Time zones and official notices. Please use UTC

[Wruined]

This is a global game, with players from all over the world. It makes good sense to use UTC (Universal Coordinate Time) in announcements for when maintenance is due or other such events.

Most people should know their own local time zone offset from UTC. It is, after all, the way time zones are defined. (I live in UTC+11, soon to return to UTC+10).

Thanks, (from Australia)

[Gwalben]

Telling Americans to use UTC is like telling them to use metric. Simple enough to type it into Bing to convert, but good luck getting most people to tell you off the top of their heads what their UTC offset is.

[Ceruhe]

Yea no way, time zones, day light saving in assorted countries at different dates blabla...life doesn't work without google.

[iruet]

UTC and GMT are the same, CET is GMT+1, CEST is GMT+2...

CET and CEST are often used for this game, since the devs are in Germany... Although the timezones at the mainpage here are not known to me...

[BB_Odhran]

The timezone that I've been told to use for the most has been Eastern Time. Which is UTC -4. This has been like this since I started. I hope that helps you with figuring out when events and everything are.

-BB_Odhran

[Wruined]

The timezone that I've been told to use for the most has been Eastern Time. Which is UTC -4. This has been like this since I started. I hope that helps you with figuring out when events and everything are.

-BB_Odhran

Yes, I can see the zone in your announcements, and I can figure it out. I don't remember the UTC offset for your time zone, or remember what zone you are using, so I look it up as needed, and it's not that hard to do a double time conversion to get to my own time zone. So it's not that big a deal; I can figure out times.

But it's kind of weird for this particular game. So I mean this as a suggestion for you to pass on to people who make these kinds of decisions. I was hoping this forum was the right place to make suggestions for those who tell you what zone to use in announcements.

Thanks -- Wruined

[Gwalben]

I would think UTC is a foreign concept or at best infrequently used for most of the userbase (I never use the term, using GMT instead, which is basically the same), which recognizes the eastern time zone and then subtracts based on how many hours behind their TV programs start. UTC -4 in parentheses may be a fair compromise, but I would think replacing ET altogether would create more confusion than it removes. Though then you get into the same confusion we had with EST vs. EDT when the clocks switched, which does not coincide with when Germans change their clocks.

[gracie_the_cat]

The timezone that I've been told to use for the most has been Eastern Time. Which is UTC -4. This has been like this since I started. I hope that helps you with figuring out when events and everything are.

-BB_Odhran

Since this is server region is the United States, I do appreciate the use of the Eastern Time zone for announcements, thank you. The use of GMT or UTC is not a common practice for those members who are based in the server region.

[BB_Odhran]

I would think UTC is a foreign concept or at best infrequently used for most of the userbase (I never use the term, using GMT instead, which is basically the same), which recognizes the eastern time zone and then subtracts based on how many hours behind their TV programs start. UTC -4 in parentheses may be a fair compromise, but I would think replacing ET altogether would create more confusion than it removes. Though then you get into the same confusion we had with EST vs. EDT when the clocks switched, which does not coincide with when Germans change their clocks.

Yeah. Having the options to have world clocks are amazing, but converting the times when time changes happen can get to me. You get used to it being a certain way, but then remember that it has changed. We do change here shortly though.

-BB_Odhran