[UO Herald] Maintenance - All Shards 1:00PM EDT

[UO News]

Greetings!

At 1:00PM EDT all shards will be brought offline for maintenance as we continue to improve our database systems. We anticipate all shards to be back online before 3:00PM EDT, thank you!



More...

 

[Babble]

YAY,

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

 

[Flutter]

LoL
Wow...

 

[canary]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

Because their communication has ALWAYS sucked and they don't want to set a different kind of precedent.

Just funny how they always comment how they are working towards improving communication and then do absolutely nothing about it. I'm going to hold them to that same standard regarding the 'third party tracking' systems. It's all just a carrot being dangled, regardless what Cal says. The proof is in things execution. You can talk it to death (or, in EA's case, NOT talk about it) but without results it is nothing, just lip service.

 

[woody_cats]

be nice score one for team usa at least this time got it out 40 minutes early .
that is better than there patch and publish info lately

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Because their communication has ALWAYS sucked

Completely agreed.

and they don't want to set a different kind of precedent.

Yeah, set that bar low enough so they don't need to work 'hard'. Since UO players seem to act like abused puppies, any interaction becomes "good interaction," regardless of how dysfunctional or sparse.

 

[Mapper]

Thanks for letting us know before it happened!

 

[Sergul'zan_SP]

I was just about to logon. HURRY UP DEVS!!!!

 

[Lord Gareth]

Darn it!! I work ten hours a day and finally have a day off and the shards go down!?!? *Grrr* hmm.... looks like I need to take my frustration out on someone.... *Thinks* Maybe I'll go and design a township banner and make sure none of the parts line up right...

hehehehe

 

[R Traveler]

Last time they upgraded cheaters spreadsheet from Excel 4.0 to Excel 2003. Due 65k limit they upgrading it to Excel 2010.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

Theres these things called time zones. Japan is something like 13 hours ahead of the US.

 

[Flutter]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

Theres these things called time zones. Japan is something like 13 hours ahead of the US.

LOL
That's a funny response.
He's complaining because they didn't make an announcement when they knew the shards were going down instead of waiting until less than an hour before they were taking them down. It's not like the future just caught up to us.

 

[Amber Moon]

The first time I was ever Pk'd in UO was just after a mid day maintenance. Twas back in '98... logged in right after and thought.. "There is nobody on! good time to go shopping out in the woods.." rolleyes:

 

[Aurelius]

He's complaining because they didn't make an announcement when they knew the shards were going down instead of waiting until less than an hour before they were taking them down.

Given how EA/Mythic seem to work, I'm not sure you are right when you say they knew this was coming....

Mind you, since it's their database servers again,. they are probably now setting right a fault they introduced on the last 'upgrade' they did.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Mythic knew this yesterday, to assume otherwise is absurd.

They didn't announce it as an 'emergency maintainence,' few would complain about that.

EA Japan has far better customer service skills.

 

[jtw1984]

Who cares? So you can't play UO for 2 hours! Clean, eat, or watch a movie. Hopefully it will really be two hours. haha

 

[Lord Urza]

Thanks for letting us know before it happened!

/signed!

 

[Dryzzid of Atlantic]

Shards seem to be up now.

 

[Theo_GL]

Wow - upgrade to the database? Didn't know they were releasing updates to dBase IV.

Hahaha... Little old school computer humor....

 

[Aurelius]

Mythic knew this yesterday, to assume otherwise is absurd.

As absurd as a company with a website for the game, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the game, and a semi-official forum but still can't tell their customers what is going on in advance?

I'm afraid I can easily see a scenario where some EA data maintenance guys, or contractors, had lined up to do this work - but word never got through the morass of the management and communications line through EA 'managers', EA/Mythic (or is that through EA/Bioware/Mythic? Or is it a contact at EA/Bioware? Or somewhere else.....), and God knows who else is in that supposed 'organisation'.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Mythic knew this yesterday, to assume otherwise is absurd.

As absurd as a company with a website for the game, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the game, and a semi-official forum but still can't tell their customers what is going on in advance?

Yeah. Hence why I say their customer service skills suck.

I'm afraid I can easily see a scenario where some EA data maintenance guys, or contractors, had lined up to do this work - but word never got through the morass of the management and communications line through EA 'managers', EA/Mythic (or is that through EA/Bioware/Mythic? Or is it a contact at EA/Bioware? Or somewhere else.....), and God knows who else is in that supposed 'organisation'.

Wait, if Mythic 'didn't know'... Then how did EA Japan know about it and post about it yesterday? They must have a functional crystal ball...

 

[Taylor]

I'm afraid I can easily see a scenario where some EA data maintenance guys, or contractors, had lined up to do this work - but word never got through the morass of the management and communications line through EA 'managers', EA/Mythic (or is that through EA/Bioware/Mythic? Or is it a contact at EA/Bioware? Or somewhere else.....), and God knows who else is in that supposed 'organisation'.

I think you're overestimating EA's organizational centralization. Mythic is pretty self-contained in their Northern Virginia office. Their staff of 30-or-so (depending on who's been laid off recently) maintenances the UO databases. I doubt EA hired some outside contractor to do this: this would cost more money than simply allowing Mythic to perform work that they’re capable of performing.

 

[Beastmaster]

Wow - upgrade to the database? Didn't know they were releasing updates to dBase IV.

Hahaha... Little old school computer humor....

They upgraded their CP/M the other day, so this was bound to happen.

 

[Theo_GL]

They upgraded their CP/M the other day, so this was bound to happen.

Yeah, and besides - everyone knows they upgraded to FoxPro years ago!

This is likely a cover up for the fact that they are taking this time to re-align their 1541-II disc drives again.

Load "*",8,1

 

[G.v.P]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

IS that a joke? Why would an East Coast based company post that kind of news at 1:00 am ET for a 1:00 p.m. ET maintenance, lol.

 

[Flutter]

IS that a joke? Why would an East Coast based company post that kind of news at 1:00 am ET for a 1:00 p.m. ET maintenance, lol.

Why wouldn't they post about it as soon as they knew it was going to happen?

 

[curlybeard]

As absurd as a company with a website for the game, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the game, and a semi-official forum but still can't tell their customers what is going on in advance?

I'm afraid I can easily see a scenario where some EA data maintenance guys, or contractors, had lined up to do this work - but word never got through the morass of the management and communications line through EA 'managers', EA/Mythic (or is that through EA/Bioware/Mythic? Or is it a contact at EA/Bioware? Or somewhere else.....), and God knows who else is in that supposed 'organisation'.

Careful what you wish for. Improve communication and in some EA boardroom an executive VP glances at the twitter update. He recently routed all official EA twitter updates to his blackberry, to allow better control of 'messaging'. "Ultima Online? Ultima Online? Ultima ... Ultima ... I thought we killed that off years ago. Heck we haven't had an update on subscription numbers in ages." Gets on the phone to VA, "Unplug the Ultima Server! What?! There's how many? ... Yes, all of them."

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

EA Japan had this posted LAST NIGHT. Why is Mythic 13 hours behind on a game they control?

IS that a joke? Why would an East Coast based company post that kind of news at 1:00 am ET for a 1:00 p.m. ET maintenance, lol.

Yes, it was sarcasm. Mythic knew about this sometime yesterday, at the latest - they probably knew about it last week... They didn't bother to announce it, outside Japan, until 40 mins before it was to start.

Its bad cusomer service.

 

[Petra Fyde]

our disappointment at the lack of timely communication has been passed on.

 

[G.v.P]

Why wouldn't they post about it as soon as they knew it was going to happen?

Well, I wasn't here when the shards went down, but unless all of the shards didn't get a "Server Down" message, or unless there was a terrible revert, seems like business as usual. Athos posted news from Japan just before midnight ET, except, in Japan, it would have been maybe about 1 p.m. local time when he posted. That fits the 9 to 5 window in the absence of emergency. And if anyone really is curious why the Japan site gets news before we do, consider they are actually 13 hours ahead of us, lol. It's going to happen.

 

[Beastmaster]

Yeah, and besides - everyone knows they upgraded to FoxPro years ago!

This is likely a cover up for the fact that they are taking this time to re-align their 1541-II disc drives again.

Load "*",8,1

That's what they get for being too cheap to buy DSDD disks and using a 15 cent hole punch on those SSSD ones.

 

[Boogy]

North Korea is BEST KOREA

 

[MalagAste]

I agree with Martyna... the track record for customer service from EA/UO USA is poor... downright appalling...

Seriously if I did customer service like they do... well I could kill you.

I think customer service should be the #1 priority.

Letting your customers know what is in store for them is just common sense and the courteous thing to do.

Obviously courtesy and in my opinion common sense are lacking at EA. But then those things are lacking all over America so why are we continually upset and dismayed when we find it to be lacking?

 

[Theo_GL]

That's what they get for being too cheap to buy DSDD disks and using a 15 cent hole punch on those SSSD ones.

Ha Ha Ha! I did the SAME thing!