Realms offline until at least 6:00pm EST [Updated]
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 11th 2008 at 3:33PM
Breaking news from the service status forums:All realms will be offline until at least 6:00pm EST / 3:00pm PST. They are having to keep the realms down for this extended period due to errors in the mail system.
Essentially, every piece of mail that was sent prior to the realms going down at 8:00am EST was lost when the servers came back up. Blizzard has said that they are actively looking for a solution to the problem. We're keeping our mailbox post updated with the latest information on that front.
Hopefully this extended downtime is not foreshadowing things to come when Wrath of the Lich King starts to enter circulation tomorrow evening at midnight*.
Update: Please see this post for more information concerning the downtime.
Stay tuned to WoW Insider for more updates.
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 Also, check out our feature on AddOns new, old and outdated and Essential AddOns for Wrath written especially with the expansion in mind.Update: It's 6:00pm EST / 3:00pm PST, and the realms are still offline. Blizzard retracted the specific time table, and we're waiting on further updates. It should also be noted that Blizzard's forums are experiencing technical difficulties, so new information might be coming in a tad slow.
Update: 7:27pm EST, realms are still offline. No ETA when they'll be back up.
*Yes, we know. Midnight really is Thursday morning. But if you live on the east cost, you'll be getting it at 9:00pm PST. Which is tomorrow night for a very large portion of the country.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 23)
JPN Nov 11th 2008 3:36PM
"Hopefully this extended downtime is not foreshadowing things to come when Wrath of the Lich King is released tomorrow evening. "
Dang...it really hit me with "tomorrow evening" :)
Guido666 Nov 11th 2008 4:12PM
Do you guys play the same WoW that I do?
Patches have been taking a while, and having unusual consequences / downtime for several weeks now.
By now it is simply foolish to expect 100% smooth sailing all the time.
Ma Nov 11th 2008 5:19PM
Another day, another fail. Four years of fail with every single patch... Who can be surprised?
But don't worry WotLK will hit us harder. Much harder...
joggoms Nov 11th 2008 5:22PM
The downtime has been ridiculous lately and this problem happening so close to WoTLK is a really bad sign.
I'm guessing if we are lucky we'll be able to play WoTLK by *next* Thursday.
Not to mention that today was a Holiday in America and my last chance to play before the expansion. Way to go Blizz.
Fallen Nov 11th 2008 5:38PM
Everyone should just stop complaining, "every patch for the last 4 years" so why do you still play? it's not a difficult thing to figure out. If you hate it, stop doing it. There are other games to play for the one day every once in awhile servers go down.
No one ever seems to think maybe Blizz is trying hard to fix it, maybe they have lots of staff trying to fix it, maybe it's actually a DIFFICULT problem to fix? I think they'll get more done with people supporting them, than having to send moderators to deal with everyone complaining and yelling at them for a problem they couldn't fix themselves.
Calm down, read a book, play another game, watch t.v.
SINisterWyvern Nov 11th 2008 5:56PM
It's funny to see all this whining about patches not going smoothly and even more about the "lately" part.
Apparently people still don't understand the concept of constantly updating a running game world. If you expect and demand perfection, go buy a single player game that never updates. Every MMO is like this. There are no exceptions to bugs, server problems, unexpected down times, etc.
Unless you do the job they do, you have no idea what goes on. And if you do the job they do, you know better and aren't bitching about it.
Welcome to the MMO world people.
joggoms Nov 11th 2008 6:09PM
For the Blizzard apologists above...
fanboi: Geek Term related to forum users who think a product/company/person can do no wrong.
from urbandictionary.com
Ilem Nov 11th 2008 6:57PM
Joggoms,
Those Blizzard-protective comments don't seem like fanboyism to me.
I've worked as a system administrator for a storage software company for a few years and tripped across way more bugs operating our software on beta and production servers than the QA team found using their meticulously designed test plans. Sure, if test plans are crummy, bugs and misdesigned features might fall through the cracks, but with complex pieces of software, even extensive testing isn't going to get all of the crinkles straightened out before the product is released into production.
At least Blizzard staff are working on a solution to the problem--to restore mail that was seemingly lost during the initial maintenance period. Other companies might have said, "Too bad!" and promised to release a patch whenever they feel like it. Heck, in one instance, Microsoft took four months to release a patch for a fatal Exchange Server 2003 bug, and that's a piece of software people actually use to run their businesses on. Blizzard's at least trying to fix the issue now so mail doesn't disappear again some time down the road.
It's reasonable to be disappointed with prolonged maintenance periods, but remember that World of Warcraft is a feature-rich product that's doomed to get bugs lost in code until they show their ugly little faces some time in production.
Anders Nov 11th 2008 7:22PM
@Ilem (and all those with their heads on straight)
Exactly. (Most) People don't realize how ridiculously complex applications are.
From a programmer/developer's standpoint (my profession), it is asinine that anyone, period, is complaining about the down time. If you have ever developed anything (basic HTML does not count), you will find out that problems can happen in unrelated areas of the software (eg. the problem that made our mail disappear could have been triggered by an underlying issue in the part of the application that handles flight paths), making them extremely difficult to pinpoint quickly.
It takes time, a good eye, and intelligence to debug software. Relax, enjoy the time out of Azeroth.
Elvrag Nov 11th 2008 3:37PM
ill never get last minute stuff done if stays down for too long =(
Chuck (Arrinor) Nov 11th 2008 4:37PM
Hmm, 6PM EST - well that translate til at least 8:00PM EST
Beatphreek Nov 11th 2008 5:29PM
N0t sure what you use to translate time zones, but 6PM Eastern is actually 3PM Pacific...
Beatphreek Nov 11th 2008 5:32PM
Yikes... read that wrong... sorry... I understand what you are saying, and you are probably correct.
Chuck (Arrinor) Nov 13th 2008 7:42AM
Yes you are picking up what I am laying down now - but I think I may need to bump to 9:00 EST - I saw at around 6:30 the message was an updated message in about 2 hours
Lilithsblood Nov 11th 2008 3:38PM
Well..
Free gold from blizz? :D
1000g to everyone!
Elvrag Nov 11th 2008 3:39PM
lol that would help =)
Gessilea Nov 11th 2008 3:52PM
Dude, if all my mail is gone, that's a whole lot more than 1000g. I haven't put up any auctions for a couple of weeks...
Leon Nov 11th 2008 5:22PM
Someone didn't pay attention in Economics! That would cause massive inflation and all it would do is raise prices!
Free game time however is always possible, and they gave 3 days game time after the 3.0 troubles.
kinglothos Nov 12th 2008 7:28AM
Woot I down with that that should give me almost enough to cover the losses from my lost auctions that ended about an hour before the downtime started and vanished into the eather
Chase Webb Nov 11th 2008 3:39PM
Awww... C'mon!!