WOW Rant

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NeoV

Diamond Member
Apr 18, 2000
9,504
2
81
wah wah wah....boy I get tired of all the crying about Blizzard

if you can post on this forum, then you can find other download sources for the patch, right? You don't HAVE to use the torrent method. Get over it.

Great game - keep up the good work Blizzard - you aren't going to make 100% of the customers happy all the time, but go for as many as you can.

Clearly they are working on issues that some people are having - you can now switch your character to lower volume servers, they have added content, bug fixes, etc....

If you don't like it, then don't play or pay to play....otherwise deal with it.
 

torpid

Lifer
Sep 14, 2003
11,631
11
76
The hearthstone npcs not there bug has been around for some time. At least a month for me.

You know, I don't really mind the bugs and nerfs that much. What I mind is the lack of manners by Blizzard. The hunter nerf was not a critical one. If they wanted to be a little more classy about it, they should have waited to introduce it until they had something class specific that was positive to offset the negatives. I understand that maybe they simply haven't been able to fix other bugs that are critical or implement features that people want, but it's just common sense not to implement unnecessary fixes that will upset customers without offering them something to compensate.

It's one thing if there is an imbalance that is really upsetting people. In those cases you can swing the nerf bat around. But in this case no one was upset. So they really should have just left it as is until they could offer something additional to prevent the rabid frothing hunters.

Now just to be clear, I'm not personally all that upset by the change, despite having a high level hunter. It bothers me more that we have to now deal with unbelievable numbers of complatins about this issue and, worse, a stigma that will now be attached to hunters.
 

Reddale77

Member
Feb 14, 2005
30
0
0
In regards to what I said, Im not belittling Blizzard..I think that they are one of the better software gaming companies. I have never had a problem with any of their sotware other than wearing it out cause I enjoyed too much. Im just posting my remarks or rants to see if Im in the boat alone. I think that Blizzard, unlike SOE will fix their issues faster and make the gaming experience more enjoyable to everyone before they lose a ton of people. True, they are overwhelmed and I understand that. I just would like to know if they plan to fix the problems in the game that are present now like the lag for one, the bugs that I mentioned for example, instead of changing the game around. Im all for change, but I would like some fine tuning first. Im really tired of the crashing when I zone from point a to point b. I HAVE been in touch with Blizzard on numerous occaisions and havent gotten anywhere on this subject. Id like to see some tune ups made for this feature more than anything else.
 

Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
12,963
1
0
Originally posted by: skace
Originally posted by: Velk
Originally posted by: Dman877
Blizzard is simply overwhelmed right now. They can't hire fast enough. That's why I'm waiting for a few months before I bother with WoW. I think most mmp players will tell you WoW's release has actually gone pretty well relative to some other mmps.


Average to mediocre. It would be a credible effort for an indy developer with no experience - say Horizons - but for a company with the reputation for quality that blizzard has it was a pathetic effort.

After the perfect release of DAoC, noone really has any excuse at all for a poor release. It's not like they made a big secret of why it worked or anything - if you are going to distribute 2 million boxes you had better make damn sure that your hardware and software can support 2 million people jumping in on the opening day. If it can't, then don't distribute that many boxes. It's that simple.

I read one of the blizzard tech's responses before release about availability where they said they had enough boxes distributed so that it would be the most succesfull MMO game ever if it sold so of course it would be available, and I just groaned at their stupidity.

You can't really compare WoW's release to DAoC or EQ. The sheer numbers that slammed WoW's servers were mind boggling. 600k or something like that. A lot of WoW's problems have been growing pains and little things that they overlooked, like what happens when everyone picks the same server.

Maybe coming from EQ Test Server has made me a little more resilient, because in Everquest, I basically paid money to have my character wiped of all his items. At least in WoW, I havn't lost anything yet. They are trying very hard to add content into the game and improve graphics.
You say more players make it more difficult, but I feel the opposite is true - more players means more money with which to address issues. MMORPGs are built to scale to the playerbase, the service shouldn't be nearly this bad this long after release. If the game itself weren't fun (if in need of content for 60s) I'd have no problem quitting for the horrendous service alone. I'm not talking about the patch in particular; I've seen Sony fcuk up far worse on patches & expansion releases after years of experience with them - I'm referring more to the 4-6 hour period every weeknight, and all day on weekends, where lag makes the game all but unplayable. Mail, auction house queries, corpse loots, etc. should not take so long that I have to alt-tab and surf the web while I wait.
 

Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
12,963
1
0
Originally posted by: Argo
Originally posted by: Gurck
On #1 - Have you opened the proper ports? On top of the regular BT range of 6881+, you need 6112 and 3724 for optimal speed. I got today's patch at almost 2mbit/sec...

Agree on #2 wholeheartedly

Don't really see the need for #3
I disabled my firewall altogether. It went from 2k/s to a weird state where it would go at 30k/s for 2 minutes, and then drop down to 0 for another 2 minutes. Needless to say, the freaking upload was going full blast using up my connection and making everything else slow. By the time it was over I uploaded twice as much as I downloaded.
Are you behind a router?
 

warcrow

Lifer
Jan 12, 2004
11,078
11
81
Originally posted by: Smilin

When you pay a monthly fee to play a game things are different. You expect more and you should.

There are 1.5 million people paying ~15 bucks a month each for this game and blizzard can't afford a few simple thing:

1. A download server. I'm not expecting them to peg my broadband connection or anything but a REAL download server, 3rd party and user sponsored mirrors would be nice. This peer to peer crap that gets LESS THAN 2k/sec is a crock of sh1t.

2k? I consistantly get about 60k/sec. Are you behind a firewall? You must foward a couple ports for it to work fine. This being said, a dedicated server for DL should in available to us, i agree.

2. A forum server. Ever time there is a patch the tech support forums simply go offline. Are you saying you can't afford a forum server and adequate pipe with the money you are raking in. You this happens EVERY patch. You saw the problem last patch and with this patch you have failed to make any corrections.

I guarentee you that the forums are running on dedicated servers. Still, its a good point you make and I agree with this one as well.

3. Real tech support. Pay some putz 10 bucks an hour to answer the phone and read from a script if you have to. Again, it's not like you make 1.5million x $50 = $75million dollars off of this game...heck that was just the price of admission. We pay a recurring monthly fee.

Something tell me that all the kids with their contsant b!tching wouldnt be happy with some "putz" reading from a script. I understand you're frustrated, but you cannot spout out numbers like this without knowing how much R&D and developemnt cost and upkeep is. Running a data center to house all this equipment and keep the people employee and happy (just like you want) probably isnt as simple and cheap as you might think.


AT guys:
Am I asking for something way out of line here? I value your opinions so please tell me honestly if you think I'm off my rocker.


I wouldnt say you're off your rocker, but take one more step back and look at the bigger picture. Yes, there are some bumps in the road and the game isnt perfect. But, its still an incredible game! Infact, the reason I'm sure you're so passionate about this is because of how much you like it. It's understood, but this client/server type of game model is very different that HL2 or Lord of the Ring (RTS). We're dependant off of their equipemnt to run the world we want to play in.

I don't really play alot, just a few hours a week, but when I want to go play and I'm looking foward to jumping in and killing. The last thing I want is for the world server to be down. So, I totally understand where you're coming from. But, remember to try to look at it from Blizzards perspective too, not just your own. They've got some of the absolute best engineers and equipment in the business working for them here. Its an incredibily diffucult and convoluted process getting this virtual world to be persistant, maintain it, stop the hacks and cheats, fix the bugs (there are new ones that show up with every patch, this stuff just sometimes happens with programming, especially in this scope!), add new content, and to make everyone else happy. There are other MMO game out there and I've played a few. Let me tell you, WoW (IMHO!) is the best experience around for its genre -including its faults.

So, relax....enjoy it for whats its worth. Blizzard is a very smart, successful company that is really really good at making games. Trust that they've got the best intentions here for us, and that they're doing their best.


I'm sure I enjoy World of Warcraft, but I just don't remember that I do right now. At this moment I have completely forgotten the respect that Blizzard earned over the past decade. Right now I think they are a chunk of smelly sh1t and I feel completely ripped off.

...ok, you had alot going here with your rant until you reverted to a 5th grader.

 

imported_obsidian

Senior member
May 4, 2004
438
0
0
Originally posted by: CVSiN
this doesnt matter... major patches always break things...
ive been playing MMOs since M59 and UO.... no matter what company there are always problems on patch day...
ive just gotten in the habit of not even bothering trying to play on patch days at all..

saves alot of fustration
Laugh. There is a difference between some problems on patch day and the servers going down constantly after every single patch Blizzard puts out. Insinuating that Blizzard is doing just as well with maintenance and patching as every other MMO is a load of crap.
 

warcrow

Lifer
Jan 12, 2004
11,078
11
81
Originally posted by: Mwilding
I have issues when I hearthstone too... Sometimes, I get to Menethil and there is noone there - no npc's, no players, not even a mailbox. Eventually it fixes itself or I have to log off and back on again, but jeez its annoying....

Thats just lag. Give it a moment and it will clear.
 

Quixfire

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2001
6,892
0
0
My big grip with the game is logging in to bronzebeard on my main computer. Everytime I login I can move but I can't chat or interact with the NPCs and then it just locks up and I get disconnected from the server. This only happens with my main character, Quixfire, on this one computer. I can login on my backup PC or any other server or even any other character on Bronzebeard. It is driving me crazy.
 

Concillian

Diamond Member
May 26, 2004
3,751
8
81
Originally posted by: torpid
You know, I don't really mind the bugs and nerfs that much. What I mind is the lack of manners by Blizzard. The hunter nerf was not a critical one. If they wanted to be a little more classy about it, they should have waited to introduce it until they had something class specific that was positive to offset the negatives.

Now just to be clear, I'm not personally all that upset by the change, despite having a high level hunter. It bothers me more that we have to now deal with unbelievable numbers of complatins about this issue and, worse, a stigma that will now be attached to hunters.

I somewhat agree, BUT there are SOOOO many hunters. Everywhere I go it's me and three hunters doing the same quest. Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad, but there are a lot of hunters.

But seriously, nobody knows what is 'intended'. Yes this will slow hunter's down some and their DPS will hurt from not getting extra speed from their bags. Certain pets won't have insane resists. This will hurt hunters most in the 50-60 level range, where hunters already complain about having a tough time. But I see EVERY other class talk about how slow these levels are (except priests, who basically only need to level to 50, then just do groups for the rest of their lives, and eventually they'll be at 60). Maybe it's intentional that these levels are significantly slower/tougher than previous levels. Maybe it's Blizzards way of trying to encourage duos or trios in preparation for the 'must have a group to do anything' scenario once people hit 60.
 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,175
728
126
Originally posted by: Gurck

You say more players make it more difficult, but I feel the opposite is true - more players means more money with which to address issues. MMORPGs are built to scale to the playerbase, the service shouldn't be nearly this bad this long after release.

This is simply not true. In software development you can only throw so much money and resources at a project before it stops decreasing development time and begins to increase it. Give "The Mythical Man Month" a look, it explains this very phenomenon in the development of OS/360.

 

quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,175
728
126
Originally posted by: Quixfire
My big grip with the game is logging in to bronzebeard on my main computer. Everytime I login I can move but I can't chat or interact with the NPCs and then it just locks up and I get disconnected from the server. This only happens with my main character, Quixfire, on this one computer. I can login on my backup PC or any other server or even any other character on Bronzebeard. It is driving me crazy.

Sounds like the cache for that character is slightly corrupted. Delete the cache files and it might fix your problem. I can't remember if these were located in the WTF or WDB folder. There should be some file witht he characters name on it.
 

Vortex22

Diamond Member
Sep 6, 2000
4,976
1
81
Originally posted by: quikah
Originally posted by: Quixfire
My big grip with the game is logging in to bronzebeard on my main computer. Everytime I login I can move but I can't chat or interact with the NPCs and then it just locks up and I get disconnected from the server. This only happens with my main character, Quixfire, on this one computer. I can login on my backup PC or any other server or even any other character on Bronzebeard. It is driving me crazy.

Sounds like the cache for that character is slightly corrupted. Delete the cache files and it might fix your problem. I can't remember if these were located in the WTF or WDB folder. There should be some file witht he characters name on it.

You can safely delete both of those folders. That might fix the problem.
 

BigPoppa

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,930
0
0
Originally posted by: CVSiN
Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
remember that this is their first shot at an MMORPG

this doesnt matter... major patches always break things...
ive been playing MMOs since M59 and UO.... no matter what company there are always problems on patch day...
ive just gotten in the habit of not even bothering trying to play on patch days at all..

saves alot of fustration

EQ2 just released Live Update #5, smooth as silk like the other 4 preceding it. They patch daily, I've only ran into 1 patch that took longer than normal.
 

Smilin

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
7,357
0
0

I'm back. Guess what brought me back? Think it was a smooth running server? hehe

That's right it's down again. If you go to the realm status page you'll see a 404. However, If you go there again you'll still get a 404. Even so with some persistence you'll eventually get to see the realm status page. Note that 80% of the servers are down. If you look even closer you'll see that the remaining 20% of the servers are queued meaning you can't actually log on to them. Now normally a queued server simply has too many people playing on it, but some of those are medium poplulation servers (not high).

The net result is: World of Warcraft is DOWN.

Yes the unscheduled maintenance was supposed to be complete 10 hours ago for most servers and 6 hours ago for the rest. However right now if you're reading this, you can't play. The credit card servers are still fully functional if you wish to send blizzard money.


To answer a couple posts that came up while I was gone:

I don't think we should compare the quality of one MMORPG to another. No, instead what you should do is look at them independently and determine if you are happy with your service. Don't put up with crappy service just because someone else has it worse than you. Remember, you are paying for this.

Nerfs: Sorry, I'll cut blizzard slack on this. They are gameplayers just like us and they seem pretty well qualified to make adjustments to gameplay issues. The fact is with 1.5 million people, not everyone is going to be happy. Sorry it didn't work out for you. But if it makes you feel any better you can rub it in when it happens to me.

I'll stand by my idea of real tech support. This isn't a one time cost game. It's a monthly expense. They are providing a service and that should include tech support when things don't work. "Go post your question in the forums to all the other people who have no access to the inner workings of the game" is NOT tech support. Sure some guy getting 10/hr to read from a script would be annoying but you back him up with a pyramid of increasingly competent techs so that when you have a REAL problem you can get it fixed (or reach someone empowered to give you a refund).

Ah yes...


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sure I enjoy World of Warcraft, but I just don't remember that I do right now. At this moment I have completely forgotten the respect that Blizzard earned over the past decade. Right now I think they are a chunk of smelly sh1t and I feel completely ripped off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...ok, you had alot going here with your rant until you reverted to a 5th grader.

It's a RANT. Trust me it could be worse.

Although my mood has calmed a bit since my original post, my respect for blizzard has not yet returned. The artists and world designers have done a wonderful job but the company as a whole is getting a "D" for execution.


Some additional rants for ya:
There is a bug that drops people in the middle of the ocean to die when they try to take a boat to a different continent. If your hearthstone is used up already, too bad - looks like you'll be paying for resurection repairs. Don't bother posting in the forums in a positive, constructive way or asking the GMs for assistance. No one at blizzard gives a crap.

The Rogue Vanish skill is still broken. Not that vanish is important to a rogue or anything.

Your hearthstone now gets used up if you leave your party while in an instance.

With the last patch a bug was reintroduced that they had previously fixed. Your mouse pointer will sometimes freeze shortly after starting a game. Workarounds: Reboot your computer between WoW sessions - playing two consecutively causes this (be it minutes hours or days). Another workaround - alt-tab over to your desktop and start then close another 3D app. It will properly shut down it's 3D window and give you your pointer back. GLQuake works surpisingly well for this since it loads quickly.

Rant complete. Until next time...
 

spunkz

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2003
1,467
0
76
Originally posted by: Smilin
Originally posted by: Gurck
On #1 - Have you opened the proper ports? On top of the regular BT range of 6881+, you need 6112 and 3724 for optimal speed. I got today's patch at almost 2mbit/sec...

It's some port forwarding, not rocket science.


Now that the patch has actually finished my rant can continue!!

1. It now takes 3-5 attempts to get logged on with a considerable delay between attempts.

2. All add ons are disabled (as expected I suppose).

3. They've added new action bars to the game which do not display the hotkeys assigned to them as the 1-10 keys do. Disabling the action bars and using my old bottom-bar add on is no longer possible...since my stealth button which used to appear above my bottom bar now obstructs it instead.

4. All my keys have been set back to defaults.

5. Hovering my mouse no longer displays my health/energy like it used to.

6. They have fixed the rogue bug that caused us to get an extra combo point on occasion, but failed to fix the bug that causes us not to get ANY combo points on our opening move. Additionally the Vanish skill is still broken (not that something like Vanish/stealth would be important to a rogue or anything :roll


All in all it's been a frustrating evening of trying to get WoW to work properly instead of simply playing like I'm PAYING to do.

Bah. Fvckem. Soon as Empire Earth II, Doom III expansion, Battlefield II or any of a few others come out I'll just violate my EULA, Ebay my WoW and be done with this sh1t.

see these are all problems that are noticable in about 5 minutes of play. don't they have a patch test server?
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
9,306
4
81
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.
 

Smilin

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
7,357
0
0
I run over 200 servers with four nines of scheduled uptime. I assure you my company has far less money available to accomplish this than blizzard.

How do I do this? For starters, let's not drop a patch on ALL servers simultanously in the middle of the day. Sheer genius.

According to their website they had scheduled a 45 minute downtime for scheduled maintenance then blew it by several hours (and counting). I think we can also safely assume that either the rollback plan failed or didn't exist.
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.

Their downtime is excessive.
 

Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
12,963
1
0
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.
Their downtime is excessive.
Nah, it's on par with or better than other MMORPGs. The lag, however, is ridiculous. I often surf AT while waiting on mail or AH queries.
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.
Their downtime is excessive.
Nah, it's on par with or better than other MMORPGs. The lag, however, is ridiculous. I often surf AT while waiting on mail or AH queries.

I don't think that matters, it's too much downtime IMO. Just one more reason why I won't buy the game.
 

Gurck

Banned
Mar 16, 2004
12,963
1
0
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.
Their downtime is excessive.
Nah, it's on par with or better than other MMORPGs. The lag, however, is ridiculous. I often surf AT while waiting on mail or AH queries.
I don't think that matters, it's too much downtime IMO. Just one more reason why I won't buy the game.
It's how MMOGs operate...
 

n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Gurck
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
This downtime doesn't bother me with WoW. Some people need to realize that even with infinite money, problems still have a minimum amount of time for them to be fixed.
Their downtime is excessive.
Nah, it's on par with or better than other MMORPGs. The lag, however, is ridiculous. I often surf AT while waiting on mail or AH queries.
I don't think that matters, it's too much downtime IMO. Just one more reason why I won't buy the game.
It's how MMOGs operate...

But should they? They're selling you a service that you can use... Sometimes. Ick.
 

Smilin

Diamond Member
Mar 4, 2002
7,357
0
0
Originally posted by: spunkz

see these are all problems that are noticable in about 5 minutes of play. don't they have a patch test server?

The test server and PvP test server are both currently down.



All of WoW has been down all day.

I smell a big fat rollback to last night's tapes coming. Barring a meteor striking all server farms simultaneously I would find this to be unacceptable from an IT perspective.
 
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