WoW upgrades dont go to plan in the US

[TedTheDog]

Blizzard upgraded their server farm in the US extensively at the weekend but reports suggest that things have gotten worse.
Reports of crashing servers, being dropped from games (and therefore losing quest progress data) and having to queue for your own realm as its "full" have caused considerable bitterness in the US community.
Blizzard have responded by apologising to the players and crediting everyone with 48hrs but the vitriol continues unabted as do the problems.

Its all caused by the games own huge success of course, but that doesnt excuse it and I for one will be watching this closely as the European retail launch looms closer.

 

[Aada]

Im playing the US myself its pretty bad at the moment i haven't even bothered to try and log in for the past few days until i see an offical word on the forums saying the problem is solved.

Mean while i have a 60 day gamecard thats going unused oh well

Good thing im in the DnL beta

 

[Deacan]

Aye it sound like a huge pain, why dident they just put solid server caps and not a queue system.

Might of encouraged people to choose anuther server.

 

[Sharma]

Wonder what happened to the apprent "Blizzard rocks, they are perfect, they have the best servers and customer service" thing I wonder?

 

[Aada]

Well its the not the customer services thats the problem dumb ass.

 

[Chilly]

yeah its the "blizzard rocks, they are perfect" bit aada.

 

[andree]

Well its the not the customer services thats the problem dumb ass.

Read his post again... slowly, and then make a new try

 

[Aada]

Blizzard do rock but who said they were perfect?

 

[Powerslave]

Its too early to have an objective opinion about how blizzard will handle things. Keep in mind that WoW is the biggest mmorg so far, with most players worldwide. Let's just hope things get better server wise.



p.s. Sharma, Vash the Stampede fortehwin xD

 

[Sharma]

Blizzard do rock but who said they were perfect?

Let see, all the fanboys and most of the people hailing Blizzard as the new god or something.

@Powerslave, Aye, Love and peace!

Vashu da stampid, as it sounds when they say it.

 

[Danya]

Sounds like a typical MMORPG launch to me.

BTW I think queuing is better than hard caps - with caps it's just who can spam the retry on the server fastest, at least with queues you can just leave it sat there till you get in.

 

[Turamber]

There was a queue system with Shadowbane, was fecking horrible and contributed to the game dying commercially in it's first couple of months.

I think we may well see the same problems in Europe - none of the MMOG's have *really* gone after the UK market before. GOA, for all their claims otherwise, have hardly touched the UK market - and so many other games didn't even get released here. Expect WoW to be a major seller in the UK, which will cause major problems with their servers. Just like in the US.

 

[Aada]

Well as much as i like WoW i wont be getting the UK version anyway WoW is a great game but its a little too easy for me.

Testing DnL at the moment and this game is going to be a major player in the MMO market.

Also looking forward to Mourning which is released on the 25th feb full pvp game with no level just skills like in UO (the true mmo king) it has a huge following already is looking great so far devs have some really nice ideas and its very original tbh.

 

[Dorin]

Let see, all the fanboys and most of the people hailing Blizzard as the new god or something.

@Powerslave, Aye, Love and peace!

Vashu da stampid, as it sounds when they say it.

still they are ahead of Mythic, atleast for me. If you count in that WoW player base is a lot bigger + its new + the first real mmorpg of the company... things are not that terrible as they look imo.

time will tell.

 

[Abel]

I wonder how Aada keeps coming up with "major players" and "huge followings" about games by small indie developers with limited financial backing, which most have barely heared about . Niche MMORPGs at best.

Not the speak of the protracted development time of DnL, by all accounts it sounds more like the next Horizons or Shadowbane rather then the next WoW, if it ever gets released.

Which leads to WoWs problems : apparently not all servers are affected, only 1/4th are in trouble, unsurprisingly the ones with heavier load. Still a serious issue that I hope won't be included in the Euro version.

 

[WiZe^]

awhhh ffs i ust pre-orded WoW euro-retail

 

[Escape]

Blizzard are at least working on the problem... unlike a certain french company who just "<shrug> nothing wrong on our side".

So the game is more popular than Blizzard expected(hoped?), but should they open another 50 servers and have a moderate->low population on each, or keep a high population on the servers they have and tweak them to death?

Depends how confident they are about the long term success of the game.

btw, what is the maximum population of a server before it starts queing?

 

[Dreami]

Wonder what happened to the apprent "Blizzard rocks, they are perfect, they have the best servers and customer service" thing I wonder?

Rofl, good one Sharma.

 

[Daedalus]

Sounds like a typical MMORPG launch to me.

BTW I think queuing is better than hard caps - with caps it's just who can spam the retry on the server fastest, at least with queues you can just leave it sat there till you get in.

It launched a while ago. People have already hit level 60. This isn't the "launch" phase anymore, really. Blizzard simply screwed up, they didn't properly test their new setup. Wether players accept that as a fact and shut up, or keep whining is up to them and has nothing to do with Blizz, though.

 

[Driwen]

So the game is more popular than Blizzard expected(hoped?), but should they open another 50 servers and have a moderate->low population on each, or keep a high population on the servers they have and tweak them to death?

Depends how confident they are about the long term success of the game.

btw, what is the maximum population of a server before it starts queing?

atm blizzard doesnt have a transfer system, there are low population servers. However if people cant transfer their characters, they dont want to move from their overcrowded server. So adding new servers wont even fix most of the problems as 90% of the people wont move.

Now Blizzard is working on the problems or atleast so their PR people claim. And we dont know yet wether EU will have queue problems, as blizzard could have enough servers for us. However if you want to be on the safe side, just choose your server a week after release. So you know you arent choosing a high population server.

And I dont really see whats wrong with the queue system, would it be better to just get a cold hard no and having to spam the join server button instead of being put in a queue?

 

[Aada]

I wonder how Aada keeps coming up with "major players" and "huge followings" about games by small indie developers with limited financial backing, which most have barely heared about . Niche MMORPGs at best.

Not the speak of the protracted development time of DnL, by all accounts it sounds more like the next Horizons or Shadowbane rather then the next WoW, if it ever gets released.

Which leads to WoWs problems : apparently not all servers are affected, only 1/4th are in trouble, unsurprisingly the ones with heavier load. Still a serious issue that I hope won't be included in the Euro version.

Well ive played Horizons and Shadowbane and DnL is nothing like them so far so get that straight before you start making judgements. Secondly DnL doesn't have that much of a limited about of cash and its coming along pretty nicely at the moment.

Mourning? well ive been following it for pretty much a year and its shaping up to be pretty good game theres alot of people who like hardcore pvp games (myself included) and theres also alot of people crying out for a skill based system instead of the usual level grind.

Couple this with some really original ideas and you have a great game on your hands. im done.

 

[SilverHood]

I wonder how Aada keeps coming up with "major players" and "huge followings" about games by small indie developers with limited financial backing, which most have barely heared about . Niche MMORPGs at best.

Not the speak of the protracted development time of DnL, by all accounts it sounds more like the next Horizons or Shadowbane rather then the next WoW, if it ever gets released.

Which leads to WoWs problems : apparently not all servers are affected, only 1/4th are in trouble, unsurprisingly the ones with heavier load. Still a serious issue that I hope won't be included in the Euro version.

I've been following Mourning for over 2 years (was called Realms of Torment back then), and I if they get it right, it will blow all the current MMO's out of the water (including WoW).

On the blizzard news, all I can say is meh, and thank god the yanks are beta testing as well as us.

 

[Aada]

I've been following Mourning for over 2 years (was called Realms of Torment back then), and I if they get it right, it will blow all the current MMO's out of the water (including WoW).

On the blizzard news, all I can say is meh, and thank god the yanks are beta testing as well as us.

Ah another faithful follower..

 

[Turamber]

Ah another faithful follower..

I think that should read "Ah the other faithful follower..."

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Some of the ideas for that mourning look terrific, i love the idea of bloodlines, although it might become a little annoying having the character die after every 500 hours (epic battle against gods notwithstanding) .

Looks like an excellent rpg trait and the concept of the descendents having noble blood and/or becoming heroes sounds like something that would really make things interesting. Whether or not it plays out in the long run is another story entirely however...

 

[Aada]

Seriously dude go check out the Mourning site.. unless your a carebear who likes to xp in complete and utter safety with no danger what so ever the game might be for you

Yes Fuzzy the ideas are pretty awsome imo i mean comon anyone that played UO know that skill based system is tons more fun then the level treadmill.

Like you said guess we'll see how it unfolds but ive got my preorder placed!

 

[civy]

Mourning? well ive been following it for pretty much a year and its shaping up to be pretty good game theres alot of people who like hardcore pvp games (myself included) and theres also alot of people crying out for a skill based system instead of the usual level grind.

Unless it changed from the FAQ then it's not really hardcore PvP
How will fame enforce accountability?

Fame is a player accountability system. As PvP games often attract griefers (a person whose sole purpose in the game is to give you a hard time), it was decided that there must be a way to prevent griefing. There are certain actions that will give griefers a negative fame hit, but there are no negative fame hits if you are not the aggressor:
Killing newbies (very large hit)
Killing the same person repeatedly over a certain time period
Killing your allies. (dependant on the areas law)
In Mourning a player must live by the laws of the land or live with the consequences. Not every realm will punish you for killing, but others will make you kill on sight and you will be hunted down.

What will happen if a player's negative fame gets too high?
Negative fame will affect the player in numerous fashions as his fame decreases, griefing will eventually lead to a ban. There are a few events before this though:
Kill on sight to almost all realms, NPC’s
Gods rejecting your prayers
Character permanent death
Account temp ban
Account permanent ban

Being banned for killing in a PvP enviro. Get Real!

 

[Z^^]

hmm lets see problems with mmorpg server witch mmorpg havn't had one or two problems with it?

Fanboi or not daoc is as laggy as wow on us probably,
and this is an 3 year old established mmorpg who can't fix their isp?

 

[Uncle Sick]

I am playing on Argent Dawn - a server with a high population.

Very rarely do I crash. The last queue took only 5 minutes away from my precious game time. I only have lag in certain areas (like Ironforge - tons of players hanging around the auction house) and even that lag is nothing compared to lag I experienced in other mmog's.

The servers with 30 minute queues are mostly the '1337' pvp servers... *shrugs*

Alot of people have problems I can't reproduce on my machine (like falling of ships and drowning in the middle of nowhere) - I simply must assume that their connection/hardware/software setup can't handle the game. Period.

And unlike other mmog's... Blizzard keeps people up to date on issues and rewards them with free days for server downtime.

I just don't see where the fcking problem is. *shrugs*

 

[gervaise]

On a different server to Uncle Sick but totally support his comments. I very, very rarely have problems. The Auction House in Iron forge is perhaps the biggest pain.

That said even this level of lag free play is not good enough for Blizzard hence they are working on improving things. Trying to suggest that Wow's lag = DAoC's lag being experienced in Europe is a mindless fantasy.