DDO unavailable: Saturday March 30th
- Thread starter Cordovan
- Start date
Whyaremypostslagging
Active member
At what point do we as players who most likely have spent or currently spend money on the game (via vip, boxes, exp pots, etc) Decide to stop licking their (devs) boots, and hold them accountable to the issues they have either directly caused, or indirectly caused by not upgrading hardware, having proper failsafes, etc?
This kind of downtime with virtually no updates besides "we are working on it" is not acceptable in any other company, let alone an MMORPG. I just keep my fingers crossed this opens their eyes to their failing servers (which should have been obvious due to the mass lag) and they finally decide to spend some money on upgrades.... is that Fiscally Responsible?
This kind of downtime with virtually no updates besides "we are working on it" is not acceptable in any other company, let alone an MMORPG. I just keep my fingers crossed this opens their eyes to their failing servers (which should have been obvious due to the mass lag) and they finally decide to spend some money on upgrades.... is that Fiscally Responsible?
Shardrena
Well-known member
What makes you so sure that hardware hasn't been upgraded and that there were no failsafes? From the sounds of things, there were failsafes, redundancies, and backups that should have prevented catastrophic failure. And none of it mattered because a power surge managed to fry everything anyway. Or are you saying the devs are either directly or indirectly responsible for the data center's networking capabilities getting fried by a power surge that they had no way to anticipate? Especially since it sounds like the surge bypassed all the protections that should have stopped it.
If you're so angry about an unscheduled downtime that lasts a day or three, maybe MMOs aren't the genre of game for you? Probably should avoid "live service" games as a whole as well. Because unscheduled downtime that can last multiple days is pretty normal with MMOs and "Live Service" games.
And what sort of "updates" would it take for you to be happy? If "we're still working on it" isn't enough for you, and the additional details that have been given when available aren't enough for you... what exactly do you think would be "enough updates"? DDO actually does a better job of communicating then many MMO developers do, in fact.
So basically, if this downtime offends you so much you feel someone needs to be "held accountable", then by all means feel that way. But it's not "boot licking" for someone to be patient or understanding about how things like this do happen in the industry and they do take time to resolve. On the other hand ranting, raving, or throwing baseless accusations around isn't holding anyone accountable. It's just ranting and raving. If you're so offended by events like this happening, perhaps it's time to walk away for a while. And there's no shame in doing so. The world's not going to end just because an MMO's servers are down.
Orchidblossomwasgutted
Well-known member
because you bypassed the Patch Server, that doesnt count.
Wanfanel
Active member
I did it to with no "bypassed the Patch Server". all word closed but you can see your characters list in transfer wizard ;-)
Whyaremypostslagging
Active member
It's very clear hardware has not been upgraded, have you played the game at all recently? Name me another MMO that lags as bad as DDO does. Please attempt Hunt on R1 when the servers come back up, or FoM for that matter.
Name me another high tier MMO that has unplanned downtime (game not working), and their customers are okay with it, I'll wait.
It's pretty obvious (if you have a remote sense of IT background) that this was "worked on" this weekend. The "updates" were to simply calm the playerbase who like me, saw through the "updates" .
It is 100% boot licking, I love this game, there are no other MMO's I remotely enjoy playing, but at some point we HAVE to hold people accountable. 1/2 of the weekends this month, the game has been either totally unplayable, or visually unplayble w/o client reset. Please provide evidence to me when the last time that happened in WoW, GW2, ESO, FFXIV, need I continue?
The world won't end, we all have lives outside of this, however as players who SPEND MONEY on a service, it is right to assume this service would be available when we want it to be, yeah?
Pilbie
Active member
By my calculations, it costs me approximately 8 to 14 cents per hour that I spend playing DDO. I consider that pretty good. I don't think it entitles me to rant about being denied a few hours of play time when things go haywire. **** happens. I'm okay with it. Not happy, but okay. Please don't include me in your assumptions.
Whyaremypostslagging
Active member
Bet Jerry's boots taste good.
Not agreeing with the whole post necessarily, but I will say MMOs do need to be held accountable to issues that make them literally unplayable (Games in general should be). People that have said "maybe you shouldn't be playing MMOs if you're not okay with unplanned downtime" is not an acceptable stance to take. Guild Wars 2 specifically has not gone down in 8 years. They also don't even go down for updates or maintenance either. I realize that Arenanet has specially set their stuff up to handle this kind of thing, but it is not a new thing. On top of this, most MMOs don't have multiday unplanned issues like this either (FF14 does tend to have these issues with new updates and such, but it is quite literally the most popular MMO at this time at over 1.5 million daily players, so I can at least accept the reasoning of this). I realize DDO is an old game,and it is obviously not wildly popularc but the servers should be quite literally the number one priority for a game like this though, and it has been obvious for years that they are not. I appreciate that they release regular content and QoL, but the servers are in desperate need of more attention.
Xaerxiessia
Lost in Translation
At least not the switch-router for the main public traffic. And if you read well , they did not even have a safe copy of the config of that very same switch.
Whyaremypostslagging
Active member
Agreed, I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this. I love DDO, have absolutely no plans of going elsewhere until the Dev's decide it is time. It's time to reflect as players (and the dev's) that the game is in dire need of work. It is not in a good state, the playerbase (with brains) aren't happy, and clearly the hardware/software isn't either.
Pilbie
Active member
It's just not worth getting all fired up over it. There's plenty in my life that fits that category; I prefer when my leisure activities don't add to my stress. You're free to see that as bootlicking if it makes you happy. I really don't care.
darrett71
Member
I made it there without even know there was something bypassing the patch server on Saturday.
Whyaremypostslagging
Active member
I'm not fired up, DDO is as you, my leisure activity I do after the work day, gym, cooking, etc. Regardless if I am spending 1 cent or $100 to play the game, it needs to be up when I load the launcher. (except during planned weekly maintence of course). The mindset of "**** happens" is how this type of thing continues to happen. Clearly, that isn't very well understood, eh?
Pilbie
Active member
Pretty sure it's hardware malfunction this time, not players' attitudes.
Maybe I'm reading you wrong, but you seem to be saying paying players either should be making demands, or they are bootlicking. I think there are more perfectly reasonable responses for players to have. I disagree that the game 'needs to be up when I load the launcher' outside of scheduled maintenance. Would I like it to be? Sure. My point though, is that your response is not my response, and the next person might have a completely different one to both of us, and that's all okay. You seem to be saying that if I am not making demands then I must be sucking up. I see things in a more nuanced way than that. By all means go ahead with your demands and outrage, but don't expect me to join you just because I spend money on the game, too.
nenetteblackmoor
Well-known member
This isn't trouble, it's an event!
We should think of it as an event.
Stop arguing and enjoy the event!
And remember! The events in DDO!
Weren't they a series of hardships, pain, and training?
Bring me ten Big Macs and 250 potatoes!
Then I'll fire up the server for you!
We should think of it as an event.
Stop arguing and enjoy the event!
And remember! The events in DDO!
Weren't they a series of hardships, pain, and training?
Bring me ten Big Macs and 250 potatoes!
Then I'll fire up the server for you!
BlindBeard the Pirate
Member
Among other things, this is a good reason why I haven't spent any money on DDO since 2017.
SSG's handling of DDO has been unacceptable by virtually every metric. Whether it's baseless nerfs, lack of any attention to player feedback, an abundance of glitches, or technical incompetence, I find that DDO is the worst managed MMO I've played. Why would I spend money to support SSG, when they've done nothing but actively make the game worse?
Sure, there are still vestiges of DDO to be enjoyed, which is why I still play a few weeks out of the year, but I can still enjoy all the old content for free. I'd happily spend money if I thought it'd be put to good use, or if I felt that SSG deserved it. But why on earth would I believe either of those things?
Vote with your wallet. If you don't like the direction DDO has been going, or don't appreciate SSG's track record of mismanagement, then don't give them money. You don't need to get into lengthy arguments or flame wars on the forums; just stop giving SSG money, plain and simple.
Shardrena
Well-known member
Anything which relies on external hardware to run, such as MMOs and other Live Service games, are by necessity left to the vagaries of things happening outside of your control. Even worse, things can happen that were outside the control of the developers too. All the recovery plans, redundancies, and contingencies in the world mean jack diddly if something happens which bypasses or wasn't covered by them occurs. When a person chooses to play an MMO, they are choosing to depend on factors they have zero control over in order to play the game. But you know what? Getting angry about something going wrong doesn't solve anything. Nether does demanding people who are already working tirelessly to fix the issue to be "held accountable".
Know what I find interesting? I can think off several MMOs off the top of my head which also regularly suffer from severe lag. Among them, Age of Conan can suffer from severe lag spikes. As can Everquest 1 and a few others. The interesting part to me is that the games are almost all ones which were originally coded for Windows XP, thus coded for underlying PC architecture which modern Windows does not use. They also are games that never updated the game's base code to the point where the game no longer supports XP and (potentially) Vista. This suggests to me it's not that the servers or network hardware is out of date and causing lag, but that the game's trying to run on modern hardware that struggles to run games designed for Windows XP.
Other games that have similar slow-down issues include single player games like Spore, Knights of the Old Republic, Clive Barker's Undying (this one struggles on Vista too), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and Bloodrayne 2. And that's in addition to graphical glitches and clipping geometry issues caused by old XP games trying to run on a modern Windows OS.
Know what I find interesting? I can think off several MMOs off the top of my head which also regularly suffer from severe lag. Among them, Age of Conan can suffer from severe lag spikes. As can Everquest 1 and a few others. The interesting part to me is that the games are almost all ones which were originally coded for Windows XP, thus coded for underlying PC architecture which modern Windows does not use. They also are games that never updated the game's base code to the point where the game no longer supports XP and (potentially) Vista. This suggests to me it's not that the servers or network hardware is out of date and causing lag, but that the game's trying to run on modern hardware that struggles to run games designed for Windows XP.
Other games that have similar slow-down issues include single player games like Spore, Knights of the Old Republic, Clive Barker's Undying (this one struggles on Vista too), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, and Bloodrayne 2. And that's in addition to graphical glitches and clipping geometry issues caused by old XP games trying to run on a modern Windows OS.