Bioware, you can't justify it.

 

You may say it is necessary, but why is it necessary? I can understand unscheduled maintenance every once in awhile, but it is becoming so frequent that it might as well be scheduled maintenance.

 

The maintenance and unscheduled down times occur often at the same time every night you do them. If a subscriber plays regularly at that time then you are disrupting his/her game time too often.

 

When this occurs a few times it is no big deal, but when guilds have to cut short raids two and three times a week for maintenance, it becomes irritating.

 

I want a game that runs smoothly, and understand that it requires maintenance, but there just seems to be too many disruptions lately.

 

Once a week is what you should try to stick to unless it is absolutly crucial that you have to deviate from that schedule. If you can't maintain that standard more often than you are now, then compensation should be considered for those that are affected.

You may say it is necessary, but why is it necessary?

 

We have discussed this over and over and over until our minds grew numb and melted out of our ears. It's the game engine. Yeah it sucks. Yes its BioWare's fault. No its not going to get better. Don't eat yellow snow.

We have discussed this over and over and over until our minds grew numb and melted out of our ears. It's the game engine. Yeah it sucks. Yes its BioWare's fault. No its not going to get better. Don't eat yellow snow.

 

Well it is simply this- Everytime they bring the servers down we get less value for our subscription.

So you would rather have just the one day a week then? What if they find a game breaking bug (for arguements sake, nobody is getting loot from flashpoints or operations, or there is a bug where people are getting 100x the rewards from warzones), would you have them say "Oh this is a game breaking bug but we have to wait until we fix it because maintenance was yesterday?"

So you would rather have just the one day a week then? What if they find a game breaking bug (for arguements sake, nobody is getting loot from flashpoints or operations, or there is a bug where people are getting 100x the rewards from warzones), would you have them say "Oh this is a game breaking bug but we have to wait until we fix it because maintenance was yesterday?"

 

So your saying this is happening every week? Because that's what it looks like.

 

If so thats hard to belive that there is a game beaking bug every week. When servers are brought down more than once a week and people arnt compensated for their time they feel less value.

 

Other mmos only do 1 maintenance a week so why is this game having 2 days a week alot?

 

Some games just do a rolling restart from time to time and not bring servers down for a day.

 

What say you?

So your saying this is happening every week? Because that's what it looks like.

 

If so thats hard to belive that there is a game beaking bug every week. When servers are brought down more than once a week and people arnt compensated for their time they feel less value.

 

Other mmos only do 1 maintenance a week so why is this game having 2 days a week alot?

 

Some games just do a rolling restart from time to time and not bring servers down for a day.

 

What say you?

 

Ofcourse i didnt mean to imply there are game breaking bugs every week, i used it for arguements sake.

 

But there are always problems popping up in mmo's. On Tuesday i think the majority of the servers were lagging quite badly. They eventually crashed and Bioware were forced to do a bit of emergency maintenance for half an hour or so.

 

Sure, i hate maintenance as much as the next guy, but in the end i would rather play an MMO which is almost problem free than be forced to put up with a bug(s) until the next maintenance schedule.

For a game that came out 8 months ago. It's actually rather normal.

I dont get it so someone please explain it too me.

 

So people rather have buggy game with glitches here and there rather then having them fix the issues?

I admit, more than one maintenance a week does not look great, but I'd rather they fixed problems right away where possible.

For a game that came out 8 months ago. It's actually rather normal.

 

No it's not. It's called unscheduled maintenance because it's not normal.

 

I think they'd be best off having 2 maintenance windows scheduled per week. It'd save alot of unnecessary aggro.

I'm always a bit mystified as to what maintance actually does.

 

Warhammer Online used to have weekly maintance for years...... then they stopped it and had the server up and running 24/7 for months at a time......... with no noticable difference to performance.

The main issue I have and what frustrates me the most is why am I paying x amount of dollars for a specific time to play this game, and 4-8 hours a week, minimum, are taken out of that time that I pay for. I pay to play this game, not to log on and see that yet, another, maintenance is taking away a service I pay for. I understand probably 1 or 2 every couple months, and I appreciate bw's effort, but if your taking that time out that's already paid for, why am I not seeing all that time back that I rightfully purchased to play your game? Edited July 18, 2012 by SteelBunk

Devs or CS wont reply to this because anythign they can and will be used against them. Its sad when they fear the player base.

Let me encapsulate things:

 

If there exist bugs and BioWare does maintenance, scheduled or not, to fix them people will gripe about the loss of playtime.

 

If there exist bugs and BioWare does only the scheduled maintenace people will gripe about having to wait a week for fixes.

 

The end.

So your saying this is happening every week? Because that's what it looks like.

 

If so thats hard to belive that there is a game beaking bug every week. When servers are brought down more than once a week and people arnt compensated for their time they feel less value.

 

Other mmos only do 1 maintenance a week so why is this game having 2 days a week alot?

 

Some games just do a rolling restart from time to time and not bring servers down for a day.

 

What say you?

 

Back to this. You want money for time lost to a handful of players while the VAST majority is asleep. Also, EVE does maintenance EVERY DAY at 4 am, my time. I'm awake and I never complained about it. Finally the servers HAVE NEVER been down for a day with one exception of 2-3 servers. They were compensated with 2 days of play for the 1 they lost. When the servers were down to implement 1.2, EVERYBODY got a whole day despite the fact the servers were down only 9 hours. Jezz, WoW is down 8 hours weekly right in my prime time play. I went through with and dealt with it for 7 years.

 

just cope with it. it is part of the MMO process. some days/weeks don't go as well as planned. Especially in a new game. Yes, it is still new, despite the massive loads of content and patches they have unloaded on us.

The main issue I have and what frustrates me the most is why am I paying x amount of dollars for a specific time to play this game, and 4-8 hours a week, minimum, are taken out of that time that I pay for. I pay to play this game, not to log on and see that yet, another, maintenance is taking away a service I pay for. I understand probably 1 or 2 every couple months, and I appreciate bw's effort, but if your taking that time out that's already paid for, why am I not seeing all that time back that I rightfully purchased to play your game?

 

You pay $.50 per day to have access when the service is AVAILABLE.. The TOE and EULA spell this out in detail. You know, the ones you agreed on and signed. If you feel your being ripped off of the $.10 worth of time it is down in maintenance, then ask for a refund or cridit to your account. that or just quit. You didn't pay for 24/7/365 access. You paid for unlimited access when the servers are available to you.

 

I bet you complain about the 2-3 minute queue logging on, too. that would entitle you to ask for a $.001 refund for your time.

I think it is time all mmo's copy whatever tech Guild Wars (and GW2) uses. Original Guild Wars has a total of 32 hours of dowtime over the course of 5 years. Yes that is not a typo. 32 hours. Total. 5 years.

 

Somehow they are able to have people run around with different client versions, and when a new version is available you can keep playing for a long time without having to reboot your client, as they can apparently hot-patch the servers without having to bring them down.

 

It is truly quite an achievement and other should copy it.

They are doing to piss off the community in the hope that enough people leave and quit that they can shut down the game and end it all now.....This has gone on longer then it should have...get it over with BW close the game, or...just listen to the community and give people some answer to question...*cough cough* server transfer answers

So you would rather have just the one day a week then? What if they find a game breaking bug (for arguements sake, nobody is getting loot from flashpoints or operations, or there is a bug where people are getting 100x the rewards from warzones), would you have them say "Oh this is a game breaking bug but we have to wait until we fix it because maintenance was yesterday?"

 

Maybe you should actually read the post before commenting on it. He said

 

"Once a week is what you should try to stick to unless it is absolutly crucial that you have to deviate from that schedule. If you can't maintain that standard more often than you are now, then compensation should be considered for those that are affected. "

 

Note the "unless it is absolutly crucial that you have to deviate from that schedule"

 

Obviously if something like that was happening it should be taken down. However, that has not been the issue. Please don't make ridiculous "what if" statements that barely apply to what the OP is talking about.

 

He's completely right in the fact that there should not be this much down time. I work till 10pm and only get to play half the week. It seems that a lot of the time I can play for a few hours before the servers being shut down. I know that it is my specific schedule that is making it so that I get less play time then others, but I should still be getting more game time in than I currently am, but are not because of these downtimes.

 

It's also very annoying that they don't seem to have things squared away when they actually go and shut down the servers to fix it. If you say it's going to be three hours, then it should be three hours. Don't say "It'll be three hours... (then 3 hours later), It will be two more hours, (then two hours later), We don't know when it'll be done".

This really seems as though they are shutting down the servers without a concrete plan in place.

 

I also agree that after enough down time, we should be compensated. We are paying for the game time, thus we should be able to enjoy our product we have purchased. Would you not want your money back if you went to see a movie, but halfway through they shut down the theater for repairs or what not? It seems as though they're not physically there in front of us, they can pretty much ignore or pleas for fairness. I find it disgusting, personally.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with the original poster. You're looking at the maintenance all wrong.

 

Sure your mom can hand you a raw ham, but she could also make you sit and wait for a few hours while she cooks it up nicely.

 

The maintenance is a good thing. It's fixing bugs and improving performance.

 

When I was kid, I'd ask my mom when dinner would be done every 5-minutes.......I never asked her to just stop cooking and serve whatever's half-cooked.

 

That's sort of what your post is asking Bioware to do.

 

I definately understand fustration at not being able to play, but it's not like they are taking down the servers for the purpose of being mean to you.

 

They properly choose a time when a majority of their players won't be inconvenienced, and take the time to implement fixes and improve performance. They're doing what's right by the most people possible.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Primarch_PWnD

Let me encapsulate things:

 

If there exist bugs and BioWare does maintenance, scheduled or not, to fix them people will gripe about the loss of playtime.

 

If there exist bugs and BioWare does only the scheduled maintenace people will gripe about having to wait a week for fixes.

 

The end.

 

Bioware *really* needs to do a better job of picking which bugs require immediate downtime to fix, and which can wait a week though. A lot of the times they've brought the servers down to fix trivial issues.

They are doing to piss off the community in the hope that enough people leave and quit that they can shut down the game and end it all now.....This has gone on longer then it should have...get it over with BW close the game, or...just listen to the community and give people some answer to question...*cough cough* server transfer answers

 

I sense much hate in your tin foil.

That poor, poor horse.

Bioware *really* needs to do a better job of picking which bugs require immediate downtime to fix, and which can wait a week though. A lot of the times they've brought the servers down to fix trivial issues.

 

Trivial issues to who? What you may consider trivial someone else may not.

No it's not. It's called unscheduled maintenance because it's not normal.

 

Incorrect. It is 'normal' in the sense that all MMOs have pretty shaky starts, and it's unscheduled because they do not plan for these bugs to occur. It is normal for MMOs in general for bugs - especially in the first year or two of release.

 

As for the OP, they only take the servers down if absolutely necessary. While you may not notice a bug there will always be one there if there is an unscheduled maintenance. Whether big or small, if it ruins the game experience for a number of people it is better for them to take the servers down for a few hours and fixing their game experience, rather than them having to wait until the next scheduled maintenance.