Login Problems

I really like this game. I like it enough that I actually schedule time into my busy days, nights and weekends to play. And until about two weeks ago, this system worked for me. When I actually had an hour or two to play, I'd be able to log into the server of my choice and play for my scheduled time. However, the combination of a huge influx of new X-mas gift-receiving players and the 1.9 patch has rendered my scheduled playing time unusable. The simple fact is that it's been taking 20-30 minutes just to log into a server, and then if I'm lucky, I won't be booted out shortly thereafter because I made the egregious mistake of trying to enter the commons area in Ironforge.

I'm a reasonable guy. I know Blizzard is aware of the problems. I know they continue to open up new servers to help reduce the demand on existing servers. But I also know that I'm not alone in my login frustrations. The message boards are rife with people complaining about not being able to log in in a reasonable amount of time, if at all. Sometimes you get stuck at the receiving character list screen, sometimes at the end of the loading screen, and sometimes it doesn't load at all and just disconnects you from the server.

I'd call technical support except that it wouldn't help. It's not my system or my internet connection, which hasn't changed one iota in months. The problem is on Blizzard's end, and they need to fix it. Period. I'm not yet on the verge of quitting the game and closing my account (as some have done), but it's becoming extremely annoying. I'm paying good money to play and should be able to play when I want to, not only when there are open slots on the server. It's not my fault that the servers are full. I'd consider transferring my main characters, but then it'd fracture the social aspect of the game, the part of the game I like the most.