I was also having issues today, it was trying to connect but it just did not want to load the players and pictograms. I finally was able to connect after restarting the game. For your problem check to see if Windows firewall is blocking the game, run as administrator if needed if it still says error. Because when I see the word error there I have a feeling it's has to do with something blocking it... There was a little traffic in the game today and when it gets above 50 players people may start to experience issues. The server can't handle a lot like it used to but even above 50 players its still very stable. You could try connecting every so often to see if it will budge.

Also does your computer connect to the internet wirelessly or does it have Ethernet?

*I saw your post and you said directplay, I also have Windows 8! When I first got my new computer a few days ago and got the game in I tried playing and it said I should install directplay, I did and everything worked perfectly. I would recommend installing directplay!