Bad signs from Funcom

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 09:24 PM

The game has only been released a couple of days and the company has unschedualed maintenance to patch with only 15 minutes warning. By itself, this isn't too much of an issue, but they've already blown the window twice. Ideally, in the world of MMO's, you want a regular maintenance window that people expect, and implement changes at that time. This establishes a routine for both the company and the players, and gives less opportunity to clash with the expectations of the community.

I'm not greifing, and I'm not saying the sky is fallling, but hopefully Funcom is learning from this experience. It's not a great start for them. I'll be keeping a closer eye on them to see how they run things in the future. Blown windows happen, but it's much better when they occuring during a regular maintenance window or at least with more notice.

P8riot · 05-21-2008, 09:29 PM

M'eh.. I dunno about that I can recall WoW and a few others going down for patch maintenance with zero warning.

I agree with you, but not knowing what the severity of what they are dealing with is.. I am sure it is pretty important.

**Relmar** · 05-21-2008, 09:42 PM

Meh, this is not unexpected.

Seems like a pretty smooth launch overall methinks. Better than WoW's IMO.

**Zoopy** · 05-21-2008, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DugLess

The game has only been released a couple of days and the company has unschedualed maintenance to patch with only 15 minutes warning. By itself, this isn't too much of an issue, but they've already blown the window twice. Ideally, in the world of MMO's, you want a regular maintenance window that people expect, and implement changes at that time. This establishes a routine for both the company and the players, and gives less opportunity to clash with the expectations of the community.

I'm not greifing, and I'm not saying the sky is fallling, but hopefully Funcom is learning from this experience. It's not a great start for them. I'll be keeping a closer eye on them to see how they run things in the future. Blown windows happen, but it's much better when they occuring during a regular maintenance window or at least with more notice.

There was a 40 minute warning. They only thing they are doing which is annoying is giving a time frame and then extending it right at the deadline of that time frame.

The game is still at launch, they are not going to wait for a scheduled day to fix glaring issues. Once all the launch troubles are fixed then they'll probably make a maintenance schedule.

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 09:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoopy

There was a 40 minute warning. They only thing they are doing which is annoying is giving a time frame and then extending it right at the deadline of that time frame.

The game is still at launch, they are not going to wait for a scheduled day to fix glaring issues. Once all the launch troubles are fixed then they'll probably make a maintenance schedule.

If you look at the forums, it was 15 minutes. I was also on the server for the first warning. It went down 20 minutes before the hour.

I actually played WOW on the European servers, but there maintenance windows from the start were always at the same time. Maybe it's just an American thing

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 09:50 PM

Granted, Blizz probably had a much longer dev time before release tho. It's unrealistic to hold them to that standard. If they have to schedule 2-3 maintenance windows a week to start, that's fine, just stick with it. It's about the players' expecations.

**Zoopy** · 05-21-2008, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DugLess

If you look at the forums, it was 15 minutes. I was also on the server for the first warning. It went down 20 minutes before the hour.

I actually played WOW on the European servers, but there maintenance windows from the start were always at the same time. Maybe it's just an American thing

Nemesis, Conscript and I were on the sever this morning and the first warning we saw was 40 minutes before.

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 09:57 PM

I didn't see that one. I'm going by the warning on the forums, which called the downtime starting on the hour, which wasn't accurate and happend ~15 minutes before the server went down. I only saw the 15 minute warning on the server, but then again, I was only giving that half a mind.

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 10:00 PM

or maybe GMT is off by 5:45 instead of 6 hours

**DugLess** · 05-21-2008, 10:17 PM

Servers are up.

I don't want to sound too negative, I was just mentioning a lapse on their part that I hope they correct. I think the base pop is large enough that they don't have too much to worry about, but in an MMO, it's important to set expectations, and meet then consistently.