Hello everyone, I wrote this wall of text a couple of years ago when the whole Nostalrius drama happened. I've shared it in the Wow subreddit and since Vanilla is coming back again and this subreddit exists I thought that some of you might want a piece of nostalgia, I must warn you, it's pretty long. If you just want to read the Vanilla part, I'm sure it'll bring a smile to your face but if you want to know how my "Vanilla Goals" story ended, you have to read more.
Background
It all started in '05, I was attending university, playing Counter-strike 1.6 at a pretty high level and one of my clan mates played like shit in a tournament we've been preparing for quite some time. He wasn't as motivated as before since our clan was going through a rough patch. The 5 of us were friends and lived together in one big apartment since we were attending the same university. We had been successful for about two years and we were picked up by a famous national brand for sponsorship which eventually granted us a couple of exhibition matches against the world's best CS team at the time, the Swedish powerhouse SK. Despite all that success the pressure was getting to us and there were some tensions between some of us which started to mess up with our friendship.
Me and a couple of clan mates were on the verge of quitting the team because it wasn't fun anymore, it became a job. The reason my mate played like shit in that tournament was because he had pulled an allnighter playing Wow. Being former WC3 players of course we had already heard about it but he was actually the first to play it in our group. He was in complete awe when giving us his first impressions. He described the first hours of his game as an act of repetitive boar and wolf killing and for him it was an awesome experience so we had to try it out. Fast forward one week, we talked to our sponsor, abandoned the team and 3 of us left CS for good as we were pretty burned out.
Vanilla
I bought the game and since I had no laptop available that night I went home and read through the whole booklet, deciding that I wanted to be a warlock because of the demons, being ranged and the combination of shadow and fire spells. When we started leveling up, we were 8, all IRL friends. We picked alliance because our mate that played first was a night elf druid. None of us had actually played an MMO before so our levelling experience was diverse, noobish and extremely fun.
We spent hours dueling and exploring the first day. The world felt alive, you walked the roads and met people everywhere. The first time we stepped inside Stormwind and the soundtrack kicked in it was epic, still can remember the chills. The city was full of people and i struggled with the concept of all those characters jumping around being players and not NPCs, as I said, I was new to MMOs. There was a cool guy giving away some gold so people could create their guilds so we created a guild with all our IRL friends in it.
The first time we've met an horde player, we were leveling in Elwynn, killing murlocs for a quest. A high level tauren showed up in a kodo and spammed some emotes, we were all trying to figure out what to do because he was a yellow target since we were on Alliance turf, until one of my friends said: "C'mon, we're 4, he's just one, let's get him!" and attacked him, the tauren laughed, dismounted, equipped a fishing rod and proceeded to beat the living shit out of my friend. One of us reached 15 days /played on the first month based on a Cola, cofee and pizza diet. He was on another level when it came to being addicted to the game, he sometimes slept on his chair while playing and then he woke up and kept playing right away.
As the weeks went by, more friends joined us. One of those friends that started late picked a Nelf Hunter and wanted to level up with us but since we were all Humans or Dwarves and our Nelf Druid friend was already 30ish so he entered the boat in Darkshore and tried to come from Menethil to Stormwind at level 11. At first he tried swimming but he eventually gave up so he tried to use the roads. As you might be thinking, it didn't go well. When he was all red and after hours of corpse running he met a level 50 guy who kindly escorted him to Redridge where we were expecting him.
We were completely immersed in the world, it was such a new experience at the time. We quested a lot but also leveled together in instances and more IRL friends joined us, when the first of us reached 60 we were around 15 guys playing, most of the time together at our place where we had a huge living room with 3 dinner tables aligned to give a LAN house feeling. Our internet connection was pretty good at the time since we needed it before for CS training. If you wanted to play at our place you just needed to bring your own laptop. In those few months in '05 there was always at least one guy logged in, morning, afternoon or night, you name it. Sometimes we were 10 or 11 at the same time. It was by this time that I started seeing chars fully epic in IF and thinking that I wanted to have the same gear. There was a priest, vastly known in our server that always stood on top of the wagon on the right side of the bank in IF, he had the best gear in slot before BWL came out and everyone stopped by the wagon, "his throne", to inspect and sort of worship him. It was at that moment that my competitive self decided that someday that his wagon would be "mine".
When we reached level 60 we started farming the instances to get tier 0 so we could get into a MC raiding guild. After a few days we did it and got into a full national guild. The first time we've stepped inside MC I was nervous as fuck, 40 people inside, i couldn't mess it up so i was ultra focused. I wasn't really prepared for the shit fest i had joined. The guild was stuck on Magmadar for some time and our introduction to raiding were some weeks wiping on the dogs before him because people couldn't understand the concept of focus DPS and everyone shouted on ventrillo. It was an epic mess, there were some guys trolling for sure, namely some hunters pulling the imps or extra dog packs but quite frankly nobody could tell who was doing it. It was a shit fest.
I am a goal driven person so Wow was the perfect game for me. By that time I was already focused on my first major goal in the game, getting Headmaster's Charge from Scholo, THE Warlock Staff. During one of my many, many Scholo runs, a random guy congratulated me on my performance and told me that his guild was missing a few players to start raiding and they needed a warlock. He scheduled an extremely RPish meeting the next day at the inn in IF. We went to the top floor where he traded me a beer, told me to sit down and invited me to their ventrillo server. There were the raid leader, the guild master and one of the warlocks. They asked me some questions about schedule availability, gaming experience and the raid leader asked me a question that I still remember today: "If I place you in the MT group, what's your main role in the raid?", to which I promptly answered: "Move my imp always close to the MT so he doesn't lose Blood Pact." They told me that most of the warlocks they had talked to before replied: "Dealing max damage as in any other group" and they were disappointed by that, so I had an extra point for my answer. I knew my class wasn't top DPS at that time and we had several utilities so we were like a support class. I got recruited and through me 2 of my friends were also recruited, a resto druid, the only druid spec that raided at 60, and a dwarf priest, highly rare and valuable because of fear ward.
We left our friends in the full national guild and the 3 of us moved to this new international guild and quickly found out that they were aiming to be pretty hardcore and competitive from the start. The guild had less than 50 members so almost perfect raid attendance was expected. We had the 40 men raids from Monday to Friday, 5 hours each day with extra hours if we were close to a fresh kill. Saturday was for ZG but it was optional and Sunday was day off. We had players from all around Europe but the core was nordic. Something that surprised me at the time was that we had 7/8 girls in our roster. Our raids were pretty serious yet chill at the same time, no rage of loot tension, we tried to be highly coordinated following orders and everyone did their job. A remarkable detail was that nobody was obsessed with any meter.
As far as I recall, we were the first guild in our server where holy palas wore leather and cloth, which later became a trend. We took Onyxia down on the first night and we cleared MC until Majordomo on the second night, we had some undergeared OTs so we only took him down after 2 weeks of gear farming. We took Ragnaros down on the first night also, epic ventrillo moment. We later got into BWL. Razorgore was chaotic to say the least and Vael was stressful as fuck. The suppression room was a Hellfire or /follow fest. Broodlord was smooth and we were on the top 5 of our server in progression ranking at Firemaw. Our server was highly popular and had high queues, more than 1500 if you queued between 6 and 7 PM, also truckloads of lag spikes and random mass disconnects. The server also went down at random time. The guild decided to migrate to a new server because it was really messing up our progression. I had to make a decision, follow my guild and keep raiding hardcore to be the best or staying with my IRL friends and rejoin their casual guild who was still stuck in MC. After some drunk discussions, me, the druid and the priest decided to stay and we rejoined the rest of our friends.
I quickly found out that their guild hadn't changed much and it was nowhere near the level of coordination that I was now used to but I tried to get over it as I was having fun raiding with my friends. I recall farming a lot of stuff, mainly bandages, to the AQ opening event and followed the discussions on the official server forums as the big shots decided who was going to open the gates. Unfortunately, it was impossible to attend the event with my char as Silithus was flooded with players and the world server crashed constantly. It felt pretty unique though.
I returned to my Headmaster's Charge farm and set my sight on my second target, getting the Rivendare mount from Strat. It was extremely rare and in my opinion looked awesome on a warlock. So my non-raiding time was spent leveling my beloved resto druid alt, farming scholo and strat, farming herbs which was extremely profitable since I was also an alchemist and just wandering around trying to get some World PvP action. (Fuck Yeah, Drakedog videos) It was by this time that we started a traditional event that lasted for years. Whenever our server was down, which happened a lot, we created fresh level 1 humans on a new server and had a race from Northshire Abbey to Booty Bay, whoever finished first would get a free beer from each of the losers. Imagine 12 or 13 level 1s running through STV, dodging Horde players, Crocs, Gorillas, Stealth Panthers and Raptors.
After months stuck on Majordomo, the guild got rid of some deadweight and we sailed smoothly through Ragnaros and then BWL. Since I had full tier 1 and some tier 2 from my previous guild, I was the warlock with more DKPs and I quickly got 7/8 tier 2, missing the shoulders. We cleared BWL every week for more than 6 months and the shoulders never dropped. NOT A SINGLE TIME. I even sent tickets to a GM saying that our loot table was bugged because as far as the Allakhazan site stated, they had a freaking 21% drop chance and we hadn't got any in more than 6 months. I remember the GM just replied that it was pure bad luck and even made fun of me, cool guy. During that time, the guild evolved, some lousy players left, some good players joined and we fought through both AQs and downed C'Thun. The first time we killed him there were 5 people alive, it was really stressful. After that, we even cleared the Spider Wing and Razuvius on the original Naxx. By this time I was already standing tall on the top of the wagon in IF, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing "the throne". I had a mix of tier 2, the AQ set and even a tier 3 piece so I had worked my ass off for that privilege. Our server population was through the roof as the game was getting insanely popular. One day a mage friend asked me to meet his fresh 60 warlock alt in SW because he wanted to show me something. When i saw him he was almost full green/blue but already had gotten the t2 shoulders on an alt run. I almost punched him. You will read more about the infamous shoulders below.
By the end of the vanilla era, my guild scheduled an IRL meeting since we were 95% from the same country. We showed up around 30-35 people from ages 18 to 50ish. We were a strange group to say the least. As far as i recall, we had a bunch of university students from all academic areas, an university teacher, a couple of lawyers, an arquitect, a banker, a drummer and some unemployed. It was a strange and yet fascinating meeting because although we raided together for more than a year, it was awesome to meet the real people behind the voices and the chars. Some curiosities, we had a bald and tanned guy who looked exactly like his char and we had a longed haired bearded guy who also looked exactly like his char. One of the younger guys was pretty outspoken on ventrillo but he was shy as fuck IRL, typical. We also had a really tall guy who played a gnome and an older couple that were bikers. This was the last meaningful event in the Vanilla days as the first expansion was announced. The last days of vanilla were a mix of massive hype for the expansion but also some fear that the game could be changing for something worse.
Burning Crusade
When BC was released i couldn't start playing right away because I had some PC issues and I eventually missed the huge clusterfuck that was the initial 60-70 leveling. My guild was sort of inactive, some played, some stopped playing for good and some rerolled on the horde side. My IRL friends were still playing so we moved back to our old LAN guild to level up and start raiding Karazhan. We had one problem, we were almost 100% DPS specced. Me and 3 friends switched to alts so we could raid and I've spent most of this expansion healing as a resto cloth wearing druid. At first I did this with the condition that each week they helped me through BWL to get the tier 2 shoulders to finish the set, as I said, I'm a goal driven person. The Karazhan and later ZA runs were awesome because we were LAN raiding. The first couple of months were challenging because we had some heavily undergeared chars. There was a lot of trolling, topping the aggro meter, ninja pulls and DPS bets with beer at stake. After a few months, some of us changed chars and roles as it was getting easy and stall.
Some left the guild with their mains because they wanted a more hardcore experience but most of us kept it pretty casual throughout the whole expansion. Although I missed the hardcore raiding, I was having fun leveling alts and healing in arenas and if I wanted to check BT or Sunwell I just sat behind one of my friends who was raiding it and checked the raids, it was like Twitch streaming. One of my friends was MT for a Sunwell raiding guild, every week when he was on Brutallus, he raged so hard when he was one-shotted. When the expansion ended, I still had no Headmaster's Charge, no Rivendare Mount and no tier 2 shoulders. I was so exalted with Argent Dawn that I felt that I deserved my own statue at Light's Hope Chapel. The hype for the Arthas expansion was special to me as the Arthas storyline in WC3 was my favorite campaign.
Wrath
Almost all of my friends returned to our LAN guild when Wrath was launched. 2 stopped playing for good because they were burned out with the game. New expansion, everyone back into their mains, mostly everyone DPSing, a healer and a MT. We found a new small national guild with people that started playing at the end of BC that wanted to raid 25 and strangely lacked DPS members. We had a teamspeak negotiation that lasted a couple of hours and we all moved in, me and 2 friends were the new class officers for our respective classes. Our tank friend was promoted to MT since he was far more experienced than the other tanks, in fact, we were all far more experienced. We were back in an heavy casual environment, people arrived late, DPS couldn't DPS, healers couldn't heal, tanks couldn't tank and the other officers and the RL were so casual that they thought that all the raids were like that. I had flashbacks of the dogs in MC, Vietnam style.
We talked about leaving the guild but considering our setup no decent guild would take us all in as a unit so we eventually decided to stick together, overcome the struggles, stay and try fixing the guild. Not everything was bad, one of my friends met his girlfriend on the guild, he was MT, she was OT, the taunt worked IRL. Me and my 2 officer mates, tuned out our class members and got rid of the hopeless and slacker ones. Our classes were doing fine and performing as expected after a couple of weeks. The other officers were all pretty chill and casual and couldn't care less if we spent night after night wiping at Naxx because a third of the raid couldn't do simple things as the dance on Heigan or the polarity shift on Thaddius.
Although we eventually managed to clear Naxx, Sarth 3 drakes and even Ulduar with record breaking repair bills, there were still many problems and tensions accumulated. One night my MT friend got into a heated argument with the guild master after a chaotic raid and after the most epic and honest rant I've ever heard online he eventually left the guild. We soon followed him since the other officers simply refused to acknowledge that some of their class members were terrible and were critically delaying our progression. After this I still managed to get the Undying achiev in Naxx after 2 months of laser focus attention raiding, one mistake and the week was done. We had one guy dying at KT with less than 10% health left the week before actually getting it done, we were left speechless. We moved back to our old LAN guild and went back to alt leveling and achievs. It was by this time that I managed to get Headmaster's Charge, so 1/3 of my vanilla goals were accomplished. I still missed the baron mount and the tier 2 shoulders despite going to BWL every week. Around the end of Wrath me and most of my friends left the university and stopped living together. Some left the game for good as for them it was only fun if we were playing together. It was the end of an era.
Cataclysm
Almost none of my friends played this expansion, IRL reasons mostly but some were tired of the genre and moved back to more casual games like league of legends and CS. I recall using the 10 day trial and going to Vashj'ir. A full underwater zone? Logout.
Pandaria
Roughly one year after mists came out, me and some of my friends decided to give it a go. We managed to get 10 of our old group back in the game and we had some fun mostly running old content and going for achievements. Nobody really liked LFR as it was a joke compared to real raiding. Most of us couldn't play on a daily basis because IRL issues so getting into a decent raiding guild was out of consideration. We kept it pretty casual. I kept farming Strat and when i was 82 the mount dropped, 2/3 Vanilla Goals.
The positive side of being 90? I could easily farm MC and BWL on my own. I farmed MC until i managed to get the bindings for the Thunderfury and I went full what the hell mode and crafted a Thunderfury for my Warlock. Think about this, I actually got a Thunderfury before finishing my tier 2 set. On January 2014, roughly 9 years after I had first stepped inside BWL and after killing Chromaggus an X amount of times, I saw the damned shoulders drop and finally finished tier 2. To this day it is the most absurd thing I've witnessed in an online game and it was the closest any videogame got me from crying, but I finally had them. 3/3 VANILLA GOALS! We played Mists for over a year but eventually everyone dropped out since we weren't really doing anything together and the game had evolved to a daily completing chore.
Warlords
Bought it, played two months and mildly enjoyed the leveling experience and the nostalgia trip. Unfortunately, my followers left the garrison more times than I did so I got fed up pretty fast. Some of my friends also returned but everyone left after 3 months. The magic was gone.
Legion
Played it for 6 months. It was ok, I guess. Some of my friends were back but the legendaries drop system completely killed the fun for me.
Epilogue
If you're still reading, I hope that sharing my experience made your day somehow happier. Thanks for your time and sorry for any spelling errors, I'm sure there are a few since English isn't my mother tongue. As I've said before, I felt pretty nostalgic and wanted to recall happier times. Wow is the best and most unique game I've ever played, I've played it for roughly one third of my life and the passion I had for the game had a great impact on my life. Throughout the years me and my friends weren't just playing the game, we were living it, when we weren't online, we were always talking or thinking about it. We pulled countless all nighters, going for breakfast after, we discussed every single tiny detail of the game over drinks and when drunk we had the craziest arguments about the game. Insane immersion levels.
I keep in touch with mostly everyone of my close friends who played in my LAN guild and when possible we host an yearly dinner to catch up as there are many of them abroad. I recall the last month I was subscribed during Legion. I confess that it was pretty sad, checking our guild roster and see the last login tab: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 7 years... I walked around Stormwind, Elwynn, Westfall or Duskwood and saw some people playing the game and wonder if they had an experience as amazing as mine playing this game. I hope they had. I wonder if that's how an old man who had a rich and fulfilling life feels like IRL.
Finally, I still remember looking up to that guy on top of the wagon. I felt envy, I won't lie. I'm naturally competitive and seeing that guy instigated my drive for many years of raiding. I still think that every MMO should be based on the time+skill=reward system. This sparks the competitiveness and promotes the will to take harder challenges and be the best. Of course the casual player that "raids" LFRs once a week wants to have the sickest gear in the game and he feels entitled to it since he pays the same as the hardcore raider that grinds 24/7 and has the best gear in slot because he worked his ass off for it. But if you give access to every piece of (recoulored) gear and every raid, you take away the real joy of raiding and the game gets stale and boring. If everyone has his own wagon, there's nobody up there to look up to.
Back in Vanilla, Wow felt like a real world, leveling was fun and took a lot of time as it should be, questing was interesting and challenging, the World PvP was not that competitive unless you were facing an Undead Rogue(fuck those guys) and the 5man instances were meaningful and required coordination and knowledge. You could waste so much time in Dire Maul doing a King's run or doing LBRS or UBRS with 15 guys. Maybe since all of us are older we won't be feeling the same way about vanilla when it comes out, but I sure that it will be better than the current state of the game.
Thanks Blizzard for all the memories and thank you for reading,
A proud Warlock.
Bonus pic: Vanilla goals 3/3! http://imgur.com/oPrTbaN

Contents

Section 1 – Introduction (and a few questions) Section A – Handy Links Section 2 – Downloading the game Section 3 – Registering a QQ Account Section 4 – Installation Section 5 – Startup Section 6 – (Optional) Install and set-up Tencent Gaming Platform Section X – Conclusion Section Y – Changelog

Section 1 – Introduction

This is a guide I’ve made in order to help people register for and get the game Monster Hunter Online. I’ve tried my best to explain as much as possible and to make it easy to follow. It should be fool proof. This may look long and complicated, but it really isn’t. In some ways it might seem difficult and I’ve seen that existing guides don’t consider the many issues that folks might come across. Especially considering a lot of the installation and menus are in Mandarin and that there is no Western version of the game. I know a lot of people want to try this out, so this is for them. The game is approaching open beta (December 17th), which is why I decided to make this now, it’s better to have the game files ready to go (only a small update required) and it saves a lot of hassle later for anybody who wants to play the game ASAP. There is a closed beta, but good luck getting a beta key. One might as well wait for the open beta. Open beta is now live.
What is MHO? Monster Hunter Online is an MMO based on the Monster Hunter games with a free-to-play business model, which is exclusive to China. It is only available on PC. Thusly, it has the best graphics of any Monster Hunter game so far, it can be played in full HD.
Exclusive to China, how can I play this game? Fret not, there are no restrictions to access this game, this guide will help you get the game. There is no IP block and I saw some comments by Japanese folk who were upset that this game isn’t even available in Japan. Complete with complaints that this is the full HD game and that the 3DS screen is too small/terrible graphics/uncomfortable to play. A vocal minority unfortunately, Capcom doesn’t even care about the group of Japanese folks who also want HD Monster Hunter on console/PC in HD. At least they can play MHX right now though, better than nothing right?
Is it coming to the West and when? The official word is: “There are currently no plans to bring MHO to Western markets.” All this means is simply, no. MHO won’t be coming to the West. Don’t expect it, but you can feel free to be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong and it does. I’ll be celebrating with you. But otherwise, no. It won’t have a Western version. The good news is you can still play the game. You’ll just have to put up with Chinese text (Mandarin)
When can I play this game, I heard it’s in beta? Indeed it is in beta. You can only play in closed beta with a key, but the open beta starts on the 17th December, just over a week from now (8th December). Which is why I’m making this guide, to help folks get ready to play during open beta Game is now open beta!
I don’t know Chinese, but would like to play this game. What do I do? You can still try out the game. There are helpful folks like me who will try their best to explain some of the features and of course, I’d recommend getting google translate on your phone so you can translate by just taking a snap of your screen. Sure it’s pretty bad, but it’s better than nothing. I don’t know a thing about Chinese either and I’ve made this guide. I don’t plan on learning Chinese either and it’s a different language to Japanese if you’re familiar with that instead
Do I need a good PC for this/what are the system requirements? Here is a link for the system requirements for the alpha. I would personally recommend at least an Intel i3/AMD Phenom ii x4 980 processor, 8GB of system RAM and a GTX 760/R9 280 as minimum, the game would probably work on lower end hardware. The best thing to do is to run the benchmark, you can find it in my post here. My results are in there too. If you want to play it maxed at 1080p60, then a modern i5 and a GTX970 are recommended
Free to play, sounds like micro-transactions? The game does have that sort of thing, but for more clarity, I recommend reading this post. Doesn’t sound so bad, but it is free to play. If one doesn’t like it, one can simply uninstall it
Will there be an English patch like with MHP3rd/MHX? I don’t think so. This is an online game, so it would be tough to patch it in English. Especially as the game gets updated often UPDATE: There is now a fan-made English patch in the works and Tencent themselves have approved it. However, don't expect a completed patch to arrive anytime too soon. Open beta has started today and I remember there being 20k lines of Chinese that need translation
Getting this seems like too much hard work. Why should I bother? If you don’t want to bother, that’s fine. Play whatever you like. But if you think it’s too hard, then I’m here to prove you wrong. Follow my guide and you should be able to get it all set up easy peasy. You’ll be ready for the open beta in no time! (or some time, depending on how slow the game downloads :s)
Can I follow this guide in any order? Something can’t be done without the pre-requisites. You can’t install the game without having the files first. However you can make the account at any time, before you need to log in. I recommend doing it while the game is downloading, since you’ll have a lot of time. Which is why I’ve listed it after downloading
Where are the images? As you may know, reddit posts cannot directly contain images. Instead we have to link them. Each step will have an associated image link showing you what to do. Here’s an additional link to the whole page of images
Will there be a video version of this guide? I’m sorry but I don’t have the equipment or knowhow to make a video guide. IMO a good guide needs narration and I don’t have a microphone, nor the environment to record in. With that said, if anyone wants to make a video version of this guide, I’d appreciate it, so let me know and I’ll link it from here
There’s already guides on how to do this. Why should I use this guide? Feel free to use whichever guide you want. I’ve made my guide while taking into consideration the many issues faced by people trying to do this and have tailored it to resolve the ones I know of. Here’s a link to an existing/alternate guide. The person also has other guides for MHO, so even if you use my guide, it might not be so bad to check it out
How did your installation go? I bet it was flawless right? You'd be surprised. I had issues at the registration step, which honestly make no sense. My regular browser wouldn't even load the intrnational QQ page and my phone just kept on bringing up the SMS validation instead. So I just slept on it and tried it a day later and it just worked. May be the same for you
Following the guide at x step, it won't connect/says the server is overloaded, what do I do? I almost forgot that this is an online game, so the connection won't be perfect. At times they may take the servers down for some reason or another. I recommend coming back and trying later.
I have x problem, help me! Follow this guide properly and you shouldn’t have any issues. Among the common issues that this guide bypasses are: needing to use SMS verification to set up the QQ account, being stopped after logging into the game with a box asking for details and installing extra unwanted programs. That last one especially, I’ve yet to see addressed in other guides. Otherwise, please link a screenshot of your problem and explain it thoroughly. I’ll try my best to help but I can’t make any guarantees
What is a TGP? TGP stands for Tencent Gaming Platform. It is entirely optional whether you want to use it or not. It's essentially like Steam, but for Tencent's Chinese MMOs. Apparently the game has fewer problems with this
Do I need to have the system locale set to Chinese in order to run the game or the TGP? I'd recommend trying to run it with your normal settings. If it doesn't work, then change your system locale to Chinese as shown in the guide below and it should work
Are we limited to a single charactesingle server? How does it work? You can access any server, but of course I'd recommend playing on servers with a largely English speaking community, who'd be able to help you out. You can make as many characters as you want. But characters are bound to a specific server and if you want to move a character, I believe it may cost a large amount of money (in-game) or some micro-transaction. Feel free to make a character on each server if you want
What server should I play on? As is shown in the guide, the first selection is region and the second selection is the server. A lot of folks were playing on East 3/South , but there were issues and we got locked out, likely due to high population. We are playing on New South, Server 2, which is the second button for region and the second for server. If you get locked out of that server (due to high pop), you have my sincerest apologies
Reserved for more questions
If there are any issues with the guide itself, please let me know and I’ll try my best to accommodate

Section A – Handy Links

[MHO] How to help you to translate Chinese (Bluestacks) by momocorpo - https://www.reddit.com/MonsterHuntecomments/3w6iei/mho_how_to_help_you_to_translate_chinese/
Google Translate App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate&hl=en
MHO Discord (it's like teamspeak, can chat by typing) - https://discordapp.com/channels/122526505606709257/12252650560670925
MHO Discord FAQ (contains handy info) - https://discordapp.com/channels/122526505606709257/126578658423865344
Note: Some folks have mentioned the discord links aren't working for them. I've tested them myself and they work for me. If you have a link that is different and works for you, please let me know. Copy and pasting the URL for the discord gives me the above links
Other links in guide & more to come!

Section 2 – Downloading the game

I recommend downloading the game is the first thing you do, only because it can take time.
1. Download the installer [Image] - Go to this link (http://mho.qq.com/download.shtml) and download the installer for the game
2. (Optional) Download Direct X and Microsoft Visual C++ if you don’t already have them [Image] - If you are using a Windows PC on Windows 7 or later, you should automatically have the latest version of DX already. It’s best to go to the Official Microsoft website to get the latest version of Visual C++
3. Run installer [Image] - Once you have the installer, run it and this should appear. Choose where you want to download the files for the installer. Do note this doesn’t install the game, it just needs to store the installation files somewhere. You can delete them after you’ve installed the game. Then click the button to start the download
4. Download [Image] - Then begins the big wait, you don’t need to do anything, just leave it alone. You can do section 3 during this time. The download can be paused if need be. Don’t click the boost button, it’s not available to us in the West without some nonsense. Who ever heard of giving download boosts? Only on fileshare sites, this is an official game downloader! The download does take a long time, note the timer is laid out as hour:minute:seconds. Even if you have a good connection, it still goes slowly as it needs to download from Chinese servers. I have a normal speed of 38megabit/s which would show as over 4MB/s. The speed maxed out at under 500kbps at peak (very slow) and took me 7 hours to download the full 5.5GB. Give yourself plenty of time to download
5. (Optional) Cap speed, completely stop or cancel the download [Image] - If for whatever reason you need to stop or cancel the download, use the taskbar icon to open up this menu for exiting. If it’s not there, then click the arrow (might be different in later versions of Windows) You can save your files to resume download later, which is handy if you need to turn off your computer for whatever reason. You can also use this to cap the speed of the download if you need to
6. Finish download [Image] - Now that it’s finished, don’t install it since you’ll run into issues if you do. You need to do something else first. You can quit without any worries since the files are already on your hard drive. The next step is in the installation section

Section 3 – Registering a QQ account

You can actually do this at any time before you are required to sign in. Using my method you should avoid some issues
1. Fill in registration [Image] - I’ve had issues doing this on Mozilla Firefox, so I recommend using Internet Explorer or Edge to resolve this. Try it on your normal browser first though, there’s a chance it will work for you (this includes Mozilla Firefox users). You need to register at the site (http://reg.imqq.com/). Use your legit email as you will need to access it to verify the registration. If you are younger than 18 I recommend putting in a fake DOB, just in case. It might not be an issue, but it’s better to do it in case it could be. I’ve no idea if it makes a difference, since I just used my actual DOB, so I didn’t have to worry about the 18 thing. Remember this DOB if you are faking it. You can be accurate about your location, but really it doesn’t matter much. Make sure the agreement box is ticked and proceed. Cookie if you can guess the password in the image
Note: Some people have been mentioning that they've been having connection issues using (http://reg.imqq.com/). Metaljac found a way that solved this for them (link to their post), essentially it requires going to the regular Chinese sign-up site for a QQ account (http://zc.qq.com/en/index.html?from=pt). The side tab shows 2 account types as in the image in the next step, I assume you want to make sure it has selected QQ account on the side. This method will result in it asking for SMS verification, which didn't work for me, but might work for you (and it did work for Metaljac). Make sure you change the region, since it defaults to Chinese numbers. Here's another post by Yoshieatsworld who found a way to solve the problem
2a. Solved Issue: SMS Verification AKA You messed up/are unlucky [Image] - This should not appear. It may also say 'suspicious activities from your IP'. Worry not, there’s a workaround. Retry the registration with Internet Explorer or Edge. It worked for me. Why is this bad? Because the SMS system is broken. I tried it first and my phone didn’t receive any SMS. It doesn’t actually send you any verification code most of the time. Use email verification to bypass this issue. Some people have reported success via SMS, but since it doesn’t work for most people so I recommend to just not bother with it. If it does work for you, then you will need to change region to apply the correct country code for your phone. Some people are having issues getting the thing to load at all. I had issues myself at this stage. The only solution I found for that was luck/waiting. I tried it later and it worked as it should. Some folks have said that using a VPN helped them get it working, thanks to Polantaris for commenting on this
Note: If you continue to get the SMS, or have given it a go with no success, I'm not sure what to do. For me it just randomly worked (sent me to the email registration) after I left it alone for a day. I also got the 'suspicious activities from your IP' beforehand. This might have been tdue to attempting to use the SMS a lot. I recommend leaving it alone and coming back in a few days and trying different browsers/PCs to try and get the email verification on imqq.com. I'm sorry if this doesn't help
2b. Success [Image] - This is what you should see after hitting the confirm button. This means it has worked. Go to your email and click the verification link
2c. The email [Image] - Just an image of what the email looks like. The screen you get upon successful verification will show you your QQ number and you can copy it down at this point. However the QQ number appears again later, so you’ll still have that opportunity in a bit
3a. Age verification/ID [Image] - Go to (http://jkyx.qq.com/) and just click the button. This resolves an issue with a pop-up asking for details to verify age/identity when trying to play the game. This site might be slow to load, even on good internet connections
3b. Solved Issue: Pop-up in game [Image] or [Image] - Yeah, you don’t want this since it stops you from playing the game. Please note that this will not occur for you, nor will you be logging into the game just yet. You probably haven’t even installed it. Doing these steps should mean you never have to see this screen
Note: It appears the message may have moved in the later versions of the game to the sign in screen. MaDCruncH posted here that the message may show up on the initial log in screen. Ensure you do the next few steps
Update: Next few steps are outdated due to an update for ID verification, read the update note below
3c. Log into your account [Image] - Easy, just put in your email and password you registered with
3d. One of these… [Image] - Yeah… you know what to do. There’s a button to ‘refresh’ the image
4a. Click the blue text [Image] - This page will pop up the first time you log in (and any other time if you don’t follow through these steps). Click the link to register an ID or something. I don’t know what it says. It’s Mandarin ;)
4b. Fake some details [Image] - Remember I told you that this game doesn’t have IP block. Well this is their laughable attempt to keep out non-Chinese folks. Just lie and put in some fake details, cos the hilarious thing is that it works. The only exception is that date. Put in the date of birth you registered with, it should be one that suggests you are at least 18. Just in case
Note: Some people are saying the ID section has changed and that it requires something different. Please post a screenshot of the webpage if this has been the case for you. If so, then I currently do not have a solution. Perhaps the devs are aware of this ID faking. Also make sure you put in a date of birth before 1997, to ensure an age of 18+. Just in case you get blocked for 'being too young.' Might seem like nonsense, but this has happened before in Western MMOs (reminds me of the time when Runescape had an age restriction for setting up an account)

Update:

This section has changed and now requires a different form of ID, I cannot update the guide with it since I've already signed up with the method I've shown here. A quote from dimsum4sale who found the solution: "hey the resident id thing has changed and it looks like you actually need a chinese resident id. i found a site that lets you generate the id based off of the province and dob. http://www.tool7001.com/ idk what to put for the name, i just copied a chinese name and put it on there." Long story short, go to that website and generate an ID to use in that section
4c. Success and your QQ number [Image] - You’ll get this screen if it’s worked. Remember I said, there would be other opportunities to copy down your QQ number? Well the number I blocked out in black bars (twice) was the QQ number all along! (the lowest black bar is the username). You will need this number to log into the game. Make sure you know what it is. If you lose your QQ number, just log back into this site to find it again

Section 4 – Installation

You will first need to do something before this step. Solved Issue Also follow the instructions closely if you want to avoid installing extra crap. Before you scream you have viruses, it’s just software made by companies partnered with the game. But they are unnecessary bloat, so I will help you avoid them. This continues on from the download section
Note: Alternative for step 7 and some step that might require you to change your locale to Chinese, a solution is given here by rikaii. Let me know if you try this and it works. I might add it in to the guide in full when I get the time
7a. Open control panel [Image] - Don’t worry, the change you are about to make is reversible and is actually required to run the installer and the game. Open up control panel and select ‘Region and Language’
7b. Solved Issue: Change System Locale [Image] - Go to the administrative tab in the window that pops up. Click on the ‘Change system locale’ button. Select ‘Chinese (Simplified, PRC)’ from the dropdown list. The name of this option may vary if you are using later versions of Windows, this guide was made on Windows 7. It can also be ‘Chinese (Simplified, China)’ for example. Remember where you did this setting. Just so that you can revert it when you need to. This doesn’t actually change your system language to Mandarin or anything like that. Just a few programs will change language (my Steelseries software for my mouse changed to Chinese for example) and crucially, this is required to install and run the game. It can be changed back to normal at any time
7c. System restart [Image] - Changing that setting requires the PC to restart. So do it unless you plan to do so later
8. Open the installer once more [Image] - Open the same .exe program you used to download the game earlier. It should pop up with the same screen you closed it with. Now you are good to click the install button
9. Installer hype! [Image] - Proceed with caution. Here you will dodge the sneaky ninja add-on programs that will try and get onto your hard drive. The epic background music can be turned off, but why would you want to do that?
10. Terms and conditions [Image] - Contrary to what you might think, the tick box is not a box to accept the terms and conditions and is actually one of those sneaky unwanted programs. Take it down by unticking the box before continuing
11. Choose install location [Image] - The default location is C drive, but anyone with a modern PC these days likely has their C drive as their dedicated OS drive on an SSD. Use the option to change the install location. Note the filesize and remember the location. The coast is also clear of those pesky softwares, for now…
12. Installation file size [Image] - This time the installer is telling you what it is installing. You can hover over each thing, the greyed out options are the game and software it needs to run. You may already have the extra software if you play a lot of PC games. But! One of these options doesn’t pop up on the side. Uncheck that sucker and feel good for avoiding another of these annoying things. Then proceed with installation
13. Install and look at cool artwork [Image] - Just wait and let it do its thing. In the meanwhile, you can gawk at images showing off the cool stuff in the game. Or just do something else
14. Finish installation [Image] - Click next
15. Exit [Image] - Yay it’s finished, now to just click okay… HOLD IT! It’s not over just yet. Except for the first tick box, the remaining text boxes prompt to install those pesky additional softwares. The last option is the TGP, however this is optional and a later section of the guide will tell you how to get that if you want. It's not needed at this stage. With exception if you are on Windows 8 or 10, leave the first box checked to launch the game. At this point I recommend you go to check your installed programs, sort by date of installation and see that the only new program installed should have been MHO and maybe some of its dependencies. I saw no extra unwanted programs in mine by this method of installation
16a. (Optional) Solved Issue: Recommended settings for Windows 8/10 [Image] - Launching MHO prompts a security box, so it’s pretty much ‘run as administrator’ ready. However, folks on later versions of the Windows OS may run into some issues. Remember where you selected the game to install? The first set of Hanzi (Chinese characters, pretty much the same as Japanese Kanji) reads Tencent Games and the only folder that should be inside is the Hanzi reading MHO. Open it up and find the launcher. Right click, go to ‘Properties’
16b. (Optional) Solved Issue: Recommended settings for Windows 8/10 [Image] - Go to the ‘Compatibility’ tab and select ‘Windows 7’ from the drop-down list and tick the box. You may want to check the ‘run as administrator’ box if you really want to, but it’s not necessary. Save the changes by clicking ‘Accept’ and then ‘OK’
Note: If you have done step 16, then you can skip to step 18b for solving the next issue, if you haven't closed the folder
17. (Recommended) Solved Issue Locale Requirement [Image] -If you try and launch the game on your normal system locale, you may get this error in gibberish. It won't pop up when the system locale is Chinese, but it does change the language of some programs. So the following steps are a solution to the problem, brought to my attention thanks to rikaii for their comment here (you can read it if you wish). Essentially just changing the names of the directories that the game runs from to English (roman alphabet characters) is enough to sove this problem. Imgur guide for this mini section is here
18a. (Recommended) Open the file location [Image] -The easiest way to get to the folder is to right click the shortcut you probably use to launch the game, and select open file location. This will take you straight to the location of the client where the game is installed. Otherwise just do it the old-fashioned longer way
18b. (Recommended) Getting to the folder [Image] -Go to the folder containing the first set of Hanzi characters, this is the same place you selected to install the game in, usually named something like 'program files.' You don't want to click on the folder itself, but the one above so you can select the folder
19. (Recommended) Renaming the first folder [Image] -Unless you are completely new to Windows, then you should know how to rename a folder, but I'll show it in the picture anyway. The folder reads 'Tencent Games' in Hanzi characters, while you can rename it to anything you like (as long as it's written in roman alphabet or any of the characters your keyboard allows), it's probably best to rename it to 'Tencent Games' since that's what it would be called if it was all in English. After renaming it, open the folder
20. (Recommended) Renaming the second folder [Image] -You should only have one folder in here, unless you play other Tencent games (in which case read on to figure out which folder). Rename this folder too. The characters may look familiar to us (even if we can't read them), especially with that one English word 'Online' as a give away. The Hanzi characters read 'Monster Hunter' so the English version of the folder would be named 'Monster Hunter Online.' As before, you can rename it to anything you like, but it's recommended to give it the proper name. Enter the folder after renaming it
21. (Recommended) Sorting out the shortcut [Image] -Without this step, the shortcut will not open up the game as it won't be able to find the game at the path specified. While you can manually edit the file location in the existing shortcut, that takes a bit of work and we're lazy. So delete it and in the 'Monster Hunter Online' folder you've just renamed, you'll find a folder named 'TCLS.' Enter it and you'll be back to where the client is found. To easily create a new shortcut, you can just right click the client and 'send to desktop.' Alternatively, if you don't want your shortcut in the desktop, you can 'copy' the client and 'paste shortcut' anywhere on your computer. Hey presto, you are done. Only one thing left now...
22. (Optional) Works without changing locale [Image] -Here I'm just showing you that the game will launch with the regular system locale (mine is English). At this point you may move onto the next section to figure out what to do on this screen. Since I made this section of the guide a few days after the next sections, you may notice some extra light blue text and a button under the sign in on the image (not present in the image in the next section), which you may get yourself. I'm not entirely sure what the button does, it may be a TGP thing. Thus I'd recommend not touching it, since it doesn't do anything we need at this moment

Section 5 – Startup

Honestly, this isn’t really needed. You’ve pretty much got there and installed the game. But just to help you that little bit more, I’ll explain how the log in screen and server browser works. It’s pointless as I write this for most folks, since the open beta is still several days away. But it helps to know these things. Open beta has started.
1. The log in screen [Image] - Retrieve your QQ number you jotted down while you accessed your account to sort out the ID/age restriction. If you have forgotten, log in to (http://jkyx.qq.com/) and you’ll find it above your username on the left or right at the top next to the letters QQ. Then enter your password. Tick the bottom box with the double brackets to accept agreement and tick the box next to 4 kanji in order to enable your QQ number to be remembered. There might be other boxes. At this point I do not recommend ticking or touching anything, There is a fast log in button, I’m not exactly sure how it’s a fast log-in but I just log in the regular way. It probably just auto-selects the server or something, making the next step pointless
2. Play game screen [Image] - If you have already selected your server, then just click play. Otherwise click on server select to choose your server
3. Server Select [Image] - Choose your server, I recommend seeing the Discord FAQ in the link section to see what server everybody is playing on. After that, you are in the game. I might do a guide on character creation, but that's as far you'll be taken by this guide
Note: Servers won't always be in the same position in the server select, since they are often adding, removing and moving around servers. I recommend you choose the server based on the actual Chinese text, or you may find you're aren't playing on the server you wanted to play on. This is especially important for the system locale fix, since retaining original system locale the server names pop up as gibberish. See the next step below this note
4. Solved Issue Gibberish Error [Image] - This is what the server select looks like if you don't have system locale set to Chinese (after renaming the game folders). The game itself might not have issues, and you won't need to see this screen if you are just playing on one server, but it's a heads up for fokd who want to be able to read what the servers say. The solution is to change system locale to Chinese

Section 6 – (Optional) Install and set-up Tencent Gaming Platform

This is an extra option that has been bought to my attention in this post. It's not needed, but apparently its quicker than logging in the normal way. To me the TGP is essentially the Steam/Uplay/Origin for Tencent's MMOs. It's up to you whether you want to use this. The standalone imgur guide for this section is here. If you have renamed the game folders to English in the recommended installation step, you might have issues here. Let me know if you do
1. Download the installer [Image] - Go to (http://tgp.qq.com/), the homepage for this software and download the installer. Make sure your system locale is set to Chinese before you try and install TGP or you may receive an error when trying to install. See above on how to do so, if you have forgotten
2a. Open the installer [Image] - Make sure you tick the box to accept agreement. If you don't like the place it's chosen to install in, you can customise the installation by clicking the button on the bottom right. You will return to this page afterwards. Click the big install button to start the process
2b. (Optional) Custom install settings [Image] - Here you can choose where to install the software. You can opt to add a desktop shortcut if you want. I recommend leavinng the second box checked as the guide will continue with the initial set-up of the TGP software. Confirming this all will save and take you back to the previous screen. Just click the normal install button to continue
3. Installing [Image] - Just wait for it to finish. Images of things from various Tencent MMOs and games will pop up. Have a gander if you'd like
4. Finish and launch TGP [Image] - If you unticked the box on the custom install page, you'll have to launch the TGP manually. It will come to the same screen
5. Log in your QQ account [Image] - Be greeted by a cool Chinese man pointing at you, while you enter your QQ account details. You will be using your QQ number to sign in, the same way you sign into the regular MHO client, which does not have an auto-sign in option currently. You'll probably want both boxes ticked unless you have a reason not to
6a. Click next a few times [Image] - Unless you play other Tencent MMOs, MHO should be the only option here and the box should be ticked by default. Continue
6b. Click next a few times [Image] - Automatic updates. Isn't that as standard? Continue
6c. Click next a few times [Image] - Faster connections and faster loading times... well sounds a bit strange for them to say that. I honestly can't tell whether this is indeed faster. Continue
6d. Click next a few times [Image] - Nothing to do here. It's just showing us games that have official management programs. I've no idea what they do, but MHO doesn't seem to be on the list. Continue
7. Finish first time setup [Image] - Some extra info in Mandarin. Now click the button to finish this all and you'll never have to go through this process again (unless you uninstall it)
8. TGP Menu UI [Image] - This is the menu you'll be seeing if you decide to use TGP to launch the game. Click on the button under the adorable felyne to launch MHO. Essentially this skips the start-up and log in screen and takes you straight to server select
9. (Optional) TGP Settings [Image] - These are the settings. Customise these as you please. Unless you'll be playing MHO often, then you can untick the box to run TGP at startup. I recommend changing the 'After launching a game' option to minimise the menu to system tray. Change the download and installation paths to whatever you want. Unless you have a good reason not to, I recommend changing the 'Keep installer?' setting to delete the installer after installation. You probably don't want an installer lying around your hard drive after having used it. Confirm to save settings and you are good to go

Section X – Conclusion

Cor it took me all day to write this and a good part of yesterday collecting and editing the images. I had troubles with imgur and can’t seem to find the full list of images, so this will have to do. I’ll edit it in in the morning, since it’s just past midnight right now. I hope this guide has helped you get the game to prepare foplay the open beta. I might make further guides in the future if I have the time and if people want it. As I mentioned at the start, there’s no video version, so feel free to contact me if you make one and I’ll give you a shout-out. Be sure to comment if you have any issues or if I made an error and I’ll try my best to help. Whether this game is any good or not, it’s free to play so we can at least try it out during the beta. Feel free to discuss MHO below and help others out, bring that great hunting community to MHO, whether it's worthy of being called a MH game or not. Good luck and enjoy the hunt!

Section Y – Changelog

08/12/2015 - Uploaded first version 09/12/2015 - Added TGP section and changelog. Improved formatting 10/12/2015 - Added Handy links section. Added a few things 11/12/2015 - Added solution for system locale requirement to launch the game in the installation section. Added potential solution for registration connection issues. Edited a few related sections 16/12/2015 - Added extra info and another user solution for the sign-up 17/12/2015 - Added questions, started update for open beta Updated sign-in section 19/12/2015 - Added note to server select and ID section 22/12/2015 - Added solution/update for ID verification step 23/12/2015 - Added VPN (user solution) info for SMS step and note for Discord links

OVERVIEW
A little while ago I reported on the 'Letter War' presently taking place on China's Serenity server. The 'letter' in question was a call for rebellion against PIBC's empire, penned by TGA leader Skygod Sauron (天神索隆). The response was a pre-emptive invasion of TGA space by PIBC and their allies. Last time, I wrote about the massive 15-hour opening battle, in which over 1.1 trillion worth of sub-caps were destroyed. Despite relatively equal losses that day, PIBC maintained the momentum of their assault. Over the past few weeks people have asked me for an update on the situation.
''The PIBC Fleet Prepares for the next battle''
Brief recap of the cast:
PIBC & friends

• The invading 'Empire'
  
• Led by the Emperor, Military Bun
  
• Main FCs include RnK folk like Fu1crum
  
• The dubious pleasure of being assisted by Google-Translate-powered LM & Agent Xer0 & co.
  

TGA & friends

• Holding Cache and surrounding territory
  
• Perhaps the last major Sov bastion of resistance to PIBC
  
• Led by the King, SkyGod Sauron
  
• Facing invasion in the Letter War
  
• Stood firm and fought hard for I6-SYN in the major 15-hour opening battle (last thread).
  

AN IRON CROSS
Although PIBC had achieved their objectives in the battle of I6-SYN, TGA were not yet beaten. Trenches were dug and heroes were celebrated. You may recall the man who lost two dozen scimitars in that single engagement and yet still returned to the field once more in a Scythe. Hours later, TGA rewarded him with a Hel for his determination. We should not be surprised: the deification of heroes is a very real aspect of maintaining morale in actual wars and so it proves in Eve, too.
The day after the battle, I logged in to the beleaguered TGA capital of I6-SYN. Rather than finding a beaten foe, I found that the K-IYNW entry gate was thoroughly camped by TGA. The image here shows their Dominix fleet and their Eagle fleet, which were among many fleets active at different times that day. PIBC support made several attempts to enter the system during the afternoon but were repelled.
However, PIBC High Command was pooling its efforts for the next key timer. A successful engagement there would serve to freeport the station and thus allow easier deployment of their large capital fleet into Cache.
SHOW ME YOUR MOE MOE
Sitting in an 800-man fleet on Serenity isn't that different to sitting in one on Tranquillity. Fleet chat offers up the familiar eclectic mix of flesh and felines, although there is noticeably less demand for PAP links. Participation metrics are still important but perhaps it's easier to keep track of with all the players centred around a single timezone.
Usually in matters of the Serenity server, our direct interactions are limited to Fu1crum and his inner circle. This time, however, the call was for all hands on deck and the lull between timers gave me plenty of opportunity to get to know more of the men and women behind the PIBC guns. They, in turn, wanted to get to know me - specifically, my moe-moe.
[ 2015.10.16 20:45:10 ] 镶金喵呜 > [LM] show us u moe-moe
[ 2015.10.16 20:46:17 ] 银河系之战神 > = =
[ 2015.10.16 20:47:25 ] 鬼魂舰 > holy high
[ 2015.10.16 20:47:40 ] 左左Y少校 > 一场悲剧正上演
[ 2015.10.16 20:47:42 ] 镶金喵呜 > mango too dirty
[ 2015.10.16 20:47:49 ] 伊洛卡缇 > mango too dirty
[ 2015.10.16 20:48:01 ] 图坦卡蒙三世 > mango too dirty
[ 2015.10.16 20:52:50 ] 镶金喵呜 > moe-moe 就是萌
[ 2015.10.16 20:52:58 ] 大地你iha > =moe-moe
[ 2015.10.16 20:53:01 ] 鬼魂舰 > SOGA
[ 2015.10.16 20:53:07 ] 银河系之战神 > 熊二，快点moe一个
[ 2015.10.16 20:57:35 ] 镶金喵呜 > [LM] where's u moe-moe 0 0
In almost every fleet, I was inundated with requests for my moe-moe. Unsure of the cultural protocol here, I made the mistake of turning to my trusted friend, Fu1crum (who is both an RnK member and one of PIBC's main FCs). He informed me that those requesting a moe-check were among the most important women on the server, and I should take the matter seriously: I must act cool, "like a cat". Eager to show my good intentions and earn the respect of my peers, I thus unleashed a simple "meow~" in chat, complete with what I assumed to be an adept little flourish at the end (~).
The fleet's reaction, however, ran rather contrary to my hopes:
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:10 ] 川岛亚美 > ..
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:11 ] 图坦卡蒙三世 > ......
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:13 ] 0乐百氏0 > ...
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:15 ] 银河系之战神 > ...
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:24 ] 左左Y少校 > の
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:26 ] 银河系之战神 > ORZ
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:27 ] 大地你iha > .............
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:28 ] 刑天I > ....
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:29 ] 伊洛卡缇 > …………
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:30 ] 孤丘 > GJ
[ 2015.10.16 21:00:34 ] FourFat > ...........
Once he was finally able to control himself and speak, Fu1crum informed me that for the denizens of Serenity my reputation as a "serious man" was now finished. He produced a Chinese proverb that seemed rather akin to ours about a lemming walking off a cliff if told to. The cultural faux pas appears to have extended to the hostiles also, for I soon noticed an exchange of cat calls in Local.
I thus resolved to focus on winning back their respect through a competent piloting performance. In the subsequent fleet this entailed triple-checking Google Translate to ensure that I had not confused the 'Jump' and 'Self-Destruct' positions on the right-click menu for my Ragnarok. Normally I play with a TQ client side-by-side but for some incomprehensible reason these buttons were not in quite the same place. It's one thing to have an old Chinese proverb about a fool running off a cliff but it's another thing entirely to gift their future generations with one about the fool who self-destructed his Titan instead of jumping.
FOOTHOLD ESTABLISHED
For the second battle for I6-SYN, a massive hellcamp was set up on the station. I was in favour of having Fu1crum press High Command to begin this camp some six hours before the end of the timer, to lock down the Constellation early. I reasoned that running battles of attrition (between groups chasing Entosis nodes) would favour TGA's extensive ship stocks, whereas the superior PIBC muscle would be favoured by a single, decisive engagement. In the event, however, TGA did not attempt to devolve the confrontation into a series of running battles and instead attempted to take PIBC head on, as they had done in the first fight. Yet this time the hurdle was too much and the clash was brief. Both fleets were fielding Eagles, leaving little room for counters or asymmetrical initiatives.
To hedge our bets, we had deadspace-fitted triage Chimeras ready to sit off-station. These carriers were heavily tanked against the Kinetic and Thermal damage of the Eagles' railguns. Spies had confirmed that TGA's only reshipping options were missile-based doctrines. Therefore, by preparing extensive firewall protection against missiles for the off-station carriers, we ensured that the tank could be tailored for massive peak resistance against the Eagle fleet. This was of course in addition to a powerful logistics cruiser wing. Unable to inflict significant attrition, there was little room for TGA to contest the battle in a head-on engagement. As the night wore on, it was clear that they were gradually bleeding numbers whilst PIBC's camp was holding solid.
With I6-SYN successfully contested, TGA pulled back to M-CNUD.
MOMENTUM AND MANGOS
Another lull in the combat allowed me to familiarise myself with the colloquialisms of the region. The lack of these during Star Wars Battlefront Beta was a significant disappointment to us. My Stormtrooper called Seeny's team 'REBEL SCUM!' and in return he could call me, what? Milky boys? I-Troops? It's a serious oversight.
The Chinese, however, have this sort of thing covered. PIBC forces are the 'Mangos'. I initially assumed that this was in some way connected to the fruit but I was soon informed by the hostiles that it was because our "Emperor points the way and the man goes (man-goes)". Fair enough. There is also a canine element to it (presumably playing on the same masochistic theme). During the discussion on Teamspeak the hostiles even private-convo'd me to this effect. Without much in the way of preamble, an enemy simply told me:
[ 2015.10.16 21:54:31 ] hhh4nnn1 > Mangos means pibcer are dogs.
TGA, meanwhile, are referred to as "the King's Men". Thus the Emperor's hounds wage war against the King's men.
I'm honoured to be a Mango.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the Mangos were rolling over the King's men and TGA were forced to make a succession of retreats from staging point to staging point. Certainly there was no lack of courage in their resistance but with the massive PIBC capital force now fully operational out of I6-SYN, we had the staging point required to strike freely into Cache.
TITAN LOSSES
As is often the case on Tranquility, successive TGA fallbacks were peppered by Supercapital losses. The King himself, SkyGod Sauron, lost his titan in M-CNUD. Indignant at being tackled outside his staging tower, he fired a Doomsday to kill an assaulting Moros - at that point the only PIBC capital on the field. It was later suggested that had it not been for delay caused by the killing of the dreadnought, he might have made it back inside the forcefield before sufficient forces arrived to bump him away. Nonetheless, friend and foe alike were forced to agree that he went down with guns blazing.
Two days later, I heard that the chase was on for a Titan that had jumped out of M-CNUD by gate. By the time I logged in, the errant beast was already reported to be warping to a safespot in the nearby system of CIG-XC. Surely that was the end of it? However, it so happened that two other titans had already taken refuge in this safespot and not moved far from the point of origin. Upon landing, the newcomer decloaked them and all three Titans sat uncloaked, bouncing helplessly off each other for crucial seconds. They were quickly probed down and tackled. As PIBC forces streamed in, the outcome was clear. Nonetheless, the three titans did attempt to go down in the manner of their leader and one of Fu1crum's dreadnought alts was doomsdayed into low structure.
All three titans were killed (1, 2, 3). Fast forward four days and three jumps and another titan was tackled and killed. Here is a 5K screenshot of the scene, complete with the victorious PIBC Machariel fleet.
In the grand scheme of nullsec empire conflict, the loss of five titans in three incidents over five days is not remarkable in and of itself. The same is true on Tranquility; long gone are the days when the loss of several titans could alter the outcome of a campaign. However, the events do serve to helpfully punctuate TGA's retreat in Cache. Each incident occurred a little further from M-CNUD as TGA experimented with successive fallback staging points.
As is often the case with nullsec war, the momentum was being felt: PIBC fleets were swelling and TGA fleets were gradually shrinking.
CONDITIONAL SURRENDER
At this point, PIBC decided to offer their terms for a cease-fire under which TGA would maintain some of their territory. In addition to a military surrender, TGA were asked to pay trillions of ISK in raw Scandium and Neodynium over the subsequent months.
This detail of the demand deserves a closer examination. The rationale for it hinged on the role of these moon materials in the production of key Tech2 Minmatar hulls, such as the Huginn and Scimitar. Ship prices on Serenity might surprise Tranquillity players. Although a Tech2 cruiser can be bought for 200million (a similar price to Tranquillity), a 'cheap' fit Tech3 cruiser costs around 2 billion isk. Combined with a lower skill point average due to the later launch of the server, this creates an environment of more rigid fleet compositions. Doctrines must be trained into and price considered carefully. As a result, it was reasoned that TGA's extreme reliance on shield HAC doctrines would leave them hamstrung without the use of key logistics and recon ships for those compositions.
In the end, TGA rejected the offer as it did not include the territory around their previous capital of I6-SYN. And so, PIBC recommitted to a full dismantling of their space.
Over the next few weeks TGA fleet numbers dropped from a previous maximum of around 1200 pilots to around 200 in their larger fleets, while PIBC continued to take key areas of territory in Cache and Insmother.
TGA most certainly still exist but the Letter War is over.
ONE NATION UNDER BUN
The nature of the Letter War sparked some interesting discussion in the Chinese forums, some of which mirrors the questions people ask of TQ's politics. Chinese posters mused over the nature of PIBC's overwhelming force and the unending yet organized mass of bodies they were able to throw upon the opposition. Does it have merit, they asked, to extend the burden of the orders that we follow in life into following orders in an online game?
When considering this it's important to remember that life exists in contraries. There's a tendency in the West to think of Chinese gaming as more regulated and repressed, which is perhaps unsurprising in light of facts such as the very legislation that caused Serenity to exist in the first place as an 'independent' (i.e. "untainted"?) server. Themes such as censorship, filters and the blocking of websites dominate our perceptions of the online lives of those 1.3 billion people.
And yet, just as the Catholic girls I know aren't always predictable in Judeo-Christian morality, so too the Chinese gamers I know number among the most anarchistic in my Contacts List. Omnipresent rules can serve to remind us of the cage we're in; I wasn't surprised that within an hour of being at Fanfest, the Chinese Team (unconnected to Fu1crum's folk) had been fined a few hundred Euros for breaking whatever public smoking laws Iceland enforces.
It's not just a simple equation that oppression inspires rebellion (although Eve probably does attract the not-so-average Chinese internet denizen), in the manner that Iran has plenty of aggressive and illegal Death Metal bands. There's a mainstream net-culture element that thinks of Western gaming as very Politically Correct. Several of the F2P MMOs tabbed-to in fleet had skimpy glad young girls and Swastikas that would be covered over in the West. Every culture has its own taboos.
I say all this because there's a temptation to think of Chinese gaming as naturally lending itself to the organisation of vast numbers of people simply because it is a vast country of vast population that requires vast effort to organise them. And yet, in fact, I think the average Serenity gamer is as counter-culture, cynical and savvy as any of us on TQ. Thus, contrary to what people might expect, plenty of eyebrows were raised at PIBC's ruthless domination of the virtual galaxy and its military emphasis on discipline and man-management. It was never culturally 'inevitable'. It was the product of a great deal of work by Military Bun and his able commanders like Fu1crum, Romoto, etc.
And now that they have probably conquered Serenity? I suppose we're left with another contradiction in a sea of contraries. This being the one that the most ostentatious shows of power in military uniforms, salutes and flourishes are linked to a masochistic subtext of dutifully following orders and submitting to power (I suppose there's a reason whips and SS uniforms are often purchased together by Torture Garden patrons). For better or for worse, men who always follow orders make for an intimidating note in history.
Therefore I'm not surprised that PIBC's enemies call them 'Man-gos' and PIBC have been happy to embrace it. It's simultaneously an insult and an admission of deference. Orders are given and man goes; submissive and dominant in equal parts.
For me, I'm happy to do the Starship Troopers thing for once and go where I'm told and shoot what needs shooting. Granted, they do say something about power corrupting. So when I'm asked what doctrine is needed, I can't quite leave it alone: "This operation will require a thousand Drakes".

Greetings ladies and gentlemen. Our first order of business is to come up with a kickass name that blows all the other KH raid names out of the water. My contribution and suggestion: Aperture Science.
General Info
Now for the rest! Aperture Science is a semi-hardcore casual raiding group that will hopefully raid mostly on the weekends and a little during the week around the hours of 7pm-11pm. The number of hours each night will likely be 3, maybe 4 on the weekends. Proposed raid days are Wednesday Saturday and Sunday. All of the information in this specific paragraph is not set in stone; it's largely based on member availability and preference.
Description
This group is going to be a fun group. Despite the fun that we will have, you need to be on top of your game. The only thing keeping us from being hardcore raiders is a time constraint. As such it will be expected that you will be on top of your class mechanics and skills. I'll be running a tight ship and I expect every member to perform at their highest possible skill. Don't let this expectation stop you from joining as we can shape you up in no time at all.
Expectations
At the very least you must have an ilvl of 340 before I'll let you step into the raid instance. Some of us that are already in the group aren't there yet so we will facilitate group heroics to raise our gear level. If you aren't sure what sort of upgrades you need talk to me, Illgresi or Lachryma and we'll be glad to help you find resources online and figure out which rep items and justice point rewards would be most beneficial. As a general note however, you should know what you need without having to ask or this group may not be the best for you. I'm hoping that we'll all be ilvl 345 before doing our first raid however if we're all 340 and the time is right we may give a raid a try to see how things feel.
You'll need all of your gear enchanted and gemmed correctly. This is something I'm okay being lenient on with the helping. If you aren't sure what's best to gem with or enchant with I suggest you check out your character on www.wow-heroes.com - it will tell you pretty much the best things to slot and enchant. At this point, since I don't have an eye for what competitive DPS in a Cata raid environment is yet I'm not going to put a solid bottom line on how much DPS you do but suffice it to say if you are under 8k on a single target (which you shouldn't be if you are geared to the raid group's expectation) then you need to do some work. This applies only to the DPS as tanks don't care about their DPS and healers aren't attacking.
Teamspeak is required for all raids. Min/Maxing is a fine art but is not required, though I highly suggest and support it. Our goal isn't to get server firsts or even seconds or thirds. Our goal is to complete the content, hopefully including heroic mode, and get achievements and mounts. Buff food is important as are flasks, so make sure you have plenty of each. I'll try to make sure that we have some sort of feast if they still exist in Cata that will buff the raid in case you forget your food but oft-times it is better for you, stat wise, to bring your own food. I'm working on obtaining all the most useful buff food recipes so if you need something talk to me and we can work it out.
Loot
The view of this raid group is that gear is a tool, not an accessorie or a goal. For the longest time I raided with the mindset that I wanted the best gear so that I'd look really cool and people would know that I was a raider. In the long run, that was a shitty mindset to be in because it limited my potential. I didn't think about the group composition as a whole and didn't lend my support to the raid make up, I merely deadweighted and spaced out while I DPSed. The most satisfaction will come from downing difficult encounters and getting achievements, in my opinion.
The loot system is not definitely set yet but I'm considering EPGP which is a performance based DKP system, straight up DKP or perhaps loot council since that emphasizes the gear as tool ideal. Please share your ideas in the comments or with me through DM, whispers or mail.
Interested People and Needs
Healers

• Imania Shaman
• Lachryma Paly
• Beanforest Druid

Tanks

• Slowhand - Prot Paly
• Badmojoe - Prot Paly?
• Fratley - Warrior Tank?

DPS
RDPS

• Illgresi
• Umbrasalus - Alternate
• Touching

MDPS

• Izunadrop
• Kerynala
• Constrobuz?
• Too many MDPS! Only need 2

Raid Backup/Fill-ins

• Touching Druid Tank
• Lychy Resto Shaman
• Diothar Holy Priest
• Vafada Resto/Ele Shaman

EDIT: We currently have 1 RDPS for sure and a possible 2nd of the same class but we need more! Thinking a mage or a hunter would be best but a boomkin could work too. Healers are locked in which doesn't give much flexibility to the tanks since Mojoe's offspec is heals and I would highly prefer 1 warrior tank 1 paly tank over 2 paly tanks. For MDPS we have 2 warriors and a DK. Izuna was first and so is staying but Kery and Cons were later and I would prefer not to triple up on a class if I can help it. As it stands right now, Const is on alternative/backup as is Umbrasalus and the tanks are Slowhand and Fratley. We can do two palys if we need to and I don't want to be unfair to mojoe since he came in first, so we need his opinion before proceeding.
My raid comp consideration gives space for 2 melee dps and 3 ranged dps. One of the ranged is taken so we need 2 more casters or other ranged DPS and 2 melee. I think it would be nice to get a hunter and mage and perhaps a rogue and/or a DK. Regardless of these preferences, if you are interested let me know and we'll work something out. I won't say no to someone because they don't fit an optimal raid comp.
Additional Information
As it stands right now Imania is the raid leader, Illgresi is the assistant raid leader and Lachryma is the healing lead. At this time I don't think we need any other lead positions but if something comes up I'll be sure to notify the group.
If you have any questions or I missed anything (which I'm betting I did but it's my bedtime!) then please comment or contact me somehow else and I'll edit the post with relevant information.

Contents

Section 1 – Introduction (and a few questions) Section A – Handy Links Section 2 – Downloading the game Section 3 – Registering a QQ Account Section 4 – Installation Section 5 – Startup Section 6 – (Optional) Install and set-up Tencent Gaming Platform Section X – Conclusion Section Y – Changelog

Section 1 – Introduction

This is a guide I’ve made in order to help people register for and get the game Monster Hunter Online. I’ve tried my best to explain as much as possible and to make it easy to follow. It should be fool proof. This may look long and complicated, but it really isn’t. In some ways it might seem difficult and I’ve seen that existing guides don’t consider the many issues that folks might come across. Especially considering a lot of the installation and menus are in Mandarin and that there is no Western version of the game. I know a lot of people want to try this out, so this is for them. The game is approaching open beta (December 17th), which is why I decided to make this now, it’s better to have the game files ready to go (only a small update required) and it saves a lot of hassle later for anybody who wants to play the game ASAP. There is a closed beta, but good luck getting a beta key. One might as well wait for the open beta. Open beta is now live.
What is MHO? Monster Hunter Online is an MMO based on the Monster Hunter games with a free-to-play business model, which is exclusive to China. It is only available on PC. Thusly, it has the best graphics of any Monster Hunter game so far, it can be played in full HD.
Exclusive to China, how can I play this game? Fret not, there are no restrictions to access this game, this guide will help you get the game. There is no IP block and I saw some comments by Japanese folk who were upset that this game isn’t even available in Japan. Complete with complaints that this is the full HD game and that the 3DS screen is too small/terrible graphics/uncomfortable to play. A vocal minority unfortunately, Capcom doesn’t even care about the group of Japanese folks who also want HD Monster Hunter on console/PC in HD. At least they can play MHX right now though, better than nothing right?
Is it coming to the West and when? The official word is: “There are currently no plans to bring MHO to Western markets.” All this means is simply, no. MHO won’t be coming to the West. Don’t expect it, but you can feel free to be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong and it does. I’ll be celebrating with you. But otherwise, no. It won’t have a Western version. The good news is you can still play the game. You’ll just have to put up with Chinese text (Mandarin)
When can I play this game, I heard it’s in beta? Indeed it is in beta. You can only play in closed beta with a key, but the open beta starts on the 17th December, just over a week from now (8th December). Which is why I’m making this guide, to help folks get ready to play during open beta Game is now open beta!
I don’t know Chinese, but would like to play this game. What do I do? You can still try out the game. There are helpful folks like me who will try their best to explain some of the features and of course, I’d recommend getting google translate on your phone so you can translate by just taking a snap of your screen. Sure it’s pretty bad, but it’s better than nothing. I don’t know a thing about Chinese either and I’ve made this guide. I don’t plan on learning Chinese either and it’s a different language to Japanese if you’re familiar with that instead
Do I need a good PC for this/what are the system requirements? Here is a link for the system requirements for the alpha. I would personally recommend at least an Intel i3/AMD Phenom ii x4 980 processor, 8GB of system RAM and a GTX 760/R9 280 as minimum, the game would probably work on lower end hardware. The best thing to do is to run the benchmark, you can find it in my post here. My results are in there too. If you want to play it maxed at 1080p60, then a modern i5 and a GTX970 are recommended
Free to play, sounds like micro-transactions? The game does have that sort of thing, but for more clarity, I recommend reading this post. Doesn’t sound so bad, but it is free to play. If one doesn’t like it, one can simply uninstall it
Will there be an English patch like with MHP3rd/MHX? I don’t think so. This is an online game, so it would be tough to patch it in English. Especially as the game gets updated often UPDATE: There is now a fan-made English patch in the works and Tencent themselves have approved it. However, don't expect a completed patch to arrive anytime too soon. Open beta has started today and I remember there being 20k lines of Chinese that need translation
Getting this seems like too much hard work. Why should I bother? If you don’t want to bother, that’s fine. Play whatever you like. But if you think it’s too hard, then I’m here to prove you wrong. Follow my guide and you should be able to get it all set up easy peasy. You’ll be ready for the open beta in no time! (or some time, depending on how slow the game downloads :s)
Can I follow this guide in any order? Something can’t be done without the pre-requisites. You can’t install the game without having the files first. However you can make the account at any time, before you need to log in. I recommend doing it while the game is downloading, since you’ll have a lot of time. Which is why I’ve listed it after downloading
Where are the images? As you may know, reddit posts cannot directly contain images. Instead we have to link them. Each step will have an associated image link showing you what to do. Here’s an additional link to the whole page of images
Will there be a video version of this guide? I’m sorry but I don’t have the equipment or knowhow to make a video guide. IMO a good guide needs narration and I don’t have a microphone, nor the environment to record in. With that said, if anyone wants to make a video version of this guide, I’d appreciate it, so let me know and I’ll link it from here
There’s already guides on how to do this. Why should I use this guide? Feel free to use whichever guide you want. I’ve made my guide while taking into consideration the many issues faced by people trying to do this and have tailored it to resolve the ones I know of. Here’s a link to an existing/alternate guide. The person also has other guides for MHO, so even if you use my guide, it might not be so bad to check it out
How did your installation go? I bet it was flawless right? You'd be surprised. I had issues at the registration step, which honestly make no sense. My regular browser wouldn't even load the intrnational QQ page and my phone just kept on bringing up the SMS validation instead. So I just slept on it and tried it a day later and it just worked. May be the same for you
Following the guide at x step, it won't connect/says the server is overloaded, what do I do? I almost forgot that this is an online game, so the connection won't be perfect. At times they may take the servers down for some reason or another. I recommend coming back and trying later.
I have x problem, help me! Follow this guide properly and you shouldn’t have any issues. Among the common issues that this guide bypasses are: needing to use SMS verification to set up the QQ account, being stopped after logging into the game with a box asking for details and installing extra unwanted programs. That last one especially, I’ve yet to see addressed in other guides. Otherwise, please link a screenshot of your problem and explain it thoroughly. I’ll try my best to help but I can’t make any guarantees
What is a TGP? TGP stands for Tencent Gaming Platform. It is entirely optional whether you want to use it or not. It's essentially like Steam, but for Tencent's Chinese MMOs. Apparently the game has fewer problems with this
Do I need to have the system locale set to Chinese in order to run the game or the TGP? I'd recommend trying to run it with your normal settings. If it doesn't work, then change your system locale to Chinese as shown in the guide below and it should work
Are we limited to a single charactesingle server? How does it work? You can access any server, but of course I'd recommend playing on servers with a largely English speaking community, who'd be able to help you out. You can make as many characters as you want. But characters are bound to a specific server and if you want to move a character, I believe it may cost a large amount of money (in-game) or some micro-transaction. Feel free to make a character on each server if you want
What server should I play on? As is shown in the guide, the first selection is region and the second selection is the server. A lot of folks were playing on East 3/South , but there were issues and we got locked out, likely due to high population. We are playing on New South, Server 2, which is the second button for region and the second for server. If you get locked out of that server (due to high pop), you have my sincerest apologies
Reserved for more questions
If there are any issues with the guide itself, please let me know and I’ll try my best to accommodate

Section A – Handy Links

[MHO] How to help you to translate Chinese (Bluestacks) by momocorpo - https://www.reddit.com/MonsterHuntecomments/3w6iei/mho_how_to_help_you_to_translate_chinese/
Google Translate App - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate&hl=en
MHO Discord (it's like teamspeak, can chat by typing) - https://discordapp.com/channels/122526505606709257/12252650560670925
MHO Discord FAQ (contains handy info) - https://discordapp.com/channels/122526505606709257/126578658423865344
Note: Some folks have mentioned the discord links aren't working for them. I've tested them myself and they work for me. If you have a link that is different and works for you, please let me know. Copy and pasting the URL for the discord gives me the above links
Other links in guide & more to come!

Section 2 – Downloading the game

I recommend downloading the game is the first thing you do, only because it can take time.
1. Download the installer [Image] - Go to this link (http://mho.qq.com/download.shtml) and download the installer for the game
2. (Optional) Download Direct X and Microsoft Visual C++ if you don’t already have them [Image] - If you are using a Windows PC on Windows 7 or later, you should automatically have the latest version of DX already. It’s best to go to the Official Microsoft website to get the latest version of Visual C++
3. Run installer [Image] - Once you have the installer, run it and this should appear. Choose where you want to download the files for the installer. Do note this doesn’t install the game, it just needs to store the installation files somewhere. You can delete them after you’ve installed the game. Then click the button to start the download
4. Download [Image] - Then begins the big wait, you don’t need to do anything, just leave it alone. You can do section 3 during this time. The download can be paused if need be. Don’t click the boost button, it’s not available to us in the West without some nonsense. Who ever heard of giving download boosts? Only on fileshare sites, this is an official game downloader! The download does take a long time, note the timer is laid out as hour:minute:seconds. Even if you have a good connection, it still goes slowly as it needs to download from Chinese servers. I have a normal speed of 38megabit/s which would show as over 4MB/s. The speed maxed out at under 500kbps at peak (very slow) and took me 7 hours to download the full 5.5GB. Give yourself plenty of time to download
5. (Optional) Cap speed, completely stop or cancel the download [Image] - If for whatever reason you need to stop or cancel the download, use the taskbar icon to open up this menu for exiting. If it’s not there, then click the arrow (might be different in later versions of Windows) You can save your files to resume download later, which is handy if you need to turn off your computer for whatever reason. You can also use this to cap the speed of the download if you need to
6. Finish download [Image] - Now that it’s finished, don’t install it since you’ll run into issues if you do. You need to do something else first. You can quit without any worries since the files are already on your hard drive. The next step is in the installation section

Section 3 – Registering a QQ account

You can actually do this at any time before you are required to sign in. Using my method you should avoid some issues
1. Fill in registration [Image] - I’ve had issues doing this on Mozilla Firefox, so I recommend using Internet Explorer or Edge to resolve this. Try it on your normal browser first though, there’s a chance it will work for you (this includes Mozilla Firefox users). You need to register at the site (http://reg.imqq.com/). Use your legit email as you will need to access it to verify the registration. If you are younger than 18 I recommend putting in a fake DOB, just in case. It might not be an issue, but it’s better to do it in case it could be. I’ve no idea if it makes a difference, since I just used my actual DOB, so I didn’t have to worry about the 18 thing. Remember this DOB if you are faking it. You can be accurate about your location, but really it doesn’t matter much. Make sure the agreement box is ticked and proceed. Cookie if you can guess the password in the image
Note: Some people have been mentioning that they've been having connection issues using (http://reg.imqq.com/). Metaljac found a way that solved this for them (link to their post), essentially it requires going to the regular Chinese sign-up site for a QQ account (http://zc.qq.com/en/index.html?from=pt). The side tab shows 2 account types as in the image in the next step, I assume you want to make sure it has selected QQ account on the side. This method will result in it asking for SMS verification, which didn't work for me, but might work for you (and it did work for Metaljac). Make sure you change the region, since it defaults to Chinese numbers. Here's another post by Yoshieatsworld who found a way to solve the problem
2a. Solved Issue: SMS Verification AKA You messed up/are unlucky [Image] - This should not appear. It may also say 'suspicious activities from your IP'. Worry not, there’s a workaround. Retry the registration with Internet Explorer or Edge. It worked for me. Why is this bad? Because the SMS system is broken. I tried it first and my phone didn’t receive any SMS. It doesn’t actually send you any verification code most of the time. Use email verification to bypass this issue. Some people have reported success via SMS, but since it doesn’t work for most people so I recommend to just not bother with it. If it does work for you, then you will need to change region to apply the correct country code for your phone. Some people are having issues getting the thing to load at all. I had issues myself at this stage. The only solution I found for that was luck/waiting. I tried it later and it worked as it should. Some folks have said that using a VPN helped them get it working, thanks to Polantaris for commenting on this
Note: If you continue to get the SMS, or have given it a go with no success, I'm not sure what to do. For me it just randomly worked (sent me to the email registration) after I left it alone for a day. I also got the 'suspicious activities from your IP' beforehand. This might have been tdue to attempting to use the SMS a lot. I recommend leaving it alone and coming back in a few days and trying different browsers/PCs to try and get the email verification on imqq.com. I'm sorry if this doesn't help
2b. Success [Image] - This is what you should see after hitting the confirm button. This means it has worked. Go to your email and click the verification link
2c. The email [Image] - Just an image of what the email looks like. The screen you get upon successful verification will show you your QQ number and you can copy it down at this point. However the QQ number appears again later, so you’ll still have that opportunity in a bit
3a. Age verification/ID [Image] - Go to (http://jkyx.qq.com/) and just click the button. This resolves an issue with a pop-up asking for details to verify age/identity when trying to play the game. This site might be slow to load, even on good internet connections
3b. Solved Issue: Pop-up in game [Image] or [Image] - Yeah, you don’t want this since it stops you from playing the game. Please note that this will not occur for you, nor will you be logging into the game just yet. You probably haven’t even installed it. Doing these steps should mean you never have to see this screen
Note: It appears the message may have moved in the later versions of the game to the sign in screen. MaDCruncH posted here that the message may show up on the initial log in screen. Ensure you do the next few steps
Update: Next few steps are outdated due to an update for ID verification, read the update note below
3c. Log into your account [Image] - Easy, just put in your email and password you registered with
3d. One of these… [Image] - Yeah… you know what to do. There’s a button to ‘refresh’ the image
4a. Click the blue text [Image] - This page will pop up the first time you log in (and any other time if you don’t follow through these steps). Click the link to register an ID or something. I don’t know what it says. It’s Mandarin ;)
4b. Fake some details [Image] - Remember I told you that this game doesn’t have IP block. Well this is their laughable attempt to keep out non-Chinese folks. Just lie and put in some fake details, cos the hilarious thing is that it works. The only exception is that date. Put in the date of birth you registered with, it should be one that suggests you are at least 18. Just in case
Note: Some people are saying the ID section has changed and that it requires something different. Please post a screenshot of the webpage if this has been the case for you. If so, then I currently do not have a solution. Perhaps the devs are aware of this ID faking. Also make sure you put in a date of birth before 1997, to ensure an age of 18+. Just in case you get blocked for 'being too young.' Might seem like nonsense, but this has happened before in Western MMOs (reminds me of the time when Runescape had an age restriction for setting up an account)

Update:

This section has changed and now requires a different form of ID, I cannot update the guide with it since I've already signed up with the method I've shown here. A quote from dimsum4sale who found the solution: "hey the resident id thing has changed and it looks like you actually need a chinese resident id. i found a site that lets you generate the id based off of the province and dob. http://www.tool7001.com/ idk what to put for the name, i just copied a chinese name and put it on there." Long story short, go to that website and generate an ID to use in that section
4c. Success and your QQ number [Image] - You’ll get this screen if it’s worked. Remember I said, there would be other opportunities to copy down your QQ number? Well the number I blocked out in black bars (twice) was the QQ number all along! (the lowest black bar is the username). You will need this number to log into the game. Make sure you know what it is. If you lose your QQ number, just log back into this site to find it again

Section 4 – Installation

You will first need to do something before this step. Solved Issue Also follow the instructions closely if you want to avoid installing extra crap. Before you scream you have viruses, it’s just software made by companies partnered with the game. But they are unnecessary bloat, so I will help you avoid them. This continues on from the download section
Note: Alternative for step 7 and some step that might require you to change your locale to Chinese, a solution is given here by rikaii. Let me know if you try this and it works. I might add it in to the guide in full when I get the time
7a. Open control panel [Image] - Don’t worry, the change you are about to make is reversible and is actually required to run the installer and the game. Open up control panel and select ‘Region and Language’
7b. Solved Issue: Change System Locale [Image] - Go to the administrative tab in the window that pops up. Click on the ‘Change system locale’ button. Select ‘Chinese (Simplified, PRC)’ from the dropdown list. The name of this option may vary if you are using later versions of Windows, this guide was made on Windows 7. It can also be ‘Chinese (Simplified, China)’ for example. Remember where you did this setting. Just so that you can revert it when you need to. This doesn’t actually change your system language to Mandarin or anything like that. Just a few programs will change language (my Steelseries software for my mouse changed to Chinese for example) and crucially, this is required to install and run the game. It can be changed back to normal at any time
7c. System restart [Image] - Changing that setting requires the PC to restart. So do it unless you plan to do so later
8. Open the installer once more [Image] - Open the same .exe program you used to download the game earlier. It should pop up with the same screen you closed it with. Now you are good to click the install button
9. Installer hype! [Image] - Proceed with caution. Here you will dodge the sneaky ninja add-on programs that will try and get onto your hard drive. The epic background music can be turned off, but why would you want to do that?
10. Terms and conditions [Image] - Contrary to what you might think, the tick box is not a box to accept the terms and conditions and is actually one of those sneaky unwanted programs. Take it down by unticking the box before continuing
11. Choose install location [Image] - The default location is C drive, but anyone with a modern PC these days likely has their C drive as their dedicated OS drive on an SSD. Use the option to change the install location. Note the filesize and remember the location. The coast is also clear of those pesky softwares, for now…
12. Installation file size [Image] - This time the installer is telling you what it is installing. You can hover over each thing, the greyed out options are the game and software it needs to run. You may already have the extra software if you play a lot of PC games. But! One of these options doesn’t pop up on the side. Uncheck that sucker and feel good for avoiding another of these annoying things. Then proceed with installation
13. Install and look at cool artwork [Image] - Just wait and let it do its thing. In the meanwhile, you can gawk at images showing off the cool stuff in the game. Or just do something else
14. Finish installation [Image] - Click next
15. Exit [Image] - Yay it’s finished, now to just click okay… HOLD IT! It’s not over just yet. Except for the first tick box, the remaining text boxes prompt to install those pesky additional softwares. The last option is the TGP, however this is optional and a later section of the guide will tell you how to get that if you want. It's not needed at this stage. With exception if you are on Windows 8 or 10, leave the first box checked to launch the game. At this point I recommend you go to check your installed programs, sort by date of installation and see that the only new program installed should have been MHO and maybe some of its dependencies. I saw no extra unwanted programs in mine by this method of installation
16a. (Optional) Solved Issue: Recommended settings for Windows 8/10 [Image] - Launching MHO prompts a security box, so it’s pretty much ‘run as administrator’ ready. However, folks on later versions of the Windows OS may run into some issues. Remember where you selected the game to install? The first set of Hanzi (Chinese characters, pretty much the same as Japanese Kanji) reads Tencent Games and the only folder that should be inside is the Hanzi reading MHO. Open it up and find the launcher. Right click, go to ‘Properties’
16b. (Optional) Solved Issue: Recommended settings for Windows 8/10 [Image] - Go to the ‘Compatibility’ tab and select ‘Windows 7’ from the drop-down list and tick the box. You may want to check the ‘run as administrator’ box if you really want to, but it’s not necessary. Save the changes by clicking ‘Accept’ and then ‘OK’
Note: If you have done step 16, then you can skip to step 18b for solving the next issue, if you haven't closed the folder
17. (Recommended) Solved Issue Locale Requirement [Image] -If you try and launch the game on your normal system locale, you may get this error in gibberish. It won't pop up when the system locale is Chinese, but it does change the language of some programs. So the following steps are a solution to the problem, brought to my attention thanks to rikaii for their comment here (you can read it if you wish). Essentially just changing the names of the directories that the game runs from to English (roman alphabet characters) is enough to sove this problem. Imgur guide for this mini section is here
18a. (Recommended) Open the file location [Image] -The easiest way to get to the folder is to right click the shortcut you probably use to launch the game, and select open file location. This will take you straight to the location of the client where the game is installed. Otherwise just do it the old-fashioned longer way
18b. (Recommended) Getting to the folder [Image] -Go to the folder containing the first set of Hanzi characters, this is the same place you selected to install the game in, usually named something like 'program files.' You don't want to click on the folder itself, but the one above so you can select the folder
19. (Recommended) Renaming the first folder [Image] -Unless you are completely new to Windows, then you should know how to rename a folder, but I'll show it in the picture anyway. The folder reads 'Tencent Games' in Hanzi characters, while you can rename it to anything you like (as long as it's written in roman alphabet or any of the characters your keyboard allows), it's probably best to rename it to 'Tencent Games' since that's what it would be called if it was all in English. After renaming it, open the folder
20. (Recommended) Renaming the second folder [Image] -You should only have one folder in here, unless you play other Tencent games (in which case read on to figure out which folder). Rename this folder too. The characters may look familiar to us (even if we can't read them), especially with that one English word 'Online' as a give away. The Hanzi characters read 'Monster Hunter' so the English version of the folder would be named 'Monster Hunter Online.' As before, you can rename it to anything you like, but it's recommended to give it the proper name. Enter the folder after renaming it
21. (Recommended) Sorting out the shortcut [Image] -Without this step, the shortcut will not open up the game as it won't be able to find the game at the path specified. While you can manually edit the file location in the existing shortcut, that takes a bit of work and we're lazy. So delete it and in the 'Monster Hunter Online' folder you've just renamed, you'll find a folder named 'TCLS.' Enter it and you'll be back to where the client is found. To easily create a new shortcut, you can just right click the client and 'send to desktop.' Alternatively, if you don't want your shortcut in the desktop, you can 'copy' the client and 'paste shortcut' anywhere on your computer. Hey presto, you are done. Only one thing left now...
22. (Optional) Works without changing locale [Image] -Here I'm just showing you that the game will launch with the regular system locale (mine is English). At this point you may move onto the next section to figure out what to do on this screen. Since I made this section of the guide a few days after the next sections, you may notice some extra light blue text and a button under the sign in on the image (not present in the image in the next section), which you may get yourself. I'm not entirely sure what the button does, it may be a TGP thing. Thus I'd recommend not touching it, since it doesn't do anything we need at this moment

Section 5 – Startup

Honestly, this isn’t really needed. You’ve pretty much got there and installed the game. But just to help you that little bit more, I’ll explain how the log in screen and server browser works. It’s pointless as I write this for most folks, since the open beta is still several days away. But it helps to know these things. Open beta has started.
1. The log in screen [Image] - Retrieve your QQ number you jotted down while you accessed your account to sort out the ID/age restriction. If you have forgotten, log in to (http://jkyx.qq.com/) and you’ll find it above your username on the left or right at the top next to the letters QQ. Then enter your password. Tick the bottom box with the double brackets to accept agreement and tick the box next to 4 kanji in order to enable your QQ number to be remembered. There might be other boxes. At this point I do not recommend ticking or touching anything, There is a fast log in button, I’m not exactly sure how it’s a fast log-in but I just log in the regular way. It probably just auto-selects the server or something, making the next step pointless
2. Play game screen [Image] - If you have already selected your server, then just click play. Otherwise click on server select to choose your server
3. Server Select [Image] - Choose your server, I recommend seeing the Discord FAQ in the link section to see what server everybody is playing on. After that, you are in the game. I might do a guide on character creation, but that's as far you'll be taken by this guide
Note: Servers won't always be in the same position in the server select, since they are often adding, removing and moving around servers. I recommend you choose the server based on the actual Chinese text, or you may find you're aren't playing on the server you wanted to play on. This is especially important for the system locale fix, since retaining original system locale the server names pop up as gibberish. See the next step below this note
4. Solved Issue Gibberish Error [Image] - This is what the server select looks like if you don't have system locale set to Chinese (after renaming the game folders). The game itself might not have issues, and you won't need to see this screen if you are just playing on one server, but it's a heads up for fokd who want to be able to read what the servers say. The solution is to change system locale to Chinese

Section 6 – (Optional) Install and set-up Tencent Gaming Platform

This is an extra option that has been bought to my attention in this post. It's not needed, but apparently its quicker than logging in the normal way. To me the TGP is essentially the Steam/Uplay/Origin for Tencent's MMOs. It's up to you whether you want to use this. The standalone imgur guide for this section is here. If you have renamed the game folders to English in the recommended installation step, you might have issues here. Let me know if you do
1. Download the installer [Image] - Go to (http://tgp.qq.com/), the homepage for this software and download the installer. Make sure your system locale is set to Chinese before you try and install TGP or you may receive an error when trying to install. See above on how to do so, if you have forgotten
2a. Open the installer [Image] - Make sure you tick the box to accept agreement. If you don't like the place it's chosen to install in, you can customise the installation by clicking the button on the bottom right. You will return to this page afterwards. Click the big install button to start the process
2b. (Optional) Custom install settings [Image] - Here you can choose where to install the software. You can opt to add a desktop shortcut if you want. I recommend leavinng the second box checked as the guide will continue with the initial set-up of the TGP software. Confirming this all will save and take you back to the previous screen. Just click the normal install button to continue
3. Installing [Image] - Just wait for it to finish. Images of things from various Tencent MMOs and games will pop up. Have a gander if you'd like
4. Finish and launch TGP [Image] - If you unticked the box on the custom install page, you'll have to launch the TGP manually. It will come to the same screen
5. Log in your QQ account [Image] - Be greeted by a cool Chinese man pointing at you, while you enter your QQ account details. You will be using your QQ number to sign in, the same way you sign into the regular MHO client, which does not have an auto-sign in option currently. You'll probably want both boxes ticked unless you have a reason not to
6a. Click next a few times [Image] - Unless you play other Tencent MMOs, MHO should be the only option here and the box should be ticked by default. Continue
6b. Click next a few times [Image] - Automatic updates. Isn't that as standard? Continue
6c. Click next a few times [Image] - Faster connections and faster loading times... well sounds a bit strange for them to say that. I honestly can't tell whether this is indeed faster. Continue
6d. Click next a few times [Image] - Nothing to do here. It's just showing us games that have official management programs. I've no idea what they do, but MHO doesn't seem to be on the list. Continue
7. Finish first time setup [Image] - Some extra info in Mandarin. Now click the button to finish this all and you'll never have to go through this process again (unless you uninstall it)
8. TGP Menu UI [Image] - This is the menu you'll be seeing if you decide to use TGP to launch the game. Click on the button under the adorable felyne to launch MHO. Essentially this skips the start-up and log in screen and takes you straight to server select
9. (Optional) TGP Settings [Image] - These are the settings. Customise these as you please. Unless you'll be playing MHO often, then you can untick the box to run TGP at startup. I recommend changing the 'After launching a game' option to minimise the menu to system tray. Change the download and installation paths to whatever you want. Unless you have a good reason not to, I recommend changing the 'Keep installer?' setting to delete the installer after installation. You probably don't want an installer lying around your hard drive after having used it. Confirm to save settings and you are good to go

Section X – Conclusion

Cor it took me all day to write this and a good part of yesterday collecting and editing the images. I had troubles with imgur and can’t seem to find the full list of images, so this will have to do. I’ll edit it in in the morning, since it’s just past midnight right now. I hope this guide has helped you get the game to prepare foplay the open beta. I might make further guides in the future if I have the time and if people want it. As I mentioned at the start, there’s no video version, so feel free to contact me if you make one and I’ll give you a shout-out. Be sure to comment if you have any issues or if I made an error and I’ll try my best to help. Whether this game is any good or not, it’s free to play so we can at least try it out during the beta. Feel free to discuss MHO below and help others out, bring that great hunting community to MHO, whether it's worthy of being called a MH game or not. Good luck and enjoy the hunt!

Section Y – Changelog

08/12/2015 - Uploaded first version 09/12/2015 - Added TGP section and changelog. Improved formatting 10/12/2015 - Added Handy links section. Added a few things 11/12/2015 - Added solution for system locale requirement to launch the game in the installation section. Added potential solution for registration connection issues. Edited a few related sections 16/12/2015 - Added extra info and another user solution for the sign-up 17/12/2015 - Added questions, started update for open beta Updated sign-in section 19/12/2015 - Added note to server select and ID section 22/12/2015 - Added solution/update for ID verification step 23/12/2015 - Added VPN (user solution) info for SMS step and note for Discord links

Hello community, with all this talk about Nostalrius and the vague possibility of Vanilla coming back i felt pretty nostalgic and decided to reflect on my own memories and share some of it in a way to honor this amazing and unique game.
Background
It all started in '05, i was attending university, playing Counter-strike 1.6 at a pretty high level and one of my clan mates played like shit at a tournament we've been preparing for quite some time. He wasn't as motivated as before since our clan was going through a rough patch. The 5 of us were friends and lived together in one big apartment since we attended the same university. We had been successful for about two years and we were picked up by a famous brand for sponsorship which eventually granted us a couple of exhibition matches against the world's best CS team at the time, the swedish powerhouse SK. Despite all that success the pressure was getting to us and there were some tensions between some of us which started to mess up with our friendship.
Me and a couple of clan mates were on the verge of quitting the team because it wasn't fun anymore, it became business. The reason my mate played like shit was because he pulled an allnighter playing Wow. Being former WC2 and WC3 players of course we had already heard about it but he was actually the first to play it and he was in complete awe when giving us his first impressions. He made the act of repetitive boar and wolf killing an awesome experience so we had to try it out. Fast forward one week, we talked to the sponsor, abandoned it and 3 of us left CS for good as we were pretty burned out.
Vanilla
I bought the game and since i had no laptop available that night went home and read through the whole booklet, deciding that i wanted to be a warlock because of the demons, being ranged and the combination of shadow and fire spells. When we started leveling up, we were 8, all IRL friends. We picked alliance because our mate that played first was a night elf druid. None of us had actually played an MMO before so our levelling experience was diverse, noobish and extremely fun.
We spent hours dueling and exploring the first day. The world felt alive, you walked the roads and met people everywhere. The first time we stepped inside Stormwind and the soundtrack kicked in it was epic, still can remember the chills. The city was full of people and i struggled with the concept of all those chars jumping around being players and not NPCs, as i said, i was new to MMOs. There was a cool guy giving away gold so people could create their guilds so we created a guild with all our IRL friends in it.
The first time we've met an horde player, we were levelling in Elwynn, killing murlocs for a quest. A high level tauren shows up in a kodo and spammed some emotes, we were all trying to figure out what to do because he was a yellow target since we were on Alliance turf, until one of my friends says: "C'mon, we're 4, he's just one, let's get him!" and attacked him, the tauren laughed, dismounted, equipped a fishing rod and proceeded to beat the living shit out of my friend. One of us reached 15 days /played on the first month based on a Cola, cofee and pizza diet. Another one started a few days late and picked a Nelf Hunter and wanted to level up with us but since we were all Humans or Dwarves and our Nelf Druid friend was already 30ish he entered the boat in Darkshore and tried to come from Menethil to Stormwind at level 11, first he tried swimming but he eventually gave up and tried the roads. When he was all red, without any gear and after hours of corpse running he met a level 50 guy who kindly escorted him to Redridge where we were expecting him.
We were completely immersed in the world, it was such a new experience at the time. We quested a lot but also leveled together in instances and more IRL friends joined us, when the first of us reached 60 we were around 15 guys playing, most of the time together at our place where we had a huge living room with 3 dinner tables aligned to give a LAN house feeling. Our internet connection was pretty good since we needed it before for CS training. If you wanted to play at our place you just needed to bring your own laptop. For months there was always at least one guy logged in, morning, afternoon or night, you name it. Sometimes we were 10 or 11 at the same time. It was by this time that i started seeing chars fully epic in IF and thinking to myself that i wanted to have the same gear. There was a priest, vastly known in our server that always stood on top of the wagon on the right side of the bank in IF, he had the best gear in slot before BWL came out and everyone stopped by the wagon, "his throne", to inspect and sort of worship him. It was at that moment that my competitive self decided that someday that his wagon would be mine. When we reached level 60 we started farming the instances to get tier 0 so we could get into a MC raiding guild. The first time i've stepped inside MC i was nervous as fuck, 40 people inside, i couldn't mess it up so i was ultra focused. I wasn't really prepared for the shit fest i had joined. We managed to get into a full national guild that was stuck on Magmadar and our introduction to raiding was some weeks wiping on the dogs before him because people couldn't understand the concept of focus DPS and everyone shouted on ventrillo. It was an epic mess, there were some guys trolling for sure, namely some hunters pulling the imps or another dog pack but quite frankly nobody could tell who was doing it.
By that time i was already focused on my first major goal in the game, getting Headmaster's Charge from Scholo, THE Warlock Staff. During one of my many, many Scholo runs, a random guy congratulated me on my performance and said that his guild was missing a few players to start raiding and they needed a warlock. He scheduled a meeting the next day at the inn in IF(wtf RP). We went to the top floor where he traded me a beer, told me to sit down and invited me to their ventrillo server. There were the raid leader, the guild master and one of the warlocks. They asked me some questions about schedule availability, gaming experience and the raid leader asked me a question that i still remember today: "If i place you in the MT group, what's your main role in the raid?", to which i promptly answered: "Move my imp always close to the MT so he doesn't lose Blood Pact." They told me that most of the warlocks they had talked to before replied: "Dealing max damage as in any other group." I knew my class wasn't top DPS at that time and we had several utilities so we were like a support class. I got recruited and through me 2 of my friends were also recruited, a resto druid, the only druid spec that raided at 60, and a dwarf priest, highly rare and valuable because of fear ward.
We left our friends in the full national guild and the 3 of us moved to this new international guild and quickly found out that they were aiming to be pretty hardcore and competitive from the get to. The guild had less than 50 members so 100% raid attendance was expected. We raided from Monday to Friday, 5 hours each day with extra hours if we were close to a fresh kill. Saturday was for ZG but it was optional and Sunday was day off. We had players from all around Europe but the core was nordic. Our raids were pretty serious yet chill at the same time, no rage of loot tension, we tried to be highly coordinated following orders and nobody was obsessed with any meter.
As far as i remember, we were the first guild in our server where holy palas wore leather and cloth, which later became a trend. We had 7/8 girls in a less than 50 roster. We took Onyxia down on the first night and we cleared MC until Majordomo on the second night, we had some undergeared OTs so we only took him down after 2 weeks of gear farming. We took Ragnaros down on the first night also, epic ventrillo moment. We later got into BWL. Razorgore was chaotic to say the least and Vael was stressful as fuck. The suppression room was a Hellfire or /follow fest. Broodlord was smooth and we were on the top 5 of our server in progression ranking at Firemaw. Our server was highly popular and had high queues, more than 1500 if you queued between 6 and 7 PM, also truckloads of lag spikes and random mass disconnects. The server also went down at random time. The guild decided to migrate to a new server because it was really messing up our progression. I had to make a decision, follow my guild and keep raiding hardcore to be the best or staying with my IRL friends and join their casual guild again who was still stuck in MC. After some drunk discussions, me, the druid and the priest decided to stay and we rejoined the rest of our friends.
I quickly found out that their guild was nowhere near the level of coordination that i was now used to but i tried to get over it as i was having fun raiding with my friends. I recall farming a lot of stuff, mainly bandages, to the AQ opening event and followed the discussions on the official server forums as the big shots decided who was going to open the gates. Unfortunately, it was impossible to attend the event as Silithus was flooded with players and crashing the world server. It felt pretty unique though.
I returned to my Headmaster's Charge farm and set my sight on my second target, getting the Rivendare mount from Strat. It was extremely rare and in my opinion looked awesome on a warlock. So my non-raiding time was spent leveling my beloved resto druid alt, farming scholo and strat, farming herbs which was extremely profitable since i was also an alchemist and just wandering around trying to get some World PvP action. (Fuck Yeah, Drakedog videos) It was by this time that we started a traditional event that lasted for years. Whenever our server was down, which happened a lot, we created fresh level 1 humans on a new server and had a race from Northshire Abbey to Booty Bay, whoever finished first would get a free beer from each of the losers. Imagine 12 or 13 level 1s running through STV, dodging Horde players, Crocs, Gorillas, Stealth Panthers and Raptors...
After months stuck on Majordomo, the guild got rid of some deadweight and we sailed smoothly through Ragnaros and then BWL. Since i had full t1 and some t2 from my previous guild, i was the warlock with more DKPs and i quickly got 7/8 t2, missing the shoulders. We cleared BWL every week for more than 6 months and the shoulders never dropped. I even sent tickets to GM saying that our loot table was bugged because as far as the Allakhazan site stated, they had a freaking 21% drop chance and we hadn't got any in more than 6 months. I remember the GM just replied that it was pure bad luck and even made fun of me, cool guy. During that time, the guild evolved and we fought through both AQs and downed C'Thun. We even cleared the Spider Wing and Razuvius on the original Naxx. By this time i was already standing tall on the top of the wagon in IF, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing the throne. I had a mix of t2, AQ set and even a t3 piece so i had worked my ass off for that privilege. Our server population was through the roof as the game was getting insanely popular. One day a mage friend asked me to meet his fresh 60 warlock in SW because he wanted to show me something. When i saw him he was almost full green/blue but already had gotten the t2 shoulders on an alt run. I almost punched him.
By the end of the vanilla era, my guild scheduled an IRL meeting since we were 95% from the same country. We showed up around 30-35 people from ages 18 to 50ish. We were a strange group to say the least. As far as i recall, we had a bunch of university students from all academic areas, an university teacher, a couple of lawyers, an arquitect, a banker, a drummer and some unemployed. It was a strange and yet fascinating meeting because although we raided together for more than a year, it was awesome to meet the real people behind the voices and the chars. Some curiosities, we had a bald and tanned guy who looked exactly like his char and we had a longed haired bearded guy who also looked exactly like his char. One of the younger guys was pretty outspoken on ventrillo but he was shy as fuck IRL. We also had an older couple that were bikers. This was the last meaningful event in the Vanilla days as the first expansion was announced, the hype was through the roof.
Burning Crusade
When BC was released i couldn't start playing because i had some PC issues and i missed the huge clusterfuck that was the initial 60-70 leveling. My guild was sort of inactive, some played, some stopped playing for good and some rerolled on the horde side. My IRL friends were still playing so we moved back to our old LAN guild to level up and start raiding Karazhan. We had one problem, we were almost 100% DPS specced. Me and 3 friends switched to alts so we could raid and i've spent most of this expansion healing as a resto cloth wearing druid. At first i did this with the condition that each week they helped me through BWL to get the t2 shoulders. The Karazhan and later ZA runs were awesome because we were LAN raiding. The first couple of months were challenging because we had some heavily undergeared chars. There was a lot of trolling, topping the aggro meter, ninja pulls and DPS bets with beer at stake. After a few months, some of us changed chars and roles as it was getting stall.
Some left the guild with their mains because wanted a more hardcore experience but most of us kept it pretty casual throughout the whole expansion. Although i missed the hardcore raiding, i was having fun leveling alts and healing in arenas and if i wanted to check BT or Sunwell i just sat behind one of my friends who was raiding it and checked the raids. Hipster Twitch streaming. One of my friends was MT for a Sunwell raiding guild, every week he was on Brutallus, he raged so hard when he was one-shotted. When the expansion ended, i still had no Headmaster's Charge, no Rivendare Mount and no t2 shoulders. I was so exalted with Argent Dawn that i felt i deserved my own statue at Light's Hope Chapel. The hype for the Arthas expansion was special to me as the Arthas storyline in WC3 was my favorite campaign.
Wrath
Almost all of my friends returned to our LAN guild when Wrath was launched. 2 stopped playing for good because they were burned out with the game. New expansion, everyone back into their mains, mostly everyone DPSing, a healer and a MT. We found a new small national guild with people that started playing at the end of BC, wanted to raid 25 and strangely lacked DPS members. We had a teamspeak negotiation that lasted a couple of hours. We all moved in and me and 2 friends were the new class officers for our respective classes. Our tank friends was promoted to MT since he was far more experienced than the other tanks, in fact, we were all far more experienced. We were back in an heavy casual environment, people arrived late, DPS couldn't DPS, healers couldn't heal, tanks couldn't tank and the other officers and the RL didn't gave a fuck about it. I remembered the dogs in MC everytime.
We talked about leaving the guild but considering our setup no decent guild would take us all in so we eventually decided to stick together, stay and try fixing the guild. Not everything was bad, one of my friends met his girlfriend on the guild, he was MT, she was OT, the taunt worked IRL. Me and my 2 officer mates, tuned out our class members and got rid of the hopeless and slacker ones. Our classes were doing fine and performing as expected after a couple of weeks. The other officers were all pretty chill and casual and couldn't care less if we spent night after night wiping at Naxx because a third of the raid couldn't do simple things as the dance on Heigan or the polarity shift on Thaddius.
Although we eventually managed to clear Naxx, Sarth 3 drakes and even Ulduar with record breaking repair bills, there were still many problems and tensions accumulated. One night my MT friend got into a heated argument with the guild master after a chaotic raid and after the most epic and honest rant i've ever heard online he eventually left the guild. We soon followed him since the other officers simply refused to acknowledge that some of their members were terrible and critically delaying our progression. After this i still managed to get the Undying achiev in Naxx with a PUG after 2 months of laser focus attention raiding, one mistake and the week was done. We had one guy dying at KT with less than 10% health left the week before actually getting it done, we were left speechless. We moved back to our old LAN guild and went back to alt leveling and achievs. It was by this time that i managed to get Headmaster's Charge, so 1/3 of my vanilla goals was accomplished. I still missed the baron mount and the t2 shoulders despite going to BWL every week. Around the end of Wrath me and most of my friends left the university and stopped living together. Some left the game for good as for them it was only fun if we were playing together. It was the end of an era.
Cataclysm
Almost none of my friends played this expansion, IRL reasons mostly but some were tired of the genre and moved back to more casual games like league of legends and CS. I recall using the 10 day trial and going to Vashj'ir. A full underwater zone? Logout.
Pandaria
Roughly one year after mists came out, me and some of my friends decided to give it a go. We managed to get 10 of our old group back in the game and we had some fun mostly running old content and going for achievements. Nobody really liked LFR as it was a joke compared to real raiding. Most of us couldn't play on a daily basis because IRL issues so getting into a decent raiding guild was out of consideration. We kept it pretty casual. I kept farming Strat and when i was 82 the mount dropped, 2/3 Vanilla Goals.
The positive side of being 90? I could easily farm MC and BWL on my own. I farmed MC until i managed to get the bindings for the Thunderfury and i went full what the hell mode and crafter a Thunderfury for my Warlock. I actually got a Thunderfury before finishing my t2 set. On January 2014, roughly 9 years after i had first stepped inside BWL and after killing Chromaggus X times, i saw the damned shoulders drop and finally finished t2. To this day it is the most absurd thing i've witnessed in an online game and it was the closest any videogame got me from crying, but i finally had them. 3/3 VANILLA GOALS! We played Mists for over a year but eventually everyone dropped out since we weren't really doing anything together and the game had evolved to a daily completing chore.
Warlords
Bought it, played two months and enjoyed mildly the leveling experience and the nostalgia trip. Unfortunately, my followers left the garrison more times than i did so i got fed up pretty fast. Some of my friends also returned but everyone left after 3 months. The magic was gone.
Epilogue
If you're still reading, thanks for the your time and sorry for any misspell, i'm sure there's a lot since English isn't my mother tongue. As i said before, i felt pretty nostalgic and wanted to recall happier times. This is the best and most unique game i've ever played, i've played it for roughly one third of my life and the passion i had for the game had a great impact on my life. Throughout the years me and my friends weren't just playing the game, we were living it, when we weren't online, we were always talking or thinking about it. We pulled countless all nighters, going for breakfast after, we discussed every single tiny detail of the game over drinks and when drunk we had the craziest arguments about the game. Insane immersion levels.
I keep in touch with mostly everyone of my close friends who played in my LAN guild and when possible we host an yearly dinner to catch up as there are many of them abroad. I recall the last month i was subscribed during WoD. I confess that it was pretty sad, checking your guild roster and see the last login tab: 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 7 years... I walked around Stormwind, Elwynn, Westfall or Duskwood and see some people playing the game and wonder if they had an amazing experience playing this game as i did. I hope they had. I wonder if that's how an old man who had a rich and fulfilling life feels IRL.
Finally, i still remember looking up to that guy on top of the wagon. I felt envy, i won't lie. I'm naturally competitive and seeing that guy instigated my drive for many years of raiding. I think that every MMO should be based on the time+skill=reward system. This sparks the competitiveness and promotes the will to take harder challenges and be the best. Of course the casual player that "raids" LFRs once a week wants to have the sickest gear in the game and he feels entitled to it since he pays the same as the hardcore raider that grinds 24/7 and has the best gear in slot because he worked his ass off for it. But if you give access to every piece of (recoulored) gear and every raid, you take away the real joy of raiding and the game gets stale and boring.
If everyone has his own wagon, there's nobody up there to look up to. I believe this is a crucial point in the game's current state. All this talk about the Nostalrius server and the small possibility that Blizzard will launch Vanilla servers got me pretty hyped, it wouldn't be the same as it was more than 10 years ago, but i'm 100% sure that it would be a better experience than the current state of the game. Wow felt like a real world, leveling was fun and took a lot of time as it should be, questing was interesting and challenging, the World PvP was not that competitive unless you were facing an Undead Rogue(fuck those guys) and the 5man instances were meaningful and required coordination and knowledge. You could waste so much time in Dire Maul doing a King's run or doing LBRS or UBRS with 15 guys. My experience with WoD and most of the feedback i read here on reddit tells me that WoW nowadays is just a glorified instanced single player online game where everything is handed to you. This game deserves his magic back.
Thanks Blizzard for all the memories and thank you for reading,
A proud Warlock.
Bonus pic: Vanilla goals 3/3! http://imgur.com/oPrTbaN