
I keep a close eye on the game sites because serious gamers tend to be
very serious about the quality of their network connections, and aren't
shy about expressing their opinions. I've found them a usefull early warning
of network problems.  For the same reason I watch the on-line stock trading
sites.

However,  I should have kept quiet about Everquest's network status page.
Gamers hold some strong views.  I was flooded with comments about Microsoft's
Game Zone problems over the weekend.  They had some network problems with
their new Asheron's multi-player game. From what I could tell Microsoft's
www.zone.com site was inaccessiable for part of Sunday Night.

After my post about Everquest, several gamers asked what I knew about
Microsofts's problems.  The simple answer is not much.  It didn't appear
to be a general Internet problem, but specific to Microsoft's site.  Yes,
Randy, I did ask Microsoft's customer service and NOC.  I got back answers
either they didn't see a problem, or they saw a problem but their customer
service people couldn't find out from their their technical staff what was
happening either.  Microsoft's Game Zone does have some status pages, but
as far as I could tell, unlike Everquest, Microsoft doesn't actually update
their status when there is a problem.




