DB had nothing to do with the outage. CenturyLink did, and there is already a Federal Communications Commission investigation, as it closed Emergency Services Call Centers in multiple states.
Indeed, it seems DB aren’t the only entity with poor contingency plans. While a video game outage might be annoying and upset large chunks of players, that’s a business decision, not life and death. I don’t know who would be responsible for the IT operation of those call centres, but I wouldn’t be surprised if heads roll over this [no macabre pun intended].
I cant say that I am shocked to hear that a government organisation screwed up in relation to an IT project. Here in the UK we often find that the same companies get the contracts regardless of how badly they have failed in the past.
It seems that when you are not a private company you don't have to worry if the company you buy from as a history of delivering projects that are over budget, late and don't deliver what they promised as long as they come from a supplier that has been used previously. The expression "Proven track record of failure" springs to mind
DB had nothing to do with the outage. CenturyLink did, and there is already a Federal Communications Commission investigation, as it closed Emergency Services Call Centers in multiple states.
Indeed, it seems DB aren’t the only entity with poor contingency plans. While a video game outage might be annoying and upset large chunks of players, that’s a business decision, not life and death. I don’t know who would be responsible for the IT operation of those call centres, but I wouldn’t be surprised if heads roll over this [no macabre pun intended].
I cant say that I am shocked to hear that a government organisation screwed up in relation to an IT project. Here in the UK we often find that the same companies get the contracts regardless of how badly they have failed in the past.
It seems that when you are not a private company you don't have to worry if the company you buy from as a history of delivering projects that are over budget, late and don't deliver what they promised as long as they come from a supplier that has been used previously. The expression "Proven track record of failure" springs to mind
That's the thing, CenturyLink isn't a government organization. It's a government enforced monopoly that's entirely private. Buy a congressman, write the bill he'll pass, make competition illegal. That's the carrier MO in the US.
This isn't the first time they've done this either. Last year it got them a $5 million dollar fine. The rounding error on a single day's collections.
I like the suggestion of choice of EMA, High Roller Sisko etc.
I couldn’t access the game for 12 hours and frankly I am not holding my breath on decent compensation. Not just the event knackered, but voyage, dailies etc.
Well my compensation has arrived (following a chase up on my ticket).
5 legendary time boosts. Not the Warship EMA I was hoping for....
Better than nothing though.
You'd prefer a 2 stat rubbish legendary with 2016 stats to something else?? Do you have infinite crew slots?
I didn't say that all 2 stat legendaries were crap, I said that the ones DB tend to give us outside of mega events as freebies tend to be crap. And *a lot* of 2 stat legendaries are just -1 crew slot as a 1/5 which is where they are going to stay for most people.
1. Without going into too many details, I'll have roughly 30 free slots after the event: I currently have 155. As I finish cards, they stay or go depending on if they meet my criteria or fulfill a need in the Arena. This is called "discipline".
2. Regulars on this forum routinely rag on any legendary with less than three stats. Whether the card is old or new makes no difference. Less than three stats = bad, unless they have a decent Arena ability.
3. If those cards stay at 1/5 then "most" people probably lack discipline, have no free slots, and probably need to rethink their strategy for accumulating honor.
DB is giving us a gift, usually that should be something that people want, right? Are you making the point that I should just bin the gift and move on without challenging it?
My initial point was that it would be great if these cards, that you with your max discipline stat would throw away, were something that was actually useful and not 550 honor useful. If someone kept giving you presents that you threw in the bin would that not reflect badly on the present giver? Or would you be mad if they grandfathered these cards to be good and you had thrown good cards in the bin?
Kudos to @SSR Barkley for trying to offer a reasonable analysis and commentary. I am curious about something: How have any other game companies handled this outage? Timelines is all I play, so I'm entirely oblivious to the rest of the gaming world.
I play multiple other games and use other online content. I have been able to access my work machines which are hosted in the US.
The only application that has had problems in my experience has been Timelines.
There might be other applications out there that were impacted but I personally are not aware of them.
WE had one of our applications that is remotely hosted not accessible during this. So there are others out there. Our website was probably 90% ok with just one major piece that we could not hit for our customers.
Time boosts are IMO a great solution. Gives people the means to catch up without otherwise interfering in the results.
Agreed. But it probably should have been more boosts and earlier. 4 5* boosts for every 2.5 hours of downtime seems reasonable. Let people run boosts during the event to make up for the lost time.
A fleetmate's CS response was that they wanted to know how not being able to get in most of Thursday and Friday was that they wanted him to explain how that affected his ranking.
A fleetmate's CS response was that they wanted to know how not being able to get in most of Thursday and Friday was that they wanted him to explain how that affected his ranking.
We have questioned whether DB employees other than Shan and JazzRiker actually play their own game, without ever asking (that I can recall) whether CS staff do the same. I think this response answers that question.
There is a pop up right now for a Survey. All it asks is to rate the game 1 to 10 on would you recommend it to friends, and then write what they can change. I rated "3" and in the dialog entry box made it clear why right now it is hard to recommend the game to friends........
Why was Vicki not expelled from Greendale after she literally stabbed Pierce in the face with a pencil?!?!?
There will not be a blanket compensation for this issue.
We regret the impact this major internet outage had on some of our players, and we understand the frustration this has caused.
Please submit a ticket for any specific issue this created for you, our Support Team will assist you. Thank you!
Shame for a couple of reasons - the first being CS is frequently a lottery. I suspect there'd be a lot less requests for blanket compo were CS to be consistent.
The second was it was a golden opportunity to win a lot of goodwill that could also have driven additional sales.
DB/TP need to hire Ferengi with bigger lobes.
I think the problem is that they hire Ferengi but forget that the player base is human.
The Ferengi model doesn't work too well on us hoomans!
DB could pay more $$$ to replicate their servers to additional AWS datacenters to offset potential issues such as major backbone provider outages, but costs would go through the roof and the game would no longer be sustainable.
Fair point and well put. I'm playing the CS lottery atm as I had to hammer all my boosts/shuttles to catch up following not being able to get it (and I'm in Europe so it took a while to get to 4000VP as I didn't stay up all night). Kinda just want a token here's a few boosts and we'll work on having a better plan in place if this sort of thing happens again going forward.
My CS response eventually came through last night. Which suggested the issue was closed.
For context here, I filled a ticket on Thursday last when I eventually got into the game, after a delay of 3hrs. As with above poster I am in Europe, so had to run extra tickets, boosts and shuttles and hadn't hit 4k before my bedtime.
Was told that they would be in touch and any compensation would be given in game.
I haven’t submitted a ticket because those that did were told there’s nothing CS can do and that those affected will receive an in game message.
So to help DB I’m following this guidance and not bogging down CS with a ticket they are powerless to deal with. Also, I don’t have the patience for the CS mini games at present.
Apologies if my thinking is wrong here. There is 8 pages about an issue that was beyond direct control. However when something that was controllable was left out, there was only about 3 pages. I am talking of the first event in the Mega Event, no 3 seat missions. https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/12425/no-3-seat-shuttles-this-event/p1/
Granted it was a small issue, and most dismissed it because there was plenty of small bonus crew to fill. The response was:
Thank you for the additional info provided regarding missions seats.
We did intend for this particular event to have a mix of 3, 4 and 5 missions seats. As you have noticed this ended up not being the case.
This does not mean that the event is broken however, and no change will be made.
If something isn't working as intended within their control and it is shrugged off why should anything be expected when something happens beyond their direct control? Not an apple to apple comparison with each issue, not even close really. Not being able to login/ play as compared to not including something that was intended. Though in my opinion, a precedence is already set on how issues are handled. Either 'oops' here is X as compensation, or not much if anything is done. More frustrating is one player will get some sort of compensation, when another player with the exact same issue, gets another form of scaled back compensation or little to nothing at all.
My intent is not to belittle those affected by issues. From personal experience in 2017 I spent 8 months in CS about an issue only to have the final resolution (not verbatim) that is just the way it is. It was disheartening and frustrating and something I don't care and will not repeat. My expectations of how issues are handled are pretty low. Would I like to see consistency, stability and transparency, sure. Sadly, and this is just my opinion, when something happens it is a waiting game. Then when the issue is addressed, mainly there is just form of small compensation without the issue really being solved as more and more content is rolled out. Sometimes I feel like, yes there is an issue, no we aren't going to do much about it and here is new content you should focus on, just move on.
When was the last time there was a Mega Event without an issue? Look at all the issues from last year alone.
Playing since April 2016
Waving dead chickens while using Voodoo in Star Trek Timelines since Jan 2017 (forum comment from another user)
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
This Forum should have one of those buttons where you can hide comments by a specific person. For cases like this.
Why was Vicki not expelled from Greendale after she literally stabbed Pierce in the face with a pencil?!?!?
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
This Forum should have one of those buttons where you can hide comments by a specific person. For cases like this.
It does! Just click on the user you wish to hide, then click the little thing that looks like a a person with a down arrow next to it, click ignore, enjoy the silence.
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
This Forum should have one of those buttons where you can hide comments by a specific person. For cases like this.
It does! Just click on the user you wish to hide, then click the little thing that looks like a a person with a down arrow next to it, click ignore, enjoy the silence.
Almost as hard to find as the white on white x for deleting drafts
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
This Forum should have one of those buttons where you can hide comments by a specific person. For cases like this.
It does! Just click on the user you wish to hide, then click the little thing that looks like a a person with a down arrow next to it, click ignore, enjoy the silence.
Huh. Most Forums I am on it is a button in the posts. Thanx
Why was Vicki not expelled from Greendale after she literally stabbed Pierce in the face with a pencil?!?!?
Comments
I cant say that I am shocked to hear that a government organisation screwed up in relation to an IT project. Here in the UK we often find that the same companies get the contracts regardless of how badly they have failed in the past.
It seems that when you are not a private company you don't have to worry if the company you buy from as a history of delivering projects that are over budget, late and don't deliver what they promised as long as they come from a supplier that has been used previously. The expression "Proven track record of failure" springs to mind
That's the thing, CenturyLink isn't a government organization. It's a government enforced monopoly that's entirely private. Buy a congressman, write the bill he'll pass, make competition illegal. That's the carrier MO in the US.
This isn't the first time they've done this either. Last year it got them a $5 million dollar fine. The rounding error on a single day's collections.
Well my compensation has arrived (following a chase up on my ticket).
5 legendary time boosts. Not the Warship EMA I was hoping for....
Better than nothing though.
DB is giving us a gift, usually that should be something that people want, right? Are you making the point that I should just bin the gift and move on without challenging it?
My initial point was that it would be great if these cards, that you with your max discipline stat would throw away, were something that was actually useful and not 550 honor useful. If someone kept giving you presents that you threw in the bin would that not reflect badly on the present giver? Or would you be mad if they grandfathered these cards to be good and you had thrown good cards in the bin?
WE had one of our applications that is remotely hosted not accessible during this. So there are others out there. Our website was probably 90% ok with just one major piece that we could not hit for our customers.
Agreed. But it probably should have been more boosts and earlier. 4 5* boosts for every 2.5 hours of downtime seems reasonable. Let people run boosts during the event to make up for the lost time.
We have questioned whether DB employees other than Shan and JazzRiker actually play their own game, without ever asking (that I can recall) whether CS staff do the same. I think this response answers that question.
...Have you been to America?
Fair point and well put. I'm playing the CS lottery atm as I had to hammer all my boosts/shuttles to catch up following not being able to get it (and I'm in Europe so it took a while to get to 4000VP as I didn't stay up all night). Kinda just want a token here's a few boosts and we'll work on having a better plan in place if this sort of thing happens again going forward.
Check out our website to find out more:
https://wiki.tenforwardloungers.com/
For context here, I filled a ticket on Thursday last when I eventually got into the game, after a delay of 3hrs. As with above poster I am in Europe, so had to run extra tickets, boosts and shuttles and hadn't hit 4k before my bedtime.
Was told that they would be in touch and any compensation would be given in game.
And now it's "closed". I beg to differ.
It's getting less and less likely that there will be anything.
Also, @Shan specifically said DB said "**tsk tsk** it up".......
As I said before, DB reacts only if it's easy and/or convinient and/or beneficial for them.
I haven’t submitted a ticket because those that did were told there’s nothing CS can do and that those affected will receive an in game message.
So to help DB I’m following this guidance and not bogging down CS with a ticket they are powerless to deal with. Also, I don’t have the patience for the CS mini games at present.
So we have seen varied amounts of speed boosts and now a ranked rewards bump. Talk about a lottery. 🙄
Which is why they should have just done something CONSISTENT in-game.......
https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/12425/no-3-seat-shuttles-this-event/p1/
Granted it was a small issue, and most dismissed it because there was plenty of small bonus crew to fill. The response was:
If something isn't working as intended within their control and it is shrugged off why should anything be expected when something happens beyond their direct control? Not an apple to apple comparison with each issue, not even close really. Not being able to login/ play as compared to not including something that was intended. Though in my opinion, a precedence is already set on how issues are handled. Either 'oops' here is X as compensation, or not much if anything is done. More frustrating is one player will get some sort of compensation, when another player with the exact same issue, gets another form of scaled back compensation or little to nothing at all.
My intent is not to belittle those affected by issues. From personal experience in 2017 I spent 8 months in CS about an issue only to have the final resolution (not verbatim) that is just the way it is. It was disheartening and frustrating and something I don't care and will not repeat. My expectations of how issues are handled are pretty low. Would I like to see consistency, stability and transparency, sure. Sadly, and this is just my opinion, when something happens it is a waiting game. Then when the issue is addressed, mainly there is just form of small compensation without the issue really being solved as more and more content is rolled out. Sometimes I feel like, yes there is an issue, no we aren't going to do much about it and here is new content you should focus on, just move on.
When was the last time there was a Mega Event without an issue? Look at all the issues from last year alone.
Waving dead chickens while using Voodoo in Star Trek Timelines since Jan 2017 (forum comment from another user)
FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/181490765563427/
He/she was a bit crazy but I had to chuckle at some of the things they came out with.
No. JesterGenie was fun!!! Every Forum needs a ranter. Some of the funniest threads on the Pirate game Forum are the meltdowns.
#SaveJesterGenie
No way, this forum is much better off without his/her contributions...
Agreed. It went from productive/useful, to annoying, to disruptive. Knowing where the line is is a skill, hopefully this will help JG learn where that is in the future. If a person like JG goes unchecked on a community forum such as this it threatens the very life of the forum, because people will simply stop contributing because they know the second they hit submit and try to participate in a discussion this joker will interject nonsense and derail every conversation.
This Forum should have one of those buttons where you can hide comments by a specific person. For cases like this.
It does! Just click on the user you wish to hide, then click the little thing that looks like a a person with a down arrow next to it, click ignore, enjoy the silence.
Almost as hard to find as the white on white x for deleting drafts
Huh. Most Forums I am on it is a button in the posts. Thanx