Norwegian World of Warcraft Players Face Frustrating Bug

A peculiar bug has emerged in "World of Warcraft" (WoW), specifically impacting hundreds of players in Norway, causing widespread frustration. The issue, which seems to have arisen following the recent 10.2 update, is characterized by frequent game freezes during loading screens. Players have to forcibly exit and relog to resolve the issue, but it often leads to being removed from multiplayer activities like raids and PvP games​​.

The problem was extensively discussed on Blizzard's forums, accumulating over 307 posts. The general belief among players is that this is a networking issue. Some users have provided traceroute results indicating significant routing troubles on paths to Blizzard's IPs designated for Norway. This has led to a consensus that the root of the problem lies within Blizzard's network infrastructure, specifically a node in the Netherlands​​.

Interestingly, while the issue predominantly affects Norwegian players, its origin might not be within Norway. A Norwegian player, Xilong, noted that the traceroute steps within Norway appear to be functioning correctly, but the problem seems to be with a specific node in the Netherlands managed by Blizzard. This has led to the understanding that the responsibility for resolving this issue lies squarely with Blizzard​​.

Complicating matters, it's unclear if the 10.2 update is the direct cause of this bug. Some players reported experiencing these issues even before the update was released. Furthermore, the problem appears to be affecting multiple Blizzard games, including different versions of WoW, Diablo IV, and Hearthstone, suggesting a broader issue within Blizzard's network or game architecture​​.

As of now, Blizzard has not officially commented on the problem. In the meantime, some affected players in Norway have found a temporary workaround by using VPNs to access the game through networks in other countries like Sweden and the Netherlands. However, this is not seen as a sustainable solution, and there is a growing call for Blizzard to address and fix this issue promptly​​.