More MMORPG Disasters: Blizzard's World Of Warcraft Blown Out By Tornado

Having only just congratulated Blizzard for actually getting a MMORPG to the beta stage in the US, a task at which many others have failed: the massively online curse has seemingly struck again. This time, the hand of god has made a direct intervention, shaking up the contents of the entire east coast of America with the breezy fury of hurricane Ivan. One of the subsequent tornadoes stirred up in the hurricane’s wake rampaged across Virginia, taking down power lines all around: meaning that the datacentre containing all of World Of Warcraft’s beta servers had to be shut down.

As the official statement on the World Of Warcaft website reads, “Enough electrical power is now available at the Virginia datacentre for us to analyze the extent of any damage that might have occurred as a result of the direct tornado hit last Friday night, but the hardware is not yet dry enough to be powered up.”

It is hoped that a normal service may be resumed as early as this afternoon, although it may take a little while longer. It is only the US beta test though, so it won’t be too devastating a blow to Warcraft fans: the European beta test and full retail roll-out shouldn’t be affected to any serious extent. It’s just another chapter in the burgeoning MMORPG manual of unforeseen mishaps, which has grown with every piece of recent news related to the calamitous genre.

If there has been any ill-effect to WoW’s schedule as a consequence this doom-bearing ultra weather, we’ll update you accordingly. And as for MMORPGs that have actually made it through the arduous journey to completion, Nevrax’s Saga Of Ryzom should (in the absence of freak weather/financial collapse/dissolution of human civilisation) be up and running by the end of the week. [touches wood]