In the past few weeks, a lot of people have generously offered to help me keep up with the possibly cataclysmic pet changes in the Cataclysm expansion in whatever way they can.
I’ve also had a couple of quiet e-mails from people who know people who may or may not be in Friends & Family testing, asking what kind of information would be helpful to send to me after the NDA is lifted.
(No one is offering to break their NDA for me, thankfully. Here’s a tip for anyone who is under NDA or who wants to be under NDA: Do not break your NDA.)
So based on a suggestion by Nimizar, I’ve dumped the Petopia database into a spreadsheet, cleaned it up so that it is slightly more human-readable, and added some columns for recording changes. And I’m posting it here.
If you are interested in gathering data from alpha or beta — or if you just want a bunch of random pet data, for some reason — feel free to download the spreadsheet. You can modify the entries, add new ones, makes notes, what have you.
When you’re done — but not before the NDA is lifted! — e-mail it back to me. I can dump it into a format that will let me grab out your changes and integrate them into the full database.
Again, this is all totally voluntary. (I will not be coming to your house to force you to gather data for me.) And depending on how much help I get, I may not be able to thank everyone is a public fashion. But I will appreciate the hell out of you.
You can find the Petopia spreadsheet here: http://www.maniasarcania.com/downloads/pets.xls
Oh, and feel free to suggest changes to the spreadsheet that would make it more useful.
Heh, I’d forgotten even making that suggestion until you mentioned me by name :)
Something you may want to think about is putting a master copy of this up on Google Docs rather than having it solely as a downloadable excel file.
That way, once the NDA is lifted, people will be able to see what has already been checked and what remains to be done. Those that are happy to give you their Google account info could be granted edit access, while everyone else could just send you updates using the downloaded spreadsheet.
While the NDA is still in effect, the excel version is obviously better, since people can fill it in and then send it to you as soon as the closed beta starts.
Any plans to move it to google docs?
*nod* I’d prefer to have it on Google Docs — they’ve been making some really nice upgrades lately! — but as Nimizar says I don’t want anyone to break their NDA. So we’ll see about moving it there after the NDA lifts.
Well you can put the new mastiff(?) in now since many have already stated it’s the worgen starter pet.
Many or Blizzard itself? I can understand the decision of Mania and others to keep mindful about posting any info that does not come in a shade of blue. Better to keep quiet for a month or so longer and post it all the day the NDA is lifted, than to post the semi-public knowledge and have to pull it all from the site because you got hit with a C&D order or worse. Never mind that -one- everything in a Beta is always subject to change and even more so in the phases before that, and -two- in Mania’s case the info would be second or third hand with no option to do a quick fact check.
Sounds good to me! Here’s hoping alot of us here get into Beta. I think it would help alot of hunters all around for them to know what pets are in danger and what possible new pets there are, while of course testing for kinks in the game as well.
And wow I didn’t realize how many animals there are out there.. wow… I think this may be more then an all nighter to get this done :lol:
I forget if we are suppossed to sleep while playing beta or not.
So a couple of nights ago I was browsing the internets innocently and came across a date: September 9.
Remember, I said it here first. Say no more. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge!!!
Very cool…thank you! That’s a ton of work and will really come in handy. Agree on keeping everything under wraps until the NDA clears…very little gain in exchange for a potential pile of problems. Thanks!
Sorry, my mistake… it’s actually September 8.
Glad nobody corrected me though :D
“Price and release date listed are estimates only and subject to change.”
Considering this is Blizzard we’re talking about, chances are good it’s not going to be released “on time.” I wouldn’t start holding your breath until we get a release date directly from Blizzard themselves, and even then, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
However, if they follow their past pattern, we can expect Cataclysm to be released in 4-6 months following the start of the beta.
Namaria… I didn’t say anything about a release date.
But since you mentioned it, you should know that your first quote is a standard line for many online retailers. I’m well aware of online retailers and their practices. Don’t get them mixed up with Blizzard.
As for Blizzard itself, if they followed their previous timelines, Cataclysm would be out in early December. The number of weeks between announcment to release of BC and WotLK was identical. I was able to book vaction off for the WotLK release the January before based on that (it came out in November).
Not that any of this has anything to do with September 8. ;)