Guild Wars 2

I’d like to make a suggestion that all server downtime be announced in the news feed of the login client. I think it’s great that the sites like Twitter and Facebook are being used, as well as the forums, to announce new content and to notify us of downtime. However, some (like myself), don’t use Facebook or Twitter, and only rarely get on the forums.

I was blindsided by the midnight server downtime on the 6th. I’m on late at night by the server clock, and was counting on the pattern that had been established over the many months previous (patches going live sometime between 8:00am-12:00pm server time) to complete the last few living story achievements. While I knew the new content would go live on the 6th, the 60 minute warning in game was the first I had heard of precisely when that would be.

Now perhaps I shouldn’t have waited so long to do that last little bit of the living story, but every other MMO I’ve ever played (FFXI, WoW, DDO, to name a few) has announced estimated server downtime length and timing through in game channels days in advance of the actual downtime. This has generally been done through the login interface, which 100% of users must see on their way to playing the game. Facebook, Twitter, and even the forums, are seen by significantly fewer players. I know this because I am usually the most up to date on the news for GW2 in my guild, and I rarely ever get on any of the above auxiliary media.

Please start giving us notice of when, how long, and preferably why the servers will be down. If possible, please let us know a few days in advance. If you do, I am sure more than just the chivo hounds will be grateful. Thanks for the great work you all put in on this amazing game.

Yes! I didn’t know about it at all until I tried to log in. It said there was a server problem and to try again in a little bit. When I tried later, I got the same message. No explanation. I clicked the link to go to Support, where it gave me a couple basic things to check. It took several minutes before I realized the link had jumped me halfway down the page! When I scrolled up, I saw the (skipped) notification of the planned outage.

So, YES… please notify us in-game at the same time you notify Faceboogers and Twits.