Why is Wizard's Site down at this critical time?!?

[iwarrior-poet]

Does anyone have any info on this? They can't have been taking this long just to update it. And it is hard for me to believe that there servers are unable to process the elevated amount of traffic they are probably sustaining. A DOS attack by disgruntled gamers? Anyone have any hard info? Educated guesses?

 

[Umbran]

News got to Slashdot and Fark. Even the biggest players in the business get crushed by the amount of traffic that sort of reference can generate.

 

[Xyxox]

They failed to plan properly for their big announcement.

Also down, www.dndinsider.com, which gives me loads of confidence that I want to spend money for access to that site.

 

[BlackMoria]

The 4E announcement got Slash Doted and the traffic load bought the servers to their knees.

Still, WOTC should have anticipated a higher volume of traffic on their servers (discounting the slash dot spike) and taken action to ensure they could meet the demand.

Blizzard can maintain servers for 9 million WOW players. I find it strange that WOTC could talk and talk about the Digital Initative and yet be shown lacking when the moment for the announcement of 4E comes and to prove they have learned the lessons of the past.

So, here we are, nearly 18 hours after the announcement and the message 'Technical Difficulties' is the greeting for anyone looking to find out more about 4E or D&D Insider.

Not cool. I am not impressed. Not a good 'first' impression.

Weight, Measured and Found Wanting.

What "should" be happening at WOTC right now is the semi-truck pulling up with all the shiny new servers and infrastructure and a big heaping of crow for the Manager of the DI.

 

[Xyxox]

The 4E announcement got Slash Doted and the traffic load bought the servers to their knees.

Still, WOTC should have anticipated a higher volume of traffic on their servers (discounting the slash dot spike) and taken action to ensure they could meet the demand.

Blizzard can maintain servers for 9 million WOW players. I find it strange that WOTC could talk and talk about the Digital Initative and yet be shown lacking when the moment for the announcement of 4E comes and to prove they have learned the lessons of the past.

So, here we are, nearly 18 hours after the announcement and the message 'Technical Difficulties' is the greeting for anyone looking to find out more about 4E or D&D Insider.

Not cool. I am not impressed. Not a good 'first' impression.

Weight, Measured and Found Wanting.

Your party of adventurers are on the virtual tabletop, heading to the room that houses the BBEG. They walk cautiously to the door. The Mage casts a silence spell, and the Rogue picks the lock. The door is carefully opened and in the center of a 60' X 60' room you see...

SERVICE UNAVAILABLE

 

[Grazzt]

SERVICE UNAVAILABLE

What's the CR for that? And how many XP do I get for killing it?

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Blizzard can maintain servers for 9 million WOW players.

Clearly you've Never played WoW.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

So, here we are, nearly 18 hours after the announcement and the message 'Technical Difficulties' is the greeting for anyone looking to find out more about 4E or D&D Insider.

Not cool. I am not impressed. Not a good 'first' impression.

Weight, Measured and Found Wanting.

I've found that usually when things like this happen, with various services, the people running them focus on getting them fixed. What's the point of making a post that says "We're working on it still." when its obvious they are because its still down?

Running these kinds of high-traffic websites, especially after getting slashdotted and farked, is something I would never want to do. Its the kind of work that goes completely unnappreciated and everyone swears could do it better and make it perfect. The simple reality is that the people running these websites are professionals, and they're doing what they can to fix it.

 

[Xyxox]

What's the CR for that? And how many XP do I get for killing it?

It's a Demon. It cannot be killed. It can only be temporarily bannished.

 

[Abisashi]

Increasing the amount they can handle would mean buying more bandwidth and, more importantly, buying and setting up servers. If they contract out their server needs, the people they contract with still have to set up more servers for them. Setting up servers takes time.