Misha Realm Concerns

Greetings, all.

As you are likely aware, the realm Misha has experienced connectivity, latency and world server issues over the course of the past few hours. Our Realm Technicians believe they have identified the culprit -- a hardware related issue. We have been working to address this issue as quickly as possible; however, this issue is being addressed in a delicate manner to best ensure that no further issues arise as a result.

Unfortunately, I do not have an ETA to provide you, but I assure you that it is our every intention to resolve this issue expediently.

If you are receiving the message "Error Retrieving Character List", please try the following workaround that was brought to our attention by one of your fellow Mishans.

1. Log in. If you are presented with the "Unable to retrieve.. " error, click "ok", then hit "Change realm".
2. Pick another realm. Actually load the list from it. Then, click "change realm" again, and pick Misha.
3. Repeat the second step until you have your list.

Please be aware that this is only a workaround and may not resolve all occurrences of this or any other related issue.

Should more information become available, updates will be made in this thread. Because of this, we humbly request that you keep all related discussion in this thread to ensure that all players are aware -- each additionally created thread will be locked and/or deleted.

You have our sincerest thanks for your patience and understanding despite this obviously frustrating issue.

Q u o t e:


Understatement of the year. You're correct, Aredek. This is frustrating. This is a bad time to be on one of the worst US servers.

Can you answer a question without reverting to the "additional information as events warrant" or similar response: What happened in September that caused the bear to become the zombie? Can you tell us, even if you do know? Can you tell us if you can tell us if you do know? et cetera, ad nauseum.

To be perfectly honest, I am unaware of any specific incidents which may have occurred in September to create any lasting issues, Willem. As the Game Master staff plays no role in the upkeep of realms, I'm afraid that my expertise in this area (or lack thereof) may prevent me from providing you the type of answer you are looking for. I can tell you, however, that the issue which you are currently experiencing is directly related to an unexpected hardware issue that appears to have crept up earlier in the day.

All of that said, it is our desire to put the highest quality product on your screen, and we will not sit idly by if issues arise which degrade our product. I offer my sincerest apologies if you have experienced lasting realm issues prior to today, my friend. I'll be sure to let the appropriate parties know of your concern in hopes of seeing vast improvements.

As always, please feel free to let us know if you experience any specific issues; we'd be happy to offer our assistance whenever possible. :)

In order to accommodate for updates made to the realm and in an effort to improve the realm's performance, we will be restarting Misha in the very near future. Please keep your eyes peeled for a restart countdown.

Thank you all for your ongoing patience.

Q u o t e:
Still cant log on this dude. Says i do not exist...yet here i am.

Can you try exiting the game completely, Marb.

Once you've logged back in, please try connecting to another realm first and then logging into Misha.

Please let me know the results.

Q u o t e:


This didn't work for me. /pray @ other Mishans.

Thanks for the info, Willem.

Q u o t e:
oh man this sucks hardcore! Here's my story....

I was on the zepplin to Org. and the screen went to the map and it just stayed like that for a really long time. So I shut down WoW and now it says that a character already exists in the game. So I shut it down again and I try to load one of my alts and it just shows the loading bar, full and ready to go, and I still get nothing.

This is friggin' rediculous!

Can you try logging in once more for me, Nidaling?

Thanks for the information, everyone. I'm in the process of gathering more information in hopes of seeing this issue resolved.

If you are currently stuck and are unable to log into a single character, please open a petition using another character on the account using the "Stuck Character" category. A member of the Game Master staff will contact you as quickly as possible and will attempt to resolve this issue.

My apologies for the inconvenience, folks.

Q u o t e:


ok not to be a pain in the ass here but what if NONE of our toons will load to do said petition? thats my problem. none of then will come on. The load screen stays on for 10 minutes before I get dced from server

I have informed our Technicians that this is occurring and am waiting for more information, Melektra.

For those of you experiencing this issue but have not yet tried the workaround provided in the original post in this thread, I highly recommend doing so.

I'll be sure to let you know as soon as more information becomes available.

Please let me know if you're experiencing any lasting log-in issues, folks. :)

Out of those of you experiencing issues while on the loading screen, how many of you are able to log into other characters on the realm?

Q u o t e:


Not I..The game freezes after it fully loads..then nothing happens..So I have to exit the program using Alt-ctrl-delete

-Bani

This is happening on multiple characters, Bani?

Have you tried multiple characters as of yet? :)

Again, thank you all for providing us with quality information.

We are going to keep our eye on this issue, folks. I encourage those of you who are able to log into other characters on your account to submit in-game petitions from these characters informing the Game Master staff of the characters which are currently stuck.

If you are unable to log into any character on the realm, please remained logged off of these characters for approximately 15 minutes before attempting to log in. You are welcome (and encouraged) to create a new character on any other realm to submit a petition with the name and realm of the characters on Misha you are currently unable to log into.

The Game Master staff is aware of the influx of these petitions and are attempting to address them as quickly as possible. Please try to remain as patient as possible as we look to provide assistance.

Thank you all for your ongoing patience!

My apologies for any delays in communication from us; I was monitoring the situation and wanted to ensure that any information I provided was current and everything was good to go.

It would appear that the last post in this thread was about 10 minutes ago; as of now everything should be working correctly and all continents, instances, etc are up and running with players on them.

If anyone is still experiencing an issue, please let us know.

Are you able to log onto any of your characters on the realm, Deanine?

Q u o t e:
I get "a character with that name already exists."

With all of your characters on the realm?

Alright folks, I need everyone to do the following:

1). Exit the World of Warcraft completely.
2). Wait 10 minutes.
3). Attempt to login to your character.

If you are unable to login to your character, please try another one. You are more than likely stuck some how and you will need to submit an in-game petition from a character you are able to login to. This will allow us to address the issue accordingly.

I just wanted to let you all know that you're not forgotten and our technicians are still working to resolve the matter.

Thank you all for your continued reports of the issues you are experiencing.

Just as an FYI:

Hello all --

As an update, we are aware that Misha is still experiencing periods of latency and stability issues. We are monitoring the situation closely and attempting to resolve these ongoing issues. We appreciate your time and patience while we address this situation. Thank you.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14318902911

Even if I do not post in this thread very often, please do not take that to mean that we're not paying attention.

If you believe that we should offer some form of reimbursement or restitution for these issues, please feel free to post on our Suggestions forum; the Game Master department will be unable to determine, or provide such requests.

Good morning, everyone.

I will be monitoring this thread as well as my internal resources for more information regarding the latency and stability issues throughout the day. Please let me know if you experience any difficulties so that I may forward it on to our Technicians as soon as I possibly can.

As Reythur has mentioned, we encourage you to post on the Suggestions Forum if you would like to request compensation for the time lost as a result of this issue. Unfortunately, the Game Master Staff -- and by extension the Representatives of the Customer Service Forum -- are unable to award game time.

Thank you all for your patience over the course of the past couple days; it has not gone unnoticed.

Q u o t e:

Still can't access mailboxes or hearth on my toons.

Can you offer a few more details regarding what happens when you attempt to use your mailbox or hearth, Stylez?

I appreciate the Battleground and Arena reports, folks. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back from our Technicians regarding this one.

Q u o t e:
Seems to me that they're restarting it for the third time. Will it be fixed this time?

I wish I could offer guarantees, but all I can offer is my attention this matter. I'll be right there in the thick of things trying to get this resolved either way.

Let me know what you observe after the restart has completed, all.

If you are unable to log into a character because you are stuck on a loading screen, please submit an in-game petition under the "Stuck Character" category. A member of the Game Master staff will attempt to address individual log-in issues as quickly as possible, folks.

I appreciate your patience, everyone. Please keep any latency or connectivity reports coming.

Q u o t e:



That is not them MAIN problem... the problem we are haveing is when everyone zones they get dc'ed, I goto a bg die and the get dc'ed... then when you log back in you get the stuck on a loading screen... Fix problem 1 will cure problem 2

Oh, I completely understand, Vladimere. Please realize that I am not saying that this will resolve all issues, but rather will allow us to resolve individual log-in issues as we continue to work on the larger issues.

My apologies for any confusion.

Q u o t e:
No lag or connecting problem as yet but all the quests I completed yesterday are back uncompleted but I still have the rewards from some of them in my bag. i take it I will have to redo any that are part of a chain.

Which quests in particular, friend? Can you give me a couple names?

Q u o t e:
Anyway, you're basically saying we have to suffer through something we, or our parents depending on who you are, pay for, and acquire no type of compensation? I've seen in previous threads about this problem that this isnt a big enough problem to have a free transfer to a working realm....

Actually, no. That is not what I'm saying. I am letting you know that I am doing everything in my power to bring these matters to the attention of the appropriate parties. Regrettably, as a Game Master I am unable to troubleshoot and resolve realm issues of this magnitude, but I am able to relay information between you and the Technicians looking into your concerns. With that being said, it is everyone's desire to see this resolved as quickly as possible; however, there is not always a quick resolution.

You are welcome to request that Free Character Moves be made available to the denizens of Misha; however, this is not a process the Game Master staff is able to initiate. Furthermore, we must carefully consider the effects of opening Free Character Moves, and this process can take time. It is not likely that Free Character Moves will be offered as an immediate response to realm issues, but rather carefully considered due to population concerns. Please feel free to request that these free transfers be made available by posting on the Suggestions Forums, friend.

Misha will be undergoing emergency maintenance over the course of the next several minutes. We estimate that the realm will be offline for 30 minutes; however, downtime may be extended should it become necessary. In the case that the realm will be down for an extended period of time, we will do our best to keep you updated on the expected downtime and any new information that may be brought to our attention.

My sincerest apologies for the suddenness of this maintenance, folks. Thank you for your unbelievable patience throughout this process.

Q u o t e:
Aredek, could Blizz at least find it in their hearts to fix the population status of Misha? I just checked and we're listed as "low". Earlier today, we were "medium". A short while back, we were "full", "max", "locked", and "queued".

We're definitely aware of population issues across a number of realms; however, our Technicians and Community teams have elected to address the most severe cases first. I expect our the remaining realms to be reviewed immediately after the current batch of Free Character Moves have been completed.

We'll definitely do what we can to create the best play environment possible, folks. My apologies that issues such as this one have spoiled your ability to play over the course of the past few days.

While we appreciate your fictitious anecdotes and random musings, let's try to keep the contents of this thread on-topic and appropriate. Please feel free to pose questions and state observations related directly to the current Misha issues to ensure that all players are able to easily locate pertinent posts.

Thanks, all.

Willfully disobeying this request may result in a temporary suspension from the World of Warcraft Forums. I'd rather not resort to brief suspensions; however, I will do so if necessary. Needless spam detracts from your fellow players' ability to quickly locate important information.

As has been stated, Misha has been brought back online. Our Technicians are monitoring the realm and will be working to address any issues that may come up along the way. Hopefully these issues are few and far between, but let me know if you have any difficulties whatsoever so I can bring it to their attention.

Thank you all once again for your continued patience.

Hey there, Praeus.

When I a spoke of fictitious anecdotes I was referring to the fabricated stories concerning the conversations Game Masters and Technicians were supposedly having behind the scenes. I sincerely apologize if this was misinterpreted to insinuate I was calling the claims fictitious -- as I know these claims are legitimate and have been forwarded on to our Technicians.

On the subject of compensation: I'm afraid that this is outside of the purview of the Game Master Department. We -- the Representatives of the Customer Service Forum -- encourage our players to post on the Suggestions Forum if they feel that compensation for realm downtime is warranted. The Suggestions Forum is the most commonly reviewed forum by members of the management teams responsible for these sorts of decisions. It is possible that discussions are going on behind the scenes regarding compensation, but if not, posting in the aforementioned forum should help bring this issue to the forefront of the discussion. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with either a yes or no response.

Let me know if you have any further questions, friend.

Flint & Pabkla:

If it all possible, can you check your in-game mailboxes to see if you have received the items you purchased?

Thank you for the thoughtful response, Hoya.

As one who spends in upwards of 40 hours a week on the Customer Service Forums addressing hundreds of issues on a near daily basis, I can honestly say that most players feel as if their realm is the most prone to experience issues. This is neither here nor there, however. Our desire is to address these issues as soon as possible regardless of the realm.

While I am neither omnipresent or omnipotent, I believe the issues you have experienced on Misha are issues that have affected a number of realms over the course of the past few months. Our Community, Support, Quality Assurance and Development teams have all noted that performance issues have been noticeable for several weeks on a variety of realms. In fact, Eyonix recently made the following post:

Q u o t e:
For the last several weeks, our players have been experiencing periodic latency in both outdoor Northrend areas and Naxxramas, and we wanted to provide you with several updates on what we're doing to resolve these issues. As many players have discovered, the outdoor Northrend latency has been tied to activity in Wintergrasp. We are actively working on a server-side fix that should address the high latency experienced in the outdoor world when Wintergrasp is active. This fix is currently in testing on internal test realms and we anticipate that we'll be able to push it to live realms in the near future. Concerning Naxxramas, optimizations are being made that will address both the latency and disconnection issues affecting players while in that zone. These optimizations will be included with the next minor content patch.

We appreciate your patience as we work to address these issues.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14287258583&sid=1

Whether or not this issue is the same issue you all have experienced over the course of the past few months is outside of my knowledge; however, it seems that many of the issues that have been reported are similar to those which we hope to address as soon as possible for a number of realms.

With that being said, Misha experienced a unique issue this weekend; a hardware issue that is likely unrelated to the issue which has affected gameplay for several weeks. Our Technicians continue to monitor and address this hardware issue as best they can. All the while, our Development and Quality Assurance teams are still working to address the issues you, and several other players, have witnessed over the course of the past few months.

You, your guild mates, and your fellow Mishans all have our sincerest apologies, Hoya. There is nothing more devastating for me, as a employee of Blizzard Entertainment, than to hear that several of our player's experiences were spoiled as a result of an issue in or out of game. We're in the business of providing entertainment, and nothing is more painful than to see entertainment turn into frustration.

We will do whatever we can to restore your confidence in Misha, and will continue to address any concerns which inhibit your enjoyment.

I truly wish you all the best and hope to see you all enjoying yourselves soon.

I must admit that you have me at a bit of a loss for words, Ryjak.

While issues did arise this weekend, the speculation that the realm is irreparable and data loss is eminent is completely unfounded.

Should Free Character Moves become available, it will be in response to the same population concerns that have resulted in Free Character Moves in the past. With that being said, the Free Character Move process allows you to move your characters to a lower population realm. If an entire guild decides to take advantage of the offer, they will need to coordinate and initiate their transfers individually.

I'd like to make it clear that we do not consider this issue resolved, folks. Our Technicians are analyzing data and attempting to resolve the remaining issues as we speak. Please continue to let us know if you experience any latency or connectivity issues.

Thanks!

Q u o t e:


But what about the Financial investments players have made to the guild? IE the bank tabs that cost thousands to purchase? Would those options be allowed to be transferred?

I'm assuming this is not a probable outcome, but you guys should consider this as an option. When offering free transfers, a lot of players choose not to since their guild won't be coming too. Offering Free guild transfers would be nice.

Thanks for the input, Ryjak. I strongly encourage you to bring this suggestion to the Suggestions Forum, bud.

After bringing the Auction and Mail issues to the attention of our Technicians, I have been informed that internal realm latency is causing this issue and mail may be delayed as a result. We do not expect any loss of gold of items as a result of this issue and expect everything to reach it's destination albeit slightly delayed.

Greetings folks, I received a little bit of an update. Please understand that the information I have isn't ground breaking, I'm not going to be able to tell you what the issue is or that it has been resolved or when we expect it to be resolved but it has been several hours since Aredek had to leave and I thought I'd give you what I have.

Although the issues persists and the investigation continues they have made progress in narrowing down the potential cause of the issue. We still do not have an ETA on when the issue will be fully resolved but we will pass on any updates we receive when we receive them.

I am hesitant to simply reply every page or so with "We have no new information at this time", that tends to aggravate the situation in most cases. I will continue to monitor this thread as much as possible so please keep the posts civil and on topic.

Q u o t e:
So what you waiting for Bliz?

Where are our refunds for this nonscene and free transfer to compensate us for this ineptitude and stupidity?

Compensation? For a technical issue that needs to be investigated and a resolution worked on? Your subscription covers access to the account, not a specific realm or a specific character.

Q u o t e:

Warranty Disclaimer.
THE GAME AND THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND BLIZZARD DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME OR THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE GAME OR THE SERVICE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. BLIZZARD EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

You are free to access any of the other available realms, Neqael.

Now, that does not mean that we don't want everyone who currently plays on the realm to be able to access it. Our technicians have been and will continue to address this issue until it is resolved. If you want to see any kind of compensation feel free to post in our Suggestion Forums.

I ask once more for posts in this thread to remain civil and on topic.

If you haven't been monitoring the post in the Service Status Forum please know that updates are also being provided there.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14318632353&postId=143175054097&sid=1#7

Q u o t e:
I was wondering how long it would take before they hit us with the legal fun-fun. I must admit it took them alot longer then I thought. ^.^

I was trying to avoid it, because truthfully we want you to play on the realm of your choosing. We want you to be able to log in and play whenever you'd like with as much stability and as little latency as possible.

However, certain posts must be responded to in certain ways. That is one of them. There is this tone in a lot of these posts that makes it sound like people believe that the Game Master Department are the ones who are looking into the technical issues. We aren't. We don't address these issues, we handle in-game issues.

This forum isn't for these issues, we have the Service Status Forum for updates on ongoing issues but we understand you may want whatever information we can give you and want some kind of dialog. So posts like this remain and we provide what updates we can when we are given them.

Q u o t e:

Well, you know the rep this gm has, best wait until tomorrows rotation.

Excuse me?

Fine, good luck all.

Q u o t e:
Sorry Vrakthris, but I think my ToS clearly states..."I am only allowed to be patient with server issues for 2 months" ran out 1 month ago. :)

/hides in fear

Sorry I must have missed that updated version, Stylez. :P

Peenutbutter, please avoid the inappropriate language.

Q u o t e:
Think you could get the guys posting the restarts in the status forum to ellaborate a bit more?

I'm afraid not, Ecs, they are provided with the same information I am except that they are usually made aware of when the realm needs to be restarted.

Q u o t e:
So Mr. Game Master, If i said I want my money back for Blizzard's inability to keep Misha up for more than 15 hours at a time, would you be able to assist me?

Any help would be appreciated...since you know, I pay my money to play the game.

That one, Conquestador? As I already stated your subscription pays for access to your account, not a specific realm or specific character. If you wish to speak to someone about a refund that would be handled through our Billing Department

Our technicians are working on the issue and hope to have you all able to log in to Misha as soon as possible.

Q u o t e:
you think the 50 pages of unsatisfied customers would have them change something, like a free server transfer at the least. But im sure since they are making us pay to not play, they would make us pay for a transfer as well? CONSPIRACY!?! :o

Free Character Moves are made available when a realm's population and overall concurrency is very high. It is offered to reduce the overall population on the realm.

It is not offered when a realm is having a technical issue. In those cases the cause is investigated and once found, appropriate resolutions are looked into and then implemented. We are still in the investigation stage, folks, I understand that the frustration this is causing is great, if I could just hit a button and make it all better I would. In some cases the issue is easily found and a resolution quickly implemented, other times it can take awhile.

Q u o t e:
It was very mature of you to ban a friend of mine for [Removed] about this in a single post. I would be more than willing to bet most people have had at least 10 posts stating that they hate you. That is not how you handle this situation [Removed]

How someone feels about me, Axemurderer, is irrelevant, a post is edited or deleted and the poster suspended because it violated the Code of Conduct. Like your post does.

Please refrain from using inappropriate language.

Q u o t e:
Bump

The thread is stickied, Conquestador, bumping is completely unnecessary.

Q u o t e:


He's a little slow. :)

Thanks for sticking in here Vrakthris. Sorry we're all riled up.

I wouldn't abandon you guys, even if I don't have an update. :) Granted one of my previous responses was not taken as I intended it but what can you do? Text is very limiting in conveying intent and inflection.

Hopefully, now that the realm is coming back up I'll receive some kind of update. I'll let you know.

Q u o t e:
Still laggy but meh it is up, still don't trust it.

From initial reports it looks like everything should be up and running. Is anyone else still experiencing an increased amount of latency still?

Haccomb, if you have an issue with how I do my job write to wowgmfeedback-us@blizzard.com.

Just so you know, what threads I respond to is my choice. So I could have left the thread alone. Now, please keep the comments in this thread on topic.

Q u o t e:
it sounds like a lot of ppl in the trade chat are having problems getting to to mail still i havent tryed but just want to let the G.M know

Thank you, Jameska.

Q u o t e:
I'm waiting with Sprinkler, on load screen seven minutes after the progress bar reached 100%. Many people trying to get on at once not helping. Good night and good luck to the techs.

Sprinkler, before you head off to bed, if you could log into another character on that realm please submit an in-game petition with the name of the character and the word "Stuck". That way one of our Game Masters can move your character and hopefully resolve the issue.

Q u o t e:

you are welcome and think u for putting up with our crap

Any time. <3