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Once again - GMT for EU Players.
Archived Post
Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
I'm going to keep banging on about this until it get's done. Could you please post GMT times alongside your local time for announcements. In game, on the forums and on the patcher/game launcher.
It's easier for the person writing the announcement to do this rather than everyone in the EU having to work out their own time zone in relation to PST/PDT. People in the US are used to working in several US time zones, we're not. However, we are used to working with GMT (the clue is in the name).
It's the least you could do to make up for the fact that server downtimes are often at more inconvenient times for EU players than they are for US players.
It's a simple courtesy to show to your paying EU customers.
Thankyou.
It's easier for the person writing the announcement to do this rather than everyone in the EU having to work out their own time zone in relation to PST/PDT. People in the US are used to working in several US time zones, we're not. However, we are used to working with GMT (the clue is in the name).
It's the least you could do to make up for the fact that server downtimes are often at more inconvenient times for EU players than they are for US players.
It's a simple courtesy to show to your paying EU customers.
Thankyou.
Post edited by Archived Post on
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I live on the east coast of the USA and, until I started playing MMOs I never really bothered with time zone differences...then I realized that like, 90% of the games I tried were based on the WEST coast and that all the times they posted relating to things such as server downtime and the like were posted in PST.
I know you want the convenience of GMT so you can work with something you're familiar with...but you could also just learn the simple conversion between the two via a rather quick internet search.
Since in the UK and most of EU is currently summer time and GMT + 1 or GMT +2 actually GMT + 8 or GMT +9 hours to convert from PDT.
So Posted PDT time i will call PDT_t ... basically the posted time by the devs
UK time (BST) = PDT_t + 8 hours
and the
EU (CEST) = PDT_t +9 hours
There is an a period between summer time ends in the EU and the same for the US specifically in the UK between 25th October 2009 when BST ends and 1st November 2009 when the PDT ends. You will need to check and do your own calculations for dates when summer time ends
during the 25th-1st above forumula for the UK is and is...
UK time (GMT) = PDT_t + 7 hours (this is because the UK is on GMT)
EU (CET) = PDT_t +8 hours (this is because the EU is now on CET)
After the 1st november 2009
The US then used PST so i will call it PST_t ... basically the posted time by the devs
UK time (GMT) = PST_t + 8 hours (this is because the US is on PST)
EU (CET) = PST_t +9 hours (this is because the US is on PST)
Yes it would be nice if they posted a GMT time but thats the calculations done and use the 24 hour clock makes it even easier .
Another over lap in 2010 , between 14th and 28th of march when PST changes to PDT first and then Europe changes to BST ( UK ) and mainland CEST
All of the above isnt hard to do and i play EvE online , so im always trying to work out the time on that
Nothing to do with how difficult or easy it is to work timings out - it's would just be a courtesy, a polite thing to do.
I cannot understand your sort of attitude, especially when it has the square root of Sweet FA do to with you.
I'm asking on behalf of European players, not US players. Why take umbrage at this small request?
The day after I posted that, I discovered that the SMF forum software has it built in - the author could simply write "[time]1AM PST[/time]" or "[time]13:00 CET[/time]" or whatever time zone and date format she would prefer, and SMF would automatically convert that to your time zone preferences. So it's apparently not some kind of rocket science.
We live in an age of computers. Their purpose is to process numbers, like date and time, so that we don't have to and so that we don't make mistakes. So why not let them?
they want to sell a product in europe, then they can care a little bit for their European Customers.
When they add GMT to their messages then just one person has the wirk to convert the time not 1000...
Yeah, I'm not in Europe, but that's not to say I'm unaffected by them posting server down times in PST or PDT. I just say "Okay, so it's X:XX over there...meaning it'll be Y:YY over here when they're done".
I suppose to sum up...it's so painfully minor of an issue that's solved rather simply with a modicum of effort on behalf of the players.
Or do you mean to imply that you Europe-living players can't be bothered with time conversion like us Americans? (please don't take this seriously, I'm just joking around here)
We do. We use GMT as basis for time conversions, not PDT/PST. Hence our request.
Timezones are already confusing enough in Europe. We have GMT, CET, BST, CEST and then the further East you go and begin entering the Eastern European countries the time differences continue to ramp up. Plus the timezones don't even line up. France is south of England but an hour ahead of us.
If your going to market something in a region, you use their customs and conventions. GMT is the standard accross Europe as we are very close to the line and use it as a starter point for conversions. Hell, some Europeans don't even know what timezone they are in and confuse GMT with their summer time equivalents. American timezones confuse the hell out of me and it gets worse when the Daylight Savings periods don't match up.
Where I am there's pretty much just East Coast, Central, and West Coast times...and really I only need to bother with the East and West times for games. It seems that Europe has some odd time zone configuration, relating to GMT and...summer time? I'm not entirely clear on this so I'm a tad confused.
As something of a compromise why not have the relevant times posted both in PST and GMT? It allows those of us in the 'states to have a point we're familiar with for time conversion and gives our players in Europe a recognizable starting point from which they can go "Oh, so that's how long it'll be".
I mean, why go for one or the other when you could just have both? It's a fairly minor thing so I don't think it'd be too difficult.
I've been using tools like this for years now since a few games have used random European time zones for their games.
No, it's you Americans that have some crazy-**** time zones.
That's the result of having some thirty-odd independent nations and cultures that can't agree on anything. For us, GMT is a wonderful compromise as it is a "time zone" that nobody uses (except for the Brits for six months, so that doesn't count).
Exactly our point! Thank you for being so understanding. It is your kind that bridges the gap of the Atlantic ocean!
You se thats why they have community staff though. It isn't the developers that post announcements and make the newsletter.
And when you are already writing an announcement, the small conversion is such a tiny little thing to do. It's just amazing how effortless some actions on Cryptics side could be with which to score points with part of their playerbase.
GMT FTW