World of Warcraft Patching

T

Talon

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 8, 2002
Messages
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Why doesn't Blizzard give specific times or schedules for when they will be implementing the latest patch? It's very odd that player have to literally wait until the last moment to find out when new content is going to go live.
 
I sti;ll dont understand the point to this? Will knowing a patch is coming help in any way?
 
Because then they have to deal with a million forum posts saying:
"WHERE IS THE PATCH YOU PROMISSED????? I WANT MY MONEY BACK! BLIZZARD SUCKS!"

Anyway, every tuesday is server maintenance. That is also when they add content patches. So every tuesday, if there is an upcoming patch that has been on the test server for a while, just expect a patch to be released.
 
I'm not advocating long term prop schedules, but a 2 or 3 day notice that 'The upcoming scheduled maitenance will include the rollout of current bugfixes and new content.'
 
It would be in everybody's best interest to release the patch file for users 1 or 2 days in advance, so that they can download it ahead of time, which would negate the mass zerg for bandwidth, which always happens on patch day.
 
With mirror sites I do not see bandwidth being a problem. When the Bnet downloader was slower than molasses I just pulled it off Gamepot, installed and was off and running.
 
The bliz downloader works fine for me, you just have to forward the right ports on your router. Besides, I don't think blizzard always knows when the next patch will be coming and they are afraid to make estimates because then all the idiots will call them liars and make topics in the forums about how awful blizzard is.
 
Or do what i do(did). Wait to notice a thread about the new patch here, go home for lunch and get the download started and have it waiting for you when you get home. I'm glade i did that since it took over 2 hoursto download and install.
 
WoW would be a decent game except that they implemented the stupidest patching system conceivable, and for some reason they refuse to fix the situation.

This is the first game from Blizzard that truly disappointed me, hopefully they get it back together for their next game.
 
Uh, I don't see anything stupid about the patching system. They usually patch in bulk once a month or so, and you don't have to use their downloader. I don't know what there is to hate...
 
If you don't like their downloading system, you can download from other sites - not too hard to find a link either.

Regarding the patching, they have always patched on the same day they do maintenance. Basically, if the test servers are up, then expect a patch on the 2nd or 3rd Tuesday after. I'm pretty sure most people know by now that Bliz won't set any plans in stone to prevent little kiddies from saying "OMG YOU PROMISED!!111 - I HAVE SCREENSHOTS!!"
 
D1sc1pl3 0f Mal1c3 said:
Uh, I don't see anything stupid about the patching system. They usually patch in bulk once a month or so, and you don't have to use their downloader. I don't know what there is to hate...
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I think it's just people with the "Customer is always right" mantra playing in there head, getting annoyed at nothing, because they feel nothing is ever right.

If you KNEW the patch was coming, how would it help? It's not like you would get it earlier, and if you could, EVERYONE would get it earlier and zerg rush onto the servers, it wouldn't help anything.
 
I think the main problem people have with the current patching system, is that even during beta, Blizzard said they would look into other patching methods.
 
never had problems with patching on WoW. people just dont know how to open ports for the blizzard downloader. the whole downloading on the patch only took about 15min from a fresh install. that's about 200mb worth of download.
 
One big problem with blizzard is their lack of information to the customers. All the..."we have great things coming soon but we can't say anything" doesn't help at all. Would it hurt them to release more information to us?
 
Yes, it might, because if they tell people what they are thinking about adding there will always be a very vocal few screaming and yelling "OMG BUT YOU SAID....", so they don't tell us what they're adding until they're sure about it. You can't say they are bad at customer service because they don't tell us what's on the horizon. It's their way of doing business, and it honostly doesn't really affect how we play the game. Sure, I'd like to know what they're brainstorming and stuff, but is it necessary?
 
bonkrowave said:
It would be in everybody's best interest to release the patch file for users 1 or 2 days in advance, so that they can download it ahead of time, which would negate the mass zerg for bandwidth, which always happens on patch day.
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I agree, city of heroes gives you about a month's advance to download the next content update, however WoW waits till its live. I wish thats how they did it, the blizzard downloader is crap if your behind a firewall or on a router, but if I had a month to download it, I would let it download while im sleeping or something.
 
Asheron's Call (1) had a set day each month that was patch day, they always had new content. Maybe lack of a deadline is letting Blizz stall on release. I'd prefer 10 new things on a monthly schedule rather than 30 new items at roughly 3 month intervals, just put what is ready in the patch.
 
Aren't tuesdays always patch days/server maintenance days? The only problem I saw was that they started the maintenance 3 hrs early on tuesday b/c of battlegrounds.
 
D1sc1pl3 0f Mal1c3 said:
WoW.com has tutorials on how to forward the necessary ports. Not that difficult.
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Comments like this drive me nuts. Frist off I shouldn't have to forward any ports. The point is Blizzard has to assume that no one knows what the hell they're doing. The download should start/download/install with out having to forward ports or what have you. I have all the ports set up just like they ask, and yes it works, but very poorly. Also there is a problem with the ingame downloader set up for minor bug patches. What happens is you launch the game, and then it downloads closes and installs, however on my machine (and others cause ive seen the problem else where) the installer thinks the game is still running when however it isn't. So I have to copy the patch file, restart in safe mode and install it that way.

My point is, I paid $45 for the game, and $15/mo to play. I should not have to do all this work to make the game funciton, its stupid for the consumer whos already paying out the ass to have a product that doesn't work right. It is also unfair for them to say "well they're going to play regardless so lets keep the product as crappy as it is" now the game is a great product, but the downloader software is CRAP, pure CRAP and they need to fix it, theres no excuse.
 
pistola said:
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So download it off one of the mirror sites.

I think that the Blizzard Downloader works great. It's similar to Bittorrent, and is very efficient. I find downloads through it go very quickly and smoothly. If you have to restart in safe mode to install the patch, sorry, there is something wrong on your side.

Don't think you should have to forward ports? Welcome to the amazing world of using one internet connection for multiple computers. It happens. Life goes on.

If you're not happy with the Blizzard's service, then you have the option to stop paying your $15 a month. Simple as that, my friend. By keeping your account, you are saying that it is worth it to you.

And do you really think Blizzard employees have a huge poster that reads "well they're going to play regardless so lets keep the product as crappy as it is." Because that's retarded. They are constantly fixing bugs and adding content to this game.
 
Genocidal said:
One big problem with blizzard is their lack of information to the customers. All the..."we have great things coming soon but we can't say anything" doesn't help at all. Would it hurt them to release more information to us?
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Because they never know what is going to really happen untill it makes the next patch. They put the patch on the test servers and release the patch notes to everyone days before the patch happens.
 
The problem with patching is not port forwarding. The problem is the lack of bandwidth and Blizzard relying on users to host the patch, instead of doing it themselves.

Why is it that I get 4kbs from Blizzards Bit Torrent, yet I get 500+kbs from some 10 year olds t1 connection, who posts in the forums.

The answer is very simple, Blizzard does not have the bandwidth to properly distribute patches for its product.

I know when I was trying, in vain, to download the patch from Blizzard, I very frequently got "cannot connect to tracker", thats Blizzards end not being up to the job, ... not port forwarding.
 
You know, I had the same problem then I forwarded blizzards ports and set up a static IP and boom, 50-100 kbps. I dunno, maybe blizz wants to conserve bandwidth for the forums or the servers or w/e, but I find it hard to fault them because some people don't like download system of all things.
 
I fault them because during beta they stated they were looking into other methods of patching for WoW, and like so many promises, it never happened.
 
Some of you will complain and argue about anything. I'm guessing about 90% of WoW customer base has Broadband... and their downloader will get the patch and install it overall in less than an hour. That's it! Stop whining and acting like little children.
 
You weren't promised anything. Show me where it said "We (Blizzard) promise you ...". Saying that you will, "look into..." isn't a promise.

Just relax, take a deep breath and take a look at this issue from their perspective.

Any by what means are you attempting to "hold them accountable"? Trying to make points about it in a forum? This isn't even their forum, none of them are reading this. Are you doing something to inform them of your issues with their Patch/Update delivery methods? If so talk about that here.

Their OWN forums are FULL of this type of behavior and I can assume they only read and listen to 1-5% of it because they figure with 1.5 MILLION accounts and only a portion of those are active on the forums, they are only hearing about problems from that small percent.

I call it the 2% rule. 2% Is the small amount of problems that people try to focus on and "make a big stink" about. They don't care, if you cancel your account because they dont' listen to you while you try to "rally the troops" and get more people to join you and leave.

The percentage of people that whine about it (and anything else) is probably around 20%.. you've probably heard of the 80/20 rule, that 80% are happy (and not posting in the forums about how they are happy about WoW) and 20% are not. So the 20% whine about 2% of problems. Now 20% of their user base isn't going to unite and all leave WoW, only a 80/20 of those will, so out of 1.5 million people 20% is 300,000 and 20% of that is 60,000. Do you think 60,000 people will leave their product over one small problem such as their update/patch delivery method? No they aren't I don't even think you're threatening to leave over this. But my point is what are you trying to DO about this to "Make them held accountable".

But at the same time they have a delivery method in place that is obvioulsy working to SOME degree. They'd probably rather address it later on down the line as it's a smaller problem the actual gameplay.

This type of thread comes up on almost a weekly basis since WoW has been out and I'm sure it's the same amount on every type of forum out there with about the same frequency. (I'm excluding the offical WoW forums because it's probably more daily there).
The mere fact at those forums that people try to be the "first one to post" after an offical post comes out is an obvious statement about their membership that follow the forums.

And Bonk, I'm not even lumping you in with THAT type of forum member, I give you more credit than that! :)
 
I cant show you the thread where KDM said this in beta, because World of Warcraft has possibly the worst forum search ever, well next to this one of course .... *baaa zing sorry had to say it.

:D
 
Time, Cost, Performance....pick two of the three. If you want all three, call yourself bonko :D

Seriously folks...reality needs to be factored in here. The perfect game with no bugs and perfect performance would NEVER be released. Get it? Then people will say "what about console games". Guess what, their performance still sucks and their content is limited.

-tReP
 
Yes, because considering alternate methods equates to an unfulfilled promise... Do you have any idea how much bandwidth it would use to have hundreds of thousands of users getting direct downloads from blizzards site? There are mirrors of patches all over the net as well as blizzard's downloader if you don't want to find a mirror, so there really isn't anything to complain about here...
 
DO you have any idea how much bandwidth it takes to allow the multitude of users to connect to the game, or post on the forums. They have been able to supply bandwidth for the game, now its time for the patches. With the amount of money they are raking in, with WoW, they can easily afford it.
 
bonkrowave said:
DO you have any idea how much bandwidth it takes to allow the multitude of users to connect to the game, or post on the forums. They have been able to supply bandwidth for the game, now its time for the patches. With the amount of money they are raking in, with WoW, they can easily afford it.
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the game doesnt take that much, considering people can play it on 56k
 
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