Suggestion : Rotationary time for maintenance?

[NegativeS]

I dunno how it would go in Japan, but at least where I live:

"Hey Jim, we're starting a new system where we change server maintenance times every now and then. Would you be willing to come in at 7:00 PM this Tuesday?"

"Would you still be making me come in at 9 tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

"Kick rocks."

Leave the overworked IT guys alone. They're already running on a skeleton crew after SE slashed the IT budget, they don't need a carousel schedule as well.

[Mesarthim]

If I had a nickel for every time someone whines about a maintenance. Only in this game man, only in this game.

[Alicie]

Maintenance is something we all have to deal within the MMORPG world. Everyone understands that.

In FFXIV’s case, maintenance is almost always scheduled on Tuesday, around 6:00–10:00 UTC. I understand that this likely corresponds to a period of lower activity in NA, and it probably also aligns with the developers’ working hours.

However, this is a global game with multiple data centers and time zones. While this timing may be convenient for NA, it’s not necessarily ideal for other regions. And more importantly, because maintenance always happens at the same time, it consistently affects the same group of players—those whose only available playtime falls within that window. That feels a bit unfair.

It would be great if maintenance times could rotate occasionally. I’m not suggesting moving it to peak hours, but even shifting it by a few hours would make a big difference. For example, instead of always being 6:00–10:00 UTC, it could sometimes be 10:00–14:00 UTC or even 2:00–6:00 UTC, and rotate between these time slots from one maintenance to another.

I don’t think this would be overly difficult to implement on the staff’s side, and it would make things feel much fairer for players overall. Yes, some people who are currently unaffected might end up being impacted occasionally, but at least the inconvenience wouldn’t always fall on the same group.

I think you're forgetting to factor in one thing: people who do maintenance are real workers that work at their schedule. 10-14 UTC is 19-23 JST. Do you imagine where worker will send employer if they ask them to work at that time?

[Alicie]

I'm actually a programmer so even if I'm not in the field of video games, yes, I understand very well how codes works.

I know that the game is a Japanese one, but I hope that you do realise that yes, some people also works on evening and night shifts. And nothing prevent them from doing it earlier then, they actually do it on times that are late afternoon-early evening in Japan, they could then do it on their morning shifts.

I don't think that your argument prevent the idea of a rotationary time for maintenance, it's perfectly doable.

Evening and night shifts typically consist of small amount of people that are responsible only for routine monitoring and small problem solving and are not qualified to perform full server maintenance.

[DarkOmegaGod]

You do know this is a game of a japanese corporation, right?

You do know this is a game they sell internationally right? You know the tiny island the company is based in is actually a small minority of their actual customer base right? So yes unless they're counting on the population of that tiny endangered island to save their company from bankruptcy I DO expect them to accommodate their international customers.

Evening and night shifts typically consist of small amount of people that are responsible only for routine monitoring and small problem solving and are not qualified to perform full server maintenance.

Based on the the time it takes them to do regular maintenances I wouldn't call their primary team qualified either.

[Shialan]

Guys, you can dismiss any opinion of characters with this kind of hat.