Realms are being brought back online [Updated at 11:50 pm EST]
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 11th 2008 at 8:25PM
The opening announcement just told us all that realms are coming back online now. All the realms will be completely back up by 10:45pm EST / 7:45pm PST. Realms have been down today for an overly-extended maintenance period.There will be an in-game mail sent to all players concerning the mail issues today. For those that are unaware, all mail that was in the mailbox prior to the downtime today was gone when the servers came up for a brief time today. We have covered everything we currently know about this. The mail will be reimbursed.
Let's all say a silent prayer that this is not how the next couple of days look. I don't know about all of you, but I actually want to play Wrath of the Lich King when it's released.
Update 11:50pm EST - All the realms are coming back up. We'll have more on fallout of this tonight and tomorrow.
Update 11:30pm EST - We've sent word to our contact at Blizzard asking for more information about today's issues. We'll let you know the response we get.
All previous updates are being kept after the break, check there to see a log of what's been going on.
Are you ready for the challenges that await you in Northrend? WoW Insider has you covered with our 8-day guide to Preparing for Wrath. Also, check out our feature on AddOns new, old and outdated and Essential AddOns for Wrath written especially with the expansion in mind.Update 8:57pm EST - Realms are now scheduled to be brought online at 10:00pm EST / 7:00pm PST. This information is from the login screen.
Update 9:00pm EST - Syndri tells us that they are doing more internal testing before bringing the realms back up.
Update 9:45pm EST - Realms should be back up in 15 minutes. All worldofwarcraft.com sites are down still.
Update 9:52pm EST - worldofwarcraft.com is back up and running. Realms soon to follow (hopefully).
Update 10:10pm EST - Realms are not yet up.
Update 10:25pm EST - The in-game announcement now tells us that realms will be up by 10:45pm EST / 7:45 PST.
Update 10:49pm EST - 10:45pm EST / 7:45pm PST has passed, and the realms are still down. Awaiting more information from Blizzard.
Update 11:00pm EST - The following is the announcement from Blizzard:
November 11th, 2008 7:50PM PSTUpdate 11:00pm EST - The in-game announcement now tells us that they are working to bring the realms up. There is no time-frame as to when the realms will come back. Check back to this post for more information. The full (and short) announcement from Blizzard is after the break.
Maintenance Update
We are currently working to bring all realms back online. Additionally, information will be sent shortly to all characters through in-game mail system. This message will provide further details concerning today's mail issue.
Thank you for your understanding.
Update 11:22pm EST - Realms are still not up. Looks like this might be a long night. We hope to have something more to report soon, check back often.
Update 11:45pm EST - Kalecgos, Sargearas, and Moonrunner are all up! Yes ladies and gentleman (I'm doing my Joker impersonation as I'm saying that), we have three realms we can play on. Current queues are approaching 5,000 for each realm. All the realms are locked though, so character creation is not possible. More updates when more realms are up.
Filed under: Realm News, Bugs, Realm Status, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 51)
twotoe Nov 11th 2008 8:29PM
/tear of joy
haha
clint Nov 11th 2008 8:29PM
finally...
Verified Insanity Nov 11th 2008 8:41PM
"finally" indeed...
However, I better get some free days from this, for Blizzard effectively took one day of play time away from me, and I don't pay my $15 a month for only select days of that month.
Arthur Nov 11th 2008 8:51PM
They updated it. It is now 7:00PM PST
Cyanea Nov 11th 2008 8:51PM
The login bulletin now says 7pst...
Kakistocracy Nov 11th 2008 8:52PM
That's funny Verified Insanity, the 7 extra hours it was off line cost you 14¢. Now I suppose you could claim that you lost the entire day, so that's almost $0.50,but if you are going to count the entire day, it should be considered that Tuesdays, by default only contain 3/4 of a full day of play time (given play schedules it is more like 1/2) so about 36¢.
Verit Nov 11th 2008 8:52PM
Refreshing crack...
Hoval Nov 11th 2008 9:10PM
your right dude
BUT!
if you multiply that 36cents it cost the ONE person by the 11 MILLION people who play this game...
0.36 x 11 000 000 = 3 960 000
that means you cost your customer base almost 4 million dollars today....
(if thats a loophole in the contract we all signed to play this game...)
joggoms Nov 11th 2008 9:11PM
Why would anyone think they'd really be back online?
Verified Insanity Nov 11th 2008 9:14PM
That's funny, Kakistocracy. You seem to not realize the fact that I don't have unlimited hours a week to play.
I don't give about my $.50, or $.36, or whatever the hell it is. I only care about the fact that I now have to wait a few more days (maybe even a week) before I can play WoW again, for I have things to do for the next few day
So I think that I should be compensated for those days in some fashion, and free game time is the only reasonable composition (as much as I'd like free WotLK).
So, Kakistocracy, I hope you learn to think about other people's time restraints. And if you don't believe they exist, then there's proof, known as the column "WoW, Casually."
Tl;dr version: When the gobins say "Time is money, friend," they're not lying.
Mike Nov 11th 2008 9:16PM
"That's funny Verified Insanity, the 7 extra hours it was off line cost you 14¢."
As I stated in another post it's not about the 14 cents. It's about 14 cents times 11 million. If 2 cents times 11 million for every hour of downtime ($220,000) were deducted from Blizzard execs salaries I guarantee there would be no down time. More techs would be hired, more time spent on quality control, and testing.
As long as there is no accountability and 5,000,000 copies of Wotlk are sold in the first 24 hours, those exec's will simply blow it off, cash their checks, and laugh all the way to the bank.
Attack Gypsy Nov 11th 2008 9:31PM
They owe you exactly nothing.
They never guarantee uptime at any point. They're not required to give any refunds or credits.
Is it possible they will? Yes. Are they required to? No. Would it be good customer service to do so? Yes. Does it make good business sense? Not really, considering they'll sell 5 million units tomorrow no matter what they do.
Verified Insanity Nov 11th 2008 9:40PM
"They owe you exactly nothing."
Indeed, they don't. I said "better," not "has to."
"They never guarantee uptime at any point. They're not required to give any refunds or credits. Is it possible they will? Yes."
Because they (sometimes) realize it when they screw stuff up bad, that's why.
"Are they required to? No. Would it be good customer service to do so? Yes."
Exactly, and I regard this as a big enough screw up to warrant game time.
"Does it make good business sense? Not really, considering they'll sell 5 million units tomorrow no matter what they do."
Sort of. I highly doubt they'll sell 5 million units *tomorrow,* but they may in the next month. Also, they're hitting up against what other MMOs do: Tell you to go f-off when you complain about something just like this, which _really_ doesn't sound like Blizzard.
Then again, this is ActivisionBlizzard... =S
nitetrip Nov 11th 2008 10:06PM
Verified Insanity -
You are an idiot. You think because YOU don't have time to play all the time that blizzard should compensate you? Tuesdays is always patch day and you should have picked a different day to play. The most you lost today is your 36 cents as was stated earlier. If you look at your subscription time most likely you will see the day credited to your account. They don't owe you more because you aren't available to play on other days.
I think its hilarious how many people think blizz owes them so much because they are upgrading their servers. Its 50 cents a day folks. Hell even a day fo cable tv costs more.
kabshiel Nov 11th 2008 9:51PM
Thursday's gonna be hilarious.
Benny Nov 11th 2008 10:09PM
@Verified Insanity
Sorry to disappoint you bro, but if your main problem is you have limited hours to play per week to the point of missing today means you cant login for the next few days, then Im afraid you need to find yourself a new game.
Its the maintenance patch before Xpac, I could have told you that servers would be down most of the day before they even went down this morning. I had hoped they would be backup by the time I got off work (4 hours after time they should have gone up) but oh well.
The biggest disclaimer written on the box, game experience may change during online play. If things such as outages/bugs/downtime are something that you have a major issue with to the point of QQing about recieving a free month of play, then you need to quit wow and join a baseball team or bowling team to minimize your risk of being unable to play, because a computer game is simply not for you.
Honestly, if the servers need to be taken down for an extra few hours to ensure the majority of my play time the rest of the month goes smooth, go for it. I would rather not be playing now, then logging in waiting for my mail, sitting around as server gets restarted every hour while they implement hotfixes to see if it fixes the mailing bug etc.
Find something else to go occupy your time. A video game is not for a person like you.
Munky Nov 11th 2008 10:07PM
Well now they're just not telling anymore. They've given up.
Kakistocracy Nov 11th 2008 10:08PM
"So, Kakistocracy, I hope you learn to think about other people's time restraints. And if you don't believe they exist, then there's proof, known as the column "WoW, Casually.""
When I read this, I saw the line, "And if you don't believe they exist" as saying, if I don't believe other people exist... which is Ironic because I am not convinced that the rest of you do exist.
Fallen Nov 11th 2008 10:12PM
big enough screw up? dude unless you're a programmer and know exactly what the problem is, i wouldn't talk. you don't have unlimited hours, we get that, no one does, but maybe you should get off Blizzards back, for all we know it was a massive bug, this stuff happens. They'll probably give everyone a free day because of this, but not because "it's good customer service" rather it's because they're a good company who believes in their customers. They're not gonna be like, well shoot, we just shot an entire day, better give out a free day to quell the angered players.
In short, you tell people to consider other peoples time, i tell you to consider Blizzards efforts in fixing this situation, they can't snap their fingers and make it better, sometimes these things are the slightest little bit of improper coding, that takes hours of combing the codes to find. Let them work, you'll get your free day, stop complaining -_-
Rhayr Nov 11th 2008 10:23PM
nitetrip said...
"I think its hilarious how many people think blizz owes them so much because they are upgrading their servers. Its 50 cents a day folks. Hell even a day fo cable tv costs more."
Strange...I don't remember seeing "we are upgrading our severs" message on the login. I DO remember seeing something about mail...so does Blizz now upgrade their servers thru in-game mail? or is "we are attempting to figure out an issue with in-game mail" some sort of new code for server upgrade?