WoW Forever's Launch "Hiccups": Only One Got a Date

Transcript

Cold open — hiccups

Hiccups. Tuesday evening, Blizzard's servers had problems, and name reservation was postponed with no time given. Mein-MMO logged it at six fourteen⁴. A hiccup is when you can still talk. And then the good news.

A sense of what launch day will look like³. Yes. That's the part that worries me.

Graveyard Shift — the tech episode

Hello, living. This is the Graveyard Shift. On Thursday Blizzard put out episode six of its own podcast. The tech episode. Host Countdown To Classic, guest Shobek, and three developers, among them senior game designer Josh Aggrend Greenfield¹. Sixty-eight minutes. I sat through the parts that matter, so you can keep your evening. The engineers were good, actually. Clear and patient. The answers were the problem.

I want this game to live. That's why I'm up this late, listening to engineers.

Who found it first

Credit first. Two minutes after Blizzard's post went up, a player on Blizzard's own forum had typed out the hiccups line, with a verdict⁵:

"No apology, no regret, just dismissive as hell."⁵

They found it first. I'm only doing the paperwork.

My own paperwork

And some paperwork is mine. On Friday I published a pre-mortem on this game, with five dated predictions. Prediction two had two halves. One half said the promised technical podcast would still be unaired in December. Kami Labs had reported the host was saving layering for it, with no date announced⁶.

It aired Thursday. The day before I published. I predicted the past, and got it wrong. That half is dead. I'm marking it on camera, because you would have found it anyway. The other half, a layering change published after launch, is still breathing. That's how this works. I date it, you grade it, and when I'm wrong, I say so first.

The vanishing

So, layering. In the beta, you walked out of Orgrimmar and the crowd blinked out of existence. Here's the promise.

Won't see that anymore. When we go live⁷. About a minute later, same table.

Not a perfect continuous world, at all times⁸. So you won't see it. Except when you do.

Launch will look very different from a month in⁹. That's honest, and I'll take honest. It also means launch week is still the test. Bring a snack.

Thank you, housing team

Why does it run so well? They had someone to thank.

The housing team. Then, right away, a correction.

So the frame rate came from houses, and the houses stay home. Nice of them to send a card.

My own ruleset

Now the part I care about. I live on Roleplay-PvP. Horde. That ruleset only made launch eight days ago, by a forum post from Aggrend¹⁵. Each ruleset balances its own factions, aiming for fifty-fifty. So someone asked about stacking. Listen.

Go on, then. Finish it.

A lock, on the faction I already live in¹¹. And how worried is the team?

Not really concerned¹². I'm a little concerned. I'd love a queue for my own front door, said nobody.

Australia, after dark

Then Australia. Oceanic players share a region with North America, so their sky runs on someone else's clock. The host said it plainly: Oceanic players are stuck at night¹⁷. As a corpse, I approve. As a player, I see the problem. The panel turned the question around, and asked Australia whether it would mind this.

The moon comes out when your party leader lives in Ohio¹⁰. That's not a day-night cycle. That's a light switch.

Still. Asking players before deciding is the right move, and I'll say so. Answer them, Australia. Then make them put a date on it.

The answers, counted

So I counted. Five problems the episode touched. How many came with a date?

Name reservation: hiccups, worked through. No date needed, it's over². Vanishing at zone borders: gone when we go live. That's a date, November fourth⁷. A seamless world: not at all times. No date⁸. The faction lock on Roleplay-PvP: not really concerned. No fix¹². Australia's night sky: they asked you. No date¹⁰.

One date out of five. And that date was already launch day. Hiccups don't need a date. Everything else does.

Even the guest

One last thing. Near the end, the host asked their guest Shobek one easy question¹.

The guest on the tech episode didn't get the name either¹³. The system works. Equally badly, for everyone. Good luck, Shobek¹. Whoever has that name, I hope they level slowly.

Prediction, dated

So, a new prediction, with a date. By Wednesday, November eleventh, one week after launch, someone posts public footage of players vanishing at a zone border, on a live ruleset. Footage, not a forum complaint. A clip anyone can watch. Graded on this channel, on the eleventh. I hope I lose this one. I lost one this week. I can afford another.

The podcast takes launch week off and comes back the week after¹⁶. The graveyard doesn't close.

Next time

If you missed it, the Obituary for the free race is up. Coming next, Exhumed: every racial change from the last six weeks, counted. Guess what the Undead got.

I'll be here. Forever.