Maintenance for Tuesday September 8th
by Adam Holisky 
Sep 7th 2009 at 10:45PM
We've had some serious maintenance in the last few weeks, and it looks like they've come to an end. The extended maintenance that's been going on has been to fix the much hyped "Additional instances cannot be launched" error, and by all accounts the bug has been fixed. But let's not kid ourselves, there'll be at least a dozen comments claiming differently after this post goes up. But it's all good, because eventually the cross-server instances are going to take care of that problem entirely.The maintenance tomorrow will run from 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT.
Since WoW will be down, I recommend checking out Champions Online if you haven't already. It's a nice comic book MMO that has some real potential. One thing I really enjoy about it is that its graphics are not super amazing -- they look like comic book graphics. In that sense, it's a very immersive graphical experience.
Kyle Horner of our sister site Massively wrote the WoW player's Guide to Champions Online. Check it out for more information about a nice game you can play during WoW's downtime.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jamison Banks Sep 7th 2009 10:54PM
Since the maintenance, I haven't had this pop up. In fact, Outland instances that took 25-30 minutes to get in . . . no problem. Now if I could only get mah guild back from playing the Aion beta (which they say isn't nearly all it's hyped to be).
Davejohnsan Sep 7th 2009 11:06PM
I never ran into the "Additional instances cannot be launched" message when running instances. Of course, I wasn't an avid instance-runner, but even during the times that I did participate, I never even received the message once. Maybe I just had good luck, or US-Bloodlust wasn't severely impacted as people portrayed it as?
However, it's a good thing maintenance is back to normal schedule, and Blizzard won't have to do extended maintenance to work on the issue. That is, assuming something doesn't pop up on the spur of the moment. :P
wilgrin Sep 7th 2009 11:09PM
I think that should read "...until 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT." That last PDT should be a EDT =)
Adam Holisky Sep 7th 2009 11:11PM
Thanks
hoody9913 Sep 7th 2009 11:20PM
Which is from 8 PM in eastern australia :(
theRaptor Sep 7th 2009 11:15PM
Would you stop pimping other MMO's so much? Jeez just put up more ads for it already and stop pretending all the references to it are anything but paid advertising.
And why would I spend $65+ USD to play another MMO while WoW is down for a few hours? Protip: MMO players rarely play two subscription games at the same time.
If you are going to push other games at least be sensible and push games that aren't MMO's. WoW.com's readership (WoW fans, tending towards the newer and more casual spectrum) isn't the same as Massively's (fickle fickle veteran MMO players).
Stephen.Lecheler+wowinsider.com Sep 7th 2009 11:25PM
Fact: WoW(Insider) is run by GameDaily with a focus on World Of Warcraft.
Fact: Massively is run by GameDaily with a focus on MMOs as a whole.
Abstraction 1: It is probably a corporate "suggestion" that you should be playing one of these "New MMOs that are neat" if you're not playing WoW.
Abstraction 2: There may be a significant crossover from WoW Mainstream to Comic book Heroes
Abstraction 3: If you do not like the content of this site there are plenty of other WoW News and Analysis sites out there that are of similar quality.
Adam Holisky Sep 7th 2009 11:24PM
Hahaha.
We do not get paid by any of these games. Do you honestly thing that we're taking money on the side from them? Get out your tinfoil hat.
And you don't speak for everyone. Our data indicates our audience is interested in other games, especially with how the relate to WoW. But of course, this is the internet and only your opinion matters.
http://xkcd.com/386/
Adam Holisky Sep 7th 2009 11:28PM
Minor point, we're not part of Game Daily, although they do take care of the profile side of the site. We're part of the Joystiq network, which is ran by Weblogs and AOL. Although in the end all our paychecks come from the same place anyways.
And more to the point, we're not really obliged to cross cover sites. There's no mandate or anything. When we see something that works on WoW.com, we'll mention it.
joerendous Sep 7th 2009 11:30PM
rawr! tiger claw!
Rai Sep 7th 2009 11:35PM
xkcd 386 is the perfect answer to ANYTHING.
(Almost.)
theRaptor Sep 7th 2009 11:37PM
Why would I need my tinfoil hat? You run advertising, you are owned by a gaming media company. When I see multiple mentions of how awesome Champions Online is it is fairly reasonable to concur that you are doing paid advertising. When I notice a lot of Dell or Apple laptops in a movie it isn't a conspiracy theory to guess that paid product placement is the reason the camera is doing a nice lingering shot on the logo.
And saying "Champions Online is pretty cool, check it out" does not in any way relate it to WoW. And sorry but all the stats I have ever seen say that MMO players most play one MMO. They might play other games but they are serial monogamists when it comes to MMO's.
Jade Sep 7th 2009 11:37PM
"Protip: MMO players rarely play two subscription games at the same time. "
I suppose you're right, 2 is an awfully small number. I play 5, it was 6 but DDO is going free, and free realms is a mindless distraction every few weeks.
Though honestly I doubt I will stay with Aion, but SWTOR, STO, and WOD will cover the comings and goings for at least the next couple years.
Protip: Never assume you are representative of the MMO fanbase as a whole. You are only representative of you.
theRaptor Sep 7th 2009 11:40PM
@ jade
Can you read? I said "rarely". There have been surveys done and they show the vast majority of MMO players play one MMO at a time. I didn't say no one ever played multiple MMO's.
traptinacivicsi Sep 8th 2009 12:29AM
"I suppose you're right, 2 is an awfully small number. I play 5, it was 6 but DDO is going free, and free realms is a mindless distraction every few weeks."
When you play one MMO, to be a mindless distraction from 5 OTHER MMO's, you may need to sit yourself down and rethink your time management.
This is coming from someone who thinks the amount of time he spends on wow is a lot... and it's only ONE MMO.
I couldn't imagine putting this much time into an entirely different mmo..
Here's where I get downranked... sorry >_<
'But I guess bragging that you waste 5x as much time as the common player, is kind of cool...'
/endrant
Bossy Sep 8th 2009 2:15AM
@ Dear Adam.
Listen, most WOW players are fed up with the hate and ridiculous trolling on some forums about WOW. We just like to play WOW and when we visit a nice safe place like wowinsider, we just want info from the game we ALL love and play.
Those of us who have "enough" of the game will search for other games to play (like I had myself a long walk in the desert for 2 years in search for something something even remotely as good as Blizzard made) and guess what - after hundreds of lost euros and dozens of hours - I realized just how shallow and cheap most other mmo's are.
So lesson: you write about WOW (and Blizzard) games. If I wanted to have a look at other games, I would visit the other site. And I just pity the loss of money I already invested in all those duds. "War" was the last of a very long series of money grabbers. Those who are happy with those other mmo's must have a real bad taste in talks of game design (I make an exception for EVE - as boring as it may be). But of course some DO like xxxx.
So write for the fans and those fans better be warned by a person who tried all those other duds these last 3 years.
logicaldash Sep 8th 2009 2:40AM
ok so WHAT if they (Adam and the rest of his team) are blatantly cros selling other MMO's on WoWInsider?
does it affect any other WoW related content you read from here? did any info here just all of a sudden become less interesting or the WI team becomes less advocate in reporting any WoW information/news to us just because they are doing all these ceoss selling??
frankly, i do not think so.
maybe it IS whoever WI's sponsor's/company's mandate for them to cross sell other MMO's. hell who cares?
i take what i need from here and i be happy with it.
Kaphik Sep 7th 2009 11:16PM
Actually the graphics in Champions Online ARE amazing! Look at the textures of the characters, the lighting effects. Yes, the game looks like a comic book, a fantastic looking comic.
Kenty Sep 7th 2009 11:37PM
To game is essentially unplayable at this point.
Anyone trying it out take note, you can't solo unless you take force sheath, condem, pyre and minimines. Look it up.
Malachi Sep 7th 2009 11:48PM
Champions would look awesome if it didn't look so damn saturated. The graphics hurt my eyes after staring at them long enough. It looks like wet paint.