Blizzard vs. Pessimism

Welcome dear sports fans to this exciting event in which Blizzard tries to beat the pessimism of Tobold's Burning Crusade release day chaos predictions. The rules are simple: I try to buy, install, and get running a copy of the Burning Crusade expansion on his computer. Blizzard scores a point for everything that goes right, pessimism scores a point for everything that goes wrong, regardless of whether it is Blizzard's fault or not.

The game starts with an early goal for pessimism, when on Saturday before release date the online retailer where I pre-ordered my copy of Burning Crusade in September (!!!) has some problem processing a perfectly good credit card, and the order is dropped out of the waiting queue. In spite of giving another credit card number, the order is stuck in "processing" still 5 days later, and I have to call them to cancel it. 0:1.

Blizzard evens the score when I go in the afternoon to a local major retailer, and there is a complete wall full of Burning Crusade boxes, in both French and English. Apparently the normal BC boxes are in abundant supply everywhere, only the collectors edition is nowhere available. I give that point to Blizzard. 1:1

Starting the installation Blizzard scores a quick and highly unexpected goal by opening a window in which you enter your account name, password, and BC key. On clicking OK the application connects to Blizzard and updates your account in less than 5 seconds! Being mentally prepared to have to wait for hours on the account upgrade page, this is a big point to Blizzard. 2:1

Blizzard scores another point when I visit their website to see whether it is up, and find the site completely redecorated. The WoW homepage is stripped down to a minimum, offering all the services important on launch day, like account upgrade, technical support, and the forums, leaving out all the bells and whistles that only create unneccessary bandwith usage. Clever idea, one point to Blizzard, 3:1.

Pessimism catches up when I have installation problems, the installation gets stuck on disc 4. I copy all the discs to a hard drive and install from there, which works. But a friend calls me in panic, haven gotten stuck on disc 2, same problem. Apparently the installer is a bit sensitive when you click OK too fast. Not good, one point to pessimism. 3:2

I finally get everything installed and start patching. No points for anyone, the patch process is long and annoying, put you can reuse the previously downloaded huge 219 MB 2.0.1 to 2.0.3 patch file. Lets call that a draw, still 3:2

Finally the game is patched, and I expect the login server to be down, and a huge queue on my server. But Blizzard scores a final point by getting me into the game immediately. I give only one point, because it isn't prime time yet. But this brings the final result to 4:2 for Blizzard, scoring them a clear win over my pessimistic predictions. Grats, Blizzard, well done!