Posts with tag servers

Server maintenance extended to 3:00 p.m. PDT

by Matthew Rossi Apr 3rd 2012 at 4:15PM

The screenshot says it all, folks. Maintenance has been extended until 3:00 p.m. Pacific daylight time, which is 6:00 p.m. Eastern for those of you on the east coast (7:30 pm if you live in Newfoundland, according to the comments). Not much else to say there. We have a whole lot of stuff to read while you're waiting patiently (or impatiently, if you live in Newfoundland) for the servers to come up. Those databases don't do process updates to themselves.

My wife's from Newfoundland, in case you were wondering why I'm making so many references to it. I've always found it fascinating that it has so much history. I'm basically going to be reading about Newfoundland (and Labrador, too) during my time away from the game.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.

Filed under: News items

How players are using cross-realm raiding to foster communities

by Mathew McCurley Feb 6th 2012 at 3:00PM

With the introduction of cross-realm raiding in patch 4.3.2 and the Raid Finder, players have gone above and beyond in creating new and exciting server-less communities that bring in raiders from all over the world via Real ID grouping. While the Dragon Soul raid is not available currently for players using cross-realm raiding, all other raids and difficulties are, and there is no better time to go back to old content and finish off stuff during the wait until the next expansion.

Sites like LFRaid.com and Twitterland Raiding are two communities that have sprung up quickly in this new cross-realm raiding world. Twitterland Raiding is a website created for the Twitter WoW community to form up groups for raiding across server lines. With a centralized place to express interest in raiding as well as no server structure or logistics to worry about besides Real ID names (which gets immensely easier with the introduction of BattleTags), raiding can happen in greater volume and more quickly.

Filed under: Raiding

Last chance to bid on retired server blades for charity

by Michael Sacco Jan 18th 2012 at 8:00PM

Blizzard's charity auctions of retired server blades seemed to go pretty well, with each blade going for several hundred dollars on eBay (and all of that money going to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital). Most of them ended before the holidays, which is unfortunate for those of us who missed grabbing the physical representation of a server community near and dear to our heart. But if you play on a European server, you might just be in luck -- Blizzard is offering a series of last-chance auctions for EU server blades starting today! Each server blade comes mounted in a nice case with an engraved plate ensuring authenticity and signed by members of the WoW dev team.

The full list of servers and end dates is available on the official Blizzard site. Good luck and happy bidding, EU folks!

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Blizzard auctioning server blades to benefit St. Jude's

by Allison Robert Oct 20th 2011 at 6:00PM

We posted about this a week ago, but a reminder can't hurt now that the auctions have actually gone live. If you're attending BlizzCon this year and have the chance to visit Hall A, you'll see one of the original World of Warcraft HP server blades that Blizzard is auctioning this year to benefit St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. But even if you're not going to BlizzCon, you still have a shot at bidding: All of the available server blades (from both North American and Europeanrealms) are listed on EBay, and you've still got time to bid on them all. Most of them are older realms that Blizzard has upgraded recently as part of server maintenance, and -- judging from the bids on some of them -- my guess is that a lot of players are interested in owning their old servers. Better yet, each auctioned server will have a plaque with the server's name, dates of operation, and Blizzard developers' autographs inscribed on it. If you want to see an example of what it'll look like, scroll down on Blizzard's charity auction page.

If you're interested in owning a piece of World of Warcraft history in addition to benefiting a great cause, you can find general information and Blizzard's two EBay listings for the server blades here:

General information on auction dates and servers available
North American realms
European realms

Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!

Filed under: BlizzCon

The Daily Quest: So then he said

by Anne Stickney Jul 23rd 2010 at 8:00PM

Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

Some people have things to say about everything under the sun -- like the goblin pictured above, who is engaging in a frank and earnest discussion about poultry-based thermodynamics and the merits of their application in conjunction with other forms of flightless fowl. Unfortunately the only person that would listen to her is Chilly the penguin, who simply doesn't know any better. Fortunately, we've found some posts that are much more entertaining than Miss Yammersalot.

Mana Obscura discusses the growing yet shrinking world ... of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft Philosophized comments on guild perks and the effects on individual players.
The Pink Pigtail Inn asks whether Twitter chat is really the best way to communicate.
And speaking of birds, Bible of Dreams has a Friday Five about our feathery friend, the boomkin.

Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.

Filed under: The Daily Quest

Realm connectivity issues [Updated]

by Robin Torres Jan 21st 2010 at 6:18PM

We are getting numerous tips that servers are crashing. Blue poster Aredek says it is a realm connectivity problem and that their technicians are looking into it. Currently, there is no time for when they will have an update.

We will keep you posted as usual.

Update 6:45pm: The realms are expected to be back up by 7:30pm EST.

Update 6:27pm: The Realm Status forum has posted the realms affected, which we have listed after the break.

[Thanks to all who sent this in!]

Filed under: Realm Status, Blizzard, News items

What effect does the Dungeon Finder have on smaller servers?

by Allison Robert Jan 19th 2010 at 8:00PM

For a few days now, I've been mulling over a point raised by Spinksville in a blog post concerning the Dungeon Finder's impact on smaller servers. It was her contention that, although the Dungeon Finder makes getting 5-man runs faster and easier for people on underpopulated realms, the new tool was contributing (or likely to contribute) to the depopulation of realms without a lot of options for raiding. It's never been easier to gear up a character, she observed, and someone with a geared character is increasingly likely to want that toon raiding. However, smaller servers rarely field the array and depth of PuG raiding opportunities offered by larger realms. Her conclusion? "Being on a smaller server has never been less attractive for a casual player."

While I go back and forth on that point -- lots of people will just gear a toon for its own sake without necessarily planning to raid on it -- I don't think she's entirely wrong, and I also think the larger point concerning the Dungeon Finder's potential impact on server communities is probably accurate.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Instances

WoW.com's top ten stories of 2009, part 2

by Mike Schramm Dec 18th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Instances, Raiding, Bosses, BlizzCon, Wrath of the Lich King

Breakfast Topic: What do you do when your server is down?

by Robin Torres Nov 25th 2009 at 8:00AM

The players on the Emberstorm and Whirlwind battlegroups have had a rough week. A massive power outage, huge network issues and other problems have forced them away from their virtual homes to find refuge elsewhere. Some have joined the It came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh, where we have had two impromptu server outage parties. The picture above is from Tuesday night's shindig.

Others have commented in the outage posts that they have formed level 1 raids on other servers. And of course there are other games to play.

Personally, if both Zangarmarsh and my main server are down, I figure it's time to start watching what's on the DVR and knitting. What do you do when your server is down?

Filed under: Realm Status, Breakfast Topics, It Came from the Blog

Updatedx3: Urgent maintenance complete

by Robin Torres Nov 4th 2009 at 2:50PM

Blizzard has announced that they are conducting urgent maintenance on several realms. ~~Though the~~ ~~official Warcraft twitter account~~ ~~announced it would only go on until noon PST~~ (the tweet was about account maintenance), the in-game and forum messages state that they do not know how long the maintenance will take. They expect to have more information by 12:30 p.m. PST / 3:30 p.m. EST.

The list of affected realms is after the break (which includes Zangarmarsh, the It came from the Blog server).

We will keep you informed as the status changes.

3:25 p.m. PST: All realms are (supposedly) online and playable.
Update 3 p.m. PST: More info at 3:30 PST.
Update: More info at 1:30 p.m. PST.

Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status, Blizzard, News items

Widespread "Logging in to game server" errors - Updated (again)

by Matthew Rossi Sep 8th 2009 at 9:45PM

We've had tips of a problem some players are having logging in to WoW tonight, but I can attest to it since it's happening to me as well. I can log into any US or Oceanic server except the one I usually raid on. I was on, and about to pull the first encounter in 25 man Trial of the Crusader when I was suddenly disconnected and unable to log back into the server. Several attempts to log back in later, I found that yes, I could log on to other servers, just not Norgannon, my usual home. Attempts to flush my DNS, restart my computer, my router and my modem provided no relief. I could play anywhere, save where I have characters to play. As of 9:40 pm the problem persists. So if it's happening to you, take heart in that you're not alone.

Blizzard is aware of the issue, but currently has no ETA as to when it will be fixed.

Update: Blizzard poster Claudiog says that the issue seems to have been resolved. For my part, I am finally back online and raiding as of 11:12 PM EST.

Update #2: seems that problems persist and Blizzard is asking affected players to help them lock it down. If you can post your ISP and a traceroute to that forum thread you should probably do so. We're also getting widespread reports from EU players that there are several kinds of problems with their login servers as well. We have an image of the European client's Breaking News box after the jump.

Update #3: There's now a list of affected servers. We'll include the entire list after the jump: still no ETA on when the issue will be resolved.

Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, Forums

Emberstorm and Whirlwind battlegroups down

by Michael Sacco Sep 5th 2009 at 3:45AM

We're receiving reports that servers on the Whirlwind and Emberstorm battlegroups, located in the Seattle datacenter, are currently experiencing downtime. These were the same battlegroups that were scheduled to recieve their local power supply upgrade today, so there may have been some unanticipated issue in the process.

Don't panic! It's likely only temporary and they should be back up soon.

We'll update you guys with more info when we get it. The full list of affected realms is under the cut -- feel free to hit us up on Twitter @wowinsider if yours comes back up and we haven't reported on it yet.

UPDATE 4:18 AM EDT:

Blizzard has posted a thread regarding the issues on the Battlegroup forums.

Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

WoW currently free to play in China, fate still being decided by government

by Lesley Smith Aug 17th 2009 at 8:00PM

The trials and tribulations continue for Chinese MMO players, WoW, and its new Chinese provider NetEase. IncGamers is reporting that the beta of the game is continuing - effectively making the game free to play for those lucky enough to be taking part - while the Chinese government decides if enough changes have been made, such as the removal of corpses, gore and other unpleasant parts of the MMO experience, for the game to get a Chinese relaunch.

Since handing over the baton from from The9, things have not gone very well. After an extended hiatus which saw the game's servers offline while the data was transferred over, the game is still awaiting the final go-ahead from GAPP (the General Administration of Press and Publication). The beta was originally supposed to last around a week but because of the delay has been going on for nearly a month. However IncGamers is also reporting that according to NetEase, all the internal testing has been completed and once the GAPP are done, the game should launch pretty quickly.

Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items

Guildwatch: They should ninja a dictionary

by Mike Schramm Jul 22nd 2009 at 10:00PM

Blizzard's "new" approach to the endgame is nowhere more apparent than right here in Guildwatch: final endgame bosses use to only be the domain of world firsts and sponsored guilds, but one look through our Downed section this week shows that even casual guilds can now roll all the way up to Yogg-Saron and take him out. Sure, Algalon, that "destroyer of raids," is still no pushover. But the endgame is definitely much more accessible than before.

That downed news can be found after the link below, along with all of the drama and raiding news we've received lately from around the realms. Click on to read this week's Guildwatch, and feel free to send us your tips at guildwatch@wow.com -- you might see them right here next week.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Raiding, Guildwatch, Bosses

China's Ministry of Culture approves WoW content

by Mike Schramm Jul 22nd 2009 at 10:30AM

Blizzard has been having all kinds of issues trying to bring World of Warcraft back online in China, but here's one piece of good news for them: China's Ministry of Culture has gone through the game and approved all of the content in it. They apparently were concerned about some violent content (we know they've already made changes in the past to the Undead models), but that's now been cleared, and the only thing left is final approval by the General Administration of Press and Publication. There's no date on when that might happen, but it seems that will be soon (not soon(tm), just soon).

Blizzard should be extremely happy to see these content checks cleared, as it means that they're not only that much closer to bringing the servers back online, but that they can also finally bring out Wrath of the Lich King there. The whole issue with Netease and The9 backed things up, and then these content checks were a problem, but hopefully most of the obstacles have been cleared by now, and Chinese players can soon start making their way back into the game and up to the snowy shores of Northrend.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King

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