Can WoW Handle 5 million Players?

So, everyone knows by now that WoW hit the 5 million player mark not long ago, but can Blizzard really handle the numbers? From what I’ve been hearing and reading around the Internets, the answer is nope.

The natives players are getting restless. And you know why? Cause getting put into queues sucks. Then getting in just for the sever to crash sucks. Lag double sucks. I know. I’ve been there.

I’m sure Blizzard is trying their darnest to make the gaming experience pleasant for all 5 million of their customers. At least, I want to believe that, deep, deep down, in that special place within me that houses my naïveté toward the game developers I <3. But Blizzard isn’t saying much.

Blizzard Entertainment so far has not said what exactly is causing these problems. Sources however indicated that a rush of new accounts from the holiday season and newly added content, which requires players to gather massive amounts of materials for an upcoming virtual war, may have overwhelmed the game developer.

Up until a few months ago, players were able to almost instantly log into the game after typing in their username and password. Now many players have to wait from a few minutes to up to 30 minutes to log in. In addition to showing the estimated time till entry, WoW’s waiting screen shows the player’s place in the queue and players on the Medivh server have recently seen queues of more than 500 players deep.”

Ouchies. Well, someone let me know when the craziness dies down so I can attempt to log in. My internet connection at the moment isn’t all that stellar, and I’m pretty sure it would cry like a little girl (or like Matt at the mention of sports games) if I attempted to log into WoW.

[Quote via igniq]