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What the heck is a company wide publishing blackout?

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Just Curious, Oct 12, 2020.

  1. Just Curious

    Just Curious Member

    From Server Maintenance - October 13, 2020 + Additional Notification! | EverQuest 2 Forums

    "All EverQuest II Servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 at 7:00 AM PDT (14:00 UTC). Estimated downtime is expected to last up to 2 hours.

    Update notes for this downtime can be found in the Game Update Notes forum once they are available

    This is also a preliminary notification that due to a company wide publishing blackout we will be moving the maintenance currently scheduled on 10/27 to 10/20, So there will be a smaller gap than usual in patches then a slightly larger one as we get back on the regular schedule.

    Kaladim, this means that TSO will now release on 10/20 since we don't want to delay it past the original 10/27 launch."​

    And then on Discord:
    Trippyee (Xwife)Today at 4:06 PM
    @dreamweaver Can you shed any additional light on what a 'Company Wide Publishing Blackout" means?

    dreamweaverToday at 4:07 PM
    I can't
    That's the approved language on this one.
    It basically means any planned patches that week have to be move off of that week. I can tell you that
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
  2. Julesholland

    Julesholland New Member

    A publishing blackout is used before a buy out or an audit.... although I am sure there are other reasons....
     
    • Informative Informative x 2
    • Like Like x 1
  3. LuranEQ2

    LuranEQ2 Member

    They can’t even do secrecy well.

    “The patch for two weeks away is moving to one week away.”

    Factual, end of story. Considering they never felt compelled to explain themselves before, why mention the blackout at all?
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  4. Clementine

    Clementine Active Member

    Proof that Daybreak has zero respect for their paying customers.

    Edit: I mean seriously why mention this super secret "publishing blackout" at all? And then refuse to explain to anyone what it means?
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  5. Cheggers

    Cheggers New Member

    A moratorium on patches and stuff in itself isn't particularly unusual. There could be any number of reasons from that, ranging from pretty innocuous, to potentially huge. That by itself shouldn't necessarily be an immediate cause for alarm. They could be migrating stuff and want a little breathing room. They could be disentwining DPG from the DBG infrastructure so it can act independently (or alternatively be sold off).

    I'm more curious about the use of the term "blackout", myself. Seems like a pretty negative term to use, and the fact that this is the "approved" verbiage only compounds that curiosity.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  6. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    That's what stuck out to me as well. The verbiage.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  7. Just Curious

    Just Curious Member

    Two things stuck out for me. One was the "approved verbiage" thing. The other was the fact that they felt the need to post in the first place. If everything was just normal, they could have easily said, "Given the push for the coming expansion, we're not going to have a patch this week and will move up the TLE expansion by a week." No one would have thought twice about it.
     
    • Agree Agree x 5
  8. Cheggers

    Cheggers New Member

    Maybe some (potentially high-profile) personnel changes incoming? On the OF DW suggested in response to someone it was not to do with the patch team being AFK, or any particular focus on a new expansion, nor to do with a merger/acquisition. At least, that was as much as they were "approved" to say.

    Seems weird they can say what it isn't, but won't go any further than that.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  9. Cheggers

    Cheggers New Member

    Also I imagine releasing TSO early on TLE, and then leaving at least two weeks before any issues can be patched will in absolutely no way be a problem.
     
    • Optimistic Optimistic x 3
  10. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    I'm pretty sure this all about pulling the trigger and implementing Benito's ingenious revenue model.
     
    • Funny Funny x 10
    • Optimistic Optimistic x 2
  11. EvilTreerat

    EvilTreerat New Member

    What has me very worried is two items.

    A) No one has heard that term "publishing blackout" used in an official capacity here. That implies something is or will be happening that is very much not-normal and they had to find a new term for it.
    B) The use of "approved verbage". Given that Dreamweaver is in charge of communications and supposed* to answer to only the head of the studio, that term (and his unwillingness to explain it) implies someone high up is very much concerned about maintaining absolute control & secrecy.

    In my experience, when a group does something abnormal and becomes very concerned with control & secrecy that implies either something bad has happened that is being covered up, or they're about to do something they know is monumentally stupid but are pushing it through anyway for "reasons". My money is on the later. Maybe they really really screwed up something in the next "expansion" - say making PvP key to unlocking certain content - that will cause players who aren't obsessive fanboys to quit in mass. Hence the "publishing blackout" - no patches means no information, and extending the amount of time before Revenue Armageddon hits.

    Oh well. Its a good thing I've gotten back into Minecraft. Sad when something created as a time-wasting project by staff at a tiny studio has more content, better balance, and just plain more FUN than a multi-million dollar title.

    *By this point I'm sure we've all realized that he's too spineless to tell Kander & Co. to stop playing forum nazi and try to actually fix what they've been breaking every patch. Hell he won't even permanently ban a certain idiot with delusions of grandeur with dozens of violations of the forum rules.
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  12. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    It can't be THAT bad. At least I don't think so anyway. Both games have now announced the next expacs and beta starts soon for both. They are also adding new QOL features in the EQ1 expac. They're being vague about what it is but it's called "Dragon Hoard" so I can only assume it's storage based and there have been a lot of calls for EQ2 storage depots for EQ1. I'm guessing the stuido will be sold/has been sold and EQ1 and 2 will no longer be a part of the whole. Would also explain changing the name of the stuido to something EQ specific. That's all supposition on my part though.
     
  13. Castegyre

    Castegyre Active Member

    It's probably a bad sign for me if even the best possible thing I could imagine them doing I expect them to screw it up and screw the customers over in the process.
     
    • Agree Agree x 6
  14. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    I mean, that's a given. It's the new MO.
     
    • Agree Agree x 4
  15. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    This is actually not particularly abnormal for this company. When they announced the ProSieben.1/Alaplaya deal, they told us basically nothing for 3 months. They were very annoyed that we were able to find tons of information about Alaplaya and fill in the gaps for ourselves. And when I e-mailed 5 clear questions to the then Community Director and got a reply to 1, that spoke volumes to me. With this company, they figure if they don't officially publish it themselves, it doesn't exist. :p
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Funny Funny x 1
  16. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    Kander really does hate the fact that there are players who know the game better, can offer both suggestions and ways to improve it that are viable, and can also do the math around encounters and itemization.
     
    • Agree Agree x 8
  17. Anaogi

    Anaogi Active Member

    Whenever a company is talking about language being "approved", it's not something marketing or C-level is insisting on. It's the lawyers in the driver's seat when that's happening.

    Something's going down. And it may be Daybreak.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  18. Mermut

    Mermut Well-Known Member

    Also odd.. mid-October and, effectively ZERO information about the expac. The last we heard was 'planning on an AA revamp' and 'other side of Luclin'. That's the sum total of what they've told us about the expac.
     
  19. Alarra

    Alarra Active Member

    Well considering the theoretical Beta start is Nov 9th, we will either hear about it then or have some other not so good announcement then.
     
  20. Dano84

    Dano84 Active Member

    Apparently someone on the eq2forum mentioned the name of the upcoming expac. : "Reign of Shadows". On Test, the Familiar Tab had the new name and icon /Logo. DPG already took it off the game.
     

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