

"Q4: Do you actually enforce your TOS?"
GM Pandemic: We have not yet had to enforce them. When it comes to a legal standpoint but yes we have to enforce our in game rules and I have had to enforce our donation TOS a few times during paypal disputes.

Q5: "What are some changes that our readers can expect in the future?"
GM Pandemic: We are currently working on 2 custom instances. One has been completed so far on our test database. We have already added every 2.3 item less 2 arena season 3 sets. We just recently added every 2.3 mount. Right now we are in the process of testing many .dll and LUA scripts to script every outland instance so that bosses will act like retail and use the spells that are inteded to.

Q6: "How many realms are you offering? Are you planning on making more?"
GM Pandemic: Right now we are currently running 2 of our instant level 70 fun realms and 1 blizz-like realm. We plan to open up a new playground realm thats not considered for anything other then playing around with multiple obstacle courses and unique areas.

Q7: "Is there anything you would like to add, that our readers may not get from our review that you would like them to know?"

GM Pandemic:We believe that there are no rules that say every server has to be like retail. We are like pimp your ride for WOW

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