It only took me two days to download the new and improved client, but I’m back in the World of Warcraft beta. Both Blizzard and Fileplanet took a savage beating on Monday during the afternoon and evening after the Open Beta was first announced, but the client download page was back online later that night along with numerous unofficial torrents. The account creation page, however, had been taken offline completely. It wasn’t until the next morning before work that I was able to create my account, only to find out later that day the account creation page was again unavailable. And then today, the official site announced that due to an obscene amount of requests the Open Beta was, in fact, now closed. Anyone that missed this opportunity should keep an eye out, because Blizzard will be monitoring the player population and will open up any spots that become available before the game’s release on the 23rd. I think this last minute call to arms is a genius marketing move – Everquest II launched this week (did anyone notice?), and apparently you may be able to carry over your Open Beta characters into the retail version.

With all the buzz surrounding sales of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2, I can only imagine what launch day will be like for World of Warcraft. Granted, the open beta is free, but so was Guild Wars, and it hasn’t even come close to developing the same amount of interest. Even though the client for Guild Wars was more accessible, and substantially smaller. Considered as games, I think many players may have been disappointed with what Guild Wars had to offer at the preview event last weekend, and turned to World of Warcraft to satiate a more discerning appetite for massively multiplayer RPG action.

are you tuning in