The topic is World of Warcraft test server where the patch is supposedly being tested to be released early next week. The test server is supposed to closed successfully today. Maybe.

The truth is that the test server went live only today along with the invites. So, following the plans stated, this test phase is also supposed to end today. So, one day of test only. You would expect that everything is going to work absolutely flawlessly if Blizzard is confident that less than one day of test is enough.

It seems this isn’t the case:

They can’t keep the PvE or PvP server up for more than 2 minutes (literally) and then everyone instantly disconnects. Of course you can log right back in without having to wait for a character boot since the server itself crashed, but what’s the point? You get about 2 minutes of running around, followed by 10 seconds of nothing happening, then the login screen with a “Disconnected From Server” message. This is happening to everyone constantly who I’ve talked to in IF and other friends who logged in.

Also, according to the WoW.com official Test Realm forum, a large number of people got invited to the Test Server but their characters didn’t get copied over. Now don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying WoW and my experience with it so far. Sure, there are alot of fixes that need to be taken care of, and it sounds like they are on the right track. But seriously, can they not get one thing accomplished without it either being bugged to hell, lagged to the point of unplayable, or simply not working? This is starting to turn into a joke. And to answer your question Khalikryst, the first batch of emails for test server invites went out this morning, the exact same day this round of patch testing was suppose to be coming to a close. I have no idea what this means for the patch ETA or the QA team. The only thing I do know is I can’t even put a group together for Dire Maul because the server isn’t stable enough to do a /who and send a tell in the same session.

Stability sucks ass on the PvE server. Literally 11 crashes in < 1 hour. Hopefully this stabilizes because it is impossible to test content.

Wow not only can the servers not stay up, true to blizzard form when the transfered my character none of my pet shit got transferred. I get all the way to Dire Maul only to pop out my imp and all he has is lvl 1 Blood Pact….. gr8

Patch next week? Yes sure, let’s say patch next month. If we’re lucky.

In the meantime, have fun with bittorrent. 88Mb of fun.

EDIT: Blizzard’s answer is encouraging:

Some problems have been discovered on the Test Realms that are causing frequent server crashes and player disconnects. While these problems are remedied, the servers will be temporarily taken offline.

Unfortunately, I do not have an ETA as to when the servers will be available again, but please continue to check this forum for updates.

Thanks for your patience and understanding while we work on fixes to the problems that you have already helped us discover.