Maintenance

[Kiara1]

I feel ya. My earlier job schedule was always afternoon-evening. So my only playtime was in the morning, and they always always always put them in the morning. Meaning it affected me EVERY time, if they rotated it it would affect everyone but not every time, so the same people wouldn't get screwed over every time.
But a lot of ppl on the forums are too thickheaded so as long as they aren't affected they think its fine

[Avenger]

It's a numbers game, you can either inconvenience 10% of the player base 100% of the maintenance times, or 100% of the player base 25% of the maintenance times.

If you're in that 10%, then you probably prefer the fairer solution, even if it increases the total (and average) inconvenience across the entire player base.

[Silkerin]

think of this as a noble sacrifice you are making to give us a better game

[Avenger]

They have to do it at a general time, and its easier for them to do it during JP downtime. 99% sure that's the reason. Otherwise you'd have staggered updates and JP Data Center'll have access to content long before NA/EU.

I believe that FFXI frequently had maintenance at Japanese midnight - inconvenient for players in Japan who play at night, but great for NA players!

[Avenger]

think of this as a noble sacrifice you are making to give us a better game

This is the best response so far.

[Dillia]

So with Maintenance 4 times a month, thats 4 days of my 30 day subscription im paying for with no play time...

You have 5 posts, all 5 posts are complaining about maintenance times. Make 5 more or 500 more, it will not change anything. Maintenance is scheduled when there are historicaly fewer people playing. It is not a personal attack on you, it is not a personal attack against any timezone, region or group of people. It is unfortunate for you that your prefered play time is a during normal maintnance times. I myself find my normal play schedule cut in half when we have maintnance.

As far as rotating maintenance times, how does that make sense from a buisness perspective? People seem to forget that SE is a buisness, and FFXIV is their product. When you have to make a product unavailable, you do it when it effects the fewest number of people. If you have 1,000 customers and have to take your product away for repairs, would you do it when 50 of your customers are using it, or when 500 of your customers are using it? The correct answer is when 50 are using it. Is it "unfair" for those 50 customers that have the product taken away? Maybe, but if you must be unfair you do it to the fewest number of customers.

The vast majority of maintenances are anounced before hand, so here is a sugestion for you. Talk with your core group of friend that play during the same time as you and have a "backup" game so you can still socilize with your friends on the few days a month where you can not play FFXIV.

[Avenger]

I like it when maintenance is at 11PM on a week night, forces me to go to bed at a decent hour.

Most of the maintenance at 9PM or earlier generally seems to be related to a major/minor content patch so those don't bother me at all. Usually end up going to bed early so I can get up an extra hour or 2 before work and try things out.

Shifting your own sleep schedule is a sort of clever idea, for those lucky people (non-night-owls?) who can do it, and congestion (gold saucer, hunts, etc.) is almost certainly lower in the morning!

[StouterTaru]

If you're in that 10%, then you probably prefer the fairer solution, even if it increases the total (and average) inconvenience across the entire player base.

Everyone would like to have the game up every time they want to play it. They do things the way they do to create the least amount of inconvenience, including the IT staff managing the upgrade.

I would love to see the reaction of the staff after being told "Hey I know you were here for 17 hours yesterday because we decided to do the patch at an oddball time, but I'm going to need you to come in at an ungodly hour tonight to install a hotfix, because we got to spread the maintenance times around to be fair to all our players." A regular maintenance routine and schedule leads to shorter maintenances.

[Anapingofness]

Oh lordy, this thread again... =\

Look OP, I'm sorry that your playtime is cut but you really must learn to roll with the punches.

You have 5 posts, all 5 posts are complaining about maintenance times. Make 5 more or 500 more, it will not change anything. Maintenance is scheduled when there are historicaly fewer people playing. It is not a personal attack on you, it is not a personal attack against any timezone, region or group of people. It is unfortunate for you that your prefered play time is a during normal maintnance times. I myself find my normal play schedule cut in half when we have maintnance.

As far as rotating maintenance times, how does that make sense from a buisness perspective? People seem to forget that SE is a buisness, and FFXIV is their product. When you have to make a product unavailable, you do it when it effects the fewest number of people. If you have 1,000 customers and have to take your product away for repairs, would you do it when 50 of your customers are using it, or when 500 of your customers are using it? The correct answer is when 50 are using it. Is it "unfair" for those 50 customers that have the product taken away? Maybe, but if you must be unfair you do it to the fewest number of customers.

The vast majority of maintenances are anounced before hand, so here is a sugestion for you. Talk with your core group of friend that play during the same time as you and have a "backup" game so you can still socilize with your friends on the few days a month where you can not play FFXIV.

and

Everyone would like to have the game up every time they want to play it. They do things the way they do to create the least amount of inconvenience, including the IT staff managing the upgrade.

I would love to see the reaction of the staff after being told "Hey I know you were here for 17 hours yesterday because we decided to do the patch at an oddball time, but I'm going to need you to come in at an ungodly hour tonight to install a hotfix, because we got to spread the maintenance times around to be fair to all our players." A regular maintenance routine and schedule leads to shorter maintenances.

put it very eloquently.

Bottom line- Is it "fair"?
Maybe- heck, I'll throw you a bone and say, probably not- but thems the breaks. Life isn't fair and there is no use in getting upset over something you can't change.
My advice, go find something else to do during maintenance time- read a book, draw a picture, or rearrange your sock drawer so that there is a gradient of colors from light to dark.

Just know that when you do get back to the game it will be a better place than it was when you left it. We have maintenance for a reason and it is to improve and fix things.

[NinjaTaru72]

*Japanese team that shuts do servers for maintenance*
"hey guys I have a wonderful idea, instead of coming in for our normal work hours to do maintenance (2pm-ish jp time to around 6pm jp time) , let's wake up at 11pm and come In and sit here till 4am doing maintenance." "genius"

Yeah... Lol their mid day tends to be the most lax timing for maintenance