‘Game of Thrones’ premiere crashes HBO GO; outage outrages fans

The Season 4 premiere of “Game of Thrones” claimed another victim Sunday night, but this time it wasn’t a member of the Stark family or yet another bearded old guy whose name you can’t quite remember -- it was HBO GO.

For the second time in a month, the premium network’s online streaming service crashed shortly after 9 p.m. EDT due to overwhelming traffic, some of which came from subscribers logging in remotely but was almost certainly boosted by the countless freeloaders who use borrowed accounts. Viewers who logged in to watch the finale of “True Detective” in March were met with the same “fatal error” message and spinning wheel of doom.

PREMIERE: Season 4 recap of ‘Game of Thrones’

The outage prompted ire from “Game of Thrones’” famously passionate fans, who voiced their displeasure on Twitter. Some made light of their own mooching, while other took pains to differentiate themselves from the freeloading masses.

While working to fix the outage, HBO GO kept users updated on its progress via Twitter -- and even got in a subtle dig at folks tuning in using their roommate’s stepmom’s password.

“We’re sorry for all of the trouble,” read one tweet, “but if you’re an @HBO subscriber, the @GameOfThrones premiere replays at 11 PM EST.”

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