Current downtime and membership

gurahamu

The downtime has been quite significant. I'm wondering, will players be refunded this lost time by having an extra day of membership to our accounts, or do you intend to reimburse us in other ways, such as with an in-game item of some sort? While I do understand the game needs to go down for such fixes, usually, these fixes should be done on a private server and verified before going live - at least this is how other MMOs do things to avoid interruption of paid services.

fredotech

I would like to know the same.

Etchesketch

Downtime isn't usually compensated this way. It's part of normal routine of online gaming. Plus, you aren't paying a subscription yet.

james_edwards1979b16_ESO

To play Devil's Advocate, people are paying for subscription by virtue of having pair retail price for the game. It's built in to the price as-is the 30-day initial sub period. It'd be naïve to think otherwise.
Also, I'm on the EU server not NA, so not personally affected. Like I said.... Devil's Advocate

Garrett_hardy_ESO

The free subscription DOES NOT start until official release. They said that awhile ago. Early access does not take time from subscription

rctcool0

Yes, it is a bit annoying that the servers have been down for so long, and in fact, after all the beta testing that I did, I am very surprised at the number of bugs that I reported that are STILL in the game. However, think about it this way: would you rather have a working game at launch? Or a broken game with a better head start? There isn't really a good way to compensate for the lost time, but think of the compensation as bug fixes.

@Etchesketch‌: keep in mind that we DID pay extra for early access.

azraels_grave

Etchesketch wrote: »

Downtime isn't usually compensated this way. It's part of normal routine of online gaming. Plus, you aren't paying a subscription yet.

Wanted to correct this if I may do so. Interruptions of service have always been compensated with free game time, or other means. Blizzard over the course of my long subscription has given me various free days for such interruptions. Sometimes asked for, sometimes given freely without asking. Please do have more understanding before stating such things. I have also had other games do similar things, not just Blizzard. This is in no way saying, demanding, or so forth that ESO must do the same. Only that your statement is incorrect, and corrected it with experience.

If you meant normally scheduled downtimes they are not. This however is not a normally scheduled downtime so the logic does not persist here.

I will say on a sidenote did think the server would only be down 8 hrs. Just gives me some time to do things this morning. Was down later in my night and still the same right now. Time for some Star Wars.

crowfl56

I know its difficult but be patient people, go do something else, take a shower, clean your house the servers will be back up sooner or later. Demanding some sort of refund, (time, items, money) is silly. Don't be a hater, relax, the game is fun and great, this is normal. Thank you.

Winterstrife

Etchesketch wrote: »

Downtime isn't usually compensated this way. It's part of normal routine of online gaming. Plus, you aren't paying a subscription yet.

Stuff like this is usually what people take into consideration when deciding if they want to continue playing the game or not.
I hope this is just a one time event where an unexpected maintenance occurred.
Having played WoW for years I'm used to the weekly maintenance, this kinda of unexpected maintenance (which still plagues WoW from time to time) still pisses me off.

Close to 12 hours of maintenance, Oceanic players like me been bitching all day, time for the NA players who are waking up to a down server carry the torch

Prong

Etchesketch wrote: »

Downtime isn't usually compensated this way. It's part of normal routine of online gaming. Plus, you aren't paying a subscription yet.

did we just not pay for this game?? and what good is beta?should have been fixed before it went live,,i will not pay a monthly sub of $15usd for this crap!!seems a little high priced

kamohs212eb17_ESO

Funny thing: yesterday i was loled when game kicks me with "you dont have permission to play on this realm" error and when i tried to log in "servers are full, try later".

Btw, imma agree with rctcool0, really surprised of all those bugs. Even more than about all those gold sellers in first day of Early Access.

Zagadka

It isn't so much that it is downtime, that is totally expected by any reasonable person... it is downtime during early access, which is a bit more bothersome.

The other thing is... gamers are a bitchy folk, but they also have extremely short attention spans. In a month, if things go well, people won't even remember this, though at the time they feel like their souls are being ripped from their bodies and nothing in the world could possibly be as bad as a game being unavailable.

Winterstrife wrote: »

Having played WoW for years I'm used to the weekly maintenance, this kinda of unexpected maintenance (which still plagues WoW from time to time) still pisses me off.

Blizzard had their own login systems go down yesterday, too. Nothing surprising.

Etchesketch

@rctcool0‌
No we didn't. We paid for the game and early access. That never ever in any game means constant access. Even if it was during subscription time.. what do you want them to do? If they have downtime for half a day, send you 25 cents?

This is a normal condition of all online gaming.


P.s. thanks for the badge. Lol,
Wonder if I get one for posting in my underwear.

Soulpuppet

All the bugs from 5 beta tests ago that are still in game, should of been taking care of before allowing us to be in the 5 day early open beta test. I feel that's what pre ordering did, gave me 5 days of open beta, not 5 days early access to a almost released game.

Stienbjorn

This wasn't the first day of early access. Sunday was, yesterday was the first day for three day early access.

Will you be compensated, doubtful, this is early access, something you did not actually pay for, but rather was a bonus for pre-ordering the game. The game officially launches on 4-4-14. Does it suck that the game is down, sure, but I would rather it be down, then lose items into the void due to a server/platform issue.

Hyperventilate

From what I've seen, unless the downtime is extreme (DAYS as opposed to most a day/hours) there is no need, obligation or anything else reason for compensation.

You paid for early access, but that doesn't mean that early access is guaranteed to you. Nowhere in the contract you signed (Terms of agreement) does it promise you that you will have X hours of uninterrupted service.

I just think it's silly to want and expect compensation over a normal function of an online game.

wllstrt75b14_ESO

rctcool0 wrote: »

Yes, it is a bit annoying that the servers have been down for so long, and in fact, after all the beta testing that I did, I am very surprised at the number of bugs that I reported that are STILL in the game. However, think about it this way: would you rather have a working game at launch? Or a broken game with a better head start? There isn't really a good way to compensate for the lost time, but think of the compensation as bug fixes.

@Etchesketch‌: keep in mind that we DID pay extra for early access.

Had they done their job and listened to the players in their stress tests this could have been avoided as many of these issues were in the stress tests.

My questions is...they posted patch notes at 10:26, which usually means they have fixes and are going to implement them, then test it then launch that's all good news but there has been no update on the ETA sooo why not?

My guess is their fixes broke something else! and the real issue is this has been down since 1am it took them nine hours to develop a fix? Knowing that alot of these issues were uncovered months ago? This company scares me on their ability to a) inform their customer base about whats going on and fix *** and be proactive.

Neither of those are good qualities for a gaming company.

SloppyG

we're not paying for the 5/3 day headstarts. This is a perk for pre-ordering but not an extra charge. MMOs sometimes need maintenance to address issues and doing so before the true launch is a good time to do so.

It sucks.. but they've taken it down for a reason. It's nothing personal.

Saerydoth

Normal maintenance downtime (expect 8 hours/week, minimum...patch days can take longer) is never compensated for in any MMO and never has been. It's already factored into the subscription price. I swear, I have been reading this exact same thread *every week* on the WOW forums for 8 years. You would think that people would know by now, that MMO servers cannot run 24/7 without regular maintenance.

Booie

Etchesketch wrote: »

@rctcool0‌
P.s. thanks for the badge. Lol,
Wonder if I get one for posting in my underwear.

No you won't get one for that or naked. Tried and tester.

Cannyone

I don't want "compensation". I just want them to fix the game. Which, sadly, I doubt that they'll do in the relatively short time the NA server has been down for "Maintenance".

So what irks me is that I expect to eventually log back into a game that's still chock full of bugs. Some things might even be worse than they were before. And the reason I say that is my "Beta Experience" where they basically went from bad to worse on a number of different issues.

Mark my words: This is NOT the first time their servers will be taken down for "Maintenance". Hopefully in the future it won't take them so long. But its not going to be pretty and many complaints will be bashed out on keyboards before the game becomes "playable".

We should try not to be so confrontational with each other. Because technically we're all on the same side. Though that's really hard to perceive when we're irritated.

ebunts14_ESO

I suggest people read the ToS

6. Availability of Services and Content; Game Maintenance, Patches, Updates; Termination of Services

ZeniMax does not guarantee that any Services will be available at all times, in all countries and/or geographic locations, at any given time, or that it will continue to offer any particular Services for any particular length of time. Except as prohibited by applicable law, ZeniMax reserves the right to change and update Content without notice to You. ZeniMax also reserves the right to refuse Your request(s) to acquire Content, and to limit or block any request to acquire Content, including, but not limited to, Downloadable Content, for any reason.

ZeniMax may patch, update, or modify at any time with or without notice to You. Notwithstanding the foregoing, ZeniMax has no obligation to make available any patches, updates or modifications or correct any errors or defects in the Services. ZeniMax makes no guarantees about the persistence or availability of any user names or other personas at any time and assumes no liability for lost or deleted Account data. Except as prohibited by applicable law, You agree that ZeniMax will not be liable for any interruption of the Services, delay or failure to perform, any loss of Content (including, but not limited to, User-Generated Content and Downloadable Content), and/or Account data (including, but not limited to, Character data) resulting from any causes whatsoever. ZeniMax reserves the right to offer new Services, change and/or discontinue certain Services at any time in its sole discretion.

floydmurphy.kg_ESO

The Elder Scrolls Online comes out on April 4th, 2014.

What day is it today?

Disinterests

ebuntsb14_ESO wrote: »

I suggest people read the ToS

6. Availability of Services and Content; Game Maintenance, Patches, Updates; Termination of Services

ZeniMax does not guarantee that any Services will be available at all times, in all countries and/or geographic locations, at any given time, or that it will continue to offer any particular Services for any particular length of time. Except as prohibited by applicable law, ZeniMax reserves the right to change and update Content without notice to You. ZeniMax also reserves the right to refuse Your request(s) to acquire Content, and to limit or block any request to acquire Content, including, but not limited to, Downloadable Content, for any reason.

ZeniMax may patch, update, or modify at any time with or without notice to You. Notwithstanding the foregoing, ZeniMax has no obligation to make available any patches, updates or modifications or correct any errors or defects in the Services. ZeniMax makes no guarantees about the persistence or availability of any user names or other personas at any time and assumes no liability for lost or deleted Account data. Except as prohibited by applicable law, You agree that ZeniMax will not be liable for any interruption of the Services, delay or failure to perform, any loss of Content (including, but not limited to, User-Generated Content and Downloadable Content), and/or Account data (including, but not limited to, Character data) resulting from any causes whatsoever. ZeniMax reserves the right to offer new Services, change and/or discontinue certain Services at any time in its sole discretion.

Thank god someone brought this up. Tired of seeing the compensations posts.

cjsabellab14_ESO

Wish there were more adults in the room because many of the people who are complaining sound like petulant little children.

You didn't BUY this "time", you were given this early access as a bonus for pre-ordering --- and guess what, you got that early access.

floydmurphy.kg_ESO

cjsabellab14_ESO wrote: »

Wish there were more adults in the room because many of the people who are complaining sound like petulant little children.

You didn't BUY this "time", you were given this early access as a bonus for pre-ordering --- and guess what, you got that early access.

But but, the developers owe them because they asked off work!

gurahamu

just a side note to those stating that 1) we didn't pay for the early access or early access is just a perk for pre-ordering and 2) that uptime isn't guaranteed anywhere

1) early access was advertised as a selling point of the imperial edition - which is why I bought this version, as did probably millions of others. It was advertised as a part of the price, so yes, it was indeed purchased as a part of the game - just like the Imperial Horse and the Spider Pet and ability to upgrade any armour to Imperial style. They're not perks - they are advertised features of a more premium product bundle.

2) uptime may not be guaranteed, but here's the problem. People have paid for early access (in Imperial's cases, 5 days) - when one of these days is interrupted for 12+ hours, it becomes a case of the customer not getting what he/she paid for as it is then 4.5 or less days early access - a sales contract is made when any payment is made, and one of the requirements of the seller of this contract is to sell the item as described. This, ultimately, is the purpose of my thread. I love this game, but a lot of people are (as somebody else mentioned above) privy to having short attention spans. Something like this can easily drive players away, which would be a shame - this is why when other companies (Blizzard, Jagex and many others) offer some kind of compensation when there is unexpected significant downtime or problems in-game which impact players in a grossly negative manor.

Normally I wouldn't moan- because like I said, downtime is expected on large games like this for updates - but the impact of this downtime could be minimised by ZeniMax using Private Servers to test such fixes before taking the game offline to sync the new data. Other games do it this way (notably RuneScape) and it works very well - a few minutes of downtime instead of several hours. This point is kinda moot anyway because while this is early access, it is an official launch nonetheless - this stage cannot be counted as a BETA because it is paid for.

bejorub17_ESO

Counter arguments have mainly revolved around “legal” or “technical” points of view. Which in my opinion is not that focus of the true dilemma.

As pointed out, “early access” is a perk or bonus given out as an incentive much like the pets, mount, the imperial race or even the monkey for participating in beta. Take away any of those items promised and you have deceived your customer, therefore they have entitlement to balk (walk away or turn away in disgust).

Beta and stress testing are one of the means used by the industry to keep over population in starting area’s to a minimum. Early access is another means of crowd control… which I paid for so I didn’t have to compete with thousands of people over the same node or have my quest crash because of the strain on the dungeon server dealing with the masses.

Promises are made to strike a deal, when deals are not met alliances are broken.

Now, on a positive thought! When I start a new game, especially a MMO, I realize I am a rat in a maze and it is my task to work through it thus proving my innate worth. Throw what you will at me and this rat will strive to overcome and triumph. All I ask is you don’t keep me pined up in the starter box starving for adventure…. Compensation is not required (imo) but freedom is!

gurahamu

bejorub17_ESO wrote: »

As pointed out, “early access” is a perk or bonus given out as an incentive much like the pets, mount, the imperial race or even the monkey for participating in beta. Take away any of those items promised and you have deceived your customer, therefore they have entitlement to balk (walk away or turn away in disgust).

Exactly my point, more of a customer satisfaction standpoint than a legal one, people don't like feeling short changed - especially in modern times. Many companies have caught onto this and are quick to offer something as an apology for inconvenience. Without these apology gifts, many would scoff at the developer, turn away and share their bad experience with others.

How successful could Bethesda/ZeniMax be if half of their players got turned away and insulted the reliability of the game? It could actually prove disastrous. EA found this out with the launch of Sim City last year - which actually resulted in them giving out a free game to all owners just because the servers couldn't handle so many players online at once for the first week or two.

Asking ZeniMax to give something small in compensation to these people isn't damaging unlike in EA's case. It won't cost them anything, but EA lost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in having to hand out free downloads to appease customers who would otherwise formed a class action lawsuit (there have been CAL's for much lesser reasons before).

Now ESO, it is an awesome game - I love that you can enter harder areas or fight harder bosses with stronger people and continue your storyline if you have a crappy ability set. It would be a massive shame if players turned away and the game became more of a ghost town.