It’s About Time

August 28th, 2006 at 09:26am TheFurryOne

Session Time: Two hours split between Sunday morning and Sunday evening. One and a half if you don’t count… well, you’ll see. Advanced a good ways into Level 11.

Let me preface this whole thing by saying, first and foremost, that I am not blind to the deficiencies produced by my playthrough. I will be the first to admit that by only relying on what is presented to me in-game and in the manual, I am missing out on quite a bit of information. So I’ve taken the advice of a few of the people posting here and made a couple changes to what I try. The results have improved my opinion of the game enough to warrant their mention.

First, the idea of selling items in the Auction House over a longer period of time certainly was a good one. The Notched Shortsword of Strength I’d found in a random chest in some godforsaken hole (ahem, beautifully-rendered godforsaken hole) sold for almost double what it would have through an NPC. Also, asking the guards for information actually works. Had someone been kind enough to point that out in-game instead of ignoring me, maybe I wouldn’t have been as lost and pissed off. Finally, I’m getting the impression that being a Shaman isn’t specifically a caster-type role; I found a Dreamwatcher Staff which deals a lot more damage than the mace I’d been using. Of course, finding new armor is getting to be a chore.

Now, then, let’s talk about the 800-lb. ogre in the room. The server queue. Last night, for the first time since starting the trial, I was subjected to the dreaded “Anvilmar is Full” message. Let me reiterate. Anvilmar, a server touted as “new” when I first started in late July, is now a “full” server. Granted, I have not been playing on weekend evenings specifically so I can avoid getting this, but last night I just had to get on. I’d gotten to that point of the weekend where you’re saying, “Goddammit, Monday, just get here already!” So I logged in, saying, “I have to check my auction anyway and get my stuff back”. And found myself at position 130 in line to get in.

Now, yes, 130 is not that bad. It wound up only being a five-minute wait. But, for those five minutes, it was eternity. Can you imagine if someone truly addicted wound up delayed by this screen? I don’t know about you, but even in my quasi-apathy I was pissed. Imagine someone who actually likes the game having to wait. Or, worse, someone who got randomly disconnected in the middle of a party situation or guild event. Getting stuck in line while your allies are getting slaughtered in turn is not going to endear you. You may lose DKP, whatever those are, and that’s Serious Business.

Once I was in, there were no obvious signs that the server was straining. There was no lag, no overpopulation, nothing that would say, “We need to limit the number of people here”. Maybe the server wasn’t straining. That’s a possibility; maybe “full” really means “If we add any more people, there may be 1/128th of a second of lag and heaven forbid that there be lag in my Horde”. It would be nice to know what Blizzard considers “full”. It would also be nice to have something to do during the wait time other than stare at the queue countdown. I mean, sure, you can curse at it, but that gets old after a while and your throat gets dry really fast.

I’ve found that I’m eligible for the Warsong Gulch PvP Battleground, so I’ll be heading into that later this week. Y’know, assuming I can get in.

The Good: Even in a situation where the game’s in a “critical” state, it’s responsive (which makes the spike of lag I had on the first night very very odd). The game remains quasi-fun if you have the time and mood to get into it.
The Bad: I promised that there would be whining when I had to wait, and here it is. Waiting sucks. It’s not clear if I could have tried a character on a different server and still kept my place in line. There should be something more engaging during the queue screen.
Opinion Change: Slightly less. I’m gradually moving away from outright hatred of the game and more into neutral tolerance, but unless something wows me here in the next week or so, there’s no chance I’ll be continuing.

Entry Filed under: World of Warcraft