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12-08-09, 04:59 PM   #21
ricks322
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Well they can spend their time fixing the problems, or telling people that things are broken, and they are working on it.

Myself I would rather they fix it, not talk about it.

And of course the forums are down, they don't need 5,000 posts saying the same thing over and over.

How many of you have worked in a Tech/Customer support when there was a major outage. You get tired of saying "Yes we know there is a problem, Yes they are working on it, No we don't know when it will be fixed."


Go watch the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5N0p...layer_embedded

Last edited by ricks322 : 12-08-09 at 05:09 PM. Reason: Changed to youtube link
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12-08-09, 05:08 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by ricks322 View Post
How many of you have worked in a Tech/Customer support when there was a major outage. You get tired of saying "Yes we know there is a problem, Yes they are working on it, No we don't know when it will be fixed."
You not only get tired of it, it's actually counter-productive. If I'm telling people what's wrong and how long it's going to be until it's back up, I'm not actually working on the problem.

Also, I think a lot of people tend to underestimate the sheer size of Blizzard and World of Warcraft from a technical standpoint. It's not a matter of one technician just turning in his chair and saying "it's down, be back up in about 287 minutes give or take a second". We're talking multi-tiered international managed hosting solutions on a massive scale, with probably 6-8 people between "phone jockey" and the actual "guy pressing the reset button". Hell, the BBC doesn't have anything that big.

However, I highly doubt that the forums are down because Blizzard can't handle the customer relations-side of things. It's most likely down due to the massive post-workday influx of American users all going there to ***** at the exact same time. Also, the initial outage was domain-wide...another indicator that it's not just Blizzard trying to "shut you up".
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12-08-09, 05:16 PM   #23
ricks322
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I agree on the web issues, the massive amout of people trying to post on the forums is sure to cause problems.
The same with the number of people trying to log in over and over and over and..................
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12-08-09, 05:20 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
It's not "limited thinking", it's the truth. Blizzard is holding up their end of the deal (try reading the terms of service sometime).

A better analogy is that WoW is like owning a Saturn. Yes, it's made out of recycled milk jugs and isn't the best-looking, most reliable, or cheapest car on the road...but many people who own one love them.

If it's not for you, don't buy it. You can't have your cake, eat it, and then get pissed that your cake didn't "perform" in the manner you expected it to.
It's safer to keep this game and games like it out of traditional industry analogies. No other business in the world is permitted to operate on such low standards of service as most MMORPG's. As a business owner myself, I could not imagine any of my employees failing to meet reasonable service expecations of my clients. They would be canned the 2nd time they failed. In my business, we live and die by our service agreements. I simply can't believe Blizzard continues to operate without being able to properly set expectations with their customers. The technical issues of this (and any other game) is never the issue that upsets customers. It is the inability to effectively communicate and set proper expectations that creates so much trouble.

I know one thing, if I'm taking your money for services, you will damned well know I'm doing my utmost in protecting your investment. I bust my ass to maintain a very high standard of business practices. If I can do it, Blizzard can do it. You just have to care.

In a technical world, it's very true that unexpected issues arise, but that should NEVER be paired with a lack of communication or lowering of expectations. Customers are too valuable to treat them this way. Blizzard has NEVER gotten that part right. Hell, Blizzard doesn't even understand the ways in which their policies and practices escalate their very own cost of doing business. But, I guess that's another issue entirely.
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12-08-09, 05:26 PM   #25
ricks322
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As far as info, there is http://twitter.com/Warcraft. They have been posting info and it is being passed on by lots of sites.
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12-08-09, 05:27 PM   #26
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
Also, I think a lot of people tend to underestimate the sheer size of Blizzard and World of Warcraft from a technical standpoint. It's not a matter of one technician just turning in his chair and saying "it's down, be back up in about 287 minutes give or take a second". We're talking multi-tiered international managed hosting solutions on a massive scale, with probably 6-8 people between "phone jockey" and the actual "guy pressing the reset button". Hell, the BBC doesn't have anything that big.
I understand it. In fact, that's part of the reason I see the massive failure in their own policies/practices/methods of support. It is not the job of a customer to feel sympathy when a business is mismanaged. A business can set proper expectations whether it's a lemonade stand or an oil company. If the size of your business causes you to run it improperly, guess what? You aren't managing it right. Period. Difficult or not, that's a poor excuse for mediocrity, even in Obama's economy.
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12-08-09, 05:32 PM   #27
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Originally Posted by Republic View Post
It's safer to keep this game and games like it out of traditional industry analogies. No other business in the world is permitted to operate on such low standards of service as most MMORPG's.
Except for things like telephone, satellite, internet, cable, electricity, and water companies...
As a business owner myself, I could not imagine any of my employees failing to meet reasonable service expecations of my clients. They would be canned the 2nd time they failed.
Irrelevant comparison is irrelevant. You, as a private business owner, cannot even begin to comprehend what Blizzard deals with on a day-to-day basis. I was a senior systems consultant for IBM working 6 different hosting locations around the globe on-call 24/7...and not even I can begin to comprehend it.
I simply can't believe Blizzard continues to operate without being able to properly set expectations with their customers. The technical issues of this (and any other game) is never the issue that upsets customers. It is the inability to effectively communicate and set proper expectations that creates so much trouble.
This game has been around for over 5 years now, and compared to pretty much every other MMO on the market at the time it has had the shortest amount of downtime. Nothing has changed. Why should anyone's expectations be any different now than they were then? If (just to give an example) they went 6 hours over their scheduled maintenance times every week for 5 years, why would you expect any different on Week 261?

I know one thing, if I'm taking your money for services, you will damned well know I'm doing my utmost in protecting your investment. I bust my ass to maintain a very high standard of business practices. If I can do it, Blizzard can do it. You just have to care.
If simply caring could fix problems like this, I wouldn't be driving the aforementioned Saturn.

Hell, Blizzard doesn't even understand the ways in which their policies and practices escalate their very own cost of doing business. But, I guess that's another issue entirely.
Warcraft. Warcraft II. Warcraft III. Diablo. Diablo II. Starcraft. World of Warcraft. This is the most successful MMORPG ever, and it's only a tiny, tiny fraction of this company's illustrious history as one of the top game-design firms on the face of the planet. I think they know what they're doing.
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12-08-09, 05:39 PM   #28
Republic
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
Except for things like telephone, satellite, internet, cable, electricity, and water companies...
Eh, I'm not sure where you live. I wasn't aware Wow Interface reached 3rd world countries

And you clearly miss the rather simple point(s) I was making and I don't have the energy to break it down further, so I'll just agree to ignore your words if you'll do the same It probably isn't worth a fanboy war for me to continue making a simple point that Blizzard has some stupid policies and practices when it comes to game maintenance. If that's beyond your scope of agreement, that's fine. But well, it shouldn't be beyond your scope of understanding
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12-08-09, 05:48 PM   #29
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Originally Posted by Republic View Post
Eh, I'm not sure where you live. I wasn't aware Wow Interface reached 3rd world countries
Of course it does. How anglocentric of you.

And you clearly miss the rather simple point(s) I was making and I don't have the energy to break it down further, so I'll just agree to ignore your words if you'll do the same It probably isn't worth a fanboy...
Just pausing here to point out sexism.
...war for me to continue making a simple point that Blizzard has some stupid policies and practices when it comes to game maintenance. If that's beyond your scope of agreement, that's fine. But well, it shouldn't be beyond your scope of understanding
I understand just fine, thank you.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia
In logic, an argument is a set of one or more meaningful declarative sentences (or "propositions") known as the premises along with another meaningful declarative sentence (or "proposition") known as the conclusion. A deductive argument asserts that the truth of the conclusion is a logical consequence of the premises; an inductive argument asserts that the truth of the conclusion is supported by the premises. Deductive arguments are valid or invalid, and sound or not sound. An argument is valid if and only if the truth of the conclusion is a logical consequence of the premises and (consequently) its corresponding conditional is a necessary truth. A sound argument is a valid argument with true premises.
Originally Posted by More Wiki goodness
Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor), entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion, thereof, that the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one.
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12-08-09, 05:55 PM   #30
acapela
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hah hah. Blizzard and their artsy fonts. just visited the Blizzard WoW home page again, which is now a splash page for the 3.3 patch.

i did a double-take. i actually read the title the first time as:

"Fail of the Lich King (Patch 3.3)".

but no joy, Blizzard is not engaged in hilarious self-parody. just my usual dislexia.

edit: i spoke too soon. the main page seems to be up, as well. the headline reads:

"Fall of the Lich King Now Live".
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12-08-09, 06:05 PM   #31
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Originally Posted by acapela View Post
hah hah. Blizzard and their artsy fonts. just visited the Blizzard WoW home page again, which is now a splash page for the 3.3 patch.

i did a double-take. i actually read the title the first time as:

"Fail of the Lich King (Patch 3.3)".

but no joy, Blizzard is not engaged in hilarious self-parody. just my usual dislexia.

edit: i spoke too soon. the main page seems to be up, as well. the headline reads:

"Fall of the Lich King Now Live".
I actually read "Fail" too. My initial thought was that it was a really good spoof-trailer. :P
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12-08-09, 06:08 PM   #32
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
Just pausing here to point out sexism.
MMORPG = many men online roleplaying girls. Forgive me, in a game filled with dudes who don't mind being women, I occasionally miss a real one every decade or so. I assume everyone is a dude until I know otherwise. Of course, in a world filled with man ladies, I don't always assume those dudes are straight either but that's probably another topic.

I'm ignoring the other attempts at baiting My point(s) were simply not that difficult to understand, even for a broad. Okay now THAT'S sexism. The other was a safe assumption

<ducking>
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12-08-09, 06:53 PM   #33
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Originally Posted by Republic View Post
MMORPG = many men online roleplaying girls. Forgive me, in a game filled with dudes who don't mind being women, I occasionally miss a real one every decade or so. I assume everyone is a dude until I know otherwise. Of course, in a world filled with man ladies, I don't always assume those dudes are straight either but that's probably another topic.

I'm ignoring the other attempts at baiting My point(s) were simply not that difficult to understand, even for a broad. Okay now THAT'S sexism. The other was a safe assumption

<ducking>
From a broad ... *clips Republic around the ear* .. rofl

seriously though. I am seeing more and more girls playing games, although, most that I know are playing because their other half are playing. Come on girls, admit it .. if you can't beat them you may as well join them If it wasn't for the fact that I played online with my fiance I would get three sentences a night out of him ... "Hi, how was your day?", "So, what ya doing while I kill stuff?", "Goodnight, chat to you tomorrow"... etc
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12-08-09, 07:13 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by Xrystal View Post
Come on girls, admit it .. if you can't beat them you may as well withhold sex until they conform to your will, because let's face it, you hold all the cards!
Fixed.

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12-08-09, 07:28 PM   #35
Yhor
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I guess there was a problem with a patch or something?


*runs to bunker to avoid AoE nerd rage*
^It burns like napalm^
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12-08-09, 07:54 PM   #36
Xrystal
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
Fixed.

rofl, so funny .. I laughed my head off.
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12-08-09, 09:05 PM   #37
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Cut out the personal attacks, everyone. Continued personal attacks will result in suspensions/bans.
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12-08-09, 09:27 PM   #38
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Why did no one call me on the red phone? Time to try and fit in a H:TOC and some dailies before bed time.
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12-08-09, 10:07 PM   #39
Republic
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Originally Posted by Cairenn View Post
Cut out the personal attacks, everyone. Continued personal attacks will result in suspensions/bans.
WTB more understanding of sarcasm.
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12-08-09, 10:07 PM   #40
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Originally Posted by Amenity View Post
Fixed.

gah...and there goes the wind outta my sails! Reality sets in!
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WoWInterface » General Discussion » General WoW Chat » Random Thoughts - Patch 3.3

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