4h. downtime... a SATURDAY???

[Kelenae]

So if they don't patch quickly, they are shafting customers.

If they patch at specific times, they're shafting customers.

 

Let's lay down the ground rules for Bioware on when they can do things, how they can do them, and so forth.

 

So the best move is to not to play..... Would like a to play a game of Chess?

[Maidel]

Because there are PEOPLE that work for the company. The computer doesn't just shut it down and do it automatically. They have to CALL IN the people who work on the systems...They have to make sure they ALL can make it on a day they wouldn't normally be doing this, and they have to make sure the patch is ready...There's logistics here you are ignoring but it must be nice to live in a world that doesn't require labor and manpower to get things done. To not understand that there are people working on the game and that they deserve a decent timeframe too.

 

Which, by definition, isnt an EMERGENCY.

 

You dont turn up at a hospital in an ambulance and get told 'sorry, we have to assemble a team, it will take a few hours...'

 

They have server techs 24hrs a day 365 days a year. In EMERGENCIES the servers are taken down at very short notice and patched immediately.

 

What you posted would make a TINY bit of sense if they waited until the DAY time where the servers are, but they didnt, they would have had to call in a load of people in the middle of the night.

 

Are you telling me that in an EMERGENCY it just so happened that the EMERGENCY happpend exactly 8 hours before it could be fixed and that so coincidentally occured exactly 8 hours before the exact same time they take the servers down normally - 8am GMT?

[Zazlow]

First mmo experience?

 

New game is new.

 

It will recieve patches, updates, bug squashes, exploit fixes, etc etc

 

Not just on maintenance day either.

 

This happens with mmo's that have been out for 10+ years.

 

Welcome aboard.

[Mormack]

In fact there are alot of companies that can match this entitlement. It doenst mean that you really have to fullfil all ouf your customer wishes. Sometimes its impossible. But you can still do even this things with a good communcation. You can say sorry and explain why you have to do. You can avoid making mistakes a second time or try to correct mistakes like you have done.

 

To this special case. BW cound have thought BEFORE lunch wheat this patching times means for EU players. After lunch and complaints they could make an announcment "We understand your problems and will fix it until ....", they could have written somewhere WHY it was so important to shut down the server today and offer a small compensation or something.

 

All things not diffuclt and very normal for every company which has a good customer relationship in mind. One of this things and I would be still paying customer.

 

If you want to have a famous american example. Look at amazon for examle, or blizzard. They know how to do it.

 

Blizzard also makes you buy a separate copy of the game to play with your friends from across the pond.

 

Bioware does not.

 

Bioware runs both EU and NA servers on the same client

 

Therefore, it doesn't make sense to bring down NA servers to patch and then do the same for EU servers later...especially since they all run the same client and you can't bring the client down to patch for certain people but not others.

 

There are logistics involved that Europeans seem to not get. They seem to not understand the NIGHTMARE of bringing down people's clients regionally since the client isn't localized.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Parali
rude

[GHeissi]

OR, are well informed EU gamers who know that the TOS and EULA have utterly no basis in law in the EU/UK and thus arent worth the electronic paper its written on.

 

For the majority of people this isn't a legal issue anyway. It's about customer satisfaction.

Edited January 28, 2012 by GHeissi

[Kabjat]

Wow... just wow... Americans...

 

 

Racist much? WoW....I have no way to know your nationality because resentment and jealousy toward Americans is universal.

 

But what do you really expect? Non-Americans pretty much ATTACK the US, blaming the US for Boware's so-called short-changing them their RIGHT TO PLAY....and you act surprised that people will rise up and counter the hate-speech?

 

I am ASTOUNDED this thread has not been closed yet.

[MikelGoff]

So the best move is to not to play..... Would like a to play a game of Chess?

 

Oh no, I love playing the game. XD

[Kalantris]

why are you so rude to oceanic players?

 

im a us player and think your booware cheerleading is rather unwarrented at the least

 

a company performing a patch on a weekend for a mmo is not the norm unless it is an emergany for xploit fix and they tend to share the fix with customer base which is the bottom line here .. something you seem to not comprehend

 

bioware has not shared with us anything that was absolutely need to be patched on a weekend thus far that could not have waited til tuesday

 

end of story

 

There's always someone from Australia complaining about their downtimes in every single topic concerning maintenance. Sorry for my rudeness, it wasn't even his fault. It's the americans with their "get a life, it's just 5 hours" crap, that made me angry, so I'm sorry^2. Shame on me.

 

On topic: Lack of communication from Bioware is also an interesting problem. That's how companies work nowadays. There's always noone to blame, all you can do is shout at some random, innocent CSR, who's just as pissed off as you, because they make him work 12 hours/day for a crappy salary. I'm always amused how my business partner always manages to get a direct phone number to the company's CEO, calls him and shouts at him making him personally responsible for the matter. It doesn't usually help until our lawyers call him, but after that... everything works like a charm. Amazing . I might just ask him to do the same to Bioware .

 

Regards,

Kalantris

[Maidel]

For the majority of people this isn't a legal issue anyway. It's about customer satisfaction.

 

Oh 100% true - that wasnt the point I was making. I just get sick of americans saying 'well its in the eula/tos so ****' when they have no knowledge of EU law that the fact that they mean absolutely squat.

 

But you are right, its a customer service issue completely.

[Mormack]

Which, by definition, isnt an EMERGENCY.

 

You dont turn up at a hospital in an ambulance and get told 'sorry, we have to assemble a team, it will take a few hours...'

 

They have server techs 24hrs a day 365 days a year. In EMERGENCIES the servers are taken down at very short notice and patched immediately.

 

What you posted would make a TINY bit of sense if they waited until the DAY time where the servers are, but they didnt, they would have had to call in a load of people in the middle of the night.

 

Are you telling me that in an EMERGENCY it just so happened that the EMERGENCY happpend exactly 8 hours before it could be fixed and that so coincidentally occured exactly 8 hours before the exact same time they take the servers down normally - 8am GMT?

 

 

Things happen on a time table. They have to get the patches working first...QA test them on internal servers and make sure the techs who actually do that patching (because if you think all them can do it, you're clearly delusional...some are more qualified than others and it requires more to patch than to maintain) before they can make an announcement. Plus, they give us the Courtesy of not just locking the servers down without warning. They give us warning and if it can fall during the normal patching hours, they do so. Just because they didn't knee jerk reaction it and "OMG SERVERS DOWN NOW!" doesn't mean it wasn't a priority fix. Emergency doesn't necessarily mean "OMG FIX 20 HOURS AGO WHY ARE WE NOT DOWN YET!?" it simply means priority 1..Fix ASAP.

[keijim]

Blizzard also makes you buy a separate copy of the game to play with your friends from across the pond.

 

Bioware does not.

 

Bioware runs both EU and NA servers on the same client

 

Therefore, it doesn't make sense to bring down NA servers to patch and then do the same for EU servers later...especially since they all run the same client and you can't bring the client down to patch for certain people but not others.

 

There are logistics involved that entitled and uppity Europeans seem to not get. They seem to not understand the NIGHTMARE of bringing down people's clients regionally since the client isn't localized.

 

Trion Worlds is doing seperate patching and maintenance on Rift since launch and they didn't have an issue afaik.

[Maidel]

But what do you really expect? Non-Americans pretty much ATTACK the US, blaming the US for Boware's so-called short-changing them their RIGHT TO PLAY....and you act surprised that people will rise up and counter the hate-speech?.

 

No, they really dont - they bite back when people (who I would assume are north american based) come in and say that all europeans are QQing and should 'get a life'.

 

If none of those people came into these threads and said that sort of thing no one would mention the USA.

[Kelenae]

There's always someone from Australia complaining about their downtimes in every single topic concerning maintenance. Sorry for my rudeness, it wasn't even his fault. It's the americans with their "get a life, it's just 5 hours" crap, that made me angry, so I'm sorry^2. Shame on me.

 

I've seen this before... I think there is a thread of people from the EU doing the same thing

[Jahannam]

So if they don't patch quickly, they are shafting customers.

If they patch at specific times, they're shafting customers.

 

Let's lay down the ground rules for Bioware on when they can do things, how they can do them, and so forth.

 

1.. Bioware can NEVAR PATCH EVAR.

 

2.. If It affects the time I want to play its their bad, since I have no life and cant do anything else for 4 hours i demand they hire a staff to cater to just me.

 

3. Not only do they need a Europe team they need one for every timezone...I mean every timezone PST, CST, EST..ect ect Why should the west coast get shafted cause of east coast time? And the other way around.

 

Come on Bioware set up servers and make them cater to each and every timezone on their off peak hours seperately.

[madmikeyb]

I'm American and i think how they do the downtime is really rather dumb.

 

FIX:Switch down time ever other week. One Tuesday have it down from 10am to 4pm us. Next week 10am to 4pm eu time. Most are working between these hours or at class. Or use the same time table they have on Tuesday just alternate. I can live with not playing during the day once every other week. Im sure others can to, plus this would relieve a lot of issues.

 

However if they need to shut them down because of missions or pvp problems i could care less if its during peek times.

 

I hate the fact that i did 10 plus warzones winning over half of them to just get my daily done cause it wasn't completing the quest. It SUCKS yes but if its a patch to fix something critical I think we should be able to handle it. I mean thats how MMO's go if you cant find something to do during that time then I guess you just are not mature enough to understand somethings cant wait to get fixed.

 

Yes i know it mostly during eu times i think this should alternated or shut it down asap to fix it no MATTER what time it is if its bugging main parts of the game.

[Neptunius]

Oh no, I love playing the game. XD

 

I also love playing SWTOR, but, i really like to get better service as a Euro paying player.

[Jrzez]

Every single MMO pod/videocast laughes at the maint times for this game, seeming that it's down far too often. Not to mention you paying player base BW. Just saying.

[Mormack]

Trion Worlds is doing seperate patching and maintenance on Rift since launch and they didn't have an issue afaik.

 

Different game, different Engine. I'm not familiar with RIFT and if its localized or not but With SWTOR, you're always going to piss someone off and if you patched at different times, you would have people complaining about Version differences and how would you decide who to bring down and who not to? There's a lot of possible snags with your preferred outcome.

[Mormack]

Every single MMO pod/videocast laughes at the maint times for this game, seeming that it's down far too often. Not to mention you paying player base BW. Just saying.

 

Its down nowhere near as much as many of the MMOs I've played in the past when they were starting up.....MMOs when they are new are down a lot...its nothing new. It will get better. People are just entitled to having everything handed to them

[Siklilmike]

Just cancelled my sub...... I have no MMO to play now till GW2.... GRRRRR thanks BW.

 

But i would rather have no mmo then one made by a company that loves pulling down my trouser and *********** my *** at every opportunity..... they don't even ask or offer me a tissue after so i can clean my ***. they just shaft me.

 

But on a serious note im gone. SWTOR is a fantastic game ruined only by piss poor customer service and UNBELIEVABLY INCONSIDERATE PATCHING!

 

Problems have to be fixed but how CONVENIENT IT ALWAYS FALLS ON EU PEAK TIMES AND US OFF PEAK.

 

If something happens once.......Its an accident

If it happens twice...................Its a pattern

If it happens 3 times................Its a program

 

There screwing over the EU....... END OF DISCUSSION!!

[Khenu]

Blizzard also makes you buy a separate copy of the game to play with your friends from across the pond.

 

Bioware does not.

 

Bioware runs both EU and NA servers on the same client

 

Therefore, it doesn't make sense to bring down NA servers to patch and then do the same for EU servers later...especially since they all run the same client and you can't bring the client down to patch for certain people but not others.

 

There are logistics involved that entitled and uppity Europeans seem to not get. They seem to not understand the NIGHTMARE of bringing down people's clients regionally since the client isn't localized.

 

Well stupid enough descion to not localize it? How many people are playing on EU AND NA servers the same time? I guess less then all the people in the EU that are now unhappy with patching times.

 

Make two or three clients for worlds major regions and then let every player decide what kind of patching times he want to have.

 

But good to see that your are so insightfully. Maybe you should open a petition that they patch in your prime times and not in mine?

 

Anyway what happend happend and we will see where it leads. I think BW made a lot of mistakes so far concerning player base and especially towards EU-player-base and I think that will retaliate some day. Surely not today and not tomorrow but a long and successful MMORPG story comes from making people as happy as possible and not to annoy them as much as possible.

And for sure I wasnt the only one today to cancel subscribtion.

[MikelGoff]

I also love playing SWTOR, but, i really like to get better service as a Euro paying player.

 

I agree, they should totally make their work schedule around your play schedule.

 

>_>

[Jahannam]

Just cancelled my sub...... I have no MMO to play now till GW2.... GRRRRR thanks BW.

 

But i would rather have no mmo then one made by a company that loves pulling down my trouser and *********** my *** at every opportunity..... they don't even ask or offer me a tissue after so i can clean my ***. they just shaft me.

 

But on a serious note im gone. SWTOR is a fantastic game ruined only by piss poor customer service and UNBELIEVABLY INCONSIDERATE PATCHING!

 

Problems have to be fixed but how CONVENIENT IT ALWAYS FALLS ON EU PEAK TIMES AND US OFF PEAK.

 

If something happens once.......Its an accident

If it happens twice...................Its a pattern

If it happens 3 times................Its a program

 

There screwing over the EU....... END OF DISCUSSION!!

 

 

Lol if you think the patching ect for GW 2 will be any damn different.

[Kelenae]

I agree, they should totally make their work schedule around your play schedule.

 

>_>

 

Yes, Bioware should call up everyone before they patch something.. if it conflicts with one person because they are afraid to lose the sub. They wont patch.. Rinse, repeat.. No patches ever

[Lomedae]

Lol if you think the patching ect for GW 2 will be any damn different.

 

It's a safe bet Arena net's Customer Service will be better in any case. Being treated as customers instead of cattle makes all the difference in the world mr troll.