Why does every holiday have horrible servers???

[cantankerous--]

May 9, 2020, and the servers are down....again. And have been since yesterday evening.

Seriously, how hard is it to have someone check them once a day or so? It's not like they don't need to be checked. More often than not, they need some attention.

It's expected of us to add in to it the HORRIBLE CORONA VIRUS and expect that that is the be all to end all answer for a problem that has been going on long before the virus.

[KingCat78]

They got the Williams/Bally license from FarSight, so that includes the leaderboard problems as well

[OU7CAS7]

I have sent the following message to Zen via email. If they respond to me via email, I'll post their response here in this thread.

Dear Zen,

I am concerned about the future of Pinball FX3. I noticed that customers of Pinball Fx3 are becoming agitated, and in some cases angry about the apparent lack of server capacity for the game. This includes issues such as not being able to access high scores on leaderboards, not being able to play in the game's tournaments section, and not being able to access the pinball tables that they paid for.

I don't consider myself to be an expert in game design, but I have tried building my own game in Unity for several years, and also have many years of experience designing and building websites and programs for Windows operating systems. So, I can understand how difficult it can be to build a game and solve programming related issues, and thus can at least understand these kinds of issues from both sides. Supporting a game across multiple platforms is certainly not an easy thing to do.

I have made a couple of suggestions on the Zen forum board about how the game's code could be improved with respect to server utilisation. My post, and many other customers' posts regarding the server issues that the game has, are at the following address on your forum board:

https://forum.zenstudios.com/showthread.php?53991-Why-does-every-holiday-have-horrible-servers&p=139138&viewfull=1#post139138

There were two rather brief responses from "Linne_Zen" in the thread above. It was about 2 months between those posts. First, posts from Zen staff should be a bit more frequent, at least once per month, to show that Zen cares and that Zen staff are actively working to get the problem(s) fixed. Second, it would be a good idea to be upfront with people with respect to the root cause of any issues that arise. This doesn't mean providing specifics on affected code modules, but rather explaining the situation in more detail. Finally, it would be good to provide some form of time frame within which you expect that the problem(s) will likely be fixed. That way, your customers are more likely to return, rather than forget about or give up on playing Pinball FX3.

I understand that the viral pandemic is likely to complicate things with respect to fixing these issues. However, it must also be understood by Zen that people are stuck at home more so than ever before, and therefore your customers are much more likely to play (or at least try to play) Pinball FX3. So, it actually becomes more important than ever during this time, that such problems are fixed within a reasonable period of time. Otherwise, your customers will probably buy and play games from other games vendors, and forget about Zen altogether.

Also, it is one thing to provide discounts to tables, but a completely different thing to address bugs in games. Few people will want to take advantage of discounts for games that don't work properly.

Let your customers know that you are listening to their concerns, and that you will enact upon them accordingly. This will help to restore confidence in your customers, and keep them reasonably happy.

Thanks for reading.

Kind Regards,

- Tristan Bailey (aka OUTCAST)

[sui99]

Well formulated; I hope you get a response.

I myself am way too tilted at the moment to post anything constructive. Everytime I sit down to post another bug, I have to delete my post cause it turned into a childish rage...

I love the game and appreciate the developers talent for amazing table design. But support, communication and client stability are more than lackluster and makes it hard to remain "a fan of the company". Which is a shame, really.

[darky1986]

still the same after 4 months

After 4 months not playing I picked up the wire and started again.
Oh man , I really rocked out that back to to future table!
Couldn't wait to see if I beated my friends highscores, and guess what... the highscores din't load just like it din't load 4 months ago.

Really... I'm getting so tired, so frustrated and so angry at the same time.
You guys keep saying: we are aware of the server problems and looking into it.
But month after month, week after week every weekend this happens again.

I bought all your DLC, and si still really love it.
But I'm really doubting about buying dlc in future from you guys.

Plz,you guys are loosing costumers... wake up!
even on steam its raining complaints

https://steamcommunity.com/app/442120/discussions/0/2245552086107025770/

[OU7CAS7]

Email received from Bence Banszki, Community Representative of Zen Studios:

Hi Tristanlbailey,

Thanks for contacting us and for explaining this problem in detail to us!

There is constant communication regarding the server problems at us and it reached the highest levels of the company so we are aware of the problem and we are gearing up to make these go away. Also, I am collecting the user feedbacks and ideas, and forward it to the developers.

Hopefully, we can improve the quality of the servers, thank you for your patience in this matter.

Best regards,
Bence Banszki
Community Representative
Zen Studios

[grenadier]

Email received from Bence Banszki, Community Representative of Zen Studios:

Scroll up, and you'll see similar statements in April...and February. It's past time to get this out of the discussion stage and actually do something.

[wildhagen]

And the servers are down AGAIN. Zen doesn't care anymore about this game, obviously, by refusing to fix thjs problem which is going on for more than 1 year....

They got their money from the customers, so why should they care. That seems to be how Zen is thinking...

[OO1OO1OO]

The problem seems to be solved: Now also during normal weekdays horrible servers

During the last weeks it's getting worse.
Now also a lot of problems during normal working days...

[overall_fanatic]

After paused playing Pinball FX3 on PS4 for a few month I bought some Table Packs "on sale" - now I must find out that there are big problems with the connection to the servers - PSN works fine, my internet has no problems, no other game on PS4 have problems.

This sucks a lot when you score great and nothing will happen & recognized because i'm "offline" for Zen. Every time on the last 3 days I habe these problems here in Germany so what's going on there?

I paid so much money & support since the begining with ZP1 fpr all tables - but now it seems Zen Studios are not interessted in their own Pinball Game?

I also must find out that there are no new tables after all this months! Not even announced?

[ZREXMike]

oh well, they say you get what you pay for...oh wait, not today, or any weekend.

not willing to pay somebody to mind the servers on the weekends and holidays, it is not hard to see this. i don't play all that much anymore, but when i do it seems this is happening. i have many, many Zen tables, it is a shame this kinda cheesey crap is going on. i mean, i could see if it was a small independent, but is the leading video pinball company, surely someone could be paid a small hourly rate to mind the servers. they could take turns between the employees, the janitor could be trained to hit the switch to get it back going.

jeez...

edit: this is a "we got your money sucka, piss off" type thing.

reminds me of American products like food, etc., they have gradually shrunk the package, and reduced the amount of stuff in them that makes for the good taste, like salt on chips (which they have made thinner as well) and sugar on candy, etc. American companies are out to squeeze all the profit out of things that they can, while making sure you get as little as they can possibly give you for your money.

jeez...

[ZREXMike]

okay, been working good, let's see what happens this weekend.

[ZREXMike]

We are continuously working on the stability of the servers, hopefully, we can establish a comfortable gaming experience as soon as possible! We apologize for this error and the inconvenience it caused.

no, you are just too cheap to pay someone to mind the servers on weekends, which makes your last post a lie, sorry. sorry you have to lie, i mean.

people pay good money to relax and enjoy some digital pinball on weekends, not be treated like idiots by companies that have the attitude "we got yer money, sucka, piss off".

[grenadier]

We are continuously working on the stability of the servers, hopefully, we can establish a comfortable gaming experience as soon as possible! We apologize for this error and the inconvenience it caused.

We've been getting variations on this answer for over 6 months. It's well past time you find a way to resolve this on a permanent basis, instead of "working on it" indefinitely. If you're really working on it, it's time to FINISH the fix, or find someone who can.

[grenadier]

Servers are acting up again, and have been since yesterday based on threads on a Facebook group I'm in.

If you can't nail down the problem, can you at least have someone check on them once or twice a day?