Alright, so the splash screen mystery is dramatic. Whatever the important announcement is, I don't think they could come up with one that makes me happier than the new authenticator.I will be first in line to buy mine once it comes out.It seems that most of us are with me.We've been clamoring for better authentication, and we're going to get it.
A one-time charge of six and a half bucks for an extra layer of security seems like a smoking deal to me.It hasn't occurred to me to be bothered by the price.Tuhrell of Malrone believes that the authenticators should be distributed by Blizzard for free.Vallana of Thaurissan is on a short list of responders in the thread that agreed with the original poster.She believes that her $15/month is enough to spend on WoW and is "not retarded enough to get hacked so I really don't need it."
...and Bornakk looked upon the World (of Warcraft) in its seventh day and said: "Let there be maintenance." And so it was.
Bornakk posted on the General Discussion Forums this afternoon that there will be maintenance tomorrow on all realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Additionally, the forums themselves will be undergoing maintenance from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 8:00 a.m. PDT. You will not be able to log in to the forums, but you will be able to read them.
Patch 2.4.2 was announced last week and is on the PTR right now. However, it is unlikely that the patch will come tomorrow. The PTR phase of minor patches almost always lasts two weeks. Of course with that said, I'm sure I'll be eating my words tomorrow as 2.4.2 goes live. We'll all just have to stay tuned and find out!
People are reporting trouble logging onto the game tonight, and quite a few threads have hit the forums. Drysc reported at 11:41 pm PST that the problem was all solved, but I still had trouble logging on for a while after that, perhaps due to the volume of other players also trying to get on and play as well after taking most of the holiday off.
What really amazes me, however, is the shocking level of vitriol you can witness over this. I guess Blizzard could take it as a compliment that if people experience even a few hours of login trouble, they get, well... extremely testy.
Now, I love WoW and I had trouble getting on tonight. But instead of, well, losing control of my temper I went and played Mass Effect for a few hours. I am awful at it, but it's still kind of fun. Then I managed to get my insomnia freak on once the servers finally came back up. (One level to go and my second shammy is 70! Woot!) I guess what I'm saying is, there's a right way to react to this kind of thing, and this is not it.
This Friday, from 5:00 AM PDT to 6:00 AM PDT, Blizzard will be performing maintenance on their authentication system. While they predict that this won't affect access to the game, this does mean that the account management system won't be available. Hopefully the maintenance will be as brief and unnoticable as Blizzard plans, though even the best laid plans are sometimes flawed. So if you have any management to do, be sure to get it done before 5:00 AM.
For those of you needing a source for this information, I'm afraid I can't give you a link -- there's an announcement on the login screen, but no information on the forums or homepage.
About an hour and a half ago I made the mistake of logging out of the game.Now I can't seem to get back in and evidently many people on multiple servers are having the same problem.It's a shame, really, since I was planning another attempt at the heroics, but alas it was not meant to be.
My guess is that one of two things could happen.One is that we will be back up and running soon with little problem.The other option, and the far more likely one in my opinion, will be that these problems will keep occurring throughout the night.I am betting that something is happening with the Patch 2.1 install and it is messing authentication up.Nothing official on what is happening, but we do know that all is not well in Azeroth.Until then, I guess it's time to dust off your consoles, read a book, or catch up on all that homework you've been slacking on.
You can't have played World of Warcraft long without noticing that there are login issues - times when the servers are up, and your friends may be playing, but you are not able to connect. These problems are with the authentication system, which has become more and more overwhelmed by the amount of traffic it's handling. However, these troubles may be coming to an end - during Tuesday's US maintenance, Blizzard will be bringing online new authentication hardware, which will hopefully make a difference.
In addition to authentication
difficulties and emergency maintenance
on several servers, there are also, apparently, ISP
issues that are causing players to become disconnected. Maybe this is some sort of message suggesting that we
should spend more quality time watching television. Hopefully some of you are having better luck tonight than I
am!
It should be no surprise to
anyone that the authentication servers are having issues lately - the servers themselves may be running fine, and
perhaps you have a few friends whom you know are connected and playing, yet you can't get past login. Or perhaps
your server doesn't even appear on the server list when you do manage to log on. Well, Eyonix has made a post in the
general forums providing some clarification on the problem. Apparently last night's troubles were due to a
hardware failure, and because the failure occurred during peak playing hours, all players will be receiving a day's
credit to their account. However, while the hardware failure was fixed, we should continue to expect slow logins
during peak hours. However, there is hope - they should soon be moving to an improved authentication platform,
which should reduce the login lag. No ETA on this system, but at least it's coming.
Alright, so the splash screen mystery is dramatic. Whatever the important announcement is, I don't think they could come up with one that makes me happier than the new authenticator. I will be first in line to buy mine once it comes out. It seems that most of us are with me. We've been clamoring for better authentication, and we're going to get it.
...and 
People are 
This Friday, from 5:00 AM PDT to 6:00 AM PDT, Blizzard will be performing maintenance on their authentication system. While they predict that this won't affect access to the game, this does mean that the account management system won't be available. Hopefully the maintenance will be as brief and unnoticable as Blizzard plans, though even the best laid plans are sometimes flawed. So if you have any management to do, be sure to get it done before 5:00 AM. 
![[SERVER]
Shutdown in 15:00](http://www.wowinsider.com/media/2006/04/shutdown.jpg)
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