World of Warcraft: Forever Gets a Rare Smooth Launch

World of Warcraft: Forever went live last night, and for once Blizzard's launch went about as well as players could hope.

Big WoW releases usually come with a familiar set of problems. Players who log in on day one expect long login queues, dropped connections, and laggy servers, and many of them plan for the worst before the first patch even lands. This time, those issues were largely missing. Aside from a few scattered minor hiccups, the rollout ran cleanly.

That matters because the game's launches have often been rough, and a stable first night shows the server side of the release held up under the initial rush of players, not just the game itself.

Whether the smooth start lasts will depend on how the player base settles in over the coming days and weeks. For now, the headline is simple: the launch went off without the usual trouble.