Stagger event time starts

stagger the time events start.

You already announce them ahead, but by practice, in a staggered fashion since it comes out in German first, then gets translated.

We all understand that you cannot set times to suit everyone. However, staggering them 2 or even 3/4 times would make a HUGE difference for a number of people. Target the population centers. Germany, US (west or East Coast, alternating -- sorry midwest), and then Asia. (rotating for Asian population center time zones).


As you start putting events closer together, and particularly when it comes to mini events like Moonlight madness, losing out on 6--8 hours, even 12 or more because it starts when you are sleeping/working when an event starts benefits no one except the few for whom the times work.

The last Renzo edition was particularly unreasonable. Those who lived in Europe got to have an extra day of tickets, only extreme night owls over here got to have more than one set. Worse, you often don't announce mini events well enough in advance so that people who might be able to catch them, if they planned it right, are left with happen-stances -- should they just happen to log in at the correct time to catch either the forum posting or activation of event ,t hen they score. Else.. they lose out.

 

This is not actually true. Teddy has explained before that all the mod teams get the information in English. Then the mods translate, make screenshots and compile the FAQs in their own style (they are all a little bit different). They have a set time from the Farmerama team for when to publish the FAQs and OAs. And from following the German forum as well, I know that most of the time they come out at the same time. But since the mods are volunteers and can't be around every minute of the day, sometimes it comes out a little late. Believe it or not, sometimes we get the information before the German forum

I know you only mentioned this in passing, and that it is not your main point. But if what you claim was true, it would be quite unfair, and I don't want anyone to be mislead

 

might help if you learn some geography too, Asia is ahead of USA in time, I'm in west of Asia and only 2 hrs ahead of Germany.
Everyone get the same amount of time for events and everyone needs to sleep so loses about 8hrs a day farming time

 

How would you propose countries like Turkey & Russia begin these staggered times, in the Asian timezone or the European timezone?

Why should i have to begin an event a day after everyone else? So I would receive the FAQs & miss any possible market extravaganzas, 24 hours behind everyone else.

Have you even checked to see when an event starts here? Obviously not Thanks for suggesting an even worse event scenario for the Asian timezone than we currently have, but to make it worse you want it to move each event, maybe they should change the US starting times also. What a narrow minded thoughtless idea .

 

I can't endorse this. I don't think it matters when an event starts as long as we all start the same time. We all miss time due to work and/or sleep. 24 hours is 24 hours no matter where you live. I'm not saying this because the start times of events are ideal for me either. Events generally start at 5am my time (western US) while I'm on my way to work, but I've adapted to it (as I'm sure many others have also).

 

Staggering event times might seem like a good idea on the surface, but it would actually be a mess and way less fair than the way it is now. Let's take a 24 hour event as an example. Staggering would mean it's "covered" by forum mods for much longer than 24 hours, because these forums are set up based on language, not country/location. Let's say an event was staggered so that everyone could start it at noon on a Saturday. How would that possibly work, even considering only English-speaking countries for this English-speaking forum? Saturday, noon, Australia: the event goes live. 11 hours later, it's noon in England: event goes live. 5 hours after that, it's noon on the east coast, USA. 3 hours later...west coast. 2 hours after that, Hawaii can start the event...just in time for it to finish in Australia. So at that point all the mods/BP people have been working the event for 24 hours. It's only just started in Hawaii, though, so they have another 24 hours to go. Also, this game is highly interactive. Just think about what would happen in the market: people in California can't buy the koi needed for an event, because people in New Zealand bought it all hours ago and now it's sold out. Wherever the event starts first would have a distinct market advantage (which isn't fair), because presumably they'd get the event FAQ before others did (if everyone got the FAQ at the same time, that wouldn't be fair either, b/c it would mean some people had the FAQ one day before their event started, and others had the FAQ two days before their event). They would have a disadvantage, too, because if glitches happen, they happen at the beginning and are usually solved within a few hours. And what if at some point BP has problems with its servers, and no one can log on for an hour? In some places, that might just mean waiting to feed your chickens. In other parts of the world, it might mean they just lost the last hour of their event. My point is that staggering it would actually not be fair to anybody. If the market's going to go crazy, it has to be crazy for everyone. If there's going to be a glitch, it has to be the same for everyone. The only fair way to manage a global interactive game is for everyone to have the same advantages and disadvantages.

 

Perhaps, then, events should start at 5:00 pm in every time zone so the school kids have time to get home. But wait, some of us have extra curriculars. Make that 8. No, I need to have dinner, 9.

My point is, no matter what your time zone is, no matter when it starts, there will always be individuals who can't participate to the full extent. Even if the event starts at a time that is at a waking hour in their country, doesn't mean everybody, or even the majority, will be able to access that game at it's start and end time. Guess what? This is a game. If your happiness and livelihood depends on how many hours of a game event you can participate in, it's not a new start time you need, it's a good hard look at the way you live your life. If you can't participate in an event, it is absolutely not the end of the world. And you shouldn't act like it is.

Staggering event times, aside from being absolutely ridiculous (and not fixing the problem), would be programming mayhem. Not only do many countries experience noon at different times (as pointed out by steph), but many states within those countries experience noon at different times. You would have to program for every state in every country and maintain that programming. How do you deal with glitches? How do you keep it maintained?

Perhaps you might want to think through your ideas before proposing them.