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Empyrean Age launch schedule: 24-hour downtime for deployment
CCP has announced that EVE Online's Empyrean Age expansion will be playable on Wednesday, the 11th of June, at 2:00 AM GMT. Tranquility will be brought down the preceding day (Tuesday the 10th) at 2:00 AM GMT and will be offline for 24 hours as CCP readies the new content.That's a very long long downtime, to be sure, but it's arguably worth it, given all the additions Empyrean Age makes to the game. The specifics are outlined in the patch notes and the expansion's features page at the official site, but most of the changes are related to the factional warfare system that we've heard so much about. Admittedly, it's not an expansion for the carebears. Their day will come when Ambulation arrives.Those of us here at Massively who play EVE are looking forward to podkilling your sorry asses in all the battles to come! Just kidding; we're not that mean! Or are we?
Age of Conan's Jorgen Tharaldsen addresses game issues
Jon Wood from MMORPG.com recently interviewed Funcom's Product Director Jorgen Tharaldsen about some of the issues affecting gameplay in Age of Conan. The interview was primarily focused on customer service issues, and hopefully provides a good indicator as to how things are improving in AoC. Some of the key issues that Tharaldsen addressed include: Customer support frustrations expressed by players. Inability to log in to the game's official forums. Funcom's actions taken against exploiters. Poor game performance despite meeting required system specs. Server downtimes during peak hours. Limitations on number of players in certain instances. Increasing the number of GM's to handle the petition backlog. Check out the interview over at MMORPG.com, where's there's quite a string of comments from the readers. Do you think Funcom is handling customer service issues properly (given that AoC had such a recent launch), or are they dropping the ball?
Extended downtime for some servers this Tuesday morning
Tuesday morning maintenance has been announced, and most of us can breathe easy -- we're only getting a one hour downtime, from 5am PST to 6am PST. However, there are 72 servers that will be getting a larger amount of downtime, from 5am PST to 11am PST, though there's no word on why. Check after the break to see if your server's going down for a bit. The list of the servers scheduled for a longer maintenance are as follows:
Many realms down for extra maintenance
On top of the already extended maintenance today, many US realms, as it turns out, will be undergoing even more extended maintenance. The ETA for completion on this is 1:00 PM PDT. The Reckoning, Vengeance, and Bloodlust battlegroups are affected. This includes my own realm -- there go my plans for leveling my druid this afternoon. Realms not on this list are currently up and available for play, so maybe I'll go hang with ICftB on Zangarmarsh. The complete list of affected realms is: Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bonechewer, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Dath'Remar, Dragonmaw, Drak'thul, Draka, Dreadmaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Terenas, Thaurissan, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Vek'nilash, Windrunner. Again, these realms will allegedly be up at 1:00 PM PDT/4:00 PM EDT.Update (4:15 PM): All realms appear to be online and operational.
Restarts and maintenance for Tuesday, May 20th
It's a relatively painless Tuesday Morning this time around for those who play in what are the early morning hours at Blizzard HQ. This time, most US servers will just recieve a quick rolling restart at 5 AM PDT, about half an hour from now, which should result in no more than 15 minutes of downtime. However, there are some servers that will get 2 hours of downtime: Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and Wildhammer. Also, here's something that should please a lot of Australian players: Their realms won't get the rolling restarts until 5AM AEST -- which translates to noon PDT. That should translate to lots of time for night owls to finish their raids before the restarts kick them off. So in that 15 minutes to 2 hours of down time you'll have to go through, or if you're stuck at school or work, here's a few WoW Insider articles from the last week that are worth checking out. First, last week's major news and views: The WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha is underway, and we have the leaked patch notes. A Vivendi earnings statement gave us the first real official word on WoTLK's expected release date. The Hunter Growl and Scare Beast changes from patch 2.4.2 didn't turn out so great after all. Raiders rejoice: M'uru got a little easier, and those nasty Archimonde and Eredar Twin bugs got a hotfix. Death and Taxes, the premiere US WoW raiding guild, disbanded. That set a few of us to pontificating on the problems of raid guild drama here and here. We covered a few more tidbits of WoTLK info, such as Death Knight "reruning." Check out sister site BigDownload's interview with Blizzard on that whole eSport thing. In Hybrid Theory, Alex soothes your fears about Death Knights taking your jobs. If these aren't enough for you, there's more after the break.
Server crashes plague Ruin battlegroup and others
It seems to be an unfortunate reality of WoW, if not MMORPGs in general: When a new patch goes live, more often than not, it's going to be a bit rocky on the servers for a while. Patch 2.4.2 is no exception, Many servers are having trouble staying up, including most of the Ruin Battlegroup, which according to a few our tipsters has been having more than its share of trouble lately. Blue Poster Vrakthis has assured posters on the Customer Service Forum that the Realm issues are being looked into, but so far, there does not seem to be a solid reason for the downtime other than, hey, it's patch day! EDIT: It has now been confirmed that the downtimes were intentional for the purpose of emergency maintenance. The downtime should be minimal. As of the time of this writing, the following servers are down:
Extended Maintenance for May 13th and patch 2.4.2
We don't know for sure yet if patch 2.4.2 is hitting the live servers tomorrow, but there's a few clues that may suggest we're going to see it soon. First is that maintenance tomorrow morning will be extended, from 3am-11am PST. Extended maintenance doesn't always mean a patch, sometimes it's for hardware upgrades or other reasons. However, if there's patch, there is generally extended maintenance. But there is one other sign that could be a harbinger of 2.4.2. Tipster Phillip pointed out to us that the PTR servers are currently down. There's hasn't been an official notice posted on the US PTR Forums as of this writing, but there is an official notice of the end of testing on the European forums. Certainly, Blizzard's already had one false stop on the 2.4.2 PTR, but it could be that the second time is a charm. If you need to jog your memory on 2.4.2's content, check out the initial patch notes here and the undocumented changes (most of which have since been folded into the official test server patch notes) here. You can also read about the Hunter changes and their fallout here, with articles on Growl, Scare Beast, and some of the controversy and math problems surrounding the Growl change.
Playtime credit for Bloodlust realms
Playtime credits: they're not just for European realms anymore! Blizzard must have been reading the comment thread for my post on the Bloodlust battlegroup's problems yesterday because, clearly in direct response to the demands of commenters Todd and oniwah, they are issuing a one-day credit to the accounts of anyone with characters on the affected realms. Once more, those realms are: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. So if you've got a character on one of those servers, perhaps $0.50 worth of playtime will help make up for your troubles. Did they ever fix the latency/disconnect issues, by the way?
Bloodlust realms down to fix latency
As of 10:50 AM PDT, 1:50 PM EDT, Blizzard has brought down all the realms in the Bloodlust (US) battlegroup for brief maintenance "to address issues relating to high latency and disconnections." The affected realms are expected to be done after about an hour, which means they should come back up around 11:50 AM PDT/2:50 PM EDT, which is in twenty minutes. The affected realms are listed as: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. Note that as far as I can tell the Dreadmaul realm does not actually exist. Edit: Never mind, it's the new Oceanic realm. It's just not listed on the Battlegroups page for some reason. I kind of wish they'd do some maintenance on my own realm (Shadow Council), since I've been having relatively high latency myself recently (150-200ms as opposed to my usual 60-100ms).Update (3 PM): Not entirely unexpectedly, the realms are not fixed yet. The new ETA from Bizzard is 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.Update (4:30 PM): The realms are back up, but still experiencing issues. Blizz promises to provide more updates as they are available.Update (8:15 PM): Realms down again. They were supposed to be back up at 5 PDT/8 EDT, but apparently that is not the case.
It's maintenance time
As Adam mentioned yesterday, server maintenance is now upon us, and you'll probably be getting a serverwide message to that effect any minute now if you're logged into the game. This is an extended downtime, so expect servers to be down from 3 am to at least 11 am PDT. If you're like a lot of people, including at least one WoW Insider blogger, you will probably be taking advantage of the downtime to get comfy with a little Grand Theft Auto IV (or, if you're weird, you'll just be waiting for the new Iron Man game or something). But if you're stuck at work or school, or if you haven't had the time or pocket money to pick up GTA, may I suggest a little bit of WoW Insider browsing? While I agree with Adam that it's not likely that 2.4.2 is going live this week, it never hurts to bone up just in case. You can check out the original 2.4.2 patch notes here, as well as some undocumented changes found on the PTR and some new class changes recently added to the notes. You can also check out our analysis of some of the 2.4.2 Hunter changes with articles on Growl, Scare Beast, and more testing of Growl. For non-patch stuff, try these articles: If you've just hit 70 and are looking for a hand up into the pvp scene, check out our guide to the Outland reputation pvp gear. If you have a Horde character on the Zangarmarsh server, make plans to join us at It Came From The Blog's Children's Week event on May 4th. Check out our interview with Antiarc, the creator of the popular Omen threat meter. Join the conversations on the recent announced season 4 arena gear rating requirements here and here. Whatever else you do, keep your browser tuned here to WoW Insider all day for all the latest news and views on the World of Warcraft. This goes for you too, GTAers. You're going to have to take a break sometime, so you might as well take it with us, right?
Gamers on the Street: Burned on Bloodscalp
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.This week, I decided to go visit Bloodscalp -- we've been hearing about problems with stability on Bloodscalp since patch 2.4, so I decided to get the word on what was happening straight from the people affected by it. Additionally, I wanted to talk about the upcoming Arena changes in patch 2.4.2, so I had that on the list to chat with players about as well.I created a Troll Rogue named "Wowinsider," ran up to Orgrimmar, and started chatting with the Bloodscalpians. The conversations I had with three players on the server are after the break.
Tuesday April 29th maintenance
...and Bornakk looked upon the World (of Warcraft) in its seventh day and said: "Let there be maintenance." And so it was.Bornakk posted on the General Discussion Forums this afternoon that there will be maintenance tomorrow on all realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Additionally, the forums themselves will be undergoing maintenance from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 8:00 a.m. PDT. You will not be able to log in to the forums, but you will be able to read them.Patch 2.4.2 was announced last week and is on the PTR right now. However, it is unlikely that the patch will come tomorrow. The PTR phase of minor patches almost always lasts two weeks. Of course with that said, I'm sure I'll be eating my words tomorrow as 2.4.2 goes live. We'll all just have to stay tuned and find out!
Thus goeth down the Apple Store
Shall I compare thee to a yellow sticky note? Thou art more foreboding and less indicative of closure. Rough winds do shake retail commerce before May And downtime hath all too short a date. Sometimes too excited the yellow sticky shines And often is his gold complexion dimm'd And sometimes when credit-cards decline By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd; Thy momentary downtime does not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair new product; Nor shall Apple introduce what wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou waitest; So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, Fair 3M's scrap of parchment shall cheer thee. Thanks, verily, to all ye who have sent tidings of this news.
Xbox A-Live and kicking again
Well, it only took two days after the initial update but Xbox Live seems to be back to normal again. According to the support page on Xbox.com the service is fully functional and thank goodness!Xbox Live is sure to be tested this Tuesday when Grand Theft Auto IV hits store shelves. Will the service be up to the task? We'd like to think the tech ninjas at Microsoft have been preparing for this very situation, but don't ask us to put money on it. What? Gambling is wrong, that's why.%Poll-13236%
Xbox Live connection hits another speed bump [Update]
Update: According to the Xbox.com support page, Xbox Live is up and running but some users may encounter issues with matchmaking and voice communication. Apparently technicians are working on the issue as we speak ... uh ... I mean type.Reports are coming in from readers that Xbox Live is currently encountering intermittent connection issues, by that we mean playing online, voice communication and even connecting to the service seems to be touch-n-go. The support page for Xbox.com has verified the service has hit a snag, while Major Nelson updated the situation at 11PM EST letting Xbox Live users know that "[the] team is updating [the support page] as conditions change."While we understand the frustration our readers are feeling we'd like to echo a comment made when Live was down on Monday, better it be now than on or after April 29. No excuse we know, but we're trying to find that silver lining.
Poll: Xbox Live back in business, how is your experience?
Yesterday Xbox Live was scheduled to go online at 1:00PM EST after an 8-hour hiatus for maintenance. However, like any guarantee, Xbox Live suffered from staggered connection issues well into the evening. According to the Xbox.com support page and Major Nelson, Xbox Live was back to business early this morning. Today, in a rare poll, we wonder what your experience is like. Fire up the Xbox 360 and connect to Live, play a game or two online and let us know what your experience is like now that the dust has settled on the connection problems.%Poll-13094%
Xbox Live: Scheduled maintenance complete [Update]
Update: Major Nelson updated his initial post letting XBL users know that the tech team is aware of some issues with the rolling restarts. They are looking into the situation. Again, we ask that you be patient and just think about all the dudes you'll be shooting on April 29.According to Major Nelson, the scheduled maintenance for Xbox Live that left the service offline since early this morning is complete. Before you fashion your trendiest riot clothes and pitchforks we'd like to remind you that while the service maintenance is complete users may experience rolling restarts around the globe. As an example, the service has restarted for our own Dustin Burg but has left this Canadian out in the cold (see what I did there?) with connection issues.If you are experiencing connection issues we ask that you be patient before flooding our inbox with "ZOMG, they broked Live" news tips. Looking for something to do? May we suggest checking out X3F TV! While our Nielsen ratings aren't anything to write home about, we can at least assure you our gaming related videos are more entertaining than watching anything that Spike TV does with this industry in mind.
Why we solo
Lauren of the Mystic Worlds Blog has a new post up called "Why we Solo in MMOs," offering her perspective on why, over many years and many MMOs, she has always tended to ignore the grouping game and instead go it alone. While I'm not against grouping at all -- I was very active in the 40 man raid game, and tend to run Heroics around once a week and Karazhans around 1.5 times a week across my 3 70s -- I've always felt that the solo game has a valid spot in MMORPGs, and I've often indulged in it myself. In fact, I'd bet that most WoW players do so on a regular basis these days, whether leveling up or doing their dailies. She rattles off the usual list of reasons for going solo -- having a weird schedule, needing to take frequent "real life" breaks, not having enough time to go LFG for a dungeon, unwillingness to deal with the infamous horrible PuG group -- then takes it a step further. She believes that many people use these types of statements as excuses or defense against people who can't understand why they wish to solo in a multiplayer game, or actively flame them for it, and that the real reasons are a lot less complicated.
36 US realms down
Starting at least half an hour ago, and continuing through to now, 36 US realms, comprising the battlegroups Rampage and Shadowburn, are down. Blizzard notes that they are "currently unavailable and are being worked on," and that they don't have an ETA right now, but will give us an update around 8:50 AM PDT/11:50 AM EDT. So we should hear more about this in 15 minutes or so, at which point I'll update the post with any new information.The affected realms are: Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.[Thanks, Laz]Update (12 PM): Blizzard provided an update to let us know that they will provide another update at 10 AM PDT, which is in an hour. They're working on it and appreciate our patience.Update (1 PM): Now they think they've figured out what's wrong, and they're saying the realms should be up by 10:30 PDT/1:30 EDT.
PSN to experience 'scheduled maintenance' on April 14
From 8AM-11PM PST on April 14th, the PLAYSTATION Network will be down for "scheduled maintenance." According to the US PlayStation Support site, the Store will be completely inaccessible as Sony makes the background changes necessary to accommodate the Store redesign. Once the downtime is over, a new firmware update will be available for all to download.It's unclear whether or not online gaming and friends lists will be affected by this maintenance. Don't be surprised if you won't be able to enjoy a bout of Warhawk or Call of Duty 4 while Sony does their magic.[Thanks, Ralle! Via N4G]
