How do you decide when to hold scheduled maintenance?

[LyonheartLakshmi]

When you schedule a maintenance window ahead of time for things other than emergencies, how do you decide what time during the day to perform the maintenance. Obviously, if the matter were to address an emergency issue, you would likely perform the maintenance as soon as possible. The non-emergency maintenance windows tend to fall into the same time slot, which tends to adversely affect NA and EU based players.

Are maintenance windows chosen based on player population distribution? Or is it based on convenience for those performing the maintenance? Or is there some other reason altogether?

Note: I personally don't have a problem with the way maintenance tends to fall partly during NA prime time, though I'm an NA based player. It just seems like every time maintenance occurs, many players cry foul about the way they are scheduled. I'm sure that many players would like to better understand the basis for maintenance window scheduling.

[Wise Donkey]

Re: How do you decide when to hold scheduled maintenance?

Good question! I would like to hear a response to this one. I also am a NA player, and I do not have a problem either. I just think it would be good information.

[Tekumel]

Re: How do you decide when to hold scheduled maintenance?

Since it's on a related note, I'd like to chime in on this one with: Is there any chance of seeing some sort of maintenance coordination with Microsoft? 2 out of the last 3 (maybe 4) patches have been the day after/before an XBox Live maintenance. Now, I know it's wrong to ask to favor one system or another. But if 1/3 (yes, I know, less than 33.3% of the population is XBox. 1/3 systems? Whatever.) of your players already cannot play (at least not without being previously logged in, and praying that they don't disconnect before it's over), wouldn't it make sense to coordinate the maintenances instead of double booting the XBox players that don't have PC or PS2?