Sometimes, something happens that affects the gaming world in such a strange, roundabout way that you just might end up sitting back and scratching your head while the situation plays out. Today, such a situation happened on social media.
Earlier today, Twitter was struggling with a few security issues that brought them to need to close down a bit of communication. Specifically, they barred accounts that were verified (those with the blue checkmark) from tweeting for a matter of hours.
In doing so, they cut off communication from a massive number of companies that use social media to communicate. Given that we live in an age where the President of the United States is well known for their frequent tweets, it’s easy to see why this was an issue.
We’re continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this. Thanks for your patience.
— Support (@Support) July 15, 2020
Generally, any big company is going to be verified, so thousands of companies suddenly had their communication strangled. In few places was this more present than the gaming community, where countless developers had their communication cut off.
Unfortunately, this was an even bigger strike to Blizzard, of whom were also affected by the issues. The primary reason this was such an issue is that Blizzard is currently in the midst of launching their World of Warcraft: Shadowlands beta.
Earlier, Twitter limited access to Verified accounts. As a result, we were unable to respond to your tweets or publish updates. We're now back and getting through replies as quickly as possible. Thanks for your patience!
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) July 16, 2020
In fact, today was reportedly the first day that any invites went out! Plenty of fans were active on social media awaiting news of when the invites were going out as they waited to see if they would be invited to the beta.
Blizzard made their return, as shown in the tweet above, and were only offline for a matter of hours. However, that was all that anyone needed to be whipped into a beta-fueled frenzy.
They were far from the only company that was affected, but the timing of it being during one of the most monumental moments for the upcoming World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was incredibly unfortunate for Blizzard and the players.
Thankfully, all issues have been resolved and Twitter users are now back in action. Better than anything, the social media titans have fixed whatever security issue was causing the problem, which is considerably more important.
With Blizzard’s beta well underway, players that signed up for the beta have been frantically checking to see if they’ve been invited to help test. While there wasn’t much of a disruption in finding out whether you’d been invited, given that players could still check their email and client to find out, it was all it took for a momentary panic.