Two FREE days of WoW

No Out-of-Context theater warning needed on that one.

I argue this and that about WoW all day long while I am at work and reading the forums. But once I leave work, I log in and forget all the nonsense.

My spell checker fails me once again. At least this time it''s pretty funny

Another interesting thread....there''s one thing I believe we can all agree about WoW: that we''re passionate about it.

"TheGameguru" wrote:

One could argue that the casual gamer may approach a MMORPG very differently than we think...

I think you''re onto something here Guru. I believe that casual gamers don''t play MMORPGs. The definition of the two terms seem to be mutually exclusive.

Oh, question, is everyone getting 2 free days, or just the people who''s servers were down for 16+hours last Thursday? The way I read it, it sounded like only the people who''s server was down.

Note that ""backend capacity issues"" could be hard architecture issues, like bandwidth. When your servers get faster, you can push more packets, and max out network and storage connects that were previously not a problem. In that case, your databases run just fine, but the servers essentially hit a wall and have to wait on sending packets and getting replies from them. So they may well not be dodging the issue, they may be referring to problems in the grid architecture (which I assume they are using).

"Certis" wrote:
Not to mention players get so fanatical about them that we have to bash other similar products at any chance we get.

Tastes bitter in here all of a sudden ;)

I like your first post better.

Honestly though I was of course joking but there is a thread of truth in it too.

There is something about this genre of games that just drives people to madness.

I said this before that I think WoW is a good game but they are making a lot of similiar mistakes Verant did in the early days. part of which was caused by the huge success that EQ had that they were just not prepared to deal with.

At what point do you think, if ever, does Blizzards image get tarnished?

For me this would have to go on for sometime since I sort of suspected this would happen.

I think much of my comments are being taken for something they are not. I love WoW. I want more information on the problems. None of my What-ifs were meant to be hard examples of the ""one thing"" that is bothering me most. I''m also not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but I would - in all honesty - rather they keep that dollar(from everyone) and hire an intern to be the official ""Oh hell, go ask TechDude23 what''s wrong and get a best estimate of when it''ll be functional again"" go-fer.
And tell us that''s what they are doing.
WoW is, possibly, the best solo RPG I''ve ever played with 1000 of my closest friends. The story is great, art direction is great, game mechanics are good, everything is great except for stability/performance and (prior to last night) all communications about that problem. I can deal with nerfs, broken quests(a few), underpowered/overpowered classes, not being uber, pretty much everything that normally comes with any ""done"" MMOG. What I hate is ""We''re looking into it, here''s a dollar, now let us get back to work"" style communication.

It seems, though, with the most recent communique from Blizzard with actual details about what''s wrong, that maybe someone has realized that all MMOG players will put up with a whole lot more crap(read bugs, downtime, performance issues, nerfs, etc) if you just tell us what the heck is going on, how big a pain it is to fix, and when you think it might be copacetic.

Which is all my original reply was saying, really. Keep my dollar. Tell me what''s up. Maybe they''ve turned a corner, internally, with divulging more complete and more palatable information. I hope so.

Because WoW is a lot of fun when it''s running ""right"".

I agree with duck for the most part. People get way too excited, and act like these days are *free*. They aren''t free, we payed for them, so Blizzard simply gave us what we payed for at a different time.

The $10 Billion video game industry generates more revenue than Hollywood. This isn''t Doom shareware anymore, people should start expecting more. I see tons of posts on every forum praising game developers when they do what should be considered the bare minimum (things such as the game not crashing, or having quests actually work). I wonder what these people act like in real life. Do they jump over the counter at McDonalds to kiss the cashier when they order a hamburger and actually recieve one? I find it disturbing how little people expect, and even more disturbing that people are willing to defend these companies with such zeal you would think they were the owner.

Sure, WoW actually is a lot better then every other MMORPG I have played, and I have a blast when I am able to play it, but that doesn''t mean we should just ignore queues/lag/poor tech support, or various other problems.

The $10 Billion video game industry generates more revenue than Hollywood. This isn''t Doom shareware anymore, people should start expecting more. I see tons of posts on every forum praising game developers when they do what should be considered the bare minimum (things such as the game not crashing, or having quests actually work). I wonder what these people act like in real life. Do they jump over the counter at McDonalds to kiss the cashier when they order a hamburger and actually recieve one? I find it disturbing how little people expect, and even more disturbing that people are willing to defend these companies with such zeal you would think they were the owner.

Your overstating whats going on...at least here. No one is saying Blizzard is perfect or we should ignore all problems.. The counterpoints put up are that Blizzard up to now have done the right thing in crediting people accounts for downtime... that they are doing an adequete job of informing the customer of what is taking place and why there is lag/downtime etc..

Bottom line... if your unhappy with Blizzard''s service you should cancel your account. Thats about the only way Blizzard will take notice.

Posting in the official forums which have become a sea of white noise is a waste of time.. threatining Class Action lawsuits (while amusing to me) is also a waste of time...

If your just posting to let of steam thats ok go right ahead.. or do what I do... ignore the issues...attempt to enjoy when you can play.. play with your friends... and have faith that Blizzard will eventually iron all the problems out and will continue to add and improve to the best MMORPG so far.

Actually, I was talking about the people on the official forums more then Blizzard in my post.

When I read the official forums (which is mistake in and of itself) I read all these threads of people saying how they would gladly pay more money, or how we should be happy that the game works at all. These people just blow my mind, and it wouldn''t surprise me if they secretly wanted to have Blizzards babies.

Blizzard''s rep doesnt get tarnished.

If WoW wasnt a fun game then the glint would wear. The fact is that WoW is tremendously fun. People put up with a bigger mess in a far inferior game with SW:G.

Its playable enough to make you forget your troubles other than when you cant play it. Most of the venom comes when players are at work or there is scheduled/unscheduled downtime or they get kicked or there is a queue.

It only takes 15 minutes of uninterrupted game time and the poison is passed through your system.