Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
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by Adam Holisky 
Nov 23rd 2010 at 2:36PM
So sit back, enter our contests today, and catch up on everything that was and will be.
This post will be updated and bumped up to the front of the site as the situation changes.
Updated 11:40a.m. PST: Maintenance has been extended until 5:00 p.m. PST.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 17)
dashrendar72 Nov 23rd 2010 1:28PM
awwww that's a hallmark moment.
Saeadame Nov 23rd 2010 1:28PM
Whatever, I finally was able to submit for a race change for my druid (I've been trying all morning and it kept saying "This character has no available races to change to" or whatever). That was all I really wanted, and also I fully expect that the queue times on my server will be ridiculous once it actually does come up.
cts Nov 23rd 2010 1:29PM
Yeah, Blizzard proves once again their QA process is a joke.
They need to bring in a recognized player from outside, from a Google, Microsoft, or similar company, and give them licence to clean house if necessary, and also hold releases until it works right.
Noyou Nov 23rd 2010 1:44PM
Dude. Give it up.
slartibart Nov 23rd 2010 1:46PM
What the heck does server upgrades/source patching have to do with QA?
Simply throwing around tech-terms does not mean you understand them, or make you correct.
Drakkenfyre Nov 23rd 2010 1:57PM
You understand that the downtimes are due to SERVER changes, not the patch download itself, right?
What "hold until it's ready" are you talking about? You think they have several test servers sitting around with thousands and thousands of people on it just to test the server change problems?
The PTR is a very limited test, as far as the server changes go.
Rihahn Nov 23rd 2010 2:06PM
As a manager at an interactive entertainment QA house, I find your post silly.
This has nothing to do with QA - it has a lot to do with updating stupid numbers of tables on thousands of servers on several continents - from scripts running across SSH probably. And an import/update across that much real-estate is simply going to encounter some verification errors somewhere and require re-import/updates until it's right.
Folks whose entire computing experience has been on a home PC simply cannot fathom how complex patch days are.
kronoso Nov 23rd 2010 2:57PM
I agree completely
Tim Nov 23rd 2010 4:14PM
Did you say bring in a recognized player from Microsoft testing? Your brain has gone soft. You bring this 'recognized player in' and It would be 2 week upgrades if they were involved and it still wouldn't work right. If it was Google, WoW would be in beta for 3 years. At least I laughed when reading this post.
Amazing how many people 'know' how to create a shorter patch process when no one even knows what's really involved.
kilana Nov 23rd 2010 1:29PM
Given that the world we've known and loved for the past 6 years is SHATTERING, I think I'll give Blizzard some slack on this one. I'm sure it's just a case of Deathwing getting last minute jitters.
Airstin Nov 23rd 2010 2:10PM
Yep, no one said destroying a world was easy.
Nomick Nov 23rd 2010 2:54PM
Hypeman: Next up, D-D-D-Deathwing!!! Give it up for him!
Deathwing:(Backstage) But.. what if.. they all come after me?
Arthas: Yeah, at first it's easy winning them over, but they keep coming back for more, and then they eventually get tired of you.
Illidan: Yeah, they'll like your act.. today.
Deathwing: So I guess they'll have a wait.
Arthas: Wanna get some lunch?
Illidan: Yeah, even if DW does get on stage soon, it's not like they'll be asking for us.
Arthas: Yeah, screw you, DW. I'm on farm now.
DW: You.. are not... pre-
Illidan: Don't do it!
Ryvers Nov 23rd 2010 1:30PM
Hah, tried to do a faction change for my Troll Shaman (so I could make him a Dwarf tonight, woot!) and got the evil error.... 'You must empty your mailbox before transferring your character."
Noooooooo!
Oh well, I'm still at work for another 4 hours anyway, I can take care of it tonight =)
Ver7ig0 Nov 23rd 2010 1:30PM
Someone's gonna say it anyway, might as well get it out of the way.
Blizzard, just say the servers will be down all day. If you get the realms up in a timely manner, that's awesome. If you don't, at least you didn't set unrealistic deadlines that you can't meet.
Underpromise and overdeliver is wiser practice than constantly failing to predict the "unexpected" extensions that everyone else in the world seems to see coming years in advance.
MysticalOS Nov 23rd 2010 1:39PM
i say this every patch on forums i just get ignored. but company strategy dictates that you ALWAYS project more time than the job actually takes, that way if job runs over, it's still on time. if it ends early, you get commended for a job well done. this has been the practice of all business for ages. most companies these days have the foresight to factor delays into original estimate, why blizzard cannot with their track history is well beyond me. but the customers are never disastisfied if something is on time, only when it's late. if you tell them 10pm is on time, and it's up at 10pm, people are content, if you tell them 10pm and it's up at 3pm, they are escstatic. but if you tell them 3 and it's not up til 10, they are unhappy (and have right to be)
Ullaana Nov 23rd 2010 1:49PM
Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will."
O'Brien's Law: Murphy is an optimist>"
Kia Nov 23rd 2010 1:30PM
What? Blizzard messing things up when all they had to do was enable the content that's already -there-? This is new and exciting.
Randy Nov 23rd 2010 2:26PM
Someone should learn to read patch notes.....talents got a big swing (sorry warlocks, arcane mages, and fury/arms warriors) and some of it is so extreme that talents are getting reset for half the classes. So before you think its just activating new maps why don't you pay some attention before you make ignorant statements. I'm sure 50 percent of classes wanna not be unplayable when Blizz turns it all back on.
Airstin Nov 23rd 2010 2:13PM
You also have to disable the current content.
Also would you wanna come back to a game glitchy as hell? You should appreciate they take all this time to fix things up.
Kia Nov 23rd 2010 2:18PM
More proof people vote me down just to vote me down. Every single comment in this thread is no more "Yawn, really?" than my own. Silly WoW fanboys.