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Cryptic - why don't you like Oz?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
As much as i HATE to rage on a forum... this is starting to get under my skin.

its like every friken night at 8pm here in Oz the servers go down for maintenance, lasting for 1-3 hours.

hey cryptic how about you try and move the down time by a couple of hours.. give some one else a go at having down time in the middle of prime time.

Seriously cryptic, what did we ever do to you??????
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Maybe adding fuel to the fire but a few months ago i posted something similar...

    Us Aussies come home from work and we get 30 mins before down time at 8pm

    Please make downtime 5am to 7am PST
    12pm-2pm GMT
    which equates to 10pm to 12am AEST

    OR even push it back to 1AM to 3AM PST
    Then we can get on from 8pm AEST and play all through to 12AM.

    Right where you have it now is dead smack in the middle of Prime time for Australia's East Coast.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    they pick the time of day with the least number of people on

    the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few and all that

    i do sort of agree they should every now and then rotate it around. even though you are in the minority of people, you are the majority of people that get downtime. it wont hurt to have UK prime time or American prime time once in a while
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Well maybe if you hadn't killed all those people you wouldn't be in Oz.


    Sorry what is Oz now?
    Oh Australia... Ironic.

    *edit* +1
    For the sake of having to much free time...

    Like Revo said. Least people on at this time. Yes it might stink that you are are unable to play in your prime time but whose prime time should we take from then?
    Least complaints this way. (even if some people here in EU consider that lunch time is the prime time...)


    And if you want to have your point understood then clarity is important.
    Had to goggle Oz...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Chat wrote:
    Like Revo said. Least people on at this time. Yes it might stink that you are are unable to play in your prime time but whose prime time should we take from then?
    Least complaints this way. (even if some people here in EU consider that lunch time is the prime time...)

    Im not saying it should not be at the time of least usage, but i am saying it should not be the Australians that suffer ALL THE FRIKEN time.

    I paid my money to play just like the next guy, why should i be cut down every night???? its not fair at all.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Cryptic is an American company.
    STO was marketed primarily to an American audience, even though it was distributed globally.
    (Guessing here) Around 75% of the subscribers live in America.

    It's been stated over and over and over and over and over by the Developers that the 3-5am PST downtime was selected because it affects the least number of people. This information gets repeated multiple times every time someone like the OP complains about the downtime.

    The fact is, the Developers will not change the downtime, PERIOD. If they did, they'd receive a lot more complaints, and you can get a hint of it every time the server crashes in the middle of US primetime. Cryptic stands to lose A LOT more money from the American market than they do anywhere else, so their primary concern is to keep the American market happy.

    I realize you really didn't want to hear any of that, but it is necessary to understand the above information. It does nothing to fix your dissatisfaction, it only informs you why whining about downtime is futile.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Chat wrote:
    Well maybe if you hadn't killed all those people you wouldn't be in Oz.

    http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/Global_Chat/Mixed/Chatnomnomnomaly.jpg.
    lol
    JJ_McQuade wrote:
    As much as i HATE to rage on a forum... this is starting to get under my skin.

    its like every friken night at 8pm here in Oz the servers go down for maintenance, lasting for 1-3 hours.

    hey cryptic how about you try and move the down time by a couple of hours.. give some one else a go at having down time in the middle of prime time.

    Seriously cryptic, what did we ever do to you??????

    True to the fact you can't please all players and down time is needed. If they moved it to please you some one else from the land of OZ mite not be to happy !
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Chat wrote:
    Well maybe if you hadn't killed all those people you wouldn't be in Oz.


    Sorry what is Oz now?
    Oh Australia... Ironic.

    *edit* +1
    For the sake of having to much free time...

    Like Revo said. Least people on at this time. Yes it might stink that you are are unable to play in your prime time but whose prime time should we take from then?
    Least complaints this way. (even if some people here in EU consider that lunch time is the prime time...)


    And if you want to have your point understood then clarity is important.
    Had to goggle Oz...

    This post makes very little sense... and if you don't know where Australia is or that it is nicked named Oz can you find France on a map?

    Anyway i completely understand that the least number of people MAY be on in that time period and that America is the primary market but moving down time 2 hours either way sure could not hurt that much?

    If there are enough Aussies playing that warrants it?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    JJ_McQuade wrote:
    I paid my money to play just like the next guy, why should i be cut down every night???? its not fair at all.

    As a followup to my previous post, I'd like to pick this particular argument apart real fast.

    Everyone who plays STO has (or in the future will have) paid an approximately equal amount for the game, assuming that the majority pays a continuous subscription for a duration of 16 months. That means every person playing the game is paying approximately the same (give or take ~ $2 USD). What makes your $15 any more valuable than anyone else's $15?

    And further, you play from a region that has a very small minority of players in STO. The maintinence has to happen sometime, or the game would be unplayable in a matter of days. Patches require maintinence - they cannot be loaded "on the fly". Should Cryptic anger the majority of paying players by shutting down the servers during US primetime (where they generate most of their income), or should they do it when a lot less players are online?

    The total income generated from Australia is worth a LOT less than the total income generated from the US. Throwing out completely arbitrary numbers here, let's assume that 1% of the current subscribers decide to quit every time STO goes down for maintinence. 1% from Australia is a lot less lost income than 1% from the US, most likely by thousands of dollars.



    Using the numbers I posted in my previous reply, let's assume that 75% of subscribers are from the US. Further, let's take the ballpark figure previously released by the developers and assume that there are exactly 100,000 subscribers currently. Finally, let's assume that lifetime subscriptions do not exist, so everyone subscribed is paying $15/month.

    75% of 100,000 is 75,000. Multiply that by 15, and you get $1,125,000/month just from the US subscribers. 1% of that (from the previous argument in this reply) is $11,250. If Cryptic were go anger the US subscribers with maintinence during US primetime, and (again) assuming 1% of subscribers left every time it happened, Cryptic would lose around $10,000/month every few days. It wouldn't take long for that to add up.

    Now, let's assume the other 25% of players are split exactly evenly between Europe, Asia, and Australia. That would put approximately 8.4% of subscribers in Australia (8,400), which equates to $126,000/month. 1% of that is only $1,260, which is a lot less to lose over something as trivial as when to do maintinence.



    Now, I realize I created a lot of "what-ifs" and conjecture with my argument, but the principle behind it is the same. By scheduling maintinence at a time when the least number of players are affected, Cryptic minimizes the potential loss of revenue from disgruntled customers. Australia does not have nearly as many customers as just about any other country, so you're going to be hit hardest by this financial decision. There is nothing you can say or do that will change Cryptic's mind.

    tl;dr version: Read the previous paragraph.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Again can 2 hours either way make that much of a difference?

    1am to 3am PST?

    That should not affect the US market that much if it does then US people obviously have very different sleeping habits to the rest of the world.

    Sure that would not be great Friday/Saturday night but the rest of the week it should be ok.

    but as you said 75% of the customer base is American is a completely arbitrary number.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Lostpinky wrote: »
    but as you said 75% of the customer base is American is a completely arbitrary number.

    Yes, the exact percentage is arbitrary, but the reality is somewhere in that neighborhood, most likely in the 60-80% range. I'm not going to get into a discussion on demographics, but if you want to look it up and do some of your own research, you'd find that to be true for any "western" MMO.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Agreed with Lostpinky,

    a 2 hour oscillation would not interfere with US prime time... unless that prime time is 1am-3am?

    Have it rotating so its not always the same people affected. would it really be so difficult?

    if some one had os said the game would be down 4 out of seven nights between 8pm and 10pm I probably would not have paid for the privilege.

    feeling pretty jipped right about now.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Eulif_Davis, I never disagreed with what you said, America has the majority of the market, i'm just saying that 2 hours either way couldn't really make that much difference when in the majority of the USA its early in th emorning anyway and the majority of people are in bed.

    At this moment its
    920pm AEST which is
    0420 US PST
    0720 US Eastern
    1120 GMT


    Maintenance starts at 3AM US PST

    I would think that
    1800 AEST
    0100 US PST
    0400 US Eastern
    0800 GMT

    Would not affect Cryptics income all that greatly.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    JJ_McQuade wrote:
    feeling pretty jipped right about now.

    Before anyone gets to hating me for my opinion, I'd like it on record that if the situation were reversed, I'd probably feel the same way.

    That said, there's probably a very good reason why they wait until 3am PST to do maintinence. I know for a fact several of my friends game until after midnight, and if I personally know a small handful, then there must be enough people in the US that play this late to warrant the extra 2 hour wait to bring the servers down. Unfortunately for you Aussies, there are probably more late-night US players than there are Austalian players in total.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    I am going to close this thread because today's maintenance is now complete.
    We do not enjoy taking STO away from any body. The simple fact is that we have to take the game down at some point for either maintenance or updates. Downtime is going to happen and the 3am-5am timeslot is the time that it will affect the least amount of people.
This discussion has been closed.