On World of Warcraft's Network Issues

alphaneutrino writes to mention a C|Net article discussing some of the recent problems the World of Warcraft playerbase has experienced. From the article: "'Being a system administrator myself, I have some understanding of what goes on in a corporate data center,' said Evgeny Krevets, a sometimes-frustrated WoW player. 'I don't know Blizzard's system setup. What I do know is that if I kept performing 'urgent maintenance' and taking the service down without warning for eight-hour periods, I would be out of a job.' Blizzard blames some of the problems--such as the disconnection, for several hours on Friday, of players linked to several servers--on AT&T, its network provider. (AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.) "

Ahhh....

[popeguilty]

...so THAT'S how Blizzard is combatting server lag.

8 hours? Coincidence?

[ziggamon2.0]

Maybe it's the Blizzard guys' moms that come in and say "Enough of those stupid games already, go to bed!"? ;)

Or are they too cool to be running the servers out of their parents' basements like the rest of us?

Re:A typical week on Mal'Ganis

[Anonymous Coward]

What are Friday and Saturday? Go outside in the scary real world days?

Last heard from the WoW datacenter...

[fuyu-no-neko]

"Well, at least I have chicken!"

Re:$15/mo times six million users....

[Anonymous Coward]

Blizzard, I can guarantee this: if you spend $35 million per month on refactoring, hardware and bandwidth, all your shareholders go away. Guaranteed. I promise.

Re:It seems...

[plastic.person]

I tend to agree, today's net users are so spoiled. Back in 1993 AOL went down every Tuesday and Thursday at 11PM for six hours- at least. And AOL isn't even a recreational service as WoW is, it is vital things like email and stock tickers.

The above poster needs to learn to become tough like valient AOL users did, and who were also the tip of the spear that tamed the net for WoW players to come a decade later.

AT&T have a right to provide poor service to W

[Odiumjunkie]

Those communists over at Blizzard want to use Edward Whitacre's pipes for free! [slashdot.org]

Re:$15/mo times six million users....

[stevesliva]

Just like with nine women you can have a baby in one month.

Re:It seems...

[Armando_Mcgillicutty]

No one except the 6 Million users that play the game.

NSA Agents Hot on the Trail of Horde Terrorists

[Anubis333]

It's hard for AT&T to cater to so many millions of users *AND* filter/direct all of their customer data illegally and directly to the NSA.

Re:Network and other WoW performance issues

[EnronHaliburton2004]

This was a business decision, not a technical descision. Probably an exclusive agreement made with the PHB in charge of WoW.

"But why do we need two providers? ATT has assured me that they can provide all the bandwidth we need, and that they have failover capability! *plus* their datacenters are built on SPRINGS!"

Re:$15/mo times six million users....

[otis wildflower]

Given their reliance on only ATT as their network provider, this is precisely the problem they have _now_, and what they need to spend bucketloads of cash fixing.

They need multiple sites around the world, with multiple OC192s to multiple providers, all BGP'd to the gills. They need to buy dark fiber and light that shit up.

Then again, why bother, it's not like it's a free market out there and there won't be any competitors to WoW that can get their act together, right? I mean Blizzard owns the patents on MMORPGaming, right?

Oh wait.

Re:A typical week on Mal'Ganis

[Hal_Porter]

That reminds me of a song,

I'm waiting for my man
Twenty-six dollars in my hand
Up to Lexington, 125
Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive
I'm waiting for my man

Hey, geek boy, what you doin' online?
Hey, geek boy, you hackin' our servers with third party addons?
Oh pardon me sir, it's the furthest from my mind
I'm just lookin' for a dear, dear friend of mine
I'm waiting for my man

Here he comes, he's all dressed in black
PR department and a big EULA [worldofwarcraft.com]
He's never early, he's always late
First thing you learn is you always gotta wait
I'm waiting for my man

Up to a Brownstone, up three flights of stairs
Everybody's pinned you, but nobody cares
He's got the works, gives you sweet taste
Ah then you gotta split because you got no time to waste
I'm waiting for my man

Baby don't you holler, darlin' don't you bawl and shout
I'm feeling good, you know I'm gonna work it on out
I'm feeling good, I'm feeling oh so fine
Until tomorrow, but that's just some other time
I'm waiting for my man

thank you AT&T!

[tidokoro]

WOW server downtime is saving my marriage.

Re:System Administrative Failure

[groundround]

I feel much better about their lack of quality service now that I know I'm helping to subsidize disadvantaged WoW players in Asia. Can I at least get a postcard with their picture, telling me how their doing?

Seriously, one of their biggest failings is communication and there is no excuse for that. It's cheap and easy and would at least keep people hopeful that their lost gaming time is being spent in the pursuit of greater future stability.

Re:A typical week on Mal'Ganis

[CTachyon]

They BROKE a continent? I hope it was still under warranty...

Re:$15/mo times six million users....

[chowsapal]

um, this is slashdot -- good luck getting one baby in 90 years with one woman! there's always adoption.

Translated

[Danathar]

"My crack pipe...My crack pipe!....suck...suck....It's not working right!"

Well, no, but...

[mbessey]

With proper pipelining, you CAN get one baby after an initial nine-month delay, then a baby a month of throughput until your cache is depleted.

Re:$15/mo times six million users....

[C0rinthian]

Just like with nine women you can have a baby in one month.

They've had nine months. They should be having a baby every month now.

Downtime is either being caused by poor design, hardware/software limitations, or bandwidth limitations.

You know, those causes are suprisingly funny when speaking about childbirth...