Stormrage Server upgrades

[Sword_of_Doom]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...p=1#post9363187

The following realms will be brought down tomorrow, Friday, August 4 at 4:00 AM PDT, and we anticipate they will be brought back up after approximately two hours of downtime. This maintenance will be to install the short-term hardware upgrades previously alluded to in the post made by Eyonix earlier today (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread...&t=9357343). We're happy to say that the short-term upgrades are moving ahead as planned, and we're anticipating similar upgrades to occur over the next few weeks.

Arthas
Bloodhoof
Stormrage
[ post edited by Drysc ]

Wow, just wow. After more than 200+characters (mainly Horde) have paid for server transfers they suddenly offer to start fixing Stormrage. I personally transferred off Stormrage myself (not complaining, my gaming experience has been great the past month with zero lag, crashes and disconnects) but i feel what Blizzzard has done is unethical and a real breech of good customer service. I actually made a post on General demanding that those that transferred off the lag realms should be compensated for the sudden turn on Blizzards part to fix them. If i knew an ETA or had some prior knowledge that Stormrage was going to be fixed it might have changed my mind about transferring. Anyways what are some thoughts from other Lurkers on Stormrage???

[Treesh]

Stormrage?! Over Terenas?! Excuse me a moment.


)(*#%)(*&#@%P(YSYD*(&YE#%&(*#OIUY(

What the hell? Yes, Stormrage has some issues some nights. Yes, it's a high population server. But having the servers crash almost every single night on Terenas and that server isn't one of the ones to get new hardware?! Terenas is still on day one hardware, iirc. Complete and utter bull#$%&. *sigh* At least one of the realms I play on is getting upgraded. That's something. Right?

[Kevin]

I posted in the announcement thread.

Thrilled they are doing something for Stormrage.

Floored that Stormrage, a server that performs 10 to 20 times better than Terenas is listed and Terenas isn't.


Terenas is so that bad that to be honest I don't really think that Stormrage is that bad. So if people think Stormrage really is that bad then just imagine what Terenas is like that I don't think Stormrage is bad because of the comparison.


If they have more servers planned they really should announce that they have more planned. The way it was announce, with a 1 day warning just doesn't make me confident that they have a master plan to get other servers. And if they do, then they really should tell us.


As you mentioned if people transfered because of lag and quality of play concerns already I'm leaning to the they should be compensated camp.


If they come back and say we started on some of the realms that needed help but that weren't the worst so we could make sure we worked the kinks out first I can deal with it. But I'm not happy with a realm that I know is worse off not being listed as one of the ones to be fixed.

[oldmandennis]

God knows I haven't been defending bliz alot lately... so here goes

They have had a pretty strict policy about not announcing this crap until right before it goes live. At least they are consistant.

Most people think that the battle groups reflect some physical or server-logical grouping of servers. All of the ones mentioned for upgrades are in the same battlegroup, and Terenas isn't. Which means that probably that group as a whole is seeing worse playablity then the Terenas group. Or they have more techs local to that site. Or it is closer to the vendors manufacturing site. Or a million other things.

There is a lot that goes into these decisions when they have more then 100 relms running. Which relm is absolutly the worst isn't necessarly the top priority. They have been getting slowly around to all of the day 1 servers, Kel'thuzud got its upgrade a couple of months ago and is much better off for it.

As far as compensating people for ill advised transfers.... jebus can you imagine trying to sort out that mess. Combine that with the people who transfered to places like Mal'ginis, and then when they got there found out that EJ are just that cool that they can cause lag?

PS How did you decide on Terenas if it is that bad? Did you pick it out of a hat on day 1? Or were you just not thurough enough in your research when you rerolled?

[WildFire]

I am (was?) looking forward to rolling a blood elf on Terenas, once BC comes out, to play with the Lurkers there.

Perhaps this is not such a good idea after all given the state Terenas is in? :unsure:

[Quark]

Definately not excusing Blizzard for skipping Terenas, but I wonder if the technical problems are different?

Stormrage's hardware, from a pure stability perspective, really is good. I mean, we were one of the biggest servers since day 1 (thanks to the "Low Population" bug). We got the very first round hardware upgrades because of that. The problem seemed to be that the sheer amount of people in cycle-hungry atmospheres (read: raids) overwhelmed it. Ironically, it kind of served to somewhat undo itself as the 4 highest end Horde guilds and at least one Alliance guild left for server transfers and rerolls. But that still didn't solve everything (and did a damn good job of making Blizzard an extra buck before they decided to look at us). This is feeding Stormrage as a dying atmosphere -> you've got the alliance too entrenched to leave, and the horde side is completely gutted, as if the imbalance beforehand wasn't big enough. Blizzard doing something might be more than just technical - they're trying to save a dying community.

Terenas, on the other hand, sounds like it's more than just concurrent users causing issues. A simple upgrade won't fix that unless the underlying issue is bad hardware:(

[Dozer]

Well I have to admit that Spirestone, which is on the same physical cluster as Terenas (Battlegroup 1), has little to no problems like the ones you are describing; Stormrage, Arthas, and Bloodhoodf are on battlegroup 3, however, and I don't see a single server in that cluster that doesn't have crippling performance issues.

Look at the big picture eh? Although i do sympathyze for you guys on Terenas if it's really that bad:(

[Tal]

Stormrage?! Over Terenas?! Excuse me a moment.
)(*#%)(*&#@%P(YSYD*(&YE#%&(*#OIUY(

What the hell? Yes, Stormrage has some issues some nights. Yes, it's a high population server. But having the servers crash almost every single night on Terenas and that server isn't one of the ones to get new hardware?! Terenas is still on day one hardware, iirc. Complete and utter bull#$%&. *sigh* At least one of the realms I play on is getting upgraded. That's something. Right?

/signed - I've not been playing Shal on Terenas as much because of the issues it has.

[Treesh]

PS How did you decide on Terenas if it is that bad? Did you pick it out of a hat on day 1? Or were you just not thurough enough in your research when you rerolled?

The very first day, the very first character I made was my shaman on Terenas. I picked it partly because it was not one of the servers on the list that had been "leaked" before release actually happened and it wasn't one of the east coast and central servers that were completely flooded on that first day. It has never seen a hardware upgrade. After the initial mess that was the servers, Terenas was rock-solid. Go back through the posts here at the LL and you'll see me telling folks that. Then they made the changes where the resources from lower pop servers were being "shared" to the higher pop servers. Terenas' stability took a hit and has stayed there pretty much ever since, but somehow has managed to get much, much worse. It was not a case of "not enough research", there was no "reroll". I've been on this damned server, through the good and the bad and right now, it's worse than Stormrage was at its worst. "Big Picture" crap aside, at least there's been more acknowledgement of the issues on Terenas. At least we finally got tech support to say "Oh, hey, yeah, it's kinda sucky over there" even if they did tell us it's simply because folks use mods like damage meters and CTRA.

[bonemage]

PS How did you decide on Terenas if it is that bad? Did you pick it out of a hat on day 1? Or were you just not thurough enough in your research when you rerolled?

I rerolled on Terenas about a year after release, and it was a solid realm at the time and for a year after that, and was up until I stopped playing. It was also a med population server until this year. I came from DoomHammer, and always loved how playable, stable, and queue-less Terenas was for a long time. It's problems are new this year, long after the Lurkers on Terenas had capped toons. I'm saddened to hear how bad it is now, as it was a perfect home for a very long time.

[Concillian]

PS How did you decide on Terenas if it is that bad? Did you pick it out of a hat on day 1? Or were you just not thurough enough in your research when you rerolled?

I rerolled on Terenas because Lightbringer was having awful problems of being down 2 days a week, queues, etc...

Stormarge was having similar issues. During my initial leveling I remember Terenas being a haven for Stormragers during the downtime. At the time Terenas was an incredibly pleaseant server with zero downtime issues.

The server environment is not a static one. This is the primary reason I'd never consider transfers. I did it once and what did it get me? A few months of incredibly stable play, then the same problems.

[Concillian]

I am (was?) looking forward to rolling a blood elf on Terenas, once BC comes out, to play with the Lurkers there.

Perhaps this is not such a good idea after all given the state Terenas is in? :unsure:

We will keep you up to date. We should see a massive improvement with the BC hardware since Terenas has seen relatively few upgrades compared to some of the other servers. I suspect there will be more margin on Terenas than some of the other problematic servers at BC release because of this.

[Sword_of_Doom]

I rerolled on Terenas because Lightbringer was having awful problems of being down 2 days a week, queues, etc...

Stormarge was having similar issues. During my initial leveling I remember Terenas being a haven for Stormragers during the downtime. At the time Terenas was an incredibly pleaseant server with zero downtime issues.

The server environment is not a static one. This is the primary reason I'd never consider transfers. I did it once and what did it get me? A few months of incredibly stable play, then the same problems.

Yes Terenas was a haven for Stormrage people when Stormrage crashed and that was often.

The thing that amazes me is that they can implement a 2 hour fix that will partially stabilize the realm until they can transfer Stormrage to new hardware. Where was that 2 hour fix 10 months ago, 6 months ago or even 2 months ago!!!!!!!!!?????!!!?? Its almost like they feel they have collected sufficient transfer payments and now its time to take that money and use it for more technical resources. This is a great game but Blizzard has become a greedy corporation that cares less for its customers and focuses more on the bottom line. Ouch....

[Occhidiangela]

Yes Terenas was a haven for Stormrage people when Stormrage crashed and that was often.

The thing that amazes me is that they can implement a 2 hour fix that will partially stabilize the realm until they can transfer Stormrage to new hardware. Where was that 2 hour fix 10 months ago, 6 months ago or even 2 months ago!!!!!!!!!?????!!!?? Its almost like they feel they have collected sufficient transfer payments and now its time to take that money and use it for more technical resources. This is a great game but Blizzard has become a greedy corporation that cares less for its customers and focuses more on the bottom line. Ouch....

MMOPRG's are a busniess. I am trying to figure out why that infuriates you. Did you just uncover that mystery?

"Greedy corporation." What a useless throwaway, a substitute for a fully formed thought.

Occhi

[castille]

MMOPRG's are a busniess. I am trying to figure out why that infuriates you. Did you just uncover that mystery?

"Greedy corporation." What a useless throwaway, a substitute for a fully formed thought.

Occhi

On top of this -- Blizzard's systems are too large for them to just decide one day to 'hey, we finally made mad lootz, let's upgrade!'. They have Change Management, they have QA testing to make sure configurations are stable, they have to get costing approved, they have to get hardware vendors in line.. This is an extensive endeavor for them, more than likely, because they have to do enough to make sure their customer base right now is happy, but not too much that they actually end up costing more than the hardware 'transplant' of the new platform will cost.

This has more than likely been on the board for far longer than even transfers were.

[Mavfin]

On top of this -- Blizzard's systems are too large for them to just decide one day to 'hey, we finally made mad lootz, let's upgrade!'. They have Change Management, they have QA testing to make sure configurations are stable, they have to get costing approved, they have to get hardware vendors in line.. This is an extensive endeavor for them, more than likely, because they have to do enough to make sure their customer base right now is happy, but not too much that they actually end up costing more than the hardware 'transplant' of the new platform will cost.

This has more than likely been on the board for far longer than even transfers were.

Yeah, like any business, you have to satisfy the beancounters 20 times before you can do anything that costs money.

[Sword_of_Doom]

MMOPRG's are a busniess. I am trying to figure out why that infuriates you. Did you just uncover that mystery?

"Greedy corporation." What a useless throwaway, a substitute for a fully formed thought.

Occhi

Since you called me out haha i am going to respond to your troll post.

Greedy
immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth; "they are avaricious and will do anything for money";

I have played Blizzard games for over 8+ years and i would have to say WoW has been by far the most annoying and irritating of the games i have played. This will probably be my last Blizzard game i will buy and support.

Here are the greedy moves they have foisted upon its player bases:
1. Retail launch had inadequate server resources
*Blizzard response was to sell more games. They only suspended the sale of games when most of the damage had been done. Who can forget loot lag, disconnects and server crashes for the first few weeks of WoW.

2. Constant lag on the "Terrible 20"
*Blizzard's main solution has been to open to new realms with new hardware. Blizzard's offer was if you wanted to escape your laggy realm reroll on new hardware servers. All your troubles will be taken care of when you do. Funny thing is some of the new realms got overloaded and experienced same laggy problems as old servers.

3. Character transfers
*Blizzard's solution to laggy realms was to offer them a $25 U.S. per character transfer to new hardware. On my server, Stormrage, hundreds of characters took this offer up because after 10 months of terrible stability on the realm that was the best alternative out there. Ethically they should have fixed ALL servers first and then offered character transfers. But a GREEDY business move is offer Character transfers first, swim in the money, and then fix things.

This is a company that constantly has expanded its subscription base and has constantly added new realms. This is not about MONEY and its AVAILABILITY to fix things. They have it and they can fix things. It is about CORPORATE GREED and Vivendi's ability to milk every available profit from WoW. We are the lemmings that suport this and i don't see that ending. Blizzard makes very addictive games and people will play them even if the servers were up 1 hour a day.

I worked in IT for 4 years. We had a subscriber base of 100k maybe 1/20 of the size of Blizzards NA subscriber base. Those customers paid a monthly fee much the same as Blizzard's except ours was $50 a month. We had performance standards contractually built in that made our network available during 5 AM PST to 7 PM PST. If we went down as much as 15 minutes our subscribers got refunds. 100% uptime was expected and pretty well maintained. We even had expensive back up power options if the power went out. We did lose customers to competitors if we had any downtime.

Yes Blizzard's terms of service negates them from having to provide a good service. But good luck to them on their next MMO if they continue to have stability and lag problems on their server. They are the present day SOE that everyone likes to hate.

/spit on Blizzard

[castille]

I worked in IT for 4 years. We had a subscriber base of 100k maybe 1/20 of the size of Blizzards NA subscriber base. Those customers paid a monthly fee much the same as Blizzard's except ours was $50 a month. We had performance standards contractually built in that made our network available during 5 AM PST to 7 PM PST. If we went down as much as 15 minutes our subscribers got refunds. 100% uptime was expected and pretty well maintained. We even had expensive back up power options if the power went out. We did lose customers to competitors if we had any downtime.

Yes Blizzard's terms of service negates them from having to provide a good service. But good luck to them on their next MMO if they continue to have stability and lag problems on their server. They are the present day SOE that everyone likes to hate.

/spit on Blizzard

Smaller systems like yours are only able to survive because of the ability to provide superior ETRs and LD (liquidated damages -- those refunds) to their users. However, bigger systems have more complexity ingrained. More complexity leads to even the smallest breaks you can ignore in a smaller setup .. well, you just can't ignore in these more complex environments.

I don't know about comparing them to SOE -- I didn't play SWG or anything besides Planetside for a free month.. But, Blizzard has added more realms, and offered the ability for you to move to one of these, with a premium just high enough that you won't do it on a whim. They are planning a huge hardware upgrade -- and they don't want to incur more downtime than they have to, so they have to make sure they are able to freeze everything and copy it quickly enough and get it up and running that they -don't- keep it down longer than too much. They have now even broken down and done an interim hardware upgrade which seems to have had favorable results.

I think for the explosion of audience that they've had, which they were completely caught offguard by from all accounts, they are handling it as well as they can.

[Sword_of_Doom]

I think for the explosion of audience that they've had, which they were completely caught offguard by from all accounts, they are handling it as well as they can.

That has been said for 1.5 years now. When does that excuse end??? I remember in January or February of 2005, Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard, all but promising that server performance would improve immediately and that he was embarrassed for the poor stability his realms were providing. I wish i had copied his exact comments because he is nothing but a corporate shill and liar. Server performance has always been awful on Stormrage. They have the money but have refused to fix. I do understand they are a business but customers are what builds their business and eventually even the most diehard optimist will give up on them.

Holding their feet to the fire is a good thing and has proven to be the only successful way of getting them to listen. Stormrage got their fix because we had a long thread on General as well as other things were done like in game petitions everyday. Constructive criticism does work. I even found it funny in January of 2005 when Everquest 2 was advertising the stability of their realms and their lag free environments which obviously was a pointed jab at Blizzard. I hope for improvement because this is a well made game. They just completely blew it on their server infrastructure.

[vor_lord]

I am (was?) looking forward to rolling a blood elf on Terenas, once BC comes out, to play with the Lurkers there.

Perhaps this is not such a good idea after all given the state Terenas is in? :unsure:

Well, things are getting a little better -- unfortunately this is because people are leaving.

Vision (I'd put them at the #3 Alliance guild) is gone. Pwner's Den (a top Horde PvP guild) is gone too.

For every guild that leaves, especially a raiding guild, server lag will likely decrease. It comes at the cost of Terenas itself. Vision was the top hated guild on the server with a reputation for griefing... but they fomented a lot of rabid discussions.

Pwner's Den are nearly universally proclaimed as the highest skilled PvPer's out there. They dominate even though those toons are all PvP, no real raiding gear. And now they are gone, and with it a good chunk of the Horde presence in PvP.