World of Warcraft: Dragonflights launch was a test of endurance
Good morning players. While you were sleeping, tens of thousands forced their way through struggling servers during the launch of World of Warcraft: Dragon flight. More than an hour after the official launch, many were unable to reach the new continent of content.
Warcraft
“Cba with this dog shit,” wrote Mogoqt the Warrior. An hour after launch and with a lucky few running around and enjoying themselves, they were trapped on the outskirts of Orgrimmar, writing their thoughts to an uncaring group of other players on the same ship.
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They would continue: “Yeah, he was gone an hour. No wonder people don’t play the game once back. gg.” While their salty tirade went unanswered, they weren’t alone. Due to the large number of enthusiastic players staying up late and trying to go to the same place at the same time, the servers were plagued with lag. Boarding the zeppelin from Stormwind or Orgrimmar resulted in lengthy loading screens, most of which simply dropped players in a graveyard near where they started.
To the developers’ credit, rigid airships and sunken ships were fixed with a portal to Dragon Isle in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Unfortunately this did not solve the problem. Clicking on this portal would also result in a short loading screen, getting you nowhere. Sprinkle in all these occasional disconnects and you had a pretty hard sundae by all accounts.
But, WoW players are nothing if not persistent, many stick around and continually click on the portal hoping their luck will change. I was among them, long cold KFC and the Pepsi bottle completely dry. A tragedy.
However, it had its advantages. The rare but natural saddle ball swelled up and became a major inconvenience while the portal was broken. This is a formation of players gathered around a single location atop their largest mount, forcing players to pixel hunt to find the portal below. A serious problem, made worse by a handful of impostors, being suspicious and using toys that bloated while mounted, making clicking the portal a frustrating endeavor.
You don’t see this every day in World of Warcraft.
“How many times are we ready to be hurt?” wrote Dotdotfear the Warlock, among the montage ball 70 minutes after release. The launch of the WoW expansion has been an uphill battle for a long time, with the recent memory of the Lich King Classic in his mind and the experience of day one of Warlord of Draenor seared into his soul. We are sorry for the players who go to bed early and we salute those who always fight until the early hours of the morning.
