World waits for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade

by Vladimir Cole { Jan 16th 2007 at 11:01PM }

Blizzard's just-released Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft appears to have inspired customers (old and new) to return in droves. The screenshot above was taken moments ago. It demonstrates that the huddled masses, yearning to breathe digitally, are forming long lines at the borders to Azeroth. "Let us in," the wretched refuse cry!

Tags: burning crusade, wow, wowbc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

alexanderwales @ Jan 16th 2007 11:37PM

Have the servers crashed yet?
Or rather, how many times have the servers crashed?

Jinkin @ Jan 16th 2007 11:51PM

They have the WoW TCC to keep them company, right?

nestlequ1k @ Jan 16th 2007 11:56PM

This is like crazy F*#$& up nuts. How much money are they making on this thing? Lets see... 8 million users. 15 a month. plus 30 for each copy of burning crusade.

Thats over a BILLION F*#$&ING DOLLARS A YEAR. BUY SOME MOTHER F*#$&ING GOD DAMN FREAKIN SERVERS

Or else jackasses will troll blogs while they are waiting 30 more minutes. F*#$&

Chiablo @ Jan 16th 2007 11:58PM

Two new races does nothing to decrease the now stale gameplay of WoW. I have 3+ characters that are over level 50. I have seen every end game dungeon there is. Adding two new races does NOTHING to change the gameplay. The game desperately needed two new classes to offer a substantial improvement for me to continue playing.

By adding a horde paladin and an alliance shaman, they have removed what made each side different and unique. Now there is no difference whether I roll a horde or alliance character.

I've played since late beta, and on the day of the expansion I cancel my account and begin my search for the perfect MMO anew. I hope Vanguard can give me longer lasting satisfaction than WoW.

I leave with fond memories, but it's time to move on.

NotAnElitistPrick @ Jan 17th 2007 12:24AM

Wait in line to buy the game, just to wait in line to play said game.

This is probably why I won't be joining the 8 million people online who play WoW.

To all of you who are complaining like #3, seriously, complain louder. (And I don't mean on their forums.)

Travis @ Jan 17th 2007 12:07AM

#4 I have been in the Vanguard beta for sometime now after quiting WoW for 8 months...It is a worthless attempt at an MMO. It may have pretty graphics, but the game play is the same as ever. There really needs to be an MMO that actually breaks away from the mold.

mietha CAG @ Jan 17th 2007 12:17AM

Crap like this is why I quit WoW. It was good in beta. Not much much in live. Blizzard can go **** themselves.

Psyclerk @ Jan 17th 2007 12:25AM

This is why I didn't plan on playing any WoW for the next week or two (or three or four). Ever since the last big "content patch" (read: the patch that put a lot of the expansion's features in place as a way to make up for delaying the actual expansion), the PvE server I play on has had massive queues. Massive enough that it killed my interest in the game. Sorry folks, I work for a living, and that 45 minutes you want me to wait to play your game has real value, and I don't intend to waste it staring at the queue screen or finding something else to do when I really wanted to play WoW.

Honestly, Blizzard needs to man up and start cutting off new entries into servers long before they get to the point of needing 30 minute to two hour queues. I know they have the ability. I tried rolling on a new server, and was told that this new server was not accepting the particular race and/or class I was trying to make.

Dirtyboy @ Jan 17th 2007 12:25AM

*sigh* That's my main server in the picture. And we just had realm transfers OFF of it last week...

Rich @ Jan 17th 2007 1:29AM

My account expired 2 weeks ago and the expansion wasn't enough for me to stay.
Two new races, big deal...
More raid dungeons, yawn, I wasn't a raider anyway...
Level 70 cap, 2 months of casual grinding to do nothing again...

8 million? nah, 7,999,999 copies, they aren't get my $40 or another $15 a month for me twiddle my thumbs.

Kevin @ Jan 17th 2007 12:48AM

the first 3 weeks that i played had consistent 2 hour waits at all times of the day not to mention being down on tuesdays for hours. I was very upset and I personally hate WoW now. I much prefer maplestory and have been playing consistently(except the two months of WoW) for 2.5 years now.

Tony @ Jan 17th 2007 12:48AM

Um, that server has been listed as "full" well before Burning Crusade came out. If you want to avoid the line, stop putting new characters on it.

They opened up new servers not so long ago and apparently even more new ones for this expansion. I've not had any issues anywhere else but on Azjol-Nerub in my history with the game, but I mean, it practically warns you of that when you make any character on there.

Of course, it sucks if you've been using that as your main forever and now it's essentially overcrowded... but my point is that there ARE choices and the people bitching here about new servers already got what they would have wanted... assuming any of them actually played the game, which it looks like they do not.

Tom Strong @ Jan 17th 2007 12:55AM

From the outside looking in, I can only say....GET A LIFE!

therpham @ Jan 17th 2007 1:02AM

We haven't addressed the real issue here - how can new customers return if they haven't been there yet?

kingpinj @ Jan 17th 2007 2:54AM

Blizzard is very tricky with their advertising. It is not 8M subscribers, but 8M copies sold. There is a huge difference there.

I am one of the people who bought WoW and played it for a few months and got tired of doing the same things that have been around since 99 with EQ1. EQ2 felt the same way, it just has better graphics- but thats not enough to keep my subscription either.

Hopefully Age of Conan will turn out great. Vanguard has a lot of promise, but Ive been in beta a while, and the game still needs a lot of work.

Dirtyboy @ Jan 17th 2007 4:20AM

That number is 8 million active subscribers, they have sold many more copies of the game than that.

tapoxi @ Jan 17th 2007 4:30AM

"Blizzard is very tricky with their advertising. It is not 8M subscribers, but 8M copies sold. There is a huge difference there."

No, it's 8M active subscribers. From Blizzard:

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

You gotta admit, 8 Million is a hell of a feat.

Ralod @ Jan 17th 2007 5:36AM

As they said above, 8m is actaully 8m active paying accounts.

And to be fair from what I understand only a handful of servers had Queues tonight. I play on a Release server who had queues of over 1000 last week of December. They opened up a free transfer and even today we had no queue or a very tiny one at prime time (7-10pm est)

I have played Many MMO's, EQ1 for over 5 years along with almsot every other major MMO out there. I have to say this was the smoothest expansion launch I have yet seen in any game. No downtime at all, no server crashes. The only issue is too many people wanting to play. Really, thats not a bad thing:)

And to the person above who states there quitting wow, I have beta tested Vanguard, the game is a steaming plie of trash. The game is a good 6 months off from being done, however no matter how much they do to it, the game will never be fun. And this is from a person that had High hopes for the game.

iNZoW @ Jan 17th 2007 6:11AM

This number gonna increase greatly. There are people like me who quit wow months ago and will be back once gets hands on the expansion set. And i bet there are too many people doing the same.

PurpleSfinx @ Jan 17th 2007 7:49AM

I spend hours every day playing this game and I think most of the expansion is a gimmick.

sheppy @ Jan 17th 2007 9:21AM

You know, I had saved myself of the WOW bug long ago and have no desire to dive back in. HOWEVER, the concept of David Perry's Dance! has me thinking, "you know how cool it would be to roam a huge MMO world just to serve some random fools?"

Knowing my luck, I'd probably keep meeting DJ Dao.....

kimo @ Jan 17th 2007 9:52AM

As mentioned above, the majority of servers were fine, with none to minor lag, and no queues at all. It is slightly exaggerated to say that this is a widespread problem. The only problem I encountered was the massive number of level 4 Draneae shaman running around the new zone.

makesevenupyours @ Jan 17th 2007 7:36PM

to the guy telling them to buy some freaking servers...are you kidding me? the DOUBLED the number of servers VERY shortly after the game came out and add more servers all the time. they also do transfers for crowded servers.

[shakes head]

as said here, most of them didnt have any problems, and the one pictured above is ALWAYS busy.

and it is 8 million SUBSCRIBERS. i would bet they have SOLD over 10 million copies.