server-downtime
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ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
Some of ArcheAge's servers are back online this morning
Trion's FireCait addressed the latest ArcheAge downtime crisis on the official forums just before 5 a.m. this morning: Hi all! Here's the latest update for everyone. You can log into the following EU servers: Shatigon, Kyprosa, Eanna, Dahuta, Aier, Orchidna & Melisara. We continue to work on Nui, Janudar and Nebe. In North American, you can log into Aranzeb, Naima, Kyrios, Ollo, Tahyang, Salphira, Enla, Ezi and Lucius. Inoch and Calleil continue to be offline as we work to resolve the issues on those servers. Please note that the servers that are being worked on will show up on the server selection, and vanish from the server selection screen, as they are being worked on. Their visibility is not an indication of their status until we indicate that they are fully online. We expect to have another update for you in the mid-late morning (Pacific time). Thank you all for your patience. The servers were down Sunday and Monday for what Trion called "unscheduled maintenance." The studio told Massively yesterday that players will be compensated for the extended multi-day outage, though exactly how hasn't yet been announced. Queues are reportedly still keeping many players from logging into the live servers on Tuesday. Oh yeah, and that rumor about the servers catching on fire and being in a state of desperate salvage? It's not true. "This did not happen," Trion's Scapes declared to forumgoers. Ocho likewise dismissed the idea that exploits are responsible for the downtime.
Maintenance extended until 4pm Pacific (updated)
If you're sitting around waiting for the servers to come up, you have a bit longer to wait - the roll out of patch 6.0.3 is continuing apace, and the servers will be down for a while longer. My apologies for the mis-Tweet. Our #WoW Maintenance will be extended until 1 pm Pacific time: http://t.co/RGk4GAalZD - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) October 28, 2014 This is apparently due to last minute issues with the new patch, so it may or may not be the final say in terms of delays. Don't get too overexcited either way - things could end up resolved earlier than expected, or they could be delayed past 1pm Pacific. Just know that currently the call is that maintenance has been extended past the 11am PST point. Updated - Server Maintenance has been extended until 4pm PST.
SOE explains PlanetSide 2 patch scheduling
Have you ever wondered why MMO studios patch their games when and how they do? Well, wonder no more, at least in PlanetSide 2's case. SOE producer David Carey recently took to Reddit to explain why the MMOFPS' server downtime typically starts during European prime time. PS2 is a worldwide game, Carey says, and so bringing the EU shards down independently isn't feasible. "We can't have multiple client or server versions out in the wild at the same time," he explains. "Another reason is that we update once a week or more on average," Carey continues. "We need people to run the patches, so we really can't just say 'hey you guys are working overnight tonight and maybe two other nights this week, we'll let you know.' I mean, they have families and that's just not fair. So that rules out some time slots like 2:00 a.m. local other than for emergencies."
Wurm Online still offline, offers bounty for DDOS attacker
Wurm Online's 1.2 patch was supposed to herald a day of rejoicing for the community, but that quickly turned sour as a severe DDOS attack on its hosting forced the devs to take the game offline for over a day now. "Shortly after todays update we were the target of a DDOS attack and our hosting provider had to pull us off the grid for now," Code Club posted. "As annoying as this may be, we are taking steps to turn this to everyones advantage. I announced earlier that we were already looking at migrating the hosting of Wurm. When the attack forced us offline, we went straight ahead and pushed for this to happen as soon as possible." The team is working on switching hosting and said that service should be restored within a day. Code Club is offering a bounty of 10,000 Euro "for any tips or evidence leading to a conviction of the person responsible for this attack."
Nintendo eShop going offline until tomorrow morning to fix connection woes
Nintendo is pulling its eShop services offline today starting at 4:00PM Eastern (1PM Pacific), the company announced on its Facebook page. The decision follows a rocky Japanese debut for Pokemon X and Y's Pokemon Bank service, which was part of the blame in crippling Nintendo's servers. The publisher postponed the launch of the Pokemon Bank and Poke Transporter services in Europe and North America for the time being. The Wii U and 3DS eShops will resume activity at 4:00AM Eastern (1AM Pacific) tomorrow morning, at which point Nintendo expects to have rectified the connection issues users are having.
Final Fantasy XIV's Yoshida issues an apology to players
Final Fantasy XIV's Early Access period hasn't been a smooth ride if you're playing in North America or Europe. The server cluster dedicated to these players has had to undergo several periods of maintenance and unexpected downtime, with several players entirely unable to log in on Sunday. Producer/director Naoki Yoshida took to the official forums to issue a personal apology to players affected by these issues, explaining the problems faced by the team and the steps being taken to correct them. Yoshida states that several of the load-related issues are still persisting, so the team is currently placing restrictions on logins to try to relieve some congestion and better identify server failure points. He goes on to apologize to players for any wait experienced and asks for patience as the team strives to deliver the best possible experience for all players. There's no word on how long these restrictions will be in place or what form they will take, but with the official launch tomorrow, we can only hope that the issues are largely sorted out soon.
EVE Evolved: The battle of Z9PP-H caught on camera
If you're the kind of person who loves reading about the political shenanigans that go on inside EVE Online, you should be aware that a colossal war has erupted in the wake of the Odyssey expansion. The expansion redistributed the value of nullsec moons and gave the two largest alliances in the game, the Reddit-based TEST Alliance and Something Awful-spawned GoonSwarm Federation, a good excuse to go to full-scale war. Allies have piled in on either side, and nullsec has erupted into full-scale region takedowns, spy-jacking, and more of the lovely political tomfoolery we love to hear about. EVE News 24 has been doing a good job of keeping players up to date on what's happening in nullsec, and its reporters are not the only ones keeping tabs on the war. Streamer Mad Ani has been setting up cameras in strategically important locations throughout the contested regions and providing live coverage of huge battles whenever they happen. A few days ago, the war came to a head in what could have been the deciding battle of the entire Fountain invasion. Over 4,000 people watched the stream as TEST's entire capital fleet of over 100 carriers was taking a pounding in Z9PP-H, when suddenly the server crashed and disconnected everyone in the fight. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at what happened in the battle of Z9PP-H, how CCP crashed its biggest piece of PR in months, and how player livestreams are changing the face of EVE Online for the better.
Anarchy Online set to finally merge servers
How do you get together after 12 years of separation? That's a question the Anarchy Online community is going to have to answer tomorrow as the game undergoes a server merge, bringing together two communities that have been apart for more than a decade. PvP will be chaotic, the state of community relations will be chaotic, cats and dogs will be living next to one another... you get the idea, general mass hysteria. Both servers will be brought offline at 5:00 a.m. EST on February 26th. The maintenance required to merge the two servers is expected to run for 24 hours, with the usual caveat that it may run longer depending on any issues encountered during the process. Afterwards, players will be able to log in to the new combined server and start welcoming their new neighbors... or start shooting them in their faces for property rights. As we said, general mass hysteria. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: Does major downtime impact your opinion of a game?
If you haven't noticed, Lord of the Rings Online has been offline for a while. Like, a long while. It's the sort of thing that can produce a lot of ill-will from players despite the fact that technically the game itself hasn't changed in the slightest. The fact that the game has been down solely to address back-end issues is irrelevant -- players can have long memories and can be quite bitter about not being able to play their favorite games. Back when World of Warcraft first launched, many players were equally angry about the game's long periods of unexpected maintenance. Obviously it didn't have a long-term effect on the game's overall popularity, but it was an early blow to the game's population. So do extended downtimes impact your opinion of a game, or do you understand that it's a real possibility in any genre with so many moving technical parts? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Path of Exile explains its open beta transition
If you're looking forward to Path of Exile's open beta (possibly in the wake of our own first impressions), you don't have much longer to wait. The testing will start shortly, giving everyone a chance to get in on all of the clicking and looting. For everyone looking forward to the next step, old hands and new players alike, the development team has provided a handy walkthrough of what will take place as the game's gates creak open. All characters will be returned to level 1 and all items will be removed outside of special promotions, but this will be the last character reset the game will undergo. Players with existing closed beta clients will be able to download the open beta patch directly, but the game's servers will go down for about two hours before the changeover happens. The post also warns everyone to expect that there may be login queues or latency issues given the game's popularity, so consider yourself fairly warned.
Breakfast Topic: What do you imagine the urgent maintenance was for?
Recently, Blizzard took down all of the realms on a Friday for urgent maintenance. This prompted many readers to fantasize about what the downtime was all about. jayharima suggested, They forgot to move Nax to Jade Forest, u gotta keep that thing running or the fuel goes bad. shrikesnest said, I heard they're getting rid of PVP servers in anticipation of the Alliance/Horde peace treaty at the end of the expansion. hstein31 declared It's the hamsters. Server maintenance is always a problem with the hamsters. My imagination took me elsewhere ...
Patch 5.0.4 maintenance extended by two hours
According to this tweet from BlizzardCS, scheduled maintenance on all servers has been extended by two hours from 11:00 a.m. PDT to 1:00 p.m. PDT. Of course, this is fairly common for large patches. It could be extended further, so keep an eye on this post, and we'll update with any further information as it is warranted. In the meantime, while you're waiting, you could always look at our Patch 5.0.4 coverage or find a book on the Kindle store (I know of a good one) to read. Edited to add: maintenance has been extended until 3:00 p.m. PDT. As of 2:50 p.m. PDT servers appear to be coming up. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Tuesday Morning Post: Third time's the charm edition
For the past few weeks, Blizzard's toyed with us just a bit. Monday night bought a posted announcement of extended downtime, only for the morning to feature naught but rolling restarts. As of this writing, we're once again starting with a 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST downtime announcement. Will it stick this time? I suppose by the time you read this, we'll know. Still, it's a win-win situation. If I'm right, I'm right. If Blizzard changes back to rolling restarts, we get to play the game again sooner. In the meantime, there's still stuff to read while the game's down. The biggest news we've gotten out of Blizzard thus far has been one of negatives: BlizzCon is gone, at least for this year. This means we'll have to party even harder in 2013, but what do we do in the meantime? For now, I suggest we catch up on reading. We've kept busy even with the dearth of news, offering guides and opinions you'll want to read. While you wait for the servers to come back up, why not read on? Our usual roundup of the best stuff from the past seven days awaits.
Tuesday Morning Post: Are we there yet?
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The steady trickle of blue posts hinting at the possibility of maybe kind of sort of somewhat having some new news about Mists of Pandaria keep coming, but they also speak of a long time before we get something like an alpha test or any meaty updates. And so we are in something of a drought, and it looks like we'll be journeying toward Pandaria for some time yet. Of course, that's not say we've had no news at all. The Dragon Soul nerf news came down the pipe this week, for example, and as you might expect caused a whole lot of uproar. In addition, the Lunar Festival has started up for the year, and we have our usual achievement guide ready to guide you. We even have an interview with a guy who made 1 million gold and gave it all away. Realm maintenance this morning is a nice, extended 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you'll have plenty of time to get caught up on everything. Read on for our usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Raids with friends edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The big news of this week is probably patch 4.3.2, which is on the PTR. For the most part, it's bringing us minor balance changes and bug fixes, but there are a few big things in there, including a 64-bit client and the advent of raiding with your cross-realm friends. You still can't raid Dragon Soul with your friends from that PvP server you refuse to roll on, but you can at least do Raid Finder runs, as well as any classic raid your heart desires. Now you can sucker even more people into those legendary farming runs! With a new patch on test the servers and the last of the post-holiday doldrums more or less shaken off, you better believe there's plenty of good news and interesting stuff to read from the past week. Downtime this week is a series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, which of course gives you time for a nice mid-morning or early afternoon break to catch up on the news. Read on for the usual run-down.
Tuesday Morning Post: Good night, sweet corgi edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This week has had its share of silence, for sure. I'm not sure if the folks at Blizzard's just enjoying the last bit of the holidays or secretly playing that other game, but either way, they didn't have much to say this week. That's not say there wasn't activity and stuff to discuss, not at all. The Darkmoon Faire's back in town, for one, and we've all been looking back at some of the best and worst stuff to come out of 2011. This is also the week we had to say goodbye to that freaking sweet corgi in the picture above. We can only pray Blizzard gives him back to us a pet some time in the future. If they do not, it shall surely go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest MMO tragedies of all time. Downtime this morning is a series of rolling restarts starting at 10 a.m. PST, so you should have time to dig in to all the retrospectives and guides we have ready for you. Read on for the usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Vacation's over edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! Hopefully everyone has successfully roused themselves from their holiday food comas and dug themselves out of piles of wrapping paper. For most of us, today probably marks a return to the good old-fashioned work grind, but hey. We still have a few more days of Winter Veil, and think of it this way: Now that the holidays are over, we can go back to focusing on the important stuff, like figuring out when Mists of Pandaria's going into beta. Downtime this morning is limited to a series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, but hey, you should still have time to get caught up on the news from the past few days. Don't let the holiday season fool you -- there was a lot of it. Read on to catch up.
Tuesday Morning Post: On the first day of Winter Veil edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everybody, and a very merry Winter Veil. Hopefully you've been celebrating, either by entering our 12 Days of Winter Veil contests or by going for in-game achievements. Then again, maybe you just don't care for that stuff and want to keep doing what you normally do -- and hey, that's cool too. No matter how you celebrate, you'll have to take a short break this morning as Blizzard applies rolling restarts to the servers starting at 10 a.m. PST. Don't worry though, we got lots of stuff for you to read while you wait. Read on after the break for our usual roundup of the last week's content, including some awesome Warcraft gift ideas for you last-minute shoppers.
Star Wars: The Old Republic goes dark in preparation for launch
It's as if a million gamers cried out in... you know what? We've done that joke too many times, as has everyone else. We're officially declaring it off-limits for the remainder of this game's history. It's a trap, trust us. And you thought that intro smelled bad... on the outside! OK, it's all out of our system -- as is Star Wars: The Old Republic. As the game nears its official December 20th launch date, BioWare is bringing down both the servers and the website in preparation for the momentous event. From 7:00 p.m. until 12:01 a.m. EST, SWTOR will be inaccessible. BioWare says that as the game comes back online at midnight, the studio will be adding "a large number of new servers" to facilitate the influx of launch players. Even so, the studio predicts that queues on popular servers will be present and urges players to consider rolling characters on lesser-populated realms. Because of the recently instituted grace period, early access players have until 3:00 a.m. EST on December 22nd to register their product codes or be cut off from gameplay.
