Comments on: FAIL!

By: SirBruce

SirBruce — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:59:02 +0000

People are also forgetting that when Anarchy Online launched, you had to sign up with your credit card number on the website… on a non-encrypted connection. No HTTPS, just HTTP. They fixed in in a day or two, but that’s pretty bad.

When Ultima Online launched, things were so bad you couldn’t even move in town. Don’t you remember the Birtannia lag? Or waiting for a minute for your backpack to open?

When EverQuest launched it actually *took down part of the Internet* in California from so many people playing it.

WW2OL’s launch had many problems, but a good portion of them were due to a faulty fiber connection to their ISP. Because their previous ISP went bankrupt without warning and the servers had to be moved overnight to a new location, there was no time to properly load test the new connection.

Bruce

By: HitNRun

HitNRun — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:35:00 +0000

Anarchy Online was…whoa. I mean, whoa.

WoW’s serious problems didn’t last quite as long, but they were quite explosive in their own way, with 4 servers basically getting deleted as far as the players were concerned.

DAOC had a great launch. What few problems there were got covered by XP handouts. After putting up with Verant for years, this felt like the end of the Exodus story in the Bible.

By: krones

krones — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:57:54 +0000

I thought WoW’s launch was alright given the circumstances with everyone and their grandmother rushing to play. As for the BT patches, maybe worse patch system evah list, but not a launch list. AO, Vangaurd, any old EQ expansion, any third rate MMOG like Mourning, and your game when it launches. Don’t hate, I kid! I kid! Well, at least we hope so.

By: Jadawin

Jadawin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:18:47 +0000

EQ had some rough times the first couple of months. WoW had recurring issues for a long, long time, although many of those were apparently server specific (heck I had some issues with Alleria a couple of months ago before I decided to bail). I seem to remember that while launch day was splendiferous for DAoC, the next 2 months saw several stability/uptime issues, but that’s been 7 years ago (gah) so I could be mistaken.

By: Comstar

Comstar — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:55:03 +0000

WW2OL had to steal their own servers back the *day* before launch because the hosting/routing company went bust, and had under 24 hours to get everything set up at an alternate location…which predictably didn’t quite work for several months. And the strategy of “throw more coders at the project” was a disaster as well.

EQ had a free 1(or was it 2?) months of free play time due to it’s failure to launch. Far worse than WOW ever did if I recall.

AO is equal to or higher than WW2OL, but the bar is pretty close.

By: taodon

taodon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:16:17 +0000

Dark and Light should be on this list… it should be 3rd, 2nd, AND 1st. I’m just saying.

By: blachawk

blachawk — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:04:22 +0000

WoW does not belong on that list. Anarchy Online needs to be on it, and Ultima 9 needs to remain on it.

By: nero

nero — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:56:48 +0000

DAOC did launch very well for it’s time. I launched about 80% finished… but technically solid.

By: Mox

Mox — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:52:39 +0000

… Ugnof Toestubber .. .

Where’s that little fellow running off to? Oh well, never mind.

By: Drakks

Drakks — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:36:51 +0000

Yea, suprised AO didn’t make that list. I’d really only put WWO ahead of it in terms of pure omgwtf-titude on launch day.

And I’m not seeing the WoW connection. As much as the game bored me quickly, I can’t really say I ever had much gripe from a technical standpoint. From day 1 launch to my canceling the accounts I never had any real issues. I’ve always thought I had to hand to to Blizzard for that.