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Major Update at key playtime nice one


vtallbloke

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The eta was on a weekend either way. It dropped in the afternoon on the east coast of US. A time that I don't have time to play anyway (young kids), but before kids I very well may have used that time to play. But my download was quick (and I did so when I sat kids down for dinner so I was not staring at the screen).  However, I am pleased they dropped the patch early, I am also glad they did quickly do a another patch to fix the broken issue. I was not on during the time so character loss is not something I can speak of (and honestly wouldn't be an issue on my private server anyway)

I understand why timing may be found frustrating as it was the weekend, but I do not think you can expect wildcard to account for all timezones. They are on on EST, that is the zone they work in/with.

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15 hours ago, iAmE said:

Ill be completely honest with you. The patch was probably internally slated for something more reasonable, like a week or two ago, and then due to whatever in the code not compiling, it got delayed until now, where they immediately released it. The devs do actually care, but it is worth remarking on how poor their timing and management in general seems to be. 

I worked at both startup companies and big tech companies, and they both have 1 thing in common:  YOU DON'T ROLL OUT UPDATES AT PEAKS TIMES. It's irresponsible and unfair, both to your development team and your customers.  This is teh fault of management plain and simple.  I'm sure the Ark devs work very hard, I mean FFS they were working their tails off rolling out a patch on a saturday night, that tells you right there their level of dedication to this game.  But the managers have completely screwed the pooch.  Horrible, absolutely horrible.  Wildcard needs a new CEO.  

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1 hour ago, metsfan92286 said:

I worked at both startup companies and big tech companies, and they both have 1 thing in common:  YOU DON'T ROLL OUT UPDATES AT PEAKS TIMES. It's irresponsible and unfair, both to your development team and your customers.  This is teh fault of management plain and simple.  I'm sure the Ark devs work very hard, I mean FFS they were working their tails off rolling out a patch on a saturday night, that tells you right there their level of dedication to this game.  But the managers have completely screwed the pooch.  Horrible, absolutely horrible.  Wildcard needs a new CEO.  

It was long since established that Wildcard has no typical or normal business sense at all. Just from top to bottom, the devs are amazing, but from a perspective of business, management, or even rudimentary common sense, they've always completely lacked it. The only part of Wildcard that performs even moderately well by any capacity or standard is their developers. They completely lack any QA, Support, Legal or management staff, and always have. 

 

I was just explaining what likely happened. They normally don't roll patches like that out in that bad of a time frame, but when they do, it's likely due to the reasons I listed. A series of cascading delays put them in that position. 

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I am  reasonably sure this is a problem concurrent with ark, specifically on the ps4 with the playstation network, I have found out  that, when the network is having issues ark tends to be a lot more affected, may not BE ark itself, as with the network having trouble I have been unable to even login ark, where as elder scrolls will run completely normally without interruption, also, as the OP has stated, we have several Ps4 machines,  all 4 on wifi, and the only machine that stays fast and consistent is the ps4 pro, the other 3 have totally random timers, sometimes the DL is longer on one then the other, this is all in the same household. what helps is only dl one machine at a time, and not using the others online, thus cutting down bandwidth.

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18 hours ago, metsfan92286 said:

I worked at both startup companies and big tech companies, and they both have 1 thing in common:  YOU DON'T ROLL OUT UPDATES AT PEAKS TIMES.

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

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20 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

This comment alone voids the whole thread.

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18 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

Sorry, that's laughable. You consider peak time to be where the majority of your users are if you're smart, or in your home geography if you're prideful. Tbh, I'm not sure where the former is for Ark.

However, it's safe to say that weekend rollouts for a GAME are definitely during peak time. If OP was complaining that a 2 AM PST Wednesday (just for sake of argument) is during his/her peak hours somewhere else in the world that would be one thing, but that is not at all what's being said. There is roughly a 72 hour window that could be considered the "global weekend." Why drop game updates during that time at all?

It's always peak time some for one, true, but to use that as an excuse to roll out updates whenever you feel like is a ridiculously poor business practice.

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28 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

One would argue that you don't roll out updates during your target audience's peak times, but this game's target audience is global... so your point is quite valid.

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37 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

 

1 hour ago, LouSpowells said:

Peak times where?

Immediately thinking same as yall. 

Just waiting for the fight to start over who the target audience is, who mommy and daddy love the most.. *gets popcorn, props feet on desk and quotes joker, "...and here we go".*

 

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37 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

If it was true that you did work for those (global) companies then you would also know it's always peak time somewhere in the world.

I dont want to be or sound rude, but seriously I know you have to defend WC  but my goodness.

I get what you say, but Weekends are where usually the most concurrent users are online. Thats not me making that up, its a solid fact.

18months now I have (mostly) played this game, and the total players are No where near they were pre release, and you think that the weekends where you hit records of 100k players are not prime-time?

Can You give me a tue-thurs where you guys went over that figure to prove that I have made a mistake about weekends (within the different timezones) ?

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Arkasaurio said:

Sorry, that's laughable. You consider peak time to be where the majority of your users are if you're smart, or in your home geography if you're prideful. Tbh, I'm not sure where the former is for Ark.

However, it's safe to say that weekend rollouts for a GAME are definitely during peak time. If OP was complaining that a 2 AM PST Wednesday (just for sake of argument) is during his/her peak hours somewhere else in the world that would be one thing, but that is not at all what's being said. There is roughly a 72 hour window that could be considered the "global weekend." Why drop game updates during that time at all?

It's always peak time some for one, true, but to use that as an excuse to roll out updates whenever you feel like is a ridiculously poor business practice.

Sounds like you'd prefer them roll out updates whenever you feel like it instead. Considering the rant/rave trends threads like this, the only consistently "good" times suggested for Wildcard to roll out updates seems to be subjective.

No matter when updates happen, people are going get mad about it somewhere. This phenomenon increases dramatically when you have a small selection of the customer base who are actively looking for reasons to lash out. It's the opportunity for that selection of customers to rehash the same anger whilst simultaneously re-validating it with continued entitlement. 

Could there be a better time and day for these updates? Yeah. 4pm PST on weekdays. That's super convenient for me. Let's just do that!

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Without (hopefully) sounding like I'm jumping all over you, and yes I do understand where you are coming from, I need to clear up a couple of small points.

22 minutes ago, vtallbloke said:

I dont want to be or sound rude, but seriously I know you have to defend WC  but my goodness.

What on earth makes you think that?  Members of the moderation team have their own opinions on WC policies, and are free to express them just as you are.  We do make sure to stay within forum guidelines (just as you have, thank you) but having a differing opinion is something that occurs relatively often.  My own post history likely reflects that.

22 minutes ago, vtallbloke said:

18months now I have (mostly) played this game, and the total players are No where near they were pre release

I realize this was more a casual aside and not your main point, however last month was the 2nd highest number of peak and average players in this games history.  Only 1 time did they peak at 100k, last February was a freakish (if nice to see) anomaly that hasn't reoccurred since.  All in all the number of players has for the most part remained steady or trended upwards on average.

Again, I know it was not your main point... it was just bugging me a bit as it was not exactly accurate.

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Guest DJRone89

Here in the UK, almost every update that drops is during prime time between 6-10pm. It’s super inconvenient for me but hey I just get on with it because I recognise that Ark’s target audience are global.

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@Ranger1 my bad, tbh i have not checked numbers to often at prime-time because, well i have been one of those numbers

I also remember the weekend where we had 100k and everyone was amazed.

WC have done amazing things for a small studio, you cant deny it!

Its often just the small things that can often have the biggest impact- and for me i think its a mistake to drop major updates at weekends.

I Think WC needs to look perhaps at having Test servers or something similar, MANY other studios do this already there are always people that want to push games to their limit. (Perhaps put levels similar to evo events to encourage people to play)

 

Then they can drop Major updates to that first when ever they like :) (I know that this is also not always fool proof)

 

 

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1 hour ago, LouSpowells said:

Sounds like you'd prefer them roll out updates whenever you feel like it instead. Considering the rant/rave trends threads like this, the only consistently "good" times suggested for Wildcard to roll out updates seems to be subjective.

No matter when updates happen, people are going get mad about it somewhere. This phenomenon increases dramatically when you have a small selection of the customer base who are actively looking for reasons to lash out. It's the opportunity for that selection of customers to rehash the same anger whilst simultaneously re-validating it with continued entitlement. 

Could there be a better time and day for these updates? Yeah. 4pm PST on weekdays. That's super convenient for me. Let's just do that!

Actually, due to work and life commitments I play weird hours. A Saturday update is perfect for me as I'm pretty much never on during the weekends. Typically playing in the wee hours of the morning (PST) it benefits me tremendously that they don't drop updates at this time.

Sure people are tweaked right now, but that doesn't invalidate OPs original point, or mine. I agree completely that whatever they do is going to upset someone but do you really think they are disappointing the fewest number of customers by dropping a game update mid weekend, no matter what time zone we're talking about? It can't even be good for the poor souls at WC who have to actually push these updates live and then more often then not have to scramble to hot fix something. 

There is absolutely an objective answer to, "when are the fewest players online playing the game," and that's the best time to at least try to drop an update. Being honest, I don't know when that is with Ark, but I would bet quite a few $$ it's not on the weekend, and the folks at WC definitely know the answer.

I'm not saying that pushing updates during high volume is the most egregious offense ever, and sure is even necessary at times, but is it a good business practice no, and should it actively be avoided yes.

If it's actually the case that the number of players playing the game is very constant no matter the day or hour, call me wrong however I really don't think that's true.

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On 2/12/2018 at 2:59 PM, LouSpowells said:

Sounds like you'd prefer them roll out updates whenever you feel like it instead. Considering the rant/rave trends threads like this, the only consistently "good" times suggested for Wildcard to roll out updates seems to be subjective.

One would think that it would be best to mitigate said rants as much as possible.  The best way to do that is to roll out updates when the downtime has the least effect on the player base.  While, yes, the target audience is of a global nature, there are also  global downtimes.  There are times when the server populations across the board take a dip.  Does this mean that it's not an inconvenient time for anyone?  No.  Does it mean that those taking that hit are a severe minority?  Yes.

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Guest DJRone89
31 minutes ago, banggugyangu said:

One would think that it would be best to mitigate said rants as much as possible.  The best way to do that is to roll out updates when the downtime has the least effect on the player base.  While, yes, the target audience is of a global nature, there are also  global downtimes.  There are times when the server populations across the board take a dip.  Does this mean that it's not an inconvenient time for anyone?  No.  Does it mean that those taking that hit are a severe minority?  Yes.

But as long as it doesn’t inconvenience you personally, then it’s ok right?

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8 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

One would think that it would be best to mitigate said rants as much as possible.  The best way to do that is to roll out updates when the downtime has the least effect on the player base.  While, yes, the target audience is of a global nature, there are also  global downtimes.  There are times when the server populations across the board take a dip.  Does this mean that it's not an inconvenient time for anyone?  No.  Does it mean that those taking that hit are a severe minority?  Yes.

"Well it's simple! Just find the time where there are the least people playing. If you do that, people won't complain as much since there won't be as many of them!"

17lYbSy.png

It doesn't matter what time the updates are rolling out. Changing the time isn't going to fix anything. It's not a problem with the process, it's a problem with the entitlement of the people complaining.

 

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12 minutes ago, LouSpowells said:

"Well it's simple! Just find the time where there are the least people playing. If you do that, people won't complain as much since there won't be as many of them!"

17lYbSy.png

 

Made me lol. Anyone who has been on these forums long enough knows that even if they did change the patch time there will always be someone who comes to the forums to complain about a patch time that was inconvenient for them. In turn, the people complaining about the times now will then say ''well it wasn't at peak time so you shouldn't be complaining'' yet, it may be peak time for them leaving their complaint justified?

Bold strategy indeed.

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On 2/12/2018 at 2:48 PM, LouSpowells said:

Peak times where?

It depends on the product.  In the case of Ark, I'm guessing that no matter where you are in the world, weekdays (most likely Tuesday/Wednesday) are likely going to be your low peak times.  Take a look at how Blizzard rolls out their updates.  They have scheduled maintenance every Tuesday from 9 am PST which usually ends around 12 pm PST.  Sometimes it goes a bit later if there are patch issues.  It's not rocket science...

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3 hours ago, metsfan92286 said:

It depends on the product.  In the case of Ark, I'm guessing that no matter where you are in the world, weekdays (most likely Tuesday/Wednesday) are likely going to be your low peak times.  Take a look at how Blizzard rolls out their updates.  They have scheduled maintenance every Tuesday from 9 am PST which usually ends around 12 pm PST.  Sometimes it goes a bit later if there are patch issues.  It's not rocket science...

You're right. It's not rocket science. It also wouldn't be rocket science for you to consider the fact that people have been lambasting Blizzard for their update and maintenance scheduling for at very least over a decade. Don't pretend like it's all rainbows and butterfly farts over there (or any game forum) when it comes to the topic of update scheduling. It's the same in every game that has regular updates. It's not rocket science.

The problem isn't that certain developers push updates/maintenance at the wrong time, the problem is with customers who assume the world revolves around them and no one else. They say dumb things like "But it's inconvenient for me. Change it so it's inconvenient for someone else!" almost as if they assume no one else will complain if the time is moved. Basically inconvenienced customers are - in many cases aggressively - demanding that others be inconvenienced instead...seemingly under the assumption that the new inconvenienced won't be as irrational about it as they are. Is it rocket science yet?

 

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