Blizzard gives out a day of compensation for the downtime
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 12th 2008 at 7:55PM
Blizzard's been on shaky footing this week with all the downtime, from their forum issues to in-game mail problems, and even their main site has had trouble. But there's good news for those affected by the outages (everybody?): we're all getting an extra day of playtime. Tyren says that they believe the problems are now fixed, and that players will recieve a free day of gameplay sometime within the next two weeks.Personally, I wasn't affected much, but free gametime is free gametime. The real test will be this evening and this weekend -- if Blizzard can keep their realms up even under the pressure of so many people checking out the expansion, it'll be a feat. But odds are that, considering how many players are likely to try checking out Northrend in the next few days, the shakiness is not quite over.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Koom Nov 15th 2008 4:45PM
Yay, thanks bliz!
also, first.
Firestride Nov 12th 2008 8:09PM
Any vets from the BC launch who can tell me how likely it is that any trouble will be restricted to Northrend? I'm still running around Outland, and I'm hoping I'll be able to avoid whatever mess comes out of the expansion.
Fortone Nov 12th 2008 10:36PM
Ya it usually is based on the world and it's population when I endured that icky Outlands rush when TBC came out. Azeroth was fine, but the outland's server was on the fritz.
Christel Nov 12th 2008 8:26PM
.. well.. I've lost days and now I just get disconnected..
havitech Nov 12th 2008 8:18PM
I for one could care less how long the servers are down for the days before launch, as long as they use that time to ensure stability immediately post-launch. But hey, free time is free time, thanks Bliz!
Kakistocracy Nov 12th 2008 8:20PM
I don't really care about the cost of the day of game play, and I care even less about symbolic gestures, I want the actual time back. :P
amasen Nov 12th 2008 8:23PM
This downtime left me very upset about the blizzard product. They drove their players to raid or die if you wanted to see content and in doing so it caused some massive burn out along the way. Several of our players announced over the weekend that they would not be continuing to play wow in wrath. So Tuesday was to be our last raid with several of these amazing players. But then our last raid was called because of Blizzards faulty product.
In fact nearly 50% of our raids have been called since 3.0 launched because either the instance servers were down or the realm was down or players couldn't log on or it was simply too laggy to do anything.
But hey who cares that the game has been nearly unplayable in nearly all aspects from game stability to content provided (pvp if you were anything but a ret/boomkin/arc mage and PvE if you wanted any sort of challenge).
I'll miss the friends who will no longer be playing the game. And I am truly disappointed that we all missed our last raid together.
mizatt Nov 12th 2008 8:31PM
Over under on this guy coming back? I'll set it at 2 weeks
amasen Nov 12th 2008 8:41PM
I suspect the majority of the players leaving the game will not be coming back. Some have kids, new jobs, lost jobs, got married, ect... Only one has left because of boredom from the game.
As for me, I'll keep playing. I run a casual guild... No attendance required raiding guild that nearly beat BT (7of9) in under 7 months (from being a kara guild)... There is no way I'll leave a group of players as good as I have in my guild. It just makes the game too much fun.
Still doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in Blizzards service since 3.0 hit.
Wyldshank Nov 12th 2008 8:27PM
QQ some more.
Actuality Nov 12th 2008 8:48PM
...which is why MY time off is a week from now! :D
lucifer.cross Nov 12th 2008 9:13PM
I'm actually a little surprised by this, considering that we (or some of us?) got three days a while back. Not that I can remember why, but... haha.
Forque Nov 12th 2008 9:33PM
I'll reserve judgement on whether 1days compensation is sufficient... once I get my "failmail" items returned.
Last I saw Blizz Blue quoted "the last 15 days" of items would be returned? I dunno 'bout the rest of you but I have literally thousands upon thousands of gold worth of mats channeled between toons - beyond 15days. Not to mention hard to find items, recipes, gear, intentionally in email limbo waiting for alts to lvl up (seemed a more usable solution than to tie it down to a bank... until now, obviously).
I'm guessing a substantial amount of players had items in email ready for access in Northrend as well (since there's no bank until Dalaran).
A loss of all items 16-30 days old in email is an absolutely MAMMOTH economy loss for a vast majority of us (Hardcore guilds must be tearing their hair out right now.)
Needless to say, if everything beyond 15days has gone poof? You can be damn sure I'll not be satisfied with 1days credit. I could easily substantiate over a MONTHS worth of playing invested in those despawned items...
Still waiting nervously for any of it to return as of yet (on Uldum).
Akhilesh Nov 13th 2008 9:15AM
Woot a picture of Aggramar (my realm) on WoWInsider, im honored =)
Catahoula Nov 13th 2008 9:21AM
Gane time is game time. The compensation days are a nice way of making up. Thanks Blizz! The problem I have with these "down time compensation days" is that they do not apply to people that are running a character under Recruit-a- friend.
Your account gets credited with time but the limited amount of time you have for R-A-F bonuses is not extended. So I f I can't log in to play on RAF time but get 'compensated' for downtime I still lose that time for RAF purposes. To be fair, Blizzard should also extend the time that an account is linked to another account for RAF by the same amount of time. It is not like a person is being double compensated either.
Dave Nov 13th 2008 10:03AM
Working has its benefits... like always missing these downtimes.
Angel Nov 13th 2008 1:56PM
Hahaa all your prices are belong to me!
darkmecha Nov 13th 2008 4:34PM
The BC launch went actually pretty good considering the hundreds of new Blood Elves and Space Monkey's ( made up race nothing to do with Lore ) , yes pet peeve. When WoW went gold was a lot more shaky than TBC. Yet I do not hold out big hopes that Wrath will be the same considering all the downtime of late. Yet this is what happens when your tech dept is populated by 5 year olds.
Mythicgriffon Nov 13th 2008 6:30PM
an eye for an eye, i think this is fair
Bunyipee Nov 14th 2008 9:55AM
Nearly everyone I know who has quit in the passed always came back. Sometimes it took a year but it always occured. this game is just too addictive, and if you are going to play games anyway, wow will always call you.
The servers seemed pretty stable atm after wotlk launch. I am a little concerned about the weekend but, I dont think it can get that much more busy.
still I can always lvl my orc warlock, in the event that northrend is screwed or lvl a dk(though that area may be on the same server as northrend? anyone know?)