This is really starting to look like a failed launch right now. 5 day early access and I haven't really been able to play yet because every night the server is down in EU prime. Even when it is up there is no mail or guilds, there's lag, bugs and random server kicks. What's worse is I hear that many players have logged in, only to find they are inside someone else's account!!! This has been the worst launch I've an MMO I've seen for a while and I've been in most of the launches since vanilla WoW. It really doesn't bode well for the future.

Ojustaboo wrote: »

I have been defending you time and time again on this forum over the past few days when people have been complaining about short notice downtime.

I understand unforeseen downtime due to unforeseen problems.

But to get an announcement 5 mins ago that the servers are coming down ready for the official launch tomorrow, thanking us for taking part in early access and telling us you will see us in 3 - 4 hrs, what the hell?

Prime time for Europeans, and zero warning this was going to happen. If you had told us pre early access that this would be happening, I wouldn't be complaining in the slightest, but the first we hear of it is a message appearing on the screen???????

You need to sort yourselves out because you are currently needlessly making yourselves enemies. There's the guild member that cancelled a night out with his mates just 30 mins ago and is now to late to go, that would have gone had he known etc etc etc.

Again emergency unplanned patches or downtime, even if it's for 12 hrs+, I accept that is a part of a new release, but from the wording of the message, this was planned.

For a change, I am not happy and I hope this lack of communication isn't how you intend to keep doing things.

Agree 100%. We PAY for an ONLINE service that we expect to be online and accessible during our free-time/off-work time. And when it's not announced/scheduled downtime, customers should be compensated. Selling you a package that includes 3-day or 5-day early access and then not delivering on it, is bad business, and false advertising.

squicker wrote: »

Yes, laziness and bad planning. One would have thought that 2 separate continental servers would results in proper maintenance schedules. It's not like this is a cheap game and we expect them to scrimp on support as a result. It's a £50 game with a £9 monthly sub, the least I'd expect is proper notification of planned outages and outages planned around continental norms.

I am pro-subscription because it should drive up quality but so far the service levels are way below a lot of F2P games.

I am really quite surprised by this, a perception takes a moment to make and a lifetime to break...

seangcxqb14_ESO wrote: »

Is there a reason they can't shut down just the NA server, and shut the EU server down when it's not prime time?

This. Two separate continental servers, one for the EU and one for the US. There's no reason to run a maintenance like this, during primetime for one of the communities, with the cost of the game and a monthly sub.

Proper notification of a planned maintenance is the least one could ask for but even so, the servers are separate and should be handled as such.

I'm disappointed, to say the least.

Laura wrote: »

helron wrote: »

I'm very unhappy with this.
Focusing on US-customers only is IGNORANT!

ignorant... go look that word up because you are ignorant.

The us server was down for 10 hours maybe they didn't want to further screw them over did you think about that? Also it is widely known that there are a lot more paying customers for this game there than here.

Really? Widely known is it? Yet somehow global figures for 2012 show that the US had approx. 50 million MMO players of which 23 million were paying customers and the EU had 46.7 million players of which 23.5 million paid for it. As this is a paid for game those figure would actually imply that the trend would be for their to be more EU players for ESO than US...

MrSalty wrote: »

hillrdb16_ESO wrote: »

They could have done this at 8am EST. That'd be round 2-4pm in EU.
They say it was planned. Was it a Donkey that did the planning?

I wonder if you EU people also realize that your servers were up all day yesterday while US was down for about 14 hours. Please stop crying about a 3-4 hour downtime.

Have you read what I and others have actually said?

Your downtime was due to major problems which can (and usually does) happen on any mmo launch. Had the EU servers gone down at zero notice this evening, while obviously I would be a little miffed I couldn't play, I wouldn't be angry at Zenimax.

It's ONLY because it's PLANNED maintenance and we had zero warning that most are unhappy.

I love this game, I want it to do well. Only this morning I read an article on MMORPG about TESO entitled "A Successful Pre-launch" and most of the article was positive.

But at the end the editor edited it due to what happened yesterday

Mentioned that people were logging in to find they were in other peoples accounts, banks getting wiped, mail problems, bugged quests and ended the article with the sentence

"I'd call ESO's launch a bit rocky all things considered. "

Then the user comments started coming in.

Now imagine what's going to be said tonight and tomorrow on that forum and other forums, how word of mouth is going to spread? All of which could have been avoided if the customer had been kept informed and given proper notice. Do you not realise the damage such a silly oversight can cause? And how easy it would have been to avoids it by giving us proper notice, and possibly patching the EU server earlier or later.

/sitchair

squicker wrote: »

I am pro-subscription because it should drive up quality but so far the service levels are way below a lot of F2P games.

Premium prices means having to deliver a premium service in your own financial self interest. It's not an unreasonable expectation to expect maintenance on the EU server not to be done during prime time. it's basic 'let's not *** off the people we want to give us money' common sense.

Failing that - tell people your plans well ahead of time. It's not even approaching rocket surgery.

Economics may not be my strong point but saying Na are the biggest paying customers for them is a little short sighted. Without a single EU subscription I doubt this game would last not everything relies on NA

Is anyone quitting? No? Ok, then it is in their best interest to do this while they are at work with the largest part of their staff. This might just happen to be when EU prime time is... oh well. They aren't out to make everyone super happy, they are out to work as efficiently as possible. They weighed the options and found that those that asked for refunds would be minimal compared to paying their employees more to work for long shifts. Just take it from me, they don't care about you or me or anyone else and they know that you aren't going to remember this tomorrow when you are playing.

Is it possible for future avoid short notice downtimes but announce what is already planned?
Thank you.

I avoided all the rants and the flames on forum but in 5 days (or less according to time zones), I had not many chances to play, especially because of prime time for my region and downtimes.

I'm sure this situation will become better (especially when EU server will be in EU) and I appreciate all your huge efforts, but please avoid short notice downtimes for stuff that is planned.
I understand emergency downtimes obviously but planned ones should be announced.

Honestly I would have expected more by this early access and I still hope that a way to fix partially appearance of characters will be given to the ones who joined early access.

Edit: typo

hillrdb16_ESO wrote: »

They could have done this at 8am EST. That'd be round 2-4pm in EU.
They say it was planned. Was it a Donkey that did the planning?

Standard maintenance is at noon and 2pm in the afternoon for Central Europe.

This isn't standard maintenance.

Alphaeus wrote: »

Why did they say it would be back up for launch in 3-4 hours? Isn't launch at 7 tomorrow? What is going on?

Launch is 7 pm US EDT TONIGHT.

It would have been nice to at least have warned us about this before starting early access. Or maybe at least like 12 hours before shutting it all down. Now early access really just feels like a beta we payed for

ArcheKnight wrote: »

Is anyone quitting? No? Ok, then it is in their best interest to do this while they are at work with the largest part of their staff. This might just happen to be when EU prime time is... oh well. They aren't out to make everyone super happy, they are out to work as efficiently as possible. They weighed the options and found that those that asked for refunds would be minimal compared to paying their employees more to work for long shifts. Just take it from me, they don't care about you or me or anyone else and they know that you aren't going to remember this tomorrow when you are playing.

Perhaps you dont mind answering some questions then.

Do you know if all the servers are located in the US only, or if they have a separate server in the continental EU?
If you do not know, then how do you know when they have most people on staff?

If a company like MS can manage a 24/7 service without inconveniencing their customers, then why cannot ZOS do it as well?

I will quote a previous post that explains the 24/7 service very adequately, and should hopefully give you some insight into how these things work.

Ojustaboo wrote: »

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

BritLord wrote: »

Another gaming company shitting on EU players during prime time. ALL scheduled maintenance should be done OUT of prime time. Jesus if I shut down a service to paying customers during the prime time I would get hinched!

No they arent shitting on you, its noonish in the USA during prime work hours. What did you think they would pay overtime to make people work at 2 am here?

Sorry but they run a 24/7 service and just like any IT worker will tell you, working unsociable hours to do updates and patches when it inconveniences the least people,. is part of such a job.

If I had turned round to the 400 users of my computer room and said I'm doing a patch but I don't want to pay my staff overtime so you all have to sit there twiddling your fingers while we do the update during the time you need to get on, I would have lasted 30 seconds.

I've lost count of the amount of times I and others have worked all night, and nothing annoys me more that companies running 24/7 services and people thinking they should all go home at 5pm.