When I post things like this, usually I am referring to “life” not specifically relationships. In this case, I was referring to the Warlords of Draenor expansion launch.
I am on a high populated server. I love it because the market economy is great, there is always people online to do stuff with, etc. Nothing is perfect. On reset day, patch day and launch day, there will always be a queue. This expansion, I decided to not frustrate myself trying to play until the problems I knew would be there were gone.
What I Predicted
- Knowing the truth: there would be a queue
- Seeing the truth: historically, there has always been a queue. There was a queue the night before launch.
- Still believing the lies: I’d be able to login and play on launch day with no problems.
I don’t expect everyone to think like me, and there are people who “have” to be in the game as it is their job. There are people who do not follow gaming news and have no idea about the problems that occur during launches. There are also people who unrealistically thought they would be able to login and play without issue. Unfortunately, some of those people decided to take their frustration on innocent people.
What Actually Happened
This post summaries the problems that occurred during launch and what Blizzard did to mitigate them. Unfortunately, Blizzard was DDOS’d on the first day, so access to the servers were blocked on top of people trying to login and play. If a player could log in, there were many disconnects, people were stuck at loading screens, tons of lag, some rollbacks…it was far from a smooth experience. I watched some of my friends try to play but the hardcore players, the ones that opted to be there and knew of the problems, did not complain much. It was their choice, in some cases their job, to be there.
Sympathetic to what Blizzard was going through, I sent Lore (Community Manager) a tweet saying that there were people like me, the silent majority, that were not mad or frustrated. Jeff found tweets like that and responded, taking his frustration out on people who were chill and relaxed. I realize it wasn’t about “me”, it’s not like I have control over the situation. I was in beta, I reported bugs but this was a different situation. Nothing was going to change the truth: I would experience a queue. While those who made the choice to try to play during that chaotic time frustrated themselves, I was chilling out in ArcheAge.
In The End…
The servers seem much more stable now. Blizzard announced they would be giving 5 days of game time to those subscribed as of Nov. 14th to compensate. There are many 100s already and for fits and giggles, people are doing the Ironman Challenge. World of Warcraft surpassed 10 million subscribers, which is great news. Everyone is having fun now!
And I still have not touched the expansion.
Wait…what? Why? Tyme? Seriously? WTF?
Remember I said I was on a high populated server? While everyone is in the new zones this is my chance to do the stuff I couldn’t do before. Try to track down rare pets to train. Farm for stuff and not have to fight over mobs. I LOVE IT!!!!
But what I love most: I’m playing a game I love the way I want to not the way I am expected to. Victory!