Guild Wars 2

Is this just me being selfish or does anybody else feel like the release time for Europe is just awful!

8am on Friday is pretty well… crap? I was hoping for a later in the day release as we saw with the likes of WoW, which tried to make it good for both sides of the pond by giving Europe a somewhat late at night launch and America a mid-day launch but this… is only really good for Americans and even then its not great because it’ll be the late kind of times Europe usually got!

Am I alone in this or what? I mean I love pouring hours into GW2 and I really wanted to be there for the launch of HoT but I’ve got work ANet! like almost all of the rest of the working world

(Guess I should of booked the day off Q_Q)

I don’t see why you’re complaining, it releases at 2 am for me.

midnight for me, I think, I just be getting home from work, looking for some tv and sleep.

If you have work/school then I’d say that release time is great for eu players, since most likely there will be problems at start (“Never play on release/patch day”). When you get home you hopefully get to play somewhat fixed game.

Releases at 3am for me. Still going to stay up and play on my rev a bit though.

You get to play the minute you’re home from work/uni/school tomorrow, its not a bad thing really (I’d rather immediate play than waiting until later at night).

steve.2945:

I don’t see why you’re complaining, it releases at 2 am for me.

I suppose its because it is a time that fits almost literally no-body except the few who have specifically booked the day off/just had the day off anyway or people who don’t work at all.

Its such an odd time for release.

No matter what time they release it will not be a good time for some player in world. Should be glad arena net will probably be up all night their time work on patch after release. Think of how they feel be up all night so you get less bug when you get home from work to play.

jubov.2037:

If you have work/school then I’d say that release time is great for eu players, since most likely there will be problems at start (“Never play on release/patch day”). When you get home you hopefully get to play somewhat fixed game.

But its all part of the fun and frustration of launch, I enjoy being there for it – trying to get into the game and maybe one of your friends succeeds and all that jazz.

It’s just a good time to be at the actual launch of something, especially with other people who want to play, even if it is buggy or not working properly its more of the event itself that matters.

8am release here for me, I’ve got to be in my flat all day while my new kitchen’s being finished off and I’d have been getting up HoT or no. I’m expecting not to be able to play until 12pm earliest due to inevitable new builds and slow downloading because of increased server traffic. The timing’s actually great for those in Singapore and the like as they’re +8 GMT. Also, it’s half term where I am in the UK so I imagine there’s going to be a fair number of people trying to get on regardless of work/school commitments of others. Certainly was bloody busy today when I went out to do some shopping.

No matter what, release times are always going to be horrible for about half the world.

That’s just physics for ya.

Qugi.2653:

No matter what time they release it will not be a good time for some player in world. Should be glad arena net will probably be up all night their time work on patch after release. Think of how they feel be up all night so you get less bug when you get home from work to play.

Well that serves my point better

If they released it later in the English/French time zone they’d be able to work on that stuff during the day rather than this very odd incredibly late American release they are doing (it’ll be what like almost midnight for them when it launches? something bizarre like that)

They’re kind of putting it on themselves aren’t they, with these odd times?

And I know there isn’t an ‘ideal time for everyone’ of course not but they could at least try to give most of us a decent launch window don’t you think? or should we all have a bad launch just because of this?

My point is release at time when not many play so bug affect less people and they can fix over night with less player affected by bug and possible time down. Then when busy time for EU/NA maybe less bug and new build to do and affect less people so less complaint.

Sorry Anet did not call you to ask what time you want for launch.

2AM for me too. I don’t think that’s really better than your 8AM OP.

Maybe they just wanted to follow precedent. Guild Wars 2 was scheduled to release at midnight, as well. Maybe HoT will release 3 hours early, just as GW2 did, so you can play at 5am, instead!

Good luck.

Qugi.2653:

My point is release at time when not many play so bug affect less people and they can fix over night with less player affected by bug and possible time down. Then when busy time for EU/NA maybe less bug and new build to do and affect less people so less complaint.

Sorry Anet did not call you to ask what time you want for launch.

Well no reason to get snarky about it, I understand where you are coming from and I get the idea behind it, I just think its overall unimportant – I don’t think, all things considered, that people really care about a buggy launch because they get wrapped up in the launch itself and as you’ve pointed out yourself, its guaranteed to be buggy no matter when they launch it.

I’ll take my launch with a side order of buggyness plax, yeah just let me be there – I don’t mind ;00000000000 kktyvmthnxloadsanet33333

But in all seriousness I’m still massively excited about the expansion, this really is only a small niggle in the grand scheme of things.

There are technical reasons to also launching during non-busy hours. There will be less people patching and logging in, which will alleviate load. If they had launched HoT during NA prime or EU prime, they’re asking for trouble.

gavyne.6847:

There are technical reasons to also launching during non-busy hours. There will be less people patching and logging in, which will alleviate load. If they had launched HoT during NA prime or EU prime, they’re asking for trouble.

^

They had enough problems with the last update. Slow loading. The forum was inaccessible. They probably picked a time when the fewest people are on to spread out the download as much as possible.

It releases at 12:01am for me.

Midnight here, why do people want to log in right at release? is there an event or something?

You’re right.

We should ask them to delay the release for 12-14 hours.

12 am PST is 8pm on Friday 23rd for people in Tonga, 7pm for New Zealand.

That means that releasing between 12am and 3:59am PST is the only possible window to guarantee a release on the 23rd for those countries.

Alaska, Hawaii and Samoa get lucky with a release on the 22nd.

To get ‘everyone’ a 23rd release day they would have needed to go live at 3am PDT, not very fair for ANet employees.

8am just fine. I can start it downloading, and it’ll be ready later in the day when I am. Couldn’t be better Appreciate it’ll never be right for everyone though.

Does it matter? It’s permanent content so losing a few hours right at the start (when there’s most likely to be problems with the servers and/or content) doesn’t matter.

I won’t get to play until Saturday night at the absolute earliest, more likely not until Monday and I’m fine with that. Partially because I’m looking forward to the stuff I’ll be doing instead, but also because I know HoT will be there when I have time for it.

What about the Europeans who work hourly jobs (so may not be working Friday) or salaried employees who took the day off? What about night shift workers? Why delay the European release just so you can be the first one logged in?

If my experience with large scale gaming is right, it will be nothing missed as the servers get crushed.

The release time is pretty irrelevant, since you’re unlikely to be able to log in anyway.

Yeh 3AM release for Eastern Standard Time so I don’t know what you’re complaining about, if anything it seems as though they released it just for you since they assume you wake up and get to see the launch when you wake up….

Friday is my day off. Yaaay!

It’s Halloween, I book the time off. It’s tradition for me. The last 10 years I’ve booked of the time for Halloween in Guild wars. Sounds sad, but given where I use to work we where a small team, so we couldn’t have too many of us off at once. And being a good guy. I’d let the rest of the team have first dibs at the holidays, at the time I didn’t have a family of my own, so I wasn’t bothered. But anyway, one day my boss told me I had to use up my holidays as the company policy was changing that we couldn’t carry over out holidays to the next year if we had not used them. So I had to take 2 weeks asap. And it just so happens it was the same time as the first Halloween in GW1. Every year after that it would be the same, I’d have to use up some of my holiday as I was running out of time to book it.

So yeah, not a problem for me. I’m off work anyway.

UK player here. It releases at 7am for me.

I don’t leave my house in the morning until 7:45am, so im just going to set it up to download HoT and by the time I get home, it should be ready to go, so I can log in and get going right away.

OP, how many MMOs have you played on launch day, or tried to access the second the content was available? I’m guessing this is your first time, since you would other wise realize that the launch time is the same time that content gets launched for MMOs amd games with online gameplay, developed in North America mind you, launch. Since Anet doesn’t have offices in other countries, this means that the time is global.

This has nothing to do with them being inconvenient, and everything to do with the fact that most games developed in North America are located on the West Coast and in the Paciffic Time Zone. If they had their EU only megaservers based in Europe, then the launch for Europe might be, might be mind you, persuaded to launch at 00:00 UTC, or midnight as it would be in Greenwich, England for the European players. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that since doing so wouldn’t likely be the case anyway, just look at how Blizzard does its’ global launches: Midnight Pacific Time (UTC – 7).

The reason for this is simple: one time for the entire world means the least amount of coordination and administrative effort involved. Also, launching at a time when the majority of players are likely to be either asleep, at work, or soon to be so, makes sense, as it gives them a few more precious hours to find and isolate problems that they know are coming and get started on fixing them.

Argon.1563:

UK player here. It releases at 7am for me.

I don’t leave my house in the morning until 7:45am, so im just going to set it up to download HoT and by the time I get home, it should be ready to go, so I can log in and get going right away.

I’m sorry to have to tell you but the UK is in British Summer Time (GMT+1) until 25th October so we’re 8 hours ahead of pacific, not 7.

Demented Yak.6105:

Argon.1563:

UK player here. It releases at 7am for me.

I don’t leave my house in the morning until 7:45am, so im just going to set it up to download HoT and by the time I get home, it should be ready to go, so I can log in and get going right away.

I’m sorry to have to tell you but the UK is in British Summer Time (GMT+1) until 25th October so we’re 8 hours ahead of pacific, not 7.

^This is right, I made the same mistake in another thread. Will have to wait till the boy is off to school before I can start. Still it will only be 40 minutes after everyone else. I just upgraded my Internet to 200MB but I get 211MB, so I’m happy. Shouldn’t take too long to down load anything.

Uk here, I’m fine with the early release, I have work 2 hours after launch haha then home and another shift later on in the day, I’d rather play couple hours right on launch and some after work than go to work all day anxious to play and have to wait ages after I get home to launch.

I’m not complaining, least I’ll get to try out revenant before work and just be thinking of stuff and new builds to try and make at work lol

oh no…8 am is so horrible…

Hold on, I gotta nap now so I can be up at 3am…

jgcd.6041:

OP, how many MMOs have you played on launch day, or tried to access the second the content was available? I’m guessing this is your first time, since you would other wise realize that the launch time is the same time that content gets launched for MMOs amd games with online gameplay, developed in North America mind you, launch. Since Anet doesn’t have offices in other countries, this means that the time is global.

This has nothing to do with them being inconvenient, and everything to do with the fact that most games developed in North America are located on the West Coast and in the Paciffic Time Zone. If they had their EU only megaservers based in Europe, then the launch for Europe might be, might be mind you, persuaded to launch at 00:00 UTC, or midnight as it would be in Greenwich, England for the European players. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that since doing so wouldn’t likely be the case anyway, just look at how Blizzard does its’ global launches: Midnight Pacific Time (UTC – 7).

The reason for this is simple: one time for the entire world means the least amount of coordination and administrative effort involved. Also, launching at a time when the majority of players are likely to be either asleep, at work, or soon to be so, makes sense, as it gives them a few more precious hours to find and isolate problems that they know are coming and get started on fixing them.

I think you’ve misinterpreted my post and my points.

This isn’t the first launch of an expansion I’ve been present for, as I did mention previously, in fact if you look back you’ll see I directly compare how WoW launched its expansion at Midnight for Europe and mid-day for America which I found to be a better kind of time and I’d of assumed a better time for most to at least be there for the launch rather than missing it altogether like I and many others who have work will be tomorrow.

I’d like to point out to all those reading this thread that my intention is not that I simply want to jump into HoT as fast as possible but rather I want to be there for what is a very fun and generally good community experience of the launch of the expansion, THAT is what is important to me – I am fully aware it will be buggy and likely broken but that really isn’t the point of being there to see the launch.

I simply believed that the times I mentioned above would fit better for a majority of people to actually see the expansion launch thus letting more people experience that cool buzz around a new expansion, a lot of people here are twisting what I’m saying into very different discussions.

I don’t understand why the ‘WoW’ launch times are better for ‘everybody’. You state that ‘WoW’ launch times are mid-day for Americans. So, at a time when Americans are at work. As opposed to ArenaNet’s launch time when EU players are at work.

I guess the answer to first question you asked in the OP might be….yes.

Good luck.

First couple of hours will be ugh, lag, server crash, down etc. No launch time is good for anyone because of that. Launch time for me in US is 3 am (EST for me) so definitely not mid day unless I was working the night shift…. I plan on getting a good nights sleep, get up some am time after 7ish, start the download, get brekkies and then look into what goodies await. No hurry at all. HoT is there for the duration. I am a bit more interested in participating in the Halloweeny stuffs for now. Best times will actually be later in the day after the initial stuff shakes out.

So, this release time is more friendly to Oceanic players for a change?

Yes, you’re being selfish.

Only players making out with the launch time are Hobbits and Kangaroos. That’s OK because they still have terrible pings. So in the end it’s a bad time for everyone. At least everybody can complain.

Personally I think it works out quite well for us in the UK. Granted I am not at work tomorrow but it gives me the opportunity to get everything done whilst it downloads and then when it is done I will be ready to play. But you can set it downloading before you go to work and it will be done when you get home.

Was kinda hoping that they would allow me to download as soon as it hit the 23rd and then have a release time but hey, we have been waiting a while for it, whats another couple of hours?

It works well for me. I will wake up 8-9 hours after it launches, which gives them time to fix things before I log in.
Why do you feel the need to immediately play? The expansion isn’t going anywhere.

I don’t have school on Fridays so I don’t mind that much. I honestly think it’s better anyways as not that many people will try to download it and log in, so there’s a lesser chance of servers crashing. It’s not a big of a deal not to play it right after release imo since there’s no event or anything like that you would miss on. It will be there once you’re back from school/work.

Eh, it’s midnight for me. I can deal with that.

6pm launch. Suck it nerds!

or maybe they dont want to break the game from everyone trying to play it at once, instead some people will play right away and others will gradually join throughout the day/night

2AM here. But I’m a night owl, so yay me.

Like was said before, the release date will never be perfect for everyone. Someone is going to have to suffer with a bad release time. 8AM doesn’t sound so bad actually. It’s right at the start of the day, and if you have work or school, let it download while you’re gone so it’s ready when you get home.

It’ll be 3am for me. They decided to go with a midnight launch in their timezone, which I think is pretty reasonable. And since HoT will be around for ages (unlike the beta tests) there’s not as much pressure to be online right at 12:01 am PST

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

It’ll be 3am for me. They decided to go with a midnight launch in their timezone, which I think is pretty reasonable. And since HoT will be around for ages (unlike the beta tests) there’s not as much pressure to be online right at 12:01 am PST

Your name synchronizes well with this discussion, somehow