Cataclysm Preload

Breaking news today! Blizzard has approved a method of pre-loading World of Warcraft: Cataclysm without having to pre-order. With official approval, there is no need to worry about the ToS or EULA, making this an amazing trick for anyone planning on buying Cataclysm on release day. It is a pretty simple process and will work even for people who are buying a retail copy; just pre-load then add your key from the store, no install necessary!

The pre-load will work on both Macs and PCs alike and it easy to do so that even the computer lay-person will be able to get this to work for them. All you need to know is where you World of Warcraft is installed on your hard-drive, where to be able to find the WTF folder, and how to use NotePad or TextEdit. Check it out:

There's an easy way to preload all the data you'll need to play Cataclysm the moment it goes live on midnight Dec. 7. Just follow these easy steps:

  1. Make sure World of Warcraft and/or the launcher and background downloader are completely closed.
  2. Open up your World of Warcraft folder.
  3. Open Launcher.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT.
  4. Open Config.wtf in Notepad and change the "accountType" line from LK to CT.

Now load up the launcher and you should begin downloading 700 megs or so of new material. That's the last bit of data you need to play on launch night. Enjoy!

That’s it! It is that simple a little change from LK to CT and you are pre-loading! Keep in mind that you need to be careful with the text, since it is case sensitive. Launching World of Warcraft with the launcher as opposed to the application itself will be required for this to work. Granted, since 4.0.1 it is better to do that regardless, but for those of you that don’t use the launcher will have to start to use it.

Go and update your files and start downloading Cataclysm, and let us know how it works for you. Or, will you just wait until you can install using the CD? Or are you going to pre-order and pre-load all digitally? Tell us your plans!

Cataclysm is set to release December 7th, 2010 for PC and Mac.

Source: WoW Insider