Avian Gamers Network

It is tough to play, but my hope is an issue like this can be corrected. Maybe I'm naive, but isn't it a good bet it has something to do with the latest patch. Didn't the lag issue start then?

The game as a whole blows SWG out the water. The graphics are better, the sound is better, the missions are better, the game play is better.

BUT the lag can destroy all the positive things about this game in a hart beat.

Why doesn't everyone just go to a different server? It's a simple solution isn't it? There have been no lag issues for me over the past day and a half on server 40(i think) eastern standard.

This is a brand new server, because as of Monday they only had 36 open if I remember correctly. I might try a different one but I had hoped to experiment with some higher level content before the end of the beta. That will of course be a no go if I have to start over at this point.

Hi all,

A number of inquiries have come in about the lag issues on some of the servers, so we want to take some time to provide more in-depth information for you. Some of you might be surprised to learn that the lag you’re experiencing is an expected and necessary part of the open beta test. Contrary to what some of you might believe, the open beta test is intended as a massive stress test, and not just a free demo of the game prior to launch.

Having hundreds of thousands of testers playing the game at this time lets us analyze how well our server infrastructure -- made up of the best, most up-to-date hardware available -- can handle extremely large server populations. In fact, the open beta test is allowing us to simulate having an even greater number of testers spread across even more servers than we currently have up. In terms of concurrency, we’re already seeing servers with twice as much population as we had during the closed beta test, and our total overall concurrency, across all servers, is already rivaling that of the most popular MMORPGs currently available. Keep in mind, also, that this population is distributed across a relatively small number of servers -- again, for the exact purpose of stress testing them.

In general, lag issues are caused when thousands of players congregate in one or two zones on a server. When this happens, the normal communication that comes from the server -- which includes information about every NPC, monster, player, item, etc. in the area -- increases to the point where the flow of data can get backed up.

For those of you who are concerned about server stability and possible loss of character-related information, take heart knowing that the lag you experience when this backup happens is not at all related to stability; it’s more of an issue with how quickly the data is handled. That is, with an excess of communication from the servers, the data remains stable, it just has to wait its turn in line to be processed. Running a massive open beta test like this allows us to steadily optimize how the data is processed.

With half a million people having signed up and been accepted into the open beta test, we have the unique opportunity of being able to fine tune our code prior to release in a way that most other MMORPGs have not. These code optimizations are done server side and do not require players to patch. As more and more testers finish their beta-client installations and start logging on, we’ll be able to do even more analysis and optimization prior to release. While this process brings about a challenge for those of you facing lag issues, it ultimately helps us maintain our schedule of analyzing and optimizing our code for all of our servers, including the ones that have yet to be brought online.

We are looking forward to having hundreds of thousands of players enter the world of Azeroth on November 23, and we‘re grateful that you all have the interest and the patience to help us do this last, sometimes challenging, bit of testing. Your assistance with this will truly help us ensure that World of Warcraft will run as smoothly as possible at launch.

Well got my test 40 druid up to lvl 8 before tonight's incident.

Blizz wrote a good PR peice on the lag issue:

World of Warcraft® Final Stress Test FAQ

What is the final stress test?

The final stress test is an additional phase of testing that the developers have deemed necessary in order to prepare the game for open beta. Those who play in the final stress test will be helping to finalize the game code so that it is ready for deployment in the open beta phase.

World of Warcraft® Open Beta FAQ

What is the open beta?

As World of Warcraft gets closer to completion, we need to conduct another phase of beta testing for final balancing and bug fixing. This phase of testing is the open beta. Many final aspects of the game are being implemented in their most complete form in the open beta, and we will need this time to test these elements as rigorously as possible to ensure that they are completed for the game's launch.

Stop worrying about the lag issue. Have faith in Blizzard. This isn't SOE.

Reports in this thread that the lag issue is reduced or even nearly gone strenghtens my confidence in Blizzard and their ability to get WoW finished before launch.

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties which are causing a number of servers to be unavailable. We are devoting all our resources to resolving these issues and hope to have a resolution soon. Unfortunately, we do not yet have an ETA for when these servers will return to normal service but updates will be posted in the Server Status forum as soon as we have more information.

This issue is also affecting our Game Masters’ ability to assist customers. As such, any requests for help concerning these servers currently in the petition queue cannot be answered, nor will players be able to submit additional requests for help until the issue is resolved. Thank you for bearing with us and we apologize for the inconvenience!

Specifically, the following servers are affected:

Beta Server 2
PvP
Test 4
Test 7
Test 10
Test 11
Test 15
Test 22
Test 26
Test 29
Test 30
Test 33
Test 34
Test 39
Test 41

The network engineers continue to work to resolve the server issues. We do not have an ETA on when the server issues will be resolved but are working hard to provide an ETA as soon as possible.

Please be patient and we will provide updates as they come.