All Day Maintenance and Compensation: My Thoughts

I'd also like to remind the OP that, while it sucks, it's also what we all agree to when we subscribe to FFXIV and other games. I'm pretty certain it's mentioned in the ToS and/or End User Agreements that maintenance will occur as necessary. Being that we all agree to it by subscribing, it's rather out of the question to demand compensation for it when it occurs. That said, there -are- situations that can occur when compensation is necessary, and, in those situations, so far, SE has provided appropriate accommodations, that I can remember.

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Originally Posted by Devils_Lawyer

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I think they either work very inefficiently or aren't tasking enough people. As I've said multiple times, they should be doing stability checks on a test server long before deployment, that's how good network engineers do it. This should be a simple process of pushing the data to servers, running a quick error check, and getting them back up. Based on the size of each patch, an 8-hour maintenance isn't unreasonable. And giving the day back is a day of play, not a refund, if you'd bothered to read the OP or any one of my posts.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

It looks a lot better for them to be unfair, I suppose.

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Fair enough, but I would still rather lose primetime play than a day. And they could still give us the day back and be fair.

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And giving the day back is a day of play, not a refund

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You're right. It's not a refund. It's actually called compensation, which is different than a refund. Refund means you get back the money/time/effort you spent on something in a manner that allows you to divert it elsewhere, i.e. getting your money back so you can spend it somewhere else because you were dissatisfied with a service. Compensation simply means I'm getting something within the same realm of the same service in exchange for not originally receiving that service, i.e. at a burger joint, simply getting another burger because I was dissatisfied with the one I got.

When the maintenance is a regular, foreseeable part of the service - especially when announced in advance - I don’t see why there is any need to be compensated for it. (And yes I see that as including the inevitable emergency updates just after a patch, because you can expect them.)

It might be different if there was some sort of server crash that made the game suddenly unplayable for a day, because THEN it would be compensating customers for time they should have been able to access the game, but couldn’t. Although in the event that it happened, I think it might be more likely that they either extend people’s current subscription by a day or give a credit to paying your next fee, than actually give money back?

The monthly subscription fee is ultimately arbitrary, so you can’t even say in the end if you’re paying $0.43 x 30 or $0.42 x 31 or.... then again, maybe say you *are* definitely paying $0.43(333 recurring) per day, because then your yearly cost of $13 x 12 gives you.... 360 days of paid time! You’re already getting five days for free!

Wobbly logic aside (I’m sure the total amount of maintenance hours doesn’t work out to five days, and is probably higher), my point is that you can’t say for sure whether the downtime is already calculated into the “hourly rate” of your subscription fee, and the company is not going to suddenly start giving that money back to every player on a regular basis when nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

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Originally Posted by GunksFoy

Once again, you straw manned the argument. Customer Care has fuck-all to do with the car killing people. Explain to me how delivering a car to someone's doorstep so they can test drive it because they don't live close to a dealer is preventing anyone from being killed. You just don't understand the basics of business and quality care.

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If it is about test driving, SE already do the same with the trial version of FF XIV.

So I drove a couple miles to a restaurant the other day only to find out they were closed temporarily because of some sort of maintenance, which I imagine was indeed absolutely necessary. Do I seek compensation from the ownership or do I just go somewhere else close by to eat? Clearly the latter is a far healthier and more realistic response. If you're like me you've probably got plenty of other games you've bought and barely touched or just have yet to finish. Maybe watch a movie you haven't gotten around to yet? You might discover the one really wasting your time and money is you.

Major Patches come, what, once per 3 months or so?

One day.

Out of every 3 months.

And you're really going to sit here and complain that you want your 50 cents back? Are you kidding me? 50 cents won't even buy you a candy bar.

The only compensation that I would support, would be something like having the day after give twice the daily allowances in-game. Like being able to run two roulettes, or being given 1 instant complete on Retainer Exploration Ventures to make up for the lost day.

That or have the extra allowances "next one is free and doesn't trigger the cooldown" so that even if you miss the day after, you aren't left out.

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Originally Posted by Felis

If it is about test driving, SE already do the same with the trial version of FF XIV.

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Waste of time. He's too obsessed with pettiness and wanting his penny's for lost time.

Even if it was lowered to 8 hours...even 4 hours...he'd complain and complain and complain.

While true that XI had much shorter updates, do you forget it was usually followed by a week of emergency maintenance once a day for an hour?

Hnm hunters loved/hated it because tods were tossed around and you could calculate when stuff poped.

The 24h maint is fine theres usually no emergency maint or anything here.

That anyone is so distraught at not being able to play for 24hrs for a maintenance that delivers them the next 3 months of content...............................it just blows my mind. *speechless*

Life exists outside of Eorzea, it's ok to try it.

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Originally Posted by Voidedge_Ragna

While true that XI had much shorter updates, do you forget it was usually followed by a week of emergency maintenance once a day for an hour?

Hnm hunters loved/hated it because tods were tossed around and you could calculate when stuff poped.

The 24h maint is fine theres usually no emergency maint or anything here.

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Also, back in the day, their update servers would be overwhelmed (even after the playerbase started declining) and the actual update download could take hours... assuming it didn't fail and need to be restarted... or you could even connect at all...

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Originally Posted by GunksFoy

I think they either work very inefficiently or aren't tasking enough people. As I've said multiple times, they should be doing stability checks on a test server long before deployment, that's how good network engineers do it. This should be a simple process of pushing the data to servers, running a quick error check, and getting them back up. Based on the size of each patch, an 8-hour maintenance isn't unreasonable. And giving the day back is a day of play, not a refund, if you'd bothered to read the OP or any one of my posts.

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WoW (unless they changed it) has a routine maintenance every Tuesday to make sure the game is kept in check of stability. This is something required of developers to make sure their game won't randomly crash and receive damage that can't be undone. SE does this every 4 months, which is very surprising for an MMO as big as this one. Is having only one day every 4 months, one right before a major patch with new content mind you, to check if everything is in quality control? One that is scheduled over a week ahead of time to prepare people. I don't think so.

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Originally Posted by Felis

If it is about test driving, SE already do the same with the trial version of FF XIV.

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FFS. It's not LITERAL. It's a comparison of customer care, not LITERALLY comparing test driving to the game. But I am done debating this, merely here to discuss it with the more reasonable people, who can fathom changing things you might like to see changed.

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Originally Posted by Velhart

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Indeed they did, although they changed that now. In 2018, you don't need weekly maintenance for server health. I agree that doing some stability testing once the patch is deployed is necessary, however, you should have already done the bulk of it on a test server. Also, I already said I don't think it's that big a deal, but what the OP asked for was not that ridiculous and he should not have been insulted. Especially when this can only possibly benefit people.

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Originally Posted by GunksFoy

FFS. It's not LITERAL. It's a comparison of customer care, not LITERALLY comparing test driving to the game. But I am done debating this, merely here to discuss it with the more reasonable people, who can fathom changing things you might like to see changed.

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Yet YOU used it as a example in literal terms. YOU fought for it.
You can't go around yelling at people for something YOU said.
Make up your bloody mind.

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Originally Posted by GunksFoy

Indeed they did, although they changed that now. In 2018, you don't need weekly maintenance for server health. I agree that doing some stability testing once the patch is deployed is necessary, however, you should have already done the bulk of it on a test server. Also, I already said I don't think it's that big a deal, but what the OP asked for was not that ridiculous and he should not have been insulted. Especially when this can only possibly benefit people.

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They likely have run them on test servers already. It doesn't mean they don't run tests when put onto their servers in three different region of servers. It seems like people like to make the process simpler than it actually is. The smallest of errors can potentially cause a server crash and cause you to be without your game even longer. They work on the test servers, but it doesn't mean a file can't get corrupted in the process of transferring this data to the regional datacenters. It needs a flexible time range to make sure this gets done. Imagine if you don't have that 24 hours to do that. I am sure the people working on this probably already feel stressed having one day to get everything in check. Granted, sometimes things go well enough and they even open the servers early. Then we may have times where complications occur and we have to wait a little longer. The nature of the process can truly be unpredictable.

I don't think they need to compensate us, but if they want to, they can take advantage of the opportunity and perhaps give everyone free time from december 1 - 23rd every year to also promote the game to potential new customers since they could get it for Christmas.

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Originally Posted by Brightshadow

I don't think they need to compensate us, but if they want to, they can take advantage of the opportunity and perhaps give everyone free time from december 1 - 23rd every year to also promote the game to potential new customers since they could get it for Christmas.

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“Promoting the game to new customers” is what the unlimited-time free trial is for.