Update Wednesday/Here Be Dragons

(Please Note, I will use 24-hour time in this post as it is easier to see the issue at hand if I do)

I have rewritten this post many times over. At first, I was going to use this amusing image. A harsh commentary, at the time, of a globally popular conception of the typical American world-view of the time. I was going to use it as a visual representation of the feeling of SL's 'Next Important Market' in regards to the timing of 'Update Wednesdays'.

However, I then realised the following...

As it stands;

SLT+0: (San Fransisco) [Local Time for Update: 07:00-12:00] It's a busy morning in Califoria for Linden Lab, but a late day for any Companies or Content Groups (collectivly referred to with the term 'CG') in that time zone. A dot in the dotted line between the first and second lives.

SLT+4: (New York) [Local Time for Update: 11:00-16:00] CGs there, if keeping hours of 09:00-17:00 (05:00-13:00) will have what is probably their most productive time taken away by the update. Why bother turning up or even opening for business? Another dot in the dotted line between the first and second lives.

SLT+8 to SLT+10: (London, Paris, Helsinki) [Local Time for Update: 16:00-21:00 (±1 hour)] If your CG is lucky enough to come from a place with history, the trade off is the loss of Second life in the end of your business day (for the UK, at least... and forget overtime on the mainland). Another dot in the dotted line between the first and second lives. If you're a fun-lovin' resident looking to fill the time between coming home and going to the pub, you're out of luck. Another dot in the dotted line between the first and second lives.

SLT+18: (Beijing) [Local Time for Update: 01:00-06:00 (Tomorrow)] CGs here are mostly created by the fabulous Anshe Chung. Owing to the fact that the update actually occurs in the middle of the night, Anshe's Employees and other Chinese Residents will be unaffected unless they work at night. Good Business Choice, Mrs. Chung. Another dot in the dotted line between the residents and Anshe Chung. (Japan is similarly unaffected)

As such, there is no real 'good' time to run the update.

It's a lose/lose situation, really.

Discuss

Um you basically have to aim to kill the fewest number of people. This would make the best time to be the early AM hours. Americans would be in bed, Europeans for the most part would be at work. Thats your two biggest sets of players in this world (I'm not pulling straight numbers of course, just a random observation having spent a few 24+ hour days wandering SL and meeting people from all over)

North America, primarilly the US and Canada simply are the lifesblood of this game, the Euro influence is also rather large. Asia? Sure big, but when compared to those two who have both essentially lost out on a day? Drop in the bucket.

My company is hosting servers for customers world wide, and we still recognize that the night time is the right time, because quite frankly, US based business has more US customers than those from any other place.

Sucks but true.

Not to nit-pick, but, you do know that Anshe resides in Germany, no?

What about her employees in China?