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Why is the ingame clock now displayed in UTC?

Question2Question2
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in General Discussion
Does anyone even prefer the times to be in UTC (given that UTC:0 is London, which is irrelevant for all 3 servers currently)?

The clock being in local time had an obvious use for the players of all servers. At the bare minimum, we could check the local time without needing to alt-tab or use another timekeeping device of some kind. Now, nobody is even sure when dailies will reset anymore. They used to reset at 4 am server time for AUS, what about now?

I doubt anyone on east/west cares what time it is in London either when they look at the ingame clock. Hands raised guys...who wants to know what time it is in London when you look at the ingame clock?

I have the sneaking suspicion that this change was made purely because Nexon NA had to list 3 seperate times for server maintenance in announcement and its much easier for them to just use UTC:0 and tell people to check the ingame clock. Except that it would now forces people to either login to check the ingame clock to find out when maintenance is happening (which still requires you to do manual calculations) or do the manual time conversion themselves based on the announcement. We will no longer be able to read the announcement and go "oh maintenance is at midnight today", we will need to read the announcement, login, check the clock, calculate the time difference between the clock and local time, and work out what time maintenance will be in local time.

Seriously Nexon, can you at least bother to ask players if they would want this change before you even think about doing something like this? This is literally marketing 101. This is like HR suddenly deciding on their own to issue paychecks in a foreign currency and then wondering why employees are pissed.
V0lterixKiyoujiPanda
  1. Who prefers the ingame clock to be based on London time?88 votes
    1. I do
       9% (8 votes)
    2. I don't
       91% (80 votes)

Comments

  • SuhpremeSuhpreme
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    edited January 18, 2017
    i play bdo and some mobile app games, they list times in UTC as well

    but they also provide the equivalent in est/pst etc
  • Question2Question2
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    Suhpreme wrote: »
    i play bdo and some mobile app games, they list times in UTC as well

    but they also provide the equivalent in est/pst etc

    It would be fine if UTC was an additional time zone that you could display, but given the choice of only one time zone, I think most players would want the local time zone to be displayed rather than London.

    Of all changes that they could have made (just look at the suggestions forum), they changed something that literally NOBODY wanted...I mean...come on...
  • Order5Order5
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    edited January 18, 2017
    World of Warcraft had two times displayed, the server time (where the server is physically located) and the local time that you could set to whatever you want. Is it really so hard to make to times?
  • NoburoNoburo
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    I don't really mind, but they'd better be including UTC times in all future ingame server messages (orange) if this is how it's going to be from now on.
  • BladehawkBladehawk
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    It's because of the upcoming EU-NA merge. When you have literally 6+ timezones to consider, it's better to have a "universal time zone" so that everyone is on the same page. Plus, anyone can derive their local time from this "universal time zone" by doing first-grade math. But maybe there will be an option to display the local time instead one day. We'll see!
    BloodAngel
  • Question2Question2
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    Of the 4 servers in total (East, west, aus, EU) only one would want it in London time.

    Having the same timezone for all ingame clocks is meaningless when its irrelevant to 3 out of 4 servers.
  • DownIoadDownIoad
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    Not a fan of this change personally and would rather look at my cell phone now.
  • MixxiaMixxia
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    Another "quality of life" change...but for you guys?
  • boddoleboddole
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    Yeah this one is quite strange. From talking about in game time with someone playing from Asia it was clear that even though we were on the same server, our local times were completely different. I'd guess the easiest way of doing this would be through the Windows API, why they would need to disable that is baffling (perhaps Europe has some privacy laws against getting information form a user's system??). Regardless, there are still other ways of computing local time, which would be as simple as letting the user pick their timezone and then adjusting the 'displayed time' from the internal server time (which the user doesn't need to see).

    Not knowing how Nexon has their server structure setup, my only other guess right now is that perhaps during their transition, they've disabled whatever their current methods of time conversion are because they don't cover the incoming areas? So they just show the 'internal time' as a catch-all until such time as they are able to make their time conversion methods work for all regions?

    So internal fixes / new Options UI, how long could it possible take right? 3/4 years tops! *I really hope this is a temporary issue...

    Bladehawk wrote: »
    When you have literally 6+ timezones to consider, it's better to have a "universal time zone" so that everyone is on the same page.
    -I don't know how well that stands up to scrutiny though, they already support multiple time zones , adding more should be fairly trivial since I'd strongly suspect that 'internal server time' is already in UTC and always has been.
    Bladehawk wrote: »
    anyone can derive their local time from this "universal time zone" by doing first-grade math.
    -True, just totally unnecessary. For the mean time though I'll be gettin' reel gud at subtracting by 8...
    BloodAngel
  • Question2Question2
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    The servers were already using local time to some extent. The AUS server was using Sydney time, and I assume EAST/WEST was using los angeles time or wherever the nexon HQ is.
  • WyldstormWyldstorm
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    i like it better the old way. It freaks me out for a second or 2 every time i look at it, lolz, makes me think im either early or late for something :P
  • BowtacojrBowtacojr
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    We're the North America Server, but now use a time based in the UK...

    Nice.
  • TamagoTamago
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    We should be able to set the region for the clock or have it be based on our PC's clock.
    DownIoad
  • Question2Question2
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    Would be great if Saygo or someone could provide an explanation...
  • SerisentSerisent
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    To be fair they've already been using UTC time for their servers for a while now (that's why on East we can do abyssal 4 times weekly even though it's only supposed to be on Weds and Sat), it's just now they've decided to make our in game clocks match.... troll :^ )
  • AnduriAnduri
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    edited January 20, 2017
    nvm my post got moved here so lol thanks Dealer for this :):)
  • DealerDealer
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    edited January 20, 2017
    Anduri wrote: »
    Nexon please fix clock in game please my is set to UTC time for some reason :( i am in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia so its saying right now its 5:36 pm where its only 4:36 am for me :(

    Its not a bug, they changed it because we are merging with EU soon (that was the reason stated in the live stream).
    It is in the patch notes under bug fixes.
  • AnduriAnduri
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    edited January 20, 2017
    oh ok cool thank you for info Dealer :) well hope i can change it after you do the merging of the EU :(
  • Question2Question2
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    edited January 20, 2017
    Dealer wrote: »
    Anduri wrote: »
    Nexon please fix clock in game please my is set to UTC time for some reason :( i am in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia so its saying right now its 5:36 pm where its only 4:36 am for me :(

    Its not a bug, they changed it because we are merging with EU soon (that was the reason stated in the live stream).
    It is in the patch notes under bug fixes.

    Why would NA/AUS players want to know what time it is in London? This makes no sense. You may as well set everyone's ingame clocks to Sydney time. Or Antartica time.

    Im pretty sure Nexon NA isnt setting their office clocks to London time in preparation for the merge either.

    @Saygo : I think a lot of players would like to know what is going on, as almost nobody seems to prefer having the ingame clock displayed in London time...
  • TetsujinTetsujin
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    UTC is not really "London Time". UTC has a no daylight savings time, so it can differ from the UK time which has DST.

    UTC is a world standard for regulating clocks & time. so to be fair to Nexon, it's reasonable to use it for setting in-game time.