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World of Warcraft Outage Charted

Posted by Zonk on from the folks-losing-patience dept.

miller60 writes "World of Warcraft has had extended downtime in the past 24 hours, apparently due to problems with a content patch installation. Blizzard's first MMORPG had recurrent downtime problems in January. The performance problems haven't slowed the frantic growth for WoW, which now has more than 1.5 million subscribers (which, as the article notes, works out to at least $26,000 an hour in assumed revenue)."

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Will the pain and suffering ever cease!? by dauthur · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I wonder if this is ever going to be sorted out, or if it's going to be one of those neverending disappointments like Daikatana was?

  2. Re:What outage? by Kris_J · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    existing players now have the option to transfer to a low-pop server
    Pig's arse! ONE token server has the ability to transfer characters off it to a single other pre-determined server. A dozen other servers are schedulled, none of which are the one my main characters (and guild) are trapped on.
  3. You're probably right... by ringbarer · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I will start this out by saying that if any blizzard fanbois respond to this with a flame...you're just trolling and are even more out of line than you consider me to be.

    I will save the whole "my history in mmo's" speech and instead cut to the chase...

    I bought WoW about 3 weeks after release expecting to find a game that does what it says: caters to the hardcore and casual gamers equally. I played WoW for about 2 months only to find out that this game caters to one kind of player: non-mmo vets looking to get their feet wet in the genre. Don't argue it...it's dead on spot true.

    When I first started playing I noticed how this game had phenomenal graphics (anyone who says otherwise is on crack or blind), awesome characters, an immersive world, and many many many different ways to customize your characters skill/abils as well as equipment.

    However, as time marched on I made the following realization about WoW: If I play more than a few hours a day I can ding lvl 60 with virtually NO hold ups. I never have to unlock any zones, never have to do anything in any order.....hell, I don't even have to do a quest to hit the cap. That's not an MMO, that's some kind of RPG/Action hybrid aimed at appealing to what is in fact the average wow gamer: a high school kid who loves the idea of playing an mmo, rotting on the forums etc...but has never succeeded at one before. WoW takes your fifteen bucks and then hands you the key to instant uberness. When I stand around in IronForge I see DOZENS upon DOZENS of people running around at the cap, pissing and moaning about the game being to easy and that they have nothing left to do except retreat old ground. This has got be the first MMO that hit this state in less than 3 months.

    Added, that for a game that boasts PVP and BG content as it's selling points, and as the main things that make it "better" than other mmo's, there's really nothing in the way of purposeful pvp and BG's are probably another 6 months away. And 6 months is realistic....blizz has recently stated that they plan on releasing the first expansion roughly 12 months after release. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they release it on time...which would be a first for the genre. That's another 9 months out. Ironically...this week blizz has stated that they feel it would be in the game's best interests to hold out BG until that expansion. So, as you see, my stating of 6 months for battlegrounds isn't even realistic, that's how hopeful it is. 9-12 months is much more realistic. Imagine if this is the way it really pans out...there will be half a million lvl 60's with nothing to do, and nothing to make the GREAT and HARDCORE players stand out in any way shape or form. That's not an MMO.

    I understand that you'll point to sales numbers and tell me how wonderful wow is doing...the bottom line is this: It's selling at the rate it is b/c of it's mass appeal. It does something other mmo's have never done, and for the purpose of not ruining the genre like every other gaming genre has had happen to it. It appeals to gamers who really don't belong on an MMO. They want instant gratification, instant uberness, and instant action. Problem with that approach is it always will equal instant burnout within weeks, and at best months.

    Purpose of this thread is not to bash wow....to be honest, a part of me is asking for advice on why wow is worth it long term. I own and subscribe to both wow and EQ2 and as of now, I give 100 percent of my time to EQ2 because of the following reasons: I know, that no matter how good I get, or no matter how much progress I make any night...I'm just scratching the surface...no matter WHAT I do. There are so many enemies and so many "goals" that people won't even come across for another two years, that I truly feel that I'm one character, in a whole world of heroes. Also...in EQ2, EVERY (and I mean EVERY) single thing that you do is recorded on the web as YOUR achievement and then ranks you against all those on your server, as well as all those in the

    --
    "Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
  4. Re:What outage? by Kris_J · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    The problem is that they came down at 9pm local time for me. You didn't even try to get on for the first, what, 10 hours?
    Perhaps you should try a lower population server? Or a server on your continent
    I have been spawning characters on server after server and they've all had their problems. Proudmoore has my first and highest level character, therefore if I want to experience new content that's the one I want to use. I'm happy you found a server that works. Tell us all which one it is so we can all move there.

    There are no servers in Australia.