10pm downtime? Really?

[pRagmata]

(cut) ...a few days later, Bioware announced that yes, in fact, it is to become the norm, and West Coasters will just have to deal with it.

 

So it's more than a little difficult to sit here and watch it happen again, and not expect the other shoe to drop. (cut)

 

I get that and if you are correct then your argument is a bit justified, but my suggestion would be to complain then (because it's obvious you are going to anyways; rightfully) and not now. I understand you may want to get in front of anything as an attempt to influence, but outcry after the fact works just as well when a major group of people is affected. Trying to predict the future either makes you look like a prophet or an entitled child. Extremes. Stress. Taking a more patient approach gives you maturity you are lacking in this situation. You don't need to be a prophet, by all accounts, you just need your game at a certain time. Give them a chance to redeem that for you.

 

The change from 2am to midnight makes LOTS of sense when you take the considerations of the other areas and is very acceptable because midnight is late. I don't care about your schedule, midnight is late and past primetime. They don't put primetime TV on at 12 to meet your schedule, because your schedule is not primetime. It may be YOUR prime playing time, but no one cares about YOU individually.

 

A change from midnight to 10pm affects WAY worse than the previous one and they developers will recognize that. It's much less favorable to move into ACTUAL primetime from their standpoint. You again aren't looking passed yourself.

 

 

p.s I should have mentioned I am on the west coast too.

Edited April 11, 2012 by pRagmata

[Dodskrigare]

How can anyone from the West Coast or Oceanica NOT think this will become the norm?

 

It used to be a 2am shutdown for maintenance.

 

Then it became 12am.

 

Now, we're looking at 10pm.

 

It has happened before. The first time it went down at midnight instead of the normal 2am, people said the same thing you are saying. "It's special circumstances, it won't be like this all the time."

 

Then a few days later, Bioware announced that yes, in fact, it is to become the norm, and West Coasters will just have to deal with it.

 

So it's more than a little difficult to sit here and watch it happen again, and not expect the other shoe to drop.

 

Two things:

 

1) Had the shutdown been at midnight, as usual, there would have been no post from me. That's norm, I would have accepted it, and thought nothing of it, other than the short notice.

 

2) Had the patch window been longer than the normal 8 hours (which the shutdown notice indicates is NOT the case) I probably wouldn't have thought much about it either, accepting they needed additional time, hence why they moved it up.

 

But neither of these things is the case. The patch window is the same 8 hours it almost always is, but, if they can do the patch in 8 hours, like a normal maintenance cycle, then why the move up by 2 hours?

 

The only reasoning I can ascertain is because they intend to make 10pm the new normal, and I fully expect them to announce as much, once 1.2 has dropped.

 

Ya know, here is the thing.

 

Even not being a West Coaster but living in the US, I play on a West Coast server because the server pop is higher during some of my available playtime (late nights here.) Even if they do chose to move up maintenance time permanently, I don't see it as an issue. There are other things to do than play SWTOR. Yes, its a good game. Over the course of a month, your talking about losing 8-10 hours of playtime. If you look at the amount of time logged on a character, in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. Its time you can spend with family (although if you complain this much about stuff that really matters I can imagine you not being the favored son so to speak), friends, catching up on TV, reading a book, or catching up on sleep. Hell, go out and grab a drink at a bar and relax a little, might do you some good.

 

All told you aren't losing much, and yet your making it out to be a huge issue. BW announcing this Tuesday put a huge dent in my plans for the week. I had planned on telling my wife I was pulling an all nighter in the man-cave tonight to try and level my guardian to 50 before the weekend. Well, that is not going to happen obviously. Oh...wait...even better, I can pull an all nighter Thursday night instead and still probably manage my 50 by the weekend.

 

It is life, things don't follow some nice cheery script. Be an adult and deal with it like the rest of us. Or go ahead, get upset, complain, jack your stress level up like a child, the older you get though, the shorter that makes you life expectancy, stress is a killer, leads to heart attacks, strokes and mental break downs. Why do that to yourself, especially over a game?

[Dkzero]

How can anyone from the West Coast or Oceanica NOT think this will become the norm?

 

It used to be a 2am shutdown for maintenance.

 

Then it became 12am.

 

Now, we're looking at 10pm.

 

It has happened before. The first time it went down at midnight instead of the normal 2am, people said the same thing you are saying. "It's special circumstances, it won't be like this all the time."

 

Then a few days later, Bioware announced that yes, in fact, it is to become the norm, and West Coasters will just have to deal with it.

 

So it's more than a little difficult to sit here and watch it happen again, and not expect the other shoe to drop.

 

Two things:

 

1) Had the shutdown been at midnight, as usual, there would have been no post from me. That's norm, I would have accepted it, and thought nothing of it, other than the short notice.

 

2) Had the patch window been longer than the normal 8 hours (which the shutdown notice indicates is NOT the case) I probably wouldn't have thought much about it either, accepting they needed additional time, hence why they moved it up.

 

But neither of these things is the case. The patch window is the same 8 hours it almost always is, but, if they can do the patch in 8 hours, like a normal maintenance cycle, then why the move up by 2 hours?

 

The only reasoning I can ascertain is because they intend to make 10pm the new normal, and I fully expect them to announce as much, once 1.2 has dropped.

 

Dud give it up already, not one person is on your side.

[Bloodstealer]

Our Anniversary is today ... so this patch couldn't have come at a better time.

 

I don't think there will be any up/down time though. We're in our 60's ...

 

Lolz... VIAGRA... The miracle cure from the sixties.. for the 60's

[Bloodstealer]

Breaking down the fact that a day isn't actually 24 hours is pretty pedantic. Pointing out that when the OP broke down the amount of time they received from the notice to when the patch will be deployed into hours the numbers used were technically incorrect.

 

It can be difficult to explain ”how long is a day on Earth” because there are many variables. The most convenient convention is to say that it is 24 hours for normal conversational situations.

 

I was going for humour. But hey ho.

 

Approximately 5 Earth days ago I found out that the patch was coming this week.

 

Breaking down the amount of time the OP had into business days is irrelevant as at no point was the OP promised 3 days. Business days, Earth days, Jupiter days or (my personal imaginary favourite) Verubian days.

 

And if you really only want completely relevant posts I would suggest avoiding this forum altogether.

 

 

Holy bejeeessues... We now have 2 separate discussions/arguments in this post talking/shouting and whinning about nothing more than time....

To my left we have the West Coast Me, Me Me want my 2hrs or life will become unbearable poster..

To my right we have others discussing the Space Time Continuum relative to where exactly time is measured from.. to....

 

 

All I can add now is... I need a freaking beer ....

I cant take this crazy talk anymore.... if this hurts the OP's life so much or the "its not 3 days notice its 2.1576345254 days" people cant live without more precise timekeeping then ya just gunna have to take that age old life decision.... The Green Pill or the Red Pill... otherwise just quit moaning like silly kids, pick yourselves up, dust yourseves off and suck in some much need air and be happy were are getting 1.2 this week, not next week or the week after... like so many other MMO's often do to us ... go heat up your sabres and go do what we were put on this big fluffy planet for... EWOK slaying!!!

 

What... whadda ya mean we got no teddies to slay.... bahhh rage quitting with immediate effect......

 

BTW the first 17 pages made me laugh so much m y ribs are really hurting today... plzzzz show some consideration, feel my pain and STOP THIS!!!!!

Edited April 11, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[BucMan]

How can anyone from the West Coast or Oceanica NOT think this will become the norm?

 

It used to be a 2am shutdown for maintenance.

 

Then it became 12am.

 

Now, we're looking at 10pm.

 

It has happened before. The first time it went down at midnight instead of the normal 2am, people said the same thing you are saying. "It's special circumstances, it won't be like this all the time."

 

Then a few days later, Bioware announced that yes, in fact, it is to become the norm, and West Coasters will just have to deal with it.

 

So it's more than a little difficult to sit here and watch it happen again, and not expect the other shoe to drop.

 

Two things:

 

1) Had the shutdown been at midnight, as usual, there would have been no post from me. That's norm, I would have accepted it, and thought nothing of it, other than the short notice.

 

2) Had the patch window been longer than the normal 8 hours (which the shutdown notice indicates is NOT the case) I probably wouldn't have thought much about it either, accepting they needed additional time, hence why they moved it up.

 

But neither of these things is the case. The patch window is the same 8 hours it almost always is, but, if they can do the patch in 8 hours, like a normal maintenance cycle, then why the move up by 2 hours?

 

The only reasoning I can ascertain is because they intend to make 10pm the new normal, and I fully expect them to announce as much, once 1.2 has dropped.

 

 

The only reason I can ascertain that the time is 10pm for this patch is because they are giving themselves a cushion the following day to reduce the potential backlash of having to bring down the servers to fix the patch. And 1 occurence does not a trend make.

 

 

You are starting with your conclusion and then shaping your evidence to fit that. There are many possibilities. Perhaps it has something to do with the staff in Austin or wherever else. Nobody knows. But to assume it will now be the norm is folly.

 

Had this complaint come after 2 instances of regular maintenance(not patch updating) of 10pm server downs you would see a lot less flames and probably have more agreeing with you.

[Zajen]

Personally I think it's in order to make a small handfull of server administrators lives easier.

 

Every other MMO tried to find the sweet spot for downtime and did a decent job doing so. Coincidentally they all decided on roughly the same time.

 

Bioware is special, we are not.

[Seriasx]

Sigh, you wanted the release date now you have it now you QQ about downtime

 

when does it stop

 

It stops when half of North America gets a massive advantage over the other half.

 

 

Easy fix, do it at 3am PST

[Dayln]

It stops when half of North America gets a massive advantage over the other half.

 

 

Easy fix, do it at 3am PST

 

And by massive advantage they are talking about a couple of hours in the middle of a weeknight for a video game

[fdswer]

First World problems?

[Blistrich]

First World problems?

First World problems are more serious.

 

This is more like Pauly D problems.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Blistrich

[mathisk]

First World problems?

 

No, there were lots of World problems before this. This is just the first one that impacted his SWTOR gaming time.

[Krintar]

I think the complaints that they didn't give us enough notice are valid; after all, it was only about 0.012 days.

 

Of course, that's Venusian days, since I'm forced to assume that the people kicking up a fuss about the amount of notice given aren't living on the same planet as the rest of us.

[Saltybill]

Why the sudden change to 10pm as a downtime? You've already alienated the West Coast, New Zealand and Australia in the past, by shutting down at Midnight, now, you gotta screw over the West even more, and go at 10pm?

 

The downtime is 8 hours, same as every other downtime. Why the early shutdown? Why move it more into primetime?

 

Oh, and @StephenReid....3 days notice? Looks like about a 1 day notice to me, but then again, they didn't teach them new fangled math-e-ma-matics at my grade school, high school or college.

 

 

they could, you know... not give us 1.2 and just keep the servers up all the time. XD

 

man, some of you guys should really play the other mmos... they had some mad downtimes! especially after patches! why, in my day, patch day = no game at all for 24hrs! well, unless one realm was still up... but then it would get flooded and everybody would cry. >)

[Distracted]

Why the sudden change to 10pm as a downtime? You've already alienated the West Coast, New Zealand and Australia in the past, by shutting down at Midnight, now, you gotta screw over the West even more, and go at 10pm?

 

The downtime is 8 hours, same as every other downtime. Why the early shutdown? Why move it more into primetime?

 

Oh, and @StephenReid....3 days notice? Looks like about a 1 day notice to me, but then again, they didn't teach them new fangled math-e-ma-matics at my grade school, high school or college.

 

 

They're giving you the opportunity to do something constructive with that time, such as spending time with your family, reading a book or making new [real] friends.

 

You should be happy & give thanks to a company that is so considerate.

[Dr_Jackal]

I am from Australia and why the Update - maintenance time's dont personally bother me i can see why others would be a bit annoyed.

 

you've got the ones who go to school 9am-3pm AEST- (most are still on easter holiday's till next week)

 

and the one's who work 9am-5pm AEST

 

So with server maintenance from 3pm-11pm AEST most wont be able to play at all that day

due having to go to bed and get up a do it all again, so you should be able to see where some of the complainers are coming from.

 

Me personally i have a life so ill go play with my girlfriend and see if i can win a prize

[ShadowOfVey]

We need this downtime. Without it, when would we get to shower?

 

Also I missed my chance to poop already last week, it's going to be at least a 4 flusher this time around.

[Asuka]

Less QQ, more pewpew...

[cutterkinseeker]

I understand downtime. I have no issue with it.

 

What I do have an issue with is:

 

1) West Coast constantly getting the shaft on downtime, and this time around, getting it even worse.

 

2) We were told we'd have 3 days notice of 1.2. Apparently, that was a lie.

 

 

Heck, if they would have gone with the patch at Midnight, AS USUAL, then maybe I'd have not posted at all.

 

You may resume your trolling now.

 

Yes they are patching at midnight. But its Central time. This is where there located is in the central time zone. So your not getting shafted.

[Staavis_SC]

Yes they are patching at midnight. But its Central time. This is where there located is in the central time zone. So your not getting shafted.

 

/facepalm

 

Timezones man. Timezones.

 

12am PACIFIC = Normal downtime.

 

10pm PACIFIC = 1.2 downtime

 

12am PACIFIC = 2am CENTRAL

 

10pm PACIFIC = 12am CENTRAL

 

Net Bonus = -2 hours.

[Captain_Zone]

How can anyone from the West Coast or Oceanica NOT think this will become the norm?

 

It used to be a 2am shutdown for maintenance.

 

Then it became 12am.

 

Now, we're looking at 10pm.

 

It has happened before. The first time it went down at midnight instead of the normal 2am, people said the same thing you are saying. "It's special circumstances, it won't be like this all the time."

 

Then a few days later, Bioware announced that yes, in fact, it is to become the norm, and West Coasters will just have to deal with it.

 

So it's more than a little difficult to sit here and watch it happen again, and not expect the other shoe to drop.

 

Two things:

 

1) Had the shutdown been at midnight, as usual, there would have been no post from me. That's norm, I would have accepted it, and thought nothing of it, other than the short notice.

 

2) Had the patch window been longer than the normal 8 hours (which the shutdown notice indicates is NOT the case) I probably wouldn't have thought much about it either, accepting they needed additional time, hence why they moved it up.

 

But neither of these things is the case. The patch window is the same 8 hours it almost always is, but, if they can do the patch in 8 hours, like a normal maintenance cycle, then why the move up by 2 hours?

 

The only reasoning I can ascertain is because they intend to make 10pm the new normal, and I fully expect them to announce as much, once 1.2 has dropped.

 

Do you REALLY believe this? Man, I'm West Coast too. This is just for the 1.2 patch so people can play it when they wake up.

 

Get a grip, homie. You claim this is your 4th or 5th MMO, so you should be used to it by now. And this isn't NEARLY as bad as the stuff I heard about WoW or the stuff I've experienced back in EQ, EQII, Earth and Beyond, or even City of Heroes. Even EVE Online has been worse with their last few huge content expansions. So deal with it, and stop breaking down everything by decimals or RAGING because you think BioWare lied. They never lied about this patch's release and technically, we had over 5 days notice from when it was first announced. Now, back to work for me. Fly safe. o7

[detowne]

WoW, people complaining about losing a few hours of game time? Even going as far as the "I paid for this! Let me play!" argument?

 

We are paying a monthly fee so you we can continue to receive updates with new content! Guess what, they need to have the servers down to give us this new content so stop b*tch*ng and be happy that we are getting new content so soon!

[Baxterwolfe]

Nope, you didn't play any other mmos.

 

 

Lmao how the hell do you know if he did or not are you his brother or are you holding his hand lol you are a horrible person by saying this ****.

 

By the way down time should be the same day same time and that would make it easy for all

[flyersfan]

I understand downtime. I have no issue with it.

 

What I do have an issue with is:

 

1) West Coast constantly getting the shaft on downtime, and this time around, getting it even worse.

 

2) We were told we'd have 3 days notice of 1.2. Apparently, that was a lie.

 

 

Heck, if they would have gone with the patch at Midnight, AS USUAL, then maybe I'd have not posted at all.

 

You may resume your trolling now.

 

It's not trolling when someone makes an observation that is blatantly obvious like mentioning how much complaining there is on these forums.

 

As per your problem, yes, the servers are going down at 10pm your time probably because the maintenance will take 8 hours rather than the somewhat typical four or five. It seems logical that they are giving themselves more time to implement the bigger patch and do maintenance. It's not like the downtime is unjustified.

[Thralgaf]

I guess the OP doesn't give a flying **** about the Bioware employees having to work for the whole night straight to release a patch for him. Looks like they won 2 hours from their management, good for them.

 

I work as QA for a software company and I can tell from personal experience that it's a gigantic pita to be up working at 2 AM just cause we now have customers in Hawaii. Not to mention that the quality of work goes down with sleepyness.

 

Yeah, and yer gettign paid a wage for it, and you knew what you were getting in to when you took the job. Cry me a river.