Suggest to change maintenance day schedule to avoid holidays

miloflipper · May 6

Today is Easter Monday holiday in the UK, it is very annoying to wake up to a loooong maintenance on a holiday.

May I suggest to avoid Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays for regular maintenance so that players can enjoy the game on their days off? Perhaps do a poll or just pick Tuesdays.

Sakiri · May 6

They pick the day that the algorithm tells them the population is lowest.

The_Boggart · May 6

At least buy a European diary and look at it before inconveniencing a large tranche of your customer base

Danikat · May 6

You've got your bank holidays mixed up. The UK uses the Gregorian calendar for Easter, so Easter Monday was on the 1st April this year. Today's bank holiday is for May Day, which is traditionally the 1st May, but the bank holiday is always the first Monday in May.

Importantly the May bank holiday is also a day off across much of Europe and I think some other places too, so there's a lot of places where people are at home and could be playing ESO but can't because of maintenance.

It would be really nice if they could at least avoid bank holidays, even if they usually need to do maintenance on a Monday. They've definitely done it on other days previously, but I'm not sure how they decide the date.

Sakiri · May 6

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

Anachronian · May 6

They also need to do maintenance when enough people are in the office at ZOS, so maintenance schedules are generally set around when people would be working in the USA.

Rowjoh · May 6

Most of Europe is asleep in the early hours of the morning, so why not perform maintenance at an earlier time instead of ripping through half or more of the waking day, regardless of whether its a holiday or not.

centime · May 6

miloflipper wrote: »

Today is Easter Monday holiday in the UK, it is very annoying to wake up to a loooong maintenance on a holiday.

May I suggest to avoid Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays for regular maintenance so that players can enjoy the game on their days off? Perhaps do a poll or just pick Tuesdays.

The problem I see with that is what about people who don't have those days off? There is a reason they pick the day and time that they do. It is unfortunate that the time frame is bad for some but that is unavoidable and if they changed it, it would just become bad for others. They balance it out the best they can but there are going to be people for whom it is inconvenient.I get that it sucks not being able to play for a few hours but they can't personalize their down time for everyone.

Sakiri · May 6

Because it's an American company.

And I play at night EU time, that'd kinda irritate me. And make the US team stay up incredibly late.

Danikat · May 6

Anachronian wrote: »

They also need to do maintenance when enough people are in the office at ZOS, so maintenance schedules are generally set around when people would be working in the USA.

I've always wondered why this doesn't apply to the people who maintain the EU servers, which are in Germany. I suppose at least they get to do it during the day time instead of early morning, but also (depending on contracts) ZOS might have to pay them double time to work on a bank holiday, so as well as losing them money from people who can't play it could be costing them extra to schedule maintenance over a bank holiday.

Rowjoh wrote: »

Most of Europe is asleep in the early hours of the morning, so why not perform maintenance at an earlier time instead of ripping through half or more of the waking day, regardless of whether its a holiday or not.

I'm pretty sure that's why the NA server maintenance runs from 4am - 9am their time, so it's during a time when even people who aren't at work are likely to be asleep. I don't understand why they same doesn't apply to the EU servers.

Sakiri wrote: »

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

As is traditional for a bank holiday in the UK it's absolutely chucking it down here and going out would mean getting soaking wet. Also most things are closed, because of the holiday.

Maybe it's naive of me but I expect a company with an international product to consider the markets where their customers are based. Also at this point they could keep track of it simply by recording the dates mentioned in forum topics like this one every single year, so they know for the next year to avoid it. Easter is tricky because it moves around (but is also celebrated in the USA, a predominantly Christian country) but the first Monday is May is always a bank holiday, that's not difficult to remember and any half-decent calendar program can set up a reoccuring reminder for it.

tohopka_eso · May 6

I'm in the US, Easter always falls on Sunday for those that observe it. Also when Europe has holidays on certain days we don't usually follow it, we are usually working whether government, bank or private sector and schools are usually open.
So, it is expected that a company that is stationed in the US will go by that.
I also play a Japanese game and it follows what is done in Japan.
Now, if I played a game that was stationed/made in Europe I would probably expect it to follow what they consider holidays.
A good example is getting a calendar for that country of origin. But, even though May 1 was a bank holiday for you it's not here. Just another day.
Sorry for the rant but that's just how it is.

LunaFlora · May 6

Easter Monday was more than a month ago as it is always right after Easter Sunday.

and sadly maintenance will always inconvenience people as people all over the world play this game.

Elsonso · May 6

Danikat wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that's why the NA server maintenance runs from 4am - 9am their time, so it's during a time when even people who aren't at work are likely to be asleep. I don't understand why they same doesn't apply to the EU servers.

My perception is that they picked a time when server usage is low. In NA, because people are likely to be asleep or getting ready for work. In EU, because people are likely to be at work. Places where the maintenance is wrapping up in the evening will be inconvenienced more.

Danikat wrote: »

Maybe it's naive of me but I expect a company with an international product to consider the markets where their customers are based. Also at this point they could keep track of it simply by recording the dates mentioned in forum topics like this one every single year, so they know for the next year to avoid it. Easter is tricky because it moves around (but is also celebrated in the USA, a predominantly Christian country) but the first Monday is May is always a bank holiday, that's not difficult to remember and any half-decent calendar program can set up a reoccuring reminder for it.

Yeah, it is an international product, played globally from many different countries.

It always seems like someone, somewhere, is having a holiday or preparing for a holiday. I consider trying to always schedule around that mess to be a path to madness. Once on that path, is every holiday important enough to move maintenance, or just "select" ones? Who decides? Player count? Loudest voice? Most convincing threats to drop ESO Plus?

Where is the line drawn where a holiday is not considered, and what do the people who celebrate a holiday that is below that line think about the line? I think it is better to just pick a schedule and stick to it. In this manner, people can generally know when maintenance is going to be, without stopping by ZOS or consulting the international calendar of holidays. The only reason to move maintenance is when the people who are actually doing the maintenance are not able to do it.

Monday might not be the best choice for a regularly scheduled maintenance, as it is highly likely to coincide with a holiday, actual or observed. If not Monday, then when? Tuesday conflicts with ESO event start and end. Wednesday is already console day. Friday is probably just as bad as Monday, but for different reasons. Thursday? Would moving to Thursday inconvenience fewer people, or more people, in the long term? I have to think that if Thursday was a better day to a scheduled maintenance, all factors considered, it would already be on Thursday.

In the end, I think that trying to schedule around customer holidays is a minefield best avoided. Pick the best day and time, and schedule it that way every time. The only exception being when the people necessary to perform the maintenance cannot do the maintenance on that day, at that time.

Freilauftomate · May 6

Is there any good reason for a company to care if people can actually play and enjoy any of their games? Does it matter to them if someone plays 1 hour a month or 5 hours a day? What would be a perfect scenario from a company perspective? Is it just about downloading the game, buying stuff and logging in once in a while to buy new stuff? What actually motivates a company to make good games that work even on holidays and primetime? Players might think a decent company wants to give them a long living game with good performance, no bugs, interesting content etc. but is there an actual reason for a gaming company to care about this stuff?

Like, do dentists have a reason to keep their patients' teeth healthy?

Tallon_IV · May 6

Someone's always going to be inconvenienced by maintenance, so they do it when the least amount of people will be. They announce it ahead of time, so plan around it.

Bucky_13 · May 6

Danikat wrote: »

You've got your bank holidays mixed up. The UK uses the Gregorian calendar for Easter, so Easter Monday was on the 1st April this year. Today's bank holiday is for May Day, which is traditionally the 1st May, but the bank holiday is always the first Monday in May.

Importantly the May bank holiday is also a day off across much of Europe and I think some other places too, so there's a lot of places where people are at home and could be playing ESO but can't because of maintenance.

It would be really nice if they could at least avoid bank holidays, even if they usually need to do maintenance on a Monday. They've definitely done it on other days previously, but I'm not sure how they decide the date.

It varies. In Sweden we had last Wednesday off, it's always May 1st here. Likewise, we have another holiday this Thursday for Ascension Day, not sure if other countries do that one or not. Today is a normal work day for us. Easter Monday here was April 1st, there was no PC maintenance that week except a hotfix on the 4th after looking at patch notes section.

Point being, when it comes to Europe and holidays we don't have that many holidays except Christmas that are on the same dates. Easter is different, mostly 2 dates, I think. Could be wrong and there's more dates. So I can understand if ZOS just goes with US holidays and maybe German ones too if that's where they have their servers. If they take every nation's national holidays into account, their options for downtime windows will be a lot smaller. It's annoying when I have a day off and it's maintenance, but I won't demand they take our holidays into account.

Sakiri · May 6

Danikat wrote: »

Anachronian wrote: »

They also need to do maintenance when enough people are in the office at ZOS, so maintenance schedules are generally set around when people would be working in the USA.

I've always wondered why this doesn't apply to the people who maintain the EU servers, which are in Germany. I suppose at least they get to do it during the day time instead of early morning, but also (depending on contracts) ZOS might have to pay them double time to work on a bank holiday, so as well as losing them money from people who can't play it could be costing them extra to schedule maintenance over a bank holiday.

Rowjoh wrote: »

Most of Europe is asleep in the early hours of the morning, so why not perform maintenance at an earlier time instead of ripping through half or more of the waking day, regardless of whether its a holiday or not.

I'm pretty sure that's why the NA server maintenance runs from 4am - 9am their time, so it's during a time when even people who aren't at work are likely to be asleep. I don't understand why they same doesn't apply to the EU servers.

Sakiri wrote: »

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

As is traditional for a bank holiday in the UK it's absolutely chucking it down here and going out would mean getting soaking wet. Also most things are closed, because of the holiday.

Maybe it's naive of me but I expect a company with an international product to consider the markets where their customers are based. Also at this point they could keep track of it simply by recording the dates mentioned in forum topics like this one every single year, so they know for the next year to avoid it. Easter is tricky because it moves around (but is also celebrated in the USA, a predominantly Christian country) but the first Monday is May is always a bank holiday, that's not difficult to remember and any half-decent calendar program can set up a reoccuring reminder for it.

They used to do separate maintenance if I'm remembering right, but they changed it for some reason. I don't know why. Probably has to do with content releases, as you need to take the server down for that here. If one side gets it first "THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!!" fills the forums.

Besides. As I mentioned, it's not a holiday here in Sweden, there's so many dang holidays they're never going to be able to account for them all. Not all countries have holidays on the same day. PS, it was Orthodox Easter Sunday, the Western church did Easter several weeks ago.

Most folks I'd imagine we're working while it was down.

Elsonso · May 6

Sakiri wrote: »

They used to do separate maintenance if I'm remembering right, but they changed it for some reason. I don't know why. Probably has to do with content releases, as you need to take the server down for that here. If one side gets it first "THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!!" fills the forums.

My recollection is that they said that the NA and EU servers are not completely independent. While one was down (NA?) people on the other server had issues. Doing them at the same time would eliminate such a problem. It also allowed them to use one client for both NA and EU, previously two different clients, since the servers are at the same version. It also eliminated the "why are they doing the NA|EU server before the EU|NA server" issues that I seem to recall coming up here in the forum.

Drammanoth · May 6

ZOS has done a thorough job making people addicted to their work. And no, this is NOT criticism. If anything, this is a praise for job well done.

People can't stand being away from their beloved game, which is something I can understand. As such, one has to know when it is gaming, and when addiction.

@Sakiri 's advice is by far the WISEST - if you have no choice (i.e. you cannot play ESO), choose what to do offline (or play some other game, but Sakiri's advice is far superior here).

LaintalAy · May 6

Sakiri wrote: »

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

Did you you know that it's Autumn for at least half the world right now? Spring is six months away.

TaSheen · May 6

LaintalAy wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

Did you you know that it's Autumn for at least half the world right now? Spring is six months away.

Wish it was fall here instead of spring *sigh*. Allergies are killing me. In a perfect world, I'd be able to spend fall and winter with my cousins in NZ and then fall and winter here at home....

LaintalAy · May 6

TaSheen wrote: »

LaintalAy wrote: »

Sakiri wrote: »

Go outside. Spring's here.

Easter in Sweden was last month. I don't expect an American company to take non American holidays into consideration.

Each country seems to do holidays on different days, how do you expect them to keep track of all of that? EU isn't just the UK.

They do maintenance when the system says the population is lowest, therefore they're inconveniencing the least number of people.

Did you you know that it's Autumn for at least half the world right now? Spring is six months away.

Wish it was fall here instead of spring *sigh*. Allergies are killing me. In a perfect world, I'd be able to spend fall and winter with my cousins in NZ and then fall and winter here at home....

Hmm. Forget Winter; Canola is coming - my vision will be reduced by about 90%

TaSheen · May 6

I don't think that grows here (southwest US deserts), but I bet it would kill me just as much as sagebrush does....

spartaxoxo · May 6

Elsonso wrote: »

In the end, I think that trying to schedule around customer holidays is a minefield best avoided. Pick the best day and time, and schedule it that way every time. The only exception being when the people necessary to perform the maintenance cannot do the maintenance on that day, at that time.

German and US national/bank holidays are something employees either will be off or will generally request off. So, they should be done.

Hapexamendios · May 6

It's unrealistic to expect any holiday free of maintenance unless it's observed in a country where the workers performing it reside.

FlopsyPrince · May 6

I would highly bet more Mondays are holidays than any other day. I am certain that is true in the US.

Thus not having maintenance in the US on Monday would seem quite logical.

Xandreia_ · May 7

I'm in the UK but I don't expect them to take our bank holidays into account, plus its usually early morning when maintenance is happening, I'm usually asleep enjoying my day off work to be worried about game maintenance 😂

VisitHammerfell · May 7

May 1st is Worker's Day and September 8th is the Feast of Our Lady of Victories in Malta, should they avoid maintenance then too? Why would ZoS avoid maintence on any holiday (especially a religious and therefore not widely celebrated holiday, they can't play favorites with faiths) in one part of the world?

ApoAlaia · May 7

I mean they almost got it as right as it can possibly be (regarding dates, when it comes to times I have honestly given up about shouting in the desert) when they started scheduling maintenance on a Wednesday when the likelihood of it being a bank holiday or interfering with an event is the lowest.

I can't think on any bank holiday that falls on a Wednesday (maybe people celebrate the 4th of July regardless of what day of the week it is? but that is the only one that comes to mind and would happen only once every 5 years) and events usually run for two weeks from Thursday to Tuesday (Anniversary and New Life being the exception, but during the latter even staff are on holiday anyway and no scheduled maintenance takes place), 'mini'-events being only from Thursday to Tuesday the following week, which should allow for a bi-weekly maintenance to be slotted on the Wednesday before the event starts and after the event ends without any kind of interference.

Alas for reasons that we will probably never know that was not meant to last regardless of making logical sense.

Danikat · May 7

How about we turn the question around: What would the problem be if they did maintenance later in the week?

This week the Xbox and Playstation servers are getting maintenance on Wednesday, it was only PC that had it on Monday. What are the disadvantages of doing that? What problems does it cause?

A lot of people are clearly very concerned that moving maintenance back by a day or two could be a problem, but I'm not sure why.

jaws343 · May 7

Danikat wrote: »

How about we turn the question around: What would the problem be if they did maintenance later in the week?

This week the Xbox and Playstation servers are getting maintenance on Wednesday, it was only PC that had it on Monday. What are the disadvantages of doing that? What problems does it cause?

A lot of people are clearly very concerned that moving maintenance back by a day or two could be a problem, but I'm not sure why.

Stacking maintenance for Console and PC is likely a resource problem. If something bad happens with the maintenance, you now have the entire game down, or one set of servers down and the other set in trouble if something bad were to happen.

And as to why Mon/Wed, my bet is it is staggered to allow a day for damage control and/or trouble-shooting issues if a problem occurs. Especially if they find something in the maintenance that may also impact console, it gives them some time to prepare and adjust course if necessary.

And why not Tues/Thurs, or Wed/Fri? Probably because stacking development or maintenance late in the week risks overflowing to the weekend for major issues. Which poses all kinds of problems.