Why Blizzard should NOT give early, speculative release dates

EDIT: Thread link deleted requesting lock

Check out this thread regarding "regularly scheduled" server maintenance on World of Warcraft:

That's seven posts, beginning with an end date at 9 AM, each progressively ticking up the end time by about an hour and ending with the current (as of this posting) time of 3 PM.

Seriously, read that. It's like "OK, 10AM. NO WAIT! 11 AM. NO WAIT!!" Why do they even bother telling us anything when it's this obvious they're making it up. They've done this the past four maintenance periods, progressively adding a couple hours to the maintenance period each time instead of giving us a realistic estimate. It's enough to make me think it's intentional.

It's fortunate they take the "when it's done" approach to videogame development, else we'd see "November 20th. NO WAIT! November 23rd. NO WAIT!" ad nauseum.

Check out this thread regarding "regularly scheduled" server maintenance on World of Warcraft:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26137154945&sid=1

That's seven posts, beginning with an end date at 9 AM, each progressively ticking up the end time by about an hour and ending with the current (as of this posting) time of 3 PM.

Seriously, read that. It's like "OK, 10AM. NO WAIT! 11 AM. NO WAIT!!" Why do they even bother telling us anything when it's this obvious they're making it up. They've done this the past four maintenance periods, progressively adding a couple hours to the maintenance period each time instead of giving us a realistic estimate. It's enough to make me think it's intentional.

It's fortunate they take the "when it's done" approach to videogame development, else we'd see "November 20th. NO WAIT! November 23rd. NO WAIT!" ad nauseum.

Brownesque

[QUOTE="Brownesque"]

Check out this thread regarding "regularly scheduled" server maintenance on World of Warcraft:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26137154945&sid=1

That's seven posts, beginning with an end date at 9 AM, each progressively ticking up the end time by about an hour and ending with the current (as of this posting) time of 3 PM.

Seriously, read that. It's like "OK, 10AM. NO WAIT! 11 AM. NO WAIT!!" Why do they even bother telling us anything when it's this obvious they're making it up. They've done this the past four maintenance periods, progressively adding a couple hours to the maintenance period each time instead of giving us a realistic estimate. It's enough to make me think it's intentional.

It's fortunate they take the "when it's done" approach to videogame development, else we'd see "November 20th. NO WAIT! November 23rd. NO WAIT!" ad nauseum.

FelipeInside

Is this about the weekly maintenance taking too long? addicted much?

Well, ignoring your seeming addiction to WoW... People like to have time estimates believe it or not. I know it would drive me crazy if there wasn't a time estimate back when I still played and it would probably lead to me constantly trying to log for probably 30 minutes straight before giving up and trying a little less frequently. Since you seem to hate the unpredictability of the real world I'd suggest ignoring their estimates and just try logging in. If the server is down, try again in an hour or so. That way you don't have to get upset over the time estimates changing and people who appreciate the updates can continue enjoying them.

Solution: Go do something outside on tuesday mornings.

I've been playing WoW for 5 years, it isnt that bad.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Brownesque"]

Check out this thread regarding "regularly scheduled" server maintenance on World of Warcraft:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26137154945&sid=1

That's seven posts, beginning with an end date at 9 AM, each progressively ticking up the end time by about an hour and ending with the current (as of this posting) time of 3 PM.

Seriously, read that. It's like "OK, 10AM. NO WAIT! 11 AM. NO WAIT!!" Why do they even bother telling us anything when it's this obvious they're making it up. They've done this the past four maintenance periods, progressively adding a couple hours to the maintenance period each time instead of giving us a realistic estimate. It's enough to make me think it's intentional.

It's fortunate they take the "when it's done" approach to videogame development, else we'd see "November 20th. NO WAIT! November 23rd. NO WAIT!" ad nauseum.

Brownesque

[QUOTE="Brownesque"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] You build a server hosting a MMORPG with 10 million people and then do the maintenance on it.... see how well you can schedule time?FelipeInside

Blizzard is only wrong sometimes. Many times also, they will put, login server down, we'll give you an update in 1 hour.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="Brownesque"] I'm suggesting that they don't schedule it due to the fact that it's apparently an impossible task. By "realistic" estimates I mean that they give a significant buffer instead of underestimating the maintenance time which they seem to do every maintenance cycle. Maybe it would help if you chewed on the OP seeing as you totally missed my point.Brownesque

This opinion is beyond ignorant. Just because the router at your house has a nearly 100% uptime serving your 1 computer doesn't mean countless servers will have the same uptime.

As systems get larger, the chance of failure becomes larger and larger and more and more likely. Beyond that, maintainence sometimes introduces unforseen problems that you have sometimes little idea of how long it will take, and iirc the day in which you complained, there was a post on the forums about it being extended maintainence.

It's just an estimate or would you rather have "it will be back when it's back"?

Somewhere I'm not seeing the problem you are experiencing.