Server Maintenance

Wyattbw09

I noticed that when you announce that servers will be going down for maintenance you let us know when they will be going down, but then leave when they are coming up to be totally open ended.

I happen to have some free time this Monday and would like to spend some of it playing ESO. Maintenance itself is not a problem, but I have no idea if I should just assume the whole day is gone, or if this is going to take an hour, two hours, three.

Is leaving your maintenance times totally open ended going to be the norm for ESO?

dawnhawk

Soon(tm)...oh wait. No that was the other mmo that must not be named.

The second they give us a time and miss it by even a second (or someone has their clock set 5 minutes fast somewhere in the world...or someone can't understand time zones) - these forums explode with drama because they are "late".

The servers will come up when they are done. Seriously - it annoys the hell out me when the person signing my checks demands an update every 5 seconds rather than letting me work. As a programmer - I'd never want to work with gamers. You'd never get anything done if you gave in their entitlement.

Now - if you were actually paying attention. The EU server maintenance took approximately 4 hours (you can tell by the time stamps of the update messages vs the time stamp of when the server went down). Logically...provided nothing goes horribly terribly wrong (disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer)...the NA maintenance would be similar.

secretsquirrel956

You can download and install the patches already through the launcher. Do it now before the dl rate drops below 1mb/s. Besides this I completely agree with both dawn and watt. Here is the thing, you provide a maintenance window without precise times or over shoot the time by an hour or so. In the end everyone is happy because watt has his window and dawn doesn't get hung up by precise time stamps.

Wyattbw09

I hear what you are saying Dawn, but, at least to me, common curtsy would dictate providing an expected window for maintenance when they have one.

If I drop my car off for repairs, the dealership tells how long they expect the repairs to take, sure they might run over, and most people know that kind of thing can happen. However, no service provider that I am aware of would say well drop off the car, and when its done its done, might take us an hour might take us a week, just swing by the dealership at random and see if we have it sitting in the lot waiting for you.

CowNRB

Taking all bets! for how long the server will be down!

Holycannoli

Maintenance should take two hours, three tops if there's a problem somewhere that's not severe. Why ESO takes considerably longer is beyond me.

dawnhawk

The difference Wyatt is if you swing up at the expected time (granted...most people I know would just call and see if it's done, it's a pain to get there without a car) and they've had a shop mishap and the car is delayed until tomorrow...they have to deal with YOU. And you only. And I doubt you'd show up at the show with threats and the cops.

In the case of software like this - you have to deal with the forums/customer support. And gamers will overwhelm the forums, the call center and any other method of communication they can find - causing more problems and delaying the process further.

I've actually watched these forums go down due to overwhelming traffic caused by maintenance grief - not productive complaints. Just people making new threads every 20 seconds about why is maintenance now, why is there maintenance at all, why can't you just snap your fingers and magically fix the bugs.

It's actually easier to just not provide a time. Less migraine medicine required on the company health plan.

dawnhawk

And...we're up anyway. 2.5 hours.

Reignskream

yup, QQ were back up in 2.5 hours.

Holycannoli

2.5 hours, very good. Let's keep it up.

Elember

Yes, we definitely need ETA's on servers back up, however we also need to remember ZOS is new to the MMO arena and we should cut them some slack in getting up to speed on how to present their messages to the community.

More information is ALWAYS welcome and better then leaving the community completely in the dark as to when servers will be back online.

Tripp3r

servers are up now guys