I think the rage would be significally lesser if they firstly announced the maintenances properly, rather than "Sheduled maintenance nao, byes!" *shutdown* and secondly it wasn't everyday, the whole absolute gaming peak time.
Well, at least I think people wouldn't be too mad if the above mentioned didn't happen every day.

On a different note, Bethesda games are notorious for bugs, but this is not a Bethesda game per se, just Bethesda's title.

Neverwinter did and they had to do a rollback too but i hate that game anyway!!!

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last updated 01/29/2014

SuraklinPrime wrote: »

All good points but unless there was a bug that was going to totally break the game why not let the EU people have our last night of pre-access and then do the patching overnight UK time - as an operational IT guy I can promise this is nothing that servers techs are not willing and able to do to avoid in hours downtime.

They took it down for "3-4 hours" approximately five hours before official launch. Not really any way they could have postponed it without changing the launch schedule.

Well i think they could of handled this alot better especially considering all the advertising about it.
I'm glad i had 5 days of early access instead of 3, loosing this evening and yesterdays due to maintenance.. havent been good for people who work daytime.
The lack of proper communication about server status is most appalling tho. Why no emails about it, they spammed me enough about pointless stuff lately...

My father always told me, 'Never buy the first year of a new car model'. Anything new will have bugs and flaws.

This game has had my attention since it was announced. Are the down times annoying? Naturally. I want to play, dammit! Are they unexpected? Not at all. Is the game perfect? No, but it's damned good and given that there is only ONE server (yes, there are two, US and Europe but that's not the point ), any attempts to correct bugs will impact everyone all at once.

Should we cut these guys some slack? Oh, hell yeah! They've been busting their humps for years to provide us with a gaming experience that attempts to marry to unique game styles, MMOs and RPGs, in a world that many of us have come to love. They've done a damned fine job, in my never humble opinion. I'm enjoying the freedom to explore, play my character the way I want with no forced decisions or mandatory choices. And, best of all, when we get to play, I'm playing an Elder Scrolls game with my best friend.

Nerdrage all you like, but realize that nothing's perfect and get a little perspective.

Grageeky wrote: »

Agree 100%. We PAID for early access, either the 3-day or 5-day variety. And this is an ONLINE service that is PAID out of the subscription part of the game purchase.

Did you pay more to preorder the game than you would to buy it at release? Does your copy of the game say "33 (or 35) days of subscription time included!" instead of 30?

I understand why you're upset. I even understand that you feel like you are missing out on one of your special pre-order bonuses (people would rage if they didn't get their mini-pets too). Keeping that in mind, the "5 days early game access" listed as a feature is not the same as "120 additional hours of subscription playtime!" You paid to get in early, not to be able to play every moment of that five days.

Shineko wrote: »

@NicoNine
Can you site a source for Megaserver technology being 5 years old? I tried a google search but all it is is ESO and that GW2 is now releasing it.

I just said that it's not new. Eve online have been out there for a long time and they have one big server cluster (Mega server). They dont use phasing but that technology is used for practicality, not fun having 200 ppl doing the same quest.
[/quote]

WarMacheen wrote: »

It makes me angrier that their customer service is almost nonexistant. I can't even download the game because of a metafile bug and all they will tell me is that I need to restart the damn client.

Keep me out of this! =D

Yeah, this didn't make me feel any better. It really is tiring when people say developing an MMO is too hard. If it is too hard, then don't make one. If you can't deliver a product that you market, then don't charge customers for it.

There are a lot of hard tasks and projects in the world. When the people doing them fail to accomplish them, there are repercussions. Here in MMO land, customers make excuses for the failings of the product provider instead of demanding the same level of service as other providers.

Did I expect some downtime during early access? Yes.

Do I think it is acceptable? No and Yes. No because I don't get to play. Yes, because I haven;t cancelled so I am willing to take it so I have to admit I am accepting it. Raging on the forum makes me feel slightly better but in the end, I am still buying their damaged product so by default it means I am accepting it.

So, it sucks. I do think they need to admit why the downtime really happened though. 10 minute warning for something they supposedly planned is obviously BS.

Not sure why they can't come out and just say, "We anticipate high demand on the official launch day/weekend and based on how the systems have responded so far, we think we should make some updates/changes to make the launch even smoother. We apologize for the downtime, but we think a few hours down today is a more responsible choice than 12 to 18 hours down this weekend."

And if they were really kick-ass, they would add, "Early Access players inconvenienced by this downtime will receive an in-game item that provides a 1 hour 20% buff to xp as our way of acknowledging your patience."

pre-release felt like beta, i said this almost a month ago "they should of kept the servers online in beta for more then 2 day periods at heavy load full of players" that is why we are having so much downtime, dont get me wrong tho its an awesome game

Shineko wrote: »

ZOS has taken their game down several times for maintenance totaling in roughly a solid days worth. Does this make you angry? Do you feel betrayed? Let's look at the bigger picture.

1) This is a brand new MMO using technologies not used before by most games. WoW was exactly the same way when it came out it was even buggier.

2) ZOS is a relatively new developer and it will take some time for their techniques and experiences to ripen.

3) Elder Scrolls games have been notorious for having glitches and bugs abound.

4) Most of the downtime has been to prevent game breaking exploits from taking hold. Such things are only easy to detect when you have enough of a sample of players to find them.

5) The game is just releasing, of course it makes sense that there are going to be a lot of bugs in the beginning. Over time, more bugs will be solved than created and will find a happy normal a month or two into the future.

Aside from the bugs, there are a lot of smart and ingenious features that are in the game and when you are playing, the game is legitimately fun. The quests are well rounded. In comparison to WoW, the questing is much more streamlined and less repetitive. There is a rich story that changes based on your decisions and a lot of freedom of choice around your character. Exploration rewards you.

ESO is a young, unique MMO that needs you now more than ever. It is understandable to be upset that there is downtime but it is absurd to want a refund over some downtime when it needs it most.

Most people fully understand a new MMO will have loads of unscheduled zero notice server take downs.

But this is different. From the wording of what they said, this was a PLANNED maintenance and the first we heard about it was when many EU players got in from work, had some food and sat down to start playing.

It;s the lack of simple courtesy that grates me.

Was this a recent decision, if so, fair enough but even then I bet they didn't plan this 1 hr before they took the servers down. But from their wording it looks like it was always their intention to do this and for most EU players that means 5 days really becomes 4 and 3 days becomes 2.

If this was always planed, the first we knew about it shouldn't have been 5 mins before they took the servers down. If this was a recent plan again the notice was still unacceptable.

If Zenimax treat their EU customers like that, a lot of EU customers will see it as a very very bad sign on things to come, it shows contempt for them.

That is why so many people are complaining tonight.

Fjordmonkey wrote: »

RamzaBehoulve wrote: »

Sorry, but trust me, this WILL happen again, and most likely soon (as in tomorrow or saturday). Why? No system has ever survived meeting the hordes of users.

It doesn''t take that much to properly configure CloudWatch. And it was quite obvious in the last open betas they were testing those policies...

I am not going to whine or cry about wanting money back. That would be silly.. works out to about $0.35 a day. Don't believe me.. you do the math. Not going to whine and cry about bugs and glitches. It is a new game and that is a norm. I have been playing MMO's for a while (15+ years) and have experienced all kinds of crap.

What I will complaine about is the miss leading sales pitch 5 full days of early access. That did not happen and that is annoying. Will that prevent me from playing the game? To pay $85.00 only to quit in the first week...?? That would be really stupid on my part so most likely "NO"

Pre-sales said 5 full days. worked out to about 65 or so hrs out of the possible 120 hrs. And those folks who was supposed to have 3 fulls days really got hosed.

ZOS... you are not starting off on the right foot.

ZoS, you will find in the future a little conversation will save you a world of grief. I personally believe that any new start up should do reseach on other MMO's. Find out all the things that really pissed the players off and then AVIOD those things like your life depends on it. Because your Business does.

Lioben wrote: »

Buddy, this is a support section. Although your statement is true, it does not belong here. You are just bumping down really important threads where people actually need help...

@Lioben Way to bump too. Not that you're the only one posting in it, but every time you post in someone's thread that it doesn't belong in this section, you are promoting it and keeping it at the top for others to see and post in as well. If you don't agree with it being in this section, maybe report it? Better yet, help everyone by pushing for a general discussion section that this would fit in.



ON TOPIC:
I really do laugh at all of the complaints about the downtime in early access/head start. It's a bonus, you aren't really paying for anything, you already bought the game which officially launches on specific days and times which were known prior to the early access.

I also find a ton of amusement in the posts where people take time off of work to play a game. Especially launch days. I mean, seriously people, take five minutes and search for launch issues with previous games, that right there should tell you "Don't take the day off".