We've received much feedback from the community in regards to server times and inconsistency. We would like to inform Maplers that we will be sticking to UTC to provide more consistency to Maplers and to avoid confusion for event times. Currently, some event start times have typically been 12:00 AM PDT/7:00 AM UTC. After our June update, events will start at 5:00 PM PDT/12:00 AM UTC.
At least they're sticking to a consistent time zone now lol. But yeah, any news on the Kritias invasion times and Orchid calling times? In UTC, those're both at really inconvenient times for US players (with the Orchid calling times also running a big risk of getting swallowed by updates/extended maintenances).
What about sales and hot days, what about in-game things like flag race, invasion and Orchid's quest? What about the whole "may be shifted 1 hour due to daylight savings" deal?
This is dumb. You literally have a European server (Luna). There are also far more western players, yet all the western servers are all on UTC.
Why is the idea of setting the European server, Luna, to a european-friendly time zone while simultaneously setting the western servers to a western-friendly time zone (like PST or EST) such a hard concept to grasp?
Why is inconveniencing 75% of your player base the preferable choice?
People aren't going to server hop just to play content a few hours early, because all of their stuff is on another server. And even if they did, who cares?
If the issue is about not having people on UTC miss out on timed content after a patch, just don't start the events right after the patch! It's not like there won't be 4-16 hours of maintenance right after the patch drops anyway.
Why is inconveniencing 75% of your player base the preferable choice?
Nexon's been up to some unfavorable decisions in order to make Euro players feel welcome...
Moderator Note: This text was edited for violating our Code of Conduct.
We're currently working to address issues of content being inaccessible due to being time sensitive.
We'll be sure to let Maplers know once we have the solution ready.
At least they're sticking to a consistent time zone now lol. But yeah, any news on the Kritias invasion times and Orchid calling times? In UTC, those're both at really inconvenient times for US players (with the Orchid calling times also running a big risk of getting swallowed by updates/extended maintenances).
We're currently working to address issues of content being inaccessible due to being time sensitive.
We'll be sure to let Maplers know once we have the solution ready.
@Arwoo
I appreciate this, but you're completely disregarding half the problem. EMS merged into GMS, so why does GMS have to use EMS's timezone? It's like requiring the entirity of the United States to learn French, as opposed to a French immigrant learning English. It makes no sense that the vast majority of GMS's population in America should have to conform to a small minority.
Moreso, players can't even trust that times will be consistent in the future, so saying "we'll make times consistent" has little weight in fixing the problem. GMS never had problems like timezone consistency with PST. Wouldn't it be easier for Nexon to not have to deal with it too? If they really want, they could still add the conversions for UTC on event pages and everything.
Creating consistency will still leave American players unsatisfied, due to the inconvenience of reset, 2x times, etc. In PST, or even EST, players would have the whole day to do dailies and reset-dependent things, while in UTC, half the day people are waiting for reset, the other half, with less time actually doing things. Why should it have to be tomorrow for 4-8 hours of the day for the majority of the population? Another thing is the unnecessary process of having to convert UTC to PST or EST times in game.
I don't know which timezone you personally want, but the majority of players would feel far more comfortable with an American based timezone. I highly suggest that you reconsider this decision and would request that you inform Nexon that just creating consistency isn't enough. The issue of UTC is not only about consistency. It's about deciding which part of the playerbase Nexon values more: the majority in America, or the minority European population. In situations like this, it is of everyone's best interest to satisfy the largest amount of people possible. UTC was a mistake, and has caused several problems for everyone.
why even change the time? i've been playing ms for quite a while and it's always been PST. Changing it to UST just messes everything up. GMS is mostly US and other western countries which has it more convenient on PST. Besides, EMS merged to GMS so they should adapt our time (PST).
Atleast it's consistent now i guess. Can anyone tell me the daily reset time, flag race times, and others now that it's gonna change? i guess i have to memorize new times...
why even change the time? i've been playing ms for quite a while and it's always been PST. Changing it to UST just messes everything up. GMS is mostly US and other western countries which has it more convenient on PST. Besides, EMS merged to GMS so they should adapt our time (PST).
Atleast it's consistent now i guess. Can anyone tell me the daily reset time, flag race times, and others now that it's gonna change? i guess i have to memorize new times...
Reset as it currently is, will be at 8pm edt/ 5pm pdt, Flag race is at 3pm est/12pm pdt, 7pm edt/4pm pdt, and i believe one more time but i cant remember. 2x Ursus is at 4pm edt/ 1pm pdt .
Kritias invasions are at - 4:00 (4AM) 6:00 (6AM) 8:00 (8AM)10:00 (10AM) 12:00(noon)2:00 (2PM)4:00 (4PM)6:00 (6PM) All of which are edt.
Let it be known that all of these times will be set back an hour some time in November because of the end of daylight savings time.
Reset as it currently is, will be at 8pm edt/ 5pm pdt, Flag race is at 3pm est/12pm pdt, 7pm edt/4pm pdt, and i believe one more time but i cant remember. 2x Ursus is at 4pm edt/ 1pm pdt .
Kritias invasions are at - 4:00 (4AM) 6:00 (6AM) 8:00 (8AM)10:00 (10AM) 12:00(noon)2:00 (2PM)4:00 (4PM)6:00 (6PM) All of which are edt.
Let it be known that all of these times will be set back an hour some time in November because of the end of daylight savings time.
These times are pretty horrid for anyone still in school or working on the east coast. I had to push myself to wake up earlier before work to get in at least 2 invasions per day.
2x is also pretty poorly timed for east coast. 4am-7am EDT is a joke, 2-5 is fine. 10pm-1am is okay for Saturday but poor for Sunday when getting ready for the school/work week. Here's hoping for change
We've received much feedback from the community in regards to server times and inconsistency. We would like to inform Maplers that we will be sticking to UTC to provide more consistency to Maplers and to avoid confusion for event times. Currently, some event start times have typically been 12:00 AM PDT/7:00 AM UTC. After our June update, events will start at 5:00 PM PDT/12:00 AM UTC.
Thank you,
- Maple Team
Maybe Maple should have done the following:
UTC = Luna Only.
PST/EST = Rest of Maple.
Pretty simple, no?
I think Nexon's just being lazy overall and trying to save money in the end. Instead of going with this route, you should have originally kept things the same and when EMS moved over just have UTC for them.
It makes no logical sense at all. This kind of feels like the syria refugees coming into Canada, when Trudeau should be paying more attention to the country's he's running.
Overall a Major Disappointment...
Sincerely,
This guy, who's been voicing about disagreeing to UTC ever since it was brought up in the first place.
Consistency is good.
By far, the worst problem with the UTC timezone was the lack of consistency. If everything works by this clock, I am sure people will learn to adjust. Although we will always have new or returning players who miss out because they didn't realize they needed to pick up Monday's Hot Week box on Sunday evening. I think that maybe adding a server-time clock (which includes day-of-the-week and date) to the UI would be helpful. Also, as I'm sure you're aware, consistency doesn't just mean "schedule everything by UTC" but also "have the game code, the in-game event list, and the update notes, all say the same thing".
The second-worst problem with the timezone is time-dependent content. I am glad to hear that you intend to address this issue, but somewhat skeptical because that promise was already made six months ago, and nothing was done except for 2x scheduling. Do make sure you address existing permanent content (such as Kritias Invasions and Flag Race), existing recurring events (such as Mystic Fields and Pink Zakum), and all future content from KMS, that has a tendency to make things run only from 10AM-10PM server time, or some other window that works for a single-timezone service but not for a global one.
Along with cheering for the good news, I must admit I am still puzzled as to why we need to have GMS' server time be UTC, at all.
The reasons given to us, such as "easier to schedule events," don't make sense. Events need to be scheduled around the clock anyway (see previous paragraph). Maintenances are scheduled by lowest-activity time (or possibly the timezones suitable to the teams in California and Korea?), and did not change when server time was changed.
I understand that, as a global service, we would like to have a "neutral timezone". However, the way the Earth is set up, there is no such thing. Every timezone is more natural, or convenient, to some than to others. And UTC happens to be convenient to the minority of GMS'ers who live in Europe, rather than the majority who are in the Americas.
My guess is that the decision to move to UTC was made hastily during the EU-NA migration maintenance, without too much consideration of the effect server time has on gameplay. And now we are stuck with it because the servers would need to be shut off for 7 hours (so, at least a 9-hour maintenance) to move them back to PST/PDT, and upper management does not allow shutting the service down for that long just to make things more convenient.
If that is the case, would you please run a poll asking the players whether we would be willing to have a 10-hour maintenance to move server time back to Pacific time?
I don't know whether it would sway management's opinion at all, but I think that, in general, happy players generate more income than players upset by missing events because of an unnatural system clock. One long maintenance for years of player lack-of-aggravation seems worth it to me.
To conclude:
Consistency is excellent news, although moving to PST would have been even better.
And content needs to be round-the-clock, regardless, so I hope this promise will finally be fulfilled.
My guess is that the decision to move to UTC was made hastily during the EU-NA migration maintenance, without too much consideration of the effect server time has on gameplay. And now we are stuck with it because the servers would need to be shut off for 7 hours (so, at least a 9-hour maintenance) to move them back to PST/PDT, and upper management does not allow shutting the service down for that long just to make things more convenient.
If that is the case, would you please run a poll asking the players whether we would be willing to have a 10-hour maintenance to move server time back to Pacific time?
I don't know whether it would sway management's opinion at all, but I think that, in general, happy players generate more income than players upset by missing events because of an unnatural system clock. One long maintenance for years of player lack-of-aggravation seems worth it to me.
There was a poll before where the overwhelming majority said they wanted PST. Management completely ignored, or at least disregarded the results when they were passed to them. While that didn't mention having to have a long maintenance to make the change back, it wouldn't change the results much. The majority of the playerbase would be very well willing to wait a maintenance to get PST back.
To be fair, the poll was something I did to show them just how badly we were all opposed to the servers being run on UTC. There was never a promise from management. It was literally just me trying to be proactive.
My guess is that the decision to move to UTC was made hastily during the EU-NA migration maintenance, without too much consideration of the effect server time has on gameplay. And now we are stuck with it because the servers would need to be shut off for 7 hours (so, at least a 9-hour maintenance) to move them back to PST/PDT, and upper management does not allow shutting the service down for that long just to make things more convenient.
If that is the case, would you please run a poll asking the players whether we would be willing to have a 10-hour maintenance to move server time back to Pacific time?
I don't know whether it would sway management's opinion at all, but I think that, in general, happy players generate more income than players upset by missing events because of an unnatural system clock. One long maintenance for years of player lack-of-aggravation seems worth it to me.
There was a poll before where the overwhelming majority said they wanted PST. Management completely ignored, or at least disregarded the results when they were passed to them. While that didn't mention having to have a long maintenance to make the change back, it wouldn't change the results much. The majority of the playerbase would be very well willing to wait a maintenance to get PST back.
To be fair, the poll was something I did to show them just how badly we were all opposed to the servers being run on UTC. There was never a promise from management. It was literally just me trying to be proactive.
I also don't think it would change the results, but I think Nexon's management needs to see that. They only see us wailing whenever the game is down for any reason, especially when maintenances are extended or unscheduled, so maybe they think the prospect of 10 hours of downtime would change our minds.
If you can think of any other way to convince them to reverse the decision (assuming my guess about "however poorly-thought-out the decision was, we're stuck with it now" is true), I'd be glad to hear it.
Of course, if they actually have a good and convincing reason why GMS needs to be on UTC time, I'd love to hear it, so the topic can be put to rest.
Comments
That's all I see here.
If that's "listening to complaints", I can't wait to see what you do next.
Why is the idea of setting the European server, Luna, to a european-friendly time zone while simultaneously setting the western servers to a western-friendly time zone (like PST or EST) such a hard concept to grasp?
Why is inconveniencing 75% of your player base the preferable choice?
People aren't going to server hop just to play content a few hours early, because all of their stuff is on another server. And even if they did, who cares?
If the issue is about not having people on UTC miss out on timed content after a patch, just don't start the events right after the patch! It's not like there won't be 4-16 hours of maintenance right after the patch drops anyway.
Nexon's been up to some unfavorable decisions in order to make Euro players feel welcome...
Moderator Note: This text was edited for violating our Code of Conduct.
We'll be sure to let Maplers know once we have the solution ready.
@Arwoo
I appreciate this, but you're completely disregarding half the problem. EMS merged into GMS, so why does GMS have to use EMS's timezone? It's like requiring the entirity of the United States to learn French, as opposed to a French immigrant learning English. It makes no sense that the vast majority of GMS's population in America should have to conform to a small minority.
Moreso, players can't even trust that times will be consistent in the future, so saying "we'll make times consistent" has little weight in fixing the problem. GMS never had problems like timezone consistency with PST. Wouldn't it be easier for Nexon to not have to deal with it too? If they really want, they could still add the conversions for UTC on event pages and everything.
Creating consistency will still leave American players unsatisfied, due to the inconvenience of reset, 2x times, etc. In PST, or even EST, players would have the whole day to do dailies and reset-dependent things, while in UTC, half the day people are waiting for reset, the other half, with less time actually doing things. Why should it have to be tomorrow for 4-8 hours of the day for the majority of the population? Another thing is the unnecessary process of having to convert UTC to PST or EST times in game.
I don't know which timezone you personally want, but the majority of players would feel far more comfortable with an American based timezone. I highly suggest that you reconsider this decision and would request that you inform Nexon that just creating consistency isn't enough. The issue of UTC is not only about consistency. It's about deciding which part of the playerbase Nexon values more: the majority in America, or the minority European population. In situations like this, it is of everyone's best interest to satisfy the largest amount of people possible. UTC was a mistake, and has caused several problems for everyone.
Atleast it's consistent now i guess. Can anyone tell me the daily reset time, flag race times, and others now that it's gonna change? i guess i have to memorize new times...
Reset as it currently is, will be at 8pm edt/ 5pm pdt, Flag race is at 3pm est/12pm pdt, 7pm edt/4pm pdt, and i believe one more time but i cant remember. 2x Ursus is at 4pm edt/ 1pm pdt .
Kritias invasions are at - 4:00 (4AM) 6:00 (6AM) 8:00 (8AM)10:00 (10AM) 12:00(noon)2:00 (2PM)4:00 (4PM)6:00 (6PM) All of which are edt.
Let it be known that all of these times will be set back an hour some time in November because of the end of daylight savings time.
These times are pretty horrid for anyone still in school or working on the east coast. I had to push myself to wake up earlier before work to get in at least 2 invasions per day.
2x is also pretty poorly timed for east coast. 4am-7am EDT is a joke, 2-5 is fine. 10pm-1am is okay for Saturday but poor for Sunday when getting ready for the school/work week. Here's hoping for change
Maybe Maple should have done the following:
UTC = Luna Only.
PST/EST = Rest of Maple.
Pretty simple, no?
I think Nexon's just being lazy overall and trying to save money in the end. Instead of going with this route, you should have originally kept things the same and when EMS moved over just have UTC for them.
It makes no logical sense at all. This kind of feels like the syria refugees coming into Canada, when Trudeau should be paying more attention to the country's he's running.
Overall a Major Disappointment...
Sincerely,
This guy, who's been voicing about disagreeing to UTC ever since it was brought up in the first place.
Until they fix up the time zones, yes.
By far, the worst problem with the UTC timezone was the lack of consistency. If everything works by this clock, I am sure people will learn to adjust. Although we will always have new or returning players who miss out because they didn't realize they needed to pick up Monday's Hot Week box on Sunday evening. I think that maybe adding a server-time clock (which includes day-of-the-week and date) to the UI would be helpful. Also, as I'm sure you're aware, consistency doesn't just mean "schedule everything by UTC" but also "have the game code, the in-game event list, and the update notes, all say the same thing".
The second-worst problem with the timezone is time-dependent content. I am glad to hear that you intend to address this issue, but somewhat skeptical because that promise was already made six months ago, and nothing was done except for 2x scheduling. Do make sure you address existing permanent content (such as Kritias Invasions and Flag Race), existing recurring events (such as Mystic Fields and Pink Zakum), and all future content from KMS, that has a tendency to make things run only from 10AM-10PM server time, or some other window that works for a single-timezone service but not for a global one.
Along with cheering for the good news, I must admit I am still puzzled as to why we need to have GMS' server time be UTC, at all.
The reasons given to us, such as "easier to schedule events," don't make sense. Events need to be scheduled around the clock anyway (see previous paragraph). Maintenances are scheduled by lowest-activity time (or possibly the timezones suitable to the teams in California and Korea?), and did not change when server time was changed.
I understand that, as a global service, we would like to have a "neutral timezone". However, the way the Earth is set up, there is no such thing. Every timezone is more natural, or convenient, to some than to others. And UTC happens to be convenient to the minority of GMS'ers who live in Europe, rather than the majority who are in the Americas.
My guess is that the decision to move to UTC was made hastily during the EU-NA migration maintenance, without too much consideration of the effect server time has on gameplay. And now we are stuck with it because the servers would need to be shut off for 7 hours (so, at least a 9-hour maintenance) to move them back to PST/PDT, and upper management does not allow shutting the service down for that long just to make things more convenient.
If that is the case, would you please run a poll asking the players whether we would be willing to have a 10-hour maintenance to move server time back to Pacific time?
I don't know whether it would sway management's opinion at all, but I think that, in general, happy players generate more income than players upset by missing events because of an unnatural system clock. One long maintenance for years of player lack-of-aggravation seems worth it to me.
To conclude:
Consistency is excellent news, although moving to PST would have been even better.
And content needs to be round-the-clock, regardless, so I hope this promise will finally be fulfilled.
There was a poll before where the overwhelming majority said they wanted PST. Management completely ignored, or at least disregarded the results when they were passed to them. While that didn't mention having to have a long maintenance to make the change back, it wouldn't change the results much. The majority of the playerbase would be very well willing to wait a maintenance to get PST back.
I also don't think it would change the results, but I think Nexon's management needs to see that. They only see us wailing whenever the game is down for any reason, especially when maintenances are extended or unscheduled, so maybe they think the prospect of 10 hours of downtime would change our minds.
If you can think of any other way to convince them to reverse the decision (assuming my guess about "however poorly-thought-out the decision was, we're stuck with it now" is true), I'd be glad to hear it.
Of course, if they actually have a good and convincing reason why GMS needs to be on UTC time, I'd love to hear it, so the topic can be put to rest.