For the past week or so, I’ve been experiencing some nasty lag spikes. I’ll be rolling along, and suddenly the game will completely lock up (lag-wise) for 5+ seconds. You know the feeling - you keep pressing buttons, but nothing happens, and everyone else is mysteriously standing still…

Occasionally, these lock-ups will lead to disconnects. More often than not, the game syncs back up after five seconds or so and I hope that I haven’t just gotten myself killed. This also sometimes leads to longer periods of steady lag - with a ping of 500-1000 ms.

This is quite unlike my past gaming experience. For the past two years, I’ve consistently had a great connection, with relatively low lag (1-200ms), and almost no disconnect/lag-spike problems. Now, I’m hesitant to go on Heroics, and the lag has ruined at least one attempt our group has made in a serious raid.

I was about to call Cablevision (who offers Internet through Optimum Online), when I stumbled on some threads on the World of Warcraft forums. Turns out the problem is widespread, and a lot of people in the New York Metropolitan Area are experiencing similar issues.

First Reports

First reports seem to have surfaced mid-May. This initial post, dated May 15, is followed by 42 pages of additional complaints.

The initial blue response was, “Clean out your folders, restart everything, and hope it works.” It didn’t. Judging from the 42 pages of responses, the problem has persisted for many people.

The consensus appears to be that there is a problem in the route that information takes from your computer (and your ISP’s network) to WoW’s network. One of these major routing hubs is apparently on the fritz. For several weeks, now, both Optimum Online (the hardest hit ISP) and Blizzard have shrugged the problem off on the other party. They both claim that the problem isn’t within their network, so there’s nothing they can do.

Reporting the Problem to Blizzard

After three weeks, Blizzard has apparently begun to take this problem seriously. It has obviously impacted a good number of their customers, and Optimum Online seems unwilling or unable to do anything on their own.

Last night, a blue (Mikepl) posted a request for more information about these lag spikes and disconnects. If you’re having connection issues, follow the directions and send the information along to Blizzard.

Just what they will do seems unclear. Some people reported that the problems started after the last patch, so it’s possible that a glitch in the WoW software is exacerbating an otherwise minor connection issue. A patch to the game may fix that.

It’s also possible that Blizzard will use this technical data to pressure the intermediary routing company to fix the problem on their end. Blizzard is big. Blizzard has clout. Customers do not. If the problem lies with a third party, then having Blizzard do the talking is the best bet.

So here’s to hoping that it gets fixed soon. The problem seems to be getting worse, and it is getting very frustrating. If it persists for the long term, I may just give up on WoW for a while - it’s impossible to tank reliably when your connection gives out randomly every 15-30 minutes.