Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsForum post of the day: Don't be bothered by bugs
by Amanda Dean 
Jan 22nd 2009 at 2:00PM
I don't really need to tell you that WoW has been a little rocky since patch 3.0.8 launched. The forums are filled with players who are angry and threatening to cancel their accounts. There are some that think we need to give a Blizz a break.Snagger of Quel'dorei pointed out that there are risks involved in launching new programming. The PTR cannot quite grasp the effect of millions of users. I've experienced bugs in new software releases in many areas. Everything from the Windows XP security bug in service pack three to software developed for my employer that regularly crashes the computer. We come up with work-arounds and the the developers work to resolve the issue. What we're experiencing is not unique to WoW. If you're missing out on your favorite WoW activity, try something else: run battlegrounds, work on reputation, help some lowbies, roll a healer.
Others refuted this point by saying that Blizzard makes enough money produce a quality product. The OP argued that not all problems can bee solved by throwing money at them. Aquinas of Feathermoon pointed out that his issue is not with the bugs, but with Blizzard's promises that releases will come out when they're done. This patch met Blizz's standards of quality, bugs and all. He suggested that Blizzard should reassess their patching process.
I have faith that Blizzard is working diligently to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Remember that we were quick to forgive the pain inflicted at Wrath's launch. In due time we will be enjoying a mostly smooth gaming experience once again. When the next patch is released, it will take some time to work out the bugs again. Such is the nature of software patching.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Blizzard, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
clax Jan 22nd 2009 3:27PM
If its true that "every patch this happens" and its everyone else
whose attitudes are at fault. Then why haven't you quit with your
special insight to show you mean business. I mean if you are so
serious about not taking it up the @## then why do you. At least
those who are apathetic to the situation are acting apathetic, to act like your doing anything more then saying "care more than i do, quit to prove my point" is a little strange.
Arcaria Jan 22nd 2009 3:30PM
I'm sorry but it really makes me laugh to read these types of posts. It sounds like you have some pretty severe anger issues.
LOL@Steve
Mj Jan 22nd 2009 3:55PM
Posting on a website that is not moderated by blizzard about how frustrated you are does absolutely nothing to convince blizzard to correct their issues.
Yes, they released a patch with known issues. There comes a point in sofware release cycles where the ability to correct a minor problem with minor issues (such as the ones they mentioned, frustrating but not game breaking) and delaying that release (which, by the way, was intended to help correct some issues with lag) become counter productive. They needed to get a fix for the lag. While it was cyclical, last night was better than Tuesday night, and as they address the issues it may, in fact, improve the serious lag issue.
Those of us who are adults with real jobs know that software development on this level is very intense, and know that there is only so much that can be done. If issues are not corrected, we will then "speak with our money" by leaving, but not without giving them a chance to correct the problems as they occur.
By the way - if you really want quality software, spend time on the PTR. If we had as many people on the PTR as we have on the regular realms, playing Wintergrasp when they know they will get nothing with their marks, that issue probably would have been found more quickly. QQing about the problem doesn't do a darn thing.
Squiddles Jan 22nd 2009 3:17PM
It's the missing doodad door which makes me sad.
croe Jan 22nd 2009 3:16PM
It's pretty sad how people will threaten to cancel their accounts the moment something doesn't go their way. Not that I believe they ever will do so. Most of those people are just all drama and when push comes to shove, they wouldn't do it because they like WoW too much.
It's just part of the 'me' generation. If I dont' get what I want right now and get it all the way that I want it, then I'm going to throw a hissy fit and show the world that even though my problems are completely trivial, I'm the real victim here.
God bless them.
Tyeton Jan 22nd 2009 3:21PM
I agree with Joe Helfrich. I was a software tester for many years with a major software company everyone bitches about every day. It's impossible with the millions (yes millions) of lines of code to catch every bug. They happen. Sometimes you can't test every aspect of a piece of software so you have to hope for the best, and fix it as bugs are found.
I give props to Blizz for how relatively smooth their patching and expansions go. Yeah, it's a pain for several days but they do get it worked out or find work arounds until they do.
Afterall, as much as a lot of us hate to admit (including myself) it's just a game. It's not going to do any permanent damage to any of us if it doesn't work exactly as planned or promised right off the bat. Like the article states, if what you are trying to do isn't working go do something else, try a new dungeon, help a newbie...or *gasp* spend time with your family and/or friends.
If my wife reads that last part I'm going to get "the look" for not taking my own advice...lol
Ted Jan 22nd 2009 3:21PM
Please Stop. This isn't Aint It Cool
Tyeton Jan 22nd 2009 3:33PM
Wow Steve... a little anger management bud. You evidently don't work or live in the real world where NOTHING is perfect and not many plans come together without a problem.
Yeah bugs, broken patches, queues to login, etc. are a royal pain. Try to look at the scope of what Blizzard or any other software company is trying to do and put it into perspective. Over 11 million subscribers on... how many servers? That's a lot of code, hardware, and system configurations to consider just to make the game playable. Any modification to the code, even one line, could have massive ramifications. At least Blizz acknowledges the issues and are trying to address them.
Yeah it's your money and you expect a bug-free product. There is no such thing. Every program has bugs. If you don't like the product or feel you are not getting what you pay for, you do have the option of not paying anymore. If people want to quit, then quit and stop whining, screaming, and pouting on the boards and blogs. Quit and move on.
Arcaria Jan 22nd 2009 4:03PM
I would say your assessment that he probably doesn't work in the real world is easily backed up by how angry he gets over $15 a month.
Most rational people with even moderately decent jobs would not freak out like this.
paul.marsico Jan 22nd 2009 4:22PM
They told us they'd fix warlocks. Now they are even more broken.
Blizzard sucks.
Sumitra Jan 22nd 2009 4:45PM
@Tyeton
I actually have worked as a developer / dev manager / VP at gigantic software companies, and startups, as well.
Anyone who knows anything about software knows that these patches are going to ship with bugs. Not every situation can be simulated in a test environment, and that's the nature of a gigantic, complex project.
HOWEVER...
This release just *screams* sloppiness and bad development process. I don't know why it happened, but it appears that Blizzard put in many last minute or untested changes. For one example, the daily fishing quests were bugged pretty badly when the patch released. Quest items weren't coming up, fishing loot would be empty, etc.
There was nothing in the move from PTR to live realm that should have introduced these fishing bugs. There was no patch note for any related change to fishing dailies. This never should have made it to live. This probably resulted from a developer fixing a bug in a loot table somewhere and not bothering to fully test the impact. Multiply this over and over and we get the current state of 3.0.8.
Without being on the inside, it's hard to say why things went so wrong with this patch. Rolling so many changes into a gigantic "minor" patch instead of small, weekly patches was probably doomed from the start.
This kind of thing tends to happen at software companies when the process doesn't grow with the product. It should be a wakeup to Blizzard to fix their development and QA, and it does warrant the complaints from paying customers.
Kry Jan 22nd 2009 4:54PM
Firstly, I want to say that these comments are not coming from someone in a hardcore guild.
Is anyone else having problems with their guilds and members losing interest in the game and stopping to play?
I've seen soo many people get disinterested (myself included) over the last few months.
We used to have a regular base of players signing up for raids.
At least half the regular raiding guys in our guild and a lot on our server are quitting and/or not playing as much. Old Wow-Chat buddies on ventrilo - social guys just quitting.
We're a two-day raiding guild - we raid about 8 hours or less a week.
Common complaints:
Game too easy. It has become about the loot and Achievements and not about downing the boss/progression.
Rather participating in PuGs than guild runs has become the norm.
Casual Guild members seem to rather want 10 man heroics than 25-man heroics. Actually, even more common than that is people don't understand the point (myself included) behind the 25-mans - they're not that much harder anyway - and it's the same bosses, same re-hashed stuff. Blizzard have just been damn lazy and rushed this out - no matter how you look at it!
I understand the concept behind normal and heroic 5-mans. There are quest chains that lead to the normal instances and this is a break from the quest-grinding and allows you to work on your new skills while you are levelling. But, at 80, everyone runs heroics and doesnt really bother with the normals.
We did the whole of nax in the first week and we one-shotted every boss in 25-man (with 8 pugged players) on our first 3 hour nax raid...and did 3 more on our second night. 6 hours and we've done 75% of an instance? We're not hard-core guys.
I had not one single moment of elation either when we got a boss down. It wasn't like the first time we got nightbane down, vashj or Al'ar.
If we ever wiped, it was like... "Ah, we just need to do this... cool... o look, he's down.. next" >boring<
Another thing... My druid took approximately 3 weeks to get to a level of comparable gear at 80 to what took me a over one 1/2 years in TBC.
Complaints about the game lacking lustre - further that we were sold an unfinished game here.
Anyone seen the door - dood_dad_spider_door2 in Nax ?
Sloppy!
How about this? ALL gear is level 200. Nax, Crafted, Instances, whatever. No bonus to having a profession anymore. 1/2 my guildies are now miners/herbs/skinning.
Did anyone notice that there are NO quest chains in Nax like there were in Kara, TK, etc? Malygos, yes, but that's about it.
Everythings about the damn achievements...
Another thing? GC says he's in-touch with the player-base? Did anyone notice that there is NO druid tanking set? There appears to be NO feral druid-specific leather gear at all except the T7. All the other hybrids have a melee dps set and a tanking set. Why not druids?
In my personal opinion, Nax is nowhere near as pretty as Kara or SSC or TK. I challenge anyone to say it is.
I've also begun to lose interest and have been playing for about 3 years now. Lately, I just log on when I am absolutely bored, do a daily or two, work on one of my 7 alts, get bored even more and log off, watch a dvd.
In my opinion, something is very wrong in the game.
Doing the same instance over with one, two, or three drakes up?
If I wanted a game with easy, medium and hard levels, I would have bought a nintendo. What have you done Blizzard?
I'm just so despondent that the game appears broken. We've pretty much cleared all the content and it's like 2 months after the expansion. People are soooo damn bored. Myself included. Planning on just giving it up... what's the point of playing something with no challenge?
:(
Zarfay Jan 22nd 2009 5:19PM
I don't see why people are so upset about these bugs, they haven't affected my game play at all...
tonedeff Jan 22nd 2009 6:13PM
Dont you wish u had of got that dodgey play time insurance, you could of made some money from all these problems.
But seriously this is part of blizzard these bugs are nothing new. this kjinda thing has happened for the last 4 years. I know its annoying but we all know they will get everything fixed and sorted!
uncaringbear Jan 22nd 2009 6:15PM
These types of apologists sentiments is exactly why we live in a 'beta' culture now. We're so used to seeing software, and even hardware, get released in an unfinished state that it's now become the norm.
It was not always like this, and we have to break out of this attitude of mediocrity.
Brakoulian Jan 22nd 2009 6:39PM
I understand that every piece of software,from windows to wow has its bugs,that eventually will be solved. But i dont think that what is happening with the lag in 25man Naxx should be called a bug, for the raiders among us 25man runs are the essence of the game. I made a lot of patience for the patch to come out and fix the lag. Instead of that, arenas and Wg are off as well now. I am not sure how to react with this situation.I am frustrated enough with the new direction of wow and on top of this ,at the end of the day, we have a broken product.
Tonymcs Jan 22nd 2009 6:54PM
These days everyone thinks they can program. If it's not script kiddies, it's web developers. You may not like it, but creating programs with millions of lines is an entirely different thing. On top of that, it's not financial/database programming or web services. This is software that millions of people use in a million different ways and worse still, try to actively exploit it.
So if you're a programmer who thinks they can reach the Holy Grail of no bugs by QA, public tests, the latest buzzword in programming styles or general prayer - give up now. It's not going to happen.
This doesn't mean that we have to be complacent about a plethora of bugs - the idea is to reduce them so the inevitable ones that appear will be small in number. The other important thing is to fix them as soon as possible and unlike a number of the major software suppliers, I'm pleased with Blizzard's response time.
If you doubt me and IBM's research on the topic then try some examples from real life. Have a look at the major software suppliers like MS, Apple, IBM, Sun. These companies have some of the best programmers, QA systems and have even more money than Blizzard dedicated to programming. Yet all of them have bugs on release and all of them will in the future. The important thing is they get recognized and fixed.
Software developers are not omniscient and anyone who has worked on major projects has a good idea of what can go wrong. Anyone who claims their latest huge software project is bug free, is just being naive.
Dhirvish Jan 23rd 2009 2:06AM
I am far from canceling my account. I will when I get bored of the game and then I'm sure I'll return to it at a later date as I have in the past.
But I do have to say that in the 4 years I've been a part of WoW, this is the worst patch so far. My game actually crashed (some kind of Arena error, it worked fine yesterday...immediately after the patch...) and I had to reinstall everything from 3.0 onward. I have had nothing but problems with all of the 3.0+ content, reinstalling the content twice now and multiple deletions and fixes. This computer is brand new, built by myself, high performance, has a sum total of 3 programs on it, no 3rd party WoW programs, and has run perfectly aside from the WoW issues. I never had a single issue on my old computer with classic and TBC.
Someone is at Bliz is screwing up their programing and needs to be fired.
tagashi Jan 22nd 2009 11:25PM
I too work in the software industry, and know how software testing and peer review work, and realize bugs can get through, but you try telling a customer that major features in the software you just sold them no longer works. See how far that gets you. Personally, I'm tired of the attitude Blizzard has toward the player base. They don't have a traditional attitude on how to treat customers. They take the stance that they are doing us a favor by taking our money and letting us play their game. This is a flawed concept, and companies that treat their customers this way ultimately fail.
Plus, if the blues didn't have such an attitude toward the players on the PTR, more people MIGHT help. They forget that we are doing them a FAVOR by testing their software for them, for free. I will no longer participate in the PTR because of a certain blue on the boards.
I guess this is what happens when they start changing the game to be more friendly toward the mainstream mouth breathers rather than GAMERS.....
Also, just started my 10 day trial of D&D online, and it's fun, but very, very different from WoW. So far, it's much less "mindless" when it comes to content. If you are shopping around trial periods on various MMOs like me, give it a shot.