{"id":1538638,"date":"2026-03-29T00:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/d6gLqjRP4n7CsZiRV2ouGK"},"modified":"2026-03-29T00:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T00:47:17","slug":"discussion-is-it-okay-for-an-mmo-expansions-launch-to-be-buggy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/discussion-is-it-okay-for-an-mmo-expansions-launch-to-be-buggy\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussion: Is it okay for an MMO expansion’s launch to be buggy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Terminally Online<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

(Image credit: Future)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is Terminally Online<\/a>: <\/strong>PC Gamer’s very own MMO column. Every other week, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we’ve all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After finishing the great, herculean labour that is attempting to review a World of Warcraft expansion<\/a>, one thing’s been sitting around in my dome\u2014in my estimation, Midnight’s an excellent time that’s been let down by some rough bugs and messy integrations. <\/p>\n

These are things I mention, but overall I’ve taken them on the chin. And that’s mostly because I’ve been playing MMOs for the better half of my life, at this point. I’ve seen multiple expansion launches, and absolutely none of them have been clean-cut\u2014the terrible queues of Endwalker<\/a> still haunt me.<\/p>\n

Whether it’s server issues or bugs, very few MMO expansions set sail without something going terribly wrong, because these are monstrously complicated, long-lived games. I don’t envy any developer or QA tester whose job it is to try and stamp out bugs in a game with over two decades of design intricacies underpinning it.<\/p>\n

But despite my sympathies, I also <\/em>get why people sharpen their pitchforks over this stuff, especially given that many MMOs ask for a paid subscription. Time is money, as the goblins say. <\/p>\n

This is especially difficult in games where seasonal progression is a thing\u2014take, for example, a loot bug in WoW that’s seen players only getting loot for a specific slot<\/a>. There’s small, forgivable bugs\u2014and then there’s bricking a character’s progression for their first season of your game. Not good.<\/p>\n

But how much is too much? I am asking you, reader of Terminally Online, to pitch in with your opinions, both in the following poll and in the comments below.<\/p>\n

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