Downtime Notice: 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) Thursday, August 20th

[Braegan]

I'm not saying that we can't provide estimates. I'm saying that when unexpected issues occur, sometimes things come up when working quickly to resolve those issues, so some patience and leeway needs to be considered when we do announce estimated possibilities of when things might resolve.

Ultimately, given yesterday's work, I probably should have not provided an uptime estimate, and simply repeated, "We continue to work to resolve the issue. We will let you know when the worlds reopen." But I know that tends to also cause people to become understandably upset, so I did my best to provide an uptime estimate. Given the amount of time it takes to put together and process a build, then do the various things it takes to deploy a build to the live worlds and check things out prior to reopening, my initial estimate of late afternoon was accurate, provided nothing came up to disrupt the schedule. Things came up that disrupted the schedule. So, I provided later estimates of uptime. Something came up to disrupt that later estimate, so I provided a later estimate based on currently-available knowledge.

As I said originally, this is exactly why it is unwise to answer calls to give a "rough estimate" of expected uptime during unexpected downtimes that involve creating new builds and deploying them. It tends to cause more rather than less stress for everyone involved.

Cordovan,

I for one appreciate rough estimates, knowing and understanding what the word "estimate" means.

I understand we do not live in a perfect world and sometimes things hit the fan and estimates run over. Do I get bummed and perhaps impatient at times, sure; I'm human too. But, angry, threatening, raging, etc... no. There is just no need for that.

But, I do appreciate the rough estimates as they give me a sense of what to chose:

a) watch some YouTube videos for a little bit until it's done
b) play on the forums and try the game tomorrow
c) read War and Peace
d) jump on a spur of the moment weekend road trip

[eldrytch75]

Maybe when giving an estimate you should say it will take a couple of hours, that way when you come back later you can say we are on schedule for a couple of hours.

This way they can't get upset ( I know that not true) because you have given then an time estimate. it maybe vague but it is a time estimate.

I don't mind that you sometimes get the downtime estimate wrong. The thing that bothers me is that you don't get the programming changes right.

[eldrytch75]

What do you mean "everyone" else - I only see one person in the forums who had this error besides you. And I see many people all patching and logging in without incident. If uninstall and reinstall were required then EVERYONE would have to do it...

So I have no value as a customer founder. Get lost. Your not my god snicker :P

[MerolenAmakiir]

I have completed a clean install and I am STILL getting this message! I am going from mildly annoyed to irate very fast now!!! In fact I am becoming downright angry!

The lengthy downtime has contributed but has nothing to do with how angry I am at the moment!

Same as Gempoult posted, but I use Windows 7. After the last downtime none of my shortcuts worked (same error message). Deleted them and put up new ones out of the game file and problem disappeared. Hope that helps!

[DocHawkeye]

Except that you did say exactly that.

You even put "moving the goal posts" in quotes, but didn't bother to otherwise define a different term for making many posts changing the time for the restoration of service. What would you like it to be called, if not moving the goal posts? You're the one doing the moving, after all! "Business as usual" comes to mind, but that isn't as flattering.


I am simply asking that the clear and evident failure to perform on the part of Turbine be recognized, addressed, and then corrected.

.

Moving the goal posts would be if they came on and went "there are no additional problems, but downtime is extended". They met their times, but additional problems were found, tested, and addressed. I'm sure they were embarrassed enough about the initial problem they wanted to get the patch right.

As for the other part, patching and adding new content to a ten year old game without any of the original programming has to be hard. God knows it was for me, and that was just some legacy website coding. The fact this game runs, and runs actually fairly well most of the time defeats the idea that they're failing to perform. What it comes down to is that you feel entitled to act a fool because you had to miss a day of gaming. If you really feel this way about Turbine, no one is begging you to stay. There are many other MMOs out there, most of which have their own stupid problems. Cryptic/PWE I know has broken at least three of their games, one for three weeks. Not "oh a lot of lag"... one week down, one week where you can log in and watch your character not move, and one week of 30 second rubberbanding. And then they admit every game server has to be taken down once a week for patching and restarting because they're so damned unstable and can't make it up for two weeks or the databases go to pot. There's a winner for you. And to those wanting "more detail" about the problem, why? You can't help program it. You're in it for one of two reasons: one, to stir up "have you tried this" as if they don't have an idea what is going on with their program, or you're planning your next run at an exploit. Fun times.

This is all part and parcel of legacy coding and development. PWE/Cryptic always hits their marks mainly because all they're doing is hiding/diguising their crappy serverside programming on fully implemented (and cloned) engines. Turbine's DDO gets stuck with 10 year old code being maintained by third-and-fourth generation programmers who do their best to keep it up and running. And yet they still haven't imploded this game as much as others have, with original programmers on deck. (some left because you know, their game imploded).

[HAL]

Working on my second clean install myself still getting the same error as everyone else. So what gives and stop telling us things are not required when they seem to be necessary. Bad business here people very bad

What do you mean "everyone" else - I only see one person in the forums who had this error besides you. And I see many people all patching and logging in without incident. If uninstall and reinstall were required then EVERYONE would have to do it...

So I have no value as a customer founder. Get lost. Your not my god snicker :P

Not sure how you get to "So I have no value as a customer" from me pointing out that your statement about getting the same error of "everyone" was an "everyone" of 1 and that an action is not now "required" by DDO if only a couple of people find they have to do it.

And the last sentence...you have a god snicker?

[Gonnakillu]

The amount of times DDO has gone down lately is ridiculous.