3 Hour queue?

[katablade]

Here's the thing. If you've been there for the launch of any MMO within the past five years (or more) you'll notice this ALWAYS happens. And yet people are ALWAYS surprised.

Servers are expensive, and even big companies (I'm looking at you EA with SimCity), usually don't buy enough servers/space because they don't want to pay for more than they need. So instead the err on the side of stupidity and add servers as needed instead of having a large amount of space ready.

But say they have 15 servers at start. Well after three months only a third of those will have a thriving player base. After a year cut that into five server or LESS. Tera had many servers and was down to three, and now with their new F2P model are up again to five or six.

No, the problem is the DEVS are still surprised. People should stay vigilant and stay being surprised and complain, as these problems should not exist. Look at what happened with SimCity. "We underestimated" it's the same for every MMO. It's not our fault, it's the companies for not being able to think properly.

Never blame the customer. That's rule #1 in any business you run.

[Kris Munky]

It could always be worse, at least youre getting a queue, I just get a connection timed out message

[EvilParfait]

No, the problem is the DEVS are still surprised. People should stay vigilant and stay being surprised and complain, as these problems should not exist. Look at what happened with SimCity. "We underestimated" it's the same for every MMO. It's not our fault, it's the companies for not being able to think properly.

Never blame the customer. That's rule #1 in any business you run.

How can the DEVs be surprised when they have a rough estimation on server stress (gleaned from alpha and beta testing, which they did) AND how many copies they've sold. They get reports from all retailers since those retailers buy the codes necessary for us to enter to play the game.

And when I was talking about people being surprised... people are idiots. Despite the fact that almost every online game or MMO has had issues at launch (queues, server instability due to congestion or just outright LAG) people are always shocked and indignant.

Never blame the customer? I would believe that if this was normal retail, but considering that gamers are an entitled bunch of monkeys fueled on caffeine and adrenaline...

[Technodude]

gw2 had a broken overflow system of cross server instances that allowed people to play but not to group up with their friends.


this is more like TSW's system which was much better than gw2's overall, but has a broken queue system and server busy issues, probably to cut costs...

although in TSW's case the studio was on life support going into launch, let alone after, and managed to out perform the competition in terms of player experience in this regard.

I will gladly take broken overflow system where i can at least log in and play over archaic queue system where i sit waiting twiddling my thumbs.

The overflow system should be a basic requirement for all upcoming MMOS.

[EvilParfait]

I will take broken overflow system where i can at least log in and play over archaic queue system where i sit waiting twiddling my thumbs.

Read a book?
Watch a show?
Mastur-... nevermind.

[katablade]

How can the DEVs be surprised when they have a rough estimation on server stress (gleaned from alpha and beta testing, which they did) AND how many copies they've sold. They get reports from all retailers since those retailers buy the codes necessary for us to enter to play the game.

And when I was talking about people being surprised... people are idiots. Despite the fact that almost every online game or MMO has had issues at launch (queues, server instability due to congestion or just outright LAG) people are always shocked and indignant.

Never blame the customer? I would believe that if this was normal retail, but considering that gamers are an entitled bunch of monkeys fueled on caffeine and adrenaline...

How can devs be surprised? You tell me. People are idiots, and so are devs and publishers included.

For the SimCity launch it was the fact that people remained playing for 4-5 hours on average in the beginning, which meant servers filled up quickly, and didn't get unfilled quickly enough. EA/Maxis didn't expect this to happen. They had to add about 2-3x the available servers, and even for the first few weeks half of them were full.

So the same goes here:

Sold 1 million copies in different regions. Who will play the game day one? How long will they stay playing the game? What if we have some strange lag issues @ 10000 players per node? Will EU players join US servers and visa versa? Etc...etc... many unexpected, or hard to define reasons.

Keep in mind a lot of studios releasing MMOs have never released MMOs before.

[Technodude]

Read a book?
Watch a show?
Mastur-... nevermind.

That is not the point. Technology is there and it works.

[EvilParfait]

That is not the point. Technology is there and it works.

Hah, I would love it if all developers looked that closely at eachothers work and said, "You know, that's much less ******ed than what we had planned. We should go with that!"

But how often in human history has that happened? I'm pretty much convinced all game devs work with blinders on. You know, the thing they put on horses so they can only look forward?

[Thunderclap]

No, the problem is the DEVS are still surprised. People should stay vigilant and stay being surprised and complain, as these problems should not exist. Look at what happened with SimCity. "We underestimated" it's the same for every MMO. It's not our fault, it's the companies for not being able to think properly.

Never blame the customer. That's rule #1 in any business you run.

I believe thats EA's second tag line. "We underestimated" Its first is 'We kill games we buy from others'

[Whiffmeister]

Well after the queue message I logged all the way out of the launcher and then logged back in. Got straight into my game. Only problem is that the game crashes quite regularly. I was just in my inventory and the music stopped and I was straight back at my desktop .... again