PLEASE Announce Estimated Down Time

StarlightMiss · April 2014

I've never seen a game that is so awful at 1) announcing server down times and 2) giving people SOME IDEA of how long you will be down for. I, as well as many other people, are frustrated after paying for this game and not being at least told how long it would be down. Please, please improve this! Thanks.

desdecardo · April 2014

Going to say I agree on this. Would be nice to have an ETA.

ZOS_GinaBruno · April 2014

We currently don't have an ETA, but we'll be sure to update the announcement at the top of the forums as soon as we do.

Hyperventilate · April 2014

Estimated Down Time:

When Until it's fixed.

Auric_ESO · April 2014

do you think that if they had one the would have given it out? First ident the problem and figure out how to fix, then estimate how long to fix and apply fix. That is when they know an eta. Not right when they down the server. Would you rather they lie and say...12 hours when they have NO idea yet?

Mduna · April 2014

No, like.. What's the ball-park estimation? Couple hours? What?

Daverios · April 2014

15+ years of MMO's has taught me one thing time and again. If they do not say '...and we hope to bring the servers back online as soon as possible' it is down for the night. Its the safe money bet.

JohnD212 · April 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We currently don't have an ETA, but we'll be sure to update the announcement at the top of the forums as soon as we do.

and how about telling us what you did fix. It's insulting to let us back in the game after cutting us off on a Saturday night and still find all the bugs and problems that were there before.

Taven · April 2014

They probably have no idea what's wrong.

Axzaril · April 2014

Random downtimes after the launch of a new mmo is to be expected. As much as it is frustrating we just have to deal with it and trust that Zenimax are doing what they need to do to improve their product and therefore improve our gaming experience over the long term.

Newks28 · April 2014

Been going on 2 hours of not being able to play on a Saturday night... How about some communication ESO? UNSAT

Mduna · April 2014

Daverios wrote: »

15+ years of MMO's has taught me one thing time and again. If they do not say '...and we hope to bring the servers back online as soon as possible' it is down for the night. Its the safe money bet.

D'aw.

Scanster1 · April 2014

15+ years of MMO's also has taught me that when there is a patch to fix problems, there will also be a patch to fix the patch that fixed the problems.

Dahkoht · April 2014

Taven wrote: »

They probably have no idea what's wrong.

Pretty sure you can take probably out of your statement...........

oziebanks_ESO · April 2014

If they gave you an ETA then people would just complain about how long it was...

byronsimrwb17_ESO · April 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We currently don't have an ETA, but we'll be sure to update the announcement at the top of the forums as soon as we do.

So we just wait and look at the top of the forums? thanks.

Mduna · April 2014

Thank you! ..Probably going to bed, though.

Mythotical · April 2014

I honestly don't think anyone who posts these type of threads has never been involved in the launch of a game. There is random downtime of server(s) for maintenance with no ETA. Asking for one doesn't help, it requires the devs to be bothered to answer these questions when they need to fix issues to get the server(s) back up. The first 6 months of a game launch will be like this, all we can do is settle down and be patient. After that usually devs start scheduling maintenance with down time and ETA's.

Xandreblackheart · April 2014

I'm guessing lack of capacity/bandwidth isn't going to be fixed with a hotpatch. Those are the most common issues for lag, and the weird effects they have on databases. I'm gonna open the bid at 4 hours. That's about as much time as it will take them to buy more VM space and clone more instances, as a temp fix in preparation to buying more permanent capacity.

Newks28 · April 2014

oziebanks_ESO wrote: »

If they gave you an ETA then people would just complain about how long it was...

I'm complaining about your lame post, get off ESO's ***

Dubah · April 2014

JohnD212 wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We currently don't have an ETA, but we'll be sure to update the announcement at the top of the forums as soon as we do.

and how about telling us what you did fix. It's insulting to let us back in the game after cutting us off on a Saturday night and still find all the bugs and problems that were there before.

How about you design a game and run the company then you can do what you want, until then be quiet and wait for them to fix what was obviously a big problem.

slude · April 2014

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

We currently don't have an ETA, but we'll be sure to update the announcement at the top of the forums as soon as we do.

Say the word and I will drive up there from Gburg and help you all sort this mess out.........contracting IT pays more so that's where us MD brains are hiding....we would love to help so you all don't go down on arguably biggest night of week.

drewsdaman · April 2014

Taven wrote: »

They probably have no idea what's wrong.

People couldn't log in to the game.

I was one of those people, I had to repair the game download, which only took 15 minutes, but I have far faster internet than most.

rrcottinb14_ESO · April 2014

I personally have developed a deep and heart-felt hatred for ZOS customer support. But, even I have to admit they did this one right. They brought it down for emergency maintenance. They admitted that in the first 20 minutes.

That likely means they have no clue what the problem is and, somewhere, a geek is pounding his head on a keyboard hoping to figure it out. Kind of hard to figure out an ETA in that situation. I work in IT. I have managed hordes of IT guys. It is the best you can ask for in the this situation. I can find fault for them for many, many things. This probably is not one of them.

Etchesketch · April 2014

just as soon as they figure enough people have given up and gone to bed, to lessen the load on the servers. Midnight pacific is my guess. Usually slows down considerably at that point of the night and the server will be back to its happy self and zen will take credit for doing something.... when all they did was shut them down and bring them back up after the peak.

Most mmos do this type of string you along bull. They never admit it's server overload.. cause they won't spend money to add capacity when they know a month from now it just won't be a problem anymore.

Newks28 · April 2014

rrcottinb14_ESO wrote: »

I personally have developed a deep and heart-felt hatred for ZOS customer support. But, even I have to admit they did this one right. They brought it down for emergency maintenance. They admitted that in the first 20 minutes.

That likely means they have no clue what the problem is and, somewhere, a geek is pounding his head on a keyboard hoping to figure it out. Kind of hard to figure out an ETA in that situation. I work in IT. I have managed hordes of IT guys. It is the best you can ask for in the this situation. I can find fault for them for many, many things. This probably is not one of them.

Umm no, it has been longer than 20 minutes.. Going on 2 hours

csmackenzieub17_ESO · April 2014

Auric_ESO wrote: »

do you think that if they had one the would have given it out? First ident the problem and figure out how to fix, then estimate how long to fix and apply fix. That is when they know an eta. Not right when they down the server. Would you rather they lie and say...12 hours when they have NO idea yet?

If they lied and said 12h people would find other things to do. Right now we're wondering if it'll be another 5 minutes or not?

pecheckler · April 2014

If i took one of the systems I support down for unscheduled maintenance and didn't provide an ETA (along with frequent status updates to customers), then i'd be looking for a new job the next day.

Baraz · April 2014

The server maintenance times have been posted in the Server Status forum:
Tuesday and Friday 8AM EDT/EST (NA server).
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/categories/server-status

This is an unplanned urgent intervention. Maybe they should say so and give a clue of what they are fixing to calm folks.

JesseLSATb14_ESO · April 2014

If you're not a fan- why are you here?

teonimesic · April 2014

@ZOS_GinaBruno If there is something i learnt during 8 years of software development, is that often it is more important to say whats going on and give people bad news, than to say nothing and leave everyone with high expectations and not be able to deliver them.

Also, as a developer, i've never seen a bug that an entire team of developers can't squash together in less than 4 hours. So my advice? Just say its gonna take the highest amount of time recorded for ZoS developers to fix a bug (they should keep tabs on how long it takes to develop features/fix bugs) and be done with it.

If I client calls me in the middle of the night saying his software stopped working, or has a serious vunerability that needs fixing ASAP, I am NOT ALLOWED to not give him an ETA. Really, if I don't, I lose my client forever. So I just give him some random big time range in which Im confident i can fix almost any possible bug, and hope for the best. Most of the time im able to fix it in less than what I said, and my clients actually get happy because I did such a great job!! And if I happen to not be able to fix it in time, I apologize and give another ETA for him. If it was my fault to begin with, I also give him a discount or don't charge for maintenance hours.

Edit.: Oh yes, almost forgot: I also inform him that the issue was correctly fixed, and promise he will never have the same problem again (at least not the same one). I also deliver a decent technical document describing exactly what the problem was and how it was fixed.