How I see PWI Maint

taratulip

It's not bad enough that PWI has WEEKLY maint on my day off. But, they also love to throw in weird server shut downs and updates...

This is how I think a "day in the office" goes for them. Feel free to post your own.

Monday:

Diana: "man.. I hate coming to work! We never DO anything but listen to players cry and complain!"

Doug: "yeah, but, it's okay! TOMORROW is Maintenance!"

(Diana feels better)

Tuesday:

Diana: "YAY! Maintenance day! Who's bringing what?!"

Doug: "I'm bringing PIZZA! Server will be shut down for at least an HOUR! Woo Hoo!"

Diana: "hey, shouldn't we be doing something?"

Doug: "nooo!! it's Maintenance!"

Wednesday:

Diana: (hungover) "that was some drink you made! what do we do today?"

Doug: "more listening to players QQ about how we don't work..."

Diana: "oh, AGAIN?"

Time moves on for the people at PWI and then comes Friday... Saturday.. Sunday.. then...

Diana: "OMG why did you call me in?"

Doug: "um, we have some serious server issues that need to be fixed!"

Diana: "it's my day off! Is it serious?!"

Doug: "well, some issues came up that were supposed to be fixed on TUESDAY but, you know... pizza just sounded better!"

Diana: "no worries! let's just shut down the servers!"

Doug: "okay! what do you want on your pizza?!

Mr_Punkster - Dreamweaver

taratulip wrote: »

It's not bad enough that PWI has WEEKLY maint on my day off. But, they also love to throw in weird server shut downs and updates...

This is how I think a "day in the office" goes for them. Feel free to post your own.

Monday:

Diana: "man.. I hate coming to work! We never DO anything but listen to players cry and complain!"

Doug: "yeah, but, it's okay! TOMORROW is Maintenance!"

(Diana feels better)

Tuesday:

Diana: "YAY! Maintenance day! Who's bringing what?!"

Doug: "I'm bringing PIZZA! Server will be shut down for at least an HOUR! Woo Hoo!"

Diana: "hey, shouldn't we be doing something?"

Doug: "nooo!! it's Maintenance!"

Wednesday:

Diana: (hungover) "that was some drink you made! what do we do today?"

Doug: "more listening to players QQ about how we don't work..."

Diana: "oh, AGAIN?"

Time moves on for the people at PWI and then comes Friday... Saturday.. Sunday.. then...

Diana: "OMG why did you call me in?"

Doug: "um, we have some serious server issues that need to be fixed!"

Diana: "it's my day off! Is it serious?!"

Doug: "well, some issues came up that were supposed to be fixed on TUESDAY but, you know... pizza just sounded better!"

Diana: "no worries! let's just shut down the servers!"

Doug: "okay! what do you want on your pizza?!

b:laugh b:laugh b:laugh

Radamanthys - Heavens Tear

+1 to this thread

CheetahWoods - Raging Tide

the money meter isn't at the level the greedy upper management would like to see after last week's fail sales
(not USA employees, gm's or mods, they have ZERO POWER OR INFLUENCE ON THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS GAME. you poor naive children need to understand this, including you poor naive usa employees)

so they will do maintenance a day early to try and correct that.

also, thanksgiving week should be some special stuff like 2x drops/exp

they need a big week. so they need to put like 6 different packs on sale and whatever else they do.

taratulip

CheetahWoods - Raging Tide wrote: »

the money meter isn't at the level the greedy upper management would like to see after last week's fail sales
(not USA employees, gm's or mods, they have ZERO POWER OR INFLUENCE ON THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS GAME. you poor naive children need to understand this, including you poor naive usa employees)

so they will do maintenance a day early to try and correct that.

also, thanksgiving week should be some special stuff like 2x drops/exp

they need a big week. so they need to put like 6 different packs on sale and whatever else they do.

I'll fix this post for you. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Diana: "Why did you call me in on a Sunday?!"

Doug: "The NUMBERS aren't there! Management wants more SALES!"

Diana: "So, how do we fix that?!"

Doug: "We just shut the servers down, put up some good sales and hope people buy, buy, buy!"

Diana: "Awesome!..type type DONE.. what do you want on your pizza?"

Kweer - Sanctuary

This was only mildly amusing. I thought there was going to be a punchline, but it kinda fizzled out.

Work on your writing skills, broski.

Mr_Punkster - Dreamweaver

CheetahWoods - Raging Tide wrote: »

the money meter isn't at the level the greedy upper management would like to see after last week's fail sales
(not USA employees, gm's or mods, they have ZERO POWER OR INFLUENCE ON THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS GAME. you poor naive children need to understand this, including you poor naive usa employees)

so they will do maintenance a day early to try and correct that.

also, thanksgiving week should be some special stuff like 2x drops/exp

they need a big week. so they need to put like 6 different packs on sale and whatever else they do.

way to come off sounding like an idiot

Kweer - Sanctuary wrote: »

This was only mildly amusing. I thought there was going to be a punchline, but it kinda fizzled out.

Work on your writing skills, broski.

the punchline is....they have pizza again vs any fixes

I thought is was quite humorous myself.

Kweer - Sanctuary

CheetahWoods - Raging Tide wrote: »

the money meter isn't at the level the greedy upper management would like to see after last week's fail sales
(not USA employees, gm's or mods, they have ZERO POWER OR INFLUENCE ON THE TRUE NATURE OF THIS GAME. you poor naive children need to understand this, including you poor naive usa employees)

so they will do maintenance a day early to try and correct that.

also, thanksgiving week should be some special stuff like 2x drops/exp

they need a big week. so they need to put like 6 different packs on sale and whatever else they do.

You know...I know the USA isn't exactly the best country in the world (nor the smartest). But we sure in the hell managed to dominate the entire planet for over 100 years, since inception. Stop ragging on 1 particular country, no one is perfect. So why don't you get off your high horse there, get educated and stop sounding like a complete moron? IJS.

taratulip

gosh, thanks, Mr Punkster. I was just trying to have some fun...

and yes.. the punchline is Pizza.

some people...

_Quaz_ - Archosaur

lmao, you really think they would've made you stick to the game and make tons of money by grabbing their arses with their 2 hands? Your post is funny but I hope that's not really what you think xD

Mr_Punkster - Dreamweaver

_Quaz_ - Archosaur wrote: »

lmao, you really think they would've made you stick to the game and make tons of money by grabbing their arses with their 2 hands? Your post is funny but I hope that's not really what you think xD

it's probably something called humor...then again for all we know it could be true as well
b:chuckle

genotypist

We really do love our pizzas. b:laugh

VenusArmani - Dreamweaver

genotypist wrote: »

We really do love our pizzas. b:laugh

What kind of pizza?

Yindra - Sanctuary

Yeah, maintenance.

It's funny how apparently NO game-maker takes this into account.

There are a few issues common to ALL games that I've seen so far. From the user perspective, it's the lack of a proper indicator on the client. Thing is, there is no reason for the client to not being able to retrieve status information even during maintenance, if they want it. It could be via a separate server that is queried by the client whenever the connection fails, or it could be an alternate "login" server that gets swapped in when they shut down the real ones.

However, why DO they need "maintenance" at all? Backups? These can be done while things are running. Unless they want proper "full" backups or something similar, which only takes a few seconds if the software isn't prepared for that: take down the servers, make a snapshot, start the servers again, backup the snapshot. If the software is prepared for making backups they don't even need to shutdown the servers --- they'd just tell the relevant servers (DB, probably) to close and flush their files, make a snapshot, and continue operation without ever anyone noticing (depending on how well the software handles the snapshotting it may appear to 'hang' for a few seconds since it might not be processing any requests until it's in full operation again).

Ok, so how about software updates? Just a few seconds, again. Basically the same procedure: put the new software onto the server machine, into a different directory. Shut down the running server, rename the old software out of the way, rename the new software into the proper place (you can skip these steps if the actual pathnames don't matter, but for the sake of having stupid software I'll just assume it does), start the new server.

Basically, minimize downtimes by considering the standard cases (I'm not complaining about servers going offline for some noticeable amount of time because their CPU board breaks down or something like that), and implementing the software/operating procedures accordingly.

chuckybug

Diana: "Why did you call me in on a Sunday?!"

Doug: "O, I forgot next week is my vacation!"

Diana: "So, what?!"

Doug: "Lets just do the maintenance tonight, the boss won't know!"

Diana: "You mean we are going to **** up thousands of ppl"

Doug: "What do you think my vacation or thousands of ppl? "

Diana: "Ya, you are absolutely right, but pizza is on you"

Doug: "what topping you like, half a dozen max. "

Annastasia - Lost City

taratulip wrote: »

It's not bad enough that PWI has WEEKLY maint on my day off. But, they also love to throw in weird server shut downs and updates...

This is how I think a "day in the office" goes for them. Feel free to post your own.

Monday:

Diana: "man.. I hate coming to work! We never DO anything but listen to players cry and complain!"

Doug: "yeah, but, it's okay! TOMORROW is Maintenance!"

(Diana feels better)

Tuesday:

Diana: "YAY! Maintenance day! Who's bringing what?!"

Doug: "I'm bringing PIZZA! Server will be shut down for at least an HOUR! Woo Hoo!"

Diana: "hey, shouldn't we be doing something?"

Doug: "nooo!! it's Maintenance!"

Wednesday:

Diana: (hungover) "that was some drink you made! what do we do today?"

Doug: "more listening to players QQ about how we don't work..."

Diana: "oh, AGAIN?"

Time moves on for the people at PWI and then comes Friday... Saturday.. Sunday.. then...

Diana: "OMG why did you call me in?"

Doug: "um, we have some serious server issues that need to be fixed!"

Diana: "it's my day off! Is it serious?!"

Doug: "well, some issues came up that were supposed to be fixed on TUESDAY but, you know... pizza just sounded better!"

Diana: "no worries! let's just shut down the servers!"

Doug: "okay! what do you want on your pizza?!

+1million
as if the random monday maint wasnt enough.
i give PWI customer service an F rating.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

Annastasia - Lost City wrote: »

+1million
as if the random monday maint wasnt enough.
i give PWI customer service an F rating.

gotta remember they kinda do get pushed around by the chinese peeps

DeffyNature - Archosaur

Deceptistar - Sanctuary wrote: »

gotta remember they kinda do get pushed around by the chinese peeps

Just replace Japanese with Chinese and you get a discussion between the American PWI guys and the devs b:laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G30gIjZWKk b:cute

genotypist

VenusArmani - Dreamweaver wrote: »

What kind of pizza?

Prosciutto Watercress and Eggplant is the only thing we can agree on.

If you break it down into teams:
Jalapeno peppers and Dried tomatoes is a favorite
Feta cheese and Wild mushrooms is quickly catching on
Bacon, Onions and... Icing is a perennial option, though some pick out the Bacon and replace it by tossing on some Walnuts.
finally there's Egg, Sausage and Olives... though it's kind of niche flavor.

We're currently trying out a new flavor: BBQ chicken and Lobster, but it's really out of left field based on what we usually order.

MyCatShop - Dreamweaver

Kweer - Sanctuary wrote: »

This was only mildly amusing. I thought there was going to be a punchline, but it kinda fizzled out.

Work on your writing skills, broski.

The punchline was what do you want on your pizza.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

DeffyNature - Archosaur wrote: »

Just replace Japanese with Chinese and you get a discussion between the American PWI guys and the devs b:laugh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G30gIjZWKk b:cute

this might suit the american taste b:pleased

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z09hBuy1mFQ&feature=related

Sverdet - Heavens Tear

genotypist wrote: »

Prosciutto Watercress and Eggplant is the only thing we can agree on.

If you break it down into teams:
Jalapeno peppers and Dried tomatoes is a favorite
Feta cheese and Wild mushrooms is quickly catching on
Bacon, Onions and... Icing is a perennial option, though some pick out the Bacon and replace it by tossing on some Walnuts.
finally there's Egg, Sausage and Olives... though it's kind of niche flavor.

We're currently trying out a new flavor: BBQ chicken and Lobster, but it's really out of left field based on what we usually order.

BLASPHEMY!!!!b:angry