278 replies to this topic

[Nicholas Carlyle]

Bront, on 17 June 2014 - 10:46 AM, said:

The gauss thing was in an announcement. I trust it to be in. Much like clan weapons, there was no announcement, but I trust they're in.

So, I'm guessing the first hot fix we get comes tomorrow. Anyone want to take tonight?

Clan weapons didn't exist till this patch.

They made two changes on the PTS that effects both Clan and IS weapons (Streak changes and Gauss changes). If they are in this patch, you need to document it.

[Puresin]

lol @ crushus and overkill c7

[FloofyKitten]

Bront, on 17 June 2014 - 10:52 AM, said:

Money spent <> Right to complain.

Also, again, they did list UTC, which is the same as GMT (well, not exactly, and technically it's been more correct since the '90s, though I'll admit to not knowing that)

You're missing the point here though. You expect PGI employees to get up around 0230-0300 their time to get into work early and get the update ready to launch at exactly 0400 their time just so a few dozen CET players can be perfectly satisfied for..... what exactly? What incentive does PGI have to pull those ridiculous hours? It's ridiculous, period.

[Kibble]

New clan icons are in yay!

[Alaric Hasek]

It's called 'scheduling'. The people responsible for monitoring for patch issues could come in a couple of hours before the patch begins and then go home 8-10 hours later when they're sure there are no issues. Everyone else that might touch the patch has their usual schedule or is on call (as they no doubt are already). It's really not difficult. There's no reason for game developers (and especially emergency IT staff) to be on an 8am-5pm local time schedule anyway. Artists, HR people, salesfolk, maybe even creative developers, but not critical IT staff. Those people make large incomes (and rightly so) - so a little flexibility is probably expected. Note I'm not asking anyone to work 18 hours a day - I'm just suggesting shifting a schedule to the correct time.

BitMonger505, on 17 June 2014 - 02:19 AM, said:

ok lemme esplain something to you European people who may or may not understand time and clocks and things like that. they are in PDT time zone. which is 9 hours behind you. So to complete the patch by 17:00 CET they would have to start patching at 5 PM their time. not finishing the patch till 10 PM their time. Then they would need to monitor it to make sure they did not really break something for about 4 hours which means that they don't get to go home till 2 AM. That is an 18 hour work day. Then they have to come in at 8 AM which is 6 hours later. And you expect them to do all this and pay a Metric Butt ton of overtime simply so that the 10% of their player base that is in Europe is not slightly inconvenienced. Somehow I don't think this is going to happen. Now be quiet and take it like a man.

[Puresin]

just gotta say it, so we still have world hunger.......but you think a "game" had better be there when you want it. Just because you paid some dollars for it. save your money and buy a life.

[CG Chicken Kn]

Soooo.... all the euro time zone folks lose their minds over PGI's chosen time to to the update.

Hmmm let's think about this. Euro folks ought to appreciate that making YOUR ENTIRE STAFF work 8 hours of overtime or more after their regular day is VERY expensive.
It also mean your people are tired, and more prone to mistakes. And less efficient in general.

OR PGI could do what they did, and place the update squarely in the middle of THEIR workday.
10 am to 2 pm, for update and internal testing. Server might come up slightly sooner, patch release before that hopefully.

So that gives them an hour before downtime to have a staff meeting for last minute details.
Three hours after scheduled server restart to deal with issues, of which there will surely be a few, hopefully nothing major.

And 4-6 hours after end of business, where I imagine quite a few PGI staff will still be at work, making sure all is good.

So tell me euro folks, if it was your job, would you want to come in at 2 or 3 am, and then work until 8 or 9 pm?
Would you want to pay for that much overtime if you were writing the cheques? What would you do when your staff said "screw you, I'm not working early/late, and my union contract/govewrnment labour laws say I don't have to, so you can't make me?"

Edited by CG Chicken Kn, 17 June 2014 - 11:08 AM.

[Wispsy]

xAshokx, on 17 June 2014 - 11:02 AM, said:

You're missing the point here though. You expect PGI employees to get up around 0230-0300 their time to get into work early and get the update ready to launch at exactly 0400 their time just so a few dozen CET players can be perfectly satisfied for..... what exactly? What incentive does PGI have to pull those ridiculous hours? It's ridiculous, period.

I think only 1 guy even said 4am? Most just seemed to want it an hour or 2 earlier at like 7/8am?

[Bront]

Ursh, on 17 June 2014 - 10:44 AM, said:

I looked at the time charts.

When PGI patches, the Asians/Australians are asleep, the Americans are at work/school, and the English are just getting home from work. The Germans and Eastern Europeans have already been home and are just settling down for some perfect MWO time...but the servers are down until late.

On major content releases, they could come in earlier. This isn't such a novel concept, it's called customer service. If you were running a burger joint, you wouldn't close for lunch just so you could rest up for the dinner shift.


Also, the "someone will be screwed no matter what" argument is a foolish one. You look at the geolocations of your 3 major populations of paying players...and then you adjust to that. It's the same reason McDonald's doesn't hold out their breakfast menu for swing-shift security guards...they're such a tiny demographic that it isn't worth it.

Pissing off a tens of thousands of European customers over and over again...well, that's just bad business.

Once again, look at the time charts and tell me who exactly among the paying demographic is getting screwed at 7am PST.

So rather than EU getting hit at the bad time, Asia/Australia gets hit with it instead?

Someone's going to be unhappy, so they might as well work it at the best time for them.

[The Luggage]

Battlestar3k, on 17 June 2014 - 02:40 AM, said:

Great, instead of bringing in the patch earlier, we can/could start playing with Clanmechs at 1am on Wednesday, that's what i call a BROKEN contract (Wednesday isnt the 17th, right?)! nice job, as usual, europe gets an asskick....

Its already Wednesday here in New Zealand and the server patch hasn't finished yet. Even if the patch time was shorter we would still be getting our clan stuff on Wednesday 17th.

(Also I totally agree with Bront. Someone is always going to get hurt.)

Edited by The Luggage, 17 June 2014 - 11:10 AM.

[blackcatf]

Crushus, on 17 June 2014 - 10:49 AM, said:

9 pages and youre still arguing about the timezone issue?
Im an european myself and i waited months to play my clan mechs, so whats another day??

And, btw, you guys know that there is a WorldCup going on? At 21 CEST ill watch Brazil vs Mexico and worry about MWO tomorrow after Work.

Seriously...

I was thinking the same thing. And now I'm laughing about it because I realized something: all these people, like me, are trying to find a way to pass time until the patch is live. Apparently, Q.Q seemed like a good way to make the time pass faster while they wait.

[edit: Also, now 10 pages ]

Edited by blackcatf, 17 June 2014 - 11:12 AM.

[HybridTheory]

BitMonger505, on 16 June 2014 - 11:45 PM, said:

well you know how the canadians feel about the french.

Canadians have no problem with the french for the most part.
Canadiens on the other hand... different story....

[Valkyrie Vewas]

Kibble, on 17 June 2014 - 11:02 AM, said:

New clan icons are in yay!

And the Falcon shall fly a new

[Deadmeat12]

Speaking as one of those critical IT Staff engineer types I can tell you that you schedule patching like this in one of 2 ways. You either do it at the lowest volume point so you effect the least number of users or you do it when your critical assets needed to fix issues are available. In this case I'd say they are hitting both points by doing it before North America Primetime. Its not about not caring about EU, its what gives me the least impact with the quickest turnaround for critical issues.

And every Systems engineer I ever met is on salary and I already routinely get stuck working for 12-18 hours during maintenance outages like this. My company would go broke if they paid us all hourly.

Just my 2 cents.

[Norm Peterson]

What the hell are you all whining about....WATCH THE WORLD CUP!!! BE HAPPY!! then the next thing you know, your ready for the download/Patch...

[Lance425]

Timezones = OP

[Martin Oberhofer]

Deadmeat12 -> right, absolutly

i belive a simpl Chart at page one with user numbers over 24h would be enough to make anyone understand why this Timing is choosen -> saying this as an italian where the patch finishes around 11PM, and has to go up tomorro at 05AM

[Lance425]

Norm Peterson, on 17 June 2014 - 11:18 AM, said:

What the hell are you all whining about....WATCH THE WORLD CUP!!! BE HAPPY!! then the next thing you know, your ready for the download/Patch...

Who do you think we are? European?

[Armored Yokai]

The wait is here

[Sylvian Le Fabre]

Lance425, on 17 June 2014 - 11:21 AM, said:

Who do you think we are? European?

I dont know, all over the world people watching it. Why you shouldn't?