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

[Mandrax]

Here's a fact for you: Prime time doesn't start at 4pm. Anywhere.

 

Maybe not, but when you time zone is GMT+4, your prime time is affected. Yes, we have multiple time zones in Europe.

 

Unfortunately BioWare think that there is only one time zone in Europe and base all of their patches around it. Someone needs to tell them that the GMT time zone probably has the least population of all the European time zones.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Mandrax

[Lethality]

So for the GMT +2/+3/+4 people playing legitimately in Europe, having the servers down from 10/11/12 until 3/4/5pm isnt prime time how exactly?

 

Prime time? Doesn't start at 3, 4 or 5. At least 7pm, usually 8PM onward is the standard definition.

 

Because this patch didnt actually PATCH anything and didnt make the game better for 99.99% of players.

 

You have that clearly official statistic documented anywhere?

 

Here's the thing: BioWare knows more than you about how important it was. I'm going with them.

[C-Bee]

Here's a fact for you: Prime time doesn't start at 4pm. Anywhere.

 

I respectfully disagree.

 

Prime time is the time of the day when server population is highest, thus it is not directly tied to any time of the day. That said. Saturday afternoon is usually relatively busy time on servers.

[Mandrax]

Prime time? Doesn't start at 3, 4 or 5. At least 7pm, usually 8PM onward is the standard definition.

 

On a Saturday? Weekends are prime time.

[corbanite]

No matter when they do it, it's going to be a bad time for someone, right?

 

Then you are not reading the threads.

 

It was a servside patch. I log in with the same client yesterday as I did today which means they can update the servers at different times and my only issue with logging in would be if server I was trying to log in on was down for maintenance.

 

EU and US could have been done at seperate times. They were delayed until 8am GMT before they fixed this emergency some 8 hours after SR announced them on twitter.

 

The fact that they were delayed until 8am GMT for no good reason on the EU servers is the complaint.

Edited January 28, 2012 by corbanite

[spudbynight]

Prime time? Doesn't start at 3, 4 or 5. At least 7pm, usually 8PM onward is the standard definition.

 

 

 

You have that clearly official statistic documented anywhere?

 

Here's the thing: BioWare knows more than you about how important it was. I'm going with them.

 

Here's the thing - Bioware refusing to actually engage on this subject just pisses off about half their playing base. That is not very clever.

 

As I have said before there is not just prime time and non prime. There are essentially three time windows. Prime time (when most people want to play), off prime (day time mainly) and the middle of the night when pretty much everyone in asleep in bed.

[spudbynight]

 

The fact that they were delayed until 8am GMT for no good reason on the EU servers is the complaint.

 

Yep, if it is that important do it straight away. If it isn't important enough to do immediately then wait until tuesday.

[OmegaMayhem]

 

EU and US could of been done at seperate times. They were delayed until 8am GMT before they fixed this emergency some 8 hours after SR announced them on twitter.

 

 

Many people keep saying this.

 

How do you KNOW they can do it? Because other games do?

 

Here's an idea... maybe they don't WANT to do separate times.

 

Whatever the reason, they do it. Either accept it or cancel your sub.

[OmegaMayhem]

- the middle of the night when pretty much everyone in asleep in bed.

 

Where? Middle of the night here is prime time somewhere else.

 

Ridiculous statement.

[spudbynight]

 

Here's an idea... maybe they don't WANT to do separate times.

 

 

What they want doesn't matter if they want to stay in business.

 

Business 101 - listen to what your customers want.

[Mandrax]

Many people keep saying this.

 

How do you KNOW they can do it? Because other games do?

 

Here's an idea... maybe they don't WANT to do separate times.

 

Whatever the reason, they do it. Either accept it or cancel your sub.

 

If they don't want to do separate times, fine, but at least tell us. Some of us just want a response on the issue.

 

I will not wait on them forever though. If some other game comes along that does not have regular maintenance during times I want to play, it's likely I'll move. I wont be here creating some dumb thread about it, I'll just go and it will be another sub down for BioWare for poor customer service.

Edited January 28, 2012 by Mandrax

[frimanove]

Whatever the reason, they do it. Either accept it or cancel your sub.

 

I dont and I have.

 

/Friman

[C-Bee]

Many people keep saying this.

 

How do you KNOW they can do it? Because other games do?

 

Here's an idea... maybe they don't WANT to do separate times.

 

Whatever the reason, they do it. Either accept it or cancel your sub.

 

And theres the kicker... Exactly!

 

We do not know since there is no communication between BW and players.

 

We dont know what the issue is for them when their competition manages to do it.

 

And for the last line, THAT is the very definition of bad customer service... "accept it or cancel your sub"... really? Do they want europeans as customers or dont they?

Edited January 28, 2012 by C-Bee

[spudbynight]

Where? Middle of the night here is prime time somewhere else.

 

Ridiculous statement.

 

Your statement is lacking in intelligence. What the EU player base is asking for is separate downtimes.

 

So middle of the night for US maintenance and then middle of the night for EU maintenance. When the Aus/NZ servers launch then give them downtime in the middle of the night for them.

 

I do hope you are not as stupid as your post indicates.

[Sakki]

If it was important enough to take servers down on a Saturday morning for 50% of their player base, which is unseen in any MMO I've played, then it should have been important enough to roll out as soon as they got the fix.

Do you honestly believe they didn't have a fix ready untill 2AM CST which just so happens to be the exact same time they do their weekly maintenance?

 

Prime time starts at 7pm... on weekdays. Weekends is a whole another story.

I'm not raging, not even angry at all. Very disappointed at the complete lack of Costumer Service and obvious and blatant favouritism towards the US half of the community though.

[junkyard]

Your statement is lacking in intelligence. What the EU player base is asking for is separate downtimes.

 

So middle of the night for US maintenance and then middle of the night for EU maintenance. When the Aus/NZ servers launch then give them downtime in the middle of the night for them.

 

I do hope you are not as stupid as your post indicates.

 

/agree

[FredSavage]

The absurd thing is the "fixes" they're claiming on these patches.

 

"Improved service to reduce the number of player disconnections to the character selection screen."

Really? THIS is what you shut your servers down for during a time that MANY of your customers who have limited free time during the week are playing. Tell me how many people couldn't have waiting for this to be patched in. I'll guarantee the percentile is ridiculously high.

 

Honestly, just tell us the truth. If it was to fix some ridiculous exploit, the community will not hate you. Most of them will accept that these issues need to be addressed. If you keep shutting the servers down for ludicrous reasons, and taking away the ability to post on the forums while it happens....you WILL lose subs. From the feel of these forums, it doesn't seem like you need to add to that long list of reasons.

 

EDIT - I was the first one to praise this game when it come out. I loved it and recommended it to several friends who in turn have purchased it to play in our guild. That being said, the way Bioware handles this community in general seems to be fairly weak, and the reasons for cancelling are adding up incredibly quickly...from the absolutely horrid character response feel, to several bugs and inadequacies that should have never reared their heads to begin with when you have a 300 MILLION dollar budget. Lolvoiceacting.

Edited January 28, 2012 by FredSavage

[LightShad]

Saturnday is prime time and this is just taking the piss.

But since most people that dont care about it are in the US we can easy fix this problem.

 

Just move maintenance about 14 hours forward of 10 hours backward. That would mean between 4:00 AM and 10AM GMT. Then we dont have to complain anymore since it isnt in our primetime and the US players that respond to this tread already told us that it isnt a problem to patch in their primetime.

 

Or just make SEPERATE patchtimes. Servers are all different instances you can even let 1 go down and not affect the rest of the servers for that zone. It does not affect anyone as players can just upgrade when their server is back up again.

[NinjaVamPirate]

I am an US player - West coast specifically. I normally play later in the evenings and a 12am cut off is real bad for me.

 

I wanted to play from 12a-3a last night.... GG for me, I missed all my dailies yesterday because of a superfluous patch that fixed a low impact bug.

 

I am with the posters that think "ONE DAY PER WEEK" is the max acceptable down time. We are now out 12+ hours cumulative downtime.

 

Beyond that, it does not take > 8 < hours to maintain a server. In other games many down times are only that length in order to apply patches that are in the scope of the 1/28 patch.

 

If a space based sandbox MMO game can manage a 1 hour per day downtime for server resets then obviously 8h is overkill for a non patch server reset.

 

(I left out the game name since last time I mentioned a direct competitor I got an infraction.)

[Jamus_Divinus]

If they don't want to do separate times, fine, but at least tell us. Some of us just want a response on the issue.

 

I will not wait on them forever though. If some other game comes along that does not have regular maintenance during times I want to play, it's likely I'll move.

 

Bioware is fast becoming a joke in regards to customer service or even community management.

 

I do love the 'we listen to our customers' spiel they trot out during interviews though.

 

1) 'NO GRACE PERIOD despite us having said there would be when you all pre-ordered.' Cue a 287,293,110 page thread reminding Bioware of what they previously promised.

 

'Ok we're amazingly happy to announce that we're giving you all 2 days grace period after all...as we listen to our customers!!!'. Bait, switch then magnanimous reply...yay!

 

2) 'NO EU Beta until one week before early access depsite us mentioning in 2009 that Beta was completely random and not based on where you live.' Despite the 923,498,398 page thread asking for EU Beta from 2009-2011.

 

'If we could have done one thing different...it would maybe have been to test the game a lot more before launch..oh and we listen to our customers!!!'...Dr Greg interview last week.

 

So in conclusion I can see Bioware's future reply on this...maybe once the thread hits 298,190,100 replies:

 

'We listen to our customers!!! With that in mind we've decided on doing what WoW and Rift do with their EU customers. We're letting you have maintenance at the same time of day as the US enjoy theirs!!! Aren't we a great company which listens to its playerbase?'

 

P.S. Actually loving playing the game and have no intention of cancelling. Just hugely annoyed at the lack of community management/customer service. It's either too little or very bad quality. Look around the forums (here and other fourms) to find examples of what I mean.

 

P.P.S. Will look up that Dr Greg interview link and add it in a few mins.

[Lethality]

And theres the kicker... Exactly!

 

We do not know since there is no communication between BW and players.

 

We dont know what the issue is for them when their competition manages to do it.

 

And for the last line, THAT is the very definition of bad customer service... "accept it or cancel your sub"... really? Do they want europeans as customers or dont they?

 

And you are honestly telling me that if they gave you the REASON they do it, that would satisfy everyone? Somehow I doubt it.

[C-Bee]

I am an US player - West coast specifically. I normally play later in the evenings and a 12am cut off is real bad for me.

 

I wanted to play from 12a-3a last night.... GG for me, I missed all my dailies yesterday because of a superfluous patch that fixed a low impact bug.

 

I am with the posters that think "ONE DAY PER WEEK" is the max acceptable down time. We are now out 12+ hours cumulative downtime.

 

Beyond that, it does not take > 8 < hours to maintain a server. In other games many down times are only that length in order to apply patches that are in the scope of the 1/28 patch.

 

If a space based sandbox MMO game can manage a 1 hour per day downtime for server resets then obviously 8h is overkill for a non patch server reset.

 

(I left out the game name since last time I mentioned a direct competitor I got an infraction.)

 

Agreed..

 

let it also be said that these days this unnamed space MMO has normally only 20...30 minute downtime each day, since they are willing to put in effor to refine and develop the service they are offering.

[Mandrax]

Bioware is fast becoming a joke in regards to customer service or even community management.

 

I do love the 'we listen to our customers' spiel they trot out during interviews though.

 

1) 'NO GRACE PERIOD despite us having said there would be when you all pre-ordered.' Cue a 287,293,110 page thread reminding Bioware of what they previously promised.

 

'Ok we're amazingly happy to announce that we're giving you all 2 days grace period after all...as we listen to our customers!!!'. Bait, switch then magnanimous reply...yay!

 

2) 'NO EU Beta until one week before early access depsite us mentioning in 2009 that Beta was completely random and not based on where you live.' Despite the 923,498,398 page thread asking for EU Beta from 2009-2011.

 

'If we could have done one thing different...it would maybe have been to test the game a lot more before launch..oh and we listen to our customers!!!'...Dr Greg interview last week.

 

So in conclusion I can see Bioware's future reply on this...maybe once the thread hits 298,190,100 replies:

 

'We listen to our customers!!! With that in mind we've decided on doing what WoW and Rift do with their EU customers. We're letting you have maintenance at the same time of day as the US enjoy theirs!!! Aren't we a great company which listens to its playerbase?'

 

P.S. Actually loving playing the game and have no intention of cancelling. Just hugely annoyed at the lack of community management/customer service. It's either too little or very bad quality. Look around the forums (here and other fourms) to find examples of what I mean.

 

P.P.S. Will look up that Dr Greg interview link and add it in a few mins.

 

Interview is here

[C-Bee]

And you are honestly telling me that if they gave you the REASON they do it, that would satisfy everyone? Somehow I doubt it.

 

I can not speak for others but myself.

 

For myself the reason is not there to satisfy me. It is there to evaluate if the service provider is actually doing what they are supposed to do. For example if they have good enough reason to put down servers and they tell about it to community, I DO belive that the responce from community would be more positive.

 

As it is now however there is no accountability. BW does something behind the scenes and we can only judge their action based on what it looks like from our perspective. And in this case it looks like they are intentionally treating european customers simply bad.

Edited January 29, 2012 by C-Bee

[Mandrax]

And you are honestly telling me that if they gave you the REASON they do it, that would satisfy everyone? Somehow I doubt it.

 

It would help make up people's minds as to whether they want to continue to invest in this game going forward.