How Should Mass Outages Be Addressed?

bk1234
bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
in MtGPQ General Discussion
It's been awhile since we had a large-scale mass outage like we do this weekend, but it certainly isn't the first time and it won't be the last; in the past, the community here and in other places has been very unsatisfied with how these are addressed -- usually with a few crystals and an inbox note saying sorry several days after it's fixed. 

My question is how do you think D3 should address mass outages?

I have been a proponent before and continue to believe that when this occurs, the affected events should be stopped. Just shut down immediately. Accompanying this should be communication on the forum and the inbox (in game) apologizing for the server issues / freezes / sww's, etc -- and assuring us that it is top priority to fix these bugs. 

If you look at several other threads, we are willing to give up a lot for game stability. Personally, I would appreciate the event being cancelled much more than I appreciate any rewards I will get by continuing to stare at loading circles. 

What kind of response would make you feel like a valued player?
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Comments

  • nerdstrap
    nerdstrap Posts: 180 Tile Toppler
    Restart the event 
  • Julie71
    Julie71 MTGPQ Mod Posts: 707 Critical Contributor
    Shutting down the event would definitely be better than 90% of us being frustrated to the point of not wanting to continue.  I believe if they actually fix the game from freezing, that would make me feel more listened to.   
  • boopers
    boopers Posts: 175 Tile Toppler
    edited July 2018
    Shutting it down is the only sane option. If the event concludes, the results and rewards will be based on luck and avoiding crashes and even being able to play. 

    Another wrinkle here... I know of more than one instance where a game crash has issued both a win and additional charge on a node. There are definitely players out there that have higher than max points, and it’s not their fault. 

    Anything short of cancelation of an event where the competitive balance is dictated almost entirely by errors must be cancelled or risk massive rage quitting. 
  • Babo21
    Babo21 Posts: 37 Just Dropped In
    I agree that the event should be cancelled and should restart later. Maybe give everyone progression prizes as compensation?
  • Avahad
    Avahad Posts: 296 Mover and Shaker
    It should be cancelled and rescheduled- no ifs or buts- it is fairer to everyone.
     I lost just one charge to a retry error- but simply won’t have time to catch up with charges due to having a life - my ‘playtime’ for the day has passed amidst sww and swirly screens and login errors and........
  • Opperstamper
    Opperstamper Posts: 154 Tile Toppler
    Yes, this should be stopped and fixed. Anything giving an unfair (dis)advantage shouldn't happen in a competitive game. 
  • Szamsziel
    Szamsziel Posts: 463 Mover and Shaker
    I disagree with that approach. I'd suggest to remove ending reward but leaving event till Monday. It should be sufficient for personal progression. On Sunday there is nothing to do except TG so if anyone want to dedicate his/her own time - why not allow it?
  • tfg76
    tfg76 Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker
    So... If the event is not cancelled, but continues as is, with some additional consolation prize in the end, at least people who enjoy playing get to play. The bad thing is that the event is decided on a random metric (who gets the least number of crashes), and (for coalition events), players feel pressured to play even in a very unstable environment, causing a lot of frustration. One way to avoid that is to cancel the event.

    However, that leaves the players who had already put in a lot of effort to put their coalition near the top. Those will be left with nothing to show for their efforts (except perhaps progression awards). To them, it seems only fair that they would be awarded the first place prize for their coalition. In fact, I think the only fair solution, then, is to award maximum prizes to all participants (progression + 1st place prize).

    As a general rule, I think D3 would do well to follow this policy:

    - When a player complains about a match loss due to a failure of the game, award the player the maximum awards he or she could have received if not for that match loss. For instance, if I get a game freeze, but end up with maximum points in an event (other than that loss), award me 1st place prizes.  
    - Log more data from games, and use that data to verify player complaints, to avoid abuse of such a system.

    With a game such as this, there's very little hurt in giving maximum prizes to everyone. Even the most "premier" events give prizes roughly equivalent to one mythic, which is not really earth-shattering, and giving that out has probably a very marginal effect on the player's need to purchase cards in the game in the future.


  • Brakkis
    Brakkis Posts: 777 Critical Contributor
    End the event immediately, give out full progression rewards to all players.

    "Not all players would be capable of reaching progression!"

    "Not all companies have their game **** itself every time they run an older event either."
  • tfg76
    tfg76 Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker
    Having just written all that, I think an even better approach for this particular instance (progression not reached yet), is to leave it running, so that those that want to play can do so, but award everyone #1 coalition prizes. That way, there's no pressure to try to defeat the SWW's for the coalition, but still some action for those that want something to do.
  • tfg76
    tfg76 Posts: 258 Mover and Shaker
    Brakkis said:
    End the event immediately, give out full progression rewards to all players.

    "Not all players would be capable of reaching progression!"

    "Not all companies have their game tinykitty itself every time they run an older event either."
    What about the coalition awards though?
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Right now even those who should have earned progression aren’t getting it because some nodes are simply dropping points so this seems like fair compensation. 

    However I disagree with the « keep it for those who want it » concept unless there is some kind of in-game communication explaining what is going on. 
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    Restart the event and shorten it. 
  • Falizar
    Falizar Posts: 70 Match Maker
    Idk like the objectives - just fix SWW error and restart - what I got to play of the event has been fine.
  • MiyagiDojo
    MiyagiDojo Posts: 24 Just Dropped In
    Cancel the event asap. A lot of players won't go back to play this weekend. It isn't professional to have had such a massive crash and then continue to run the event. 
  • gogol666
    gogol666 Posts: 316 Mover and Shaker
    My coalition is second at the moment, but the event has been so unfair that I still prefer it to be stopped at any time and replaced with anything stable than paying this mess until the end.
    @Szamsziel I'm also fine with your solution, if it is feasible. I'm just saying giving coalition rewards based on the number of bugs a coalition had is not a good practice
  • Dibski
    Dibski Posts: 16 Just Dropped In
    Stopped and canceled, full progression awards given out, and at least the 25+ bracket for coalition reward, it's the reward range for anyone halfway serious about the game, and what they would have gotten anyways, communicating exactly whats happening here on the forums, and all other outlets, in game, facebook, twitter etc, and when they tell us its fixed it needs to actually be fixed, playing the game is fun, fighting the swirly is not and the more frustrating it is to try and play the less inclined people are to spend money on it.

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