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New set of US Connected Realms Announced
A new set of US realms have been announced by CM Nethaera as slated for the Connected Realm service next week. Players on the following realms will have a scheduled maintenance on Monday, November 25, from 6am PST through 11am PST, during which the realm connections will be made. Keep in mind that the ending time listed is an approximate one -- if you're on the list below, be prepared for maintenance extensions if the connection process warrants it. Azshara and Azgalor Arygos and Llane Cairne and Perenolde Nathrezim and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos/Smolderthorn Zangarmarsh and Hellscream In addition to the November 25 connections, a list of realms have also been slated for connection on Monday, December 2. For a full list of those realms, as well as a list of future realms slated for connection, read on after the break.
Blizzard working to repair ongoing login issues [Updated]
Nethaera has posted on the US forums that Blizzard are working to rectify the login issues currently preventing players from connecting to certain realms. Following today's rolling restarts that may or may not be related to some strange events, many players have had issues gaining access to the game. Nethaera We are currently experiencing an issue after the performed rolling restarts that is affecting the authentication servers. We are currently investigating this issue and will provide further updates within an hour. Updates: 12:17 p.m. PDT - We are continuing to work to resolve the connection issues that many players are experiencing while attempting to log in to the game. We do not have an ETA for when this will be resolved but will provide an additional update at approximately 1:15 p.m. PDT. 1:17 p.m. PDT- Thank you for your patience. The log in issues are being slowly resolved and players are able to log in once more. We will provide updates should any additional issues occur. source [Thanks for the tips!] Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Is choosing a server becoming obsolete?
Let's hop in the wayback machine for a minute, because I enjoy doing that. Once upon a time in the days of vanilla WoW, players who had just purchased the game were faced with a choice upon logging in for the first time: What server would they call home? There were three different server types, each with their own flavor: PvP, for those that wanted to log in and have the opportunity to whale on the opposing faction at any given opportunity; PvE for those who would rather avoid fighting with other players and simply enjoy the content; and RP, for those who wanted to create character stories and roleplay with other characters. Later, the RP-PvP realm was introduced for roleplayers who really wanted to whale on the opposing faction as well as roleplay. But the choice went beyond a simple matter of what type of game you wanted to play. Each server had its own cast of characters, and as the years went by, these players turned into friends and foes alike. Servers weren't just about how you wanted to play; they were a collection of people you interacted with on a daily basis. Guilds were composed of people with the same ideas in mind, but those guilds weren't the be all and end- all of your interaction with people in the game. Every server had that one guy who was always cracking jokes in trade chat. Every server always had a ninja or two. And of course, there was always the guy who didn't seem to get what social interaction was all about. These days, we have cross-realm grouping via Real ID, the Raid Finder for those who don't want to bother with joining a raid guild, and now we've got the up-and-coming feature that will allow us to group with players cross-realm for raiding old content as well as the new stuff. So the big question is this: Do servers even have a purpose anymore?
Blizzard auctioning off old servers for charity
Want to own a real piece of Warcraft history? Ever wanted to own your entire server? Starting Oct. 17, Blizzard will be auctioning off the actual server blades of yesteryear to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. WoW has gone through a lot of technical changes over the years, and the old server blades are just that -- old. What better way than to celebrate the early years of the game than to give the proceeds to such an important cause? The auctions will last from Oct. 17 through Nov. 14, with each realm's original server blade going on sale. What's a server blade, you ask? Each server, with its own processing power and all that jazz, lives in a rack with other servers at the big server enclosure. Each auctioned server will have a little plaque attached with the server's name, its dates of operation, and signatures from the team. This is really, really cool. If I had the cash to pony up for Frostwolf, my original server, I would. That thing broke so many times in the early days that I'd want to pop it open and see all the horrible, nightmarish things lurking inside. Check out the auction information page for which servers will be auctioned off on which days.
Multiple realms offline tonight
Another evening, another set of realms are offline. It appears to be a continuing saga lately. My guess is that Deathwing is a little anxious to get started with his destruction and is causing all these problems.But really, all these realms offline are okay with me -- because I've been engaged in a captivating game of Fallout 3 as I get over some BlizzCon crud I've come down with. Yes internet, you needed to know that.The realms offline tonight are expected to be down until 10:30 p.m. EDT, but I wouldn't count on them coming up on time. They rarely do.It also appears a lot of people are stuck at "Connecting..." Although there has been no official response to this yet, we have been able to verify it happening at least.The entire list of realms currently affected after the break. And while you're waiting, why not look at some hawt BlizzCon cosplay? After all, who doesn't want a little succubus in their evening browsings?Update: Things appear to be coming back online... no promises here though.%Gallery-70720%
Maintenance for Thursday August 6th
According to the in-game announcement, there will be two hours of maintenance tomorrow August 6th on all realms. The maintenance announcement has changed throughout the evening, but seems to have settled on this downtime.The downtime will happen from 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT and last until 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 a.m. EDT. This of course assumes that there'll be no extended super-fracken-duper maintenance put on top of that. And we know just how much Blizzard loves to increase their maintenance periods. If there is you'll hear it here.While the maintenance is going on, you can check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 and read up on all the things you missed, or think you missed. There is also the beginnings of a list of bug fixes; a list that's sure to grow over the coming days.
The Queue: Are you a god?
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.A simple question instead of an introduction.%Poll-31854%Go get her, Ray!Some music too which you can listen to while reading today's Queue. And some more. Don't watch the videos, they're dumb. But the music is great.Angus asked... "Why is there a defense channel for every zone? Specifically, why would anyone be attacking the Twisting Nether? I found this to be my most amusing channel. The raid or instance ones are funny, but this one always cracks me up."
Patch 3.1.1a coming during maintenance
Patch 3.1.1a, which we previously covered last week, will be coming during tomorrow's extended maintenance. This is according to a small update Crygil gave this evening.While we don't have the full patch notes yet, Patch 3.1.1a will just correct small issues that cannot be hot-fixed into the game. Notably, the tooltip to the Paladin's Exorcism ability will be updated to reflect that it cannot be used on players.Realms will be down from 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT. We'll let you know when they're up, and if there will be any additional extended maintenance.
The Queue: But there are cats in Azeroth
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. I feel sorry for Alex and his significant other. They can't have pets in their apartment so they got a Roomba. Now I can have pets in my place, and the girlfriend and I have a nice little kitty named Max. In fact, Max was talking to me last night as I wrote today's Queue and told me he'd like to eat Alex's Roomba.He only started talking after I fed him some Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuits.Actuality asked..."I was wondering how the Argent Tournament will work with phasing in Icecrown. Will the Tournament be open to all, or only those who have made it to the final Icecrown?"
New EU PvE Realm: Saurfang
Good news everyone!Thundgot over on the EU forums announced today that there is a new EU PvE server opening named Saurfang. It will be an English based server in the Misery battlegroup. As with most new servers, migration will not be allowed to it for the first 90 days. That means you can't transfer your characters there just yet. For now, Death Knight creation is only possible when you have a level 55 character on Saurfang itself. That restriction will be lifted after the 90 days pass.The realm became open for play just a short time ago, so if you're in the EU and want some new server goodness, head over there now and get started.
Surprise! Extended maintenance extended
All US realms will now be down until 1pm PST / 4pm EST.I really don't know why Blizzard doesn't just change their times for extended maintenance to make it last until 1pm PST every time, or just push it back to 3pm PST and be done with it. That way there are no failed expectations when the servers don't come up.It's a relatively contradictory thing for them to say they'll wait push a patch to live until it's ready and never give a time estimate, and then turn around and give a time estimate whenever the severs are down. Don't you think? Perhaps they should just say the severs will be back up "soon."Of course, I'm probably just QQing because this afternoon my lazy butt is finally going to hit exalted with the Kalu'ak. I'm going to go get that sweet fishing pole first thing. I'm going to dance with it too, a pole dance if you will. But alas that'll have to wait until I can log on.We'll put up a post when servers are back up, or some other debacle happens. Stay tuned.
Realms up after extended maintenance
Realms are back up after a bit of extended maintenance this afternoon. There has been no communication from the blues or other Blizzard sources as to why the downtime was extended.But with that said, all the realms are working and things appear to be going smoothly. And by smooth I mean I still have the mail in my in-box from when the servers went down this morning.So that's a good thing, right?
Dude, Where's My Country?
When we purchased WoW, we all made a (mostly) unconscious choice. Based on geographic location alone, we committed ourselves to life on a certain set of servers, walled off from other regions -- American, European or Korean, we're now stuck with the original decision we made months or years ago.There are various good reasons to think about switching, or going dual-region. It's possible to run two copies of WoW, or even just the one, as long as you're prepared to cough up the initial payment and monthly fee twice over. You might have friends abroad you wish to play with, or you may be away from your home country temporarily. You might be a night owl or early bird, more comfortable in a timezone several hours distant from your own. Perhaps there is a particular guild you wish to join, or news items you wish to keep up with; perhaps you would prefer to speak a certain language.There are also bad reasons -- if you're disillusioned with some less-than-savoury experiences on your home server, switching region isn't going to help any more than just switching server, as bad PuGs and antisocial players exist on all servers. Also, playing away from home for the purposes of selling gold or characters in a more lucrative market isn't going to win you many friends.
