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Downtime Compensation for Select US Realms
Blizzard will be providing a 24-hour credit to the realms that were having so much difficulty over this past weekend, which I suppose is better than nothing. However, I must say that their list of affected realms doesn't match mine, or include mine, which was offline or unplayable for a good portion of the weekend. In fact, the list includes the realm Tanaris, which is the realm I rolled a new alt to play on while my usual realm was offline.The realms 24-hour credits are being applied to include the following 31 realms: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Andorhal, Anetheron, Anvilmar, Black Dragonflight, Blackwing Lair, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Executus, Gnomeregan, Haomarush, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Lethon, Onyxia, Scilla, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co, Thrall, Turalyon, Uldaman, Ysera, and Ysondre.However, the 20 realms that were experiencing downtime throughout the weekend were these: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed. It looks like they've missed 6 of the original problem realms and added numerous realms that weren't listed as having problems over the weekend. Is anyone else confused?Update: The list of realms has been modified to one that appears to be accurate. The official post on the subject can be found here.
Extra Extended Maintenance for US Realms
It looks like today's maintenance is being drawn out because of "concerns that have arisen with Cross-Realm Battlegrounds" (at least according to the current login message). So instead of coming back up at 11:00 AM PDT, we're looking at a 1:00 PM PDT uptime for all US realms. However, as of the time of this writing, several US realms have already come back online, so if you're wanting to play, it doesn't hurt to check. Online by the usual 11:00 AM are: The Forgotten Coast, Anub'arak, Cenarius, Lightbringer, Uther, Cenarion Circle, and Hyjal. The rest of us are just going to have to wait!Update: While numerous realms have come back online, officially, maintenance has been extended until 4:00 PM PDT.
Extended US Maintenance
After much waiting, the time has finally arrived. Patch 1.12 will be deployed on US realms during Tuesday's maintenance (and presumably on EU realms during Wednesday's maintenance). The maintenance has been extended by two hours to give time to apply the patch, so it should start at 3:00 AM PDT and end at the usual 11:00 AM PDT. However, in addition to the extended maintenance required for patch 1.12, a number of realms will be coming down tonight at 11:00 PM PDT for hardware upgrades - to come back online with the rest of the servers when maintenance ends on Tuesday. Servers coming down early for upgrades include the following: Aggramar, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Shadow Moon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Warsong, and Zul'jin.Update: Further proof that this is, in fact, a roll out of patch 1.12 is the fact that the public test realms have been closed.
Additional Downtime for Select US Realms
For some players, this weekend's adventures has had a distinctive theme - downtime. The same twenty realms that have been having problems since Friday are offline again tonight. Some maintenance was done on Saturday morning and afternoon to fix errors with the in-game mail system - but as to what's caused this most recent maintenance, there's no word. On the player side, symptoms were similar to Friday night's trouble, with an inability to rez, zone in, or use skills, peppered with occasional instances of falling through the world. While there's no official announcement, affected realms seem to include the original twenty problematic realms: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.Update: While the servers seem to be online Sunday morning, players are plagued by difficulty/inability to log on, as well as severe in-game lag (several minutes at times), inability to zone in/out of instances, empty mailboxes, random disconnects, etc. (Did I miss anything?) There are no updates on the fourms, and the message on the login screen is still from yesterday afternoon.Update 2: Blizzard informs us that these are latancy issues that they are working to resolve.
Up Again, Down Again
The same 20 realms that were pulled offline last night for maintenance have gone offline again this afternoon (at 1:20 PM PDT to be precise) due to issues with the in-game mail system. Blizzard's technicians are currently working to correct the problem, but there's no ETA on restored service at this point. So If you usually play on the following realms, well, now's just not a good time: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
20 US Realms Down Friday Night
Just after 9:00 PM PDT, twenty different US realms received a 5-minute reboot warning. It was for the best, really, as everyone in my guild seemed to be able to chat, but very little else. Even the "quit" option didn't seem to do anything - the realm was an unplayable mess. However, after going down, neither my realm nor any of the realms that went offline with it, have come back. A message on the login screen vaguely states that Blizzard's technicians are working with a vendor in order to resolve the matter, but there is currently no ETA on the realms coming back online. So if you play on any of the following realms, my apologies - but playtime tonight has been interrupted: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
Update on Offline Realms
Apparently the realms currently offline - Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Hyjal, Lightbringer, and Uther - are suffering from hardware problems and will require replacement parts. They're expecting the parts to arrive at 5:00 PM PDT, but are working on a temporary fix to bring these realms back up by 3:00 PM PDT (though this time-frame is just an estimate, and sometimes Blizzard is good about meeting these estimates and sometimes not). However, a temporary fix just suggests that there will need to be additional downtime later...Update: Blizzard is giving a free day to the afflicted servers.
Emergency Maintenance on Select US Realms
Sixteen US realms have been taken offline for emergency database maintenance. One of Blizzard's database administrators is on-site to ensure that downtime is kept to a minimum. All are expected to be back online by 11:00 PM PDT, but expect status updates throughout the evening. But if you play on the following realms, you're out of luck for the evening: Agamaggan, Azshara, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and WildHammer.
Downtime Compensation for Select Realms
If you've been on the forums at all lately, you understand that a number of realms - including two brand new realms - have been offline recently due to hardware failure. While the servers are now online and functioning, uptime has been spotty since Wednesday afternoon. As compensation for the downtime, however, Blizzard is crediting all players with accounts on these servers with an extra day's play-time. So if you have characters on any of the following realms, expect a credit on your account: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co.
Additional Downtime for Sixteen US Realms
The sixteen realms (including the two new realms - Sentinels and Venture Co.) that were having hardware problems yesterday have been brought offline again as of 11:44 AM PDT. While a work-around was used to bring the realms back online last night, the problem that caused the failure still remains, and needs to be addressed. The following realms are offline for now, with no current ETA on being brought back up: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co.
Additional Downtime for Several US Realms
While I wrote earlier that these realms, which had some unexpected downtime, were brought back online at 11:51 AM PDT, apparently additional technical problems brought them down again at around 2:21 PM PDT. The two new realms - Sentinels and Venture Co. - have gone offline as well, leaving a total of sixteen realms offline, including the following: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Uldaman, and Venture Co. The trouble has been isolated to a hardware failure, and downtime is expected to last until 11:59 PM PDT while the hardware is replaced and brought back online.
Urgent Maintenance: Several US Realms
Fourteen US realms were taken offline at 11:07 AM PDT in order to "troubleshoot technical issues." While Blizzard hopes to have the realms back online as soon as possible, there's no current ETA. Impacted realms include Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Tanaris, and Uldaman. Comments on the realm forums seem to mention recent lag and stability issues, but CM Tseric mentions no specific reason for the realms being pulled offline.Update: These realms should be back online as of 11:51 AM PDT.
Lag Monster Respawns Again
As you have all probably noticed, and as we've been reporting, there has been a mysterious increase in the amount of server downtime lately, with official "maintenances": being scheduled with little notice & players becoming incresingly more disgruntled as visions of outages from months past creep back into their brains like carrion worms...I guess it was only a matter of time before the ubiquitous "SERVER OUTAGES CAUSE MASS CHAOS" news posts started to creep up, and Gamespot is one of the first major sites to renew the scrutiny.Apparently, the official story from Blizzard is that server upgrades in June, undertaken to increase stability, have in fact done the exact opposite, and let loose some more ghosts in the machine. There is an official thread on the subject over at the Blizzard forums as well, with plenty of rabid responses to the boys in blue. Have you all noticed the recent increase in downtime? Has it affected your playtime? Does it seem as bad as it was before? Chime in...
Rolling Restarts on US Realms
Not all, but most US realms will be hit by rolling restarts Wednesday morning starting at 5:00 AM PDT. There's no listed reason for these restarts, but be prepared for a brief downtime if you're going to be playing in the early hours of the morning. Unaffected realms - which I believe are all running on new hardware - include Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Icecrown, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.
Did a DoS Attack Bring Down the Warcraft Servers?
If you attempted to play this weekend, chances are you had trouble logging in, were repeatedly disconnected, or were plagued with server lag. But while Blizzard claimed it was an ISP issue, some wonder if it wasn't a targeted DoS attack. Traffic logs from Netcraft show patterns similar to such an attack, though there's no official word on it, either way.
European mass server shutdown sparks tempers
Have some sympathy for us European players, as we are once again experiencing troubles beyond the 1.9.1 stuttering and the usual lag. Thanks to a data centre move, thirty EU realms are down until at least tomorrow morning (maintenance usually ends on Wednesday mornings), leaving players flocking to secondary realms and huge login queues all round. The forums are full of extremely angry users, tempers are running high, and the few people I did manage to speak to ingame were all creating new characters and furious that they couldn't access their normal servers.Even some of the realms marked 'Recommended' had queues of over 400 during the peak hours, and most of my characters were inaccessible--the client refused to get as far as the character list. This might not be so unusual except I use over ten different servers (mainly so I can keep in touch with friends)--adding another to the list seems a little overkill. Fortunately I get an additional 4 days of play for my trouble--if only that were multiplied by the number of characters I can't reach!The Ahn'Qiraj world events and post-Christmas boom seem to have combined to make this the worst WoW experience yet--but creating new game servers is definitely not an overnight job, and it's frustrating but not the end of the world that I can't log in tonight. What surprises me is the number of level 1 characters apparently flooding the servers that are still up--some people just have to get their fix.
