July 4th 24 hr Maintenance

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Just curious, but where did you get your numbers? According to https://ffxivcensus.com/ almost half of the characters are in America, and America has more than twice the number of characters as Japan and more than one and a half the number of characters as Europe. As a data nut I am always interested in such things. Look forward to your source of information as well. Thanks in advance for sharing.

Worldwide: 26,182,117
America: 12,701,623 (48.51%)
Japan: 5,532,619 (21.13%)
Europe: 7,797,475 (29.78%)

That site is notoriously bad for factual information.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

It's still a Japanese studio and it's still ridiculous to expect them to reschedule things because there's a holiday in the US.

Ive seen this a few times that people like to think Japan has to change everything for America...
Its..kinda bothersome..if not worrysome behavior.

[Bringer-of-Omens]

With localization and multiple data centers the publisher SHOULD be able to account for major holidays within those localizations. While not possible to account for every holiday in every country, consider this one being discussed. July 4th in the United States is 1 (one) of 11 (eleven) Federally recognized holidays for the country. Those 11 Federally recognized holidays are the ones the largest number of people are not working within the country.

In our capitalist society it is considered good form to have some people working, even during holidays, for critical infrastructure, police, emergency response, health care and hospitals, transportation, etc. Most non-essential business do tend to cease operation on those days or close early (including restaurants, grocery stores, etc).

Those holidays tend to coincide with, when possible, a 3-day celebration if close to a weekend. This still leaves a plethora of options to perform 24-hour, non-emergency maintenance.

This particular holiday is also very close to Canada Day (July 1st I believe) which shares the NA data center.

So while it is not life threatening and I am sure everyone will survive without access to the game for 1 day, it appears a large portion of your customer base may have been looking forward to extra play time as they have an extra day off from work.

I can certainly understand this would require a bit of additional effort on the part of the SE team to accomplish but it sounds like it would be appreciated. Thanks for any future consideration.

Happy and safe holidays to those celebrating them in your respective countries in the near future.

[Caitlinzulu]

Just curious, but where did you get your numbers? According to https://ffxivcensus.com/

Worldwide: 26,182,117
America: 12,701,623 (48.51%)
Japan: 5,532,619 (21.13%)
Europe: 7,797,475 (29.78%)

Well looking at those numbers SE is right to stick to 4 july for maintenance. Japanese and European data centre together trump "america".
But the americqn server isnt just players from the USA but also players from Canada all the way down to Argentina
All of tbem prop indifferent to the 4 july date.

[Bringer-of-Omens]

That site is notoriously bad for factual information.

Thanks for letting me know. It's what I could find, hence, asking for the source the OP is referring to. Citing sources of information is key in having an informed discussion dont you think?

[TaleraRistain]

Man, what's with all the judgy in this thread with how people want to spend their time on a holiday? Some people aren't barbecue and fireworks people. I look forward to spending a day in XIV on holidays since I can spend the entire day on it. I'm not crying about this one. I'll just play something else. But the point of a holiday is we all get to enjoy it in the way we want to, so I don't understand all the judgment about how someone else spends their time.

[Bringer-of-Omens]

Based on those numbers the majority of the games population is not from the US.
Regardless tho it's hard to find real data on this, especially with people who don't have a Lodestone profile etc.
This is also accounts I believe and not active players.

It doesn't really change anything even if say the US playerbase made up for 51%.
It's still a Japanese studio and it's still ridiculous to expect them to reschedule things because there's a holiday in the US.

Interesting perspective. I work in international business and we cater to our paying clients in their localization and work within their convenience, not ours. Always fascinating to hear how little the customer is considered in other locales. Mind sharing which country you are in? I thirst for knowledge. Thanks in advance.

[TaleraRistain]

With localization and multiple data centers the publisher SHOULD be able to account for major holidays within those localizations. While not possible to account for every holiday in every country, consider this one being discussed. July 4th in the United States is 1 (one) of 11 (eleven) Federally recognized holidays for the country. Those 11 Federally recognized holidays are the ones the largest number of people are not working within the country.

In our capitalist society it is considered good form to have some people working, even during holidays, for critical infrastructure, police, emergency response, health care and hospitals, transportation, etc. Most non-essential business do tend to cease operation on those days or close early (including restaurants, grocery stores, etc).

Those holidays tend to coincide with, when possible, a 3-day celebration if close to a weekend. This still leaves a plethora of options to perform 24-hour, non-emergency maintenance.

This particular holiday is also very close to Canada Day (July 1st I believe) which shares the NA data center.

So while it is not life threatening and I am sure everyone will survive without access to the game for 1 day, it appears a large portion of your customer base may have been looking forward to extra play time as they have an extra day off from work.

I can certainly understand this would require a bit of additional effort on the part of the SE team to accomplish but it sounds like it would be appreciated. Thanks for any future consideration.

Happy and safe holidays to those celebrating them in your respective countries in the near future.

In terms of the US, most of those federally recognized holidays often don't translate to a day off for us. So while we have some of those on the books, unless you're related to the federal government or dependent on the federal government in some way, it's still business as usual. And even then in some essential fields, holidays being days off are even more few and far between. So yeah, that can contribute even more to looking forward to extra play time since it's so rare we get full holidays off.

[Shougun]

Ive seen this a few times that people like to think Japan has to change everything for America...
Its..kinda bothersome..if not worrysome behavior.

I mean it would be weird to schedule your 24 hour maint. in the middle of gold week or lunar new year too...

There are some people who think Murica #1 who gives a kweh about the rest of the world - which is wrong, but if you were easily able to incorporate major moments it would make sense to therefore do so. Especially for major markets, like obviously US is for FFXIV.

Though the idea of easy might be less fairly quickly. "Why didn't you add my country's holiday to the calendar- we make up 10% of the market!" .. lots o 'woopsy' then.

The other aside is I wonder what % of Americans have the 4th off lol. I've had a few companies that do (and obviously gov related fields that are non-essential), but uh.. I know there are quite a few that don't. Certainly more are off during Lunar New Year than the 4th, particularly Lunar since it's international. Maybe scheduling on Lunar is like scheduling on Christmas XD.

[Nizzi]

There are some people who think Murica #1 who gives a kweh about the rest of the world - which is wrong, but if you were easily able to incorporate major moments it would make sense to therefore do so. Especially for major markets, like obviously US is for FFXIV.

It's not wrong at all, our holy blessed American Independence Day is so important that Square Enix is shutting down their biggest money maker in observance for the greatest democracy the world has ever known. This game is even offered in 4 languages - Japanish, German (we beat them in the war), French (we saved them in the war) and AMERICAN. That means we're 1/4th of the languages and 4/4 of the WINNERS. Somewhere in the world, a Bald Eagle perched on Yoshida's shoulder sheds a single tear in remembrance for our freedoms. I applaud them for this great decision. It is not enough that America is celebrating the 4th of July - the rest of the world must celebrate it as well.