ESO & Downtime Honesty, The Future.

Froobert

To be honest. I love The Elder Scrolls Online.

The game is fun, exciting, invigorating, adventurous, mysterious, amusing, enjoyable, witty, hilarious and down right awesome.

The landscape is epic, the story indulging, the game itself pleasant and the people I'v'e met so far have been more than great to play with.

If I had anymore words to describe It, I'd have to go into a dictionary because I don't think theirs a word or a sentence to describe the entertainment I have gotten over the course of my time playing.

Today, before the "5 Day Early Access" ends, and all the Gold Spammers, Guild Runners, Chat blockers and Question askers start to play, and the community shows its true self, I'd like to talk about the Downtime we've had during the course of these 5 days.

Lets see the first side of the story, the ones who think negatively of the Downtime.
After reading and understanding what they think, I noticed that most of them think of it as a rip, a scam, unfair, and un-honest. We (or they) expected a full 5 days of no intrusion, being the first to pick a name, or the first emperor to obtain, maybe even the first Veteran player to test the willpower and skill of your gaming ability. Though they all think that its unfair to have a Downtime in the middle of their fun, they expected a finished product, a work of art, a Picasso of MMOs, (I was not disappointed) but some seems to be.

Now, lets talk about the others, the "Downtime Defenders" or, the ones who wait and converse with other players during the Downtime, making jokes, having fun, and hoping for the best of this "New Born Baby" of an MMO. (I am glad to call myself one of them )

With the Downtime Defenders and the "Cup Half Full" kind of people, they talk about how the game isn't ready, its new, other Elder Scroll games have had bugs and glitches, its true. All of these people are right.

But does this make the other people wrong? No, not necessarily. Everyone has a different view on how something is going to turn out, some of them right and some of them wrong, and as the Prophet said: "All of our fates are intertwined, and you will be the one to change it."

As for me, I think In a similar way as the Prophet does.
I think that the game has it's own road, it's own ups and downs, the bumps, the glitches, the changes, the Downtime, we are here to change its course in time, change how its road will move, and create a bright and better community for everyone.

We are the ones who will change this games future, lets get it right and stay positive while we do .

Thanks, Joseph Dovahkiin.

CTraveler

Well said.

Froobert

wolfsnare

I'm excited to be a part of the community and I hope when everything gets sorted out we can all be friends.

Froobert

I'll spread this around so it can cool people down.

Phodo

Personally, I don't mind downtime that much, if there's good communication about it. Unfortunately ZeniMax hasn't handled the past few days very well. They could have announced downtimes better in advance, they could have been more clear of the reason for downtime and they could have been more clear of when to expect the servers to be up again.

Like today. I know that there's a 3-4 hour outage, but the official post does not state when it began. I'm also unsure if it's going to be 3-4 hour, since I believe we are getting happy estimates. Also, I don't think this downtime was announced very well in advance.

Novelin

I see the point of both sides in this argument. I also understand that these early downtimes are a necessary evil in most, if not all, MMO releases. That being said, I would place myself in the "Downtime Defender" category. However, the lack of communication in regards to these seemingly planned downtimes does need to be addressed.

Froobert

Novelin wrote: »

I see the point of both sides in this argument. I also understand that these early downtimes are a necessary evil in most, if not all, MMO releases. That being said, I would place myself in the "Downtime Defender" category. However, the lack of communication in regards to these seemingly planned downtimes does need to be addressed.

I agree with you highly. Past the fact that this is a new game, the downtime was uncalled for. Good thing is though, we have 2 extra days ontop of the 30 We get for the first month. Happy TESO'n!

Tavore1138

Fair points - communication and thought is the key for ESO, so while it is unrealistic to expect a seamless downtime free roll of the 5 days it is also not unreasonable to expect clear informative communications and some thought to avoiding prime playing time for the relevant server region when scheduling outages.

This is/will be a great game, never been a bad TES game yet - but Beth/Zeni really need to learn how to communicate.

Froobert

SuraklinPrime wrote: »

Fair points - communication and thought is the key for ESO, so while it is unrealistic to expect a seamless downtime free roll of the 5 days it is also not unreasonable to expect clear informative communications and some thought to avoiding prime playing time for the relevant server region when scheduling outages.

This is/will be a great game, never been a bad TES game yet - but Beth/Zeni really need to learn how to communicate.

I agree. Communication is key. Why else would System be putting Notifications in other languages? (Rhetorical Question) I thank you for your post BTW. I'm glad to see other people think the same

Lara1701

I'm just here to have fun, make friends and have a good time. Positivity for the win! =D

Jhogo

I am so happy when i read op like this. Well said man

GeneralCornwallace

I very much agree. I just hate how people bash on the developers etc so much, when you can tell how hard of work has been put into this game.

Froobert

Thanks for the positive feedback above! It's always great!

Ojustaboo

Froobert wrote: »

To be honest. I love The Elder Scrolls Online.

The game is fun, exciting, invigorating, adventurous, mysterious, amusing, enjoyable, witty, hilarious and down right awesome.

The landscape is epic, the story indulging, the game itself pleasant and the people I'v'e met so far have been more than great to play with.

If I had anymore words to describe It, I'd have to go into a dictionary because I don't think theirs a word or a sentence to describe the entertainment I have gotten over the course of my time playing.

Today, before the "5 Day Early Access" ends, and all the Gold Spammers, Guild Runners, Chat blockers and Question askers start to play, and the community shows its true self, I'd like to talk about the Downtime we've had during the course of these 5 days.

Lets see the first side of the story, the ones who think negatively of the Downtime.
After reading and understanding what they think, I noticed that most of them think of it as a rip, a scam, unfair, and un-honest. We (or they) expected a full 5 days of no intrusion, being the first to pick a name, or the first emperor to obtain, maybe even the first Veteran player to test the willpower and skill of your gaming ability. Though they all think that its unfair to have a Downtime in the middle of their fun, they expected a finished product, a work of art, a Picasso of MMOs, (I was not disappointed) but some seems to be.

Now, lets talk about the others, the "Downtime Defenders" or, the ones who wait and converse with other players during the Downtime, making jokes, having fun, and hoping for the best of this "New Born Baby" of an MMO. (I am glad to call myself one of them )

With the Downtime Defenders and the "Cup Half Full" kind of people, they talk about how the game isn't ready, its new, other Elder Scroll games have had bugs and glitches, its true. All of these people are right.

But does this make the other people wrong? No, not necessarily. Everyone has a different view on how something is going to turn out, some of them right and some of them wrong, and as the Prophet said: "All of our fates are intertwined, and you will be the one to change it."

As for me, I think In a similar way as the Prophet does.
I think that the game has it's own road, it's own ups and downs, the bumps, the glitches, the changes, the Downtime, we are here to change its course in time, change how its road will move, and create a bright and better community for everyone.

We are the ones who will change this games future, lets get it right and stay positive while we do .

Thanks, Joseph Dovahkiin.

Like many others you seem to be completely missing what the EU players are up in arms about tonight.

We know things can go wrong at launch, if we experienced what the US experienced yesterday, sure there would be a few people complaining, there always are, but most know that sort of thing happens on release.

But tonight, at 7/8pm EU time, with zero notice, Zenimax thanked us for our time in early access and announced the servers were now going off lime for 3 to 4 hrs to get ready for the official launch.

People are annoyed because from the wording , this was PLANNED not unforeseen maintenance.

It looks to us like when we made plans last night or even on our guild forums during today deciding where we were going to group up tonight etc, Zenimax already knew our server would be down but didn't bother to tell us.

If they had crashed or taken down for an unforeseen problem, of course its annoying but most people in my guild understand what MMO launches are like. But for us to all be excited about playing, then to find with zero notice they are shut down for the evening for maintenance that was planned, well it kind of stinks.

One guild member cancelled a night out just 30 mins prior to the servers going down. . Sure they took the risk that being a new MMO there could be problems. But that is different from cancelling a night out and finding you cant play because Zenimax didn't bother to tell you in advance about it.

It's really that and only that that has most people really really angry.

When they cant give us simple announcements, it looks like contempt. An oversite could be excused if it was only recently planned, but surely someone stuck their hand up and said that they needed to inform the players?

A lot of players myself included have defended Zenimax the past few days rather like you are, but tonight was different and unacceptable,

Even on Zenimax server announcement with their cryptic message about Early access being extended until Sunday before the need to transfer to live, there's no apology and the message doesn't make any sense.

First we don't get extended early access at all as the game goes live in a few hours hence when we log on we are no longer playing earlier than anyone else..

Second, the way it's worded looks like there's a process we have to do to transfer to a live account and we don't now have to do this until Sunday. But its worded in such a way that it looks like we now have the choice to wait until Sunday, not that it's automatic. If that is the case, loads of people wont realise and will do whatever is required as soon as they log on to switch to their live accounts.

Or are they simply saying that the 30 included playtime wont now start until Sunday. I presume and hope it's this, else there will be a LOT of confused and angry people.

And to make matters worse, they have now announced that weekly planned maintenance for the EU will take place at 9am BST. Most people are not at church on a Sunday morning in the EU, that is prime time for many people. I have to say it makes my mind boggle that someone can suggest this in a meeting and others don't look at them as if they're mad. For them to agree to this, well this is the sort of thing that is beginning to ring big alarm bells for many players who were happy 24 hrs ago.

Froobert

Ojustaboo wrote: »

Froobert wrote: »

To be honest. I love The Elder Scrolls Online.

The game is fun, exciting, invigorating, adventurous, mysterious, amusing, enjoyable, witty, hilarious and down right awesome.

The landscape is epic, the story indulging, the game itself pleasant and the people I'v'e met so far have been more than great to play with.

If I had anymore words to describe It, I'd have to go into a dictionary because I don't think theirs a word or a sentence to describe the entertainment I have gotten over the course of my time playing.

Today, before the "5 Day Early Access" ends, and all the Gold Spammers, Guild Runners, Chat blockers and Question askers start to play, and the community shows its true self, I'd like to talk about the Downtime we've had during the course of these 5 days.

Lets see the first side of the story, the ones who think negatively of the Downtime.
After reading and understanding what they think, I noticed that most of them think of it as a rip, a scam, unfair, and un-honest. We (or they) expected a full 5 days of no intrusion, being the first to pick a name, or the first emperor to obtain, maybe even the first Veteran player to test the willpower and skill of your gaming ability. Though they all think that its unfair to have a Downtime in the middle of their fun, they expected a finished product, a work of art, a Picasso of MMOs, (I was not disappointed) but some seems to be.

Now, lets talk about the others, the "Downtime Defenders" or, the ones who wait and converse with other players during the Downtime, making jokes, having fun, and hoping for the best of this "New Born Baby" of an MMO. (I am glad to call myself one of them )

With the Downtime Defenders and the "Cup Half Full" kind of people, they talk about how the game isn't ready, its new, other Elder Scroll games have had bugs and glitches, its true. All of these people are right.

But does this make the other people wrong? No, not necessarily. Everyone has a different view on how something is going to turn out, some of them right and some of them wrong, and as the Prophet said: "All of our fates are intertwined, and you will be the one to change it."

As for me, I think In a similar way as the Prophet does.
I think that the game has it's own road, it's own ups and downs, the bumps, the glitches, the changes, the Downtime, we are here to change its course in time, change how its road will move, and create a bright and better community for everyone.

We are the ones who will change this games future, lets get it right and stay positive while we do .

Thanks, Joseph Dovahkiin.

Like many others you seem to be completely missing what the EU players are up in arms about tonight.

We know things can go wrong at launch, if we experienced what the US experienced yesterday, sure there would be a few people complaining, there always are, but most know that sort of thing happens on release.

But tonight, at 7/8pm EU time, with zero notice, Zenimax thanked us for our time in early access and announced the servers were now going off lime for 3 to 4 hrs to get ready for the official launch.

People are annoyed because from the wording , this was PLANNED not unforeseen maintenance.

It looks to us like when we made plans last night or even on our guild forums during today deciding where we were going to group up tonight etc, Zenimax already knew our server would be down but didn't bother to tell us.

If they had crashed or taken down for an unforeseen problem, of course its annoying but most people in my guild understand what MMO launches are like. But for us to all be excited about playing, then to find with zero notice they are shut down for the evening for maintenance that was planned, well it kind of stinks.

One guild member cancelled a night out just 30 mins prior to the servers going down. . Sure they took the risk that being a new MMO there could be problems. But that is different from cancelling a night out and finding you cant play because Zenimax didn't bother to tell you in advance about it.

It's really that and only that that has most people really really angry.

When they cant give us simple announcements, it looks like contempt. An oversite could be excused if it was only recently planned, but surely someone stuck their hand up and said that they needed to inform the players?

A lot of players myself included have defended Zenimax the past few days rather like you are, but tonight was different and unacceptable,

Even on Zenimax server announcement with their cryptic message about Early access being extended until Sunday before the need to transfer to live, there's no apology and the message doesn't make any sense.

First we don't get extended early access at all as the game goes live in a few hours hence when we log on we are no longer playing earlier than anyone else..

Second, the way it's worded looks like there's a process we have to do to transfer to a live account and we don't now have to do this until Sunday. But its worded in such a way that it looks like we now have the choice to wait until Sunday, not that it's automatic. If that is the case, loads of people wont realise and will do whatever is required as soon as they log on to switch to their live accounts.

Or are they simply saying that the 30 included playtime wont now start until Sunday. I presume and hope it's this, else there will be a LOT of confused and angry people.

And to make matters worse, they have now announced that weekly planned maintenance for the EU will take place at 9am BST. Most people are not at church on a Sunday morning in the EU, that is prime time for many people. I have to say it makes my mind boggle that someone can suggest this in a meeting and others don't look at them as if they're mad. For them to agree to this, well this is the sort of thing that is beginning to ring big alarm bells for many players who were happy 24 hrs ago.

I can see what you mean by your statement, and I bring mine back to play.

"This MMO Is like a New Born Baby", we need to tend it and take care of it."

And I've been checking the forums on other peoples opinions, some are not far from yours, many people are up-in-arms about Zenimax. Though, GMs have been tending to many problems and they are making sure that they are ready. Other forums such as compensation and Bugs-Related fixes have pop'd up, so I hope something changes when I come back from Karate; I'm glad for your input and I'd like to talk to you more about it in due time! Thanks for your feedback.

As you said; happy players have turned in the 24 hours since the problem occurred, who said that it couldn't change in another 24?

Thanks.

Lord_Hev

*polite applause*

Mordenkaiser

A good post, I also would like to point out that many people expressing there displeasure are not by any means judging the development team, but rather the finished product. I'm a big fan of respecting the opinion of others and i think everyone will benefit by doing so.

aesmodienb14_ESO

The 2 days are a grace period for entering your cd key for physical copies. If you look at it they really worded the post badly. Also they try to hint that you get extra early access which is a lie as the servers will be live. While downtime for patching can be expected, to say that you get 5 days or 3 days access early for pre-ordering (ie giving the company money in advance in good faith) then having nearly 20 hours of maintenance during that period will always rub people wrong. Those that had the 5 day early access made out way better than the 3 day people. The sad part is a lot of the issues were identified in the beta and Zenimax failed to listen to the testers and allowed the issues to make it into early access. At least they took care of them before the game went live and the economy was destroyed like Neverwinter was for the first 3 months.

Froobert

Mordenkaiser wrote: »

A good post, I also would like to point out that many people expressing there displeasure are not by any means judging the development team, but rather the finished product. I'm a big fan of respecting the opinion of others and i think everyone will benefit by doing so.

Thanks for the feedback! See you guys later when the game launches!! Thanks!

yodoberman

Seems to me some people are addicted already

aesmodienb14_ESO

I do feel bad for the EU folks. I never realized how big a pain in the ass it is with NA timed maintenance until I got stationed in Oceania. Why Zenimax would make a EU server and take it down during weekend play I have no idea. I am sure though with enough player feedback they will change the day to coincide with a better outage time that impacts fewer people. Sadly with all of the time zones and only two mega servers, someone will always get the shaft.

Froobert

aesmodienb14_ESO wrote: »

I do feel bad for the EU folks. I never realized how big a pain in the ass it is with NA timed maintenance until I got stationed in Oceania. Why Zenimax would make a EU server and take it down during weekend play I have no idea. I am sure though with enough player feedback they will change the day to coincide with a better outage time that impacts fewer people. Sadly with all of the time zones and only two mega servers, someone will always get the shaft.

True, I just hope the end product at the end of the week will turn out all O.K.

drgnmstr1962

I agree, the BEST ADVICE to any new start up is COMMUNICATION. Half truths and wishful thinking is a bad idea.

If the server is going to be down atleast 4 hours and that is a complete estimate. Then state that in your post. Posting that read like an after thought is the same as a "Opppsss, we forgot about you (our paying customers) And YES we are paying customers. I payed $85.00s to get a early digital download. Did I expect bugs & downtime? Honestly, yes. I have been playing MMO's for almost 2 decades. I have never seen a perfect launch or bug free game, EVER!!

I am neither a half emtpy or half full person. I am more about the reality of it. Either it is or Either it is not. The game is available or it is not. Giving us a time frame is the responsible thing to do.

By the by, I do like the game. I believe it is well thought out and developed. I hope for better days with ZOS.

steveb16_ESO46

Froobert wrote: »

As you said; happy players have turned in the 24 hours since the problem occurred, who said that it couldn't change in another 24?

Thanks.

There's not enough time left before The Big Crunch for me to become happy about prime time weekend maintenance. It is not just a stupid decision, it is a decision that calls into question the nature of the company we are considering purchasing services from.

As things stand they are proposing that Europeans lose access to the game for what is for those of us with jobs, THE prime playing day. It's morning for the UK, midday and afternoon for those in eastern time zones.

Not okay on any level.

Froobert

drgnmstr1962 wrote: »

I agree, the BEST ADVICE to any new start up is COMMUNICATION. Half truths and wishful thinking is a bad idea.

If the server is going to be down atleast 4 hours and that is a complete estimate. Then state that in your post. Posting that read like an after thought is the same as a "Opppsss, we forgot about you (our paying customers) And YES we are paying customers. I payed $85.00s to get a early digital download. Did I expect bugs & downtime? Honestly, yes. I have been playing MMO's for almost 2 decades. I have never seen a perfect launch or bug free game, EVER!!

I am neither a half emtpy or half full person. I am more about the reality of it. Either it is or Either it is not. The game is available or it is not. Giving us a time frame is the responsible thing to do.

By the by, I do like the game. I believe it is well thought out and developed. I hope for better days with ZOS.

Great comment! Love the feedback, and the way you think!

I hope you continue to think this way!

Thanks again for feedback!

Laerrus

Well written. I guess this makes me one of the "Downtime Defenders", with the exception of being the first to pick a name.

Just like other folks, I've had toon names over the years which have all become important to me. However, I did not stress over one that was taken by someone else. I just gave my character a last name that I could be happy with.

The servers going down for me is usually the best time to do research on the game or my class.

Froobert

Haha! Great way to show honesty.

(As my name says, "Joseph")

And then I though... "Dovahkiin!"

And I got my favorite name!

Thanks for the feedback! I always enjoy reading it!

Grageeky

Froobert wrote: »

To be honest. I love The Elder Scrolls Online.

The game is fun, exciting, invigorating, adventurous, mysterious, amusing, enjoyable, witty, hilarious and down right awesome.

...

We are the ones who will change this games future, lets get it right and stay positive while we do .

Thanks, Joseph Dovahkiin.

Love, love, love...inappropriate content...I'm reporting you!

AmanitaMuscaria

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/04/03/get-the-stats?ref=rss

Thought to put this here for time passing.

*edit and my launcher just patched and repaired

Ojustaboo

Mordenkaiser wrote: »

A good post, I also would like to point out that many people expressing there displeasure are not by any means judging the development team, but rather the finished product. I'm a big fan of respecting the opinion of others and i think everyone will benefit by doing so.

The development team are usually as annoyed as players are when problems or decisions happen with online games (or any game).

Over the past few years time and time again I have seen various company reputations severely damaged (sure they have a lot of customers but they lost loads too) due to one very simple thing.

Bad communication. Keeping the customer in the dark. Not getting someone to spend just 5 mins giving a short apology or polite friendly notice keeping the customer up to date.

I'm not talking about just games. I've had big problems with certain items I have bought, and each time for weeks or months the forums are full of person after person experiencing the same thing and total silence from the company. or a message after a couple of weeks then total silence for the next few months.

Time and time again customers such as myself say we are happy to work with them to iron out the faults but when they keep us in total silence, it feels like they don't care.

Some people leap to their defence saying that's the way of the business world etc etc etc. I say that's the way of the bad business world.

I've had both electronic and software with problems that the manufactures/devs have bent over backwards to help those of us having problems. End result, sure we wish the bugs etc never manifested themselves, but we got such great support, we wouldn't hesitate to buy their products again.

I'm not talking about customer service that manages to answer 30000 emails in 24 hrs for a newly released mmo as that is totally unrealistic.

I'm talking about devs/managers that come onto their forum, hold their hands up, explain how they are going to try to fix it and keep us informed. I have a LOT of respect for any company that does that. Even if they have no news, taking 5 mins out a few times a week to keep the customer updated goes a very very long way.

And I've experienced the total silence. The endless complaints about the same problems on forums and zero response for often months then an update is announced that should fix the problem. I hate that approach and would avoid that company if I possibly could for many many years.

I've also seen situations where I feel the company reps or devs regardless if if it's a game/software or electronic/hardware are as frustrated as the customers are and I can feel them screaming at their bosses to let them keep us informed but there are a lot of bosses and especially marketing managers that don't really have a clue about how to keep their customers happy and often make decisions that the average customer and dev etc, can see a mile away will drive people away in their thousands.

I don't want Zenimax to damage their reputation,. It's very very easy to damage your reputation it can take years to rebuild it. All I'm asking is for a little bit more communication, I know they care, I know they are passionate about their game, but a few mins here or there to explain things and to keep us informed, and a simple apology if they get it wrong is all it takes to keep the majority happy (sure there's always a vocal minority that are never happy)

I hate whining threads as much as most of you do but tonight I started one. Only really whining about the lack of notice, I did so because of what I said in the above paragraph. They need to knock this on the head now and they need to know people aren't happy with their communication so far.

We all know how much a sincere apology can go to ease tensions.

Imagine after all the complaints tonight Zenimax posted something like the following (only worded better) .

"Hey guys, we screwed up tonight with the EU maintenance. We had to do it at this time, we appreciate it was inconvenient to you, but forgetting to give you adequate notice, I can only apologise, there's no excuse it was an oversight on our part, one that should not have been allowed to happen, and I will be doing everything possible to make sure this never happens again"

Any further whining threads, I would be sticking up for Zenimax saying they made a mistake, they've admitted it, apologised, we all make mistakes form time to time etc and I would feel much much more positive than I currently feel, even though deep down I really know they haven't deliberately decided to do this to *** me off.

Oops, I've written another essay