// PC GAMER — GAMING
After all the queuing drama in beta, WoW: Forever's launch was buttery smooth
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World of Warcraft: Forever has proven extremely popular—and while I was preparing for the launch last night, I was bracing for the same experience I had in the beta. Namely: Long queue times, connection errors, and disconnects. At least I wouldn't have to use a VPN this time, I thought, that is some small saving grace.
Turns out I needn't have worried. There was a brief panic, mind, when I finished a breezy five minute queue and landed on a ruleset selection screen that was completely greyed-out. But one eight minute queue later, and I was in—and proceeded to quest until 4 am with nary a disconnection or lagspike to be seen.
Granted, I am playing on both the EU realms and the roleplay ruleset, both of which are bound to be less populous. But having hopped online, it doesn't seem like I'm alone: "I fully expected to not be able to play today, but I logged in with no queue and no lag," writes one equally-astonished player on the game's subreddit.
"Outside of having to spawn camp some wolves at the start, this has been the best wow launch I've seen so far. I haven't really had to compete for mobs, or herbs or quest drops, and I only had a brief moment of lag," writes another.
On that point, I do feel like the phasing is maybe working a little too well. I had an eerie experience jogging around Stormwind (admittedly, this was at 3 am on a Wednesday. Anyone with a normal job was likely sanely and soundly asleep) and having the Alliance's capital city all to myself.
But it is early days, with Blizzard clearly having braced hard to deal with its server capacity. And compared to the opposite of having to bare-knuckle wrestle people for quest tags—or group up and cooperate like some kind of loser, I guess—it's way more preferable. So kudos for Blizzard, managing a downright smooth MMO launch. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some kobolds to rob of their candles.
Best MMOs: Most massiveBest strategy games: Number crunchingBest open world games: Unlimited explorationBest survival games: Live craft loveBest horror games: Fight or flight
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Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.