Downtime's Goin' Down

  A recent Dev Blog  is talking about how one of the teams over at CCP is working on reducing and eventually eliminating downtime.  For myself, I am unsure if this is something the player base has been wanting and been vocal about, but I have a few worries when it comes to no downtime. I really don't mind an hour every day that is taken to maintain our New Eden universe. It comes at a time when most people are busy with work or school and provides a bit of mechanical TLC. I was quite surprised to read that the actual length of shut down and maintenance is around a half hour. They want to reduce it to 12 minutes and then kill it altogether.

 Now, for those hardcore Eve addicts this probably sounds like the perfect thing. 24/7 access to New Eden is something, I'm sure, many will love. But my hesitation comes in knowing technology and its flaws. I am far from completely informed on tech specs and what hardware can handle. I do know it can be good to give a system a break. Running 1.5 Terabytes is a huge and complicated procedure, one that can have errors now and then. Now I know they are working on coding in better ways to handle the system and reduce downtime, but will this mean periodic updates like Blizzard does with WoW? I remember patch days as horrible things where nothing works right and you can't access your server until almost nightfall. New Eden is no exception for needing updates and tweaks. So how will killing downtime affect the whole big picture? Is it worth it?

 This is really just my ponderings. I am not opposed to the change, and I'm not someone pushing for it either. I'm simply curious as to the motivation for the change. Lately, it seems I hear alot about CCP trying to fix their "past sins" with code structure and are currently reorganizing the company. Such a busy time and they still have a player base that rides them hard for accountability. While I do sympathize with that level of stress, I think it can lead to a better relationship with us, the client. Random tangent, sorry. Dev Blogs are certainly becoming more numerous and good to read, so keep an eye out for more.

  Downtime and dev blogs, whaddya think?
-Mem