WoW - Blizz Apologizes For Bad Draenor Launch

In what may be a surprising gesture of humility and honesty, Blizzard apologizes for the botched launch of Warlords of Draenor and offers five days' game time to compensate.

Blizzard is so, so sorry for the expansion launch issues -- and it is trying to make things right.

This is the word from World of Warcraft Executive Producer J. Allen Brack, who issued a public mea culpa on the forums for the problems with Warlords of Draenor's launch. "The quality of the content does not excuse the subpar launch experience we delivered, and I apologize for that," Brack wrote.

He outlined the events and studio response over the past weekend, saying that the team is expanding its instancing tech to reduce queues on realms. To compensate players for their troubles, Brack said that Blizzard is giving five days of game time for all subscribers as of last Friday.

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I have friends that went back to WoW saying they have had up to 4 hour queues. Glad I'm not playing nor intending to ever return.

It's really surprising to me that Bliz could have so many issues given their numbers over time, the fact that they should know better, and the fact that they make silly money off of WoW.

In other news, or lack thereof, what ever happened to Heroes of the Storm? That game looked really good but seems to have dropped off the radar and their cheeseball new battleground looking game is their new thing. Bleh.

I played during WoD launch. Or rather, I tried to. It was probably the worst MMO launch I've been through in quite a few years, and it's especially bad since it's a WoW expansion; Blizzard has 10 years of experience at this point. They should have seen it coming.

At any rate, it's mostly fine now.

I am lvl 95 now and i think i can safely say this is as good as vanilla wow. That said they really need to work on balancing servers for horde and alliance. On my server the horde out number us 4 to 1. Its ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I played during WoD launch. Or rather, I tried to. It was probably the worst MMO launch I've been through in quite a few years, and it's especially bad since it's a WoW expansion; Blizzard has 10 years of experience at this point. They should have seen it coming.

At any rate, it's mostly fine now.

My experience exactly. I only managed to play on Monday but even yesterday it was pain to go to my Garrison.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I played during WoD launch. Or rather, I tried to. It was probably the worst MMO launch I've been through in quite a few years, and it's especially bad since it's a WoW expansion; Blizzard has 10 years of experience at this point. They should have seen it coming.

At any rate, it's mostly fine now.

Originally Posted by Damian
I am lvl 95 now and i think i can safely say this is as good as vanilla wow. That said they really need to work on balancing servers for horde and alliance. On my server the horde out number us 4 to 1. Its ridiculous.

Originally Posted by lostforever
My experience exactly. I only managed to play on Monday but even yesterday it was pain to go to my Garrison.

You still play WoW, all credibility points are null and void

Originally Posted by Damian
I am lvl 95 now and i think i can safely say this is as good as vanilla wow. That said they really need to work on balancing servers for horde and alliance. On my server the horde out number us 4 to 1. Its ridiculous.

Is fun world PvP back??

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Is fun world PvP back??

Not really, but there are no flying mounts even at level 100, so world PvP is likely to stick around more than it did in previous expansions. People can't just woosh around now.

Personally, I'm gearing my level 100 character these days, and both the gearing and leveling is quite smooth once all the server problems and what not have been taken care of.

Originally Posted by fatknacker50
You still play WoW, all credibility points are null and void

Accepted.

pibbur who already has no credibility since he completed and actually enjoyed you-know-what (the MM game which should not be mentioned in polite societies).

In my group I know of eight people that have, at one time or another, played World of Warcraft mmo. I think the last friend quit like 3 years ago, so now I don't actually know anyone that plays it. I do laugh at anyone dumb enough to sit in que for a junky game, lol. Try EQ one or two and get elevated.

I guess they just find the game enjoyable. Personally I can't see the stupidity in that, and I don't see the need to laugh at them either.

pibbur who, if he wanted to be elevated wouldn't play a game at all, but rather read a good book, or make a painting or something like that.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
In my group I know of eight people that have, at one time or another, played World of Warcraft mmo. I think the last friend quit like 3 years ago, so now I don't actually know anyone that plays it. I do laugh at anyone dumb enough to sit in que for a junky game, lol. Try EQ one or two and get elevated.

I tried to like EQ 2 i really did. But the interface sucks so hard.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Is fun world PvP back??

Unfortunately no. Because servers are unbalanced.

Does anybody else here think the TV ad they've been posting for WoD sounds a WWE promotion? It's hilarious.

Originally Posted by pibbur who
I guess they just find the game enjoyable. Personally I can't see the stupidity in that, and I don't see the need to laugh at them either.

Its sort of fashionable among some MMO hipsters to hate WoW and put it down all the time

I don't hate World of Warcraft……I accept that it is simply a childish, cartoony game that requires little if any skill to play. It just isn't for me. I save my hate for important matters

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I don't hate World of Warcraft……I accept that it is simply a childish, cartoony game that requires little if any skill to play. It just isn't for me. I save my hate for important matters

I also agree with "a childish, cartoony game that requires little if any skill to play". However I do not know of any MMO that actually require "skill" to play Even my favourite MMO of all time EQ2 never required any skill even at its prime.

Skill? Define skill. Ability usage? Movement? Coordination? Tactics? Reactions? The highest level of raiding or PvP requires an incredible amount of coordination and around-the-clock dedication. The margins are so fine a single misstep will doom an entire 20-man group.

The skillset required is certainly different from a world class FPS player, RTS player or TBS player, but whether less or more is required overall is very hard to decide.

I agree that simply playing MMOs requires very little skill, but most follow a mantra of easy to play, difficult to master.

First D3 server issues, then this ? Weren't they able to learn ?

Blizzard peaked with Diablo Two.