Can we have an update on the situation.

[Flunklesnarkin]

More servers = higher monthly fee

[No Thanks!]

[RAIST]

Cem started a "petition" of sorts to try to get some info from SE. Everyone needs to hop over there and /sign it. Maybe it will work.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/2743-Information-Submission-Request-to-Square-Enix?p=33153&viewfull=1#post33153

Raist

[Gogovegas]

To get more information? Come on, when they have something to tell us I'm sure they'll let us know. I'm pretty sure they have a lot of others things more pressing at the moment. So far SE has done a decent job keeping us informed. It's not like the status of a game server is really important... sigh sigh sigh.

[RAIST]

There have been thousands of posts arguing over this issue. Cem's is a more formal request for a more detailed update--not likely to spark the flame wars going on in other threads. If everyone would just /sign it and keep it civil, perhaps it will get some results.

Raist

[Keyln]

With the servers being down, many of you are wondering what’s going on with Vana’diel time and your plants, traverser stones, besieged, etc. Pretty much, just think of this as really long server maintenance, which means that unfortunately your plants will be withered, but the number of traverser stones Joachim sets aside for you will have increased, and besiege will pick up where it was left off.

So, wait, does this mean that the Astral Candescence is lost to us? D:

And, if this is an extra long maintenance, can we get a relic/mythic/empyrian weapon in our mog mail? ;D

Seriously, though, we hope that things get back to relative normal soon at SE, and my prayers are with the people of Japan.

[Ter]

I think everyone understands and agrees with your analysis of the complex nature of any kind of relocation project. However I also think people are suprised, maybe even disappointed that SE had no contingency plan in place other than turning off the servers to preserve game data.

We also know that they do have game data backup and recovery systems in place, so why not have a "shadow" server network where the backup data was backed up again. Then all that would be required would be the activation of this network.

I reiterate its the lack of foresight which I think conserns people espically when you consider the fact that Japan is not stranger to such events and other than the cost benefits of centralisation why have this equipment in Japan at all?

It is easy to underestimate the costs of maintaining a redundent server farm and keeping even a reasonably up to date backup of a live realtime system. The cost of operating this internationally would be greater still. How much would players be willing to pay in additional fees to protect against an event that probably crops up once every 100 years or more? Would you continue to pay if the fees were doubled or there was no ongoing development due to all the fees being allocated to infrastructure?

With complex systems physical access to the servers is essential, so despite Japan having a history of natural disasters this is ultimately the most productive and cost effective place to have the servers.

To reiterate, you just can't plan for an event as extreme as this.

[RAIST]

Interesting tweet over at The Tokyo Post:

Today is the first day they will try to run with no scheduled blackouts - expect that supply exceeds demand

Everyone cross your fingers!

Raist

[Gogovegas]

Sure, it would be a better way of going at getting more information, but if people are getting frustrated over this they simply need to have a bit of a reality check and understand there are more important things than playing FFXI- or getting status updates on when things will be back. I mean, the information is not even clear on when the rolling black outs will come to an end, as it changes day-by-day.

With that said, SE at the end of the day is a business. Once they can get the servers back up they most certainly will.

[Mattis]

For all those speculating about SE dropping the ball by not having a recovery plan in place I would like to add some clarification. The logistics of replicating data on a realtime system internationally are unbelievably complex. Even if the infrastructure of the country could support the traffic the financial cost of securing guarenteed international bandwidth and redundent routing would be financially prohibitive. The fees paid by FFXI subscribers would not even scratch the surface of these costs and that is why this sort of solution is only really available to high level financial infrastructure. Even if FFXI subscribers paid 10 times as much as they do now this solution would be out of reach

Ok you do realize that makes no sense right? We pay our fees now and that takes care of SE's cost and gives them a profit right? So how is it that adding a complete second operational system going to cost over 9 times as much as the first? I have internet here in the USA and they (SE) has internet in Japan, We don't actually run a hard line from here to Japan so I can play FFXI. It would be the same thing, 2 different servers configured the same way with the same internet connection = doubles the cost. OK not double compared to pricing difference in the two continents but no way is that going to equal 10 times the cost.



Even for the biggest companies spending 100s of millions of dollars on their disaster recovery plans would be brought down by a national infrastructure outage. Some disasters are just to widespread to be able to manage effectively. This situation is out of SEs hands and will not be resolved until there is consistant power supply both to the servers and the infrastructure connecting them to the internet.


Sorry have to disagree with you here too, Many many companies the size of SE do have backup systems running in different areas of the world for precisely that reason. SE being an international company with servers already in many countries could and should have done this as well. Terrorist right now could nuke silicon Vally and All the big dot.coms
would be back up in a couple hours.


For those hoping that the data may be moved to a secondary server house in another country I would say it is unlikely. Although there are 24 worlds each of these is made up of many physical servers precisely configured together to form a game environment. I would not be surprised if they were running over 200 physical servers in total (amount really varies depending on the specification of the hardware). Setting up a mirror of this environment is a job that takes weeks at best, even if you can source the hardware quickly. Deploying the software, configuring it and testing the result takes even longer. Migrating the data across on top of this and you have a process that takes a long time. Even if SE did choose to do this they would be facing more downtime when things returned to normal as they would want to move the operation back again, easy physical access is essential when you have so much hardware to maintain.

No disagreement here, the time is passed. They should have been prepared for this long before this happened. Now to try and fix it would take longer then just waiting for things to run there natural course. Just like the concept of insurance, after your in an accident is not the time to shop for it.


The japanese people have a lot of serious issues to deal with right now but rest assured one of the top priorities will be getting power distribution back to normal as it is directly damaging the economy. In the meantime we should reflect on how easy the world can be spun into chaos and appreaciate how lucky and priviledged our lives usually are.

^ Very true


Wishing the Japanese populous a speedy and dignified recovery.

Amen

I don't mind the servers being down, please don't get me wrong. I am also not an uncaring and understanding about what Japan is going threw now, I just cant stand people making excuses for a company that didn't do what they were supposed to to begin with so now they are making there loyal customers pay for there mistakes. All it would take would have been to set up 2 servers and during normal maint take about an hour to sync the backup server up. This would be about roughly twice the cost but if they doubled fees they would pay for it with double profits as well. Even then It still wouldn't cost double cause they could always sell of the bandwidth for the second server till it is needed. This would have keep the servers up in this case and just about every case other then complete Armageddon. All they would have to do is in that couple hours that they gave us warning that the servers were going down is transfer the new data since the last maint and we would have been up after 2 hours instead of 2 weeks or 2 months as it still may turn out to be. If by some miracle some naturale disaster pretty much wiped out two continents then we would be here.

Bottom line they got caught with there pants down and didn't have insurance.

Again I could care less about the servers being down and since were are at this place now they did the right thing and shut them down so the power could be used elsewhere where it is needed a lot more. Im just saying that we shouldn't be here if they had done the right thing to begin with.

[Ter]

For Mattis....

I can't go into details here as it would take pages but the cost impact is massive. Your single stream of network data is fine to route across the internet from your DSL connection, but we are talking 10,000s of simultaneous users data that must arrive in a set order for it to form a stateful position in time. You will definately need something more stable and you will need redundency as you would be surprised how often large loops are down and automatic rerouting picks up the slack.

Your belief that this capability is widespread is flawed, many companies have transaction shipping offsite but not in realtime situations as the flood of data is a never ending torrent. Without mentioning names a very large national bank has twin server houses less than 100 miles apart but on seperate power grids and this is considered sufficient protection.

Like I said the details are tedious, this is what I do and it is not as straightforward as you make out.

[Deadvinta]

I see so many posts about "working on getting the servers back up." You people realize this isn't a crash, right? They actively shut down the servers.

[Mattis]

For Mattis....

I can't go into details here as it would take pages but the cost impact is massive. Your single stream of network data is fine to route across the internet from your DSL connection, but we are talking 10,000s of simultaneous users data that must arrive in a set order for it to form a stateful position in time. You will definately need something more stable and you will need redundency as you would be surprised how often large loops are down and automatic rerouting picks up the slack.

Your belief that this capability is widespread is flawed, many companies have transaction shipping offsite but not in realtime situations as the flood of data is a never ending torrent. Without mentioning names a very large national bank has twin server houses less than 100 miles apart but on seperate power grids and this is considered sufficient protection.

Like I said the details are tedious, this is what I do and it is not as straightforward as you make out.

OK fair enough, I am more software then hardware anyways so I concede that I may very well be wrong. Just didn't make sense that 1 x 1 = 100% and 2 X 1 = 1000% +. I still think that I could write software with compression to transfer all that data rather quickly and automatically reroute dropped packets before the data is committed on the backup server. Also it doesn't truly have to be real time, the production server would be down while the transfers were taking place.
But either way I think I could do it I have never done it. If you do this for a living and you say it is done that way
like I said I have to take your word for it. If it was as easy as I think it would be then companies would be doing it already so that pretty much says im wrong right there.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[Mattis]

I see so many posts about "working on getting the servers back up." You people realize this isn't a crash, right? They actively shut down the servers.

Um yeah, you just said it yourself they shut them DOWN. Asking for them to work to get them back UP makes perfect sense still.

By working to get them back up just means finding alternative power rather then fixing the software or hardware.

[Ter]

No problem realtime is a pain and theres no doubt, by the time you have tried to compress or manipulate the packets you have a backlog and as it keeps coming it just gets bigger and bigger. Dropped packets are also a major issue as you can't afford to resync all the other arriving traffic while waiting for a resend. Point to point is the only real solution that has ever worked and that cost a lot.....

[RAIST]

@Ter
/agreed

It's not just a simple single server to single server transaction. It would be a room full of servers handling 500 2 way connections (or more) at once in real-time, some servers synching with other servers at the same location, then trying to replicate all that to a room full of servers at another location. Replicating a cluster of say Exchange email servers or a website taking tax payments on line in no way compares to this level of traffic. They would have to dedicate a fiber line just for this communication, as well as additional staff, deal with different labor/DRM/copyright/etc. laws--in short, it would be like a whole additional division over there. If they did in fact research this when setting things up, they likely have deemed it not worth the cost.

Raist

[Ter]

Raist you have hit the nail on the head. So many companies that look into the problem soon catch on that the costs make their product uncompetitve and it therefore really isnt an option.

[krusnik213]

I was just wondering about something my friend said about SE maybe moving the servers to california if it took longer than a week to get them back up and running. Is there possibly any truth to this? Also i hope the people of japan all the best

[Selzak]

It's so irritating to see people speak so loudly about things that they haven't the first clue about.

[Mattis]

No problem realtime is a pain and theres no doubt, by the time you have tried to compress or manipulate the packets you have a backlog and as it keeps coming it just gets bigger and bigger. Dropped packets are also a major issue as you can't afford to resync all the other arriving traffic while waiting for a resend. Point to point is the only real solution that has ever worked and that cost a lot.....

OK like i said i digress here, but just out of curiosity let me run this by you if you will.

Both server are off, there is no data whatsoever coming onto the real server (this is a must and no doubt it would be very expensive to do it in real real-time not to mention risky)

It seems to me that you take the time stamp from the last server transfer and compile one big script to redistribute the new data to the backup server. Compress that so It doesn't take a week to transfer it and transmit that to the backup server. Now basically the big script is like one big torrent. It doesn't really matter if you have dropped packets the information coming behind it can keep coming. After transfer is complete the script self-checks itself and re-downloads missing packets as needed. Only after the script is 100 percent in tact does it uncompress and execute and only after getting conformation that the script executed without error is the production server put back on line to receive more data.

[Ilax]

It's so irritating to see people speak so loudly about things that they haven't the first clue about.

yes it is... welcome to public forum.

[Ter]

I agree Mattis a snapshot would be fine in this situation but this assumes that after the 'event' the servers are accessible, the network is up and the realtime state is incorrupted at the time of the failure. In this particular situation that actually might be the case but you certainly wouldn't design your disaster recover to only function in this narrow window of circumstances. I guess you could put this capability in but most disaster downtimes happen without warning this was more the exception than the rule. A good point thoug, although its easy to pick the pieces out of a recovery situation after the event.

[breau]

Interesting tweet over at The Tokyo Post:

Today is the first day they will try to run with no scheduled blackouts - expect that supply exceeds demand

Everyone cross your fingers!

Raist

done as you suggested, raist, btw, may i ask on what server you are?
breau, alexander/bastok

[RAIST]

red-headed stepchild... Carby

Raist

[Babygyrl]

Thanks for the update!!! People just need to be patient i know you guys will keep us informed!! poor plants though :( how bout some gil reimbursement for the dead plants supply :P just kidding!!

[Samunai]

Hey everyone,

Most of you may have read the follow-up on PlayOnline news regarding the servers. (for those of you that haven’t here is a link: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news20547.shtml)

First of all I just wanted to say from myself and on behalf of the rest of the Community Team, thank you so much for being patient and understanding in these tragic times. We’re really impressed and moved by how strongly you all support Japan and your efforts to donate.

With the servers being down, many of you are wondering what’s going on with Vana’diel time and your plants, traverser stones, besieged, etc. Pretty much, just think of this as really long server maintenance, which means that unfortunately your plants will be withered, but the number of traverser stones Joachim sets aside for you will have increased, and besiege will pick up where it was left off.

We will give you updates on the situation and again thank you very much for your kind words and compassion.

OK that's very nice, but as you might have seen (maybe not personal, but as a member of SQEX), a lot of people speculating about where all the servers are (all in JPN or scattered around the world?) and if they are to be or not to be relocated. Can we have some information about the status of the servers besides they wont be up for awhile? pretty please \m/(~.^) ?

[Mattis]

Exactly, the logging on the production server I would use to build my script would still be running up until the production server went down. As long as the downtime wasn't because catastrophic damages the loss would be very minuscule. If it was catastrophic a months data loss is still infinitely better then a complete loss.

[Ilax]

In this particular situation that actually might be the case but you certainly wouldn't design your disaster recover to only function in this narrow window of circumstances.

Wait a min, SE just lost the main source of power they could use, you make it sound like is worse then that.... There no fire inside SE building, no disaster inside they company. Yes they have to deal with side effect of crisis, today or later they have to do something. I am shocked if SE have no plan in case of 'long time power interruption'. Because trust me not only quake/tsunami can cause this.

[Earnie]

Hope every 1 is safe and take ur time good luck to u guys and if there is anything u need just ask

[Ilax]

Hope every 1 is safe and take ur time good luck to u guys and if there is anything u need just ask

They need power:) i sent them my 9 volt battery. Ok, i am just kidding...

[TribalProphet]

OK that's very nice, but as you might have seen (maybe not personal, but as a member of SQEX), a lot of people speculating about where all the servers are (all in JPN or scattered around the world?) and if they are to be or not to be relocated. Can we have some information about the status of the servers besides they wont be up for awhile? pretty please \m/(~.^) ?

The servers are fine. They were running with no problems for days after the quake. What SE needs now is for the 50 or so power plants to be back up at full speed so they are given permission to run their servers 24/7 again. They (and people here) just have to wait it out for more news.

[RAIST]

Actually, they suffered a few brownouts prior to shutting down, they were just minor blips and no big fuss was made. I stumbled on some threads in the JP threads on it a few nights ago. It was back around the time Sylph went AWOL on us...may have been related, who knows.

Raist

[Mattis]

Wait a min, SE just lost the main source of power they could use, you make it sound like is worse then that.... There no fire inside SE building, no disaster inside they company. Yes they have to deal with side effect of crisis, today or later they have to do something. I am shocked if SE have no plan in case of 'long time power interruption'. Because trust me not only quake/tsunami can cause this.

Im all fairness to SE they do and this proved it. They never lost power, the have redundant lines from multiple power sources. Even tho this crises did in fact hit all of them they still never lost power. They were asked to not use that power
so it could be used in more critical areas like hospitals, shelters, and rescue crews.

They also no doubt have backup servers just not as far away from the real one to avoid and continental crises like this.

[Ter]

Actually Ilax you could count the amount of power cuts in developed countries to the main grid (which most server houses are on) which lasted more than an hour in the last 50 years on one hand. Server houses will universally have generators to cover anywhere up to 24 hours. In pretty much all grid outages the telecoms and connectivity are also lost so having power really doesnt do you much good as you are isolated anyway. Really this situation is rarer than people realise.

[Crocker]

Originally, we announced that the services will be temporarily suspended for about a week starting on Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT). However, due to ongoing issues with the lack of energy, we have decided to extend the suspension until Mar. 22, 2011 (JST). We will re-evaluate the situation on Mar. 22, 2011 (JST) and provide everyone with another update regarding this matter.

/translate The 1 week estimate was not very accurate and since we truly do not know how much longer, we will try to give a better estimated guess on Tuesday March 22nd so we can enjoy our holiday weekend.

[Vlaid]

/translate The 1 week estimate was not very accurate and since we truly do not know how much longer, we will try to give a better estimated guess on Tuesday March 22nd so we can enjoy our holiday weekend.

It's so logical, that it's probably true.

[DukeDudeston]

First of all I just wanted to say from myself and on behalf of the rest of the Community Team, thank you so much for being patient and understanding in these tragic times. We’re really impressed and moved by how strongly you all support Japan and your efforts to donate.

With the servers being down, many of you are wondering what’s going on with Vana’diel time and your plants, traverser stones, besieged, etc. Pretty much, just think of this as really long server maintenance, which means that unfortunately your plants will be withered, but the number of traverser stones Joachim sets aside for you will have increased, and besiege will pick up where it was left off.


Oh well, stuff happens.
I am still gunna log in when the servers come back on. And play the game as I did before.. I am just gunna see this as a great big holiday, away from FFXI. And hope others do the same...

yeah it is gunna suck that stuff in the AH will go, and it will take a while for it to get back to normal, however I just hope some people take this as a way to make extra Gil, and charge extra for the items.

[hideka]

my plants are dead? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ALL MY WEEED! HOW DAREEEEEE U!

[windrider]

A gazillion stones for everybody!! And they thought Abyssea was crammed before.

Think: If this thing goes six weeks, even for those who had zero stones at the time of the suspension, those people could, with all applicable abyssites, have 126 stones.

It's not like maintence where the servers are still running allowing stones etc to accumilate, you need running time on the game to allow that, the servers are off, so plants stones etc wont have moved everything will be frozen where it was last left off,

[Ryland]

Radiation level 5.

[Camate]

It's not like maintence where the servers are still running allowing stones etc to accumilate, you need running time on the game to allow that, the servers are off, so plants stones etc wont have moved everything will be frozen where it was last left off,

Hey Windrider,

Please see my earlier response:

Hey everyone,

Most of you may have read the follow-up on PlayOnline news regarding the servers. (for those of you that haven’t here is a link: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news20547.shtml)

First of all I just wanted to say from myself and on behalf of the rest of the Community Team, thank you so much for being patient and understanding in these tragic times. We’re really impressed and moved by how strongly you all support Japan and your efforts to donate.

With the servers being down, many of you are wondering what’s going on with Vana’diel time and your plants, traverser stones, besieged, etc. Pretty much, just think of this as really long server maintenance, which means that unfortunately your plants will be withered, but the number of traverser stones Joachim sets aside for you will have increased, and besiege will pick up where it was left off.

We will give you updates on the situation and again thank you very much for your kind words and compassion.
:D

[RAIST]

It's not like maintence where the servers are still running allowing stones etc to accumilate, you need running time on the game to allow that, the servers are off, so plants stones etc wont have moved everything will be frozen where it was last left off,

actually, stones are accumulating and plants will wither. That is an official announcement from SE on the matter.

Stone accumulation is calculated according to game clock and time passing between events logged when you interact with Joachim, which is why you get free stones when you get the abyssites to extend time. It is already known that game clock is bound to real-life clock (a formula is applied to sysclock value). Unless they change time on the servers before launching the game services, they will recaclulate and you'll get the free stones.

But all that doesn't really need to be said, as SE already announced stones will accumulate during this crisis.

Raist

[Kailea_Nagisa]

I know this is way off topic, but good lord Ryland could you please make that image smaller please -.-

and yeah I was about to say it but the admin above me said it ;p Time in Vanadiel is going on as normal.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Well more traverser stones is a nice bonus w/e the game does come back up heh

[Gravionblack]

So my only question is if all the plants and things are dead . . . . . what about my chocobo? Am i going to come back to a chocobo that hates me? ^^;

[RAIST]

yeah...that may be a problem... it might even run away if you haven't gottten your plaque/whistle for it yet and sent it off to the farm already.

SE might have to give the GM's a tool to reset them somehow or something. Will just have to wait and see how bad the in-game fallout from all this is I guess.

Raist

[Spamtastic]

so this means beastmen will have conquered vanadiel? just wondering.

[Vedabe]

so this means beastmen will have conquered vanadiel? just wondering.

you can´t imagine how i laugh about this, suddenly i don´t know why, got the picture of the shadow lord waiting for us to give us a fairly "warm" welcome, you made my day seriously XD.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

actually, stones are accumulating and plants will wither. That is an official announcement from SE on the matter.

Stone accumulation is calculated according to game clock and time passing between events logged when you interact with Joachim, which is why you get free stones when you get the abyssites to extend time. It is already known that game clock is bound to real-life clock (a formula is applied to sysclock value). Unless they change time on the servers before launching the game services, they will recaclulate and you'll get the free stones.

But all that doesn't really need to be said, as SE already announced stones will accumulate during this crisis.

RaistAnd a MOD beat you to the punch. lol

[Tsukino_Kaji]

so this means beastmen will have conquered vanadiel? just wondering.That actualy dose happen during mat, but they "fix" it.

[Spamtastic]

That actualy dose happen during mat, but they "fix" it.

hahah. thanks. i think it would be fun to come back to a conquest map that the beastmen own. lol.

[RAIST]

Power is being restored to cooling systems of the reactors

From Tokyo Post Twitter feed:


NISA Press Conference: Power to 1-2 reactors today, 3-4 tomorrow, 5-6 today - pump at #5 functional and 1 diesel generator working

Hopefully a sign of good things to come!

Raist

[Kraatos]

Or turn on the TV and watch CNN.

OMG MEara :D LONG tIME its alixander dunno if u remembers me!!!!! how are u

[Harpalina]

hahah. thanks. i think it would be fun to come back to a conquest map that the beastmen own. lol.

SPAAAAAAAAM!~!!!!! Yay someone I know on my server! :D :D :D

[Anela]

*sigh* I was hoping they actually "froze" time when they turned off the servers.
I don't mind losing all my plants as much as I do losing my campaign medal.. lol I knew I should have done that evaluation when they announced the shutdown.

[Duranu]

You know its sad to see people are more concerned with a Video game than the actual well being of all The Japanese people. I mean seriously guys, you all don't think about it because we aren't over there feeling the impact first hand. All of you should be wondering if they are ok and all the help they could use. People have lost literally every possession they had to their name and all you care about is whether you will have more abyssea stones, if your chocobos will be ok, Campaign medals and many other trivial things. Come on guys there is more to life than FFXI try to think about that next time ok?

[Flunklesnarkin]

*sigh* I was hoping they actually "froze" time when they turned off the servers.
I don't mind losing all my plants as much as I do losing my campaign medal.. lol I knew I should have done that evaluation when they announced the shutdown.

They made medals permanent now.. you just have to do the wotg storyline.. not even a lot of it lol

About halfway through your medal of altana becomes permanent..

Certain ranks get locked as you progress too.. ie finishing mission 3 will lock in a permanent gold star and so forth.

[Cenz]

You know its sad to see people are more concerned with a Video game than the actual well being of all The Japanese people. I mean seriously guys, you all don't think about it because we aren't over there feeling the impact first hand. All of you should be wondering if they are ok and all the help they could use. People have lost literally every possession they had to their name and all you care about is whether you will have more abyssea stones, if your chocobos will be ok, Campaign medals and many other trivial things. Come on guys there is more to life than FFXI try to think about that next time ok?

im so sick of u people... of course WE CARE! ... but this forum isnt for how feel or how much we care... get over it lol.. u can care about the game and care about there situation.. jesus... so redundant at this point ... people are speaking about there "in game concerns" ... lets all jump on the bandwangon like the other 90 pages and rip them a new rear for talking about a game on a game forum.... lol ... and yes this is redundant ... GET OVER URSELF ! nice to meet you ^^

[Cenz]

furthermore Raist keep them updates coming man! love hearing some good news like the power starting to get back for the cooling systems ... all a step in the right direction!

[Tsukino_Kaji]

ie finishing mission 3 will lock in a permanent gold star and so forth.What he means to say is the individual nation quests that are unlocked by doing the missions.
furthermore Raist keep them updates coming man! love hearing some good news like the power starting to get back for the cooling systems ... all a step in the right direction!I belive our dear Raisty-poo has to sleep. lol

Raist

[Skillgannon]

People are so funny its endless. This constant worrying about a digital world, dude go outside careful the sun's bright lol. "im checking every three mins on the information sight" wow man really jus wow

God bless the japanese comunity and the hardships of which they are facing. I hope that all. is resolved swiftly so that u may piece your lives back to the point of recovery.

[Skillgannon]

WOOOT CENZ rate up!! ^^ :P

[Komori]

Most people have already said their prayers/condolences for those in Japan. I prayed for them the day it happened. But life has to go on, like it is already beginning to go on for the people affected.

I for one, am more angry at the fact that the DEVs and MODs posts come out looking all pretty and special.

[Ilax]

"im checking every three mins on the information sight" wow man really jus wow

That generally what people do when disaster happen, while some careless and look outside see if sun is bright =/


God bless the japanese comunity and the hardships of which they are facing. I hope that all. is resolved swiftly so that u may piece your lives back to the point of recovery.

Oh man i think you fixed some of they problem right here, thanks you Skillgannon, that all what they needed a little god hope sauce to fix thing, now they probably just missing some Chuck Norris line.

[NightDagger]

I am sure that SE could change the time stamp on the game so that plants,ah,stones,campain etc... would not be affected but do you really want to wait the extra time? When they are able to power their servers back up I am sure they will do so in a fast/safe manner. Taking the extra time to change the time stamp so that everything was the way it was before the shutdown is most likely not their main consern at this time. It would be a nice thought but just not to practical. It is not as easy as just powering up the system & changing some coding. They would actually have to change a lot of coding to make it work. this could take a team of programmers hours.

But on a good note here is an update of the power situation:

"A major unit at one of Japan's largest coal-fired power plants was brought back online early Saturday, helping ease power shortages that have crippled Japan's industrial activity and hampered cleanup efforts since the March 11 earthquake."

"Electric Power Development Co., also known as J-Power, has restarted commercial operations at its 600-megawatt No.1 unit at the nine-year-old Isogo power plant west of Tokyo, a spokesman said. J-Power, an electricity wholesaler that operates seven coal-fired power plants, had already restarted the twin No.2 unit at Isogo, which was automatically halted when the earthquake hit. "

For the full article click here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704021504576210174248151028.html?mod=googlenews_wsj (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704021504576210174248151028.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

The Blackouts will be starting up again:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031907-e.html (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031907-e.html)

And the list of current conditions of all reactors & injuries

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031902-e.html (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/11031902-e.html)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690326/posts (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690326/posts)

Praying for the families who still have missing members. This would be so hard & I could not imagine what you are going through. You are in my heart & I hope everything will be all right.

/Pray

[Silvermane]

It is easy to underestimate the costs of maintaining a redundent server farm and keeping even a reasonably up to date backup of a live realtime system. The cost of operating this internationally would be greater still. How much would players be willing to pay in additional fees to protect against an event that probably crops up once every 100 years or more? Would you continue to pay if the fees were doubled or there was no ongoing development due to all the fees being allocated to infrastructure?

With complex systems physical access to the servers is essential, so despite Japan having a history of natural disasters this is ultimately the most productive and cost effective place to have the servers.

To reiterate, you just can't plan for an event as extreme as this.



My greater point was why have it in Japan at all? which was meant to be a question exlusive of any multiple site provsions, any how its all largely academic. There was this on the BBC News Site btw its about energy so it might interest people

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12793925

[NightDagger]

Sorry for the loooong post earlier. here are a few more updates on the tragedy.

Food Contamination & Great update source for the reactors.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html (http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html)

[Kailea_Nagisa]

People are so funny its endless. This constant worrying about a digital world, dude go outside careful the sun's bright lol. "im checking every three mins on the information sight" wow man really jus wow

God bless the japanese comunity and the hardships of which they are facing. I hope that all. is resolved swiftly so that u may piece your lives back to the point of recovery.

says the person with 2 posts on a forum for an MMORPG. Yes we are all worried about Japan, we have all expressed ourselves multiple times, but you know what? This is a forum for the online game known as Final Fantasy XI Online.

There are only a handful of people being impatient, others are doing other things in RL and just coming here to talk about stuff that goes on in game, pretty much like the site was made for.

[Randwolf]

I am sure that SE could change the time stamp on the game so that plants,ah,stones,campain etc...
I'm guessing this might cause some major problems in game. I have no idea but it seems that even when they change something minor, something gets broken. Also, not everything in the game may run from a central clock. Some things may individually look at RL time to make choices in its logic. So, it also means that whatever they did to bring the game back to the time of server shutdown would have to be permanent and written into all the code that checks a clock. And on a minor note, anything that has been created app wise, like Mithra Clock, would also need to be changed. It's just best we take the hit when the servers come up and move from there.

[NightDagger]

I'm guessing this might cause some major problems in game. I have no idea but it seems that even when they change something minor, something gets broken. Also, not everything in the game may run from a central clock. Some things may individually look at RL time to make choices in its logic. So, it also means that whatever they did to bring the game back to the time of server shutdown would have to be permanent and written into all the code that checks a clock. And on a minor note, anything that has been created app wise, like Mithra Clock, would also need to be changed. It's just best we take the hit when the servers come up and move from there.

Yes i agree, it would be a long & difficult process to change something that does not hurt anyone ingame, & afte a day will be self rectivied by the players. So when we log on there will be nothing on the AH but after a few hours it will be stocked with the usual stuff & game play can continue. Plants do not cost anything so their is nothing lost there. Campaign sucks but is not important concidering everything that has happened.

So as you stated it is just best to leave everything be and move on. It is a small price to pay, and just be thankful that you still have the game to enjoy. With everything going on in Japan having to spend some game time to get yourself back to where you left off is nothing compared to what they are going through.

Godspeed

[Randwolf]

I do dread if the next update is either an ambiguous statement like the one we just had or does give a specific time line but it's a long wait for the servers to be up. I think a lot of people who were really anxious and upset have worked it out of their system. But, if the next update is one of the above types, the forum will rage again, with both "where is my game" and "quit asking 'where is my game.'" Personally, it won't bother me because this break has given me a lot of perspective of how the game fits into my life. I will be back when the servers are up. And, I had broken the 'obsessive' nature of my game play about a year ago. What, it does drive home how much this game was always in the 'background.' It was usually on when I was home. And, it was always there when I felt like being a slug.

p.s. - I will be spamming log in on the announced return of the servers. Not because I want to play the game but because I'm really curious what everything will look like after the world has been devoid of players.

[Ruvion]

People are so funny its endless. This constant worrying about a digital world, dude go outside careful the sun's bright lol. "im checking every three mins on the information sight" wow man really jus wow

God bless the japanese comunity and the hardships of which they are facing. I hope that all. is resolved swiftly so that u may piece your lives back to the point of recovery.

Yet you are here reading the forums on page 31 too and commenting. Seriously, get over yourself.

[RAIST]

@ Tsukino - yes I did need to get some sleep. Had an old LS Mate that used to call me that...brings back memories of good times. Gotta grab some food and get settled in before I start trying to sift through some news feeds to see what all has been going on again.

Thanks for the updates on progress guys. Good to know some more companies are stepping up the efforts. There was a post in SE's original notices that kind of puts things in a little more perspective--we lost contact with the the creator of the Kiske series for a few days, but internet has been restored but things are pretty rough. If you haven't seen the videos, they are very well done. Should check them out:

http://www.youtube.com/user/sasayaneko

Raist


Please forgive translation by the site.

It is after a long absence. 　I am safe somehow.
At last the Internet restored today.

Water service is not yet recovered in my house,
but there is a more terrible place a lot in the other areas.

A blanket and kerosene and gasoline are short in a district of the
Pacific Coast side in particular.

I ask for contribution if I have it to spare by all means.
Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sasayaneko

[Barabas]

Okay, i may get flamed for this one....

Anyone who has played this game for a long time knows that we've gotten more direct feedback from SE since the earthquake than we got in the first 6-7 years of the game.

I'm waiting patiently, and not bitching. Cause i know if i was a DEV or a MOD living in Japan, even if i was in a totally safe part of the country, there's a very good chance that I lost family. Trying to deal with the ongoing issues and missing/dead loved ones then getting pounded with pounded with "When can i has game?" doesn't exactly inspire one to give 110% at work IMO.

For those saying "Yeah, but it's their job, they should deal with it" maybe, but I'm willing to bet everyone here has had a bad day at work because of something silly where you really just didn't wanna be there and didn't care about your job much that day. No imagine that Mother Earth decided to take three big shits in your corn flakes and imagine how much you'd give a damn at work. I know how i'd react.... "You want an update? I want my mother back dickhead, fuck this, i'm gonna go smoke"

tl:dr Remember Devs/Mods are people dealing with a lot right now, if any of them still have missing loved ones then understand that might be a little more important than getting us regular updates on the situation, and do try to be understanding about it.

[RAIST]

@ Barabas

Hehe.. Raisin Bran Crunch here. No crapping in my bowl this morning... at least... I think those are still raisins. And, come to think of it.... my juice does have... a little wang to it. GDI that Newbomb Turk must be up to his old Hollywood Nights pranks again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiPjnNF7Dc

Raist

Classic cheezy movie if you haven't seen it. More clips on youtube from it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=hollywood+nights+turk&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=gMOETfOGHu-80QHDsrjECA&sqi=2&ved=0CDgQqwQ

[Mattis]

Okay, i may get flamed for this one....


Probably, just not by me. I am going to point out some flaws in your logic though.


Anyone who has played this game for a long time knows that we've gotten more direct feedback from SE since the earthquake than we got in the first 6-7 years of the game.

Exactly, how can you even think of defending a company like that? Sure they got a new development team working on FFXI and they are great, finally listening to there customers. But the top execs at the top haven't changed so overall SE still has the my way or no way attitude that still smacks there most loyal fans in the face.


I'm waiting patiently, and not bitching. Cause i know if i was a DEV or a MOD living in Japan, even if i was in a totally safe part of the country, there's a very good chance that I lost family. Trying to deal with the ongoing issues and missing/dead loved ones then getting pounded with pounded with "When can i has game?" doesn't exactly inspire one to give 110% at work IMO.

For those saying "Yeah, but it's their job, they should deal with it" maybe, but I'm willing to bet everyone here has had a bad day at work because of something silly where you really just didn't wanna be there and didn't care about your job much that day. No imagine that Mother Earth decided to take three big shits in your corn flakes and imagine how much you'd give a damn at work. I know how i'd react.... "You want an update? I want my mother back dickhead, fuck this, i'm gonna go smoke"

tl:dr Remember Devs/Mods are people dealing with a lot right now, if any of them still have missing loved ones then understand that might be a little more important than getting us regular updates on the situation, and do try to be understanding about it.


Good for you, so am I but still SE has always put there most loyal fans last in every decision that they make. This tragedy is no excuse for continuing to do so. Also remember we are not talking about employees, we are talking about the people that run the company. If they still want to have there stock worth something a bad day is no excuse for just dropping all there responsibilities. Use this forum as an example, there are still employees monitoring this and even threatening still to hit people with the ban stick (they must dual wield kraken clubs for that) for typing something here that doesn't make them happy. Why if they have time for that can they not even give an update? Please explain that. I mean look, it was players that even posted anything here about the suspension extension. SE didn't even bother to put it here or on the main PoL page. Your are a second thought to them no matter how you slice it and if you want to keep making excuses for there piss poor business practices then so be it.

Like I said earlier I don't care that the servers are down, Im playing FFXI now anyways. I just care how they treat there most loayl customers like crap and care even more that the customers always bend over backwards to make excuses for the company that abuses them.

[Manicora]

RAIST thank you for that info, CNN sucks with new News they like to give you 30 sec of news then move to something else Kinda isnt what i want/need from a news station so tyvm for that info

[Haglaz]

I've been getting a constant feed from http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

[RAIST]

Use this forum as an example, there are still employees monitoring this and even threatening still to hit people with the ban stick (they must dual wield kraken clubs for that) for typing something here that doesn't make them happy. Why if they have time for that can they not even give an update? Please explain that. I mean look, it was players that even posted anything here about the suspension extension. SE didn't even bother to put it here or on the main PoL page.

Sorry, but I have to respond to this. These forums are a seperate animal from the FFXI team. It is an independant department all together. Think of it like the GM's in game. They have a very limited set of tools to effect a limited set of issues--the GM's scope being to assist players with certain technical issue with gameplay, and documenting abuses and a set of specific actions to take for specific violations, all else is directed to the DEV team/Task Force, or you are pointed to the support portal to pursue the matter. The mods here only work in the scope of these forums, again with a set list of rules/responses to affect activities in the forums. If they find something that meets the criteria laid out by the Administration, it is forwarded to the DEV team. Likewise, if it meets the criteria to be considered a violation of forum rules, the prescribed response is used (locked thread, deleted post, bans, all with the standard email response). They do not have a direct line of communication to request information from higher ups like the CEO's...it has to filter up/down the chain of command just like with any other support organization. At many cases, the best they may be able to do contact the administrative assistant of a higher up and leave a message and wait for a response. This is just how things work an a large administration. For example, the Governer of a State doesn't have a direct line of communication to the President/Vice President--they have to go through the proper channels and wait for a response.

Second, the updates WERE in fact posted at the POL sight. It went up there the same time it showed up here--and it was posted by someone from the Community Team (ie the Moderators). I know, because I looked. I am guessing you weren't watching for it in the right places. This information is ALWAYS posted in the INFORMATION section. The UPDATE details always get posted on the front page, but issues concerning outages, maintenance schedules, etc. have always been posted in the INFORMATION section of the site. Scroll down and look in the lower left corner of the panel for the link.

Raist

[Mattis]

@Raist

I know, in the post you quoted me on I even stated there is a difference between employees and people that run the company. Pointing this out is irrelevant. The fact is the "Higher ups" would rather ban people then to give a common update on the situation. I.E. One post a person ask for an update and the second a person says something against the communist machine that is SE. A mod here reads both and forwards them UP the chain. Which one do they act on? Well
Im betting the person would be banned immediately and you would have to search thru the information section to find out any info about the update whenever they feel like releasing it. SE always will side with showing there power over giving a player what they ask for no matter how simple the request may be.

And I know everything in your second point also, The point I was making again is that they do not care about players enough to post it on the main page or here. No you have to go to there main page and click information constantly only to get the most generic statement possible. Even though there are people here nicely asking for an update they couldn't even copy that useless statement here.

So I still stand by what I said even conceding that everything you said is true.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

@Raist

I know, in the post you quoted me on I even stated there is a difference between employees and people that run the company. Pointing this out is irrelevant. The fact is the "Higher ups" would rather ban people then to give a common update on the situation. I.E. One post a person ask for an update and the second a person says something against the communist machine that is SE. A mod here reads both and forwards them UP the chain. Which one do they act on? Well
Im betting the person would be banned immediately and you would have to search thru the information section to find out any info about the update whenever they feel like releasing it. SE always will side with showing there power over giving a player what they ask for no matter how simple the request may be.

And I know everything in your second point also, The point I was making again is that they do not care about players enough to post it on the main page or here. No you have to go to there main page and click information constantly only to get the most generic statement possible. Even though there are people here nicely asking for an update they couldn't even copy that useless statement here.

So I still stand by what I said even conceding that everything you said is true.

oh god -.- its sad how many people do not know how big companies work... the mods here dont send anythign "up the chain" they have been given a job here and that is to mod the forums, that includes banning.

Again the mod's job here, is to do nothing but moderate the forums, they don't get internal messages from SE unless it pertains to them, and same goes for any news update. They also don't go high enough in the "chain" to even contact someone that would know any info (aka someone in Japan at HQ)

[Mattis]

oh god -.- its sad how many people do not know how big companies work... the mods here dont send anythign "up the chain" they have been given a job here and that is to mod the forums, that includes banning.

Again the mod's job here, is to do nothing but moderate the forums, they don't get internal messages from SE unless it pertains to them, and same goes for any news update. They also don't go high enough in the "chain" to even contact someone that would know any info (aka someone in Japan at HQ)


Oh jesus where do all you SE cheerleaders come from.

Either dam way, weather they pass something up the chain to the higher ups or the higher ups have standing orders it is very clear that SE higher ups value there power more then they value anything important to the players. Which is the point.

So way to argue a irrelevant part of the post to once again try and defend the company that doesn't give a shit about you.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

Oh jesus where do all you SE cheerleaders come from.

Either dam way, weather they pass something up the chain to the higher ups or the higher ups have standing orders it is very clear that SE higher ups value there power more then they value anything important to the players. Which is the point.

So way to argue a irrelevant part of the post to once again try and defend the company that doesn't give a shit about you.

I am not a cheerleader nor defending SE, I am stating fact of how a company works, and you refuse to accept it.

oh by the way, welcome to how the corporate world works.

[RAIST]

A mod here reads both and forwards them UP the chain.

um... no. They have been given a set of guidelines to follow. If x is true, then response=y. X may be as specific or vague as however they see fit--use of any inflammatory language, or maybe excessive use of inflammatory language--or even just use of the N word, who knows. But they do have a set of rules posted. Their version used for moderation may be more specific though for the whole CYA routine.

Raist

[RAIST]

eh.. not a whole lot of useful information floating about involving Japan atm. Whacky Gaddafi had to reclaim focus of the media again I guess. Found a few tidbits, but you guysw likely already saw this stuff in other news feeds:


Tokyo tomorrow, blackouts cancelled, trains running on holiday (JR) or reduced schedules.


TEPCO: 6 emergency ops workers at #Fukushima nuke plant exposed to 100 millisieverts of radiation but showing no ill effects.


Kyodo: Gov't says radioactive iodine beyond limit detected in tap water in Fukushima.


Max radiation detected from fireman = 27msvh (1), 14-5msvh (3) under 10msvh (45) all w/in max limit.


Radioactive substances found in water of 6 prefectures including Tokyo but no health risk says Education Ministry: Kyodo

[Haglaz]

Oh jesus where do all you SE cheerleaders come from.


I come from outerspace....

[RAIST]

not a cheerleader, just willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt before I proclaim them to be the Dark Empire.

Raist

[Xeth]

So the blackouts have been canceled how many times now? Does that mean the time they gave may actually be a reasonable time to come up?

[Mattis]

I am not a cheerleader nor defending SE, I am stating fact of how a company works, and you refuse to accept it.

oh by the way, welcome to how the corporate world works.

LOL you are truly retarded, Im very proud of you that you know how corporate world works. Heres your cookie.

I don't refuse to accept anything, I used a stupid example to show how SE feels about 2 different situations and you argue that the stupid example had some parts that had nothing to do with the point were incorrect.

Well you did it, you convinced me of your corporate knowledge, BIG THUMBS UP. I hope you sleep better tonight knowing that you conquered the world with your corporate prowess.


um... no. They have been given a set of guidelines to follow. If x is true, then response=y. X may be as specific or vague as however they see fit--use of any inflammatory language, or maybe excessive use of inflammatory language--or even just use of the N word, who knows. But they do have a set of rules posted. Their version used for moderation may be more specific though for the whole CYA routine.

Raist



Again, bottom line is that SE higher ups care more about banning then they do about anything a player ask for no matter how easy that request would be.

What your describing here are pretty much standing orders, they are a must otherwise admins here could ban at will. So its true that the higher ups still say who is banned and for what reasons. So the point still stands that they care more about there banning power then anything related to there lowly players.

Both of your are arguing the most insignificant part of a hypothetical statement I wrote just to show that SE cares more about there power then there players (customers).

[RAIST]

CEO's usually don't deal with such mundane tasks as the design of a User Forum. That's usually relegated to the department heads. President of our company just told our project manager to come up with something for our clients to submit bug reports through our website--we wound up writing a whole service request application. Once he saw it demoed, he wanted to market it and we sold it to customers--mostly government offices. @yourrequest.

Raist

[RAIST]

Radiation readings release, and situation is improving. Areas close to the reactors have seen drops as high as 500 points since last night. Areas to the south have seen drops of 25-50 points, some reporting more "normal" levels now. They haven't graphed out the most recent figures yet, but they may show up soon here:

http://fleep.com/earthquake/

There is a table being updated periodically showing Gamma readings in southern Ibaraki, near Lake Hinuma if anyone is interested:

http://www.houshasen-pref-ibaraki.jp/present/result01.html (Japanese)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=ja%7Cen&u=http://www.houshasen-pref-ibaraki.jp/present/result01.html

Raist

[Xeth]

Tepco To Raise Generating Capacity 20% By April-End (http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110319D19JFF01.htm)


TOKYO (Nikkei)--Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) said Saturday that it will bring onstream by the end of April two fossil-fuel power plants halted by the March 11 earthquake, lifting its capacity 20%.

Tepco will resume operations at its Higashi Ogishima plant, powered by liquified natural gas, in Kanagawa Prefecture by the end of March and at its oil-powered Kashima plant in Ibaraki Prefecture next month.

By also boosting utilization rates at other fossil-fuel plants, the utility plans to increase its overall output to 42 million kilowatts by the end of April. This amounts to about 70% of its pre-quake level.

Tepco has a number of fossil-fuel plants that went out of commission after the quake, including ones in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures. If the two resume operations, the firm's total capacity will rise some 6 million kilowatts.

The utility says it is not certain whether all plants will be up and running by the summer peak season.

Additionally, Tepco will raise utilization rates at currently operating plants by shortening inspection periods. It is also acquiring gas turbine power generation systems to ease the electricity shortage.

The company generally needs to supply 50 million kilowatts of power to meet demand in winter and 55-60 million kilowatts this summer.

Projecting a protracted power shortage, Tepco says rolling blackouts will be inevitable in Tokyo's 20 wards, excluding central business and office districts, in summer.

This article has me split, and having no idea how this will affect Square-Enix in the next week/months.

[Ter]

Hmm if there is going to be an extended outage SE might just decide to wind up their online offerings. FFXI is heading to the end of its life and the FFXIV has turned out to be a lot less successful than hoped. With the massive investment in FFXIV for little return I would imagine the upper management will be rethinking their desire to stay in the MMORPG market. I guess it had to happen eventually but it would be nice if we could have had one last party in Jeuno.
I will miss it but it will probably be good for me in the long run lol. I'm going to nip out and see what the real world looks like :-).

[Hiyoshroom]

Regarding the above... I don't think they will let XI or XIV die like that.
Honestly a laughable idea. This situation is something never before seen, and whoever is crying about moving servers should just look at the magnitude of the carnage cause by not only the earthquake, but in most part by the massive tsunami.

I am glad to see most people have been understanding and supportive. I don't mind even if I have to wait a week or two more, even a month. There are some people out there who will never get to play any game again, and not of their own accord, mind you.

[Kasune]

No news is not a good thing from a business perspective. Now I know this is a GAME. But let's take a service like oh.... phone service for example. Someone hits a pole and knocks out 7 city blocks of phone service. Now I don't know about your area, but in my area if I call the phone company and ask what's going on, they tell me what happened, when it will be back on, and that crews are out there doing the repairs as we speak. And 95% of the time, the time they give me when service will be restored, it is. That's because they are responsible people. and they understand that there are other phone service providers out there and you can take your money there just as easy as you brought it to them. They are "accountable". SE has never been known for it's "accountability" and that needs to change.

Now, before someone goes off on here and says "phone service is a necessity and a game is not" let me beat you to the punch. It's still a business. We pay for a service we expect to recieve without major downtime. And i'm sorry, but giving us a message that says "at least a week" is too dam vague. Bring this into focus SE. Tell us what you are doing to get the service we pay you for back up and running and give us a timeline we can rely on, not "at least a week".

These kinds of things are what kills businesses. SE is already struggling to make a dollar on their MMO's. FFXIV is a flunk, has so many glitches with it they have had to make it free to play while they work it out, and now FFXI is down. I fear that if the downtime for FFXI continues past a week, or more, then alot of your customers will be taking their money elsewhere, to an MMO that doesn't have a difficulty staying active during things like this. And a loss of players right now not only affects SE's bottom line, but in a negative way affects all the players.

People can argue with me all they want, but my thinking will not change, there is absolutely no reason why SE cannot give us an update at least every 2 days about the steps being taken to restore a service that we pay for.

[Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines (http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=20&la=1).] How many times does someone need to tell people there was a major disaster in Japan. The electric company ASKED businesses to not use power so that power could go to something useful like hospitals and people without power!!! SE's servers aren't damaged...they're shut off. They're not bringing them back up til they get the ok to do so. They gave us March 22nd as an update date. Give them a break dude!!! If you can't understand this is a crisis then go play a different MMO!!! I'm sure SE realizes that the more down time they have the more it hurts their business...they're not idiots. I'm sure they are exploring all valid solutions and not just waiting for the power company to give the ok to turn the servers back on. Back off, let them take care of their country and their business. They will give us update!!!

[Ter]

I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the possibility that they might close the service down. Right now they have two teams of developers sitting on their hands (a very expensive proposition) and if blackouts are going to feature through to summer they are going to have no income for the next three or four months. Their primary market (i.e. Japan) has had some major disruptions and the profitability of the US and European market is down 35% over the last 3 years from the change in exchange rates alone. Subscriptions are dropping on both services and if this outage is lengthy the figures will only continue to drop. It would be naive to think that this isnt at least one of the options on the table. A decision will be made based on what is financially more viable, there will be no sentimental feelings getting in the way. It costs a lot of money to keep a MMORPG going and right now SE has one making a loss (FFXIV) and another with shrinking margins (FFXI). It's just good business.
Lets hope the power issues get rectified so they don't have to make some difficult decisions.

[Harpalina]

Like I said earlier I don't care that the servers are down, Im playing FFXI now anyways. I just care how they treat there most loayl customers like crap and care even more that the customers always bend over backwards to make excuses for the company that abuses them.

I'm shocked no one pointed this out yet but...you're playing FF11 right now? What does the server look like? lol...

[Xeth]

I'm shocked no one pointed this out yet but...you're playing FF11 right now? What does the server look like? lol...

Probably playing it the way any addict would, go prowling for something against ToS. I wouldn't mention it, but it's not impossible anymore.

[annewandering]

Thanks Ter for your very informative posts! All I can say is WOW! Things are a lot more difficult to move servers, have duplicate servers, etc than i had any idea at all.
One thing for sure. We have learned a whole lot of things we were clueless about before. I did not know SE was so big. Sure it has FF but that can be run off a few servers right? lol. Ok I pictured maybe 50 max. I also figured it had a lot fewer employees. 1800 mentioned in someone's post just floored me.
It's a LOT more clear why shutting down the game for a bit is the better choice.

[Mattis]

I'm shocked no one pointed this out yet but...you're playing FF11 right now? What does the server look like? lol...

I am a programmer so I wrote my own server code.

[Dazusu]

I am a programmer so I wrote my own server code.

You know, HTML in Dreamweaver doesn't make you a programmer. Nor does PHP.

[RAIST]

You know, HTML in Dreamweaver doesn't make you a programmer. Nor does PHP.

lol

I had one developer at LDS that refused to use Eclipse and such at first... insisted on manual coding. IDK how the hell he stood it.

[Dazusu]

Visual Studio :)

[Mordanthos]

WTF does the Envelope color being red mean to the left of the Topic title at the forums front page. Whats the difference between it being red, or blue?

[RAIST]

hot topic.. lots of posts, I guess.

[RAIST]

Interesting tidbit of info I just stumbled when another thread prompted me to look up some stuff on SE. Here's a link to some info on SE's 23 story building that houses 4 of SE's divisions (SE holdings, SE limited, Taito Corp, and SE Business Holdings):

http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/Building/4083/Shinjuku-Bunka-Quint.php

If you map it and zoom in and out, you will notice it is fairly close to several key features like HOSPITALS and POLICE STATIONS, the Tokyo Metro Government building, post offices... In fact, there is a hospital and one police station within just a few blocks.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Interesting tidbit of info I just stumbled when another thread prompted me to look up some stuff on SE. Here's a link to some info on SE's 23 story building that houses 4 of SE's divisions (SE holdings, SE limited, Taito Corp, and SE Business Holdings):

http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/Building/4083/Shinjuku-Bunka-Quint.php

If you map it and zoom in and out, you will notice it is fairly close to several key features like HOSPITALS and POLICE STATIONS, the Tokyo Metro Government building, post offices... In fact, there is a hospital and one police station within just a few blocks.You forgot you Raist.

Raist.

[Vraelia]

WTF does the Envelope color being red mean to the left of the Topic title at the forums front page. Whats the difference between it being red, or blue?

Raist is correct. Red = Hot Topic with lots of posts. Blue = Not so hot with less posts.

[Harpalina]

You forgot you Raist.

Raist.

I like this a lot xD

[Ordoric]

i cant wait to get back on line, however due to crisis im shocked SE hasnot put up anything abpout assisting with or starting a donation drive for crisis relefe posably offering to use our one month subscription to assist japan . just a thought but id be willing to donate from my 11 and 14 account well my 14 but seeing i had shut my 11 they cant use it but id let em i know its probubly 24 bucks usd but x all the plaier would be substantial

[Xeth]

i cant wait to get back on line, however due to crisis im shocked SE hasnot put up anything abpout assisting with or starting a donation drive for crisis relefe posably offering to use our one month subscription to assist japan . just a thought but id be willing to donate from my 11 and 14 account well my 14 but seeing i had shut my 11 they cant use it but id let em i know its probubly 24 bucks usd but x all the plaier would be substantial


Square-Enix actually did, almost 3 days ago.

SQUARE ENIX GROUP Support for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Efforts (http://release.square-enix.com/na/2011/03/17_01.html)





Tokyo, Japan (March 17, 2011) — Square Enix Group (the Group) today announced that, following the Tohoku Pacific Earthquakes and Tsunami, the Group will donate 100 million Japanese yen to help relief and recovery efforts in the affected regions. Additionally, the Group will collect charity donations from employees worldwide for the disaster relief fund.

The Group also plans to host several support programs through select Square Enix online services and the amusement facilities that TAITO operates across Japan.

We send our deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims, and we sincerely pray that those injured will have full and speedy recoveries.


I. Support from the Square Enix Group

1. Donation in the amount of 100 million Japanese yen from Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

2. Donation collections from Square Enix Group employees worldwide

Both donations will be sent for the relief and recovery efforts in the affected regions through the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami fundraising campaign launched by The Japanese Red Cross Society.


II. Support programs through services and amusement facilities of the Square Enix Group

1. SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.

1. Donation program started on March 14 through the online game service SENGOKU IXA. The donations are collected through the placement of a special charity item. All sales of the item will be donated through Yahoo! Charity Fund.
SENGOKU IXA website: http://sengokuixa.jp/

2. Square Enix will also host a donation program using Square Enix Crysta®, the billing system in many of Square Enix's online services. The details of this program will be announced through the Square Enix account website at a later date.
Square Enix Account website: http://www.square-enix.com/jp/account/

2. TAITO CORPORATION

1. TAITO will collect donations from the customers at the amusement facilities that TAITO operates across Japan. The details of the program will be announced on the TAITO website and at the facilities at a later date.

2. TAITO will also collect donations by placing special charity items in its social games for mobile phones, and all sales of the item will be donated. The details of the program will be announced on TAITO website at a later date.
TAITO website：http://www.taito.co.jp/

3. SMILE-LAB CO., LTD.

1. The virtual life community Nicotto Town will collect donations by placing a special charity item in its service, and all sales of the item will be donated. The details of the program will be announced on Nicotto Town website at a later date.
Nicotto Town website: http://www.nicotto.jp/

[Ordoric]

now if they did something like that via the player. for the current sistuation

[Dale]

don´t tell raist to relax, he is the one updating us all with news about situation in japan, its simple: follow the news and you´ll see when japan has an intact energy (sorry, bad english but i´m german), than se will be up immediately, till than wait . dot.
breau, alexander/bastok

You don't tell me what to do Breau, and i'll tell Raist to relax if i want to :)
He seemed to be getting a little ruffled back there and I'd hate to see him lose his cool demeanor.

And Raist is perfectly capable of defending himself. So no need to jump to his defense just cause someone tells him to relax. And our little back and forth had absolutely nothing to do with updates from japan - it had to do with where forums were operated from and the relevance of that to our discussion, so your point is moot.

[RAIST]

now if they did something like that via the player. for the current sistuation

go back and reread the notice that was quoted. Section II is all about methods for th players to donate through services.

[RAIST]

Originally planned for 7 hours, water pumping operation at Fukushima reactors ends after 13 hours

SDF began 1st water spraying at No4 reactor of Fukushima No1 N-plant this morning; plans to use 10 vehicles today, spray 80-90 tons of water

more reports of engineering teams getting more roads rebuilt so aid is able to reach more people, but there is still concern over fuel supplies, gas may run low again

In general though, the atmosphere is more relaxed

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Two posts in a row without Raisting? Forshame.

Raist

[DukeDudeston]

Well it may sound heartless, but I have to now agree with everyone else.. Yes it is tradgic what has happened over in Japan, but life.. as they say. has to go on.

Now I understand if FFXI can't come on due to power problems, last thing I want, as I am sure you will all agree, is just during a massive quest, your just about to do the final blow.. then the servers cut off due to power loss. lol, it is bad enough when you get D/C'd from your end.

We do now need to stop the whole bickkering about how people need to get a life (now I know I done it.. lol just last night actually, but I was in a foul mood anyway)

I am not really concerened about my "Campaign Medal" I can easily get that back, the thing I am worried about, is are the prices gunna get increased on the Auction House, due to being empty, some people may think.. hey.. there are no stacks of earth crystals here, I know.. I will try my luck by selling my stack for 5k ^.^

Thats just an example, but I predict it happening.

I do hope, though that the servers come on within the next week.

[Gravionblack]

You know its sad to see people are more concerned with a Video game than the actual well being of all The Japanese people. I mean seriously guys, you all don't think about it because we aren't over there feeling the impact first hand. All of you should be wondering if they are ok and all the help they could use. People have lost literally every possession they had to their name and all you care about is whether you will have more abyssea stones, if your chocobos will be ok, Campaign medals and many other trivial things. Come on guys there is more to life than FFXI try to think about that next time ok?

I am not one to rant over most things but this, well this is really sad. Maybe you overlooked post's like this one:

Temporary Suspension of the Services Due to an Earthquake

An important announcement regarding the suspension of game service has been posted on the Information section. Please click the link below to view the official announcement.

Temporary Suspension of the Services Due to an Earthquake

Please be advised that we will continue to operate the official websites, forums, and the SQUARE ENIX Support Center to be able provide our customers with updates on the current situation.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your understanding of this unusual situations.

"Gravionblack, Odin server, i want to say SE that this was the right thing to do i believe. I have friends that I got to hear from yesterday so i know they are safe, but i did not get to hear from all that live in Japan. So i would just like to say i hope all goes well and please stay safe. Gives my best wish's to each and everyone's family."

Or maybe it was one of these you didnt see?

"Quote Originally Posted by Silentlucidity View Post
I do hope Japan, and the rest of the world for that matter, doesn't get the wrong idea of Americans because of a vocal minority. We will collectively do what we can in support of Japan.

SE has already stated we won't be charged for April. So please consider making a donation instead. U.S. players like myself can donate $10 by texting REDCROSS to 90999. More info and other ways to donate at RedCross.org.

My prayers go out to everyone affected or know someone who was affected by this disaster. Even outsiders like myself know how strong Japan is as a nation, and we wish you all a fast recovery."

"Thank you very much fro posting this, i sent my april fee to the redcross."

I still have friends that live in japan that i have not heard from, and yet you think all we do is care about a video game? The japanese people have already started moving on with their lives, trying to start over, i think the time for us to keep saying we're sorry for what happened a million times is over, don't you agree? I think i would rather move on instead or reminding them all what happened six days ago.

[Gravionblack]

more reports of engineering teams getting more roads rebuilt so aid is able to reach more people, but there is still concern over fuel supplies, gas may run low again

In general though, the atmosphere is more relaxed

It is really nice to see that thing are started to get some what better at least, thank you for all the updates Raist.

[RAIST]

more tweets from the JP press pool


Spent fuel pool at Reac5 stabilized 37.1oC, Reac6 similar/ Confirmed 19,000dead PolicAgencyNHK

M5.2 quake struck Iwate-ken about 3 mins ago (1010 JST).

We are getting so used to "aftershocks" now. Quakes are becoming a regular feature of life.

[Gravionblack]

more tweets from the JP press pool

Wow that is sad to hear so many lives have been lost, well thank you again Raist.

[Lilbitz]

Ty for all the info Raist, I shall share a Ginger cookie with you ^^

[Kraatos]

yeah Raist thanks for the information keep us updated im going thru massive ff withdrawls here lol

[Subzeroffxi]

yeah Raist thanks for the information keep us updated im going thru massive ff withdrawls here lol

I also Apprechiate the information Raist. I think im having the same withdrawl effects. lol Just hange in their a little bit longer. lol

[RAIST]

Looks like something went down while I was /away the last hour or so:


NISA confirms it has been required to open SRV (Safety Release Valve) on unit 3 to release pressure; will pause plans on firefighting

(info came from TBS) reminder : opening those valves has been common practice since day 1; better not, but no "end of the world" either...

TEPCO to open vent on plutonium reac #3, never done before. Highest rad to go into air. NHK

Plans to start again continuous dousing this afternoon (from 18h) pending on evaluation of new situation (release valve opened at unit 3)

We repported earlier that option 1 to release pressure was "supression pool" within reactor building; Tokyo U prof says it may be full

Just checked out BWR details on supression pool; it's normal it fills up as long as ECCS operation isn't restored; need electricity for it
(guess this is why they are so determined to get power to the pumps)

ECCS is Emergency Core Cooling System, and uses water from supression pool to spray/fill the core; H2O gets back to the pool as steam

NHK: Release of gas from reactor #3 without going through supression chamber may increase radiation in area temporarily by 10X or so

TEPCO to release steam again to relieve rising pressure in No.3 reactor vessel; work to restore electricity, spray water to be suspended.

Think I'm just gonna watch the TokyoPost feed from now on... too much chatter about Libya everywhere, their twitter feed seems to still be more focused on JP.

Raist

[Zerich]

Cem started a "petition" of sorts to try to get some info from SE. Everyone needs to hop over there and /sign it. Maybe it will work.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/2743-Information-Submission-Request-to-Square-Enix?p=33153&viewfull=1#post33153

Raist

Dude...you understand that they are giving us information, right?
You're either a troll or lacking brain-power.
Hopefully, the first.

[RAIST]

you obviously haven't been on the forums long... might want to read the entire thread sometime. But, welcome to the party.

[Mordanthos]

In my experience with any game on any forum, petitions are very pointless and never matter. You all can sign a petition to change the game mechanics, and even with 100 percent player base agreeing to it, they dont have to listen to a single thing, and almost 100 percent of the time, in my experiences, petition threads are just fail in the long run.

[RAIST]

but you are far more likely to get results from a more organized, civalized, serious presentation of 100-200 on-topic posts versus a 1200 post flamefest that skews off-topic regularly.

[Kraatos]

So raist did they get some power restored to some reactor's as u previously stated or did that all change?

what server u from raist?

[RAIST]

they were looking to have pumps in 1 & 2 up today--one was damaged and needed repairs.. forget which one. I've been bouncing around so much.. I forget the exact details. 5 and 6 pumps are going and they've cooled to tolerable levels. Radiation readings near the site has had 800 point drops in some locations, but they are still too high--they can't even spend much time in the main operations building just yet.. Those Fukushima 50 teams are simply amazing.

Raist

[RAIST]

These numbers look a bit better then the one I got form the Police Agency earlier, but still...


14.54 Reuters has supplied an update of the disaster in figures:

• 7,348 people confirmed dead.
• 10,947 people still missing
• 340,000 people evacuated from their homes.
• 256,819 houses without electricity, 1.03 million without running water.

[RAIST]

At Fukushima Plant I, power cables are connected at No. 1 and 2 reactors to reactivate the cooling system. 50 minutes ago

still no word on if 1 is up and running yet... they just saying they are hoping to get 2 up today

Sorry I can't give more Kraatos--NHK is in a prerecorded loop again, and JP updates are coming like 1 in 8 against Libya... getting hard to find them sometimes

[RAIST]

good grief.. one guy just tweeted this like 15 times... lol


Jiji Press reports pressure in 3rd reactor going down. Pumping in of seawater yesterday probable cause of pressure

[Kraatos]

kool, really hope they get em workin 100% soon im going nutz lol my PS3 is busted and no ff so its like ugh WTF

[RAIST]

and now comes the official tweet from TEPCO:


TEPCO announces pressure has stabilized inside No3 reactor vessel at #Fukushima N-plant, will not release steam for time being

[Dale]

My info is the reactor was not being legally maintained, and the back up systems were not positioned properly - and if they had been none of this would be happening right now. In other words, the people who were running the reactor messed up big time.

While not to take anything away from the "Fukushima 50" - as they are obviously courageous - the people in charge of those reactors had best do everything they can to avoid a meltdown, else they will have a lot of blood on their hands.

A lot of people are simply blaming the earthquake and the tsunami. I'm not hearing near enough critisim of the actual people who were in charge of the reactors themselves - because if my info is correct, they are a lot more responsible for what happened than mother nature is.

[Anela]

My info is the reactor was not being legally maintained, and the back up systems were not positioned properly - and if they had been none of this would be happening right now. In other words, the people who were running the reactor messed up big time.

While not to take anything away from the "Fukushima 50" - as they are obviously courageous - the people in charge of those reactors had best do everything they can to avoid a meltdown, else they will have a lot of blood on their hands.

A lot of people are simply blaming the earthquake and the tsunami. I'm not hearing near enough critisim of the actual people who were in charge of the reactors themselves - because if my info is correct, they are a lot more responsible for what happened than mother nature is.

I would be curious as to the source of your information? This is the first I am hearing anything of the sort, that it was not being legally maintained. Are you refering to the saftey violations they received?

[RAIST]

it's rather mute either way....the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the deisel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps. So, both of their backup systems were rendered useless by the tsunami regardless.

edit: oh, and the flooding also caused damage to the pumps and circuitry controlling the systems as well.

[Dale]

I would be curious as to the source of your information? This is the first I am hearing anything of the sort, that it was not being legally maintained. Are you refering to the saftey violations they received?

A friend was filling me in about it earlier on the phone. I'll have to ask him tomorrow about it if you want a specific source.

Basically the gist of what he told me was it was found that the back up generators that was suppose to kick in and cool the reactor in the event of an emergency didn't because it was not placed properly - or legally - and if it had been neither the Tsunami or Earthquake would have caused this to happen.

When you take into consideration this company's background, it's not hard to believe, and a lot of them are probably going to wish they had been nuked to death when this is all over, cause they are going to be swimming in lawsuits.

[RAIST]

bah.. last TEPCO conference wasn't very fruitful... again.
Back and forth about pressure levels in #3, which appear to have stabilized now. 1 & 2 pumps should be operational soon and cooling on their own, but they will not be able to start them at the same time (no details given).

Still progress... I guess

[Kraatos]

FIX EM!!!! les go turn FF on tomorrow D:
lolol

[Dale]

it's rather mute either way....the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the deisel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps. So, both of their backup systems were rendered useless by the tsunami regardless.

edit: oh, and the flooding also caused damage to the pumps and circuitry controlling the systems as well.

Back up systems are designed to withstand floods and earthquakes. That's what they are there for.

Bottom line is this. If this had happened at a reactor where the company actually made safety a number 1 priority and had bothered to follow regulations, this wouldn't be happening right now.

The real lesson of this tragedy should be to start holding the people who run dangerous reactors accountable, and make the inspection progress much more vigorous instead of letting them throw the dice and gamble with our lives and just hope an emgergency doens't happen.

[RAIST]

the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the diesel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps.

Did you miss that... did you not see the pictures?

[Anela]

OK, from the one line - that the "generator was not placed properly" - I know the source already. I reas the same report.

I wasn't trying to shoot you down or cause conflict. I was just curious if I had missed something.

Thank you for clarifying. :)

[Tsukino_Kaji]

the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the diesel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps.

Did you miss that... did you not see the pictures?Now that you mention it again, which I did read it the first time, I did not see any pictures of it.

[Dale]

OK, from the one line - that the "generator was not placed properly" - I know the source already. I reas the same report.

I wasn't trying to shoot you down or cause conflict. I was just curious if I had missed something.

Thank you for clarifying. :)

I didn't think you were trying to shoot me down or cause conflict, so no worries :)

[Coldbrand]

the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the diesel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps.

Did you miss that... did you not see the pictures?
MEGATRON NO!!!

[Dale]

the tsunami ripped up the fuel tanks for the diesel generators, took two of the transformers on the line supplying power to the pumps.

Did you miss that... did you not see the pictures?

Raist i understand that, but the point is if the back up systems had been correctly installed that woudn't have happened. They were a shoddy company that didn't take saftey regulations serious enough, and now a lot of people are going to suffer because of it.

[Anela]

Back up systems are designed to withstand floods and earthquakes. That's what they are there for.

They ARE designed to withstand floods and earthquakes, up to a certain point of "reasonable expectation". In this case, I suspect that they experienced a bit above their design specs. But we digress, this string is about requesting updates from SE, not about flaming he operators of a reactor plant, nor debating the safety of Nuclear Power.

Again, no offense intended

[Anela]

Raist i understand that, but the point is if the back up systems had been correctly installed that woudn't have happened. They were a shoddy company that didn't take saftey regulations serious enough, and now a lot of people are going to suffer because of it.

You may be right, and we probably will never know. They will never give the results of the final investigation out to us. That is not the way it happens.

I am still of the opinion that no matter how well they planned or how diligent they were, mother nature still probably wouold have had her way in this case.

[Dale]

They ARE designed to withstand floods and earthquakes, up to a certain point of "reasonable expectation". In this case, I suspect that they experienced a bit above their design specs. But we digress, this string is about requesting updates from SE, not about flaming he operators of a reactor plant, nor debating the safety of Nuclear Power.

Again, no offens intended

No if this would have happened at any reactor that was up to the current legal standards this woudn't have happened. If you are operating a nuclear reactor saftey should be your number 1 concern, and it wasn't with them. They have a poor safety record and because no one shut them down sooner this is the result. All the signs were there.

Also, maybe i'm dumb, but if you live on a volcanic island in a part of world actually called the Ring of Fire due to all the volcanic activity, I don't think it's that unreasonable to think an earthquake and tsunami might just happen. In fact, common sense might would have told them it was likely to happen.

If you are going to build power plants near fault lines make sure they are earthquake proof, or just don't build them. Period.

And if you don't like the topic i'm talking about just don't respond to my post and let it die

Also, I'm not flaming anyone. Flaming is a forum term that used when you attack someone personally over a disagreement. I'm not calling Tepo names, i'm holding them responsible for what they did.

[Dinh]

In the words of a great man...

"Life will find a way" -Ian Malcolm Jurassic Park

[Tsukino_Kaji]

I heard a statement saying they were only required to maintain a level of readiness/preparedness of around an 8.0 quake.

[RAIST]

been trying to find the thread, but someone had posted an application that was an overlay of before/after pics where you pulled a line across the pic and it replaced the pic as you wiped it. It had a good shot of the huge storage tanks for fuel and you could see the transformers that were taken out. The tsunami ripped the fuel tanks out of the ground. A massive 13 meter wave the length of the entire prefecture will tend to have that kind of effect on smaller structures like that I guess....so regardless of where what was installed, they pumps were going to be out of commision without any power source.

[RAIST]

I heard a statement saying they were only required to maintain a level of readiness/preparedness of around an 8.0 quake.

True, but the quake was not what took out the backup systems... it was the tsunami.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

True, but the quake was not what took out the backup systems... it was the tsunami.Right.





Superfluous text added to meet forum standards.(And you didn't Raist again. ^^)

[Dale]

In the words of a great man...

"Life will find a way" -Ian Malcolm Jurassic Park

LIfe didn't find a way.

If the reactor had been maintained properly this woudn't have happened. It was a shoddy reactor that should have been shut down.

[Dubberrucky]

been trying to find the thread, but someone had posted an application that was an overlay of before/after pics where you pulled a line across the pic and it replaced the pic as you wiped it. It had a good shot of the huge storage tanks for fuel and you could see the transformers that were taken out. The tsunami ripped the fuel tanks out of the ground. A massive 13 meter wave the length of the entire prefecture will tend to have that kind of effect on smaller structures like that I guess....so regardless of where what was installed, they pumps were going to be out of commision without any power source.

Are you looking for this http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan-quake-2011/beforeafter.htm

[Dale]

The nuclear disaster currently unfolding is a man-made disaster that could have been prevented. Talking heads for the nuclear industry appear on TV and imply that the nuclear meltdown is akin to aliens landing on planet earth, something that could not have been planned for. This is simply not the case. In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami.

Listening carefully to the nuclear industry’s experts the reason is clear. As happens daily under capitalism, profits are put before people. Making nuclear plants designed to withstand a worst case scenario and protecting the surrounding population is deemed too costly by the profit driven system.

This profit driven decision making is rubber stamped by regulators that are closely tied with the industry they are supposed to regulate. Steff Yorek, a spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Allowing the nuclear industry to regulate itself is like letting the kids set the rules for the candy store. The same process that led to the BP oil spill a year ago is the cause of the disaster at Fukushima. We cannot allow the health of people and the safety of the environment to be discarded in favor of maximum profit for a handful of wealthy people.”

She added, “The natural disaster by itself would have been difficult enough to cope with, but in five years or so life could have returned to normal. Even in the best case scenario, the working people of Japan will now face radioactive seafood and soil and contaminated ground water for the next 300 years. Capitalism has doomed another Japanese generation to cancer and birth defects. The only question now is in how large of an area will be impacted and how high the dosage of radiation will go.”

Coudn't have said it better myself

[Dale]

And in the Fukushima plant, emergency generators were in place, but not on high enough ground. So the backup system itself was vulnerable, making catastrophic failure possible. The spent fuel is stored next to the reactor, so damage to the reactor can damage the stored rods too. The “comparatively smaller and less expensive containment structure” makes the reactor more vulnerable than other designs.

And here is a quote explaining what i was talking about earlier about how they didn't have their back up systems properly placed.

Also here is a much more apt quote for this situation than the one that was quoted from a Jurassic park.

"The love of money is the root of all evil" The Bible

[Anela]

No if this would have happened at any reactor that was up to the current legal standards this woudn't have happened. If you are operating a nuclear reactor saftey should be your number 1 concern, and it wasn't with them. They have a poor safety record and because no one shut them down sooner this is the result. All the signs were there.

Also, maybe i'm dumb, but if you live on a volcanic island in a part of world actually called the Ring of Fire due to all the volcanic activity, I don't think it's that unreasonable to think an earthquake and tsunami might just happen. In fact, common sense might would have told them it was likely to happen.

If you are going to build power plants near fault lines make sure they are earthquake proof, or just don't build them. Period.

And if you don't like the topic i'm talking about just don't respond to my post and let it die

Also, I'm not flaming anyone. Flaming is a forum term that used when you attack someone personally over a disagreement. I'm not calling Tepo names, i'm holding them responsible for what they did.

My bad,
As you can see from my posts #, I am new to the forums. Wrong use of terms.

[Dale]

My bad,
As you can see from my posts #, I am new to the forums. Wrong use of terms.

That is ok, look at the two earlier posts if you want direct quotes from online sources. I found you some

[Anela]

True, but the quake was not what took out the backup systems... it was the tsunami.

True.
Just a personal opinion here, but I would never build, nor allow to be built, a reactor facility anywhere on the shoreline of the east coast of Japan. Given the history of quakes and tsunamis for that region, I just cant justify the risk. The facility, and all its backups should have been at least 50 feet above mean sea level due to the risk of flooding.

[Dinh]

LIfe didn't find a way.

If the reactor had been maintained properly this woudn't have happened. It was a shoddy reactor that should have been shut down.

The life of the sea~ ...or something, t'was a joke.

I completely agree with you. Sticking a nuclear reactor in a place prone to numerous "Acts of god", as the insurance companies put it, is a horrible idea. Personally I think SE should move the servers to Wyoming... when was the last time you have ever heard of ANYTHING bad happening there? I forgot it was a state to be honest.

[Dubberrucky]

Just to clear up any misconception are you referring to the debate in this article? http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/19_23.html

If so the entire source of information is more useful than a quick quote in discussing such topics even though the entire political debate is off-topic.

[Anela]

I am really, really, really hoping that the next update we get from SE, is that they will be going back online at JP midnight on March 22nd. Just wishful thinking I know.. ; ;

[RAIST]

The nuclear disaster currently unfolding is a man-made disaster that could have been prevented. Talking heads for the nuclear industry appear on TV and imply that the nuclear meltdown is akin to aliens landing on planet earth, something that could not have been planned for. This is simply not the case. In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami.

Listening carefully to the nuclear industry’s experts the reason is clear. As happens daily under capitalism, profits are put before people. Making nuclear plants designed to withstand a worst case scenario and protecting the surrounding population is deemed too costly by the profit driven system.

This profit driven decision making is rubber stamped by regulators that are closely tied with the industry they are supposed to regulate. Steff Yorek, a spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Allowing the nuclear industry to regulate itself is like letting the kids set the rules for the candy store. The same process that led to the BP oil spill a year ago is the cause of the disaster at Fukushima. We cannot allow the health of people and the safety of the environment to be discarded in favor of maximum profit for a handful of wealthy people.”

She added, “The natural disaster by itself would have been difficult enough to cope with, but in five years or so life could have returned to normal. Even in the best case scenario, the working people of Japan will now face radioactive seafood and soil and contaminated ground water for the next 300 years. Capitalism has doomed another Japanese generation to cancer and birth defects. The only question now is in how large of an area will be impacted and how high the dosage of radiation will go.”

Coudn't have said it better myself

Nice.. propogandists to combat propogandists... (spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization )--go figure.

At the time, the Kanto earthquake was the worst recorded one to date I think...and they hadn't seen an event parallel to it since. 8.3 earthquake and the waves were recorded at 10 meters (about 32 feet) And Kanto wasn't just the earthquake/tsunami--it also had aTYPHOON in the area at the same time--people were literally burned to death while fleeing because of whirlwinds of fire racing through the streets. This one was still considerably worse and 88 years later. There have only been 4 or 5 other incidents world wide that are on par with or worse than this incident.. and they weren't in the Japan region. So, if anything, they would have made things to withstand (as mentioned earlier) around an 8.0 level event. Again, this wasn't the fault of the quake. The shutdown rods were injected automatically when the quake hit, so they were already going into standby. Backup systems DID engage (granted, one stalled at first, but then kicked in). It was when the deluge of multiple tsunami pounded the shoreline that the support systems were taken out completely.

Have to remember, Japan has some of the best (if not THE best) engineering for designing things to withstand this kind of stuff. The fact that they have lost entire cities should be enough to support that this was just an unforseeable event fror which no one could have been fully prepared.

Raist

[Dale]

The life of the sea~ ...or something

Dinh, this has nothing to do with life finding a way.

It had to do with a misguided corporation that put profit before safety. We had the technology to easily prevent this from happening. The company just chose not to do it because it would have cut into their bottom line, and when you are dealing with something as dangerous as nuclear power that's just not acceptable.

In Jurassic Park that quote is talking about when life finds a way despite science's best efforts to control it. Well, this was not one of those cases - cause this was hardly one of science's best efforts. This could have been easily prevented, and the fact they have some heroic workers who are now risking their lives to control a crisis their bosses made doesn't change this.

Again, i'm not trying to take away from the courage their workers they are showing. But let's not let the heroics cloud the fact this corporation needs to be held responsible for what they did, because this is serious business.

[RAIST]

True.
Just a personal opinion here, but I would never build, nor allow to be built, a reactor facility anywhere on the shoreline of the east coast of Japan. Given the history of quakes and tsunamis for that region, I just cant justify the risk. The facility, and all its backups should have been at least 50 feet above mean sea level due to the risk of flooding.

Unfortunately, these things have to be built near large bodies of water, as that water is used as a cooling medium. Look up the history of Nuclear reactors, and you will see the pattern. Granted, their may have been better sites and what not, but that is kind of mute when you are talking about Japan...topography and industry may not have allowed a viable site on the western side.

Raist

[Dale]

Nice.. propogandists to combat propogandists... (spokesperson for Freedom Road Socialist Organization )--go figure.

At the time, the Kanto earthquake was the worst recorded one to date I think...and they hadn't seen an event parallel to it since. 8.3 earthquake and the waves were recorded at 10 meters (about 32 feet) And Kanto wasn't just the earthquake/tsunami--it also had aTYPHOON in the area at the same time--people were literally burned to death while fleeing because of whirlwinds of fire racing through the streets. This one was still considerably worse and 88 years later. There have only been 4 or 5 other incidents world wide that are on par with or worse than this incident.. and they weren't in the Japan region. So, if anything, they would have made things to withstand (as mentioned earlier) around an 8.0 level event. Again, this wasn't the fault of the quake. The shutdown rods were injected automatically when the quake hit, so they were already going into standby. Backup systems DID engage (granted, one stalled at first, but then kicked in). It was when the deluge of multiple tsunami pounded the shoreline that the support systems were taken out completely.

Have to remember, Japan has some of the best (if not THE best) engineering for designing things to withstand this kind of stuff. The fact that they have lost entire cities should be enough to support that this was just an unforseeable event fror which no one could have been fully prepared.

Raist

Raist, you should really find something better to be an apologist for.

This was not unforeseeable. It was - in fact - predictable.

And they could have easily been prepared for it. In fact, all competent reactors are prepared for it. They even had people resigning from the project before this even happened because they said the reactor design was not safe. Just go check the facts.

If you are going to build a nuclear reactor on the coast in a volcanic area known for huge earthquakes and tsunamis, anyone remotely intelligent would know to put their emergency back up systems high enough to where flood waters can't wash it away, and certainly "the best engineers and designers" as you claim we are dealing with here would. In fact, even the regulations required them to do so.

This is just another typical example of corporations putting greed for profit above public safety, and this time it just about cost Japan their entire country. So you better take this crap serious and fix it and stop making excuses for them, or next time it may be your country that gets hit next.

[Dale]

Unfortunately, these things have to be built near large bodies of water, as that water is used as a cooling medium. Look up the history of Nuclear reactors, and you will see the pattern. Granted, their may have been better sites and what not, but that is kind of mute when you are talking about Japan...topography and industry may not have allowed a viable site on the western side.

Raist

Wow you are just full of excuses to defend these people. Now it's the topography to blame :)

[Coldbrand]

...Nuclear plants need to be build near water, that's how the technology works.

[Dinh]

Dinh, this has nothing to do with life finding a way.

It had to do with a misguided corporation that put profit before safety. We had the technology to easily prevent this from happening. The company just chose not to do it because it would have cut into their bottom line, and when you are dealing with something as dangerous as nuclear power that's just not acceptable.

In Jurassic Park that quote is talking about when life finds a way despite science's best efforts to control it. Well, this was not one of those cases - cause this was hardly one of science's best efforts. This could have been easily prevented, and the fact they have some heroic workers who are now risking their lives to control a crisis their bosses made doesn't change this.

Again, i'm not trying to take away from the courage their workers they are showing. But let's not let the heroics cloud the fact this corporation needs to be held responsible for what they did, because this is serious business.

I guess you read that before I added onto that with the edit. It was just a joke, don't look too much into it. :P

[Dale]

...Nuclear plants need to be build near water, that's how the technology works.

You are missing the point Coldbrand....

The Point is if you are going to build a nuclear plant in an area known for huge earthquakes and tsunamis you build them to withstand earthquaks and tusanamis. This is something they could have easily done simply by putting thier emergency generators on higher ground and incorporating a safer reactor design, neither of which they bothered to do - either because they thought it was too expensive or they just didn't care.

The fact they have to be built near water is irrelevant. If they aren't going to build it to be safe, then they are better off not building it at all. Living in a tent with no power what so ever is better than building an unsafe reactor in a volatile zone. The consequences are too vast. Do it right or don't do it at all. It's not the worth the risk.

[RAIST]

not making excuses.. just trying to provide facts that have been left out.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

not making excuses.. just trying to provide facts that have been left out.Unfortunately this forum is the black hole that devours them.

[Dale]

not making excuses.. just trying to provide facts that have been left out.

Well they looked like excuses to me.

I don't see how the topography of western japan in any way justified what this company did.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Well they looked like excuses to me.

I don't see how the topography of western japan in any way justified what this company did.Eastern...

[Dale]

Unfortunately this forum is the black hole that devours them.

OH really?

Please point out these "facts" that have been devoured? I would like to hear them.

[Dubberrucky]

not making excuses.. just trying to provide facts that have been left out.

lol do not bother unless you want him to keep going its a political debate he apparently does not want to hear about the why, just like most people who want to discuss politics in a non-political forum. I looked up some of his quotes and the articles that contain them work against his points, as well as failing to acknowledge the why discredited him.

[Dale]

Eastern...

Um...no, he was talking about the western side actually

[Dale]

lol do not bother unless you want him to keep going its a political debate he apparently does not want to hear about the why, just like most people who want to discuss politics in a non-political forum. I looked up some of his quotes and the articles that contain them work against his points, as well as failing to acknowledge the why discredited him.

This has nothing to do with politics lol

But I love how you claim to have descredited everything i said without saying anything, that was interesting :)

[Dale]

I guess you read that before I added onto that with the edit. It was just a joke, don't look too much into it. :P

Yeah i responded before your edit.

I agree with what you wrote in there after the edit. "Sticking a nuclear reactor in a place prone to numerous "Acts of god", as the insurance companies put it, is a horrible idea." Well said

That about sums it up. It's even worst when they build them recklessly as well, which is what happened here. Not only did they pick a bad spot, but they picked a bad way to build it as well.

[Dubberrucky]

This has nothing to do with politics lol

But I love how you claim to have descredited everything i said without saying anything, that was interesting :)

I never said I did. Plenty of other people on the other hand have already told you why nuclear plants are built by water though. Not knowing something is one thing, but ignoring information is another.

By the way your posts are a political standpoint against capitalism and the evil it brings to the world. Therefore it is a political argument the moment you started quoting political organizations viewpoints rather than factual data by an unbiased source. Being an issue that is a popular political debate topic you may or may not have done it intentionally, I shall give you that.

[RAIST]

Well they looked like excuses to me.

I don't see how the topography of western japan in any way justified what this company did.

you left out the second contributing factor--industry. if you actually looked at country, it's land formations, how it's cities/population/industries have devoloped and positioned themselves it should pretty evident...but I'm not feeding this trolling anymore. We had been doing a pretty good job of focusing on what is going on over there for a couple nights now until this started up.. It's 5:30 AM here now, and I need to get some sleep.

[Anela]

Unfortunately, these things have to be built near large bodies of water, as that water is used as a cooling medium. Look up the history of Nuclear reactors, and you will see the pattern. Granted, their may have been better sites and what not, but that is kind of mute when you are talking about Japan...topography and industry may not have allowed a viable site on the western side.

Raist

Often times my personal opinions fail before logic and reality.. lol

Believe me, I am fully aware of the requirements for large bodies of water for cooling. I used to live in Japan, so I know how tight land is for any form of development/facility. In hindsight, there are things they could have done to prevent this. But hindsight is always 20/20.. hehe

I think they are reacting to this as best as they can, and I am sure they will learn from it. I'll leave it at that..:)

[RAIST]

one last tweet beefore I crash:


Ibaraki News: Jouban Highway is now opened for anyone up to Iwaki !

more good news for people to the northern portion of the disaster region

[Dale]

I never said I did. Plenty of other people on the other hand have already told you why nuclear plants are built by water though. Not knowing something is one thing, but ignoring information is another.

By the way your posts are a political standpoint against capitalism and the evil it brings to the world. Therefore it is a political argument the moment you started quoting political organizations viewpoints rather than factual data by an unbiased source. Being an issue that is a popular political debate topic you may or may not have done it intentionally, I shall give you that.

Nuclear power plants and why they are built on the water have absolutely nothing to do with anything i have been saying. That nuclear power plant should never have been built there. I don't care if it needed to be by water or not. They can find some other water to build it by or build it better or don't build it at all. You don't build crappy unsafe reactors in dangerous areas prone to tsunamis and earthquakes. That's not a controversial stance, and deffinitely not political.

And i haven't even mentioned the word capitalism, and my posts have nothing to do with capitalism. I have no problem with capitalism. One of the sources I printed had an issue with it, but that was just me finding online sources cause people asked me to, so i was just trying to be nice and took some time to find some.

I have a problem with corporations putting profit above saftey, but that isn't capitalism. Any corporation is capable of doing that, i dont' care if it's private owned or publically owned, so you accusing me of being political for that statement is ridiculous.

Don't confuse me with the some of the sources i take the time to quote.

[Anela]

one last tweet beefore I crash:



more good news for people to the northern portion of the disaster region

Awesome!! The "Road" to recovery continues.....




*sorry, couldn't resist, especially when my post was too short.. hehehe*

[Dale]

Often times my personal opinions fail before logic and reality.. lol

Believe me, I am fully aware of the requirements for large bodies of water for cooling. I used to live in Japan, so I know how tight land is for any form of development/facility. In hindsight, there are things they could have done to prevent this. But hindsight is always 20/20.. hehe

I think they are reacting to this as best as they can, and I am sure they will learn from it. I'll leave it at that..:)

This wasn't hindsight. People knew there were problems with that reactor. They were warned about it in advance. It wasn't up to regulation standards. And there had been massive earthquakes and tsunamis in that area before.

And the topography of western japan or lack of developing land in no way excuses it.

This company does not deserve your sympathy.

[Dale]

you left out the second contributing factor--industry. if you actually looked at country, it's land formations, how it's cities/population/industries have devoloped and positioned themselves it should pretty evident...but I'm not feeding this trolling anymore. We had been doing a pretty good job of focusing on what is going on over there for a couple nights now until this started up.. It's 5:30 AM here now, and I need to get some sleep.

I"m not trolling

I'm holding these people responsible for what they did, and what you are saying really does sound like you are making excuses for them. That's how it comes across, and pointing that out isn't trolling. I"m not trying to be mean, just saying it sounds like excus- making to me.

I don't see how the topography or the growth of industry in western japan in any way helps justify what this company did. And if you didn't want to talk about this all you had to do was not talk about it :)

nite nite

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Hey everyone,

Most of you may have read the follow-up on PlayOnline news regarding the servers. (for those of you that haven’t here is a link: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/polnews/news20547.shtml)

First of all I just wanted to say from myself and on behalf of the rest of the Community Team, thank you so much for being patient and understanding in these tragic times. We’re really impressed and moved by how strongly you all support Japan and your efforts to donate.

With the servers being down, many of you are wondering what’s going on with Vana’diel time and your plants, traverser stones, besieged, etc. Pretty much, just think of this as really long server maintenance, which means that unfortunately your plants will be withered, but the number of traverser stones Joachim sets aside for you will have increased, and besiege will pick up where it was left off.

We will give you updates on the situation and again thank you very much for your kind words and compassion.You know what I just relaized? What about the people who were in the midst of raising a chocobo?

[Anela]

You know what I just relaized? What about the people who were in the midst of raising a chocobo?

Gonna be a lot of pissed off Chocobo's?
They should give the GMs the permission/ability to fix it.

[Mordanthos]

i was actually in the middle of loading out of Abyssea Misseareux, and trying to load up Valkurm Dunes when the servers were cut off. I hope that i dont have issues trying to log on, having the game tell me my character is lost in Sweden Borgian Space (Kingdom Hospital reference if you are knowledgable of it). gonna be quite annoying if it cant find my character and/or its lost. I havent had an experience like this with FFXI, im not sure what their systems do.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

i was actually in the middle of loading out of Abyssea Misseareux, and trying to load up Valkurm Dunes when the servers were cut off. I hope that i dont have issues trying to log on, having the game tell me my character is lost in Sweden Borgian Space (Kingdom Hospital reference if you are knowledgable of it). gonna be quite annoying if it cant find my character and/or its lost. I havent had an experience like this with FFXI, im not sure what their systems do.If there is, there was fair warning before hand.

[Mordanthos]

If there is, there was fair warning before hand.

Unfortunately, the movement speed couldnt get any dang slower, and trying to run to the entrance was just taking forever, with no warp scrolls, and cudgel on CD, i was pretty much screwed. I am very accustomed to a 1 minute countdown as to when the servers are being shut down, with updates every 10 seconds, then every 5 seconds after 30 seconds is left. Not just an immediate cut off when 6 struck the hour.

[Anela]

i was actually in the middle of loading out of Abyssea Misseareux, and trying to load up Valkurm Dunes when the servers were cut off. I hope that i dont have issues trying to log on, having the game tell me my character is lost in Sweden Borgian Space (Kingdom Hospital reference if you are knowledgable of it). gonna be quite annoying if it cant find my character and/or its lost. I havent had an experience like this with FFXI, im not sure what their systems do.

From experience: If you did not finish loading into the new zone before the server shut down, you will appear in the last zone.

*edit* And as soon as you appear, you will be booted for time. Thats what happened to me.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

From experience: If you did not finish loading into the new zone before the server shut down, you will appear in the last zone.Good thing you don't lose your temps anymore.

[Mordanthos]

From experience: If you did not finish loading into the new zone before the server shut down, you will appear in the last zone.

I heard a rumor that if u log out inside Abyssea, the time continues to tick even if your not logged into the game? Does this hold true? I'm actually not worried about it since im sure ill just have a plethora of Stones waiting for me at Joachim, however, such a wasted time of 120 minutes sadly.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

I heard a rumor that if u log out inside Abyssea, the time continues to tick even if your not logged into the game? Does this hold true? I'm actually not worried about it since im sure ill just have a plethora of Stones waiting for me at Joachim, however, such a wasted time of 120 minutes sadly.Yes. This is true.

[Gravionblack]

You know what I just relaized? What about the people who were in the midst of raising a chocobo?

I already ask about this one Tsukino, but sadly no one really knows. So i guess we will have to see where we stand when things get better.

[Terrigenesis]

You know its sad to see people are more concerned with a Video game than the actual well being of all The Japanese people. I mean seriously guys, you all don't think about it because we aren't over there feeling the impact first hand. All of you should be wondering if they are ok and all the help they could use. People have lost literally every possession they had to their name and all you care about is whether you will have more abyssea stones, if your chocobos will be ok, Campaign medals and many other trivial things. Come on guys there is more to life than FFXI try to think about that next time ok?

Everyone is thinking about the people in japan. Alot of ppl, including myself are trying to think of other things to keep ourselves from getting depressed over the situation. Just because we aren't going totally emo and screaming at god "Why!?" while cutting out wrists doesn't mean that we don't care.

[Komori]

Unfortunately, the movement speed couldnt get any dang slower, and trying to run to the entrance was just taking forever, with no warp scrolls, and cudgel on CD, i was pretty much screwed. I am very accustomed to a 1 minute countdown as to when the servers are being shut down, with updates every 10 seconds, then every 5 seconds after 30 seconds is left. Not just an immediate cut off when 6 struck the hour.

Or you could have just stayed inside the zone since possibly damaging your character < losing minutes.

[Haglaz]

Press Releases

Press Release (Mar 20,2011)
Implementation plan of rolling blackouts on and after Holiday, March 21, 2011


Due to the power supply-demand balance, TEPCO has been implementing
rolling blackout since Monday, March 14. We sincerely regret causing
anxiety and inconvenience to our customers and the society.
We appreciate your cooperation in conserving electricity consumption.
For customers who will be subject to rolling blackouts, please be
prepared for the announced blackout periods. Also, for the customers
who are not subject to blackouts, we would appreciate your continuous
cooperation in reducing electricity usage by turning off unnecessary
lightings and electrical appliances.

○Implementation plan of rolling blackout on Public Holiday, March 21
Considering today's electricity supply-demand and tomorrow's weather,
regional group and time periods for the planned blackout are as follows.

Group 4 6:20 - 10:00 Rolling blackout will not be implemented
Group 5 9:20 - 13:00 Rolling blackout will not be implemented
Group 1 12:20 - 16:00 Rolling blackout will not be implemented

The necessity of the rolling blackouts will be judged depending on
the supply-demand balance and will be informed before 12:00, March 21st.
Group 2 15:20 - 19:00
Group 3 18:20 - 22:00

The actual blackout period for each group is planned to be maximum about
●3 hours during the relevant scheduled time period.
●Starting and ending time of blackout periods may slightly differ.
●Depending on the supply-demand balance of the day, planned blackouts
may not be carried out. In case the electricity supply-demand balance
becomes tighter than expected, we will reconsider the rolling blackout
plan and inform you accordingly before we implement the revised plan.
●A blackout may occur in the adjacent areas where the planned blackouts
are carried out.

○Implementation plan of rolling blackouts from Tuesday, March 22nd to
Sunday, 27th,

Please refer to the exhibit 2 for detailed plan.

●The actual blackout period for each group is planned to be maximum
about3 hours during the relevant scheduled time period.
●Starting and ending time of blackout periods will slightly differ
day by day.
●Depending on the supply-demand balance hereafter, planned blackouts may
not be carried out. Moreover, in case the electricity supply-demand
balance becomes tighter than expected, we will reconsider the rolling
blackout plan and inform you accordingly before we implement
the revised plan.
●A blackout may occur in the adjacent areas where the planned blackouts
are carried out.

[Others]
●In order to prevent fires, please make sure to switch off electric
appliances such as hair driers when you leaving home.
●Please carefully pay attention to the traffic at the crossings in
case the traffic lights are suddenly turned off.

[Improvement in implementing planned blackouts]
●In principle, we will implement the planned blackouts based on
the current manner. However, we do realize that there is room for
improvement. Therefore, we will continue to consider and improve
implementation manners from the customers' point of view.


○Prediction of demand and supply on March 20
Estimated Demand 29,000 MW(18:00 - 19:00)
Supply Capacity 34,500 MW

○Prediction of demand and supply on March 21
Estimated Demand 34,000 MW(18:00 - 19:00)
Supply Capacity 34,000 MW

[breau]

"In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami." citation from earlier post

hmhm 1923, they really should have known this would happen again this year. (sarcasm, i´m not that blonde^^)

breau, alexander/bastok

[TribalProphet]

In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami.

Earthquake ratings grow exponentially. So while 9.0 and 8.3 may seem to be close, the 9.0 is many times worse.

8.3 - 9.0 is approximately 8-16 times stronger. According to Wikipedia, an 8.22 quake has the explosive power of 50 megatons, where a 9.0 has the power of 476 megatons.

[chrism]

How about all of you just wait for march 22nd and in the meantime go cook some food, have some coffee , enjoy another video game and wait patiently I appreciate all of the updates from most of you but some of you are just continuously bashing each other back and forth for something retarded or saying your assuming stuff and blah blah... please just stop it and lets all wait, hope and pray that the reactors will be up and running and SE will restore power back to the servers sometime soon so the rest of you will stop spending 4-6hrs of your time posting on these forums.. kind of sad honestly lol.

<33 you all

[Dale]

"In 1923 Japan experienced an 8.3 earthquake that generated a 30 to 40 foot tsunami, yet the Fukushima plant was not built to withstand the effects of a similar earthquake and tsunami." citation from earlier post

hmhm 1923, they really should have known this would happen again this year. (sarcasm, i´m not that blonde^^)

breau, alexander/bastok

This reactor was built like in the 1960s or 1970s, so in that context that really wasn't that long ago (Even if it was built today woudn't be that long ago be honest). So you can be sarcastic all you want - but the threat of a serious earthquake in that region was very real and predictable. Japan is a volcanic island afterall, and earthquakes and tsunamis are not uncommon. IF you are going to build a nuclear plant in a place called the "Ring of Fire' the very least you can do is make sure everything is up to current safety levels, or just not build them there at all.

We need to have an all or nothing approach to nuclear power saftey, especially in volatile regions. You make them safe as possible or we shut them down.

[Haglaz]

Dead or missing from tsunami disaster tops 20,000

Police say that over 8,000 people are confirmed dead and more than 12,000 are reportedly missing in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.





http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_21.html

[Dale]

Dead or missing from tsunami disaster tops 20,000

Police say that over 8,000 people are confirmed dead and more than 12,000 are reportedly missing in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan.





http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_21.html



Yep it's pretty bad. That earthquake that hit Asia just a couple years ago back in 2005 killed over 20,000. Just more good reasons we need to take a very careful look at any nuclear plants we have in these earthquake-prone zones, because this is probably just the beginning and mother nature has a lot more in store for us.

[breau]

This reactor was built like in the 1960s or 1970s, so in that context that really wasn't that long ago (Even if it was built today woudn't be that long ago be honest). So you can be sarcastic all you want - but the threat of a serious earthquake in that region was very real and predictable. Japan is a volcanic island afterall, and earthquakes and tsunamis are not uncommon. IF you are going to build a nuclear plant in a place called the "Ring of Fire' the very least you can do is make sure everything is up to current safety levels, or just not build them there at all.

We need to have an all or nothing approach to nuclear power saftey, especially in volatile regions. You make them safe as possible or we shut them down.

yes that was what i´m trying to say, it wasn´t that long ago and they been prepared for 8.0, not for more, what is rare even there, as i understand it. and i never mean to be mean , thats not my want, and if i seem to be, sorry my first language is german, and i may understand some of you wrong, or take wrong terms while talking, if, i apologize.
what i mean is, they not thaught a 9 would happen again that soon, so they didn´t prepare for it. and if they prepared for it, what happens if a 12 occurs? smile, i not know even if there is a 12 on the scale, anyway you never can prepare for evrything^^
/jobemote rdm
breau, alexander/bastok

[Anela]

Hmm.. next update is tomorrow.

[jeffanddane]

Day after tomorrow deary ^_^.

[Xeth]

Day after tomorrow deary ^_^.

It's actually tomorrow for the majority of people living in North America.
Say they release the information at midnight March 22nd, in Japan, that is 12PM noon March 21st for me, so I expect to hear something tomorrow between 12PM noon and 8PM.

[Runespider]

They won't put them back up on the 22nd, if you believe that you are just setting yourself up for dissapointment. Nothing has changed to such a degree to warrant it.

Something sad is that there is a topic like this on the FFXIV forum and there is no high horse moral spamming like on the XI forum, it's actually full of pretty decent posts from almost every single contribution. Was really refreshing to read it.

[Deadplaything]

Is my mog house going to have water damage? Should I buy my new mog house materials now or wait until I can see the extent of the damage?

[Kraatos]

They already have stated the the maintances etc n stuff isnt happenin till next month <.< they are gonna let us know March 22nd if they are gonna Turn servers back on or not...

[jobu01]

yes that was what i´m trying to say, it wasn´t that long ago and they been prepared for 8.0, not for more, what is rare even there, as i understand it. and i never mean to be mean , thats not my want, and if i seem to be, sorry my first language is german, and i may understand some of you wrong, or take wrong terms while talking, if, i apologize.
what i mean is, they not thaught a 9 would happen again that soon, so they didn´t prepare for it. and if they prepared for it, what happens if a 12 occurs? smile, i not know even if there is a 12 on the scale, anyway you never can prepare for evrything^^
/jobemote rdm
breau, alexander/bastok

Just FYI, scale goes to 10, a 1 point difference is a 10x difference in strength. So, an 8.0 earthquake is 10x weaker than a 9.0.

[breau]

Just FYI, scale goes to 10, a 1 point difference is a 10x difference in strength. So, an 8.0 earthquake is 10x weaker than a 9.0.

smile thanks a lot^^ i never thaught about that till this happened to our friends, i appreciate the info
/jobemote rdm
breau, alexander/bastok

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Just FYI, scale goes to 10, a 1 point difference is a 10x difference in strength. So, an 8.0 earthquake is 10x weaker than a 9.0.10 being the theoretical cap. By the scale, a 10.0 is the world shaking itself appart.

[Anela]

IMO, I think the BEST we can expect with tomorrows update is a tentative date/time they will "turn the game back on".

Things have gotten better, yes, but there are still far to many people that can better use the electricity. Now that they have succeded in running a power line to the damaged reactor facility, there will be even more of a draw on their sytem. It takes a fair amount of power to even partially run a reactor facility, and that one will probably never generate electricity again.

[RAIST]

fortunately the power for getting the systems online is being pulled in from another company. Forget the exact details, saw a short news reel on it the other night, but didn't catch the name of the company--but it was another power wholesaler.

Raist

[Kraatos]

lol nvm my last post

forgot they said march 22nd Jst time

[Anela]

Server Status continues to show "Partial Maintenance" for all worlds, as of 1am EST

[Kraatos]

they will come n announce whats going on jus be paitent!!!

[Byrth]

Midnight JP time (the first minute of Tuesday) will be in 4 minutes. I expect the announcement is going to be an 8-16 hour lotto of the F5 key.

[RAIST]

considering Monday was a national holiday, I don't expect administrative staff to come in and make a decision until their normal office hours kick-in--late afternoon/early evening in the US time zones.

[Xeth]

considering Monday was a national holiday, I don't expect administrative staff to come in and make a decision until their normal office hours kick-in--late afternoon/early evening in the US time zones.

8PM to 9PM for me :( /sigh

[Byrth]

Hence my 8-16 hour lotto, 8AM-4PM JP time. At 7PM EST you can start spamming F5 F5 F5

[Harbor]

I well expected an update or the servers to be up at the stoke of 12 after this laughable week of excuses they so proudly call business. Me and a few collage friends could have the servers up and running with a few cases of beer and a handful of generators, and we could probably have done it on the cheap. Mods could u rush letting us know weather or not to just go ahead and install rift or if we might actually see something to do this monday night.

[Anethia]

I well expected an update or the servers to be up at the stoke of 12 after this laughable week of excuses they so proudly call business. Me and a few collage friends could have the servers up and running with a few cases of beer and a handful of generators, and we could probably have done it on the cheap. Mods could u rush letting us know weather or not to just go ahead and install rift or if we might actually see something to do this monday night.

And you probably think that none of the maintenance team, dev team or administrative team was directly affected by the earthquake/tsunami. Nope they don't have to be out cleaning their house up off the street or helping their neighbor try to find and/or rescue loved ones. Nah they can just live in their cubical with a cot and corner fridge, and completely forget that their families and freinds are currently suffering loss of loved ones. None of that matters as long as they give you constant updates on when your game will be back. /end sarcasm

[Daigotsu]

I dunno Anethia, I mean, someone who can't even spell college is probably not going to understand, even with the /end sarcasm

[Chiibi]

<3 Anethia

[Harbor]

And you probably think that none of the maintenance team, dev team or administrative team was directly affected by the earthquake/tsunami. Nope they don't have to be out cleaning their house up off the street or helping their neighbor try to find and/or rescue loved ones. Nah they can just live in their cubical with a cot and corner fridge, and completely forget that their families and freinds are currently suffering loss of loved ones.

Ill be sure to tell my spouse next time her family members are sick or dieing, or our hell if our neighbor gets snowed in or loses his dog she should close the winery. Surely the deliveries to chains of grocery stores, distributors, restaurants and the patrons or entertainment affected by this will understand, right? None of that matters as long as we the few have constant satisfaction in our own lives, hell to the fact we burnt more bridges in something as irrelevent as a company or customer satisfactions and our lively hood.

/end sarcasm

[NightDagger]

And you probably think that none of the maintenance team, dev team or administrative team was directly affected by the earthquake/tsunami. Nope they don't have to be out cleaning their house up off the street or helping their neighbor try to find and/or rescue loved ones. Nah they can just live in their cubical with a cot and corner fridge, and completely forget that their families and freinds are currently suffering loss of loved ones. None of that matters as long as they give you constant updates on when your game will be back. /end sarcasm

A quick question for you.

If their is a fire in your local mall & you are located 25 miles from the fire do you close you business? What if two of your employees family members were there shopping? Would you close your business down for two weeks if you mother died?

If you said yes to any of the questions then you have no idea what running a business is about. i know Japan is not doing well, but do not use the fact that people may have lost family members and the such as a reason to not run their business, cause that's means nothing to a business. You are entitled to two days off to "grieve" then back to work. If SE is really keeping the servers down just cause of the fact that people have family members affected by the situation then that is horrible business & I do hope that they lose a lot of their player base cause of their idiotic decision.

[RAIST]

been trying to avoid this thread for all the trolling in the past... but can't help myself... need to chunk some peanuts for this one:

lol at Harbor's post on the last page about college buddies and generators.

You do realize this is more or less a floor of equipment high end servers and clustered storage arrays, all typically wired with dual power supplies for power redundancy? It's not exactly something you power up by wheeling in a couple of Honda generators.

And their building doesn't just house the game you know...it's a 23 story building in a heavily commercialized district that houses 4 divisons of SE's conglomerate (including Taito Corporation), positioned right near a train station, several hospitals, two police stations, a major government offices building, a handful of schools and university campuses.....in short, it is a highly stressed out power grid in their sector that needs to be restricted from scheduled blackouts as much as possible....

http://www.tokyoarchitecture.info/Building/4083/Shinjuku-Bunka-Quint.php

[RAIST]

Baseball-Loving Japan Delays Its First Pitch, but Not Without Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/world/asia/21nippon.html?_r=1&src=tptw

Sounds vaguely familiar.....

[Kailea_Nagisa]

A quick question for you.

If their is a fire in your local mall & you are located 25 miles from the fire do you close you business? What if two of your employees family members were there shopping? Would you close your business down for two weeks if you mother died?

If you said yes to any of the questions then you have no idea what running a business is about. i know Japan is not doing well, but do not use the fact that people may have lost family members and the such as a reason to not run their business, cause that's means nothing to a business. You are entitled to two days off to "grieve" then back to work. If SE is really keeping the servers down just cause of the fact that people have family members affected by the situation then that is horrible business & I do hope that they lose a lot of their player base cause of their idiotic decision.

you did not just compare a fire in a mall..... to this?.....you cant be that ignorant?....can you?

[NightDagger]

you did not just compare a fire in a mall..... to this?.....you cant be that ignorant?....can you?

From a business perspective what is the difference? Call me ignorant if you want idc. The fact will never change, people die everyday & life goes on. No matter what happens a business stays running. You do not close your doors for weeks/months because your employees lost family members. Either tell those employees to get to work or fire them it is simple, but do not wait for them to be ready to return to work.

Imagine if this happened in Canada, would SE shutdown & make the JP players wait? Seriously, they would not even think about it cause they want to make money.

I do care about what is going on in Japan but how long can companies close their doors cause of it? If they all stay shutdown they will not only hurt their own company but also the economy in Japan will be so low they will never recover.

But you will just post remarks about my opinion and so be it, this will be my last post defending my remarks. Not going to argue over what I believe compared to what you believe!

[jeffanddane]

you did not just compare a fire in a mall..... to this?.....you cant be that ignorant?....can you?

I'm sorry but hes correct on this one. I mean just take his situation and put it on a massive scale. Having a heart doesn't get you paid in this kinnda of industry the longer you keep your doors closed the more people you lose whether it be for selfish reasons or not. No one is going to close a business unless the disaster directly effects there place of business. I mean look at Wal-Mart. . . . .

[jeffanddane]

[Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines (http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=20&la=1).]

And again your making yourself looking idiotic its just an example. Look at this in a massive scale and bam you have a natural disaster.

[Kraatos]

I'm sorry but hes correct on this one. I mean just take his situation and put it on a massive scale. Having a heart doesn't get you paid in this kinnda of industry the longer you keep your doors closed the more people you lose whether it be for selfish reasons or not. No one is going to close a business unless the disaster directly effects there place of business. I mean look at Wal-Mart. . . . .

As to u too obviously u have no clue whats going on in japan, or not payin attention to Raist or anything...
THE DISASTER DID EFFECT THERE PLACE OF BUISNESS CAUSE JAPAN IS THERE COUNTRY.... [Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines (http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=20&la=1).].... and actually wal mart would prolly shut down to help out etc if something like this happen where u lived but u prolly live in a little shell or something i do not agree with any of u they were ordered to shut down there power supply to help there country end of discussion... Period IT WAS NOT THERE DESICION to turn off the game [Removed by Moderator according to the FINAL FANTASY XI FORUM Guidelines (http://support.na.square-enix.com/rule.php?id=20&la=1).]

[Chiibi]

From a business perspective what is the difference? Call me ignorant if you want idc. The fact will never change, people die everyday & life goes on. No matter what happens a business stays running. You do not close your doors for weeks/months because your employees lost family members. Either tell those employees to get to work or fire them it is simple, but do not wait for them to be ready to return to work.

Imagine if this happened in Canada, would SE shutdown & make the JP players wait? Seriously, they would not even think about it cause they want to make money.

I do care about what is going on in Japan but how long can companies close their doors cause of it? If they all stay shutdown they will not only hurt their own company but also the economy in Japan will be so low they will never recover.

But you will just post remarks about my opinion and so be it, this will be my last post defending my remarks. Not going to argue over what I believe compared to what you believe!

Dude not gonna lie but everything you just said there oozed ignorance and Douchebaggery(is that even a word?) you obviously dont care about whats happening in japan outside of "let me hide the fact i want to play behind 'i r care about se'" unless you are a shareholder you cant -Really- complain about the down time. As SE reps have stated themselves the downtime of public transport and people needing time to grieve/locate loved ones are why the servers are down (personally speaking i havent heard from my father or brother since the 11th. so yeah i 'Kinda' understand why se is minimizing production regardless of how much i need an escape from reality)

Now i expect some kind of smarta$$ comment from you and to be honest it'll probably be an interesting read, But seriously Either Quit or keep quiet nothing you've tried stating in your defense is viable and only really proves how stupid you can act with regards to business.

Lotsa luv
Chihiro Kikuchi.

[Kraatos]

And again your making yourself looking idiotic its just an example. Look at this in a massive scale and bam you have a natural disaster.

no because see i understand the world and what there doing u obviously dont.

think of it this way.... say something happens n them reactors jus go n cause a chain reaction could cause the plates to shift again etc japan could be history. How many business's in the us RELY on japan etc alot but u dont realize that grow up

[Kraatos]

Dude not gonna lie but everything you just said there oozed ignorance and Douchebaggery(is that even a word?) you obviously dont care about whats happening in japan outside of "let me hide the fact i want to play behind 'i r care about se'" unless you are a shareholder you cant -Really- complain about the down time. As SE reps have stated themselves the downtime of public transport and people needing time to grieve/locate loved ones are why the servers are down (personally speaking i havent heard from my father or brother since the 11th. so yeah i 'Kinda' understand why se is minimizing production regardless of how much i need an escape from reality)

Now i expect some kind of smarta$$ comment from you and to be honest it'll probably be an interesting read, But seriously Either Quit or keep quiet nothing you've tried stating in your defense is viable and only really proves how stupid you can act with regards to business.

Lotsa luv
Chihiro Kikuchi.

im with her on this one jus keep quiet if u cant say soemthing that doesnt involved ur own greed SE will post something when they can etc servers will be up when they get the power supply under control

[jeffanddane]

Actually most of my family lives in Tokyo what you got?

[Chiibi]

I got the fact ive yet to confirm mine are safe. you probably have no idea what its like to have to spend the first birthday of your life worrying about if your twin brother is alive to hit 22 with you.

[Kraatos]

From a business perspective what is the difference? Call me ignorant if you want idc. The fact will never change, people die everyday & life goes on. No matter what happens a business stays running. You do not close your doors for weeks/months because your employees lost family members. Either tell those employees to get to work or fire them it is simple, but do not wait for them to be ready to return to work.

Imagine if this happened in Canada, would SE shutdown & make the JP players wait? Seriously, they would not even think about it cause they want to make money.

I do care about what is going on in Japan but how long can companies close their doors cause of it? If they all stay shutdown they will not only hurt their own company but also the economy in Japan will be so low they will never recover.

But you will just post remarks about my opinion and so be it, this will be my last post defending my remarks. Not going to argue over what I believe compared to what you believe!

what part dont u get that SE was ordered by there government to shut down to conserve power? is it really that hard to understand?

[Ordoric]

mostlikely the servers where sut down due to power and rolling blackouts . so enuff odf that and i know acushnet japan shut production then was told by the home office to locate and hellp employees and familys they will be assiting with a rebuild, i can only imagine that SE is assumeing the same responsablites. now i would have liked it if they had a remotlocation for backup servers but thats just me.

[Kraatos]

I got the fact ive yet to confirm mine are safe. you probably have no idea what its like to have to spend the first birthday of your life worrying about if your twin brother is alive to hit 22 with you.


Im really sorry Chiibi i hope he is ok =(