Tuesday, August 28, 2012

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?

12 comments:

  1. Anon, Grumpy's GL:

    Well, I am all patched and ready for whenever the servers do come back up. Even have CT_Mod updated for 5.0.4, though the rest of my addons are still waiting for updates. I was very happy with how quickly the patch downloaded and installed and the new log-in screen looks fine to me. I was so tired of Deathwing the Jaw that overlapped Stormwind.

    I went to bed very early last night after briefly logging in on my main, and nearly falling asleep at the keyboard. Then I woke up about 10:30 last night and played on my hidden alt for a near 5 level gain (4.75 approximately), right up to one minute from server shutdown. Call it a trip through nostalgia the one last time. Tonight, or hopefully even better, this afternoon I will begin a new phase of my WoW playing days. Heh, I was even smart enough to not spend any gold on the new spells that my character learned.

    One thing about the new system for talents that strikes me most is that it is really an old system, much like D&D where gaining a level gains X ability for the character--no fuss, no muss. Just keep on rolling. The six selections over 90 levels are obviously a temporary thing, to be revised upon the expansion following MoP. All in all, I am looking forward to this expansion as much as any I have played yet.

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    1. I kind of like the idea you just get abilities now as well. Smart move not buying them.

      While I do not like the cookie cutter build that we have no choice over, I do like that it makes it more a real progressions on leveling and not worrying about spec. It will help new players hugely and will make it easier to balance, hopefully at least.

      Seems like you are ready. Me, eh, I'll play when it comes. Did not set up for anything but then again I have no characters I am currently leveling to worry about. I lost all desire to level characters once I got to the point it takes less than 2 days.

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    2. Thank you Anon for this comment. I just started dl'ing it now to be ready for later too.

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  2. Ok so this is going to sound weird but for some reason I thought I'd read somewhere that you were eu based. I have no idea why I thought that thinking about it now, but if you're patching today you're obviously US.

    I think the eu gets patches like this a little easier because we have to wait a day. In waiting a day that means all you guys break it and then they put the fix in before they give it to us. I used to be a bit grrr about that, as I hate waiting, but what's a day really? People moan about everything, whereas as you said, if you think logically about it it's actually better this way.

    I'm a little interested in why Anon above thinks the new talent system is temporary. Personally I think it's miles better than the old one. The talents in the old one were mostly very boring and nearly all mandatory unless you wanted to gimp yourself. The new ones look a lot more situational where you can use your best judgement as a player, rather than just following what some guide says. I don't mind if they shuffle them about or modify them, but I sincerely hope we never get the old system back. I mean with the new system you could ask a prospective raider why they picked what they did. From their answer you'd know whether they'd thought about it, how well they know their class etc. whereas with the current one unless they aren't using the standard talent set there's no point in even looking at it.

    Anyway, off topic sorry. Basically word up Grumpy. I agree with this completely.

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    1. EU is lucky in that way. Whatever breaks for the US is fixed before you ever even see it so your patches are much smoother.

      Because the talent system is temporary. They backed themselves in a corner once again with it. When the next expansion comes they have 2 choices, give us no new talents or redesign it again. I am putting my money on redesigning it. Otherwise, that every 15 levels would mean we only get one new talent we can choose and I would put money on it, real money, that they will not go three expansion without giving us another talent point to spend.

      I was, and am still in a small way, against the new system but all in all I believe it is a better one. For what its purpose is.

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    2. Anon, Grumpy's GL:

      There is a third choice, but I really doubt that the expansion beyond MoP will cover levels 91-105 in one go. I think that is extremely unlikely, but I also think it extremely unlikely that the next expansion will go without tinkering with the talent setup, hence my observation that it is obviously a temporary solution for this expansion only.

      In short, after having been playing Blizzard games since Orcs vs Humans, the only consistent thing I have found aside from the games being ready to play out of the box, is that Blizzard will constantly tinker with the games.

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  3. Good point Grumpy on patch day down time.

    My main's guild has a pool going on our facebook page when it will come back up as few believe it will be "on time".

    But your points are strong. Better now than release day.

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    1. I would gladly trade some down time today so I can play cleanly on the 25th.

      Heck, if it were not for the patch I would not even be logging in today. No raid means no logging in for me. I have not played in a while unless it was to raid or someone needed me for something.

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  4. Another pre-Patch, yet again sweeping changes that cause less actual content and basically beta-testing till Expansion launch.

    I know, being grumpy here, but besides reading the Patch notes and seeing they upped the base damage reduction to 40%, there's some confusion about 'activating' the accountwide Pets & Mounts (a couple of them are 'on' an inactive account) and as a '7% er' there's always the anxiety of unmentioned changes. Though I hope the rumors about the BG queueing system being 'scrambled' so the AV Enabler abuse will stop are true.

    (On a personal note,I subbed for Vanguard, sure the UI is a bit archaic, and just as with Pandland I will have to relearn classes etc. but a game world I found out I just like to /walk and /harvest in is worth some money (and the promotion rates were just too good to pass up, de-facto less than 3 euro's a month))

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    1. It actually turned out a hell of a lot smoother than any of could have guessed. It was up before it was expected.

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