LOL OP talks about picking low player volume times...when that's exactly what they did. The maintenance period was during what is easily the lowest volume period of the day and during what most people still consider late Thursday night. I'd wager Thursday nights are also the lightest night of the week. Also it's better they do the maint. separate for each data center. If theyd done the maint at the same time as JP then the game would have been down at the very start of NA prime time and right int he MIDDLE of EU prime time. So not only would there be primetime downtime for a large number of people but they'd be turning everthing back on in prime time which would likely make the login servers take a shit and we'd be back in 1017 hell for a couple of hours if not longer.