Project Lore

Estimated Time Remaing: FOREVER

There were a few things that one expected with Wrath of the Lich King's launch, first and foremost was long lines at the midnight sales.  Next was an Auction House ripe for money making, before and after the second expansion's launch.  However, the ability to cash in for gobs of gold would not begin until WotLK finally launched.  The additional opportunities opened up due to the fact that many players would be returning to WoW, while more were joining the ranks of the Horde or Alliance for the first time. Next on the list of items that experienced players would expect should of been queues.  Queue times have been a staple in World of Warcraft since the title's launch way back in 2004.  Originally, they were implemented because the starting areas were so full of players that the lag made the vicinity unplayable.  They persisted on the realms for times when the server hit its maximum load.  Generally speaking, the cap was only hit for most servers during national holidays, Sunday nights and around the release of major content patches or whole expansions.  Thanks to Blizzard's liberal use of awesomesauce on Wrath, Northrend has supplied my main pair of servers with population timers popping up nearly two months since its launch! At the beginning I was one of the many who steadfastly told people to chill out, that the queues would go away in a week, two or perhaps a month.  While I still hold on to the belief that the lines will shrink and then disappear - either to player apathy or hardware updates - but they are putting a serious hurt on my limited playtime.  More importantly, one of my good friends just transferred to another server because Magtheridon has been plagued with 20-30 minute queues during raiding times, and beyond.  Hell, last night at 11 o'clock I had to wait 25 minutes to log in, giving me about 20 minutes to play before I had to pack it up.  On the plus side, he was a Horde player, so perhaps I can get him to re-roll Alliance once this business dies down. How are the stacks on your servers?  Tolerable?  Non-existent?  Transfer worthy?  Also, does anyone know if the queues are faction based at all?  My aforementioned friend has constantly reported longer wait times for Horde than I was getting for Alliance.  However, we never managed to login at the same time to truly compare.

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The Line As We Approach Launch

I pulled up to Gamestop last night just after 10:15 PM to see about fifteen people milling around outside the store.  After fumbling with my bikelock in the 46 degree weather for a few minutes, I finally joined the crowd and jumped in on my first discussion, QQing about Retribution Paladins and how badly they need to be nerfed.  Not that anyone would care two hours from now, when they are home and installing Wrath of the Lich King. The kind employees at Gamestop invited all the fans in while they began processing last minute transactions.  Thankfully, the Philadelphia midnight launch did not have any credit card problems.  After the first batch of purchasers completed their transactions and the murmurs grew louder, I loudly introduced myself to grab their attention for a highly unscientific poll.  “Who thinks the servers will be playable in the next 24 hours?!” I asked. A few hands went up, but the general consensus was that lag, stability and over population (queues) would cause issues for many players.  A few players told me that this thinking was exactly the reason they decided to attend the midnight release.  They figured they would have the servers to themselves for a handful of uninterrupted, non-laggy hours to get ahead of the curve.  As of press, my server (an original server) is still fine, although there are reports of trouble out there. After we had warmed up and purchased our copies, the kindly employees threw us out into the cold again (“Line up outside if you want to get Wrath”).  As the line grew, passersby asked us what the hell we were in line for.  Being the angst-filled, impatient, basement-dwelling gamers that we are, we made stuff up.  Halo 4, Gears of War 3, Grand Theft Auto 5, free STD tests, and a few others that I can't print.  I also heard a few other items of pure gold while in the chilly air:

• Question: “What do you call a gnome escaping from Alcatraz?  A small medium at large.” (Player)
• “Aren't you too old to be waiting in line for a video game?” (An old lady after I told her what we were in line for while taking the picture).
• “All right you little warlords, up against the wall if you want the game.” (The cop helping out with crowd control).

These fellows demanded that they be put on the interwebs since they were in the front. Thanks to Patrick Mulhern for the pics!

The line ended up extended well around the corner by 11:30 PM, with every copy the store received reserved and paid in full.  By 12:30 the line had been cut in half, with the second purchaser sprinting out of the store, game in hand, as he shouted something like 'I'll be the first to 80, bitches!'  He was running so fast that I couldn't hear him clearly.  Needless to say, he was excited.  By 1:00 AM the line was gone, but the employees were still cleaning up in the store.  Sorry guys. How did your midnight releases go?  We didn't have a single cosplayer!

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