Project Lore

[caption id="attachment_8988" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Can this man help us figure out the mystery of patch day maintenance?"][/caption] Probably the least surprising thing that could've happened today has, in fact, happened: likely due to the release of Patch 3.3, regular server maintenance has been extended for an undetermined amount of time. It was first announced at 11:04 AM PST by Bornakk:

We are performing extended maintenance while we resolve some additional issues. We do not have an estimate on when the realms will be available for play but we will provide another update in approximately 1 hour. Thank you for your patience.

Do note that this means another update will be given an hour from the original message, not that the extended maintenance will only last an extra hour. On patch days like this, it has been known to last most of the day, and even then, loads of problems including lag and the inability to access dungeon/raid portals have occurred once servers are back online. The question, of course, is: how does this keep on happening? You would think by now Blizzard would understand most of the potential problems that could occur and how to deal with them effectively, but like clock work, every time a new patch is set to release, we run into the same issues. It's one I ask out of curiosity, though. I don't mean to get down on the server techs, as though I know I jack about the architecture and maintenance of such, I do understand that they're complex systems. I've had a few friends that work in IT or at server farms and have heard of nothing but headaches. Still, the company controls when patches are released and have as much time as they allow themselves to make sure maintenance goes smoothly beforehand. My guess is that the monkey tasked with pushing the "Start World of Warcraft button" escaped his cage again. Anyway, we'll keep you updated on the situation as it changes and hopefully that means we'll be able to toy around with Patch 3.3 sooner rather than later. In the mean time, anyone want to share some conspiracy theories? Update: Blizzard's site is down and it seems even some of the fansites are having trouble what with everyone wanting to know what's going on. Thankfully, Twitter comes to the rescue. As of around 12:23 PM PST:

We are in the final stages of resolving the issues. We will provide another update in about 1 hour. Thank you for your patience.