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What is the Arc Client?
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Maintenance Schedule?
drunkenatheist
Member Posts: 11 Arc User
Is there a schedule posted anywhere to keep us informed of future down times due to scheduled maintenance?
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However, I'm surprised to see the game up already. It's usually 2 hours!
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Oh wait. There wasn't.
What more announcements do you *want*?
The forum says "I have no idea what you are on about".
Once a new major release hits preview, weekly patches go into slow mode.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
I am generally torn between sympathy for new players being genuinely unaware of routinely scheduled maintenance and the fact that no preview patch notes (for Owlbear in this case) means no patch, and total exasperation at veteran players whose criticisms feel disingenuous.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
I've been here a fair while, not as long as some, but I've come to understand Maintenance on Thursdays, usually no patches in the run up to the release of a new Mod and new Mods are released on Tuesdays, with Thursdays that week being reserved, usually, for emergency patches.
I still don't know what a community manager does though, aside from posting a thread telling us there's maintenance and if there is a link to said patch notes. So when I don't see a maintenance thread posted, a small dark inner monologue tries to bait me with the story that she's too busy making coffee for everyone.
At the end of the day, when someone doesn't understand something, they and in this case, at least me, make certain assumptions, which are almost always wrong in any given situation. I'm sure they do a wonderful job, I just don't know what they are doing and I don't see what they are doing, I also don't feel like I am being communicated to. So a juvenile assumption I make when I am in a bad mood is, I don't see it, I don't hear it, I don't feel it, must not exist or is contrary to my expectations.
I hope this post doesn't come across as combative, it's just an honest admission on how I see the community manager when I am at my best and my worst.
It's either an issue that can be improved on or is simply an issue that only affects a minority. Either way, I hope it gives Cryptic an interesting insight into at least 1 players view.
We don't expect new players to know the weekly scheduled of maintenance but the game launcher announcement is the primary source for standard, no patch notes, no extended maintenance. They still indicate going to the forums for information because during weeks there are patch notes or extended maintenance, we will post them here, on the news site, and on social. We were specifically asked to ease up on messaging for maintenance that did not contain any special information.
As for what a CM does, not many people actually know, not even those in the game industry. It's similar to a Producer in that it is hard to define and so much happens behind the scenes that the public-facing side doesn't seem like much. One of the analogies I heard recently is juggling. We aren't the jugglers, those are the Devs. We are the people offstage gauging how many items the juggler is handling, assessing what those items are, figuring out if they need more or different ones (can they juggle fire and a chainsaw at the same time?), and picking up any dropped items and handing them back to the juggler in such a way where the audience doesn't notice that someone was there to assist the juggler.
Some CMs are more in the spotlight, with social media and streaming, so they may be on the stage with the juggler. Other CMs are more like theater background crew who make costume and set design changes in between scenes.