Yesterday was the big day, the day that saw the launch of the two latest EverQuest progression servers, Aradune and Rizlona. You can read more details about these servers at a previous post.
Nostalgia goes live
And things looked to be going better than normal, with the server launches hitting the promised noon Pacific Time launch window unlike so many past launches so that Daybreak was able to post the news on time. I was even able to peek in and see that they were up and going.
The launcher shows them live
Of course, as the situation often unfolds, there was a rush to get on the servers and into the game as soon as the servers went live, though it appeared that Daybreak’s somewhat opaque queuing system might be up to the task. Some people got in while others had to wait.
19 minutes isn’t a bad queue… it just doesn’t update
And then things fell over. I saw an update pop up indicating there were problems and bringing up the launcher seemed to confirm that all was not well.
Yeah, that is not looking good
That apparently sent people scurrying to the forums to find out what was going one, so that they too promptly fell over. Too many connections.
These are not the forum messages you were looking for…
The forums were available again after not too long, but all the forums are interconnected, so it seems that the EverQuest II forums were seeing problems. And, apparently, the EverQuest II login servers as well. I did not know they were connected, but I guess since the games share accounts that makes some sense.
Twitter updates not too far apart
Once the forums could handle the load there was a note about working on the issues followed by updates.
I am loathe to blame the user base for believing that Daybreak could successfully launch two new servers on time and without issue… but really, it is the same story every launch, isn’t it? Delays, crowds, problems, they are all part of the authentic experience here now.
This is one of the three problems I feel MMORPGs are never going to solve, or bother solving at least, because it is transitory. A week from now the crowds will have thinned and in a month any additional hardware applied would be sitting idle.
On the bright side, it does speak volumes about the ongoing popularity of EverQuest, now past the 21 year mark, and the desire to get back to a more primeval state of the genre.
As we got into early evening Pacific Time it seemed like Daybreak had finally gotten a handle on the problem and that things would finally kick off at about the usual time for these servers. Logins were allowed and the queues quickly swelled up t about an hour.
And then something fell over again and all the servers were taken down once more and stayed down until around midnight, when the situation seemed to finally be settled.
This morning the servers appear to be up and running. Maybe they should always launch at midnight?
The Aradune server, the true box progression server, had a queue this morning when I checked, once again running close to an hour in length.
The Rizlona server, which allows multi-boxing, seemed less in demand and I was able to pop right in and make a character to try out.
Halas on a crisp May morning
I ran out to Everfrost where I almost immediately had somebody train a red con skeleton onto me, which stunned me then killed me before I could do anything. So all is normal in the world.
I haven’t really decided if I will give either server any sort of real effort. I am always a bit interested, but I am not sure I am up to the task. We shall see. And if I let it pass, there will likely be a new server next year.
Others on this topic:
- Chasing Dings! – Primed and Ready
- Inventory Full – Increase The Population : EverQuest
No comments:
Post a Comment