I wonder why FAs (and Tournaments, being another obviously competitive element of the game) are not scheduled to start/end at accessible times on a broadly per-Timezone basis (Europe, the Americas, Australasia, etc.), in order to allow players who work, study, or have other commitments to compete, if they so wish, on an equitable basis and without the need to play Elvenar at work and/or very early in the morning or during the night.
As for InnoGames' Technical Support staff/developers being available out-of-hours or on weekends: even back in the 1990s it was not only possible but was even becoming commonplace for IT technicians to remotely administer Internet-connected networks and/or computers, albeit at slower speeds and with more difficulty than nowadays, with the only aspect of Net-connected machines which, generally speaking, could not be remotely administered being certain hardware-related issues (e.g. when a hard shutdown/restart was needed - although even this was sometimes possible), and of course the IT industry - especially online games, which are used most often during players' [typically evening/weekend] leisure time - has been progressing further towards remote admin ever since. According to InnoGames' CEO Hendrik Klindworth (see below), the Coronavirus affair has only increased the gaming industry's
pre-existing and extensive reliance upon working practices which were already "relative[ly] standard", such as flexible hours and working from home, so I cannot imagine that this situation will be any different now.
Quote : "Gaming is one of the few industries that have not been negatively impacted by the [Coronavirus] crisis. According to NewZoo’s Global Games Market forecast from April 2020, the industry is set to generate revenues of $159.3 billion this year, a 9.3% year-on-year growth. In short, the quarantine measures have increased consumer play time and money spent on gaming in general. As digital businesses, [gaming] studios have been quick to implement changes, with companies transitioning to home office and continuing to conduct business around the world. [...] Benefits that would be novel in other industries are relative[ly] standard in gaming, such as regular home office and flexible working hours. While more traditional industries struggled to switch to remote work, with some even finding it impossible, gaming transitioned rather smoothly, without interruption. I am convinced that what we are experiencing now is the future of work. Colleagues [are] able to work from the comfort of their own homes without sacrificing the quality, productivity and collaboration often associated with the office."
~ Source : PocketGamer.biz Website Article by InnoGames' CEO Hendrik Klindworth - 10th June 2020
This viewpoint certainly gives the impression (at least to me) that the occurrence of FA-related (or any other) technical issues outside of 'standard' office hours should cause, if anything,
fewer problems for InnoGames' already home-and-flexi-time-based technicians/developers than for those players whose work (or studies) are less conveniently arranged, and for whom it may not be possible - or desirable - to fit their commitments around Elvenar.
It may still be considered that occasions such as the end of a Fellowship Adventure increase network traffic and server load and therefore may be prone to causing technical issues which are, it may be argued, 'too critical' to be remotely administered. However, and by way of anecdotal comparison, the ability for IT technicians/developers to work from home and/or outside of traditional Monday-Friday nine-to-five hours has now progressed so far that - for over a decade - the team which co-ordinates and controls something as vital as the NHS Blood and Transplant Service (probably the most critical IT-related service in the UK outside of the military and intelligence agencies) has been able to remotely administer the entire Service from home, with no 'downtime' at all occurring during those ten years. Members of the team follow an 'on call' rota system during evenings and weekends in case of systems failure, and of course they are paid overtime if they should need to log in during these 'anti-social' hours, but the systems are so reliable nowadays that they almost never need any maintenance at all, and certainly not physical intervention, outside of normal office hours. In fact, the only time when any of the team has actually
needed to be on-site (even though some team members still simply prefer to work there) was one occasion when a server room (and much else) was flooded during a 'freak' storm, so technicians had to go in and remove the machines from the floodwater.
NB : In case any fellow-Brits may find this event alarming, there was no Blood/Transplant Service interruption because there are, of course, multiple back-up servers, and the entire system is
also operated with triple redundancy, i.e. with live replication of all data between three duplicate systems located hundreds of miles apart, but the point here is that if the NHS can, with very reliable efficiency, entirely remotely administer its most critical function, I would imagine that a gaming company (especially one which, as its CEO himself states, has actually increased its levels of home-working due to the recent 'stay-at-home' paradigm) can do likewise with far greater ease and, of course, far lesser consequences in the event of failures.