All Day Maintenance and Compensation: My Thoughts

[Usho]

Before I start, this is somewhat of a mini rant so if you are easily triggered by my opinion, only come here to troll, and have nothing insightful to say, you might want to not continue reading.



So, I've been playing the game for about 2 years now and over time I've adapted and gotten used to life and how things are done on the game. One little gripe I have though is the all day (24 hour) maintenance that this game has. Coming from 10 years of playing Final Fantasy XI, the version updates (patches) we got, wither minor or major, only took maybe 1-2 hours tops. But with a new major patch in this game, the maintenances take 24 hours to complete and as a result, we, the players, lose an entire day of game play...on a game we are still paying for each month.



I don't mind the sometimes 4-5 hour maintenances the game has as it's only like a 1 or 2 hours more than the usual maintenances after patches in FFXI, with the 24 hour maintenances it's beyond annoying at this point for me, despite knowing it will happen.


That all day maintenance is a day we players don't get back and SE doesn't even compensate the players for the day they can't play. I think that as a way to show subscribers who pay their monthly subscription fees good will, I think SE should, at the very least, give the players a extra day before SE bills them for their monthly fee.


What I mean is, since players lose a day of no game play, SE should allow the players a extra day of free playtime before their next monthly bill is due to be paid, if you guys know what I'm getting at.


I mean, as a paying customer, I want to be able to enjoy the game to the fullest and make each day on the game count. But, because of all day maintenances, I feel like I'm not getting the bang for my buck and that lost day means I'm paying for a day in which I can't play and imo that's annoying to me.


Other players may see it differently, but this is how I feel on the subject. I'm not asking for much and I feel it's only right seeing as paying customers can't access what they are paying for, for an entire day.


I think this is something SE should consider or at least think about. I love the game, and despite it's many flaws, I like being on the game everyday chatting with my friends, and raiding or just chilling at my house and I feel like not being able to play a game I'm actively paying for, for an entire day, is a waste of money and a day I could be enjoying the game, that's all.


Anyway, I'm sorry for the semi long rant. I just wanted to get my feelings out there and make them known.



Thanks for reading.

[Magic-Mal]

A day is worth 50¢...

[Usho]

A day is worth 50¢...

A Day, is a day that shouldn't be wasted either.


/2 cents

[Vhailor]

A Day, is a day that shouldn't be wasted either.


/2 cents

Iunno, I don't see that much of a problem. I actually have a far larger issue with the 2-3 follow-up maintenance windows following updates than I do with the 24-hour maintenance coinciding with its launch; I mean, if you're going to take such a long amount of time, get it fucking right, you know? And these windows typically come at the tail end of NA prime time, while most of the 24-hour period is going to inevitably fall during work / school / sleep time.

I'd also be leery of giving SE any incentive for minimal maintenance times. We are already suffering immensely from the atrocious structural decisions SE has made around FFXIV's back-end, a problem rearing its head every time we hear the dreaded phrase 'server limitations'. Clearly FFXIV would be a better product now and into the future were time taken to appropriately resolve this technical debt. And yet, nothing is done: because the incentives are strongly weighted toward churning out content as rapidly as possible, be damned the long-term scalability concerns. Do we really want to see the same situation arise for basic server maintenance? Servers crashing routinely and kicking people out but kept 'up' because corporate doesn't want to reimburse people for longer maintenance windows? It's a real possibility if compensation were something players insisted on.

Anyway. Like I said, there's at most one of these every few months. I don't personally think it's a big deal, but to each their own.

Edit / Addition:

It won't kill any one to play something else for one day. My goodness.

No offense, but posts like this really aren't helpful. It's not about whether maintenance windows are an onerous burden; it's about whether we should be paying for service we don't get. It's the principle of the matter, and it's on principle (and potential consequences of it) that the situation is properly discussed.

[Usho]

Anyway. Like I said, there's at most one of these every few months. I don't personally think it's a big deal, but to each their own.

I feel a bit of hypocrisy in your post and I sense mixed feelings about the matter despite you saying "I don't personally think it's a big deal".


I'm just gonna quote what you just said because it's basically what I was getting at:

It's not about whether maintenance windows are an onerous burden; it's about whether we should be paying for service we don't get. It's the principle of the matter, and it's on principle (and potential consequences of it) that the situation is properly discussed.

[Gemina]

I feel a bit of hypocrisy in your post and I sense mixed feelings about the matter despite you saying "I don't personally think it's a big deal".


I'm just gonna quote what you just said because it's basically what I was getting at:

The thing is, maintenance is a service you also pay for. Without them, patches and expansions would not be possible, and the game itself would become unplayable.

No one is going to argue with you that is sucks when you can't play when you want to. Everyone paying a sub shares this frustration with you. You can take comfort knowing that on these days, everybody's progress comes to a screeching halt. However, you won't gain a whole lot of sympathy when you gripe about something you signed up for.

[NephthysVasudan]

People actually...still..complain about this?

Someone throw this guy a couple of pennys....

Cause that's all its worth.

Utterly sad...and just flat.....depressing to see people sink to this level.

[Brill_]

I feel a bit of hypocrisy in your post and I sense mixed feelings about the matter despite you saying "I don't personally think it's a big deal".


I'm just gonna quote what you just said because it's basically what I was getting at:

When you sign up, you agree to this:

5. INTERRUPTION TO THE SERVICE
From time to time, in order to provide our customers with the optimal gaming experience, it is necessary for Square Enix to conduct routine maintenance on the computers and/or servers that support the Game. During these times, access to the Game or support services may be interrupted. Access may also be temporarily suspended in whole or in part, without notice, due to emergency repairs, fire, flood, explosion, war, strike, embargo, governmental action or failure to act, the act of any civil or military authority, act of God, or by any other causes beyond Square Enix's control, or any other reasons for which Square Enix, in its sole discretion, deems that temporary suspension is necessary. You acknowledge that disruptions of service may occur and waive any causes of action against Square Enix in any way arising from or related to any such disruptions of service.

[Sigma-Astra]

No offense, but posts like this really aren't helpful. It's not about whether maintenance windows are an onerous burden; it's about whether we should be paying for service we don't get. It's the principle of the matter, and it's on principle (and potential consequences of it) that the situation is properly discussed.

When you made an account to play this game, you also agreed to the ToS as well and it's even stated in the ToS as someone else has pointed out. That's all there is to it. If you're complaining about something you've longed since agreed to now, SE is going to look at you with a canted head and just point you to the contract you willingly agreed to. They're not going to suddenly feel you've been "cheated".

[Vhailor]

I feel a bit of hypocrisy in your post and I sense mixed feelings about the matter despite you saying "I don't personally think it's a big deal".


I'm just gonna quote what you just said because it's basically what I was getting at:

There's no hypocrisy, and your sense is mistaken. My comment about principle was in reference to your post, which clearly has absolutely no legal argument behind it, nor an argument that the situation is significantly onerous.

If you really have a problem with it then start a petition to change the ToS. As it stands you accepted the terms in order to play the game. Now I certainly don't agree with companies that try to shoehorn in obscene stipulations into the ToS, and I'm always very careful to read them now just to make sure there is no tomfoolery being proposed. But that's kinda where it starts - with consumers actually reading the damn things and protesting them to be changed before agreement.

When you made an account to play this game, you also agreed to the ToS as well and it's even stated in the ToS as someone else has pointed out. That's all there is to it. If you're complaining about something you've longed since agreed to now, SE is going to look at you with a canted head and just point you to the contract you willingly agreed to. They're not going to suddenly feel you've been "cheated".

Duh? Injecting the ToS again distracts from the argument. The OP was not making a case about the ToS, nor indicating there was some legal wrong. Clearly the thrust of the argument was therefore about principle. Bringing up the ToS is akin to derailing the thread.