Weekly server maintenance EU times?

[Keadin]

As European i would prefer 1.000.000 times, getting maintenance at 4:00 am and the update 1 day after US gets it.

 

Same here. I'm pretty sure the same goes for many others. If they have to choose between simultaneous updates and being locked out for a day, or get the update a few hours later while ensuring minimal downtime, they'd go for the latter.

 

Obviously, its not peak time, but at 4:00 am while we sleep isn't either, in US you make maintenances at such times, we want same, we pay same, we have same rights, and as stated above im sure 90% of us prefer maintenances while sleeping than simultaneous patches.

 

We pay significantly more actually. You'd think that would at the very least get us a decent timeslot for maintenance?

 

I still think, that the true reason behind maintenances at same time in US and EU is technical staff availability, looks like if you dont have tech staff in EU nor overnight staff

 

They've got over 1 million subscribers. That makes the game profitable, very much so. They can hire staff in Europe to do the maintenance on an acceptable time, for some reason they just refuse to.

 

All this has to change, really. Blizzard is your competitor, and they have a separate timeslot for Europe. Even if you don't give a flying feck about Europeans, at least do it for common business sense.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Keadin

[GumBoil]

Everyone should open a ticket about the lost day of play expressing your annoyance and ask for a lieu day. Not actually to get a lieu day but to log your displeasure through an audited and tracked medium. Of course the real radical way to do it is through the SWTOR exit poll!!

[evidence_]

Why don't we all temp cancel our subs till a resolve is found. I'm sure Bioware will notice if the entire EU player base cancels its subs for awhile.

[Dekadez]

Why don't we all temp cancel our subs till a resolve is found. I'm sure Bioware will notice if the entire EU player base cancels its subs for awhile.

 

Subscribing gamers are no revolutionaries. We moan on the forums, we don't do radical things en masse.

[KrazieFox]

The US will have more overall players than the EU so it's obvious that if you take the US out of the equation that the total populations across the US and EU will drop significantly.

 

Um, don't they allow Atlas's over in the US?

 

Why do so many Americans believe they are the centre of the world? Take a look at an Atlas if you get a chance & demographic stats - the EU out-number the US easily 3 to 1. Thus if you lose the EU market you cut your profits by three quarters. If you lose the US market you lose one quarter. Do the maths.

[Mandrax]

Why don't we all temp cancel our subs till a resolve is found. I'm sure Bioware will notice if the entire EU player base cancels its subs for awhile.

 

To be honest, if everyone pissed off in this thread did just that it would probably be enough to panic BioWare into doing something.

 

Thing is, most people want change, yet aren't prepared to do something to force that change.

[Dekadez]

Um, don't they allow Atlas's over in the US?

 

Why do so many Americans believe they are the centre of the world? Take a look at an Atlas if you get a chance & demographic stats - the EU out-number the US easily 3 to 1. Thus if you lose the EU market you cut your profits by three quarters. If you lose the US market you lose one quarter. Do the maths.

 

Actually: No. The European market = the American market. About 300 million consumers. Don't confuse raw population numbers with market size in Europe.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Dekadez

[Caduceusone]

Why don't we all temp cancel our subs till a resolve is found. I'm sure Bioware will notice if the entire EU player base cancels its subs for awhile.

 

Subscription cancelled.

[defiantlegacy]

Subscription cancelled.

 

 

ditto

[evidence_]

I've cancelled mine.

[KrazieFox]

Of course, it could have the opposite effect.

 

If all EU Players cancelled, then the US really will outnumber the EU players & BioWare can state they were right all along.

 

Better if Every EU Player writes a letter of Protest to BioWare Head Office.

 

If you do cancel, you want to ensure you contact all the popular gaming sites & ensure they are aware of EU Public Feeling on this, just so it is not misinterpreted.

 

Bad Press is Bad Press - very hard to shake a bed reputation once you acquire one.

[muleDArule]

Regular (every week) maintenance during daytime is ********!

 

I am working during that time, so I am not affected, still if there is holiday on Tuesday I would get mad if I cannot play because of this incompetent maintenance policy.

 

I can understand that for now, during the early beginning of this game, it is not possible to have a 2nd maintenance team to take care of the EU Server. But this is something that need to be changed for the future, if there are EU Server then there should be also EU maintenance.

 

It is short sighted to think that you can pull-off this non time-zone-customized service with a global customer-base.

 

6hours downtime during daytime is too long.

[muleDArule]

forgot to rate

[Mandrax]

I posted this in the thread that just got closed, so am posting it again here...

 

In the interests of fairness to both regions, the maintenance schedule needs to be put back to at least 1am CST so that the EU can get access to the servers between 1pm and 3pm (depending on their location in Europe). This also means that the servers will be up at 7am CST. I realise that some US players would generally like to play after 1am, but there are also EU players who would want to play before 1pm/3pm.

 

It's fair that both regions share the burden of maintenance in some way. Even with the servers going down at 1am CST, EU still bears the bulk of the burden. EU players will still bear the bulk of the burden with our servers being down until the afternoon, but it means even if maintenance overruns, we can still get access to the servers when the peak hours begin.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Mandrax

[Cyclonit]

I honestly am a little shocked by how extreme some of the opinions regarding this topic are o.O

 

I personally don't have a problem with not being able to play a game for a day. It's only a game after all. Additionally there is no way to do maintenance in a way it pleasures everybody. Updating the servers one after another is pretty much nonsense because nobody has a character on every single server so they could play nonetheless and most of the time servers get updated asynchronous problems come up which require further work and further down time.

 

The last maintenance took longer and Bioware did excuse for it. It was their fault and they apologized. I don't expect this to happen again in the near feature but nobody can guarantee that the maintenance works properly.

[jihn]

They better do something in regards to this, i will be one of the people afected by this, since i work 1 week(100% unable to play during this time), then have 2 weeks off. I am also an early bird, so quite enjoy having some coffee and a snack with swtor in the morning after waking up.

 

So having the maintenance window at this time is rather annoying since i get up 30 mins before the downtime starts.

 

They should work their maintenance windows around the local population, or one maintenance middle of the day US time, and one maintenance middle of the day EU time. At least that way we do not feel completely ignored and unvalued.

[Mandrax]

I honestly am a little shocked by how extreme some of the opinions regarding this topic are o.O

 

I personally don't have a problem with not being able to play a game for a day. It's only a game after all. Additionally there is no way to do maintenance in a way it pleasures everybody. Updating the servers one after another is pretty much nonsense because nobody has a character on every single server so they could play nonetheless and most of the time servers get updated asynchronous problems come up which require further work and further down time.

 

The last maintenance took longer and Bioware did excuse for it. It was their fault and they apologized. I don't expect this to happen again in the near feature but nobody can guarantee that the maintenance works properly.

 

You have a blog on how SWTOR should be improved yet you don't see that improving the maintenance slots for EU customers is worthwhile?

[Stepsson]

Quoting from other thread which is closed.

bla bla

Never talked about the amount of tax you pay, it's moot who pays more and who pays less. You must have a pretty great wage to make that claim tho, probably making 6 figures(€) a year thinking it's alot.

 

Maintenance windows will always be an issue in any IT business. The thing is, we've agreed to the terms EA/Bioware set and they can per their own EULA schedule maintenance whenever and for how long they want.

 

Considering we haven't payed for 100% uptime of the servers and they don't promise anything except they will "try" as hard as possible to limit it to a 8 hour window each week.

8 hours downtime per week would still amount to 95% uptime in a year which is very good since the monthly fee is €12. Not alot of other services would demand such a low price for that 95% uptime 24/7.

[Mandrax]

Quoting from other thread which is closed.

Never talked about the amount of tax you pay, it's moot who pays more and who pays less. You must have a pretty great wage to make that claim tho, probably making 6 figures(€) a year thinking it's alot.

 

Maintenance windows will always be an issue in any IT business. The thing is, we've agreed to the terms EA/Bioware set and they can per their own EULA schedule maintenance whenever and for how long they want.

 

Considering we haven't payed for 100% uptime of the servers and they don't promise anything except they will "try" as hard as possible to limit it to a 8 hour window each week.

8 hours downtime per week would still amount to 95% uptime in a year which is very good since the monthly fee is €12. Not alot of other services would demand such a low price for that 95% uptime 24/7.

 

Of course you are right, but I have provided a solution. Move the maintenance time slot back to 1am CST thus sharing the burden with the US. US players will still be getting the better end of the deal but knowing that if maintenance overruns EU players will still be able to get on at a respectable hour.

 

I'm sure those on GMT+2 would be happy to be on by 3pm (5.30pm with a 2.5 hour overrun as was the case on the 27th) instead of 8.30pm as was the case on the 27th. US players would have to stop playing at 1am, but their servers will be back up at 7am with a 6 hour maintenance window.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Mandrax

[ShotByBothSides]

Um, don't they allow Atlas's over in the US?

 

Why do so many Americans believe they are the centre of the world? Take a look at an Atlas if you get a chance & demographic stats - the EU out-number the US easily 3 to 1. Thus if you lose the EU market you cut your profits by three quarters. If you lose the US market you lose one quarter. Do the maths.

 

Having looked at what you quoted I think some basic arithmetic tuition might help that poster too.

 

This sort of twaddle always comes out when there are differing views between US and EU groups of players. There are always some who have the insular view that the US is all important in everything. But this is of course not true and I think you will find that the number of EU subscriptions is a very high number, possibly more than the US. Whatever the real number, it is significant to Bioware’s balance sheet.

 

The poster (in the other thread) who said he paid for the BBC sounded as if they were from the US. Sorry pal, but the BBC is paid for by a licence fee that everyone in the UK has to pay. You may pay a cable fee, and your cable company may pay for rights to show BBC programmes, that is not the same model. Cleary overseas Programme sales rights help to raise revenue for the BBC, but the BBC exists because UK citizens pay for it, not you.

 

As for maintenance windows, I fully support a request to BIoware to have a separate window for the EU servers, certainly one that that does not cut out a full day. Imagine the outcry from the US if this were happening to them?

Edited December 30, 2011 by ShotByBothSides

[muleDArule]

You have a blog on how SWTOR should be improved yet you don't see that improving the maintenance slots for EU customers is worthwhile?

 

from a NA perspective it is not worthwhile to improve the maintenance slot for EU.

 

I also would not mind to put the maintenance time during 1am-7am CET (7pm-1am EST)

[Mandrax]

Having looked at what you quoted I think some basic arithmetic tuition might help that poster too.

 

This sort of twaddle always comes out when there are differing views between US and EU groups of players. There are always some who have the insular view that the US is all important in everything. But this is of course not true and I think you will find that the number of EU subscriptions is a very high number, possibly more than the US. Whatever the real number, it is significant to Bioware’s balance sheet.

 

If we take BioWare's word as fact, i.e that the window they used on the 27th was the quietest time then we have to accept that the US have MORE players than the EU.

[Mandrax]

from a NA perspective it is not worthwhile to improve the maintenance slot for EU.

 

I also would not mind to put the maintenance time during 1am-7am CET (7pm-1am EST)

 

I'm talking 1am - 7am CST not CET. I would obviously prefer EU to have their own maintenance separate from the US, but if this can't be done, moving the time slot back is a fairer solution.

[Kalantris]

If we take BioWare's word as fact, i.e that the window they used on the 27th was the quietest time then we have to accept that the US have MORE players than the EU.

 

Which is, judging by the pre-orders subscriptions, bullcrap. There are far more Europeans than people from the US playing ToR. It's more or less the same in every online game now. Look at League of Legends. They had to split their EU servers, as they just couldn't handle the traffic .

 

By the way I checked their "quiet time". The server I'm playing on - Niman - went up to heavy around noon. Look at the server status. Tomb of Freedon Nadd i very heavy right now. If that's quiet...

 

Look at the US servers. They're all either light or standard. Now try to answer this really simple question: "Who did Bioware crap on when planning maintenance time?".

 

Regards,

Kalantris

Edited December 30, 2011 by Kalantris

[Valorian]

I am at work during the day so does not effect me but at the end of the day this is a subscription and people in the EU are losing game time for something they have paid for.

 

If Sky planned downtime during the day to update your box (would you pay for that service)

 

If your local supermarket closed during the day to restock shelves (would you shop there anymore)

 

If your local petrol station closed to refill pumps (would you use that station)

 

These services manage to work during the night!

 

The list could go on at the end of the day these are the wrong times for these updates to take place, I have to update our servers during the night so business is as usual for the morning its called providing a service which does not cause downtime to the end user just because this is a game they seem to have the approach it does not matter sorry it does YOUR TAKING PEOPLES MONEY.....if it was FTP then there is no argument.

 

Either BW should lower the monthly cost to EU subscribers or change the schedule, Im quite sure if this was happening in USA keyboards would be going out the window.

Edited December 30, 2011 by Valorian