Login Problems
by Damien Barrett 
Jan 9th 2006 at 10:50PM
I
really like this game. I like it enough that I actually schedule time into my busy days, nights and weekends to play.
And until about two weeks ago, this system worked for me. When I actually had an hour or two to play, I'd be able to
log into the server of my choice and play for my scheduled time. However, the combination of a huge influx of new X-mas
gift-receiving players and the 1.9 patch has rendered my scheduled playing time unusable. The simple fact is that it's
been taking 20-30 minutes just to log into a server, and then if I'm lucky, I won't be booted out shortly thereafter
because I made the egregious mistake of trying to enter the commons area in Ironforge.I'm a reasonable guy. I know Blizzard is aware of the problems. I know they continue to open up new servers to help reduce the demand on existing servers. But I also know that I'm not alone in my login frustrations. The message boards are rife with people complaining about not being able to log in in a reasonable amount of time, if at all. Sometimes you get stuck at the receiving character list screen, sometimes at the end of the loading screen, and sometimes it doesn't load at all and just disconnects you from the server.
I'd call technical support except that it wouldn't help. It's not my system or my internet connection, which hasn't changed one iota in months. The problem is on Blizzard's end, and they need to fix it. Period. I'm not yet on the verge of quitting the game and closing my account (as some have done), but it's becoming extremely annoying. I'm paying good money to play and should be able to play when I want to, not only when there are open slots on the server. It's not my fault that the servers are full. I'd consider transferring my main characters, but then it'd fracture the social aspect of the game, the part of the game I like the most.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dyyne Jan 9th 2006 11:14PM
Just do what I do when waiting for things to load-"Ctrl+alt+delete" to get the WoW minimized, then play Warcraft 3 while i wait for the server to let me on or the login character screen to come up ^_^
Dalton Marks Jan 10th 2006 12:04AM
Currently at this time, the reason that the logins are so hard is because of the spamming coming from the Tichondrius server. Were are attempting a world boss in Duskwood in the Twilight Grove. We have crashed our server 5+ times in our attempts. Hopefully we will be done with this world boss accordingly. Thank you for your patience.
-Corenna, F e a R, Tichondrius Server.
MoleMan Jan 10th 2006 1:41AM
I started my main on Akama just a few days ago and it said it was a new server, but I'm getting 10-20 minute login times.
Barista Jan 10th 2006 8:05AM
My usual group and I were right in the middle of LBRS when all of a sudden our main tank disappeared. He could still see us, but we couldn't see him. He tied logging out, and back in, and never made it. We waited for over 30 minutes waiting for something to give.
We all just killed WOW, no one could log out or hearth. The sad part is, our main tank just had his first piece of his first item set drop about 5 minutes before. Chances are, when he finally logs back in, it will be gone.
This isn't the first time this has happened. I would say on average the 4-5 months I've played WOW, it happens to me about 2-3 times a month.
Luckily the GMs are good at helping you with lost items. I recently had a 16 slot bag disappear from swapping bags from my inventory to the bank slot. After a few days of petitioning the GM with my issue, the bag was restored, and I am happy I didn't loose a 30g item.
The point to keep in mind is that, you are playing a very popular game that the WOW population is ever-growing. It's going to have growing pains, and you have to deal with them. Being a developer myself, I could not fathom the complexity of a system like WOW. So I am a bit flexible on how I feel about the crashes. It happens, it's software, to err is human.
The main concern is that they keep working hard to resolve issues (and trust me they are), and keep adding new content (which they do).
Beyond that, relax, watch TV, play with your dog, talk to you family, go outside (gasp!!). The server will come back up, they will learn a little more, the situation will eventually get better...
Stormgaard Jan 10th 2006 8:06AM
I like the Warcraft 3 idea. I've actually been using the extra time to study up on some of the World Lore. Here's some good links to visit:
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warcraft_Universe/
http://www.wowwiki.com/History/
http://www.blizzplanet.com
http://www.se7ensamurai.com/cool/loremaps/loremaps.html
http://www.minabelleslibrary.com
~
~
http://www.se7ensamurai.com
PodMonkeys Jan 10th 2006 8:14AM
I've been meaning to check out the lore. In game I keep seeing those books, but when you have mobs all around in the instance, it doesn't seem like a good time to sit down and read!
You could also pop out the WoW board game, of course if you want the real experience, you'll have to wait 10-20 minutes before your characters can appear on the board. :P
I personally have only been seeing 5 minutes at login at most, but its still quite annoying. Unfortunately, with my PowerMac and Ati, once WoW is started, there is no switching apps. Fortunately, theres always the handhelds.
TarikB Jan 10th 2006 8:47AM
Gurubaishi - Low pop PvP world with hardly any wait times and we still have highend guilds that down Rag etc.
Consider moving realms if it is becoming too much of a hassle on the world you want to play. Other than that try simply getting the ball rolling on the login before your play time. As some one said you can alt tab out of WoW and do other stuff while you wiat.
Rod Jan 10th 2006 9:28AM
Extra maintenance time today, perhaps they'll solve some problems?
srammij Jan 10th 2006 9:35AM
I agree on this... it's annoying that we pay for this service but have to wait. But i guess that goes with any type of service that us consumers want... we want our cake and we want to eat it too. We want to play on a server with thousands of people at the same time, but don't want to have to wait until that is technically possible with no problems.
I think that with the amount of money Blizzard is pulling in on this game, they should really consider a lot of these things. Hey, if the server is full and maxed out... Put in a new server that can handle a bit more, and/or limit the amount of new accounts coming on to that server.
You would think they would be able to figure out what to do with the millions of dollars they are making, a way to make our gameplay experience a bit better, without having to way a shiny new piece of candy (another new server) in our face to distract us.
Baron Samedi Jan 10th 2006 9:50AM
"tranfer my main characters"
How exactly do you go about this? I'm on Skywall, and chose it specifically because it used to be a low-pop server. Now the server is virtually unusable and login times are crazy. I've got no probs moving to a new server, but I sure as hell ain't gonna start over. Near as I can see, I can't transfer my chars. Am I missing something?
GillyGill Jan 10th 2006 11:10AM
Well, yesterday I took me almost 5 mins!! to get into the Akama server, and I complained, I guess it's just because I?m so used to instant gratification that when I have to wait it annoys me.
Oh and PodMonkeys, I play on my PB and to get out of full screen mode hit cmd+m (which should bring you to your desktop and the just cmd+h (cmd+tab will bring it back) to hid the window, I do this all the time to get help from Thottbot.com
Also is it just me or are there almost no WoW Insider players on Akama? I?m on there and I've seen Cks login like once. Also how's the guild coming? I've been looking to joining up but I don?t even know what the guild is called and no one is ever on to ask for an invite...oh well I'll keep on trucking....
Oh and one more thing...
Chuck Norris?
- Shelter (Shammy)(Akama)
Eric B. Jan 10th 2006 11:29AM
Baron, you are right, you can't just transfer your character around. I too started in a similar situation on a server that had a low population (that was 8 months ago) and now it's a circus trying to just get in. The people who come and post that it isn't a big deal because you can just "transfer your character" or suggest that you start on a new server are missing the point. You have a lot of time and friends invested in your main (or alts) and moving them really isn't an option. That being said, I know Blizzard has done a fairly good job of addressing these things in the past. I hope it's a quick growth spurt they will be able to handle as they have in the past. I figure with the holidays they may have not had enough people around to handle a massive hardware rollout. Hopefully they will be able to address some of this with the maintenance today.
Linchburg Jan 10th 2006 1:58PM
Are the long wait times the reason I never see any of you WowInsiders logged into Akama? Or are you just too busy being Alliance? :D
Jeff Jan 10th 2006 2:54PM
I just recently started playing this game. After some miscommunication with my friends, I ended up starting a horde character on Dark Iron, only to have to start another horde character on Agammagan.
Both of the servers have had their issues, but Agammagan, which I only just started playing on this past week, has been horrible about half the time. Typically, the character selection screen comes up ok (although it sometimes doesn't), but usually, either the NPCs just disappear or the lag is so horrendous that it makes the game basically unplayable. Last night I logged in and had to play with 3-4 SECONDS of lag. I mean, I didn't really have these issues in my first few days of playing on Dark Iron (during my trial), so it's unfortunate that as soon as I become a subscriber, it becomes unplayable.
Now after putting lots of hours into two characters on separate servers, I'm considering starting yet another character on yet another server if the lag continues to be this bad. Or perhaps I'll just go back to my Guild Wars character, which I've hardly ever run into issues with and is free to play now.
-Jeff
Sorethumbz Jan 10th 2006 3:01PM
well im having that same problem on my server but i can get over that. What im having a hard time with is all of the lag its causung me i cant even get into SW anymore with out lagging out and i have cable...thats not right.
DevilMachine Jan 10th 2006 4:30PM
I play on Frostmourne(oceania-pvp), at peak times the que can be up to 2 hours long.
So what I'll do is as soon as I get home from work I log in to WoW. Then go cook dinner, watch some tv etc, maybe surf the net a bit, and by then, I have been logged in and ready to play.
The long que sucks but theres nothign we can do about it at the moment.
Jerry Sproat Jan 10th 2006 4:39PM
Personally, I haven't seen big delays logging into the game except after a server crash. Of which I have seen about four. WoW is faster from startup to play than EQ2, which takes forever to check this and that and populate and load this and that.
The lag in cities like IF and SW can be bad enough to make nearly impossible to move about. I wish Blizzard could fix that.
gunn Jan 10th 2006 5:10PM
It should be noted
Multiple servers share the same login server. What that means is just because you have a low pop server, doesn't mean you're not grouped in with 2 high pop servers, which would cause login queues.
Quorthon Jan 10th 2006 5:28PM
Best use of time while waiting for logon: pr0n.
Carson Riley Jan 10th 2006 6:59PM
Yeah, im having these problems as well. My server luckly, isnt USUALLY one of the populated ones (server name will remain annoymous for that exact reason lol). But, it still takes forever to log in. And its not just a select few people. All the people on this, plus my guild, plus my friends are all having this same problem. I hope the fix it soon :( im waiting to get on as im writing this lol