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Xbox Live maintenance runs late [Update]
Quick update for anyone who decided to stay up and sneak in a few games of (insert your multiplayer game of choice here). According to Major Nelson, the scheduled Xbox Live maintenance is running later than originally expected. Originally scheduled to end at 11:59PM PT, according the Xbox.com support page, Major Nelson says the team will have an update on the status at 2AM PT. Maybe you should hit the sack and dream of a beautifully performing Xbox Live for the morning because we imagine updating and reactivating a service with 10 million plus Gold and Silver members might take longer than anyone thought.For more information on the Xbox Live service tune into X3F or keep an eye on the Xbox.com support page.[Update: The service is now online.][Update: Microsoft's support page has been updated thanking gamers for their patience reminding this update is important as the company plans to roll out exciting new features - also known as the New Xbox Experience - in the future. Remember, this is not the new system update but an important stepping stone. Another update coming at 2AM PT as the Xbox support team works "around the clock."]
Remember, Xbox Live is down on September 29
You fire up your Xbox 360. Set yourself comfortable in a chair. Scroll down the dashboard menu and select your copy of (insert your online shooter of choice here) and... wait... what the?! XBOX LIVE ISN'T WORKING!Oh, yeah! Remember kids, Xbox Live is down all day today until early tomorrow. The 24-hour downtime on Xbox Live will help prepare for the New Xbox Experience. The NXE will completely change the Xbox 360 dashboard you know and love into something Microsoft believes will be much cleaner and appealing to a wider audience.So the new dashboard is totally coming out tomorrow, right? Sorry. This downtime is just prep. No new features are expected when the Xbox Live service returns. What will you be playing for the next day?
The Tuesday Morning Post: Bejeweled at the Brewfest edition
Good Tuesday morning, Everyone! It's a long bit of downtime today, 3 AM to 11 AM PDT. That means that you'll have plenty of non-WoW time ahead of you. As usual, I'm going to suggest that you devote some of that to catch up on this week's news from around WoW. Here's a few suggestions: Hot News and Cool Features Brewfest is ongoing. Be sure to read the latest news about Coren Direbrew's loot (and see the overview of his trinkets here as well), as well as our guides to getting the most of out of Brewfest and getting a head start on the new Brewmaster achievement title, as well our tips for tangling with Coren. One of the world's most addicting games now gives you the opportunity to get even more addicted with an official WoW add-on version of Bejeweled now entering Beta! Now, where's my Bookworm? Could terrorists be haxing our megabits in WoW right now? Our Skill Mastery series continues. New this week are skills such as Savage Roar and Shockwave. If you want to explore Northrend but have no beta key, why not try the new interactive Northrend map? Concerned about the Authenticators? We asked Blizzard some questions about them ourselves, and we got answers. As always, keep an eye on our Ask A Beta Tester feature for answers to all your Beta questions.
EVE Online implements temporary population control measures
We mentioned that CCP Games is working on thinning out Local in EVE Online's highsec trade hubs like Jita, but they're also looking into other ways of keeping lag at manageable levels, even if it requires taking temporary (and unpopular) measures. CCP Wrangler announced today that the latest downtime brought with it a new feature to Tranquility: EVE's stargates will check how many players there are in a given solar system and deny access if the system has hit its population limit. The temporary measures are presently being discussed on the EVE Online forums, with a few clarifications and amendments made by the devs. There is some debate as to whether the pop limit affects Jita alone or if it affects all systems in New Eden, but regardless, the devs have stated multiple times that they're working to resolve the population issue. However, if the system population issue expands to other high traffic solar systems in EVE, this could stand to be a serious problem for the larger 0.0 alliances who rely upon their numbers to hold territory. The latest word from the devs states that only Jita is affected by population limits, and that a node crash is responsible for most of the 'traffic advisory' warnings players are receiving about multiple systems being inaccessible. These are some of the issues that can arise in an unsharded MMO, but hopefully the changes to stargates will remain as CCP states: temporary.Update: A hotfix deployed during Monday's downtime removed the system cap from all solar systems except Jita, which now has a player capacity of 1024. CCP Explorer stated that the capacity will be raised over time as they make server adjustments. Ultimately they hope to remove the population limit altogether.
Even NPC agents are running from Jita's lag in EVE
Despite being the most notoriously lag-choked solar system in EVE Online, the teeming trade hub of Jita remains a central destination for all things bought and sold in New Eden. Jita is very much a victim of its own success though, as we said before: "Not a day goes by without an EVE pilot, somewhere, cursing Jita and calling for the system to be nuked." The Need for Speed initiative launched by CCP in 2007 aims at improving both server and client performance, and their latest announcement -- the removal of agents from Jita -- is the latest effort they're using to combat lag. This writer feels you're just begging to have your mission probed out, or you might have a masochistic streak by dealing with Level 4 aggro coupled with Jita lag, but that's not for us to decide.Apparently a number of mission runners use agents in Jita, but according to CCP Wrangler, these players will soon be receiving EVE mails "informing them that the agents are relocating and the date of the downtime when the move will take place. From that point the agents will cease to offer new missions but they will accept ongoing missions, and of course they will resume their normal activities after the move." We'll see how well removing mission runners from the fabric of Jita's lag will improve the situation, but this might be a step in the right direction. The relocation of agents is likely one of a number of steps CCP Games will need to take to deliver smooth gameplay to a playerbase that keeps growing every year, making lag issues more pressing. On the topic of being relocated, have any of you ever gotten stuck in Jita and needed to be moved by a GM?
The Tuesday Morning Post: Patches, release dates, and racials
Welcome to another bright and sunny Tuesday Morning. Downtime is a little complicated this morning. Most Realms will be getting some short rolling restarts at 5 AM, but a handful will get a 2 hour downtime instead, while another handful will get a full 3 AM - 11 AM PDT extended downtime. Hardware upgrades for Wrath, perhaps? You can get the list of downed realms here. It was actually a rather big weekend in news this time around. Not only did Patch 3.0.2 hit the test servers, but we finally got our hands on a solid release date for Wrath of the Lich King and a look at the Collector's Edition. As if to top it off, yesterday bought us some pretty awesome Priest news in the form of the abolishment of racial spells. This means there was plenty to talk about this week. Why not get caught up on it now? You can look below for a selection of some of the hottest topics of the past week, or start browsing through the tag, category, and author links to the right if that's more your speed.
Tuesday Morning Post: The cake edition
Good Tuesday Morning, everyone. It's a normal maintenance day today, from 5 AM - 11 AM PDT, so we'll all have plenty of time to browse WoW Insider this week. This week was pretty big on Warcraft cakes for some reason, and also featured yet another Beta build. Look below for more of the latest and greatest WoW news of the past week: Hot News and Features
