If you have ever done ANY work as a developer/programmer, if you have NOT learned how to manage expectations well (“under-promise / over-deliver”) then you have most likely been the subject of frustration by those who you work for.
However, if Blizzard had come out EXPECTING to have a longer than stated maintenance window (as may lashing out at the OP have told HIM to expect) then BLIZZARD would do well to plan a 4-hour maintenance window from the start.
That way, if they get it done earlier than the 4 hours, users would be singing their praises instead of being upset that they continually string out the maintenance bit-by-bit.
It honestly feels disrespectful at this point. Or nobody is making any attempt to be accurate about the work required next Tuesday morning. Which is the same thing, when you have thousands of people expecting some measure of honesty from a service they are subscribing to.
This is basically victim shaming - lol. Blizzard has had the opportunity time and time again to give us an accurate timeframe. The only accurate timeframe they keep is when they’re releasing something new that will be a big cash scoop for them, and most times that product isn’t really finished. It’s dishonest at best.
Well regardless, the frustration is only increased by the fact that all the realms shown at the Realm Status page are all showing as online when they are not online.
I listed the TWO Blizzard locations they offer Maint info as standard. The Support page and the Launcher. We ALL have the launcher. No new software or apps.
The Twitter page exists because sometimes the Blizzard websites are down - and because it reaches a larger audience. It hardly seems like engagement farming to post basic CS announcements. Not that it would matter if it was. Following something for information seems rational.
Players have the choice of which to use. For those who don’t like social media, they can rely on the Blizzard Launcher updating.
Huh? You think the number of bugs fixed is in any way related to the time it takes to deploy those fixes? The bugs that will be fixed have already been fixed days or weeks ago. Maintenance windows are strictly deploying those already made fixes to the public server clusters.
At this point, whenever I see green text, I know the take is going to be absolutely terrible but this one takes the cake.
The OP is very clear, it is expecting a billion dollar company to be able to estimate it’s maintenance window appropriately. Your exaggerated examples that can’t even be called a counter-argument makes no sense.
Some of us have busy schedules and we do play around certain daily playtime windows that includes the couple hours in the morning/night etc that fall on these hours. We have been playing for years and we know how maintenances used to work. We have never had such long “extended” maintenances on a no-news, no-update weeks like this. I had smoother expansion/patch day resets that goes better than the weekly maintenance in TWW.
Following up on your other wild take about monthly sub and that including the downtime. Some of us (including me and not you apparently) were actually playing back in vanilla and remember getting compensation for extended maintenances so NO that is not part of the monthly sub.
Edit: as we speak the “realm status” page is not even working and showing all realms as up… you can add it to the OP’s complains about transparency and proper communication from this massive company.
I am waiting for the OP to tell me what exactly they want Blizzard to do besides post it on the Support Website, Launcher, and CS Twitter. Is there something else they think would reach a wider audience? A better way to get people to check the locations where the information is?
Nobody likes Maint. We all agree on that. We all agree extending it sucks. I just see the OP as asking for something that is already give.
Maybe they just did not know where to look. If that is the case Blizz could do a better job teaching people where Maint updates/status info is.
I really hope these are troll posts. If, not I guess it’s just illiteracy and or ignorance. All we want is an honest time frame. Just tell us it’ll be a 5 hour maintenance and bring them up early. It’s common sense.
Why would you say it’ll be two/three hours then extend? Every week? Then you’re disappointing your customer base.
Tell customers it’ll be down 5 hours and bring them up early and you’re literally doing the opposite.
While I agree with the sentiment of your post, honesty, honestly, isn’t enough. The overall outage burden since launch has been massive. It’s time…no…it’s past time for compensation.
You cannot reason with players that have already made up their minds. Most people complaining on maintenance communication have ZERO interests in maintenance communication.
They just want a Blue Post that they can point at and rant more, like they are experts in how the game should be maintained.
Still, props to you for taking the time to address something that should be ignored with such polite manner and useful information.
I got well over a month of compensation in the early years. They only offered it though if the game was down or unplayable for more than 24 hours. Not for “we extended 4 hours”. The game was down all Tues every week and often unplayable after it came up. Check my account achievements - I most certainly was playing.
Yes, Blizzard has stated many many times, that the base sub price does take into account that the game will be down for Maint at times. Which is why they only gave compensation when it was seriously outside that normal window.
This has also been addressed many times. That page is retired. It does not work. It never did work well. It only shows server internal stats. It does not show if the Login or Auth servers are up. Servers being up to be worked on does not mean players can get to the servers. You can find decades of complaints about this… They really need to just take the page down.
You’re never going to get that from anyone. Something can and will come up when it comes to things and maintenance. Expecting otherwise is ignorant and delusional. Two choices. Stay or leave. Working with any business or corporation is also knowing that there may be hiccups, delays, and change of plans. If you feel they are doing badly enough then unsubscribe and find another game. And if you think I’m trolling then you can’t take common life.
To be fair I’d like the Realm Status page to be updated. I was busy doing things, saw the realm status page said things are online, got home to play only to realize its not true. Why have a Realm Status page if its not updated?
There was another thread on this today too.