Server Downtime - 9/16/10

[FireDance]

re-writing this for a laugh

[Dineneth]

Going F2P I expected to see downtime and lag issues, so no surprise there. I, too, played EQ for several years starting in 2001 and yes, we had some epic lag and downtime issues. But times have changed, technology has changed, and learning from the problems of older MMO's should have prepared Turbine for these issues. Always a big change/expansion = problems for several weeks. I'm disappointed that they weren't better prepared, but, as I said, I'm not surprised.

My issue, however, is that we're kept so very much in the dark about the situation. Can the log-in screen have a status message so that we know when we first try to click ourselves in that it's not going to be happening and likely won't be happening until fill-in-the-blank time? That way we don't have to jump to forums to search for what's going on, which half the time returns a "sorry we're under maintenance" message, which just confuses the situation more.

I rarely have ever posted in the forms, so the fact that I have should indicate the unusal amount of frustration I'm feeling with the game right now. Frustrated at the situation, yes... but more frustrated at the lack of communication. Please find a way to get updates onto the login screen.. or at the very least a big red notice at the top of the LOTRO forums page. And estimated uptimes would sure be nice!

[celebion]

We have closed all worlds while we address an issue discovered by players attempting to enter Minas Gil. We are working as quickly as possible to resolve the issue and re-open the worlds.

Turbine takes incompetnce to new level. You tools couuld not hit water if you fell out of a boat. LMAO

[chrismilly]

but more frustrated at the lack of communication.!

QFT




werds

[Pinuuuuch]

anytime today would be nice.

[Critzo]

We all want to play the game that we pay for. But guess what? They have to do work on it. They have to get it working. They need a few minutes, some co-operation, and some patience.

We're merely suggesting that instead of sitting here and bit--ing over something you cannot control, you do something proactive and different until they can fix the problems, and get you back into your escapist paradise.

But, by all means, feel free to sit here and whine. You pay for forum posting as well. Just don't expect people to collymoddle you and light torches and pitchforks over something that's extremely insignificant, compared to the uptime we have.

Kthxbye

They needed a few minutes 8 hours ago. Now it's just getting ridiculous.

[celebion]

To answer you questions Tanyn:

1) Yes it is silly because with any game a new expansion or a new patch of this type would cause a lot of down time because even in beta there are some issues that are not foreseen and can happen.

2) see number 1 for this answer ...

3) in some cases it isn't the game servers fault. But in this case I would think the servers instability is nothing to whine over. How long have you been playing this game, things get better with time and from what I'm understanding this game just had a new patch and is now free to play for people so those are some big chunks to chew for a server. Should they had been better prepared? Yes! but at least they have the servers down and are trying to correct the problems rather then just letting it continue to happen. Be patient.

4) If you started playing the game 3 weeks ago and you find yourself unimpressed then move on and find another game that does impress you, or Have a little more understanding and stop complaining and go find something constructive to do while they are working out the kinks during the servers down time.

Is that fudge on your nose?

[Xero852]

Hey Patience/Sapience/Turbine, I'm sure you already know by now but I figured it might help out a bit..

[fathorsey]

Who the hell goes to Minas Gil? Why not just remove it for now?

[dnadz74]

That said, I'm not sure comparing LotRO's uptime to one of the first big MMO's to come out is all that fair, really. You'd expect progress with stability after this much time, so the fact that there has been progress shouldn't be surprising, ne? At this point it seems like there are pretty much two routes for successful periods of uptime: lots of it with sporadic periods of crashing and burning, or lots of it interrupted by periodic and predictable maintenance downtime.

Yeah I'll grant you that...it is probably an unfair comparison. MMO platforms such as UO and EQ were definitely trailblazers. I'm sure the technology available to support MMO's has leaped forward since 1997 or so...but, all other things being equal, I've been pretty impressed with Turbine overall. As a 7+ year veteran of EQ dating back to the days of Verant Interactive and 56.6kpbs dial-up servers, I just don't understand the seething hatred for Turbine. Its a much smoother and more reliable gaming experience, imho.

[Piorrot]

Turbine takes incompetnce to new level. You tools couuld not hit water if you fell out of a boat. LMAO

Then how about you drive up there and fix it for them since you seem to know what the problem is.

[Critzo]

Let me guess, for most of you this is your first MMO?

The reason I say this, is because if you've played any other MMO, you'd know that every MMO since the beginning of these games, has had these problems. Hell, EQ that's been out for 11 years, and still has these patch/server problems....ELEVEN YEARS people!! No MMO hasn't had these problems, and with most of them, when they notice a problem right after a patch, they error on the side of caution, since it 'could' be an isolated problem, OR it could be major coding problem that if left alone might crash/ruin the entire system. Which would you rather happen?

/sarcasm on
Yes, they are doing this to get your your money (for those that P2P) without actually having to let you play.
/sarcasm off

SERIOUSLY? You pay ([$15/mth * 12]/365 = $.493150685, let's just call it) $.50 a day to play, OR ($.493150685/24 = $.020548945, let's just say) A whooping 2 CENTS per hour.

Let them do their job, fix the problem, and have some good cheese with that whine.

Awesomely enough, when blizzard announces that WoW servers will be down for 4 hours, they are back up in 4 hours, or less than 4 hours.

[Karioki]

Your location is not the issue, the location of the servers is.

Doh! Of course. My only (very poor) defense is that I did not know where the servers were.

[Arahothlien]

To play this game everyone has to agree to Turbine's Terms of Service. The TOS states, and I quote:

"THE TURBINE PARTIES DO NOT WARRANT THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS OR USE ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES AT TIMES OR LOCATIONS OF YOUR CHOOSING, OR THAT THE TURBINE PARTIES WILL HAVE ADEQUATE CAPACITY TO PROVIDE ANY PRODUCTS OR SERVICES AS A WHOLE OR IN ANY SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHIC AREA. THE TURBINE PARTIES DO NOT WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE TURBINE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS TURBINE SERVICE AT ANY TIME OR IN ANY GEOGRAPHIC AREA, OR THAT THE TURBINE SERVICE WILL MEET ANY PARTICULAR CRITERIA OF PERFORMANCE OR QUALITY."

So quit whining already! Whether you pay for it or not, the Terms of Service are non-negotiable.

[Piorrot]

Awesomely enough, when blizzard announces that WoW servers will be down for 4 hours, they are back up in 4 hours, or less than 4 hours.

umm ... Go play Wow and stop complaining?

[gildhur]

Awesomely enough, when blizzard announces that WoW servers will be down for 4 hours, they are back up in 4 hours, or less than 4 hours.

Very frequently that is the case here as well. These type of downtime extensions are the exception rather than the rule.

[Critzo]

umm ... Go play Wow and stop complaining?

Not whining, just proving his point is moot, and as a matter of fact I am playing WoW.

[krawn]

Well, I just went down to my local Starbucks but it was closed. Sign on the door said they were out of Decaffeinated Italian Roast so they decided to shut the whole store down. Then I wanted to read the newspaper there was a sign up saying that there were plenty of copies but after I put in my 75 cents there were no copies in the box. I was a little disappointed after that so I went home to take a shower. The water company had placed a sign on my door saying that due to a small waterline leak 20 miles away they had decided to shut off everyone's water until it was fixed... But they are working on it. I then decided I may as well balance my checkbook, I found a entry in the bank statement where they had charged me 4 times for the same check - I called them - they said they would get back to me within 2-3 weeks, that was their policy.

So thanks for the advice, but it didn't work.

Get off your butt, walk leisurely to the nearest Starbucks, and order yourself a venti frappucino. Open the latest issue of The Times (or El Paisano ) and read the latest stories while slowly sipping. If you tell your barrista that Zach sent you . . . well, I don't know what'll happen at your starbucks, but it's a nice little discount at mine . Once you are finished, walk slowly back home. Chances are good, problems will be over, or close to over. Chill. Get some fresh air. Give the guys here a chance to fix the problems.

[lestat86]

uH, for those of you who didn't happen to notice the game was working shortly after they said it would be up. So, I'll give Turbine their props for that. In fact, on brandywine things were going great. not too many people on so none of the persistant lag that's been prevalent for the last few weeks. All the monsters were in their places doing their things. Heck, GB was working apparently and people were gettin Helegrod runs going. About half a dozen schoool/lib runs going and going just fine. All of a sudden...NEWS FLASH! WOrlds crashing down!!! And someone just happened to say right b4 the crash "hey, I can't get into MG".

Well, I call Shenangans!

That one little part of the game and now the game is broken for hours? Seriously?

SHENANIGANS!!!

[Chawoos]

Awesomely enough, when blizzard announces that WoW servers will be down for 4 hours, they are back up in 4 hours, or less than 4 hours.

mmmmno. I can think of countless times Blizz has completely screwed up their Tuesday fixes.

Stuff happens guys, no sense in nerd-raging over a little extra downtime.

[Critzo]

Well, I just went down to my local Starbucks but it was closed. Sign on the door said they were out of Decaffeinated Italian Roast so they decided to shut the whole store down. Then I wanted to read the newspaper there was a sign up saying that there were plenty of copies but after I put in my 75 cents there were no copies in the box. I was a little disappointed after that so I went home to take a shower. The water company had placed a sign on my door saying that due to a small waterline leak 20 miles away they had decided to shut off everyone's water until it was fixed... But they are working on it. I then decided I may as well balance my checkbook, I found a entry in the bank statement where they had charged me 4 times for the same check - I called them - they said they would get back to me within 2-3 weeks, that was their policy.

So thanks for the advice, but it didn't work.

Lmfao. You rock.

[Piorrot]

Is that fudge on your nose?

Just common sense ... and the fact that people complain when there favorite toy is broken and they have nothing else to do then to complain about something that is beyond their control. Complaining about it isnt gonna make them work on the issues any faster, and it makes the masses look even more stupid because a majority of them think it's a simple fix like turning on a light switch or changing this code or that code.

[GV-Tanith]

Psssst...worlds are up.

*takes the pitchforks and torches away from the complainers and shoos them toward the servers*

[chrismilly]

servers appear to be up, i was just able to log in

[Critzo]

mmmmno. I can think of countless times Blizz has completely screwed up their Tuesday fixes.

Stuff happens guys, no sense in nerd-raging over a little extra downtime.

No nerd-rage here. And really? Shockingly enough I don't remember..I must have been outside with friends, or on a date with a real woman.