Unfortunately we don't have the resources to have a person monitor each game 24 hours a day unless you want the developers to be awake 24 hours a day.

Posted by colonels19 on 10/3/2010 10:48:00 AM (view original):

Posted by seble on 10/3/2010 10:42:00 AM (view original):
Unfortunately we don't have the resources to have a person monitor each game 24 hours a day unless you want the developers to be awake 24 hours a day.

I personally think its your duty to keep your eye on the games that you run...at the very least check the forums at 2-3 AM to see if there are any noticeable problems...I mean the fact that you don't have support/employees on the premises when the games are running/supposed to be running, then what does that really say about the company?  Maybe you should adjust your scheduling if you can't have people be there at at the very least 2AM and 2PM...I mean that's just bad business, I don't care what the circumstances are.

If they don't have the support, they don't have the support.  Would you think it reasonable to have to get up in the middle of the night to go and check on your work?

Plus, if the glitch is only random, then you are paying someone to work for no reason.

I agree, it is an annoying thing that the end user has to put up with.

Hasn't it been happening at least once a week since the "update" was implemented?

yeah, but the bottom line for WIS is: It is a job, not a life.

So, if they don't fix it during business hours, then it doesn't get fixed.  At least, that is the message that I am getting.

Posted by indyjag on 10/3/2010 11:11:00 AM (view original):
yeah, but the bottom line for WIS is: It is a job, not a life.

So, if they don't fix it during business hours, then it doesn't get fixed.  At least, that is the message that I am getting.

Well then they should like/get used to not having a job then, because if a d-list hack can't find his own programming mistakes and just persistently covers them up with empty apologies and promises, then there won't be a business to run.  Whether WIS likes it or not, they're a 24-7 business...if you aren't going to have support there at the times that games run (arguably the most important time(s) of the day no?  We pay to PLAY the games right?) then why not change the game sim times to like 8AM and 8PM ET...that's reasonable, no?  But I bet somehow that would mess up the bat computer as well.

These persistent problems only continue to make the company and its programmers look incredibly incompetent, which is what I've been pitching for a while.  I mean, when's the last time you saw this happen at EA?

The personal attacks are stepping way over the line colonels, grow up.

Even before seble made the post on the top of this page, it's been pretty clear to me over the past few weeks that he has no additional support to assist him.  In fact, I can't even remember the last support ticket I created that wasn't answered by him.  I'm not sure he has any support from above or below.

This problem is terrible and I have to admit that I don't fully understand the impact it has had on folks since I've been lucky enough thus far to not have it impact my recruiting.  But the idea that we should round up our torches and pitchforks and demand that the evil corporate bastards fix this problem seems to be a bit off target.  There isn't an evil bad guy to target in this, unless you want to consider seble himself as that bad guy.  And that seems a bit off the mark since I take him at his word that nobody wants this fixed faster than he does.  We don't have to deal with the embarrassment every time this happens and I would imagine the impact on customers is fully understood by him when he tries to figure out how to deal with lost recruiting cycles.  I don't know what I would do if I were in his shoes.  And I don't really consider him working on this non-stop and going without sleep an option.  Ignoring life commitments that we all have and cannot be ignored, I really don't think it is wise to pore over lines of code when you are on your 10th cup of coffee and you haven't had more than 3 hours of sleep in days.

Those that are arguing for 24/7 support are correct in theory, but it seems way too apparent that the WIS business model does not allow for that.  Since it does not, I think I would prefer things stop running until the get fixed.  I might be in the minority, but if I know that the site is down, I'm perfectly fine with that and will find other ways to waste time when I should be busy at work.  It's the not knowing if things ran or not overnight that drives me crazy.  I'd just as soon take everything down and have this get fixed than for it to continue and have me finally understand the full impact when it impacts my recruiting.

24/7 support is the "correct" answer but it also appears to not be in the list of multiple choice options.  Would anybody else be in favor of shutting things down until seble could fix this?  This might not be on the list of options either, but given the lack of support seble has I think it might be the only one that gives him the time to fully address the problem.

Posted by colonels19 on 10/3/2010 11:33:00 AM (view original):

Posted by indyjag on 10/3/2010 11:11:00 AM (view original):
yeah, but the bottom line for WIS is: It is a job, not a life.

So, if they don't fix it during business hours, then it doesn't get fixed.  At least, that is the message that I am getting.

Well then they should like/get used to not having a job then, because if a d-list hack can't find his own programming mistakes and just persistently covers them up with empty apologies and promises, then there won't be a business to run.  Whether WIS likes it or not, they're a 24-7 business...if you aren't going to have support there at the times that games run (arguably the most important time(s) of the day no?  We pay to PLAY the games right?) then why not change the game sim times to like 8AM and 8PM ET...that's reasonable, no?  But I bet somehow that would mess up the bat computer as well.

These persistent problems only continue to make the company and its programmers look incredibly incompetent, which is what I've been pitching for a while.  I mean, when's the last time you saw this happen at EA?

ea just lost 60 million dollars cancelling a game because it was god awful, you couldn't have used a worse example

What everyone is trying to say is that we want to help in any way we can to help get this corrected....perhaps run a experimental world that sims 3 times a day like baseball and run nothing overnight until the glitches reappear and try to correct them..Perhaps eliminate some of the line codes that were implemented and run the program....keep adding new lines individually and run the program even 12 times a day just to see whats going on.  Perhaps a trial world that runs cycles 10 times a day or more with no overnights might help isolate the issues....

How many sites have 24/7 support?  How many businesses have 24/7 support?  Hell, most support issues are given a 24-72 hour window anyway.

Agreed this is kind of annoying, but like what said above, the personal attacked are ridiculous. If you read Seble's message, it is pretty clear that he's alone, or mostly alone on this. It also sounds like he's been putting in a decent amount of time trying to fix this. I think everyone, at some time or another, has had something at work/school/etc. go wrong that takes some time to fix/complete. To compound this, any help he does have is almost assuredly off since it was a Saturday night, and in reality WIS is a pretty small consumer base.

If nothing else, there are some real sports on tv today (Ryder Cup, NFL) to name two and the annual cost to play this game is about the equivalent of 2 rounds of golf. This isn't the worst thing that's ever happened.

Posted by pinkeye on 10/3/2010 11:46:00 AM (view original):

Posted by colonels19 on 10/3/2010 11:33:00 AM (view original):

Posted by indyjag on 10/3/2010 11:11:00 AM (view original):
yeah, but the bottom line for WIS is: It is a job, not a life.

So, if they don't fix it during business hours, then it doesn't get fixed.  At least, that is the message that I am getting.

Well then they should like/get used to not having a job then, because if a d-list hack can't find his own programming mistakes and just persistently covers them up with empty apologies and promises, then there won't be a business to run.  Whether WIS likes it or not, they're a 24-7 business...if you aren't going to have support there at the times that games run (arguably the most important time(s) of the day no?  We pay to PLAY the games right?) then why not change the game sim times to like 8AM and 8PM ET...that's reasonable, no?  But I bet somehow that would mess up the bat computer as well.

These persistent problems only continue to make the company and its programmers look incredibly incompetent, which is what I've been pitching for a while.  I mean, when's the last time you saw this happen at EA?

ea just lost 60 million dollars cancelling a game because it was god awful, you couldn't have used a worse example

And you're referencing?

Posted by kmasonbx on 10/3/2010 11:40:00 AM (view original):
The personal attacks are stepping way over the line colonels, grow up.

Personal attacks?

"this guy couldn't find a haystack in a needle factory"

"Well then they should like/get used to not having a job then, because if a d-list hack can't find his own programming mistakes and just persistently covers them up with empty apologies and promises"

Those personal attacks colonels.  It's completely over the line.

And he's probably referencing the Bourne game that EA cancelled.  They also cancelled NCAA Basketball 11.