Don't Expect to Log in Tonight

Don't expect to log in tonight, at least not right away.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  You will hear cries and whines and moans on the forums.  People saying how horrible blizzard is for releasing broken products.  People declaring this is the last straw and they quit.

Don't expect to log in but not because blizzard is doing something bad, it is because they are doing something good.  The push of people logging in today will be considerably less than it will be when mists is released.  It is the end of the expansion, guild wars is coming out today, many people are on vacation, and so many other reasons why there will most likely be fewer people on today than normal.  So now is the time they released the most dangerous stuff, the stuff that could break on a large scale release.

They are playing with the skills now because that is a huge change.  It is a change in functions that effects every single character in game from level 1 to cap.  There are across the board item changes, like relics becoming gray items and ranged weapons becoming melee weapons, as in you can only equip one or the other and not both.  There are a lot of moving parts going into effect today and that means there are a lot more chances there will be a squeaky wheel here and there that needs to be oiled.

We all hate it, we all want to get on and play with the new toys as soon as we can, but we also all need to remember why this is such an important moment in patching.  The reason it is so important is because we are getting this today and not on release.

That is a huge thing most people seem to forget.  Changes like this, like I said, there will be some problems with.  They are sweeping changes and they effect the entire game as a whole.  Releasing them now means we do not have to get them released on the 25th of September.  It means the release of mists will most likely be a hell of a lot smoother for the little inconvenience we might feel now.

If there needs to be a few hours down time would you rather it now, at the end of an expansion when many of us don't even play as much any more or when the new expansion comes out and you have new levels to get, new reputations to grind, new areas to explore and new and interesting people to meet and kill?

I'm willing to accept some extra down time now in return for less down time when the expansion comes out.

For as much as I complained about cataclysm there is one part of cataclysm that shined brighter than any expansion before it.  The release.  Not so much as a hiccup even.  I was on the second it opened and never had even one issue.  The game never went down, it was never slow, it was never lagging, it was smooth.  The only thing I would complain about is 10,000 players all on the same quest but that is not a function of the game that made that happen, it is the players.

Cataclysms release was fantastic.  Amazing by the standards of a game this large.  The reason for that was because they dealt with all the game sweeping changes before it came out by releasing the new talent system early.

Just like they are doing now.

So if you are trying to log in when they said it will be up and can't get on, remember that means you will get into mists faster.  If you still can't get on 2 hours after, remember that is 2 hours of the mist launch you would have missed if not for this.  If you end up giving up and going to bed 6 hours after it is released, remember that is 6 extra hours you will be playing mists instead of waiting on it.

There is a lot I can fault blizzard with.  More bad decisions than are made in every bar around the world by drunk men and women sleeping with people they won't remember in the morning.  But they really have gotten down releasing content with the intention of making it work better than anyone else out there.

They use this time, the down time of the game were many are taking breaks anyway, and use that as their down time tester.  So they inconvenience less people and do so when there is really nothing new for people to rush for.  Anything added we will have a month to play with and being we have had months of nothing to do, waiting a few more hours won't kill us.

They are saving the easy stuff for the expansion, the adding new areas, that is easy to add, just give access to it.  The hard part is now, with all the moving parts, all the things that can go wrong.

So you have the option, be a cry baby on the forums and threaten to quit because of downtime or be happy that they are experiencing down time now and not on launch day.

I don't know about you but I would gladly trade a full day of game time lost now to assure I have no problems at launch.  I'd even be willing to trade a full week of downtime now to make the launch smoother.

Either way, please don't complain if it takes longer to come up than they expected.  It is benefiting us all in the end.

With that said, I still hope it is up by the time I get home from work.  That would be awesome, wouldn't it?

They have been getting better and better, if you can remember what it was like you will realize how much better things are now, so who knows, maybe there will be no problems getting in tonight at all.

Hey, an elf can dream right?