Aussie Server Maintenance

Ok, you started off by saying that's your guess, then finished by trying to tell me what my options are, based purely on your guess.

There are so many things wrong with that, even on the most fundamental levels, I find it difficult to even begin, but here goes...

Firstly. As far as changing their entire work, sleep and social schedule for patch days, I think you overlooked the fact that with the current scenario many of us players are expected to do the same. We pay to purchase the key and play, they get paid to provide the goods and service. Simple as that. I respect their right to modify/enhance etc, but my right to ask the question why its done in a manner that adversely affects some of us should also be respected.

For those who play on non local PvP servers this particular timing is bad, since other regions will be able to get that extra leveling done every patch day. After 6/9/12 months this will create a noticeable gap in levels, gear and rank etc, Only to be griefed later on down the track by those who have had the upper hand and think that the term "Pwning Noobs" means relentlessly killing someone 10 levels below them. We all know it'll only be a matter of time...

Secondly. I too have to work night shift on occasions when I am asked to perform duties during the late hours of the evening, sometimes I even have to work weekends as well. I do it because it's my job and I get paid to do it. You think that because they are a software company, they don't have to do night shift??

Thirdly. Where do you get your information on the company's economic feasibility to be in position to say what they can and can't do? Since you obviously don't work for EA or Bioware, I feel obliged to question your source and credibility for this info.

Fourth. No, I personally don't feel like a second class subscriber because of where I live. It's my home country, I was born here and didn't have a choice in the matter, but like many of the other posters I just ask "Why is this so?" hoping/waiting for a GM/DEV/REP to give an answer or shed some light on the matter... heck they may even engage in conversation with us and share ideas...

Fifth and final. Damn straight I have the right to comment!! I have owned the game for 3 whole days now and the second day I owned it was a patch day, no problem.. I'll discuss this with my fellow gamers, hear out their ideas and throw some ideas of my own out there, almost like an open forum for people to meet up, chat and discuss things online...

which is exactly what happened. If you think this topic has been flogged to death, don't click on the topic link... Pretty easy huh? It takes very little effort to scroll past, AND you don't have to hear/read about a topic your obviously bored with.

Ummm... Would you believe that some companies actually do rotating schedules??
A few of them aren't even big companies at all.

Yeah, I know quite alot of people who have rotating schedules. It's no big deal. Also, if there is one team that does it, they do it during the night, so surely if they have a rotation then they get to work during the day sometimes? That's a plus for them I'm guessing.

It won't ever happen though, if there's the slightest possibility that it will, the uproar on these forums from americans would be huge. And as we all know, they are the most important people in the universe.

Sure, small companies do that.

People that work for big companies, especially in the US, tend to vastly prefer having a fixed schedule. Employers mostly prefer that too, because they know for sure when bob will be in the office, regardless of the day; they don't like to have to consult the schedule to figure it out.

No, usually the night team is the night team. When companies rotate people from schedule to schedule, they usually do so on a long term basis... say, for a quarter at a time. The idea that they'd rotate people's schedules on a weekly basis seems pretty far fetched to me.

I think they are the largest part of the subscription base, so they're the most important people to bioware rather than most important in the universe. Of course, the former is really the evaluation that matters; the latter not so much.

Most important doesn't mean that the other groups aren't important; it just means that decisions are going to be mostly weighed in their favor, and things that will cause that group to react negatively will be kept to a bare minimum.

I just had an amazing idea. As americans don't have a problem with going out for an evening while servers are down for maintenance, why not change times to ... lets say 7 pm cst? Would everybody agree to that? That's 01:00 am in EU and 11:00 am in AUS. Not perfect, but better ;-)

so true... But I'm actually glad about that. They'll be invaded first by aliens...

Its not just about taking down the servers, weekly maintenance almost always has at least a small patch associated with it. How is the server supposed to know when to push a patch to your client if you can play on any region's servers (i.e., I live in Ireland, I could decide to play on the Oceanic Servers). I do have friends from the States who play on my EU server. That basically leaves them the option of region locking players. Not a good plan.

I'm quite happy with the maintenance times the way they are, being a permanent night shift worker.

No matter when they decide to do maintenance, someone will complain about the timing. The current arrangment is quite fine.

That's fine, they can split the year into 3 and do it that way. It'd probably be easier if they employed a couple more teams though. Let's be honest, they can afford to do so, and it would make, I'm guessing because no one has official figures, over half their subscribers happy.
Largest part of sub base or not, that does not mean the rest of the world deserves being treated as second class subscribers. Being part of a majority is not a basis for having preferential treatment.

Purely from a marketing perspective, having the server for the Asia Pacific region down for most of the evening during peak play times once a week is a golden opportunity for your competitors to grab customer's off you ( or back off you).

I waited until the March 1 launch to buy the game and was very excited about having a local server for an MMO for the first time.

I suppose one of my expectations (apart from a strong local community and good ping times) is that I would actually be able to play the game during our peak play times.

In short, I'm not complaining our launch was months later than the US launch.
I am disappointed that after you took the extra time to "get it right" our local server is inoperable during local peak play times.