WoW Not-So-Live Maintenance 58
scdeimos writes "WoW servers are currently displaying the following Welcome message:
So much for Blizzard implementing Live Maintenance in WoW to bring an end to Patch Tuesdays! The WoW Realm Status forums page has nothing further to add at this time."Breaking News
All realms will be offline for scheduled maintenance.
* Date: January 2nd 2007
* Time: 5:00am — 11:00am PST
For more information, please check our realm status page.
Thank you,
Blizzard Entertainment.
Non story (Score:5, Insightful)
What they actually said is that they were working on reducing the number of maintenance days by doing some things while the realms were live, and that they were trying it for the first time December 26.
Somehow that got morphed by people into "there will never be another maintenance day," which is flat out wrong.
Some Of Us.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:News Flash: Blizzard makes unrealistic promises (Score:4, Insightful)
Blizzard actually said they were working on having fewer maintenance days, and that they woudln't have one December 26.
That was entirely correct.
Somehow, people took that and read it as "there will be no maintence days, ever."
They never actually promised there would be no maintenance on January 2, or any time after December 26. Made up promises don't count.
Re:My 0.002 dollars (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems like you have a strong World of Warcraft bias, but I wouldn't completely disregard Guild Wars. Don't get me wrong, I love both Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, but they are definitely geared towards different play experiences.
Contrary to your post, Guild Wars is quite expertly designed. It's system allows for players to get into engaging gameplay without being a huge time sink, even down to its implementation of patching. What you list as its flaws are actually it's greatest features; it's instancing prevents things such as griefing, camping spawn points, and allows for fast travel. It focuses on careful choice of skills and weapons vs. level and equipment. In doing so, it sheds some of WoW's most grievous points, but also loses some of what makes WoW special. It largely depends on what kind of experience you want.
WoW allows for a large and vibrant world; you can run around in raids of 40 members, even if it's just to destroy a town of the opposing faction. You can participate in long, epic PvP struggles. In order to do this, though, you will have to join up with a serious guild, and commit a large portion of your time. In Guild Wars, you can jump in, and do most missions in around an hour, and if you don't want to bother forming a party, you can hire AI mercenaries. If you are interested in PvP, you can instantly create a max level character for that purpose. Guild Wars attempts to offered a more stream-lined experience, whereas World of Warcraft attempts an everything and the kitchen sink approach.
I think it is ignorant to say Guild Wars is the "inferior" game; it is just a different experience that World of Warcraft.
Re:My 0.002 dollars (Score:1, Insightful)
You talk about towns in GW as being only for chatting, trading, and non-combat activities. Were there other functions that WoW towns serve that I'm not aware of? What can you do in a WoW town that you can't do in a GW town?
GW isn't a "better" game because you're comparing seat belts to kevlar vests. WoW is about character progression and PvE-oriented social grouping. GW is about player skill and competitive PvP. They didn't "gut" the game or do anything else undesirable to it -- it is a different game with a different design, as you say yourself it isn't an MMORPG. So anything that doesn't want to be an MMORPG is an inferior game? Because personally, I think instant travel beats 15-minute flight times. I don't think it's "gutting" a feature, I think it's superior design unencumbered by profit motive.
The problem with WoW is that there is so much downtime even when you are logged in. It's so bad that it's unnecessary, as people would likely still stay subscribed even if they didn't have to wait 10 minutes for a zeppelin to show up. I played WoW since launch for 1.5 years and it what killed the game for me was the insane amount of sitting around and waiting for stuff to happen or waiting to get somewhere. Then I realized that WoW isn't a game, it's just a very fun and compelling job.