Comments on: 'World of Warcraft' battles server problems

As online game draws more than 6 million subscribers, players find that it's going through growing pains.

[Fleabiscuit]

Problems are to be expected

The problems experienced with wow would have happened to any of the other MMORPG's had they success that blizzard has had. Their sucess has backed them into a corner technologically, and it takes time to resolve some of the issues they have been having. It's not as simple as building a new server and moving a realm to new hardware. They are building whole new datacenters to accomodate their growth. That is something that cannot be done overnight. It is what it is, and I disagree with Joi Ito's comment about their being no recourse. Several of the MMORPG's our there are just as fun to play. I do feel however that Blizzard could continue to offer more credits to make up for the downtime.

[FFXI2006]

lies!!!

The problems have been going on since the start of the online service. Don?t you think they should have come up with something by now? And ok you say they building a new datacenter or whatever but when is that happening? When is it going to be done? It?s been to long with lies about improving the service. Yet the customer gets the shafted left and right.

[cranbers]

yeah right

Screw that man, you can build a data center in a week with the kind of money they have. Finding a site maybe take a min building the room with climate control and ups/power generators and getting all the equipment installed cables ran isp up. yeah it might take a little bit, but not years or months even. I would say 60 days would be more then enough time to get a 300 server data center up, with the kind of money they are raking in I would say that's doable. Now hiring training personnel that know how the game needs to be setup on the servers tweaking everything yeah OK maybe not over night.

[Fleabiscuit]

Problems are to be expected

The problems experienced with wow would have happened to any of the other MMORPG's had they success that blizzard has had. Their sucess has backed them into a corner technologically, and it takes time to resolve some of the issues they have been having. It's not as simple as building a new server and moving a realm to new hardware. They are building whole new datacenters to accomodate their growth. That is something that cannot be done overnight. It is what it is, and I disagree with Joi Ito's comment about their being no recourse. Several of the MMORPG's our there are just as fun to play. I do feel however that Blizzard could continue to offer more credits to make up for the downtime.

[FFXI2006]

lies!!!

The problems have been going on since the start of the online service. Don?t you think they should have come up with something by now? And ok you say they building a new datacenter or whatever but when is that happening? When is it going to be done? It?s been to long with lies about improving the service. Yet the customer gets the shafted left and right.

[cranbers]

yeah right

Screw that man, you can build a data center in a week with the kind of money they have. Finding a site maybe take a min building the room with climate control and ups/power generators and getting all the equipment installed cables ran isp up. yeah it might take a little bit, but not years or months even. I would say 60 days would be more then enough time to get a 300 server data center up, with the kind of money they are raking in I would say that's doable. Now hiring training personnel that know how the game needs to be setup on the servers tweaking everything yeah OK maybe not over night.

[Niteo]

An interesting possibility

Has anyone else considered the possibility that a large botnet operator is wreaking havoc on Blizzard with an intent to extort?

I've seen a surge in what I like to call 'digital protection rackets' where larger botnet operators extort large (for them) sums of money from sites that rely completely upon online revenue.

The notion of course being, "Pay us $10,000 a month or have your authentication servers taken out by my 500,000 system botnet".

Or am I just seeing this through the lense of my profession (that of a security analyst)?

[Niteo]

An interesting possibility

Has anyone else considered the possibility that a large botnet operator is wreaking havoc on Blizzard with an intent to extort?

I've seen a surge in what I like to call 'digital protection rackets' where larger botnet operators extort large (for them) sums of money from sites that rely completely upon online revenue.

The notion of course being, "Pay us $10,000 a month or have your authentication servers taken out by my 500,000 system botnet".

Or am I just seeing this through the lense of my profession (that of a security analyst)?

[FFXI2006]

well if problems

If problems are expected don?t you think they should put that in the cover before buying the F*&#@$ game? Also they should refund the money for the time lost. What is that called again?... lets say you pay for $15 a month then $15 dived that for the days in the month you pay for. And then divide the hours you lost not playing the game and just have them refund it. Sh*t people just throwing money away left and right. Yes they can make a kick a$$ game but can they really support the back end?

Hell no. and also how long has this game been out? Don?t you think this issue should have been corrected long ago but no they still have problems squeeze every penny form there investment/hardware. Other Online games not as big I admit but they handle, and analyze there back end much better then WoW.

My friends and I left do to this. We are the consumers don?t you think we deserve better service? They just take our money and we just have to pray you have a few hours of fun before the next crash. We use games as a gateway from reality please who us you can do better then we might return.

FFXI gamers

[Bill Dautrive]

re

$15/30days/24hours=pittance

Have you played EQ? The servers never had the numbers of a WoW server, yet crashes(individual, zone and world) were nearly a daily occurance. If you spent even a week under the incompetance of SOE would you know that overall Blizzard is doing a good job.

4 times getting booted in over a year. Can't really complain. The queues however, are completely unforgivable. But whining for your $0.005 is pointless and sad.

[FFXI2006]

well if problems

If problems are expected don?t you think they should put that in the cover before buying the F*&#@$ game? Also they should refund the money for the time lost. What is that called again?... lets say you pay for $15 a month then $15 dived that for the days in the month you pay for. And then divide the hours you lost not playing the game and just have them refund it. Sh*t people just throwing money away left and right. Yes they can make a kick a$$ game but can they really support the back end?

Hell no. and also how long has this game been out? Don?t you think this issue should have been corrected long ago but no they still have problems squeeze every penny form there investment/hardware. Other Online games not as big I admit but they handle, and analyze there back end much better then WoW.

My friends and I left do to this. We are the consumers don?t you think we deserve better service? They just take our money and we just have to pray you have a few hours of fun before the next crash. We use games as a gateway from reality please who us you can do better then we might return.

FFXI gamers

[Bill Dautrive]

re

$15/30days/24hours=pittance

Have you played EQ? The servers never had the numbers of a WoW server, yet crashes(individual, zone and world) were nearly a daily occurance. If you spent even a week under the incompetance of SOE would you know that overall Blizzard is doing a good job.

4 times getting booted in over a year. Can't really complain. The queues however, are completely unforgivable. But whining for your $0.005 is pointless and sad.

[warrior4doom]

Guild wars rules

if u are haveing probemls just go out and buy this gamne it has better grafx and game play and free online play guild wars factions comes out 4/28/06 this will be a update 2 the frist one

[warrior4doom]

Guild wars rules

if u are haveing probemls just go out and buy this gamne it has better grafx and game play and free online play guild wars factions comes out 4/28/06 this will be a update 2 the frist one

[misycarrot]

hours

"Blizzard implemented its last major patch to WoW, in late March. At that time, the company acknowledged it had some temporary server problems but said they'd resolve themselves within hours. "

Temporary? I recall not being able to log in until *the next day*. So if 24 hours is 'a matter of hours', then I need to rethink time!

I still want my free week!

[misycarrot]

hours

"Blizzard implemented its last major patch to WoW, in late March. At that time, the company acknowledged it had some temporary server problems but said they'd resolve themselves within hours. "

Temporary? I recall not being able to log in until *the next day*. So if 24 hours is 'a matter of hours', then I need to rethink time!

I still want my free week!

[Bill Dautrive]

Surprisingly stable

I have been playing WoW for about 15 months and have been booted maybe 4 times.

On EQ, 4 times a night was average.

Still it is not without performance problems. Allowing servers to overpopulate is the prime cause of them and they need to address it in a meaningful manner.

It is not perfect, but anyone with a double digit IQ and experience dealing with SOE knows that Blizzard is generally doing a great job.

Still, the things they don't do well can be quite annoying.

[Bill Dautrive]

Surprisingly stable

I have been playing WoW for about 15 months and have been booted maybe 4 times.

On EQ, 4 times a night was average.

Still it is not without performance problems. Allowing servers to overpopulate is the prime cause of them and they need to address it in a meaningful manner.

It is not perfect, but anyone with a double digit IQ and experience dealing with SOE knows that Blizzard is generally doing a great job.

Still, the things they don't do well can be quite annoying.

[tdeckert]

WoW Problems minimal... put things in perspective...

I have been playing WOW for quite a long time now. Yes, there are on rare occasion downtimes, lag, or wait times but the vast majority of time I play, everything runs the way it should.

I know there are the occasional hard luck stories of a lost account or something so yes, on occasion a few folks have very legitimate reasons to complain, but with over 6 million accounts, we have to be realistic and recognize there is no way to avoid that.

I have been playing online games for a number of years and as far as I am concerned, WOW has had more uptime and better performance than any online games that have come before in my experience.

People complain all day long if they cant log in one night or they have a little lag or something, but they don't complain driving through 45 minutes of traffic to sit through a so-so movie that lasted 90 minutes and costs $20.00+ with soda/popcorn, etc.

We need to kick back and take a real hard look at Return on Investment of time and cost vs. enjoyment.

I have been in the computer field my whole career, a good part of it in the supercomputing/clustering environments, so I know a little bit about large scale, high performance system environments. One thing I do know that is that most people have absolutely NO IDEA how complex it is to run something like the WOW universe for 6 Million + people. The techs that I have worked with and that play WOW are usually much more forgiving than non-tech players.

I think folks have become spoiled as to what they feel they should expect and are entitled to and often forget there is a difference between a single player game that resides standalone on their PC and a MMORPG the size and scope of WOW. Two very different beasts.

$15.00 a month for virtually unlimited entertainment in the best MMORPG (my opinion of course) is one heck of a deal as far as I am concerned.

I think people need to keep things in perspective and enjoy the fact that we have such games like WOW and others that are breaking new ground everyday in computing practices and technology.

[Fleabiscuit]

/AGREE!!!!!

Finally the voice of reason from one of my peers. I agree wholeheartedly!!!!

[tdeckert]

WoW Problems minimal... put things in perspective...

I have been playing WOW for quite a long time now. Yes, there are on rare occasion downtimes, lag, or wait times but the vast majority of time I play, everything runs the way it should.

I know there are the occasional hard luck stories of a lost account or something so yes, on occasion a few folks have very legitimate reasons to complain, but with over 6 million accounts, we have to be realistic and recognize there is no way to avoid that.

I have been playing online games for a number of years and as far as I am concerned, WOW has had more uptime and better performance than any online games that have come before in my experience.

People complain all day long if they cant log in one night or they have a little lag or something, but they don't complain driving through 45 minutes of traffic to sit through a so-so movie that lasted 90 minutes and costs $20.00+ with soda/popcorn, etc.

We need to kick back and take a real hard look at Return on Investment of time and cost vs. enjoyment.

I have been in the computer field my whole career, a good part of it in the supercomputing/clustering environments, so I know a little bit about large scale, high performance system environments. One thing I do know that is that most people have absolutely NO IDEA how complex it is to run something like the WOW universe for 6 Million + people. The techs that I have worked with and that play WOW are usually much more forgiving than non-tech players.

I think folks have become spoiled as to what they feel they should expect and are entitled to and often forget there is a difference between a single player game that resides standalone on their PC and a MMORPG the size and scope of WOW. Two very different beasts.

$15.00 a month for virtually unlimited entertainment in the best MMORPG (my opinion of course) is one heck of a deal as far as I am concerned.

I think people need to keep things in perspective and enjoy the fact that we have such games like WOW and others that are breaking new ground everyday in computing practices and technology.

[Fleabiscuit]

/AGREE!!!!!

Finally the voice of reason from one of my peers. I agree wholeheartedly!!!!

[FFXI2006]

Still WoW should

Still WoW should rethink there back end more. That?s where the problem is. Not the fact that they have millions of users the fact that they can't/don't know how to balance them all. Other Online service do it so well when they notice the problem. They do something WoW never does. THEY FIX IT!!! In a timely manner and also they inform people when they doing it and when it will be up and also if they have complications they are good at informing the user unlike WoW.

[FFXI2006]

Still WoW should

Still WoW should rethink there back end more. That?s where the problem is. Not the fact that they have millions of users the fact that they can't/don't know how to balance them all. Other Online service do it so well when they notice the problem. They do something WoW never does. THEY FIX IT!!! In a timely manner and also they inform people when they doing it and when it will be up and also if they have complications they are good at informing the user unlike WoW.

[FFXI2006]

Come on give me a break

Has anyone really done a count on how many users are online at any given time? You guys should not be throwing the 6million user fact around like ?OMG 6million users? you have to take into account all the people that have mutli account and also give me a brake there is no way in hell 6million people or even half of that number are online at any given time. Yes they might have that many subscribers but a physical person playing each char? If they gave at least some info and break down you would under stand a bit more. But since they are not we are once again in the dark. And just throwing around that 6million people are online and that?s the reason for the crappy experience.

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

In response to this here is a breakdown of the userbase for most of the MMORPG's out there. This illustrates the difference in WOW vs the other MMORPGS. Thre is one other that approached the same numbers but at a more gradual pace.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

In response to this here is a breakdown of the userbase for most of the MMORPG's out there. This illustrates the difference in WOW vs the other MMORPGS. Thre is one other that approached the same numbers but at a more gradual pace.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[FFXI2006]

Come on give me a break

Has anyone really done a count on how many users are online at any given time? You guys should not be throwing the 6million user fact around like ?OMG 6million users? you have to take into account all the people that have mutli account and also give me a brake there is no way in hell 6million people or even half of that number are online at any given time. Yes they might have that many subscribers but a physical person playing each char? If they gave at least some info and break down you would under stand a bit more. But since they are not we are once again in the dark. And just throwing around that 6million people are online and that?s the reason for the crappy experience.

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

In response to this here is a breakdown of the userbase for most of the MMORPG's out there. This illustrates the difference in WOW vs the other MMORPGS. Thre is one other that approached the same numbers but at a more gradual pace.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

In response to this here is a breakdown of the userbase for most of the MMORPG's out there. This illustrates the difference in WOW vs the other MMORPGS. Thre is one other that approached the same numbers but at a more gradual pace.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

This link illustrates what blizzard has accomplished with WOW ina short amount of time. Tremendous unprojected growth. One other MMoRPG gets up ther ein numbers but not in the amount of time that WOW did. The problems experienced are a direct result of growth+ home grown engine+ Need for a Network and Server Infrastructure redesign.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[JJWhitney]

Exactly

The story is that WoW is a 800lb Gorrila in gaming, its subscriber base speaks for itself.

How about a story of the arrogance and short-sightedness of SoE? When Blizz announced WoW SoE's responce was to make a dreadful Everquest RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. WoW has singlehandly taken what was the gold standard of the industry (Everquest) and exposed its fundemental flaws. The SoE and the Korean MMORG model that seemed to favor gold farmers more then actual players has been given a very rude wakeup call from WoW which decided you could make a MMORG that was actually fun to play. Now that's a story.

[Nytekin]

See the Forest from the Trees

Whos to say other MMPORPG's haven't grown as fast as WoW? you don't know? Why.


#1 You haven't researched yourself the history of all the other MMORPG's out there

#2 WoW done it's research and hyped up there game and played the market.

Terrosim was happening before you were out of the cot, people blowing themselves up ect, majority of people didn't know about it (yet it was still happening) till the media came in, then it was on the news, now everyone is talking about it.

See my point, it was all hype form the begining for wow, other games haven't done this, doesn't mean they didn't grow at such a rapid rate.

Blizzard has played the market and other Game shonras will do the same, once it was a Quality over quantity for the gaming era, now it seems to be Quantity over quality, atleast that is the view of Blizzard Entertainment, other games will soon follow in the marketering side of things, but don't for one second think that WoW was the fastest growing game without doing extended research from non bias parties.

[Fleabiscuit]

Reality Check

This link illustrates what blizzard has accomplished with WOW ina short amount of time. Tremendous unprojected growth. One other MMoRPG gets up ther ein numbers but not in the amount of time that WOW did. The problems experienced are a direct result of growth+ home grown engine+ Need for a Network and Server Infrastructure redesign.

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/19/mmo-subscriber-charts-show-whats-hot/

[JJWhitney]

Exactly

The story is that WoW is a 800lb Gorrila in gaming, its subscriber base speaks for itself.

How about a story of the arrogance and short-sightedness of SoE? When Blizz announced WoW SoE's responce was to make a dreadful Everquest RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. WoW has singlehandly taken what was the gold standard of the industry (Everquest) and exposed its fundemental flaws. The SoE and the Korean MMORG model that seemed to favor gold farmers more then actual players has been given a very rude wakeup call from WoW which decided you could make a MMORG that was actually fun to play. Now that's a story.

[Nytekin]

See the Forest from the Trees

Whos to say other MMPORPG's haven't grown as fast as WoW? you don't know? Why.


#1 You haven't researched yourself the history of all the other MMORPG's out there

#2 WoW done it's research and hyped up there game and played the market.

Terrosim was happening before you were out of the cot, people blowing themselves up ect, majority of people didn't know about it (yet it was still happening) till the media came in, then it was on the news, now everyone is talking about it.

See my point, it was all hype form the begining for wow, other games haven't done this, doesn't mean they didn't grow at such a rapid rate.

Blizzard has played the market and other Game shonras will do the same, once it was a Quality over quantity for the gaming era, now it seems to be Quantity over quality, atleast that is the view of Blizzard Entertainment, other games will soon follow in the marketering side of things, but don't for one second think that WoW was the fastest growing game without doing extended research from non bias parties.