Downtime Notice: Wednesday, November 16th 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM Eastern (-5 GMT)

[GottDDO]

Actually, yes. It is normal in IT establishments to have routine maintenance work done at the times that it will least impact the enterprise and it's customers.

I speak from experience here, having done overnight backups and mail system restarts at 2am EST so that a US national enterprise with global offices in the EU would be impacted as little as possible. It was an entertainment company also.

Then of course they outsourced us because it was cheaper to pay a company in India to do this work in the normal course of *their* day than to pay off-hours pay to US workers. Still 2am EST though.

And you think the majority of the paying customers are from Europe, Asia and Africa?

[merridyan]

What could work nowadays is what you says - just a remote server located in EU with remote control from Boston.

So... explain how this would work. They make a new server with a different update schedule, still requiring people in Boston to get up at 2AM. This would be a new server so it's population may rival Wayfinders. Who will leave their current server and guild to move to this due to a once a week inconvenience?

[GottDDO]

dam it
!i just took 2hours early off of work, took my 1,5h train home to play a bit, just to see s*** messed up again...

big thanks

from Germany

I slept in two hours later today. What got messed up?

[merridyan]

I slept in two hours later today. What got messed up?

Nothing, scheduled downtime is still within in its designated window.

[jskinner937]

Actually, yes. It is normal in IT establishments to have routine maintenance work done at the times that it will least impact the enterprise and it's customers.

I speak from experience here, having done overnight backups and mail system restarts at 2am EST so that a US national enterprise with global offices in the EU would be impacted as little as possible. It was an entertainment company also.

Then of course they outsourced us because it was cheaper to pay a company in India to do this work in the normal course of *their* day than to pay off-hours pay to US workers. Still 2am EST though.

Dude, how many people you suspect play this game actively still? Across all servers, its been speculated to be less than 1800. We need less servers, not more.

[GottDDO]

Nothing, scheduled downtime is still within in its designated window.

I thought so, but that person's post made me think otherwise.

[KoobTheProud]

And you think the majority of the paying customers are from Europe, Asia and Africa?

No. I think it is a pain in the ass that we have a downtime every week on one of my days off in EST USA.

[sago]

I wonder what they are working to fix ?

[drathdragon]

oh no... please don't ... please..

not another roll back, please, i beg.

[Trillea]

oh no... please don't ... please..

not another roll back, please, i beg.

No one has said anything about rollback, it's just an extended downtime for extra maintenance (per OP).

[Yvonnel-1]

I thought so, but that person's post made me think otherwise.

i'm sorry, got confused with my european timezone

[GottDDO]

No. I think it is a pain in the ass that we have a downtime every week on one of my days off in EST USA.

The thing is, no matter when they have downtime, someone is going to be upset about it. And if people are going to be upset about it anyway, then why have people working at odd hours to accommodate the people currently complaining, only to have a whole new group start complaining?

The best they can do is choose a time that least inconveniences their paying customers during normal work hours.

If I had to guess, that time would be first thing in the work day, middle of the week, which is what they're doing.

[ahpook]

The thing is, no matter when they have downtime, someone is going to be upset about it. And if people are going to be upset about it anyway, then why have people working at odd hours to accommodate the people currently complaining, only to have a whole new group start complaining?

They could easily do the maintenance at different times. The only reason to do maintenance for all servers at the same time is for cost of staff to do the work. It can be more efficient if they do all at the same time. And there could be complication if they are using some shared resource but that resource (ie a DB) might not need weekly restarts.

[Volarr]

game is up here

[Cordovan]

The game worlds have reopened.

[Dandonk]

The thing is, no matter when they have downtime, someone is going to be upset about it. And if people are going to be upset about it anyway, then why have people working at odd hours to accommodate the people currently complaining, only to have a whole new group start complaining?

The best they can do is choose a time that least inconveniences their paying customers during normal work hours.

If I had to guess, that time would be first thing in the work day, middle of the week, which is what they're doing.

Again, this is true. As far as it goes.

But it does get annoying when you're the one getting the stick just about every single time.

[cmecu]

I wonder what they are working to fix ?

Well I can tell you what it wasnt.. and that is Tiefling Scoundrel.. Still Broke in the core.. Easy fix would be dont change their core to the stupid imbue system. Why would you add an imbue system to a racial core.. Wish they would just leave Tiefling scoundrel the way it was.

[RedPlate]

The best they can do is choose a time that least inconveniences their paying customers during normal work hours.

As someone already mentioned, it's the norm to not inconvenience. In fact it's a standard. But those examples and your comment "inconveniences their paying customers" are not apple to apple comparisons.

Those and yours are referring to services and products that can't be interrupted such as financial, payment, and security servers, and high-end MMOs, and many other types that can't "noticeably" go down or down at all. Maintenance is mitigated by staggering as others have suggested or removed via redundant, mirror servers along with other strategies.

Hell, your grandmas cat pictures are more accessible then DDO, due to the massive competition in that market. Grams will jump ship the minute she loses access to her cat photos.

Comparing DDO to the above or IT norms is like comparing an apple to an olive, very different.

The above depend on high-end services, massive cash flows, and must perform or their competition will acquire their customers.

Whereas DDO has no competition and their cash flow depends on human addiction. Customer service and worrying about inconveniencing any of us is very low on their business model priority list.

[Wahnsinnig]

Again, this is true. As far as it goes.

But it does get annoying when you're the one getting the stick just about every single time.

The world does not revolve around you.

[Dandonk]

The world does not revolve around you.

Thank you for that not helpful comment.

As I've stated repeatedly, I understand why things are as they are. It's just annoying to be out of gaming day after gaming day due to the schedule always happening to be on times when I can play. So no, the world does not revolve around me, SSG has made that very clear.

I do wonder if such a clear message is the best customer care, though.