WoW Dragonflight’s launch was a tale of belated boats and lagging logins

By
Justin Olivetti
-
    
3
We have Au Ra at home.

Hey, what’s more old-fashioned than a messy and chaotic World of Warcraft expansion rollout? Good times it was last night, then, as Dragonflight’s launch immediately hit all sorts of snags as the crush of players logged into the MMO. Bask in that nostalgia!

Or tried to log in, at least. A laggy authenticator kept some from joining in the fun right away, while others found the boats and zeppelins to Dragon Isles unduly delayed (and the emergency portal NPC taking a very long smoke break). Even the world server decided to go on a brief holiday.

At least it made for some funny jokes and memes, as players formed Boat Support Groups, theorized where the missing boat might be, renamed the expansion, groused about streamers allegedly getting preferential treatment, and celebrated the hardest quest in World of Warcraft.

Blizzard’s teams worked hard to address the issues while the CS staff kept communicating with the playerbase through the early hours of the expansion. Of course, these issues didn’t stop the first player from hitting the new max of level 70 by the day’s end.

Source: Reddit, Twitter, Icy Veins
Activision-Blizzard is considered a controversial gaming company owing to a long string of scandals over the last few years, including the Blitzchung boycott, mass layoffs, labor disputes, and executive pay fiasco. In 2021, the company was sued by California for fostering a work environment rife with sexual harassment and discrimination, the disastrous corporate response to which compounded Blizzard’s ongoing pipeline issues and the widespread perception that its online games are in decline. Multiple state and federal agencies are investigating the company as employees unionize and call for Bobby Kotick’s resignation. As of 2022, the company is being acquired by no less than Microsoft.
Previous articleThe Daily Grind: What was the most important innovation in MMOs in 2022?
Next articleNew World is merging 13 legacy servers down to 6 on December 2

No posts to display

3 Comments
newest
oldest most liked
Inline Feedback
View all comments