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Live
PTR
Classic
TBC
An open letter to Blizzard
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Post by
DeeJerz
Read the forums then, don't be lazy try to find the answer instead of having it handed to you.
I do today, three years into the game.
My observation was regarding how a new WoW client who has no idea forums exist discovers Tuesdays without any clue as to what is going on. I was not discussing how a three year vet of the game would not know about a weekly happening. Of course it appears that many of the readers have a difficulty in this small distinction. New WoW client versus someone of longtime play experience. See the difference?
I'm sure people know how to read... and if they seek out the answers like stated earlier they will find them.
Post by
frankc
go to sign on see message on left hand side?
That day three years ago when I first encountered Maintenance Tuesdays, I had gone to bed with WoW loaded but logged out. The next morning when I attempted to login, there was no message on the left side since WoW had never exited and been reloaded. Thus I had no way of knowing the servers were down at that time.
No client message.
No Blizzard website message (main page or support pages)
I'm simply pointing out in the post that was deleted that Blizzard doesn't tell anyone anything. And pleading that they change this basic lack of communication with their client base.
but they do man, you either log in or you dont, if you dont then they will have a reason why
Post by
44284
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
UrCure
Read the forums then, don't be lazy try to find the answer instead of having it handed to you.
I do today, three years into the game.
My observation was regarding how a new WoW client who has no idea forums exist discovers Tuesdays without any clue as to what is going on. I was not discussing how a three year vet of the game would not know about a weekly happening. Of course it appears that many of the readers have a difficulty in this small distinction. New WoW client versus someone of longtime play experience. See the difference?
I'm sure people know how to read... and if they seek out the answers like stated earlier they will find them.
And if YOU (and all the rest of the putdown artists) read my original post you will discover that I did eventually find Wowhead forums and that I thereby gained an understanding of the weekly shutdown.
After searching for awhile, I finally found Wowhead where a forum message was complaining about every Tuesday the game was shutdown for maintenance (from the original post)
Post by
DeeJerz
Read the forums then, don't be lazy try to find the answer instead of having it handed to you.
I do today, three years into the game.
My observation was regarding how a new WoW client who has no idea forums exist discovers Tuesdays without any clue as to what is going on. I was not discussing how a three year vet of the game would not know about a weekly happening. Of course it appears that many of the readers have a difficulty in this small distinction. New WoW client versus someone of longtime play experience. See the difference?
I'm sure people know how to read... and if they seek out the answers like stated earlier they will find them.
And if YOU (and all the rest of the putdown artists) read my original post you will discover that I did eventually find Wowhead forums and that I thereby gained an understanding of the weekly shutdown.
After searching for awhile, I finally found Wowhead where a forum message was complaining about every Tuesday the game was shutdown for maintenance (from the original post)
Wow head forums are not the Official World of Warcraft forums
Post by
331902
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Woodrun
Yes, these things can be confusing to new players. I went to their website when I first started playing and found out why the game wasn't working on a Tuesday morning.
1. In the ToS it does state that maintenance is part of the game.
THE GAME AND THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND BLIZZARD DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE GAME OR THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED...
Quoted from the Terms of Service.
2. On the official Wow site, there is a Support Forum that lists realm maintenance times, as in today when a posting went up to say that it was extended by approx. 2 hours and should be back online by 1 pm PST.
Read the rules that you agreed to when you created an account, if you didn't read them, well that's not Blizzards problem.
=
Post by
Adamsm
Go post this on the actual forums, where it will be seen by the people who can actually change something.
Post by
Frames
Don't bite the hand that feeds you
WTF are you saying?
do you work for them?
So no matter how correct his statements he should kiss buzzards A and say thank you for charging me for a game I can not play. Thanks for telling me how stupid I am and how everything is his fault. Oh the game does this....go buy a good system and get your mommie to make it work. AND PRAISE US and kill our A and make sure and pay for sitting wondering why you can't play the game.
MAN get a life, bliz is not your friend, your buddy or your pal. THEY could care less if you fall out of your chair and die "AFTER" you make that payment.
They mean its thier game!
If you dont like oh well. Quit the game.
Post by
MoshJosh
Folks,
He makes a valid point. Blizzard's "Can't connect" link -- every Tuesday-- sends us to erroneous information. It blames the consumer's internet connection rather than stating, "Oh, hey -- Ummm--- We do maintenance on Tuesday. If this Tuesday- save yourself some time and stop screwing with your network settings."
If anyone bothered to read his post: He's well aware-- NOW -- of Tuesday updates, checking forums, closing the client and logging back in. He's concerned about the newbies, and makes a valid argument.
Whether or not he's "STUPID" or "FAIL" does not invalidate his point.
TLDR: The point? Not everybody is a pro. Blizzard's troubleshooting guide- linked to by the client-- should at the very least MENTION Tuesday.
Post by
44284
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
DeeJerz
TLDR: The point? Not everybody is a pro. Blizzard's troubleshooting guide- linked to by the client-- should at the very least MENTION Tuesday.
How many times does one person need to be told that servers will be down Tuesday from x-x times? In a perfect world once would suffice... but it is written in the terms of service agreement that you did agree to or else you wouldn't be playing and we also get a message ahead of time letting people know that they will be down and where to go to see what servers will be effected.
Post by
555931
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
pattersonj
I see someone who can't see the forest for the trees. Focusing on such a minor point of contention as though it's some giant plank in the eye of the WoW "community" is clearly a sympton of your inability to get your WoW fix.
I bet the statistics on new players canceling their subscriptions after being "blindsided" with maintenance is a major source of lost revenue for Blizzard. I think they should allocate massive resources to correct this obvious oversight. I mean, what did they do before you came along and revealed this gaping hole in their service? Hope you are able to log in soon - perhaps that'll quell the restless creature within you. =P
I do today, three years into the game.
My observation was regarding how a new WoW client who has no idea forums exist discovers Tuesdays without any clue as to what is going on. I was not discussing how a three year vet of the game would not know about a weekly happening. Of course it appears that many of the readers have a difficulty in this small distinction. New WoW client versus someone of longtime play experience. See the difference?
Post by
Arathian
May i say, the more i interact with Americans, the more i understand how the woman that claimed it was the company's fault when she spilt coffee over her, won the court case....
Post by
pattersonj
May i say, the more i interact with Americans, the more i understand how the woman that claimed it was the company's fault when she spilt coffee over her, won the court case....
I'll sue you if you post such libel again! ;)
Post by
UrCure
I had not logged out my client and it was sitting at the login screen from the previous (Monday) evening. There was no message on the left side regarding downtime. I load the game at system boot time and never exit the program. Thus it never displays the downtime message unless I reboot my system on a Monday.
That is YOUR fault. Not Blizzard's. You're supposed to exit the program and get some fresh air every now and then.
I also asked why they don't post a message on their website which is where new WoW customers would first go for information. Or a message on their Support webpages which is the second place new customers would go. Are you hinting that they do both of these things now? I've checked just now and they still don't do either of these things. Nor does the client check to see that (a) you have Internet connectivity and (b) the WoW servers are offline.
They have plenty of FAQ, not to mention posting questions in even Wowhead and other fansites will net you answers.
(a) Open a web page to check if you have connectivity?... It's not rocket science.
(b)
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/realmstatus
1. I own my own computer and do not share it. Why is it my fault that I don't exit the program when I leave my computer? As my post said I went to bed leaving the client loaded but logged off. You're the one trying to make me look foolish by implying that I play 24x7. I load the client and leave it loaded even when I'm not online. That's not my fault, that's just a way to do things.
2. Yes, Blizzard has several FAQs and so do 3rd party fansites. Why exactly does a customer have to research to discover something so basic? If I attempt to access a remote service from a non-game web service and they're offline, they will post the information in a prominent place. Either their client will tell me that the server is offline, or their website will (usually on the front page) state their servers are offline. I've worked for Sun Microsystems, Fairchild, Network Associates and numerous other large companies - all of which make it a policy to communicate such information to their clients. For some reason Blizzard does not. That, was my point.
I honestly don't understand how so many illiterate people feel so free to make so many baseless comments. I was not complaining that the servers were offline, yet some try to make the point that I was. I was not complaining that I don't know about Tuesdays three years after starting WoW, yet some try to make the point that I was. I was not saying that their client (when freshly loaded) tells you and made a point of saying that I hadn't freshly loaded it.
My observation was that Blizzard does not have their client tell you when they can't connect. Instead it puts up a "help" that instructs you to check your firewall settings. My observation was that Blizzard doesn't put up "server down" on their website. Even their realm status pages will sometimes say they're up, even though you aren't able to log into them.
Real companies communicate with their customers. After nearly four decades of working for large companies I've learned this simple fact. Yet for some reason Blizzard does not. Understand this point? What part of it are you having difficulty in understanding?
Post by
555931
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
xaratherus
Adding a direct link to the realm status page would be perfectly acceptable.
I understand what you're saying, UrCure; from a design standpoint, anything you can do to make finding information easier for your customer is a smart decision.
It's pretty standard practice in most industries; heck, the corporation I work for has a group of people in the knowledge management group specifically dedicated to finding out how information can be more intuitively available to the end user.
As to why the thread was deleted, I'm not sure; the problem with forums (even like Wowhead, although I've never seen them do it) is that they don't
have
to give you a reason for removing your posts.
Post by
UrCure
/sigh. Whatever. Sorry if their client isn't an all-in-one troubleshooter that will allow the player to fix every problem and know everything about the game and company without having to leave the client. What you're failing to see is that the client isn't supposed to do that. The player has to take some initiative to find out what is wrong instead of being spoon fed everything. It takes two seconds to alt tab and check the realm status page and see if you have connectivity.
Keep arguing your point if you want, all you're doing is finding problems with something that isn't broken.
Exactly what part of that is difficult for a client to do? As a senior computer systems analyst and developer with extensive Ethernet protocol background, allow me to assure you that it would take less than a few dozen lines of code to determine whether (a) Internet access is available, (b) company network services are online, (c) company network services are accepting connections and (d) report accurate information to the client paying for the services. I've both implemented such things myself as well as seeing it done by various companies.
And simply checking the realm status page is insufficient. A new WoW customer has no idea a realm status page exists and this is the point I was attempting to make. And I've seen where the realm status page claims a server is online when the battle.net server is refusing to log in clients (as it was this morning).
My point isn't whether the information can be researched or whether it exists after the user takes certain steps. My point is that Blizzard puts the blame on the user rather than informing the customer. Examine the failure to connect "help" page put up by the client. It lists more than a dozen reasons why you're unable to log in. Every one of the reasons are customer issues. NOT ONE IS THAT THE WOW SERVERS ARE OFFLINE! Nowhere in the help does it tell you about the realm status website. Nowhere does it mention that Tuesdays are maintenance days with servers offline. Yet the new user is expected to instantly know these things?
Why is this point so difficult to make? A new WoW user has no knowledge of the realm status webpage. A new WoW user has no knowledge of a weekly event where the servers are offline. A new WoW user is instructed by Blizzard "help" to go muck with his firewall settings and other network settings - rather than simply say "If this is Tuesday, the servers are offline." Why are you ignoring this and trying to make this out to be my problem?
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