World of Warcraft: Forever Players in Oceania Can’t Find Daylight
World of Warcraft: Forever players in Australia and New Zealand say in-game daylight arrives around midnight because they share mega-servers with North America. Players are asking Blizzard for a fix. The game is breaking launch records for the series.
World of Warcraft: Forever players in Australia, New Zealand and other Oceania countries say they see in-game sunlight only in the middle of the night, and they are asking Blizzard to change it after the game's launch.
The complaint is not about spending too much time indoors. It is about the game's own sun, which is scarce for players on the other side of the world.
Why the sun is missing
World of Warcraft: Forever has a day and night cycle tied to the server clock, not the player's local time. A British player, for example, sits on server time one hour ahead of GMT. Play in the daytime and the sun hangs over Azeroth; play late and the moon replaces it.
Oceania players can connect through a data centre in Australia, which gives them a solid connection. They still share the same mega-servers as North American players, and those servers follow North American time.
The result is a flipped clock. Oceania players currently get full in-game daylight from around midnight to 6am, which is far from normal gaming hours for most people in the region. For them, day is night and night is day.
What players are asking for
A Reddit user named Playful_Artichoke981 has led the push for Blizzard to respond, though plenty of others have joined in. "We don't hate the nighttime. We just want variety," they wrote. "We don't want to have to compromise our sleep schedules to experience this game in all its glory."
Another user, cuddlegoop, said they would accept a changing cycle in some situations. "I am totally fine with my day/night changing when I join an NA party. Just let me see the sun!" they wrote.
Cuddlegoop described staying up late and watching dawn break over the bay at Shadowfan Keep. The view was so beautiful, they said, that they want to see scenes like that more often.
Blizzard's response
Blizzard had not responded at the time of writing to a request for comment on whether it plans to address the issue.
The complaint comes as the game enjoys a strong start. World of Warcraft: Forever is breaking records as the biggest launch in the series' history, and early impressions describe it as a brilliant MMO well worth jumping into for those with the time.
