No More Players for World of Warcraft

[nobbie]

--> Clicky!

[Treesh]

--> Clicky!
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This really isn't anything that new. On Jan 2, Caydiem told players that Blizzard was purposely limiting restocks. That article also puts to rest the rumor that Blizzard told stores to pull copies from the shelves. The Penny Arcade guys are kind of being a bit bratty about it. Yes, some servers are having a lot more trouble than others, but that doesn't mean every single server is utter crap and unplayable. It's just alarmist reporting trying to blow things out of proportion and stir up trouble. Yes, there are problems with WoW right now. No, it's not the end of the world or the end of the company. Look at all the crap with D2. That didn't kill the company either.

[nobbie]

That's what I thought, too. Just looking for opinions from you U.S. guys ;)

[nobbie]

This topic raises a question, by the way:

WOW will soon be launched in Europe/Germany. When you first create your account and log on, the program will suggest a server for you to play on. Is the suggestion based on expected latency/ping rates (the distance from your home to the geographical location of the next WOW server) or is it based on server population, or both expected latency and (current) population?

[Occhidiangela]

This really isn't anything that new.  On Jan 2, Caydiem told players that Blizzard was purposely limiting restocks.  That article also puts to rest the rumor that Blizzard told stores to pull copies from the shelves.  The Penny Arcade guys are kind of being a bit bratty about it.  Yes, some servers are having a lot more trouble than others, but that doesn't mean every single server is utter crap and unplayable.  It's just alarmist reporting trying to blow things out of proportion and stir up trouble.  Yes, there are problems with WoW right now. No, it's not the end of the world or the end of the company.  Look at all the crap with D2.  That didn't kill the company either.
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Treesh: My game quality significantly degraded in my most recent sessions.

In play last night, I had the kind of lag in battles and looting that I used to get in D II on dial up. 1-6 seconds out of synch. This experience was different from my first few weeks. I have cable.

Given the micro intensive combat of some classes, for example rogues, this quality issue got my eyebrow araising. Blizz did eventually clean up the bnet issues, and I expect they will be working hard to do the same on WoW in something less than three years. In any case, Blizz already got my money!

Hmmm, does that make me a Lurker or a Ling? *checks inside of mouth for hook scars*

Occhi

PS: I had to giggle at Penny Arcade, and yes, I have previously noted their propensity for hyperbole.

From Tycho:

If this happened in Galaxies, or Dark Age, or AO, of course it'd be everybody everywhere piling on. But it's Blizzard, and since they made a few good games years ago now they can do whatever the f--- they want to. Great policy, and it totally serves consumers. Good job. Where's Lum The Mad when you need him.

Lum the Mad: Hasn't he passed the torch to the next generation? Been a few years since I read his stuff, slownewsday shut down I think.

From Gabe:

I think it's important to note that the only reason we're so upset here is because we want so desperately to play Blizzard's awesome game. It's the fact that these server outages and crazy bugs are keeping us from their masterpiece that makes us so frustrated. Even when I am able to log in it's often the case that the terrible lag makes their game equally unplayable.

Is he talking about D II in June of 2000, or WoW in January or 2005? Am I in a time warp? Did he cut and paste an old PA rant? :blink:

I honestly believe they want to fix their broken game and I think they are trying hard to do so. I just wish they'd give some real information about what's going on. *snip*  I want them to address the crippling technical issues with the game I am paying monthly for in an honest way, and tell me what they're doing to fix them.

Not likely, dear Gabe, this is the old "Deja Vu Blizzard style" all over again!

All carping aside (yep, looks like I found a hook mark in there) . . . like a kidney stone, this too shall pass.

Occhi

PPS: What was that IPOD doing to that piece of fruit in the bowl in the PA "Absolutely Critical Trivia" comic. Looked a bit off colour to me.

[Guest]

My game performance is much worse than it was at release.

The auction house is practically unusable for me and last night I had bed lag every where I went. The only time I can reasonable use the AH(since I have a normal job and work during most days) is early on Sat and Sun mornings.

I expect the problem will be fixed, but I was saying this 3 weeks ago too and its worse now than when I said it first.



The thing that bothers me is I know its possible to have a game server work with minimal lag. Mythic did it - they only had lag during major combat where over 100 fighters were meeting on each side.

[Treesh]

Treesh: My game quality significantly degraded in my most recent sessions.

In play last night, I had the kind of lag in battles and looting that I used to get in D II on dial up.  1-6 seconds out of synch.  This experience was different from my first few weeks.  I have cable.

Given the micro intensive combat of some classes, for example rogues, this quality issue got my eyebrow araising.  Blizz did eventually clean up the bnet issues, and I expect they will be working hard to do the same on WoW in something less than three years.  In any case, Blizz already got my money! 


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Yes, and I never said that there weren't problems. You are one of the ones affected and my sympathies to you. There are legit issues with the game and the server stability right now (and yes, some servers have gotten worse since release), but that still doesn't mean that you should throw the baby out with the bath water and claim that Blizzard is a completely horrible company with a completely horrible game and that's what a lot of articles out there right now are trying to claim. There are still plenty of people whose play isn't really affected, but you don't get to hear from them as much because satisfied people generally aren't as vocal about their experiences. I'm not trying to downplay the effect it's having on some of the customers; I'm merely trying to show that there's two sides to everything. Some have massive problems, some don't. Blizzard is trying to fix what's wrong and they should be given some credit for that. Are they perfect and should be given a "get out of jail free card" that never runs out? Hell no, but neither are they the company that is "complete and total #$%&" that a lot of editors and commentors out there are trying to claim either.

For what it's worth, I get more aggravation from my rogue while playing than any other class. Character placement in relation to the critters is so crucial for rogues that any minor error in position is exacerbated. I love my rogues, but when I try to fight from 4 different angles and still can't find one where I don't get the "you must be facing your target" or "you must be behind your target" or "you are too far away" or "target is too close" (especially that last one after the too far away) or any of the other error messages, it's frustrating as hell. It only happens occasionally on Stormrage and most of the time it's shortlived. The exception is the closer I am to Ironforge and Dun Morogh. I have to be very careful about when I play characters in that area. If it's an off-peak time, it's fine. If it's a peak time, I play a different character. One of the bonuses of not having a true main character - only a collection of alts and bigger alts. ;)

[Guest]

Please link to "a lot of articles".

Almost all the gamer sites are not near as negative as you say. I think youre making that up.


I have of course seen whiners on forums but even there I see mostly frustration rather than all out hatred of Blizz(as opposed to a game like Shadowbane, where after a month everyone hated UBI).

I think most the people who are upset are being rather rayional about it. I your attitude is actually less rationsal.

Myself I really love playing the game, but I am not enjoying the lag and I think Blizz was in the wrong. They should have orriginally sold no more games than their beta test showed there server system could handle and they should have limit the number of accounts starting up on each server.

[Alram]

--> Clicky!
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I have to say that playing on Terenas, I have not experienced the problems I have had with Tich and occasionally with Stormrage.

[savaughn]

PPS: What was that IPOD doing to that piece of fruit in the bowl in the PA "Absolutely Critical Trivia" comic.  Looked a bit off colour to me.
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Not to wander too far off topic or stray into PG-13 land, but that's not an I-Pod. That's the Fruit !%$#er 5000, and yes, as its name indicates, it's got a rather lewd method of making fruit juice. A recurring character in the strip.

[Sir_Die_alot]

Ironically the game is actually in stock at my local EB today.

[TheDragoon]

Care to buy a copy for my girlfriend? ;)

[Roland]

For what it's worth, I get more aggravation from my rogue while playing than any other class.  Character placement in relation to the critters is so crucial for rogues that any minor error in position is exacerbated.  I love my rogues, but when I try to fight from 4 different angles and still can't find one where I don't get the "you must be facing your target" or "you must be behind your target" or "you are too far away" or "target is too close" (especially that last one after the too far away) or any of the other error messages, it's frustrating as hell.  It only happens occasionally on Stormrage and most of the time it's shortlived.  The exception is the closer I am to Ironforge and Dun Morogh.  I have to be very careful about when I play characters in that area.  If it's an off-peak time, it's fine.  If it's a peak time, I play a different character.  One of the bonuses of not having a true main character - only a collection of alts and bigger alts. ;)
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I share your pain. I have found only ONE solution: get as far away as you can, and chuck throwing knives. It works, albeit slowly. Just pray you have a tank handy. When I was doing an instance run with a priest, a mage, and myself, _I_ was the tank, and trying to tank when you have only abilities that REDUCE aggro is just impossible. My priest died, and I couldn't do a thing about it because of those very same error messages. Then the mage went down, and I fled. ;) I bandaged up in what I THOUGHT was a safe area, and they followed me to try and finish me off (I was under half health). Big mistake for them. I lived, they didn't, and we got our bodies back (until the next massive death), but the whole experience left a VERY sour taste in my mouth.

I'm not about to give up on Bliz with this game. I haven't seen nearly enough troubles to make it worth my while to ditch and run. But I am mildly concerned about it all, especially with them no longer restocking anybody. That, of all things, is rather telling, wouldn't you say?

[Bob the Beholder]

Well, there are certainly occasional problems on Laughing Skull, the server I've played most on recently, and I'm relatively sure that didn't get any maintenance yet.

It was crazy. I was in the entrance to the Wailing Caverns, and some random other hunter invited me to a group. A monster attacked, and it appeared behind the other hunter. He started shooting the monster... while facing forward. The bullets were whizzing behind him. My pet was attacking the air, and no matter where I was I either got a "you are too close" or a "you're facing the wrong way" message.

That hasn't repeated itself yet... but I'm just extra angry about it, 'cause the other hunter whispered me with the message, "dude your a dumbass" and kicked me from the party.