Wow. The servers are still freakin' down. This is more than just 'maintenance'. The servers must be completely FUBAR. This is starting to become a concern.
I predict the 'best-launch-ever' threads will now disappear. It's going to be an interesting week. This will tell us what Zenimax is really made of.
/popcorn
Quote:
Can't even make this up.
The system message went out about them disabling in-game mail, my client crashed, and when I logged back in I was in SOMEONE ELSES account. I was completely in their account and on their character.
My username was @Shankerz, I could talk to other players, trade his inventory, everything. I was kicked out when he logged back in shortly after.
Upon logging in again, I was back on my character and account, but I had the other player's inventory still.
This is a pretty insane "bug" and needs to be looked at ASAP!
Edit 2: Just to clarify, I have absolutely no idea who the dude is whose account it logged me in to. He isn't in my guild, isn't on my friends list, anything - in fact, he was much higher level than me and on a completely different faction"
Come on, I had good fun in the 3 hours before the take down. BUT: We all saw that coming MILES AWAY! Or at least some of us. Tons of NPCs and quest items didn't spawn just 2 weeks before launch! Those are basic things, which ZoS simply didn't have under control!
Yes the optimists hoped as usual, that there was a magical, secret built where all is good and for some reason that overstrained our mere mortal reasoning ZoS let us test a flawed built. But reality was: they let us test a flawed build simply because they HAD no other.
For their sake, I hope they manage it quick. ESO is an exotic flower already, if they top this with a broken build - which we don't know yet either way! - we have a new Vanguard before us. Vanguard had a lot the same stuff going. Trying to be retro again, adding old schoolish hardships, eliminating familiar comforts, vast world, similar graphoic style even. I always felt ESO looks like Vanguard II, at least in terms of world visuals. But too exotic ideas against the mass trend quadrupled with technical issues broke it's neck.
I TRULY hope they have no big tech issues brewing. That would be sad.
On top of it all: I understand a few hours downtime is no biggie. But nowadays with a monthly fee ticking, people see things... different. Here time is money. Literally.
Finally: NOT giving any ETA or what they are doing is just a no go in 2014 communication. Just compare it to how transparent and open SOE communicates with the beta players of Landmarks! It's WORLDS APART.
I am just sick and tired of Zenimax always keeping their secrets and not telling us anything. I am no beta tester. I am DAMN paying customer. I want at least info WHAT is going on and in what time frame we can look to play. That isn't a question of being nice, it's my damn right as paying customer.
Well, any ETA given (by most companies) is usually a lie anyway. Especially in a situation like this where there was big issue that required they take the server down immediately. It's not like they can post right away that they know exactly what is wrong and how long it will take to fix. For all we know at this point they may not have even pinpointed the cause of the issue yet to even know was broken to begin with, let alone how to fix it or any idea of how long it will take to fix in order to even give an ETA.
Sometimes you just simply can't give a worthwhile ETA when it comes to some issues, especially when it is something server side. Sure someone might estimate it will take 2 hours to fix something, but then new issues come up while trying to fix the problem. You may find implementing a fix impacts other systems and breaks them, so those have to be adjusted now too. Or you may think it is fixed only to bring it up for testing and find it isn't and have to start all over again.
No. It's a necessity! ETA is not some nicety or option in a life, running and monthly fee MMO!
They can estimate. Nobody would blame them for guessing. But just taking it down for hours without ANY word is just a no go for a game we pay. Period. Paragraph.
Again. See how cool SOE handles it. Even if something goes wrong, you can see them speaking about what they do hourly on Twitter, so the players are always on top of things what is going on. THAT is respecting the fans and customers. And then in return I have way more tolerance towards issues, because SOE is open about everything and updates the players all the time. But ZOS is just hiding being a wall of silence EVER SINCE BETA. And I have little understanding for treating us thus.
If you honestly think giving an unvalidated ETA on something that has not gone through any form of testing yet and is an emergency fix is a good idea, you've clearly never worked in any field having anything to do with customer facing technology. It's a whole different situation when it is a planned maintenance that has gone through various stages of QA and testing already, but when you have an emergency situation there IS no ETA. I say that having worked in several fields working with many different types of companies and systems. We're not talking a measly $15 subscription that buys you some sort of entitlement either, but things involving transactions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. BTW, you're not technically paying a subscription yet anyway. You've got a free month, which hasn't even kicked in yet until 4/4.
It gets fixed when it gets fixed. Thats really all a customer NEEDS to know with an emergency fix. Any decent company is going to focus on making sure it is fixed completely and has passed QA before going live again, rather than worrying about giving ETAs that they might not ever realistically be able to meet and just pissing people off for "lying" about the ETA.
Theyve said they are working on it. Thats all that should be needed. Or would you prefer they waste their time explaining to some CM what theyre working on so they can then go post it on the forums for you instead of focusing on the problem at hand and getting it fixed sooner?
Originally posted by Elikal Come on, I had good fun in the 3 hours before the take down. BUT: We all saw that coming MILES AWAY! Or at least some of us. Tons of NPCs and quest items didn't spawn just 2 weeks before launch! Those are basic things, which ZoS simply didn't have under control!Yes the optimists hoped as usual, that there was a magical, secret built where all is good and for some reason that overstrained our mere mortal reasoning ZoS let us test a flawed built. But reality was: they let us test a flawed build simply because they HAD no other.For their sake, I hope they manage it quick. ESO is an exotic flower already, if they top this with a broken build - which we don't know yet either way! - we have a new Vanguard before us. Vanguard had a lot the same stuff going. Trying to be retro again, adding old schoolish hardships, eliminating familiar comforts, vast world, similar graphoic style even. I always felt ESO looks like Vanguard II, at least in terms of world visuals. But too exotic ideas against the mass trend quadrupled with technical issues broke it's neck.I TRULY hope they have no big tech issues brewing. That would be sad. ..........
So poetic, ESO as en exotic flower - beside graphics which are more Elder scrolls style there is nothing old school about it, starting from heavy use of phasing and loading screens (Vanguard had many faults but at least tried to create a big open world),console style controls, easy quests and combat and the only hardships(mount prices,lack of ah) are in game to make people preorder or use cash shop. The so-called optimists are the reason developers afford to launch games like this(quests bugs which if is true and linked to phasing will only get worse,downtime) since they saw the amount of bugs in beta and still ordered the game. There were enough mmorpgs launched without lot of bugs or downtime(before Rift there was LOTRO which had a very polished beta and launch) and TESO is not even fully launched,a lot of people didn't order from Zenimax shop thanks to their prices.
This is just one of those threads that is started after every release of a new game that is forgotten the next day. In a few hours or less the server will let you all back in and all this drama and speculation will be forgotten. Another problem will be found, server will be shut down, and the cycle will continue until everything is ironed out.
For those who are worried about the money part, remember it is about 50 cents a day. If the game is down for even 12 hours you are out an entire .25 cents. That is laughable to even be concerned about.
Relax and do something different for a while! Get on a forum and be happy about a game for once instead of tearing them apart.
Originally posted by Dren_Utogi never seen a server down this long during "head start" . Zenimax failed in my honest opinion. THe launched a bugged / exploit prone game. Games never come back from this much bad forum publicity.
I can think of several that have been down this long, or longer either during early access or their 1st week of launch. More recent ones would be Defiance and GW2. If not all in one shot, then at least this long spread out across multiple downtimes within a day or 2.
What "exploits" exactly? I wonder sometimes if people even understand the word or how much is actually exploited in any game for people to gain advantages. GW2 would be a good example again of being loaded with bugs and systems that were exploited from the start, then eventually fixed. Theyve done just fine.
Issues at the start of a game aren't what kills them, so long as they DO get fixed. We have yet to see what will happen in the case of ESO. Most games die off simply due to being shitty, boring, rehashed games to begin with. Whether or not they have technical issues at launch is usually irrelevant.
Originally posted by Dren_Utogi never seen a server down this long during "head start" . Zenimax failed in my honest opinion. THe launched a bugged / exploit prone game. Games never come back from this much bad forum publicity.
Oh my, you don't play many mmorpgs do you? Just grabbed these off google.
So after looking at several threads on this subreddit I think ive pieced it together... In the early hours of april fools day someone at zenimax collected the following items and placed them on the megaserver:
A piece of lettuce.
A lesser soul gem
A spool of yarn
Then they stood on the server and stuck fishsticks up their nose while repeating the word wabbajack. For those that do not know April 1st on Earth is Sheogoraths day and the only time he can be summoned.
Shortly after this players report logging into other players accounts. Random admin messages in varying languages appear on the screen. Chaos ensues and the servers are brought down.
I dont want to point fingers but I think it was /u/ZOS_JessicaFolsom who summoned the god of pranks. Can't blame her though - I mean who doesnt want a wabbajack?
My question is how many fishsticks did you need to stick up your nose before Sheogorath appeared? Also have you turned anyone into a chicken yet? Wabbajack...wabbajack. ..wabbajack."
So we've gone from "best launch ever!111" to "this is just like every other mmo launch".
I wonder where we'll be in a few days.
Well this thread will be forgotten. Players who love it will be playing and those that have nothing better to do will be back here trashing it. I'm not sure which life I would choose. Oh wait, I want to be happy so I will play.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Originally posted by Dren_Utogi never seen a server down this long during "head start" . Zenimax failed in my honest opinion. THe launched a bugged / exploit prone game. Games never come back from this much bad forum publicity.
I can assure you this has happened to many games during their respective head launches and/or regular launches. It is almost tradition now!
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
Lots of games have had worse opening days (or weeks!). However, my expectations are higher than they have ever been and I have little patience for developers who meet their internal deadlines by releasing a buggy product.
That said, ESO is doing fine so far. They should probably prioritize the fixing of the high visibility quest issues, but since these quest lines are not something that stops a player from playing - it is just not that big of a deal.
It does sound like they have some bigger problems to deal with tonight regarding basic account security, and that is kind of a big deal. It's going to be down for a while, I think.
Originally posted by mogilny89 Yes you sound really convincing. You are having fun playing the game? When ? Now? Having fun with people being 40 levels ahead of you and people logging in and getting other people's characters? How much you get paid to shill?
ROFL every single MMO launch, there are always people that reached max within a few days of launch. Every single one of them. And every time there are dramatic posters that come on the forums whine about it, as if people still get surprised it happens. Get real, or rather, get a clue.
I've played MMO's long enough to not get bothered by the small fraction of a % of playerbase that do this in all MMO's. The overwhelming majority of the playerbase are every day gamers, the "core" gamers that will not be reaching max level in quite a long time, maybe even never.
Now, you can be someone that whines and worries about the min/maxers that find the best way to level and do it within the first week of launch? or you can be like the majority of the gamers out there, who enjoy themselves, have their circle of friends they play with, and enjoy the games for what they have to offer. We can already tell where you stand.
Exactly my friend! People reached max within few days, not 24 hours xD
Other people have access to your characters ? That sounds really screwed up. How can that happen isn't that a security loophole if people are not even intentionally hacking and manage it. Jeez they need to fix this ASAP.
Overall though they have had good uptime so not a point to grouse about .They have to fix bad problems though so give them a break.
Poorly coded login server. My guess is that the @name is associated with your login and the communication between your @name and your login got compromised allowing people to find a back door into other people's characters without figuring out their PW.
So we've gone from "best launch ever!111" to "this is just like every other mmo launch".
I wonder where we'll be in a few days.
Well this thread will be forgotten. Players who love it will be playing and those that have nothing better to do will be back here trashing it. I'm not sure which life I would choose. Oh wait, I want to be happy so I will play.
You do know that there are consequences for making huge oversights like this right?
For all we know, for ZOS, this screw up could be worth 100,000 subscriptions being cancelled. You do the math.
Originally posted by Dren_Utogi never seen a server down this long during "head start" . Zenimax failed in my honest opinion. THe launched a bugged / exploit prone game. Games never come back from this much bad forum publicity.
What a joke. You haven't played many headstarts then.
FFXIV ARR was an absolute MESS for early access and launch.
Yeah - I freaking JUST logged on and boom - server down? That's the 2nd time today.
Not to sound pessimistic but this is reminding me of Defiance launch - yeah it was rough.
If you were at work like I am, you wouldn't be concerned.
Sucks to get screwed out of playing time, never enough of it for me.
Last evening I ran into an entertaining bug that sort of brought me to a halt.
Was the DC quest where you had to chose between destroying the Orb or not, and speak with all the NPC characters you have been interacting with along the journey.
The bug was the last two characters were inaccessible, they were right in front of me, but they wouldn't talk to me. There was also at least a half a dozen other players trying to do it no matter how many times I relogged into other instances (at least 7).
To make it more fun, you couldn't exit the area, all doors to leave the room were inaccessible and the map only brought up the quest dungeon, not the world map. (trapped in the instance I guess we were)
Fortunately I had a guildmate group me so I could teleport over to a wayshrine near him and get me out, but I pretty much called a halt to my game time at that point as it was late and I figured things might be getting a bit unstable.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Comments
Quote:
Can't even make this up.
The system message went out about them disabling in-game mail, my client crashed, and when I logged back in I was in SOMEONE ELSES account. I was completely in their account and on their character.
My username was @Shankerz, I could talk to other players, trade his inventory, everything. I was kicked out when he logged back in shortly after.
Upon logging in again, I was back on my character and account, but I had the other player's inventory still.
This is a pretty insane "bug" and needs to be looked at ASAP!
Edit: Only screenshot I took on the other person's account http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=f0ytc0&s=8#.UztUsPldV66
Edit 2: Just to clarify, I have absolutely no idea who the dude is whose account it logged me in to. He isn't in my guild, isn't on my friends list, anything - in fact, he was much higher level than me and on a completely different faction"
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/21yvux/shortly_after_system_message_about_disabled/
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
If you honestly think giving an unvalidated ETA on something that has not gone through any form of testing yet and is an emergency fix is a good idea, you've clearly never worked in any field having anything to do with customer facing technology. It's a whole different situation when it is a planned maintenance that has gone through various stages of QA and testing already, but when you have an emergency situation there IS no ETA. I say that having worked in several fields working with many different types of companies and systems. We're not talking a measly $15 subscription that buys you some sort of entitlement either, but things involving transactions worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. BTW, you're not technically paying a subscription yet anyway. You've got a free month, which hasn't even kicked in yet until 4/4.
It gets fixed when it gets fixed. Thats really all a customer NEEDS to know with an emergency fix. Any decent company is going to focus on making sure it is fixed completely and has passed QA before going live again, rather than worrying about giving ETAs that they might not ever realistically be able to meet and just pissing people off for "lying" about the ETA.
Theyve said they are working on it. Thats all that should be needed. Or would you prefer they waste their time explaining to some CM what theyre working on so they can then go post it on the forums for you instead of focusing on the problem at hand and getting it fixed sooner?
The so-called optimists are the reason developers afford to launch games like this(quests bugs which if is true and linked to phasing will only get worse,downtime) since they saw the amount of bugs in beta and still ordered the game. There were enough mmorpgs launched without lot of bugs or downtime(before Rift there was LOTRO which had a very polished beta and launch) and TESO is not even fully launched,a lot of people didn't order from Zenimax shop thanks to their prices.
Someone with some common sense woohoo
I can think of several that have been down this long, or longer either during early access or their 1st week of launch. More recent ones would be Defiance and GW2. If not all in one shot, then at least this long spread out across multiple downtimes within a day or 2.
What "exploits" exactly? I wonder sometimes if people even understand the word or how much is actually exploited in any game for people to gain advantages. GW2 would be a good example again of being loaded with bugs and systems that were exploited from the start, then eventually fixed. Theyve done just fine.
Issues at the start of a game aren't what kills them, so long as they DO get fixed. We have yet to see what will happen in the case of ESO. Most games die off simply due to being shitty, boring, rehashed games to begin with. Whether or not they have technical issues at launch is usually irrelevant.
Oh my, you don't play many mmorpgs do you? Just grabbed these off google.
http://www.examiner.com/article/guild-wars-2-early-access-launch-is-full-of-connection-errors
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/821/view/news/read/30622/Elder-Scrolls-Online-Servers-Down-for-Unscheduled-Maintenance.html
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Something to cheer us up, found on Reddit:
So after looking at several threads on this subreddit I think ive pieced it together... In the early hours of april fools day someone at zenimax collected the following items and placed them on the megaserver:
A piece of lettuce.
A lesser soul gem
A spool of yarn
Then they stood on the server and stuck fishsticks up their nose while repeating the word wabbajack. For those that do not know April 1st on Earth is Sheogoraths day and the only time he can be summoned.
Shortly after this players report logging into other players accounts. Random admin messages in varying languages appear on the screen. Chaos ensues and the servers are brought down.
I dont want to point fingers but I think it was /u/ZOS_JessicaFolsom who summoned the god of pranks. Can't blame her though - I mean who doesnt want a wabbajack?
My question is how many fishsticks did you need to stick up your nose before Sheogorath appeared? Also have you turned anyone into a chicken yet? Wabbajack...wabbajack. ..wabbajack."
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/21zx1p/an_explanation_for_the_server_issues_today/
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
So we've gone from "best launch ever!111" to "this is just like every other mmo launch".
I wonder where we'll be in a few days.
..Cake..
Well this thread will be forgotten. Players who love it will be playing and those that have nothing better to do will be back here trashing it. I'm not sure which life I would choose. Oh wait, I want to be happy so I will play.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
I can assure you this has happened to many games during their respective head launches and/or regular launches. It is almost tradition now!
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
This why open Betas are GOOD.
Paid Betas are BAD.
There are NEVER enough people to fully test the server load, bugs etc...
Lots of games have had worse opening days (or weeks!). However, my expectations are higher than they have ever been and I have little patience for developers who meet their internal deadlines by releasing a buggy product.
That said, ESO is doing fine so far. They should probably prioritize the fixing of the high visibility quest issues, but since these quest lines are not something that stops a player from playing - it is just not that big of a deal.
It does sound like they have some bigger problems to deal with tonight regarding basic account security, and that is kind of a big deal. It's going to be down for a while, I think.
Exactly my friend! People reached max within few days, not 24 hours xD
Poorly coded login server. My guess is that the @name is associated with your login and the communication between your @name and your login got compromised allowing people to find a back door into other people's characters without figuring out their PW.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
It'll be up later this morning, according ZOS.
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/64824/eso-north-american-megaserver-downtime-4-1-to-4-2
except that Zenimax basically had an open beta when they used MMO media sites to had out over 500k beta keys.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
You do know that there are consequences for making huge oversights like this right?
For all we know, for ZOS, this screw up could be worth 100,000 subscriptions being cancelled. You do the math.
Zenimax admittied to the issue indirectly people
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/64824/eso-north-american-megaserver-downtime-4-1-to-4-2
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Aloha Mr Hand !
What a joke. You haven't played many headstarts then.
FFXIV ARR was an absolute MESS for early access and launch.
If you were at work like I am, you wouldn't be concerned.
Sucks to get screwed out of playing time, never enough of it for me.
Last evening I ran into an entertaining bug that sort of brought me to a halt.
Was the DC quest where you had to chose between destroying the Orb or not, and speak with all the NPC characters you have been interacting with along the journey.
The bug was the last two characters were inaccessible, they were right in front of me, but they wouldn't talk to me. There was also at least a half a dozen other players trying to do it no matter how many times I relogged into other instances (at least 7).
To make it more fun, you couldn't exit the area, all doors to leave the room were inaccessible and the map only brought up the quest dungeon, not the world map. (trapped in the instance I guess we were)
Fortunately I had a guildmate group me so I could teleport over to a wayshrine near him and get me out, but I pretty much called a halt to my game time at that point as it was late and I figured things might be getting a bit unstable.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon