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Destiny servers down, blame the cattle [Update]
Bungie's Destiny is currently experiencing issues with matchmaking and login on all platforms, according to a (since-deleted) tweet from the Bungie Help Twitter account. You can see a screenshot version of said tweet after the break. This marks the first time since we wrote our week one State of Service review for Destiny that servers have encountered a serious problem. We have reached out to Bungie and Activision, and will update if we hear anything back. Update: The only thing Bungie's Guardians should have to fear at the moment are the various agents of The Darkness out to blast them to bits; the servers are back up.
New Year's Eve server connectivity issues
If you were planning to ring in the New Year by leveling up or running some LFR, you may want to think again -- realm connectivity issues have abounded over the past hour, bringing numerous realms offline. Customer Support is looking into the problem and on the official forums the Blizzard reports that "some realms have recovered." For realms that haven't recovered -- or realms that are hopping online and off -- we don't have an official ETA, but keep your eyes on this post for further updates. For the official word from Blizzard, follow @BlizzardCS on Twitter or watch the forum thread on tonight's connectivity issues.
SOE games down until Friday at the earliest, class action suit launched, Anonymous denies involvement [Updated]
The latest news in the Sony Online Entertainment debacle finds the besieged MMORPG maker turning to outside sources for help. According to MSNBC, SOE has hired security experts from Data Forte, Guidance Software, and Robert Half International to assist in plugging the holes in its IT infrastructure. Legal issues are waiting in the wings as well, and Tuesday brought the first hint of a proposed class-action suit. McPhadden Samac Tuovi LLP is preparing a $1.05 billion suit on behalf of a 21-year old PlayStation customer from Mississauga, Ontario. In other related news, SOE's Taina Rodriguez told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the company's game services will remain offline through Friday and possibly longer. [Update: In its most recent update, SOE commented further on the delay between the attacks and SOE's becoming aware of them, noting that "Essentially the perpetrators used sophisticated means not only to access the data, but also to cover their tracks. We committed to continue the investigation and in doing so, uncovered further information that we did not have when we initially believed the data was not stolen." Meanwhile, our sister publication Joystiq is among news agencies reporting that SOE has suggested to Congress that Anonymous is responsible for the attacks. Anonymous has denied involvement.]
SOE takes services offline due to serious issue
This Monday morning, Sony Online Entertainment customers are waking up to discover that all of their games' services are down. Apparently, the company has discovered a serious issue while following up with the previous weeks' hacker intrusion and is taking steps to rectify it. The Station.com posted the following notice: Dear valued SOE Customers, We have had to take the SOE service down temporarily. In the course of our investigation into the intrusion into our systems we have discovered an issue that warrants enough concern for us to take the service down effective immediately. We will provide an update later today (Monday). We'll update this story as it develops.
Cataclysm launches in Europe, servers currently down [Updated]
In what may be the least surprising event of the year, Europe's World of Warcraft servers have gone down almost immediately after the expansion's launch in that region. Even Europe's Battle.net web resources appear to be down for maintenance (or are merely offline due to overwhelming load). How long will this downtime last? We're not sure, but we will do our very best to keep you updated on European server status. European players, if you have any tips or updates on your server's status, don't be afraid to contact us via our tip line. We love to hear from you! Update: It appears the culprit is the login/authentication server. Once you beat the login boss, the game realms themselves seem to be running just fine.
Chronicles of Spellborn servers have one last hurrah
The Chronicles of Spellborn fans have had a confusing week. On August 10th, an announcement was posted on Acclaim's TCoS forums, letting players know that the game would come to an end on August 25th. The announcement warned players to spend all unused Acclaim coins by that time and offered a customer support email address for players with questions. However, the servers were taken offline almost immediately with no word from Acclaim, and after a week of silence from the developers, fans concluded that the game was gone for good. Not so, it seems. A post entitled "The game is up!" appeared on the forums, sending a handful of players rushing to reinstall and enjoy a little more playtime. Unfortunately, there is still no announcement or explanation from the TCoS team, so there is no official word on what happened or how long it will last. For the time being, fans of The Chronicles of Spellborn can enjoy one last chance to play. [Thanks to CowMooFlage for the tip!]
Server maintenance for September 29th
While we were given ample notice regarding last week's server maintenance, this week we weren't so lucky. We were only informed earlier today of tomorrow's maintenance, which will start at 5:00 am PDT and last until 11:00 am PDT. If you're not sure what time that is in your particular time zone, that's what the World Clock is for, you ninnies.As usual, WoW.com will be here all morning and afternoon to keep you busy while you slack off at work during your WoW-less lunch break. Or, if Valve is a benevolent sort and lets us get our grubby, pallid hands on it early, you could just play Left 4 Dead's new map while the servers are down. That's what I'll be doing the whole time.
Emberstorm and Whirlwind battlegroups down
We're receiving reports that servers on the Whirlwind and Emberstorm battlegroups, located in the Seattle datacenter, are currently experiencing downtime. These were the same battlegroups that were scheduled to recieve their local power supply upgrade today, so there may have been some unanticipated issue in the process.Don't panic! It's likely only temporary and they should be back up soon.We'll update you guys with more info when we get it. The full list of affected realms is under the cut -- feel free to hit us up on Twitter @wowinsider if yours comes back up and we haven't reported on it yet.UPDATE 4:18 AM EDT:Blizzard has posted a thread regarding the issues on the Battlegroup forums.
Tuesday Morning Post: Cataclysmic Edition
It's time once again for weekly maintenance, and not only do we have the standard 5 AM - 11 AM Pacific downtime for most US servers, there's also a handful that are down from midnight to noon today. With all that extra time on your hands, you'll have time once again to read up on WoW news.The big news, of course, is the Cataclysm. Blizzard went on a trademark registering spree around this word, which has everyone abuzz with speculation. Are we seeing the name of the new, maelstrom-related expansion? Or is this another secret project, perhaps even that new top secret MMO? Only time will tell, but it's fun to guess anyway. Once you're done being all atwitter over that little bit of gossip, here's some more stuff to read until your server comes up:
Free play-time given for server trouble
If you're one of the people who tried to play this past Tuesday, you experienced the same thing as the rest of us. The servers, they were just plain dead. Even since then, the instances and world servers have been a little less than friendly. This was all to put in Patch 3.1, but there were definitely some hiccups along the way. The game just hasn't been running smoothly, and some folks haven't been able to play at all.Bornakk dropped by the forums to tell us that they plan on doing something about it. All World of Warcraft accounts in good standing will get one day's free play time. Your account has to be based in the North American, Latin American, or Oceanic servers, but it will definitely show up in your Account Management login within the next few days. Totally classy move on Blizzard's part, in my opinion.EDIT: EU and Russian servers, too!
The Guild posts episode 8 of season 2
Yes, the new episode of The Guild is now live for your watching enjoyment, and the gang deals with the servers going down the only way they know how: by driving each other crazy. Strangely, rather than running for the hills while they don't have to be in the game together, they decide to party up in real life as well, and that should be a sight to see next week. Plus, Codex gets her own game shut down by an unexpected player.Good times as always. The latest episode should also be up in HD soon on Xbox Live and in the Zune marketplace as well. Just the thing to keep you entertained during today's extended maintenance.
YouPlayorWePay claims to offer downtime insurance
I think this is a wild idea (even if it is something I wouldn't actually put my money in). We got tipped about a new site called "You Play or We Pay" and from the looks of it, these guys are offering none other than downtime insurance. That is: you pay a fee to them regularly, and then they "compensate" you for any downtime that your server has. They call it "third-party compensation," but that sounds like insurance to me.At any rate, we wouldn't quite recommend jumping in headfirst yet -- they haven't, as far as we can see, revealed any prices, and while you can register your characters, you can't actually get any sort of payout quite yet, as they say they're still working on the system. For all we know the site could be an elaborate scam at this point. But it is an intriguing idea, and if they're really ready to put their money where their FAQ is, these guys may have an actual business plan that depends on Blizzard keeping the servers up. Just like all insurance companies, they must have figured out that the servers stay up more often than not, and that there was money to be made there.It's quite an interesting plan, and we'll keep an eye on it to see if they ever announce a fee or explain themselves better. The math doesn't quite seem right here, but if somehow their fees are low enough and the payouts are high enough, it's possible that you really could be compensated for downtime by a completely separate company other than Blizzard. Very interesting.Update: The company has contacted WoW Insider, and we've requested an interview. Stay tuned.
The best of WoW Insider: January 6-13, 2009
Things are hopping in the World of Warcraft -- there are queues on the servers, everyone's hit 80 (or is closer than ever), and there are daily quests and Heroic instances aplenty to run. And if you need insight on the game (or maybe a reason to go back), WoW Insider's got you covered -- from up to the minute patch note news, daily updates on WoW and its community, or insights into where to go and what to do, make sure to stop by the blog every single day. News Updated patch notes for patch 3.0.8Changes for the next patch (which we're supposed to see soon ... hopefully?). Authentication server and official forums downA few months after Wrath's release, Blizzard is having trouble keeping the servers up. No PvE servers are under populated... And the problem seems to be mostly on PvE servers. World of Warcraft listed as one of the thirty most offensive gamesDrinking, sex, violence, and language -- it's just another day in Azeroth. Emblems of Heroism to be exchangeable for Emblems of Valor on the PTR10-man and Heroic badges will be able to be exchanged for 25-man badges in the next patch. Features Breakfast Topic: What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done in WoW?Our daily discussion digs deep into some of the most awkward moments of the game. The Queue: Spreading the plagueIt's simple: our readers ask questions, our bloggers answer them. Encrypted Text: Why Rogues love Hunters and other Honor Among Thieves ironiesAre you a Rogue? Have a Hunter in the group? Then you'll want to read this. Ready Check: Guide to Naxxramas (Construct Quarter, part 1)Don't take one step into Naxx without these raiding tips. WoW Casually: Returning to WoW as a casualOur weekly casual column looks at something lots of players are doing lately: coming back to the game.
Tuesday Morning: Maintenance time
Good Morning Azeroth! It's Tuesday, May 13, 2008, and that means maintenance. As we mentioned earlier, it's an extended maintenance, from 3 AM to 11 AM PST (That means you have about a half an hour of play time left), and it's looking rather likely that 2.4.2's going to drop. Exciting news, but that still means that you'll have at least 8 hours in which it is impossible to play World of Warcraft. Of course, this means the perfect thing to do is browse WoW Insider. Since 2.4.2's probably on it's way, why not browse all our 2.4.2 news? The original patch notes are posted here. We break down the Undocumented changes here -- including pictures of the new mounts added to the game files. You can find the latest test realm page notes here. MMO-Champion points out two new changes: Prince Kael'thas will now drop Primal Nethers in Heroic Magisters Terrace, and the Darkmoon Card: Madness' buffs will now last 60 seconds. Check out our reports on all the Hunter class changes, Including Growl and Scare Beast, the math problems and controversy surrounding the Growl change among the Hunter community, and getting your own flight-formed Druid pet. Good News for Weaponsmiths, with the epic one-handers becoming non-unique. But enough about 2.4.2, what about the big news? First, of course, is the fact that Blizzcon 08 was announced. Check out the details and look back on some old Blizzcon 07 memories in our announcement post. You may also recall all the Wrath of the Lich King news that dropped this week. Of course, you know we have it all for you on WoW Insider. Check it out after the break.
You shall not pass... LotRO's login servers
Lord of the RIngs Online went down for maintenance this morning and has yet to come back up over 12 hours later. Turbine took down the game and its forums for routine maintenance today promising to have everything back up in a few hours. That turned into a few more hours. And some more on top of that. They claim the forums are currently up but I accessing them is still hit and miss. When I do get through, I see a message saying the forums are being rolled back to 4:30am this morning and anything posted since then will be lost.The game servers are NOT being rolled back. Just the forums.There is no ETA as of this writing (10:21pm EST), but Turbine has promised that they have "all hands on deck" to get the game servers back up. For any updates, keep an eye on this LotRO page.
Drat! Extended maintenance!
Sure enough, I go to log in to poke around with macros and numbers for tomorrow's Encrypted Text column, and what am I greeted with on the login screen? The dreaded message indicating that the downtime has been extended further. Per the login screen:Extended MaintenanceWe will be extending our regularly schedule Tuesday maintenance for an estimated two hours in order to resolve an issue with our authentication system. We anticipate the realms will be available at approximately 1:00 p.m. PDT, and will provide an update to the situation in approximately 1 hour. Thank you,Blizzard EntertainmentYep. I'm an addict. I love Roguing it up, and I'll admit I was really looking forward to getting back on and playing around with macros and different settings -- as well as checking out a different damage meter mod I just snagged. Is there anything you're looking forward to when you can get back in? Gotten a particularly tasty piece of loot lately that you didn't get to really take for a spin before the server shut down? One of your auctions going to make you a lot of money when you log back in? Or is the ability to log in just the symbol of the end of a day of work, and the start of relaxation time for you? (Hey, that's more than enough of a reason right there!)
