Here's what's actually happening.

[Velthice]

Generally, when XIV goes down, the problem isn't on their end.

RIP the Internet.


Edit: Since I guess most people don't understand, here's a simple explanation.

Q: That doesn't explain anything! My ISP is-

That's not how the internet works; AT&T doesn't make a direct connection straight to their servers. AT&T has to pass through Level3, which likes to have network problems.

But-

That's not what it means. Here's the bulk of it (it's not 100% accurate but I don't want to write a whole essay so this is just the gist of it)

Your provider might be AT&T but "their" network is not just made up of AT&T hops.
Networks do end up using other network's hops as well; specially hops from backbone providers (basically they're service providers for your service provider to help with traffic load).
Level3 is commonly used backbone provider by a variety of networks to send data because they have agreements between each other to use them.


If the servers owned by SE have a lot of Level 3 hops around, such that even other providers end up going through them a lot, this can happen. Because backbone providers are used by a lot of other networks (including but not limited to AT&T), it ends up doing mass DC's for people across different providers. If there aren't really any other hops available (hops from other providers), then everyone guess mass DCd. If there are a few others, then once a provider finds a new route using those other hops, the people whose networks can access to other hops can come back on - but it may not be everyone. If someone belongs to a network that didn't use level 3, or didn't have it as its "best" route, then those people wouldn't get DC'd at all.