Blizzard lost a whole realm of characters.

I thought I'd take a stroll through the WoW forums during Blizzcon, and I noticed something interesting: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/10387709035

Apparently, the connected realms "server merger" with Vek'nilash and Nesingwary resulted in the disappearance of most (all?) Nesingwary characters.

I think that's pretty epic, and a bit disappointed I didn't catch it in any of the game news sweeps earlier this week. It's not often an MMO company accidentally "disappears" a whole server of players.

Outside of the reports in that thread and others (including entire guilds blinking from existence as a result of character disappearances -- oops!), my old main, once located on Nesingwary, is also gone...stricken from the virtual landscapes of Blizzardland. I couldn't have asked for a better wallet-saving feature. XD

Damn, that really sucks. :(

Some people put a lot of time and money into WoW. I haven't clicked the link, but I can imagine how angry people are. I know I would be mad.

I agree it's pretty funny, but unless I'm misunderstanding the situation they've managed to recover most of the characters.

Recover most of them? I don't know, and according to their latest blue posts, they don't seem to know how much longer, either. People are still talking about their unresolved issues going on two weeks now, and I can speak for myself in that my ticket is still unresolved as well.

I think what's even worse about this situation, however, is that I didn't know my character was gone as I wasn't currently playing, and they're relying on users to let them know they've still got issues. That means, in theory, that other people who may be unsubscribed and come back, oh, say a year later with the new expansion will have a nice freak-out session when they login and find they don't have any characters.

Not the welcome mat I'd want when returning to a game. But I won't be, in this case. I view an MMO as a long-term investment in time and money, and like any good investment, if the company responsible with the safekeeping of my investment happens to randomly loose it one day of their own fault, while I'll certainly work with them to get it back...it's in my best interests to find a new company afterwards.