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Following WoW\u2019s \u2018no realms currently available\u2019 error as a result of maintenance gone wrong, avid fans of Blizzard\u2019s iconic MMORPG have asked for some sort of compensation from the devs to make up for hours of lost time.<\/p>\n

Following an hour-long bout of WoW Dragonflight maintenance on November 9 from 7am PST \/ 10am EST \/ 3pm GMT \/ 4pm CEST, Blizzard noticed that players were having issues diving back into the wonderous world of Azeroth.<\/p>\n

A tweet from the Blizzard customer service account for the Americas stated \u201cwe\u2019re currently investigating an issue affecting our authentication servers, which may result in failed or slow login attempts.\u201d This was followed by the servers returning for a brief period, then dropping once more. Finally, the issue was reported as solved on November 10 at 12:20am GMT, but some players are still struggling to log back in.<\/p>\n

Despite a fix<\/a> finally coming through, this is just another bout of server issues that have cropped up as a result of maintenance. As players fork out cash to keep up subscriptions (or renew them ahead of Dragonflight), the constant downtime has lead to demands for some form of meaningful compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan we get a free month of game time for all the outages we\u2019ve had for the last few months?\u201d asks one fan on Blizzard\u2019s WoW forums. \u201cEvery other week there\u2019s an eight hour patch day followed by a week of the servers going down, the API failing to load, the game itself being unplayable, millions of players being affected by \u2018updates\u2019 that aren\u2019t ready for the live game being pushed for us to bug test while you say \u2018we\u2019re in beta!\u2019. This is embarrassing to experience given how much money the quarterly earnings have reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

One response to the thread reads, \u201cmeanwhile our sub is timed to the literal minute. I\u2019ve always held the stance that if they gave us time even once a year for when downtime went longer than anticipated that\u2019d be fine and it would be just a little bit of a good faith gesture? It\u2019s not like I\u2019d expect a week, just maybe even two days or so?\u201d<\/p>\n

A final reply states, \u201cI always get refunded for lost services. If you are paying for a service and you can\u2019t access that service you are entitled to a refund. If they disagree, then contact your credit card to do a charge back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debate continues to swirl around the notion of compensation for outages like this one. Rival MMORPG Tower of Fantasy has been quick to compensate players for any server takedowns (although some argue that the rewards aren\u2019t enough), and Disney game Dreamlight Valley has also offered free loot in response to ongoing glitches and bugs. Whether or not Blizzard chooses to follow in the footsteps of Hotta and Gameloft remains to be seen, but the constant downtime is clearly irritating fans.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re lucky enough to be able to dive back into Azeroth post-maintenance, be sure to check out our list of the best WoW addons to prepare for Dragonflight. If you\u2019re more WoW Classic inclined, then we have a WoW WotLK Death Knight guide to make sure you\u2019re prepared for Northrend \u2013 when the servers come back, because apparently they\u2019re down, too.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n