IN regards to the server congestions

[Raiya]

Let's be honest even the most optimistic player a few weeks ago could not have predicted a surge of this kind during what's normally the dead pre-expansion period. World of Warcraft's 9.1 patch falling flat on it's face is definitely a factor in all of this and combined with the likes of Asmongold and Bellular as well as other popular streamers actively giving the game a go and ENJOYING it has finally led to an unprecedented surge in demand and interest by the gaming community. We've seen this with the likes of numbers on steam reaching all time highs for example and the huge amount of sprouts across all server's leading to ARR areas being as busy as ever. The fact that they're having to reintroduce the AFK timer something that has only ever been employed during new expansion launches at what is normally the QUIESTEST time during the game's development cycle speaks volumes at just how much demand for the game has surged in the past few weeks.

Alot of the information regarding their difficulties is understandable too given both the current real world conditions as well as unprecedented demand. We already knew the dev team was hamstrung by quarantine restrictions making setting up the oceanic data servers alot more difficult so it's no surprise this would impact the north american and european servers too if they have to inspect these as well (international travel is only really begun reopening this month in both continents) and full vaccination is required to enter these regions atm. As for the difficulty in sourcing new server hardware it's completely understandable you only have to ask anyone in the PC gaming community in the last few months how much of a nightmare it's been to source the newest CPU and EXPECIALLY GPU's without being ripped off by scalpers or paying far above MRSP. Even earlier this year is was a nightmare to source certain motherboards and even PSUs. At the very least they are bringing foward plans for new server's and capacity increases as soon as they can secure the hardware needed to do so.

Overall for what it's worth while new players might find things a bit difficult the game IS worth buying if only the base pack thats like €10 so you can queue up. This is also a blessing in disguise as Endwalker during the last LL was stated to have nearly triple the preorders compared to shadowbringers. Had this happened during Endwalker itself we'd be drowning in a sea of dissapointment memes right now! At least with all this happening now it's alerted the dev team to how much demand the game could potentially have and that we are definately in need of a new server or 2 on the NA and EU datacenters.