Frustration with scheduling [Archive] - Wizards Community

Frustration with scheduling [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
trollbill
12-04-06, 12:18 PM I have been running Cabal of Shadows as a home game and have run CoS #1 & CoS#2. I was planning on running Well of Woe on 12/9/06 but when I went to set this up several weeks ago, they had changed the Home game availability of Well of Woe to 1/1/07 to 1/31/07. Frustrated, I decided to run a DM's Mark using Shadows of the Last War. I scheduled it as DM's Mark #1 on 12/9. After looking at the DM's Mark stuff and the refamiliarizing myself with Shadows of the Last War again I realized it was at least the equivalent of a double mod. So I decided I would make is DM's Mark 1&2. I schedule DM's Mark 2 for the same day and went to download it only to find the file wasn't available. I saw it wasn't suppose to be available till Dec 2, so I figured that was the reason I couldn't download it. So I waited till yesterday, and I still can't download it. I have emailed customer services but have not gotten a reply yet.

How am I supposed to run a game I scheduled when it isn't avialable for download?

On top of all that, I now see Well of Woe is listed as being available for home games on from 11/2/2006 to 1/17/2007!?!?!?! And that they have added CoB#3 in the same limited slot (It didn't even exist on the list when I looked a few weeks ago so how could it be available as of 11/2?). How the heck am I supposed to run the equivalent of 4 games during the holiday season in such a short period of time, especially since it is now too late to reschedule the game on the 9th?

If Wizards would like to know one of the big reasons I love Living Greyhawk over their Campaign systems so much, this is one of the very, Very, VERY big ones. In LG, I have anywhere from a 1 to 2 YEAR window to run/play a given mod and I have yet to have any problems getting ahold of the mod when I need it. I do not have to play around with the scheduleing fiasco that the Campaign systems insist on putting me through.
kiddoc
12-04-06, 12:41 PM I have been running Cabal of Shadows as a home game and have run CoS #1 & CoS#2. I was planning on running Well of Woe on 12/9/06 but when I went to set this up several weeks ago, they had changed the Home game availability of Well of Woe to 1/1/07 to 1/31/07. Frustrated, I decided to run a DM's Mark using Shadows of the Last War. I scheduled it as DM's Mark #1 on 12/9. After looking at the DM's Mark stuff and the refamiliarizing myself with Shadows of the Last War again I realized it was at least the equivalent of a double mod. So I decided I would make is DM's Mark 1&2. I schedule DM's Mark 2 for the same day and went to download it only to find the file wasn't available. I saw it wasn't suppose to be available till Dec 2, so I figured that was the reason I couldn't download it. So I waited till yesterday, and I still can't download it. I have emailed customer services but have not gotten a reply yet.

How am I supposed to run a game I scheduled when it isn't avialable for download?

On top of all that, I now see Well of Woe is listed as being available for home games on from 11/2/2006 to 1/17/2007!?!?!?! And that they have added CoB#3 in the same limited slot (It didn't even exist on the list when I looked a few weeks ago so how could it be available as of 11/2?). How the heck am I supposed to run the equivalent of 4 games during the holiday season in such a short period of time, especially since it is now too late to reschedule the game on the 9th?

If Wizards would like to know one of the big reasons I love Living Greyhawk over their Campaign systems so much, this is one of the very, Very, VERY big ones. In LG, I have anywhere from a 1 to 2 YEAR window to run/play a given mod and I have yet to have any problems getting ahold of the mod when I need it. I do not have to play around with the scheduleing fiasco that the Campaign systems insist on putting me through.

Bill. You know I love you right. It's me--but how, oh how could you play Cabal of Shadows? I thought we knew each other better than that. :behold:

No, seriously, there are a few issues I can discuss here. One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads.

Now let's talk about that naughty DM's Mark #2--which is the bane of my existance. You see, someone who shall not be named, had the job putting together DM's Mark #1 and #2. #1 got done before he left, #2 was still on the schedule, but was never completed. Hence, it showed up for download and IS a playable adventure, there's just no template for it. You get generic XP and EV for playing, but no special certs, gear, or adventure-related stuff. It's kind of like a placeholder. All of the normal DM's Mark templating resumes with #3--because we're in charge of that job now. At least, as soon as I get it off my desk this week (it's been a long weekend!).

Finally, there are some schedule issues caused by the hiccup of RPGA staffing issues and the absolute torrent of work we're producing. The RPGA related issues are twofold. On one hand you have the abrupt departure and then delay in replacement of the Content Manager. We've solved that one with gusto this time. I love our new content manager (in a man-crush sort of way, really :D ). On the other hand was the change in how and when conventions will be run. The shift from WF to XP actually brought about some real changes, not just the name.

The end result of these, combined with a huge volume of work that we're producing (as of now there are like 24 playable XE things in 6 months since the campaign launch), and the duration of the campaign (i.e., we're not a "living campaign") has resulted in some strange play windows. Some of those things got adjusted, namely a slight bump back in play windows, others we're still working on, such as the play dates and durations for the extended premier events. Our overall goal is to give you guys as much time to play as possible, while maintaining that razor's-edge balance between giving conventions the "show stoppers" and "exculsivity" they're looking for and well... keeping the new stuff "new" for the players at home.

There will still be some quirks. But you've got a team working on it that understands what they are, anticipates them, and works our butts off to correct them.

That said, I hope you've learned your lesson. That's what you get for playing Cabal. As we used to say back in the day, "Evil always turns on itself." Or something like that. One Aim--United! :fight!:
trollbill
12-04-06, 01:00 PM Brian,

Thanks for the (incredibly) quick reply.

Bill. You know I love you right. It's me--but how, oh how could you play Cabal of Shadows? I thought we knew each other better than that. :behold:

Don't blame me. I asked my players which faction they wanted me to run when I did Xendrik and it was pretty unanimous. What can I say, my players are evil. I'm a Crimson Codex man myself.

No, seriously, there are a few issues I can discuss here. One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads.

Now let's talk about that naughty DM's Mark #2--which is the bane of my existance. You see, someone who shall not be named, had the job putting together DM's Mark #1 and #2. #1 got done before he left, #2 was still on the schedule, but was never completed. Hence, it showed up for download and IS a playable adventure, there's just no template for it. You get generic XP and EV for playing, but no special certs, gear, or adventure-related stuff. It's kind of like a placeholder. All of the normal DM's Mark templating resumes with #3--because we're in charge of that job now. At least, as soon as I get it off my desk this week (it's been a long weekend!).

Ah, at least I know I won't be totally messed up on Saturday. Suggession, next time this happens (and I know you are hoping there won't be a next time...but we only play in a fantasy world, we don't live in one. :D ), maybe you could have the download link go to an informative page about the situation rather than just say I'm SOL.

Finally, there are some schedule issues caused by the hiccup of RPGA staffing issues and the absolute torrent of work we're producing. The RPGA related issues are twofold. On one hand you have the abrupt departure and then delay in replacement of the Content Manager. We've solved that one with gusto this time. I love our new content manager (in a man-crush sort of way, really :D ). On the other hand was the change in how and when conventions will be run. The shift from WF to XP actually brought about some real changes, not just the name.

The end result of these, combined with a huge volume of work that we're producing (as of now there are like 24 playable XE things in 6 months since the campaign launch), and the duration of the campaign (i.e., we're not a "living campaign") has resulted in some strange play windows. Some of those things got adjusted, namely a slight bump back in play windows, others we're still working on, such as the play dates and durations for the extended premier events. Our overall goal is to give you guys as much time to play as possible, while maintaining that razor's-edge balance between giving conventions the "show stoppers" and "exculsivity" they're looking for and well... keeping the new stuff "new" for the players at home.

There will still be some quirks. But you've got a team working on it that understands what they are, anticipates them, and works our butts off to correct them.

That said, I hope you've learned your lesson. That's what you get for playing Cabal. As we used to say back in the day, "Evil always turns on itself." Or something like that. One Aim--United! :fight!:

Yeah, I get the issues with SRM's departure. Especially delays caused by it. I'm just trying wrap my head around how it made it possible for the schedule to be moved forward when I went to schedule it, then moved back after it was too late to change my schedule. That is by far the most frustrating aspect as, especially this time of year, that pesky real world keeps making it difficult to play as much as I would like so I try to plan things in advance as much as possible. So I had to vent. :headexplo :)
tbug
12-08-06, 09:38 AM One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads.

I just want to make sure that you know that even though it's been several days since you posted this we still have no CoL #3 available for download. I know that you personally can't just fix the problem, but I also want to make sure that people reading your assurances that the problems are fixed are fooled into scheduling games that they then can't run. (This happened to me.)
Skerrit
12-08-06, 11:54 AM I just talked to HQ about this, and we identified the problem. It should be fixed in the next few minutes.
tbug
12-09-06, 09:47 AM I just talked to HQ about this, and we identified the problem. It should be fixed in the next few minutes.

Thanks for talking to them about this yesterday. It still hasn't been fixed, sadly.

Maybe Monday.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
trollbill 12-04-06, 12:18 PM	I have been running Cabal of Shadows as a home game and have run CoS #1 & CoS#2. I was planning on running Well of Woe on 12/9/06 but when I went to set this up several weeks ago, they had changed the Home game availability of Well of Woe to 1/1/07 to 1/31/07. Frustrated, I decided to run a DM's Mark using Shadows of the Last War. I scheduled it as DM's Mark #1 on 12/9. After looking at the DM's Mark stuff and the refamiliarizing myself with Shadows of the Last War again I realized it was at least the equivalent of a double mod. So I decided I would make is DM's Mark 1&2. I schedule DM's Mark 2 for the same day and went to download it only to find the file wasn't available. I saw it wasn't suppose to be available till Dec 2, so I figured that was the reason I couldn't download it. So I waited till yesterday, and I still can't download it. I have emailed customer services but have not gotten a reply yet. How am I supposed to run a game I scheduled when it isn't avialable for download? On top of all that, I now see Well of Woe is listed as being available for home games on from 11/2/2006 to 1/17/2007!?!?!?! And that they have added CoB#3 in the same limited slot (It didn't even exist on the list when I looked a few weeks ago so how could it be available as of 11/2?). How the heck am I supposed to run the equivalent of 4 games during the holiday season in such a short period of time, especially since it is now too late to reschedule the game on the 9th? If Wizards would like to know one of the big reasons I love Living Greyhawk over their Campaign systems so much, this is one of the very, Very, VERY big ones. In LG, I have anywhere from a 1 to 2 YEAR window to run/play a given mod and I have yet to have any problems getting ahold of the mod when I need it. I do not have to play around with the scheduleing fiasco that the Campaign systems insist on putting me through.
kiddoc 12-04-06, 12:41 PM	I have been running Cabal of Shadows as a home game and have run CoS #1 & CoS#2. I was planning on running Well of Woe on 12/9/06 but when I went to set this up several weeks ago, they had changed the Home game availability of Well of Woe to 1/1/07 to 1/31/07. Frustrated, I decided to run a DM's Mark using Shadows of the Last War. I scheduled it as DM's Mark #1 on 12/9. After looking at the DM's Mark stuff and the refamiliarizing myself with Shadows of the Last War again I realized it was at least the equivalent of a double mod. So I decided I would make is DM's Mark 1&2. I schedule DM's Mark 2 for the same day and went to download it only to find the file wasn't available. I saw it wasn't suppose to be available till Dec 2, so I figured that was the reason I couldn't download it. So I waited till yesterday, and I still can't download it. I have emailed customer services but have not gotten a reply yet. How am I supposed to run a game I scheduled when it isn't avialable for download? On top of all that, I now see Well of Woe is listed as being available for home games on from 11/2/2006 to 1/17/2007!?!?!?! And that they have added CoB#3 in the same limited slot (It didn't even exist on the list when I looked a few weeks ago so how could it be available as of 11/2?). How the heck am I supposed to run the equivalent of 4 games during the holiday season in such a short period of time, especially since it is now too late to reschedule the game on the 9th? If Wizards would like to know one of the big reasons I love Living Greyhawk over their Campaign systems so much, this is one of the very, Very, VERY big ones. In LG, I have anywhere from a 1 to 2 YEAR window to run/play a given mod and I have yet to have any problems getting ahold of the mod when I need it. I do not have to play around with the scheduleing fiasco that the Campaign systems insist on putting me through. Bill. You know I love you right. It's me--but how, oh how could you play Cabal of Shadows? I thought we knew each other better than that. :behold: No, seriously, there are a few issues I can discuss here. One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads. Now let's talk about that naughty DM's Mark #2--which is the bane of my existance. You see, someone who shall not be named, had the job putting together DM's Mark #1 and #2. #1 got done before he left, #2 was still on the schedule, but was never completed. Hence, it showed up for download and IS a playable adventure, there's just no template for it. You get generic XP and EV for playing, but no special certs, gear, or adventure-related stuff. It's kind of like a placeholder. All of the normal DM's Mark templating resumes with #3--because we're in charge of that job now. At least, as soon as I get it off my desk this week (it's been a long weekend!). Finally, there are some schedule issues caused by the hiccup of RPGA staffing issues and the absolute torrent of work we're producing. The RPGA related issues are twofold. On one hand you have the abrupt departure and then delay in replacement of the Content Manager. We've solved that one with gusto this time. I love our new content manager (in a man-crush sort of way, really :D ). On the other hand was the change in how and when conventions will be run. The shift from WF to XP actually brought about some real changes, not just the name. The end result of these, combined with a huge volume of work that we're producing (as of now there are like 24 playable XE things in 6 months since the campaign launch), and the duration of the campaign (i.e., we're not a "living campaign") has resulted in some strange play windows. Some of those things got adjusted, namely a slight bump back in play windows, others we're still working on, such as the play dates and durations for the extended premier events. Our overall goal is to give you guys as much time to play as possible, while maintaining that razor's-edge balance between giving conventions the "show stoppers" and "exculsivity" they're looking for and well... keeping the new stuff "new" for the players at home. There will still be some quirks. But you've got a team working on it that understands what they are, anticipates them, and works our butts off to correct them. That said, I hope you've learned your lesson. That's what you get for playing Cabal. As we used to say back in the day, "Evil always turns on itself." Or something like that. One Aim--United! :fight!:
trollbill 12-04-06, 01:00 PM	Brian, Thanks for the (incredibly) quick reply. Bill. You know I love you right. It's me--but how, oh how could you play Cabal of Shadows? I thought we knew each other better than that. :behold: Don't blame me. I asked my players which faction they wanted me to run when I did Xendrik and it was pretty unanimous. What can I say, my players are evil. I'm a Crimson Codex man myself. No, seriously, there are a few issues I can discuss here. One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads. Now let's talk about that naughty DM's Mark #2--which is the bane of my existance. You see, someone who shall not be named, had the job putting together DM's Mark #1 and #2. #1 got done before he left, #2 was still on the schedule, but was never completed. Hence, it showed up for download and IS a playable adventure, there's just no template for it. You get generic XP and EV for playing, but no special certs, gear, or adventure-related stuff. It's kind of like a placeholder. All of the normal DM's Mark templating resumes with #3--because we're in charge of that job now. At least, as soon as I get it off my desk this week (it's been a long weekend!). Ah, at least I know I won't be totally messed up on Saturday. Suggession, next time this happens (and I know you are hoping there won't be a next time...but we only play in a fantasy world, we don't live in one. :D ), maybe you could have the download link go to an informative page about the situation rather than just say I'm SOL. Finally, there are some schedule issues caused by the hiccup of RPGA staffing issues and the absolute torrent of work we're producing. The RPGA related issues are twofold. On one hand you have the abrupt departure and then delay in replacement of the Content Manager. We've solved that one with gusto this time. I love our new content manager (in a man-crush sort of way, really :D ). On the other hand was the change in how and when conventions will be run. The shift from WF to XP actually brought about some real changes, not just the name. The end result of these, combined with a huge volume of work that we're producing (as of now there are like 24 playable XE things in 6 months since the campaign launch), and the duration of the campaign (i.e., we're not a "living campaign") has resulted in some strange play windows. Some of those things got adjusted, namely a slight bump back in play windows, others we're still working on, such as the play dates and durations for the extended premier events. Our overall goal is to give you guys as much time to play as possible, while maintaining that razor's-edge balance between giving conventions the "show stoppers" and "exculsivity" they're looking for and well... keeping the new stuff "new" for the players at home. There will still be some quirks. But you've got a team working on it that understands what they are, anticipates them, and works our butts off to correct them. That said, I hope you've learned your lesson. That's what you get for playing Cabal. As we used to say back in the day, "Evil always turns on itself." Or something like that. One Aim--United! :fight!: Yeah, I get the issues with SRM's departure. Especially delays caused by it. I'm just trying wrap my head around how it made it possible for the schedule to be moved forward when I went to schedule it, then moved back after it was too late to change my schedule. That is by far the most frustrating aspect as, especially this time of year, that pesky real world keeps making it difficult to play as much as I would like so I try to plan things in advance as much as possible. So I had to vent. :headexplo :)
tbug 12-08-06, 09:38 AM	One of the central issues is the missing adventures from the Database issue. These should all be working now. We had our weekly meeting yesterday, and I saw as of this morning, our astute new leader had fixed the problem in less than 24 hours, just as he'd promised. So, all standard faction modules listed, should now have complete downloads. I just want to make sure that you know that even though it's been several days since you posted this we still have no CoL #3 available for download. I know that you personally can't just fix the problem, but I also want to make sure that people reading your assurances that the problems are fixed are fooled into scheduling games that they then can't run. (This happened to me.)
Skerrit 12-08-06, 11:54 AM	I just talked to HQ about this, and we identified the problem. It should be fixed in the next few minutes.
tbug 12-09-06, 09:47 AM	I just talked to HQ about this, and we identified the problem. It should be fixed in the next few minutes. Thanks for talking to them about this yesterday. It still hasn't been fixed, sadly. Maybe Monday.