After some big new thing is introduced, we frequently will have several subsequent patch days. Also, sometimes there's game maintenance, sometimes there's server maintenance. They may sneak some game updates in with server maintenance, but sometimes they have to do it separately. /shrug. It's two hours usually, more or less.
EverQuest 2 does a weekly game update which adds features, fixes bugs, and performs general maintenance infrastructure. Any time you adjust something as complex as this game, there is the potential for new bugs or issues to arise. While we try and hold those fixes until the following maintenance, some are important enough to be fixed as soon as possible or within the next available window.
No the real reason that they are doing twice a week game updates is they are using the same servers they used when the game came out and nowadays if you don't reset them frequently then the service crashes. Its similar to what happens when people play the game too long and it crashes from memory error. (Now that you've read all that I'd like to advise you that I made it all up, its always possible its true though.)
<sarcasm on>I assume you have this information directly from the network engineers responsible for the servers? </sarcasm off>. Over time, they have replaced servers with brand new improved boxes, they regularly update software, etc. These aren't moldy old servers from Ye 1990s. You can find this out by reading back through the various downtime announcements historically. Especially during server mergers, they were making server improvements (we had nothing to do but read about it while we waited for the merged servers to come back up!)
