Patch days...

[scorge]

We do GOA also patch during core business hours e.g. 9 -5?

Other MMORPGS patch at unsociable hours e.g. 3-10 in order to reduce the impact on there customers(players)

Infact its not just MMORPGS most business when they make changes to there system that are customer facing do it when it is least likely to impact there customers.

Looking at it GOA whole business model or indead customer service seems to be a bit, shall we say odd?

1) You cannot purchase too products at the same time, (expansion and subscription)

2) If you enter wrong details in the payment system it can take 24 hours for an error to clear

3) They patch the system when it impacts the customers the most ( e.g. 9-5)

4) XML pasing to webpages is never done the same as a major patch or upgrade

5) You cannot easily change your password to one that you could remember instead of MyFANn1Sm3LLz


probably others i could think of, i just hope they sort something out better for WAR otherwise Games workshop will not be happy when theye name gets dragged through the mud.

 

[Nate]

I guess theres one good thing that you could look at, I remember reading that the servers downtime is the least amount in any mmorpg out today. Dunno if that's right since the Prydwen downtime, I probably read it before that happened.

I wouldn't say the downtime is in a time frame that has the most impact on it's playerbase, they would be doing it primetime if they wanted to do that (e.g evenings).

Most of the other stuff I agree with, but can't see it changing. Requiel has permanant rose tinted glasses when talking about GOA.

 

[Jeremiah]

I think everything will change for WAR, after all the whole Mythic set up will be coming over to GOA, so they will be offering an identical service to Mythic (from what I have gathered). Yes the current DAOC/GOA relationship isnt the best, but we need to look past that for WAR They payment system will need to be slick and streamlined if it is to compete with WOW, so I'd look forward to better experiences

 

[Esselinithia]

1) You cannot purchase too products at the same time, (expansion and subscription)

2) If you enter wrong details in the payment system it can take 24 hours for an error to clear

3) They patch the system when it impacts the customers the most ( e.g. 9-5)

4) XML pasing to webpages is never done the same as a major patch or upgrade

5) You cannot easily change your password to one that you could remember instead of MyFANn1Sm3LLz

1. Product purchase and billing system needs to be redone, we agree here, I hope with their new games portal, they develop some new systems they can use for daoc and war too.
2. Same can be said
3. Interesting. In Eve Online, I know that patch days are around noon, so in main bussiness time. Extended maintenance are longer. I found the patch days in WoW (extended maintenance) tend to cover most of bussiness time and some night / evening, etc. I seen similar systems in D&D online too. But in games that are run in far east or North America the patch times can be more comfortable for us Europeans. But they don't tend to be more comfortable for local people. Can you name major examples for other scenarios?
4. Most other games doesn't have such XML services.
5. Less easy to guess passwords, less compromise accounts, less unhappy players

 

[Flimgoblin]

I'd say since primetime is in the evening for an MMO patching 9-5 is quite sensible (it impacts less customers and ensures they have all their staff working so are able to fix any problems that come up quicker... plus Mythic are around which wouldn't be the case at 3am)

Plus Mythic also patch during the day...

The billing system has been pretty cack I'd agree (though I think Requiel posted it had changed recently? 3 transactions a day?)

Who knows what's going on with the XML...

 

[Nate]

I think everything will change for WAR, after all the whole Mythic set up will be coming over to GOA, so they will be offering an identical service to Mythic (from what I have gathered). Yes the current DAOC/GOA relationship isnt the best, but we need to look past that for WAR They payment system will need to be slick and streamlined if it is to compete with WOW, so I'd look forward to better experiences

Well one positive thing you can already see is they've tried to break down the language barrier, Mythics main web site for WAR has different languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian). The DAoC web-site by Mythic never had and still doesn't have that.

Yet if you look at the difference between the Herald and WAR-Europe, it seems Mythic are quite far ahead and are making a bit more effort with the community already.. Wheres the GOA contests and calender for events etc? :/

 

[IainC]

Yet if you look at the difference between the Herald and WAR-Europe, it seems Mythic are quite far ahead and are making a bit more effort with the community already.. Wheres the GOA contests and calender for events etc? :/

For the moment all communication regarding WAR is being done by Mythic. We have a communication and community plan outlined with them and for now it makes no sense to confuse the issue with two different sources of information about the game. As we get closer to the beta then we'll take over the reigns for the European players and start our community building efforts. That's why our site looks like a place holder - because it is.

 

[Gahn]

It is tinted in fog colors to me why it ain't possible to gather peeps at 4 am 1 day every 2-3 months (since we are back in shit with patching eh Requiel? Despite what was told months ago) to make the playerbase happy and to avoid the usual (and understandable) problems of patching delaying the time of reopening till early evening.
And about the place holder site, i will just shut up cause it would be like shooting at a fly with a cannon, mocking at the Xml, the usual 1 week news (if it's not cause some shit happened) and the neverending Account Renewal problems of the current Live Site of Goa for Camelot.

 

[IainC]

It is tinted in fog colors to me why it ain't possible to gather peeps at 4 am 1 day every 2-3 months (since we are back in shit with patching eh Requiel? Despite what was told months ago) to make the playerbase happy and to avoid the usual (and understandable) problems of patching delaying the time of reopening till early evening.

Because mostly we are finished patching at around lunchtime and finished testing by around 2pm - which incidentally is the time that Mythic get into the office. This is very handy if we run into any issues that require liaison with them. If we started earlier and had problems we'd need to sit around doing nothing until we could talk to Mythic and that would have the effect of increasing the patch downtime.

 

[Darzil]

Another reason is that early morning patching means that you have upgrades being done by tired people, which is never a good thing.

Darzil

 

[Gahn]

Because mostly we are finished patching at around lunchtime and finished testing by around 2pm - which incidentally is the time that Mythic get into the office. This is very handy if we run into any issues that require liaison with them. If we started earlier and had problems we'd need to sit around doing nothing until we could talk to Mythic and that would have the effect of increasing the patch downtime.

Pretty sure u could speak with em and get some of em "supporting" u at odd hours also? ^^ Dunno i figured they would have benefits also if all the patch cycle would be more speedy .. As they stated (well MJ did) in an interview some months ago.

 

[Gahn]

Another reason is that early morning patching means that you have upgrades being done by tired people, which is never a good thing.

Darzil

When i have to change a server at off peak hours i sleep accordingly, don't really see your point tbh.

 

[Darzil]

When i have to change a server at off peak hours i sleep accordingly, don't really see your point tbh.

And you are as effective when your sleep pattern changes like that ?

You are a major exception to all the studies into shift patterns ever done.

Darzil

 

[Gahn]

And you are as effective when your sleep pattern changes like that ?

You are a major exception to all the studies into shift patterns ever done.

Darzil

Tbh waking up 3 hours before hand of your normal times it's hardly a sleep pattern shift nor a jet lag shift lol

 

[Ormorof]

hardly any downtime in recent weeks that ive noticed... unlike in wow when it all goes down every wednesday and you end up using half your download quota on making sure you have all the patches, patches being added around twice a week it seems (with their insanely slow downloader too )

 

[Esselinithia]

Camlann downtime? Rings a bell?

And for wow scheduled maintenance is ok, even in other games like Eve online where it happens everyday.

 

[Pirkel]

Comparing one dying server (not my words) being down to all servers being down and having to download large patches through a slow patcher (not my words).

(s)he did it again.

 

[Esselinithia]

Dying server? Doubt if it is true.

Claiming DAOC had no recent downtime: I just pointed out that the claim by someone who stated there was no downtime recently is false. And in case of daoc, downtime often comes without significant rewards for playerbase.

And I pointed out that unplanned downtime you don't have much in wow, when you buy the game you know about maintenance hours, and when you have downtime you have something in return for it. WoW is a PVE game, and for PVE you need new content to make it less repetitive, and downloading a patch, and having to install it on client and server side is a relatively low price you pay for content. Aso maintenance serves an usefull purpose, and doesn't hurt the playerbase who knows about it when they buy the game. So that isn't time taken away from you.

So his claim that WoW has problems with downtime is false.

From his two claims (daoc has no downtime problems, and wow has siginificant downtime problems that hurts target audience) both of his claim was proven false.

Your post Mr Pirkel shows one thing: You can't point anything but personal attacks that proves how clueless stupid moron you are.

 

[Pirkel]

Your post Mr Pirkel shows one thing: You can't point anything but personal attacks that proves how clueless stupid moron you are.

Irony for Dummies.

 

[Golena]

We do GOA also patch during core business hours e.g. 9 -5?

Other MMORPGS patch at unsociable hours e.g. 3-10 in order to reduce the impact on there customers(players)

Maybe go out and get a job, then it won't affect you.

Businesses normally change servers at off peak times because the servers are only used while people are in the office at 9-5 so downtime between these hours is bad.
For a server hosting a game during work hours is actually also offpeak time, maybe not as much as at 3am in the morning, but given they might want support from another party that happens to be about at that time it makes perfect sense.

There's lots about GOA that's dire.. This isn't really one of them.

 

[Oldleaf]

Never having problems on patchday regarding subscription or activating a new expansion, everything runs smooth every time. GOA is patching in the morning and thats a good thing, servers a mostly up at the end of the afternoon so i dont see any reason to whine about that. Also there is a lot to do in real life when servers are down, atleast if you have a real life...

 

[Nate]

For the moment all communication regarding WAR is being done by Mythic. We have a communication and community plan outlined with them and for now it makes no sense to confuse the issue with two different sources of information about the game. As we get closer to the beta then we'll take over the reigns for the European players and start our community building efforts. That's why our site looks like a place holder - because it is.

So if I hear correctly that the release date for patches etc(most likely game itself aswell) are going to be the same for GOA and Mythic servers, then why has the community page for Mythic started such a long time in advance of the GOA one? I wouldn't want a second rate service like we get with DAoC Europe already to move on to the next game I play.

 

[toxii]

I wouldn't want a second rate service like we get with DAoC Europe already to move on to the next game I play.

neither would any1, however no goa employee would ever reply to this w.o sugarcoating it first, or in any case accept the second rate service ofc ^^

still, there is the option of not doing the mistake we did 5y ago and start playing in EU servers, but instead play in US ones, tyvm

 

[Jeremiah]

I'm no GOA fan boy, but really the level of abuse and whine that is directed at them is just sad.

Yes the payment system isnt the best and it doesnt seem to have been well thought through when offering expansion subscriptions, but I've never had a problem with it, and I'm guessing many other people have used it fine as well. Ok, you make a mistake entering your card details and it takes a while to clear, but it is a security feature, again outdated, but there for your financial security.

Also, they havent been too quick at providing news at some crucial times, such as the database corruption, but I think you'll find the vast majority of companies would act the same.

Initial problems with server crashes when there were too many people in the same zone got fixed (eventually) and thats not an issue anymore.

These are the only issues I can think of that GOA could/can improve, but its not enough to warrent people calling them all names under the sun. Yeah, if you dont like them, you vote with your feet, but not with whine.

I dont really see the problem with the patch times. Everything is usually done by prime time. Yes its a shame for those who want to play during the day, but its only one day out of 4months?