Greatly extended weekly maintenance for some realms
by Elizabeth Harper 
Sep 26th 2006 at 4:00AM
Do you play on one of the following realms? Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Perenolde, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Uldum, or Windrunner. Well, if so, I feel sorry for you, because your so-called Tuesday maintenance will be stretched out until 12:01 AM PDT Wednesday morning. They're down for hardware upgrades to -- hopefully -- improve server stability, but such extended downtime isn't exactly fun for those looking forward to logging on and playing Tuesday afternoon. As an additional downer, friend and ignore lists will be lost for those on effected realms, and paid character transfers will be offline for the duration of the maintenance period.Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sour Sep 26th 2006 4:23AM
Quite frankly, this extended downtime, and even the regular maintenance is just bad business. Thats alot of downtime that im paying for. I understand that servers need to be maintained and upgraded. But isnt there an alternative to shutting down all servers all at once?
Sylythn Sep 26th 2006 5:31AM
It's not bad business for two reasons...
1) It prevents massive downtimes once the expansion comes out as Blizzard makes sure their hardware can support the new software. This is necessary support for aging systems...you'd be complaining a lot more if they waited until a server crashed so bad it was out of commission and had to be replaced completely.
2) Usually if the downtime extends past 24 hrs, you're not paying for it as your account gets credited.
I'm not familiar with the intracacies of how Blizzard does it, but I'll bet that putting a bunch of techs on the job, and pulling a bunch of servers and getting them ready to go all at once (maybe even assembly-line style), means a lot less downtime and less time invested than if they tried doing things one at a time.
Also, keep in mind that this is a scheduled event that occurs 1 out of 7 days. They could be making this a lot worse on us by taking down realms on random days, or more often. I've said it before...the best way to deal with this is assume you don't get to play for all day on patch day...and be pleasantly surprised when things are back up on schedule.
Isn't this just the other half of the upgrades...I recall Elune going through this recently?
Karine Sep 26th 2006 6:48AM
Downtime exceeeding 24 hours being credited is not accurate. My server was down for 36 hours and a few other random days here and there. I haven't been credited anything. (I checked). Since they've started working on my server, I've been experiencing a mix of random disconnects and crazy lag. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we improve server perfomance? LIKE HELL. On top of that, it's been having extended maintenance every single week since then. Not that any of the patches seem to have fixed anything.
That leaves me with the impression that Blizzard is quite happy to take my money and my playtime to upgrade their servers so that they can sell me their expansion later (and take even more of my money). Does that make me happy? No. that makes me pretty darn angry actually. Not that the servers are off - I can survive not playing for a few days - but that they're off with NO warning (a few hours before does not qualify) and NO compensation. I'm not going to complain on the forums for hours on end. I might send in an email to Blizzard. Most probably, I'll completely lose patience and stop playing (and paying), because it's not that fun anymore, and I don't like being taken for an idiot.
And that, is bad business.
Mogara Sep 26th 2006 7:12AM
Sour:
Remember, you do not own your character, your items, your server - anything. You are paying to rent them from Blizzard. If you were to rent storage space from a storage company, be it physical or data storage, there would be points where that space would be unavailable. This is much the same thing.
Why, don't normal businesses close at night. Again, it is much the same thing.
Mog.
Lycane Sep 26th 2006 7:25AM
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! waaaah! i wanna play my compuuutah game!! waaaah *storms off to bed room*
they dont compensate MY time MY money... *sniff*
MOM did you pay my monthly WoW bill? can you check if there is a credit of 2 bucks?? WHAT!! NO!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaahhhhhh!!! *tantrum continues*
i love the complaints about servers down and costing money. hypothetically lets say the servers are down for a total of 4 days during a course of a month (hmmm once a week for a month maybe??) that would be roughly 2 dollars lost IF it were a full 4 days each time! which most downtimes are not. i got to work and by the time i get back on tusday evening...i can raid and ignore all the brats on barrens chat.
Sylythn has a point if you think about it instead of flame about how much money WoW costs you..or your parents LOL.
and if you still dont believe that server maintenance is a good thing /quit wow and play city of heros...
we wont miss you, and you'll really experience a game that only cares about one thing...your money.
uncaringbear Sep 26th 2006 8:37AM
Why do we have such low expectations for Blizzard? It seems that most people are perfectly content for Blizzard to carry out routine (and not so routine) maintenance which takes down service for extended periods. If this level of service was standard to other technology companies, it'd simply be unacceptable. There are plenty of other companies out there with far more sophisticated infrastructure and they're able to maintain their systems without even affecting uptime. Come on people, expect more for your money.
Poirot Sep 26th 2006 8:41AM
Is it me or has their been a suspicious amount of extended server downtime in the past few weeks? Hrmmmm. Perhaps their busting ass to get the new hardware in place for some kind of soon to be released expansion. Nah! Thats crazy talk I suppose.
Sour Sep 26th 2006 9:04AM
Wow Lycane, now i know why they have IP banning features.
I'm with uncaringbear on this one. There is a degree of fault tolerance that all business infostructures should have. To prevent massive downtimes due to system/server failure. I'm sure afew of you work in an office that uses, outlook or something of that nature. What if that went down once a week, for an extended period of time? I know this is a far stretch from WoW, but its the same principle.
Don't let me give you the wrong impression. I know this isn't going to change, and im still going to play WoW, but in the words of uncaringbear "expect more for your money."
Chad Sep 26th 2006 9:35AM
I play on Draenor. I'm irritated but not mad about it. Thats the way it works. If it made me that mad then I would quit playing.
Ancalimon Sep 26th 2006 10:17AM
I am reletively new to WoW, only been playing for a few months, and maybe that's why these downtimes arent maing me angry, but i see it as a little time off of playing in order to to have a lot of time playing with a good experience. Whenever the servers go down and i really NEED to play, i just go back to WC3, its a little drol compared to WoW, but kinda fun to play every once in a while. And to Karine's rant, blizzard usually gives players at least a days warning for the downtime, even though it is usually known when (every single tuesday...), and this very extended downtime for some servers, we have had a FEW days of warning, not hours but days.
And for those ppl that want to leave and play CoH or CoV, dont expaect any great experiences, those techs dont do a damn thing untill they get enough complaints from players, at whichpont they give u a warning of between 3 hours or sometimes (and quite frequently might i add) of no more than 30 minutes. Those companies are only out for the money, not to please the customer.
Lycane Sep 26th 2006 11:02AM
Nope...not banned, I don’t think my post broke any terms of service, I’ll admit it was annoying but I was making a point. and if it does offend anyone then it has hit my target audience.
every single time there is a post about service being down the rants come in about blizzard being a money hungry company (which companies aren’t anyways?) or how people want their money back and that this is no way to run a business....
I’m just glad there are some people who know what I’m talking about (Ancalimon).
So now for all you business majors out there (Sour) how can you compare WoW a game that supports over 1 tenth of the population to outlook... a Microsoft (need I say more) program used to keep track of emails and scheduling meetings. Apples to oranges my friend, apples to oranges.
You know what I can’t stop laughing to continue this post...
Ya it sucks, servers are down but it's not that bad if you really think about it. When have the servers crashed Fri or sat night during a raid... count the times on your hand if you have to.
Anyways for those who know why maintenance occurs I salute you and spread the knowledge please. For those of you who don’t ignorance is not bliss. do some research and educate yourselves.
I wonder if this will get my IP banned? votes?
BigDan Sep 26th 2006 12:54PM
I aggree with Lycane and Ancalimon. I look at this as a chance to get some sleep and do something else for a few hours a week( ..clean out my truck haven't done that in a while.. probably needs it.) I know maintenance is a big deal that could potentially take down servers for weeks on end if they waited for everything to blow up. (Then we would all complain.) If you're so upset about the money go to the store and get a copy of Guild Wars. Free play. They never charge for time so you can access whenever the WoW servers are down. I know I would. I have several characters and it is a pretty fun game. As for scheduled maintenance stop whining and do something else. It's tuesday shouldn't you be at work or school or at least go to the store and buy some useless junk you'll never need and didn't even know you wanted till you walked into Walmart. (Now there's a company that knows how to get your money.) At least they don't bring us down on weekends often. That's whn most people really get to play anyway although I did ding 30 last night before bed on my main. All I'm saying is have some patience as they are trying to fit as many peoples play schedules as they can while performing necessary tasks. I have faith that it will pay off later much more than the inconvenience of a tuesday out reconnecting with RL.
(And I don't see whats bannable about your post Lycane. Maybe I just share your sense of humor.)
Trudie Sep 26th 2006 11:54AM
Ehh... the downtime is not a really huge deal. I will make sure to spend the next two evenings doing constructive things like washing clothes and dishes.
If this downtime is going to eventually make the servers better, then that's a good thing. And one of the above posters is right. You really only pay like 50 cents a day to play this game. That's why I don't understand people who fuss about the money. To me, it's a pretty cheap form of entertainment. I don't even subscribe to cable television because to me WoW is more fun (and cheaper) than watching TV.
Forest Sep 26th 2006 6:22PM
NOOOO SILVERMOON! at least its not down tommorow i dont go to school tommorow
Ceej Sep 26th 2006 6:58PM
Y'know, I play Wow an average of 5 hours a night, 3 nights a week. On the weekends I play around 10-15 hours. My wife and I run a guild and have no children, so we play whenever we want.
2 accounts = $30ish
So between us, we play about 60 hours a week. 4 weeks is... 240 hours. 240 hours of gameplay on an average month for $30.
That's 12.5 cents an hour for two people to play.
If the servers are down for a full weekday, we are not losing 24 hours of play time, we're losing 5 at worst.
We could barely go out to the movies one night for the same $30, and you can't even ask for you money back if the movie sucks. MMO's are the most entertainment of its type you can get for your money - bar none. Even with the occasional "down day", there is tremendous value in playing, and when you get this kind of mileage out of $30, then I for one can be patient every now and then.
Does it get irritating when the servers are down for maintenence? Sure. It's irritating like when your favorite TV show is preempted in favor of the president's speech.
Yes, Blizz does engage in a service industry, and they have a history of underplanning rollouts, little communication, and last minute downtimes. As consumers, we have a right to expect as little downtime as possible.
But server maintenence and hardware upgrades are not something that people should be complaining about. Particularly when it is to correct problems and prepare for the BC release. They are actually expecting players to return because of it. Their subscribership (and the server population) is going to go through the roof and I, for one, am happy to see them preparing for it.
Exodus Oct 3rd 2006 1:19AM
After flipping through the comments... some saying that blizzard is running a bad business and others saying it's blizz's right to do what they will concerning downtime... ultimately... it's your buck people... if you don't think blizz deserves it... then stop paying. Seriously... it's just a game.
DontHoldOut... Oct 3rd 2006 8:33AM
It's like a drug pusher holding out on you to watch you suffer! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Sucks being in Oz, 8pm-4am it's off on tuesdee's.
Perhaps the government is making them do it to force an entire segment of society to actually DO SOMETHING on tuesday nights, like, you know, the washing or something.
Hehehe...