WoW Servers Down Tonight

wow server, wow, world of warcraft, wow status, wow realm status

Dude. I finally got WoW installed on our iMac yesterday. Tonight I wanted to continue working on my baby Draenai shammy that I rolled on a PvP server, just for kicks. However, my new server, Vashj, is down. So is my main server, Thorium Brotherhood. And just for good measure, it looks like the realm status page is so clogged with folks like me trying to figure out what’s going on that the page is timing out.

Oh well. We got Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion over Christmas so maybe I’ll try playing them. We bought the guide books for those games because the first time I tried to play either one of them I got incredibly intimidated by the complexity of the role playing.

Ha! Well, the guide books are even MORE intimidating! Holy cripes, the Elder Scrolls one is 1.5″ thick! I’m not kidding. My last physics book was not this thick. It was probably easier to study, too.

One of the most popular online games is World of Warcraft, giving thousands of users a virtual world to play and battle in. But as with any computer software program upgrades and patches are constantly needed to enhance the experience and to create a better playing environment. The newest patch, 2.3.2. has just been released and if you're a World of Warcraft player, you need to know what's changed and how it affects you as a player. So let's take a look at what the new patch delivers to your online gaming experience!

First, let's find out what got fixed in the way of game bugs - errors that either just annoy the player or can crash the game.

One of the most irritating bugs consisted of having all sound disabled in the game when you unplugged your headphones or speakers during the game and then plugged them back in for some reason. That, thankfully, has been fixed. As well, disconnecting your USB headset won't cause a conflict with the voice chat menus and allow you to keep communication with your friends.

Other bugs fixed included avoiding have the server disconnect when you moved the mouse over the recipes when in the guild bank along with the ability to own up to five Paper Flying Machines in one stack.

Many items have had their status changed. And you can now purchase the Vengeful Gladiator's Grimoire from vendors!

Some of the Dungeons and Raids have been tweaked slightly to change the number of attackers and the sequence of certain tasks.

For you crafting characters, there have been changes there as well. Under Enchanting you now need a Runed Fel Iron Rod to Enchant Shield - Resilience instead of the Runed Adamantite Rod you needed before. Cooking characters can now relearn the recipe for Goldthorn Tea for free from Henry Stern in Razorfen Downs if they had the knowledge stripped from their character previously.

Alarm clock goes off; hit snooze. Repeat five times.

On the sixth alarm, push husband out of bed.

Go back to sleep.

Twenty minutes later, husband comes in to say goodbye. Wish him a good day as he goes off to work.

Get out of bed, get dressed, settle down with laptop in lap.

Check deadlines in appointment book. Closest deadline is two days out.

Hold inner debate – to login, not to login.

"To login" wins and is justified, as I check for successful Auction House sales. Three hours later, my level 263 jewelcrafting mage is no longer a jewelcrafter, but an herbalist with a skill of 137 and rising.

Hi. My name is Stacey, and I am a World of Warcraft addict.

When I sat down to write about my rise to gamer status, I began to wonder how much of an impact WoW has really had on me. In order to answer the question, I did what any logical person would do: I logged onto the game, every single character, to check my "/play" time. While I was there, I may have put a few things up for sale in the Auction House.

The tally on all my characters is a staggering 4,018 hours. That's 167 full days of play time over three years. My played time is the equivalent of nearly 1.5 years' worth of sleep, if I was to sleep a full eight hours every night.

Well, that's a reality check.

And what have I gotten from this time invested? More than 4,000 hours has led to three level 70 characters; a passel of alts; backup characters on different servers for when Dalaran is down; a spot in the best guild on the server for a year and a half; and the opportunity for real-life interaction with people I've befriended in game, including drunken buffoonery in Massachusetts and meeting guildies when my husband and I were honeymooning in England. Time spent in-game has led to blues and purples, professions, countless hours herbing, grinding, frustration, excitement, elation, laughs and stories that are only humorous to the WoW-set.

I do get scared when I write that. I've been living partially in a game for the past three years. I've never spent that much time doing anything, let alone playing one game. Even when I'm not in the game, part of me is indeed still there. When my husband and I go out for dinner or a drink, WoW is often a main topic of conversation. Yes, he plays too.