21/01 Troublesome realms

First of all, please rest assured that our technical teams are on the matter as soon as a realm starts having issues and if needed the realm will be restarted with a 15 minute warning. After a restart we're closely monitoring the realm's recovery, and a second - longer - restart cycle may be needed in some cases. Don't panic - the realm is not in a repeated crash loop.

We're also keeping an extra eye on the realms that have been troublesome for the last few hours. Especially Crushridge and Emeriss are seeing trouble, although they're not the only ones.

Q u o t e:
Emeriss has been crashing constantly since TBC was released.

Every afternoon from 4 pm to 11 pm it's the same thing, server crashes and is down for 5-10 minutes atleast one time per hour. And don't get me started on the instance servers.

Edit (clarified): Seems to have stayed up so far this evening until (of course) just now. Hopefully it won't be as bad as earlier evenings. We're keeping an eye on that one too, of course.

Q u o t e:
I hope you do realise that most players tend to play on late afternoons/evenings.

Considering we track the numbers continually along with the performance, that's not entirely a surprise to us, no. ;)

Q u o t e:
With all due respect,loot lag resurrection lagshard lag etc etc etc on a daily basis all day long is Not what we consider as a server behaving "ok".

I was referring to uptime. I'll add that to make sure there are no further misunderstandings.

Q u o t e:
I hate to add to the millions of whining posts, but it really does seem like every time I can play and log it goes down. I know you realise there is a problem and are trying to combat it, but please get it fixed properly or give us a free transfer asap!

Free transfers are not given as a result of technical issues. Such is addressed by addressing the actual issue, not by moving thousands of players around.

Q u o t e:
Notice how there are already 10 pages of replies within 24 hours

That's hardly surprising considering it's mostly a /sign thread. The issue is noted, but indicating that the number of posts in a thread should warrant more attention then other realms is simply not right.

Just wanted to add that I won't be able to reply continually. I'll watch the realms and reports and give updates in the first post, but don't expect me to respond to many posts. ;)

Q u o t e:
The only server i am constantly seeing down is emeriss, day after day.

That would maybe be because you play on Emeriss?

Ask the Crushridge, Bloodscalp and Bloodfeather guys. If you speak German the Destromath and Madmortem players might want to have a word to share on the matter too.

While the frustration and concern is very much in its place, please don't claim you are the ones who should be first in line without even knowing what others experience. That's all.

Q u o t e:
I belive even if i play on emeriss other servers which are down show grey colour aswell .

...but that wouldn't alert you to any realms that are down while you're actually online and playing.

Q u o t e:
So basically you're saying: pay more for your mistakes and keep playing on a poor realm, or stay and live with it.

No, I'm not, but it seems some are intent on making it mean that. I doubt I can change your mind on that though (basically, there's no point in arguing with a "you hate me" argument), and will just leave it at that.

Q u o t e:
And Thudgot we don't hate you, we hate the lack of feedback and focus we get on the issue.

Trust me, there's full focus on these issues. The lack of complete resolution is something we're equally frustrated by.

Q u o t e:
I would like you to check these screenshots:

Nobody's arguing that Emeriss doesn't have issues, but Emeriss players trying to claim that other realms don't is just not going to work. We have the factual data from all realms, and base our work on that not on forum posts and screenshots claiming our data is wrong. Sorry.

Q u o t e:
does theese logs also include random restarts, as the 3 we've had on neptulon within one(1) hour...

Yes, and they're detailed enough that I can see it was "only" Outlands, not the entire realm. (Just to expand on the "yes". ;) )

Q u o t e:
I'm sorry as well, but I find it a bit hilarious that you're so adamantly and fiercely defending the fact that it's not just one realm that you can't run straight, but several. It's like shouting to the world that you don't only have one flaw, you have many!

This is about addressing the issues, not about making it look pretty. ;)

Q u o t e:
what are we, the players, supposed to do when we can't play with our (possibly only) characters? What are we supposed to do while we can't play, if playing is what we're wanting to do at that moment?

Check the realm status forum and breaking news (on the login screen) for any news. Try the realm again in 5 minutes. If it still doesn't work, check for news again if there wasn't any earlier. Either you'll be able to log in, or if it's a longer period of downtime you should find news explaining this.

Simply, "wait and try again", which I know isn't an easy thing to do. Forum posts are not going to have the realms up faster though, as we discover it through our tools faster than we spot it on the forums.

Q u o t e:
You're making all of this sound like this is a problem that begun occuring today, when in fact some realms have had these problems since the launch of TBC.

That wasn't at all intended. We're very aware of this being issues affecting realms all week, some each evening and some more irregularly.

Q u o t e:
Your suggestions would be valid, if what you are suggesting can actually be done. Magtheridon has been down for 10 minutes now, going on 15, and will most probable be down a lot more tonight, and there is nothing in the "Breaking news" or the realm status page. Even moreso, as we can tell from this thread, people have been experiencing problems all day, and there are 3 (three) posts about realm restarts today.

I didn't say there would be an update in 5 minutes, not even after 20 minutes. I just pointed out that just trying again and checking for news will get you online as fast as any number of forum posts on the matter.

The checking for news part is mainly helpful for those times when a realm is taken down for extra maintenance (i.e. hours), at which time trying again every 5 minutes is not going to be much fun.

Q u o t e:
This thread isn't about any shortly announced maintenance so I fail to see why you made that point in the first place if you meant it like you are saying now.

I was answering a question posted by Sapphire, and I think the answer addressed the question directly. As a moderator of this forum I feel I'm entitled to decide whether it's on-topic enough.

Q u o t e:
And trust me waiting more then 40 minutes for the new TBC world server (outlands and BE starting area aren't working rest is) to come back on isn't fun already either.

Nobody said it was. I can tell you it's not too fun sitting here either, seeing the population graph for a realm drop, knowing hundreds of players like ourselves just got kicked off the realm. We're doing what we can, both on a short term basis (getting things up again) and a long term basis (finding the core of the issue, how to best address it, and then fixing it).

Q u o t e:
Assuming these problems persist, assuming the realm just keeps crashing like it has so far, assuming the loot lag and other kind of lag is still there, day after day, then how long will you let it continue, until measures will be taken, and how drastic will they be?

That's not for me to decide or speculate in, and despite the issues now I'm not gonna call top management right now to find out. I'm sure it'll be a discussion in the week to come should the situation not improve.

Q u o t e:
Can you give us your assurance that at some point, sooner, rather than later we will be allowed to play on a (atleast relatively) stable realm? Or is that something you can't promise, as one possible outcome is that we will be left on Emeriss, whether you can fix the problems or not?

I can promise that we'll do our best in ensuring you a great game experience.

Q u o t e:
They wont spend a cent on better hardware unless they absolutely have to. Current issues are software related imo, and they havent got talented devs who could fix issues since the best teams left Blizzard already.

A cent wouldn't buy much hardware. As for our staff's abilities, I believe you have about zero factual knowledge on the matter and suggest you refrain from using our forums to insult them.

Q u o t e:
"Cent" is an expression, but since you know it and deliberately ignore the meaning of it, shows you are trolling yourself ;-)

I was trying to very subtly make the point that we're not talking small coin hardware here. ;) Me personally not wanting to spend 5000 Euros on a flashy suit doesn't mean that I won't spend any money on improving my wardrobe.

Q u o t e:
I'm pretty sure my knowledge is above zero about your staff (should I name personalities, or you are just trolling again?) , so your believes are wrong as usual, along with "we are prepared for TBC launch" (some Blue post).

My apologies for not specifying "relevant staff". I'm sure you know names of some (maybe many) of our staff members. I do doubt that you have knowledge of out technical teams and their skills though. As you claim they are untalented I'm actually sure you don't.

Q u o t e:
Now, can we get to the main topic questions, whats being done (aside servers restarts "roll eyes") to correct current issues and ETA on those fixes?

Investigation, tweaks, monitoring, discussions, etc. It's a troubleshooting matter, and if there are details to be revealed it'll come. That's unlikely to be tonight though, but rather in the week when everybody (not only tech, support and community) has time to sit down together.

Q u o t e:
I know how much mainframe costs since I have company which sells computers. What I was hinting in "cent" post bove, Blizzard is IMO yet another company which is more prone to make higher profit instead of maximizing users experience. You could disagree and as company employee you even cant otherwise, but its the impression I'm having in every area. Saving money here and there, everywhere... Nothing wrong with having higher profits, but its short-sighted policy, since dissatisfied users harm company profits in the long term more than spending enough recources when required. Blizzard could be even more succesful than it is, if not company-level greed.

I can't argue on your impression, only point out that it's your impression and not a factual statement. I saw the "big profit" claim played against the Nobel Peace Price winner too, so I doubt anybody can get away from that one.

Blizzard is a company of gamers, and we strive on giving gamers like ourselves the best gaming experience we can. Of course there are economical considerations to be done, but I think anyone claiming Blizzard thinks big profit before good gaming experience is missing the target by roughly a million miles.

Q u o t e:
Unfortunately the key talented people left Blizz, you can agree or disagree on this one, it doesnt change the fact.

There's no need in continuing this point as you take your own opinion as fact and say any other is void. I think that speaks for itself. ;)

Q u o t e:
Your tech. support with full focus havent fixed the plaqueing issues (from user experience) in the last 5 days since TBC launch. If they so good and talented, why we dont see even incremental improvement as we should (not speaking about minor BG bugs)? Its not easy to fix the game like WoW but full devs attention and 5 days is enough to see some results but we dont see any regarding servers and instances stability.

But there have been improvements. Some realms still suffer, but a number of realms now perform better than earlier this week. We will continue working on the remaining issues, and any new issues that come up.

Q u o t e:
Thundgot, there is a split for CrAshridge in blizzard programs?

A split will be the best solution for our problems...

I think we'd try free migration again first. Crushridge was not included in the last batch as it had a weekend of migrations just before TBC launched. It might get the chance again soon though.

Q u o t e:
OK so you name other servers with our problems, can you name all the servers that are up and working, and then tell us what is different between them and us.

I won't bother listing 180+ realms, but I can answer the second part about being able to tell the difference between the ones having issues and those not: No. And therein lies the problem. Before it can be corrected, the actual cause must be found.

Now, we've found some errors or systems that needed tweaking, which has helped other realms. Now we're working on the rest.

Unsticking this, as we have a newer post:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=120332421&sid=1