Posts with tag RealmStatus

Jenny posted a t-shirt design on WoW Ladies that I just thought was too good to pass up. You can't actually buy it yet, but apparently she's entered it into a contest over at SplitReason, and if enough people vote for it, they'll offer it as a real t-shirt. You don't have to vote for her or anything (I have no idea who she is, except that she posts on WoW Ladies and made this funny shirt), but if you like the shirt as much as I do, feel free to show your support.

Is it just me or are there a lot of WoW-related t-shirts over there? Must be something about you guys and voting for t-shirts.

Sure enough, I go to log in to poke around with macros and numbers for tomorrow's Encrypted Text column, and what am I greeted with on the login screen? The dreaded message indicating that the downtime has been extended further.

Per the login screen:

Extended Maintenance

We will be extending our regularly schedule Tuesday maintenance for an estimated two hours in order to resolve an issue with our authentication system. We anticipate the realms will be available at approximately 1:00 p.m. PDT, and will provide an update to the situation in approximately 1 hour.

Thank you,

Blizzard Entertainment

Yep. I'm an addict. I love Roguing it up, and I'll admit I was really looking forward to getting back on and playing around with macros and different settings -- as well as checking out a different damage meter mod I just snagged. Is there anything you're looking forward to when you can get back in? Gotten a particularly tasty piece of loot lately that you didn't get to really take for a spin before the server shut down? One of your auctions going to make you a lot of money when you log back in? Or is the ability to log in just the symbol of the end of a day of work, and the start of relaxation time for you? (Hey, that's more than enough of a reason right there!)

Another weekend, another batch of server issues. This time it's realms in the Cyclone battlegroup, which are having a whole host of technical problems. Seems like a lot of people are having trouble connecting, and the ones that do connect are falling through the world/getting messages saying their characters don't exist/etc. Blizzard says they're working on the issue, although it's been down for several hours.

Realms that may be affected include:

• Darkspear
• Stonemaul
• Feathermoon
• Stormscale
• Dragonblight
• Bronzebeard
• Draenor
• Azjol-Nerub
• Daggerspine
• Boulderfist
• Dunemaul
• Crushridge
• Perenolde
• Bloodscalp
• Uldum
• Suramar

With new patches come new problems. Disappearing items have caused Blizzard to hotfix and restart every realm, with the side effect of lots of realms being offline and some (including my home realm, Magtheridon) having disappeared entirely. I just got back from a weeklong vacation, and with it being patch day, I've been dying to get in-game. But other than staring at the realm list, what can you do when your realm is down?

1. Play with the character generator. Make the most attractive character you can for each race and gender. Then make the ugliest. (Does anyone ever use the human female with the wrinkled face?) Try to make a facsimile of your own appearance!
2. Try out some new realm types. Are PVP server chats really meaner than on RPPVP? How far can a level 1 get into enemy territory if you stick to the roads on a PVP server?
3. Create a reputation for yourself. Roll an Alliance and Horde character on a PVE server. Go into major cities and proceed to talk about how much of a jerk your alt on the other faction is. Feel free to make up outlandish stories of ninjaing, sexual harassment, etc. Then do the same on the other alt. See how many people you can get to whisper you and condemn your "actions."
4. Try to catch people cybering on RP servers. Or, if you're into that sort of thing, create a night elf/blood elf and do a little mailbox dancing, see how much money you get, and then donate it all to some lucky noob.
5. Hang with your guildies on Vent. It's amazing how much you can actually get done when the server's down. It's a good time for an officer meeting, or an all-guild DOTA competition, or finally creating that Screaming Raid Leader Drinking Game you've been working on.

Have you been annoyed by the recent outages? What do you do when WoW is up, but your realm isn't?

Eyonix posted a short note earlier this evening that tomorrow's maintenance is going a little long-- realms will be offline tomrrow morning at 3AM PST and hopefully back online at 11:00AM PST. The reason for the delay is "a small patch" that's supposed to fix bugs and, here's the important part, "balancing issues."

Now, I'd assume Blizzard would give us more notice than that if there were going to officially split realms. But that "balancing issues" phrase worries me a little bit-- we know that they're ready to take steps (mandatory, if necessary) to make sure overpopulated realms balance their population appropriately.

Adding fuel to the speculatory fire, you'll also note that the realm transfers are only available until... tomorrow morning at 3 AM (right when the maintenance is starting). Could players log on tomorrow with their alts on completely different realms? I guess we'll know by 11 tomorrow morning.

Update: This is just speculation, don't freak out. Sol-El helpfully points out in the comments that Blizzard has previously promised two weeks notice (in-game, too, not just on the message boards) on any mandatory realm splits. Still doesn't explain what "balancing issues" are fixed, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Update2: Clearly, I was out on a limb by myself last night. The updates have hit, and everyone but me seemed to realize that Blizzard meant class balancing issues, not population balancing issues. Wishful thinking on my part, I guess-- with the way lag and spawn camping are on overpopulated realms, I was almost hoping my characters would appear on a less populated server this morning.

As a complete surprise to many players, several European realms will be offline for up to 24 hours starting this maintenance. As this is due to the migration of hardware, it's odd that this news was delivered relatively late this week.

The affected realms are: Agamaggan, Aggramar, Ahn'Qiraj, Al'Akir, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Aszune, Azjol-Nerub, Bladefist, Bloodfeather, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Bronzebeard, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darksorrow, Deathwing, Defias Brotherhoo, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Drak'thul, Dunemaul, Emerald Dream, Emeriss, Executus, Frostwhisper, Hakkar, Haomarush, Khadgar, Kul Tiras, Lightning's Blade, Mazrigos, Moonglade, Neptulon, Ragnaros, Scarshield Legion, Steamwheedle Cartel, Sunstrider, Sylvanas, Talnivarr, The Maelstrom, The Venture Co., Trollbane, Twilight's Hammer, Twisting Nether, Vashj, Warsong, Xavius, Zenedar.

Kor'gall will be down for up to 36 hours.

In addition, a small update on the paid character transfer service, for Europeans: we've got to wait to see how the rollout in America goes, but it should be available shortly.

I had thought maybe it was just me who has been getting the 'Unable to Connect' message for the last half-hour, but it looks like plenty of other folks have had the same problem this evening, so it seems the login servers are indeed down once again, at least on this side of the Atlantic, as of 9:30 PM CST.

So, if you happen to be reading this while you're in the game, for god's sake...don't hit that logout button! And let us know, dear readers, what kind of luck you're having out there...

With the release of 8 new US servers this week, and two more coming next week, I'm wondering about the fate of our European colleagues.  But never fear, European players!  Community manager Thundgot has noted that, while the US servers were released earlier than anticipated, the European team still plans to roll out new server hardware in mid-April.  Since April is fast approaching, you'd best get started planning your new character and setting up a guild website!