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No More World of Warcraft Weekly Maintenance Downtime

gameshogun.ws — If all goes well, WoW players can say goodbye "forever" to the weekly Tuesday WoW Maintenance downtime.

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  • flamingmb, on 10/12/2007, -5/+81yeah god forbid anybody interupt a 12 hour binge on WoW..........
    • MSTK, on 10/12/2007, -30/+1Twenty hours and the first comment hasn't been replied to yet? Where are all of the attention whores who reply to the first comment just to get their comment higher on the page?
    • Judge373, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Thanks for ruining it.
    • Livert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26There goes my weekly showers....
    • Livert, on 10/12/2007, -12/+1dig down
    • Satanael, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7GOTTA GET LEVEL 60 BEFORE BURNING CRUSADE!!
      G2G!!
  • Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20Seriously, I couldn't keep up with the obsessives in that game, they were exactly the type of people who would complain about not being able to play for 1/4 of one day a week. Too much repitition for me to get that absorbed, not to mention my wife and job.
    • unknownsoldierX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32You didn't read the game requirements. It specifically states that the game is not for those that have a life based in reality.
    • JeffH, on 10/12/2007, -26/+4Uh, when you pay $15 a month and Blizzard makes millions per month ($15 * 6 million subscribers = $90,000,000/month), there should be no reason for extended periods of downtime.
    • Crossmenjeff, on 10/12/2007, -10/+7if you are paying for a service, you should be entitled to access at least 99% of the time. reasonable outages aside, if i'm paying for access i would like access. if you can't deliver, someone else will. This isn't just in regards to WoW (since i don't play), but as far as webhosting in general
    • chucker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12JeffH, I hope you're not seriously suggesting that Blizzard has a 100% net profit margin.
    • theducks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Even 10% though leaves them with $9million per month... Blizzard have got a licence to print money with this thing.
    • JeffH, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Of course I am not. But when Blizzard is getting $90,000,000 a month, is it too much to expect no extended downtime?

      They seem to agree with me: no.
    • netdroid9, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7If you are paying for a year-long pass to use the train/subway network, does that mean you can go on the trains every hour of every day? Sure, until the train runs off the track because they couldn't do maintenance on the tracks. Likewise, when the WoW character server dies and loses all the character data due to a lack of maintainence/backups because it was in-use 24/7, you'll be wishing they'd at least took a couple hours to back up their server network and make sure all the HDDs and the like are working correctly..
    • MrStabby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Poor analogy there...

      In this case, the train repairmen are on the job while the trains are on the tracks...

      Which means the players/riders get to play/ride while needed maintenance is taking place...

      As for the blood spatter...might have to take that up with an admin ;)
    • Thorlord, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Netdroid9 while you are technically correct.
      the downtime can be minimized.

      take google for example.
      i have only seen them down twice in the past 6 years. yet they have website maintanence and server maintanence constantly.

      WoW is just achieveing that level of super-god-dom where their servers can read data from the future (like googles servers) and thusly back up all its data just before the servers go down or dies or whatever.
  • desertcamel, on 10/12/2007, -10/+8See, turns out you can run these servers without half a day of downtime each week and uncountable emergency outages. Told you so, Blizzard Apologists. It's called 99.999% uptime, and it's out there if you care to put up the money. Guess the management finally made enough billions off you to bother.
  • aahpandasrun, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10Most other MMOs have around an hour of maintenance at night.
    • SugarRay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Most other MMO's don't have 7 million+ players either
    • drakino, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Not sure what "Most other MMOs" means, but WoW having 7+ million users doesn't make a difference. It's the same server code either way, and the same technical design decisions and quality that will decide how often a service needs to be restarted. Code has a memory leak on the NPC pathing, and things go downhill with 100k users or 7 million.
    • ByteGuerilla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Is it 5, 6 or 7million subscribers WoW has? Seems to be different every time i see it. Anyway, WoW's subscribers are spread over many, many different realms. At EVE-Online, we have 200k+ subscribers on one persistent world, and all we have to put up with for that is a scheduled hour of downtime each day, that usually pans out to be thirty to forty minutes. I'd rather have that downtime for uninterrupted maintenance time than keep the server cluster running 24/7 and have it go down for an extended period at a later date.
    • terminalpariah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2GW has zero maintenance downtime, and I can count the number of times that the servers have gone down on one hand. Man, Blizzard should have tried harder to hang on to those guys.
  • Brocclibob, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32Thats terrible. Now the players will never get any sunlight. I know people at school who are like. NOO ITS TUESDAY! MAINTENANCE DAY! WHAT WILL I DO?

    reply: Go outside.
    • BugMeNot2, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8OMG TOMOROW B TEH MAINTANANCE DAY WAT WIL I DO?!!!!?!?
    • DrGamez, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3I'd go outside but there really isn't anything out there I like to do.

      That's why I buy video games and ***** - they're fun. Riding a bike is not fun to me.
    • DigDugDigger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14My connection to the net is superior than my connection to reality.
  • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Hehe, that is very true. Especially the holiday season. Instead of the WoW players going out and live their "real-lives", they will stick more to WoW.

    But well, at the end of the day, it is all about money.

  • mementh, on 10/12/2007, -48/+3i might make some people mad.. but i play a game called RUNESCAPE!!!! it has less then 10 MINUTES of downtime a week (and ONLY for a UPDATE!!!!!)

    How does it do it better then WOW.. simple.. they designed it that way!!!!!!! and sometimes.. they don't do a update.. i remember over a MONTH when there was no update and the servers were good to go...

    Also Runescape does not CHARGE you to switch servers, you choose you server at the time of login basically..

    I never understood WHY they did not have that in WOW and why they CHARGE for it now..
    • codyman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Wow, Angry Nerd Inserting Shameless Plug Right.. here...
    • estvir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+50Runescape also SUCKS and is nowhere near as POPULAR as WoW and does not require the same LEVEL of server MAINTENANCE.

      I also ENJOY randomly using CAPS though it really is quite IRRITATING.
    • titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -1/+45CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL.
    • Agret, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Runescape doesn't have millions of players online at once nor does it have as many servers as WoW. I doubt you've even played WoW, anyone who pays for Runescape is an idiot.
    • CanOfMDAmp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6It's popular amongst little 7 year old dumbass kids!

      But that's about as far as the userbase goes, as once they hit around 8-ish, they notice that runescape sucks and they can go play EQ or WoW or some other game like that.

      And the only reason there was no update was that they stopped caring, and found out that 'sploits would still be used, no matter how hard they try.
    • H080J03, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4dude the people in that game look like clay
    • Reziarfg, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2use. more. exclamation points.

      Thank you, that is all.
    • Takteek, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2Aww you people make me sad. =(

      I play runescape sometimes... It's kinda fun. And I'm not stupid.
    • drakino, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Runescape actually has 5 million north american users, more then WoW at an estimated 2 million or so.

      As far as skipping weekly downtime, I doubt it will happen. Many of the realms already show instability past a few days of solid uptime, and 2.0 didn't seem to help. So if the tuesday downtime is skipped, expect more "emergency" reboots to happen randomly, most likely during prime-time.
  • Dantetheinferno, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Dugg effect after 41 diggs...

    http://duggmirror.com/
  • Sethwm2, on 10/12/2007, -20/+2They should put some time of limit on the games so you are made to stop for a half hour. Gaming that long is not good. Breaks are the way to go, when I game I always make sure I take breaks and drink a lot of water. People don't understand what they are doing when they play that long. Now having Tuesday maintenance day gone they don't have a day of rest. Only online RPG games should have this though. FPS games are not that hard o get away from because there is usually not plot
    • Edrick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22It's called self control. Blizzard shouldn't have to baby-sit everyone.
    • Sibertank, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7What kind of self respecting gamer would drink water of all things!?
    • fufubag, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Yeah, and they should get together with the government and tell us when to breath, eat, sleep, ***** and ***** too...
    • TheShad0w, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3They actually have this in the parental controls...
  • AlexismyDad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is great news. I just wish the site was up!
  • gh0st121der, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12I have 2 friends and I can say with 100% certainty that wow has ruined their lives.

    1 of them is a CS grad from a really good school and does nothing but play this game all day for the past 2 years.

    The other, does nothing all day.

    Not blaming wow 100% but they were normal people before this game and they are seriously addicted.
    • BevansDesign, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9The "OMG WOW ADDICTION" thing has been done to death. Find a new thing to bitch about.
    • Settra, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Pft. Your friends are just ***** pathetic.
    • Vokas, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16Nope, you have two friends who have ruined thier own lives.
    • chucker, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10If it hadn't been WoW, it would have been some illegal drug, or booze, or an abusive relationship partner, or whatever else they felt like occupying themselves with. To blame "ruining lives" on the addiction, rather than the cause, is naive.
    • garg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11It's all about self control. I am about to graduate with a CS degree in a few months. I also work as a systems admin full time while also working on a home business. I have a WoW subscription with a few characters. Sometimes it's difficult to pull your self away from the game but that's where will-power and self control come into play.

      For a CS project, we had to rewrite a game from the 1970s called Classic Empire in Java. While researching about this game I came upon a few stories about how this text based game ruined people's lives because it was very addictive. So I think it's not WoW's fault. It's just that some people need to level up their self control skills in real life.
    • robz0r, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I was one of these people i recently sold my character for 1800$, now I work like a mad man so I dont get the urge to play much video games, I enjoyed playing the game, but without a doubt video games set me back 3-4 years easily.
    • mrpacco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0People who say WoW is addictive should be shot in the face with a shotgun in an alley after being anally raped.

      I played WoW solid for about 15 months and it was no problem separating everyone's-favorite-scapegoat from my academics and employment. People who have dropped out of school or gotten divorced or been fired from their job because of WoW are not suffering from addiction - they just have f*cked up priorities. If raiding or PvPing takes precedence over going to work or studying for your finals or f*cking your wife, then you are a dumbsh*t, not an addict.

      But for those of you who would argue for the psychological addiction that WoW may present, here's my advice: STOP PLAYING! I promise you won't suffer any withdrawal symptoms like a cigarette smoker would.
    • groberts1980, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As others have said, your friends are just pathetic losers. I started this game in October. I play every weeknight from about 5 to about 10, and most weekends all day. My wife plays with me, so no problems there. I also took time to see my family, and score a 3.6 GPA for the Fall semester. Blaming WoW for people's addictions is like blaming Gran Turismo for highway deaths, or Quake 3 for Columbine. Parental/Personal responsibility is what's at issue here. You could apply the false accusations at any game. If someone sits and plays Gears of War so much they get fired, divorced, and failed out of school, is that the game's fault? I didn't think so.
  • justinsuperstar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Tuesday was shower day for most of these folks.
    • CasualAffair, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1VERY nice. B)
    • robz0r, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1It was more like reformat your hard-drive because you felt you were lagging in game since the patch the week before.
  • Zabimaru_00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The game is all about self-control. I myself play it and am able to keep a 4.0gpa as a biology/medical science major. To the people who were "normal" before and then turned into something else by this monster of a game I would say were lacking some serious control issues. I guess if you have an addictive personality should stay away. As bad as people make it sound, this game can be taken in moderation and be quite fun without destroying lives
    • mrpacco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"oh yeah? i have a 4.0gpa in Undead Mage !!!!11!11!!!!one!!!!1 zomg i PWNT u lawlzzzzz"
  • Snakedal337, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2And the tuesday night roads were just starting to get tolerable...

    *sigh*
  • Chrissilvanet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Warcraft took up way too much of my life. Now I spend all my time snorting crank and screwing hookers.
  • ka0tic, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5Ah Digg....

    you bash World of Warcraft but yet you jump up and down when Super Mario Brothers is released.....again for the millionth time on the Wii's VC and you actually have to pay. gtfo
  • tikistyle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2LOL Internets!!!
  • securegeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Just curious how many people that think WOW addiction is a problem here on digg, spend just about as much time a week on digg, but say "I don't have a problem"
  • SierraAlpha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think Digg kicked that website's server in the nuts because it's not loading for me.
  • JonForTheWin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1They switched from windows to GNU/Linux or *BSD?
    Or if they already were using GNU/Linux or *BSD . . they learned how to use them properly?
  • adamfalkofske, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I betcha the pizza parlors worldwide are in for a big WTF happened to our Tuesday order rush? Damnit. I loved it when they tipped in tech support.
  • Superozz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What about the guy who likes to play WOW and he works all week and his day off happens to fall on Tuesday? That really sucks some times.
  • Avalonis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hmm...the European servers are all down at the moment. Guess they'll need some more time to implement the same solution over here, too.
  • pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I only found the maintenance to bother me when I haven't felt like playing all week. When I finally felt like playing I would get on and... Oh damn, maintenance...
    I guess that rested bonus is going to have to keep growing then...
  • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2226 diggs:

    Mirror here:
    http://duggmirror.com/gaming_news/No_More_World_of_Warcraft_Weekly_Maintenance_Downtime/

    Very nice of duggmirror.com

  • samdotorg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Far too many people bash WoW for all the wrong reasons. "The game" is easily one of the better games I've played due to the community aspect, such as team raiding and PVP battle arenas. It's the same as counter-strike, there's those that play the odd game and there's those uber leet micro hax 12-year olds that play all day/night and organise practice wars to get their "strats" down.
  • Ninjin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Discussions regarding the social and hygiene aspects of the lives of WoW players, I personally don't think this is going to be feasible for Blizzard. If ever a company was the embodiment of Murphy's Law, it is Blizzard. Mostly because there's really no guidebook on how to run the most popular MMO in the history of video games.

    Bottom line: them servers needs their maintenance.
  • PurpleSfinx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Get over the WoW addiction thing. I play it HEAPS but it has only improved my life. It's a great game. If you get addicted (by which I mean you play it even though you know you will regret it) then it's your own fault, and you would otherwise be addicted to something else. If your young kid is addicted, try being a better parent or get a psychiatrist or something. I mean, didn't people try to blame rock 'n' roll once (for young people not being perfect)? Books? TV? Heavy metal? WoW is just another thing to blame. Another scapegoat.

    And as for people who do play for hours a day, so what? If it doesn't mean they lose something that's more important to them, then who cares? I mean, if they are enjoying themselves, it's fine with me. Alot of people wouldn't complain if they were playing basketball all day, but I don't like basketball, I like computer games. I'm no body builder, but I maintain a healthy level of fitness without playing sport all day. Some people say 'WoW isn't real', and to them I say 'No, WoW is a game that actually exists. See? I've got it right here. And I play the game because it's fun.' The truth is, WoW to some people IS better than whatever else they could be doing, and there's nothing wrong with that, they just like it.

    And as for the weekly maintenence thing, please point me to the post where Blizzard say there is no more of it. (Read: They didn't.They said they would TEST the ability to go LONGER THAN A WEEK between downtimes. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly sure.)
  • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"IF" is the keyword there my friend. No one said that it will be gone from today and forever, it's an "IF", conditional, "if all goes well". They are going to test "live maintenance". If live maintenance works, they don't have to do "maintenance downtimes". Taking "no-maintenance downtime" 'literally' is not reality. Even Guild Wars ended up putting the server down, but ArenaNet was able to keep their "maintenance downtimes" to a minimal. It's what, 3 times only since they went live that they did a maintenance downtime? That is what Blizzard is aiming for.

    I don't believe that an MMOG will be able to really give us 100% no-maintenance downtime, sooner or later problems will crop up. So, a no-maintenance downtime shoudn't be taken literally, but they can do it, if ArenaNet can do it, why not Blizzard? See where this "testing" is going?

    Happy Holidays my friend :D

  • shortarabguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Finally, they're out of our lives for 12 more hours every week.
  • rowlodge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i was addicted to halo for a year so i guess i cant put others down for their addictions.

    never tried it but i'm sure its too slow for me, still i will always wonder what the big fuss was over. (WOW)
  • riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I stopped reading after 'No more World of Warcraft..'.. I am happy.
    • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1lolerz... meanie... :p

      Well, there are always the negative side to positive things we humans develop ;)

  • SafetyHelmet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good, now the playing population has no chance at ever doing something worth a ***** in life.
  • McNash, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1World of what? I kid I kid...
  • mojaam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is unfortunate, now some wow geeks can go for weeks without stopping.
  • SaxxonPike, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Been playing World of Warcraft since March 2005. And despite all the crap some people are throwing at the game (sometimes civilized, sometimes like *****-throwing monkeys) it's also improved my life, if not slightly differently than others. Confidence and leadership. Tolerance for *****. And in the midst of all this, actually set my priorities straight. I work full time. Sometimes I designate a few days a week to play after work. Some days, drop playing the game altogether that night for some socialization. Helps tie up some of that free time, which I'd otherwise be spending probably loafing around in front of the TV and getting fat, or something.

    The game's decent. Who gives a ***** if it doesn't look as good as EQ2? Games that DON'T try to be visually realistic appeal to me more than games that DO try to be visually realistic (and fail). It's done in more of a lighter cartoonish less-serious type art style.

    And let's not forget. It helps keep Timmy off the street corner by the crack vendors.
  • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Testimonies from gamers who are saying that these online games actually do or did them good are very good. The politicies and anti-game activists should start to listen ^_^

    The fight is just starting in our country, the Philippines, so far, the responsible gamers are a few steps ahead of them all. ^_^

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