Hey devs, just because y’all are on salary. Doesn’t mean you have to work 40 hours between Monday and Friday.
Some of you can work on Wednesday-Sunday.
Or have an individual on call over the weekends and comp their time.
This is the second weekend where servers have have been an issue. Mainly due to all the events that you chose to run concurrently.
Did anyone consider that the more content you put into the game for the weekends. The more you’ll need to monitor the game??
You simply CAN NOT be increasingly stingy about compensation for bugs/server issues while also reducing the amount of time allocated on the game. Yet, every patch introducing a new way of asking for money?
Sorry if this sounds harsh. But y’all are basically becoming con artists. Trying to figure out creative ways to make money off of folks rather than earn the money from hard work or quality products.
It’s time to wake up. And actually give a shit again.
Not going to lie, I read the 1st line of this and thought it was going in a completely different direction about how GOW has turned from a part time leisurely activity to a full time job. How with all the nerfs this year, it’s like we are salaried because the pay hasn’t increased at a rate equivalent to all the work now required and benefits have been greatly reduced (ability to obtain specific forge scrolls now once a year? really?)
but yes, I agree with Ryan. if you are going to make us grind so much for so little, the least you could do is make sure our equipment works.
I’m not sure how this works in other countries, but if staff in Australia work over weekends they often have to be paid at an increased rate, even if it’s within their weekly hours. Eg, if someone works a Saturday they get 1.5x the amount of normal pay, and up to 2x on a Sunday. Is this different in the US?
The reason you’ll see me working odd hours over the weekend is that I have this extra time built into my contract, and I get some other benefits for working outside of normal office hours. Also, when something goes wrong there is not usually one staff member who can fix it. It will often require a mix of people, depending on what the issue is. If it was a matter of one person working over a weekend and having them swap, it would be something we could discuss with our team. However, this is not the case, and one person often isn’t enough to implement a fix.
In the past we have come in over weekends to sort out issues, even when it isn’t in our contracts. This is typically for extremely game breaking bugs, and not server related issues. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t care, and many games companies don’t come in on weekends. I understand that it’s frustrating when things go wrong and we aren’t here, but please remember that we aren’t a big dev studio like Blizzard or Riot with the budget to hire people exclusively on weekends.
In a majority of jobs once you’ve done your contracted hours, you’re free! To expect us to be available 24/7 is, in my opinion, unreasonable. Many of us already work outside our contracted hours because we care about the game. We are also human beings who deserve down time, leisure time, and have the right to pursue our own lives outside of this game that we work for and love so much.
Depends on company in the USA. Normally you have to be at 40 hours before claiming time and a half or double time but some companies do pay the extra no matter what hours you work during week.
In the US, some jobs do not require time and a half or double time even if you work Saturday and/or Sunday if it’s within your scheduled 40 hour week. On the other hand, there are also jobs where you could work 70 or more hours per week with no additional compensation. The error here clearly is expecting all countries’ labor laws to work the same, and that’s just not the case. But some people are only capable of seeing their point of view and no other.
In Canada, or at least, in BC, all of the standard labour laws don’t apply if you work in IT. Overtime usually translates to time in lieu, if you’re lucky. On the other hand, most of our fauna aren’t venomous. Win some/lose some.
@Saltypatra Let me straight out say it. I love this game and I appreciate the work done by the devs on it - development and maintenance.
However, the OP wanted to suggest a reduction in the game load during the time when there is a lack of staff to maintain (not because the staff doesn’t want to be there, but because they couldn’t there). Reading your comment, it felt like you were suggesting that the OP doesn’t appreciate the devs’ work and will to work out of their way. I understand the OP used harsh language to make his suggestion, but we are all adults and we must understand the frustration behind the suggestion.
P.S.: I never faced a cliffy error during a GW battle, but I had an internet connectivity issue at my home this week and it was enough to trigger me. Now if the issue is from the other side, I would vent it out. Won’t I? I suggest we take it constructively and discuss on it.
I work in IT, in a salaried position, and my hours are nights and weekends. I work overnights Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday. I am in the US.
I do not get paid extra for working weekends. That was taken into account when my salary was determined. I do not get paid extra for working OT, however if the OT is excessive I have a boss who is very willing to give me comp time in exchange, so I feel I am treated fairly.
Where I work, we do not do deployments without providing support, and if systems are becoming strained due to being over-extended, we fix them. We don’t go home at 5pm on Friday and say “Welp, we’ll look at it on Monday” and allow our employees or customers to suffer. It’s not about caring or not caring, it’s about the company having infrastructure in place to support the damn product that provides their income.
I don’t blame Salty or any other employee for this stuff. The terms of their contracts likely dictate what they’re allowed to do and the decision to not deploy additional staff to address these issues falls squarely on the shoulders of the higher-ups.
HOWEVER, it is yet another shining example of why people should think twice before throwing money at this game. This is the kind of “support” you’re paying for. (Again, not directed at Salty.)
Don’t forget to cough up another $10-25 next week for another pa$$ when that large, luscious carrot gets dangled in front of your face and you temporarily forget that the company won’t provide adequate infrastructure for its product.
In Australia the 1.5x Saturday rate and 2x Sunday/Public Holiday rate is applicable to certain industries and usually given to casual staff.
Salaried staff may be required to work weekends or outside of what people consider “normal business hours” (ie 9-5 Monday - Friday) as part of their workplace agreement.
I live in Australia and have had 2 jobs requiring working outside the “normal business hours”. One was Tuesday - Saturday and the other was afternoons/evenings Wednesday - Sunday. These hours were in my employee agreement and was required as the services the businesses provided needed staff to be around to cover this.
Perhaps a look at staff rosters and working hours needs to be done where some staff work an alternating weekend schedule. Or tech support/staff as required are available as needed and paid at an overtime rate.
This means that things like the cliffy errors can be fixed in a timely manner or a staff member is available here to say they someone is looking into it.
Lack of communication over an entire weekend for a game played 24/7 by a worldwide playerbase is just inexcusable.
The first part of your sentence is called “F2P games”, the second part is called “Normal games with a fixed price at release”.
What these companies dont realize is that its possible to fool people one time but not all the time. So hopefully with some common good sense, this stupid concept of F2P game will die by itself with time. Not talking about gameplay, fun factor of various part of Gems, etc… just talking about F2P game concept.
Im gonna finish my time with this game (first and only F2P game I will ever play in my life, entering into it without any idea of what was this concept). Still enjoying a few things…thrill of GW, chat with members of my guild,… also curious to keep studying this stinky F2P concept and how far they will dare to go with this game. Campaign pass is a new interesting step btw.
Then total boycott of any F2P, 505 or IP2 products in future.
I just cant have the slightest respect for companies involved into F2P.
You plan to create a great game? Wonderful! Then just sell it with a fixed price at release and stop hustling people with all these cheap and stinky addictive mechanics to condition minds to spend 100s on a little 2D game worth 20$.
Have a little more respect for the players.
Sirrian once said he would be worried if some players would be put in difficulty by spending too much money on this game.
Then dont create such kind of F2P game with implementing tons of addictive mechanics that drive people into spending if it worry you so much and sell normal games with fixed price at release like you did in the past.
What will or could you do to help the players that fell in trouble because of your game? Absolutely nothing!
Me, I think I’m gonna start producing and selling cigarettes!.. but be assured that I would be extremely worried if anyone buying my product become addicted or start to suffer of health or money problem because of my product…really I would be EXTREMELY worried…TRULY SINCERLY EXTREMELY worried. But…eh…what can I do…its life… individual responsability you know… so after some serious thinking, I will still start to produce and sell cigarettes because…why not? Its legal after all!
Yes, but my entire point is that they should not be obligated to. Everyone has a breaking point, and even at great companies, if the employees start voluntarily covering weak points, the company tends to take advantage of the goodwill and not actually ADDRESS THE ISSUE.
Inexcusable to customers, but as long as the profit continues, it’s an acceptable part of doing business from the company’s perspective.
Corporations do not like to spend money unnecessarily. It’s remarkably easy to ignore angry emails/tweets/social media posts when those same people are going to stand in line next week to hand you another $10.
The only card that players have to play is to stop spending money.
It doesn’t matter how much they make from from the new campaign subs it will never be enough. If you imagine that if they make a tonne of money that somehow they will magically stop working on new monetization game modes and fix all bugs and UI…keep dreaming. No amount of profit will stop this snowball, it will just keep getting bigger and faster till it reaches the bottom.
weekend support wont happen. 505’s money made from this game go to 505’s shareholders. The strict minimum is allocated to IP2 to maintain the game alive, allowing for the last squeeze of the lemons before the game is no more.
Nobody expect that all countries have same laws about labour work. It would require to be very stupid to think that. I dont think you understand the point.
This is an online game that have to work correctly 24/7. I would even add that the week end are even more important because its often the only time some players have time to play the game.
Now if 505 is not willing to allocate some more money for paying IP2 Australian workers 1,5 or 2x for Saturday and Sunday for having their game run correctly 24/7, they just need to stop everything.
Nobody ask for the same person to work 24/7. How are doing the Australian hospitals, police, and certainly tons of companies that require weekend work? You have an accident Sunday and you receive the answer to wait Monday?
You actually have the temerity to equate an online game and a medical emergency? Talk about the strawiest of all straw man arguments. But thank you for proving my point that some people are incapable of looking past their own self-interest.
