Bluejam Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Its kinda funny theres been no dev posts since the one in this thread, no addressing of valid concerns raised in the test forums, no real communication. Saying "we have to do better!" is not the same as doing better. Yup, I suppose it's only lunchtime stateside but would have expected something for the eu gang, those that are still paying, to say whether the fps guide is coming today or not and whether it's just a tweak guide or anything actually useful. Personally I'm still here, but fed up seeing my favorite guildies/players leaving. I'm all for giving a new game time to sort out teething problems but the devs are giving everyone the impression it's not fixable by not giving updates at least once a day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossei Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I appologize in advance for not reading the entire thread, but the title and CS response caught my attention. Bad, or lack of, information is indeed a very bad thing in any case. My own experience is that the swtor gang is just not that good at providing information in advance. For example: I was (as most other people were) annoyed with the server queues on deployment. In retrospect, I realize that BW actually handled that very nicely. The big mistake was to not inform us players in advance of how it was going to work. The same goes for many of the problems that has been, and are of, great (or lesser) grievance to us players. If you just get better at informing us of what is going on, future plans, what is actually considered bugs as compared to what just a few people doesn't like etc, why you do this or that (and to me this is the most important thing, because you really do have good reasons for what you change or not most of the time in my own humble oppinion), and so on, at least those of us who are not just hating for the sake of it would likely be happy. Thanks (again) for a wonderful game! /Bosse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmorgado Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 You do realise that BW considered that emergency action? No, that's for EVERY MAINTENANCE. Every single week, 8 hours during peak time where players in Europe can't play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delavager Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I am with the pool where what happened isn't an issue, like taking down during friday night for a needed patch, that's cool. What isn't cool, is the communication and how it was handled. I personally did not find out about the server coming down until 15 min prior (Due to the in game message). If I am playing the game, chances are I'm not trolling the forums looking for messages about it coming down that night. Additionally, the thread name which contained the cryptic information was HORRIBLY misnamed. Just really bad communication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RazielHex Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 i also hate that they ignore the players in Europe, Dubai, Asia, Australia And us Mooninites. We are paying subscribers. We use satellite modems on the moon. They don't even give us the time relative to Moon-time at all. It's always earth-based time. That's so unfair. We are paying subscribers, and as such, Bioware owes it to all Mooninites to cater to our every need. 5 Hours on Earth is a blink of an eye on the Moon, since we don't even rotate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkmorgado Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 They should put ANY announcement like that front and centre when you launch the game, along with a pop up when you log in. But for me, the main issue is that server maintenance in Europe takes place during peak hours because it's simultaneous globally and timed to cater to the US Audience. Bioware may be a primarily US company, but an mmo is a global product and treating one audience over another fosters feelings of being treated like second-class citizens. There is no reason why routine maintenance for European servers can't be staggered to fit around European time zones, so that we don't have to suffer weekly 8-hour outages during peak hours. And there is no valid reason, from a customer service pov, why that shouldn't happen. No other MMO out there would dare to do something that makes one group of players feel like second-rate citizens. It's amazing that the game was even launched in the first place with such a shockingly inconsiderate maintenance policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hycinthus Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Japan does this too with FFXI. They perform maintenance during off-peak JApan hours, which is coincidentally during US and EU playtimes. And they've been doing it since 2003 when FFXI came out. So this is an ongoing issue. The origin of the game company will always favor its region. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SidneyFault Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Server downtime can not ever just be posted to the forums it has to be posted to the game client. If it is not then the devs can not really claim they are properly communicating with the customers. Also what happens if you have been playing for say 5 or 6 hours and are not checking the forums, while your in game, and you drop those servers. Posting in a forum does NOTHING to notify those players. And the simple statement that "we posted in the forums" is nothing but insulting!!! And since when does a forum post trump game client.... Or even an in game notice once that gets decided. I can not believe a Dev would write a note like that I know when I log in to play I am not checking the forums why would I.. plus not everyone has a second monitor where they can do things like that freely while in game. This is a little inaccurate. I'm not sure where your timing comes from, but our original post regarding the downtime was posted at 5:10PM CST (Austin time). At that point, we were unsure of the start time for the maintenance so posted without it. The post was updated with the exact timing of the maintenance at 8:54PM CST, which would give just over five hours notice of the exact timing. Five hours is not a generous window of notice, and for that we apologize. In this instance, we updated with the precise timing as soon as we could, but we'll strive to improve. Frankly this issue it not only frustrating but not ok. The Forums are a great way to communicate with the community but this can never a devs fall back for notifying the community. The first place always has to be the game client and the forums are always secondary. I know many many people who could care less about the forums to begin with. So if it not on the game client at login then you failed to give us notice of the shutdown, period!! Regardless of making a post in the forums that a lot if not the majority of players are never going to see.. BAD DEV NO DONUT FOR YOU!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerda Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I agree with the OP. The lack of communication is astonishing. A lot of anger can be avoided by simply talking to the people. But you never seem to share information with your customers or if you do, it's after the damage was already done. But but.. they gave you a founders medal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macheath Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 They should put ANY announcement like that front and centre when you launch the game, along with a pop up when you log in. But for me, the main issue is that server maintenance in Europe takes place during peak hours because it's simultaneous globally and timed to cater to the US Audience. Bioware may be a primarily US company, but an mmo is a global product and treating one audience over another fosters feelings of being treated like second-class citizens. There is no reason why routine maintenance for European servers can't be staggered to fit around European time zones, so that we don't have to suffer weekly 8-hour outages during peak hours. And there is no valid reason, from a customer service pov, why that shouldn't happen. No other MMO out there would dare to do something that makes one group of players feel like second-rate citizens. It's amazing that the game was even launched in the first place with such a shockingly inconsiderate maintenance policy. Posters should be more careful about throwing around the term "second-class citizen." To be blunt, that term has no place in a discussion about 1st world problems like being unable to log into a video game for a few hours every week. -Macheath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigrakis Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 To those of you in Europe, I want you to know that we'll be discussing maintenance windows and how we can improve their timing this coming week. We may not have an update immediately (and not before the scheduled maintenance on January 31st) but we have been paying attention to your opinions. Thanks again for the feedback - it helps us know where to improve. Yeah, please try to find a solution for this . The game was down on a Saturday , approx 10-15 GMT+2 . Very irritating. Especially when I had just joined the game in the previous day and i was looking forward to continue playing on Saturday ... Dear Bioware, perhaps you could also consider optimizing the weekly maintenance period : 8 hours is long. It is probably understandable because it's a recently released game, but it would be nice to set a goal regarding making it shorter .... I fully agree with the OP : the announcement had a bad title . And the contents was not explaining properly that it was an exceptional patch with very high urgency. From my point of view the 28 jan downtime was a complete fiasco. But i am optimistic that such things will be handled in a better way in the future . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackardin Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 1: You post a warning less than two hours before the servers are brought down. Ok, if this is an emergency, tell us it's an emergency. Don't call it 'maintenance' when you decide to pull down all the servers on a Friday night with less than 2 hours notice. 2: The post is highly ambiguous. If you're pulling the servers down on a Friday, put Friday in the title. If you're pulling the servers down today, in 2 hours, put that in the title to get the word out. The title gives the overwealing impression that the Patch + Maintenance are on Jan 31st. I'm perfectly content with this, because they are doing exactly what the other whiners are requesting, to fix things ASAP. The post is probably ambiguous because of uncertainty with testing and readiness combined with people that latch onto every word, ready to pounce. Amazes me. The get complaints about game issues, then bring the servers down so as to fix those issues and get complaints for bringing the servers down. 3: People expect patches Tuesday 2am CST onwards. There are sometimes patches to fix those patches on wed/thus am following. If you break from that pattern then clearly inform your playerbase Who's "people?" I expect they fix the game as they can, and prioritize. Nothing more or less. If they bring them down during my play time, no big deal. Its a game, not my life. ;p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustmonger Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 If you want to know what happens to customers who get a generic computer generated response to their problems - why don't you take a look at a company called comcast. They were one of the first companies to implement an automated computer customer-service line. They were also one of the first to shut it down and go back to actual responses after losing a substantial customer base. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aleutius Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 What?? Gamebreaking bugs fixed immediately upon discovery?? Yea i'm cancelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruffy Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I have to thank Bioware for stopping my Saturday daytime gametime. I went out, met some friends at the pub that I game with most nights. We all agreed BW and Star Wars are not worth the crap service atm and restarted our EQ2 subs and all cancelled Star Wars. Now we're happy customising our UI, enjoying zero ability delays, and more importantly enjoying better graphics. Thank you Bioware and your ignorant yank gamers. I would be right there with you, but are SOE any better? Really? Devs lying at Fan Faire's about release schedules and then going back on it, the complete lack of content being made (that isn't bought with $medbucks) and the continued destruction of a once proud game that shat over World of W**kcraft at its prime. Bitter truth is they all lie, but anything associated with Smedly is going to be right at the top of the porkies told list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ilahn Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 i dont see why US and EU cant have different down time ? or why you cant live update like othergames so you dont take servers down ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujeo-finel Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 You don't pay for communication, you pay to play the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramzeppelin Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 People on either side of this, kinda suck. Who cares either way? My father in law was just diagnosed with cancer, I have chronic pain issues at the moment. The world news was about quite a bit of death. Oh and then there is this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrusaderRO Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Things like those written in the OP made me cancel my subscription. It's wasted money. Plain and simple. I'd rather play any single player game than this ****. Good luck to those staying though. You'll have to put up with this total lack of care for at least some months now, until better games appear on the market and then they'll have no choice but to care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujeo-finel Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Things like those written in the OP made me cancel my subscription. It's wasted money. Plain and simple. I'd rather play any single player game than this ****. Good luck to those staying though. You'll have to put up with this total lack of care for at least some months now, until better games appear on the market and then they'll have no choice but to care. You're a whiney little girl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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