Patches and scheduled downtime

[Raskbuck]

Because there isn't a solution, other than stopping making maintance. Yes, this is the kind of problem no matter how you can be vocal, it cannot be solved. I don't understand how it's difficult to understand.

Seems like a rather pessimistic way of looking at things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's like saying "It's what you get, deal with it.", no? Doesn't that put Square Enix into an almost untouchable position that cannot be criticized?

What I'm saying is, the best way to reach a common ground for community problems is trying to balance things out. Maybe make the server maintenance different for the servers depending on the region; perhaps try to reduce the frequency of the maintenances, I don't know. Saying there is no solution isn't exactly helping the people who are feeling troubled about it, but it does seem like the easiest thing to do.

Except...every topic and complaint known to man is brought up..over and over and over and doesn't necessarily mean it's valid. People complain you don't get enough gil from quests, over and over..is that a legitimate problem? People will complain about maintenance no matter what, even if it doesn't affect them "because it can affect someone else." Yes, that's what happens when you choose to play an MMORPG.

Well it certainly depends on the topic in question, I agree. Maybe it is a legitimate problem that's addressed in a wrong way. In your example, perhaps the gil received from the quests isn't the issue per se, but maybe the real problem is the ridiculous amount of it needed to buy a Vitality IV Materia due to its really random nature to obtain it (just to name an example, so please take it with a grain of salt).

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Seems like a rather pessimistic way of looking at things.Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's like saying "It's what you get, deal with it.", no? Doesn't that put Square Enix into an almost untouchable position that cannot be criticized?

What I'm saying is, the best way to reach a common ground for community problems is trying to balance things out. Maybe make the server maintenance different for the servers depending on the region; perhaps try to reduce the frequency of the maintenances, I don't know. Saying there is no solution isn't exactly helping the people who are feeling troubled about it, but it does seem like the easiest thing to do.

Yes, that's exactly the only thing to say in this case.
-there are 2 data-centers: japanese, and american. Europeans connect to the US datacenter, so if they set that maintance in a good hour for americans, all europe get screwed. Just like they did in FFXI, where every maintance was in my primetime, 9:00pm to 12:00 am
-also, not everyone connect to a datacenter near him, americans can connect to japanese datacenter and vice-versa, and so all the rest of the world
-aside the urgent hotfixes, like the security breach in the market ward or others urgent issues, maintances are usually 1-2 per week, they are not nearly as frequent as people try to make. "Nearly all nights downtimes"...yeah...
So let's say, they shift maintance time in a good hour for japaneses? US get Screwed.
They shift time in a good hour for US? Europe get screwed.
They shift time in a good hour for Europe? Japanese get screwed.
The world is round: there's no way to fix that, so i suppose every hour you choose will always end hitting someone. How people think it's possible to fix it, it's in the realm of sci-fiction.

[Raskbuck]

The world is round: there's no way to fix that, so i suppose every hour you choose will always end hitting someone. How people think it's possible to fix it, it's in the realm of sci-fiction.

I really can't disagree with that, but what about giving people options? I mean, if people want to play in a Japanese server and get a different maintenance schedule, it's their choice. As it stands right now, you either get black or white and nothing in between.

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

Rask, I already addressed that.

I know, it was just one of many hypothetical solutions.

I still don't think it's fair to leave people in the dark and give them no solutions whatsoever. Personally I don't have the problem since it accommodates my timezone, but I can't deny I'd be discouraged or disappointed if it happened to me.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

I really can't disagree with that, but what about giving people options? I mean, if people want to play in a Japanese server and get a different maintenance schedule, it's their choice. As it stands right now, you either get black or white and nothing in between.

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

Because cost more money making them separates. Also, what Taliph said.

[Raskbuck]

Because cost more money making them separates. Also, what Taliph said.

What about trying to reduce the maintenance frequency? And if that's not possible due to the current structure, why not try to fix that first?

Guys, I understand what you're saying, but sitting there and saying "nope, it's not possible. Keep moving." is almost neglectful in my opinion. -Something- has to be done, and the best way to reach that in my humble opinion is listening to people and talking about it, instead of closing the doors and turning a blind eye to potential problems.

[whilke]

What about trying to reduce the maintenance frequency? And if that's not possible due to the current structure, why not try to fix that first?

Guys, I understand what you're saying, but sitting there and saying "nope, it's not possible. Keep moving." is almost neglectful in my opinion. -Something- has to be done, and the best way to reach that in my humble opinion is listening to people and talking about it, instead of closing the doors and turning a blind eye to potential problems.

You are wasting your typing fingers on this crowd. No matter how many times you try and explain how almost every other AAA MMO in the world does standardized weekly maintenance times, they will just ignore it completely.

Real emergency maintenance need to happen, like that market bug awhile back that was stealing gil. But outside of that, roll all the maintenance windows into just one standard and set schedule that you do once a week.

To the people that will fire back and say that issues need to be fixed right away. They are already scheduling these fixes 24-48 hours in advance. If the issue is okay with SE being live for up to two days, it's probably going to be fine if it's live for 3-4 days instead.

[Lithera]

Why not make some servers have maintenance times for Europe, others for US, others for the eastern countries, and so on? All I'm saying is, give people different options to decide. If they don't like it, then they can reach another alternative that accommodates them instead of just telling them to "shut up and keep playing, or quit."

They can't do that server by server even if they wanted to. They have to do each datacenter as a whole. Everything is interconnected. As I mentioned earlier they DO try to give each data center its own maintenance time for the regular server reboot but for things like patches they simply CAN'T. Things have to go live on ALL servers at the same time or someone is going to cry "NO FAIR" when the players on the other datacenter get things first, plus the fact mentioned earlier that a major exploit fix would be exploited further in the gap between maintenances. There are two things though that will never happen and that's a regular maintenance on Jap servers that hits Jap prime time or NA servers during NA prime time simply because it would likely crash the servers when everyone and their brother tried to log back in at the same time. HELLO 1017.

[Linadae]

Very intelligent things

Thank you for being a voice of reason and logic in a thread that has very little of both. Time zones have been the bane of people ever since the advent of speedy world travel. SE has done there best to put maintenance at a time that hopefully effects the playing of the fewest possible people. Unfortuately you fall into that narrow band. If moving to a better time zone is not an option then. Perhaps I can suggest a hobby like weaving or knitting. If that does not appeal to you, then make that night movie night, or the night you explore Hulu or Netflix for a new tv series to enjoy.

Beyond that all I can say is suck it up and be an adult.