by Stix on Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:27 pm
What I don't understand is why they haven't given each server their own separate database servers, yet. I also don't understand why they don't have a test server to mess around on with things like these. Those are my only big annoyances, at the moment.
This talk about GM abuse is an isolated incident on a specific server. And it wasn't even GM abuse, it was forum moderator abuse by an employee who has done it since before World of Warcraft was even in development. Blizzard just hadn't done anything about it until now because the past abuses were merely suspicious and not obvious, like this was obvious.
I love PA to death and they're right that server issues should have been addressed before release, but it's not like VU didn't pressure Blizzard into rushing the game in order to compete with EQ2 and get it on the shelves at a time when they could make the most money off it. The guys at PA do seem somewhat detached from the game, though. They didn't notice that the AH and mail systems were working much, much better after the 16 hour downtime, even though different issues such as server crashes started cropping up. This is going to happen in MMO's. Some things might be fixed while other things break. I've never seen an MMO that hasn't had a problem with other areas after they fix different things. This could be alleviated with a test server, admittedly. And maybe I'm just unlucky with my choice of MMO's, but even then I still have never seen fixes without additional problems. Even in UO, which was much, much simpler than the more modern MMO's out there.
So PA can retract their award if they want, it's their choice, but I don't think they have enough of a clue about MMO's to be making judgments like these. Having read their comic pretty often over the past several years, the longest I can remember them playing an MMO was a couple weeks, or longer during a beta. That was before this two-month stint with WoW, however. I'd challenge them to play the next big MMO for two months after its release and count the problems there and then do the same thing to it.
And, oh, Tycho made the statement, "If this happened in Galaxies, or Dark Age, or AO, of course it'd be everybody everywhere piling on. But it's Blizzard, and since they made a few good games years ago now they can do whatever the fuck they want to." People did rag on SOE for Galaxies and still do. And he's saying people won't do it to Blizzard. But isn't that sort of a contradiction when he, one of the bigger critics out there, is doing so?
I've no problem with Gabe's statement, though. I agree with him. Just Tycho.
But enough ranting about that... What I am happy with is that at least Blizzard is trying to fix the issues, whereas other MMO companies that I have experience with have let things rot and been completely and totally silent about the issue until they release a patch six weeks later that half fixes the issue. Blizzard makes a post at least once a week updating people on what went wrong and they at least give people free time when they fuck up (two more days were added to my account just today).
Last edited by
Stix on Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.