On Dungeons & Dragons Online (PC), on August 6, there was an incident that no MMORPG player would wish for. The developers announced that there was a technical problem with the Wayfinder server, and it had to be reset. Wayfinder is the German server of the game.
What exactly happened? As Executive Producer Severlin announced in the Dungeons & Dragons Online forum, a critical error was found in the game’s data center. This caused problems with characters going back to July 15.
To fix these issues, the servers were reset on August 6, going back nearly 3 weeks – to about 1:30 PM on July 15.
As Severlin wrote, there was no way to restore the content earned during that time. Only account-wide purchases are expected to still be present.
Which servers are affected? The database error only affected the Wayfinder server, which is officially designated as the server for German players. However, players from other regions are also present there, as reported in the forum.
All other servers, however, seem to have had no problems.
Players are disappointed with the problems
What do affected players say? 3 weeks is a damn long time in an MMORPG. Many players used this time to level up, equip their character, or tackle difficult challenges.
There was also a rollback in Guild Wars 2 this year, but only for about 48 hours. Even then, there were many complaints.
The same is happening in the Dungeons & Dragons forum. Player clashjunky reports, for example, that he lost 20 levels, several currencies, and rare equipment pieces due to the rollback.
Player Belzidar is also disappointed with the situation:
I finally managed to log in and assess the damage. My level 25 character is back to 16. All the RXP the twink earned is gone. My other level 16 character, with whom I transferred servers, is back on the old server. I’m still confused.
I understand it’s a game and yes, I was entertained during those two weeks, but I think it’s going to be hard to cope with.
However, there are also some players who get much more outspoken than the previous two examples and accuse the developers of incompetence. They especially wonder why July 15 was chosen as the date and whether no backups have been made since then.
However, one player points out that there was a major downtime on the Wayfinder server on that exact day. It could be possible that this is connected to the problems.
Are there compensations for the lost time? The developers apologized in the forum post and promised that compensations for the affected players would follow. Exact details are expected to be announced in the coming days.
The developers Turbine Studios and Standing Stone Games also distribute the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. There were also server problems around July 15.
