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Comic for: November 25th, 2004
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World of Warcraft: "Are you Crying?"
Posted: Thursday November 25th, 2004 by

Usually I don't like doing a comic about the same game two days in a row. But, as WoW sales skyrocketed the lag in game seemed to slowly rear up and start biting everyone that tried to play.

Blizzard tells us that this issue is unrelated to individual server populations. So, the current best guess is that the database servers simply can't handle the load. There's a coding bottle neck somewhere and gamers are having to wait for the server to resolve all the database requests and filter the information back out to the end user. The result was, during peak hours, you might kill a monster, but when you tried to loot it... you'd be stuck in the looting stance for several minutes waiting for the server to finally release you. Same thing with trying to create items, gather tradeskill materials, rez corpses, etc.

I'm sure Blizzard is working diligently to correct the problem, but until they do most of us are going to have to suffer through the non-stop grumbling discourse of those unhappy with the situation. One of the more ridiculous things that's being said is, "This is all because Vivendi FORCED WoW out the doors to try to stay close to the EQ2 release even though it wasn't ready". **shakes his head** Honestly? This game could have been shipped months ago. I can't see where it's been forced at all. My guess is that the opposite is true: EQ2 was forced out the door, in a rush, to compete with the impending release of WoW.

By releasing EQ2 before WoW hit the shelves SOE stood the chance of raking in a considerable number of gamers that were going to have to pick one or the other, for financial reasons, and just didn't want to wait any longer for something new.

What I find trully revealing about the quality of the game, and the fandom of the gamers, is that so many were still trying to PLAY the game despite the lag issues. I mean, I was off and on all day, and despite lag spikes that could sometimes take 10 minutes or more to resolve, there were tons of people present, all willing to wait it out just so they could continue to "enjoy" the game.

---

As for the comic, for some odd reason, my brain told me that, after an extended jaunt through Alpha and Beta, Ted might have lost his interested in WoW. I know I know... it's a weird thing. But, it put the responsibility of translating the addiction to comic form THROUGH my character in the strip. I guess it's really a manufactured twist wherein we see the Woody character step into the "addicted gamer" role that's usually occupied by Ted.

No, I didn't actually cry because I couldn't really play. Quite the contrary. With more than 30 people joing the GU Horde Guild, Bloody Plunder, I was more than entertained listening to all the guild chatter.

__________
Today's pimpage: Ted is wearing ad Reg Ex Shakespeare shirt from ThinkGeek.

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