I know we will hear it on SUN so I am going to say it now.......

[Zackan]

I see another problem, i dont know if its a real problem or not but...
Isn't half this games playerbase japanese? How many of these players lost these homes and even if the servers do come back that half of the playerbase wont be back due to circumstances out of there control? Really i want the servers back up as much as anyone, but have a heart about the situation.

Offshoring there servers could be a solution, Isnt The SE branch located in San Diego like that Main branch outside of Japan?

[HFX7686]

The problem is, they likely can't have services up like that reliably. EVERY block of the rollout has a portion of tokyo without power. Each block is roughly 3.5 hours. Though the servers would likely only go down for one, maybe 2 of those 3.5 hour blocks each day--other devices critical to the transfer of data could be down at other times. So, it's possible that services could be up at SE, but the node alllowing access to the internet is down.

It's just too messed up right now to insure stability. GE is sending 10 Gas Turbine Generators in to help shore up the energy supply while they try to get a handle on things. With any luck, it may stave off the rolling blackout situation and things start to get back to some sense of normal power-wise soon.

Raist

That is something that I did not think of. I did think that it would be difficult to keep turning the servers on and off, but I forgot that if the blackouts are rolling, other parts of the Japanese internet might stop SE's servers from running properly. This is an excellent point to make.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Isn't half this games playerbase japanese? How many of these players lost these homes and even if the servers do come back that half of the playerbase wont be back due to circumstances out of there control?

It's less then 1% of the populous that lost their homes. So that's not a factor on the player base. Currently it's simply a matter of government imposed power conservation.

[Lushipur]

I see another problem, i dont know if its a real problem or not but...
Isn't half this games playerbase japanese? How many of these players lost these homes and even if the servers do come back that half of the playerbase wont be back due to circumstances out of there control? Really i want the servers back up as much as anyone, but have a heart about the situation.

Offshoring there servers could be a solution, Isnt The SE branch located in San Diego like that Main branch outside of Japan?

one thing that surprised me most was the huge amount of japanese player still playing at the time of the disaster and till the server was shutdown. i suppose only the east coast players are unable to play while the others have no problems.

[Nvr]

Well, to get a little more back on topic about the server being up or not in a week. SE originally announced they were contemplating suspending service, but while they were not sure, they estimated that IF they were to suspend service, it would be suspended for at least a week. After that announcement, SE made another anouncement they they were going to temorarily suspend service.

Now, on playonline.com in the information section about the disrupt in service, it states in the body of text...

The services will be temporarily suspended for at least a week starting on Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT).

However, in the same page under downtim, it states...

[Date & Time]
A week starting from Mar. 13, 2011 3:00 (PDT)

I think this will be the cause of most complaints on Sunday because not everyone may have read or been aware of the "at least a week" detail. But here is hoping things are somehow stable enough to resume service by Sunday.

On a side note about what Lushipur was saying, server population durring Japan's primetime was on average about 800-900 on Caitsith pre-dissaster; however, after the dissaster, the population durring the same time was about 1400 on average. That is a 75% increase or so after the dissaster durring Japan's primetime.

[RAIST]

Yeah.. hopefully the GE turbines will get setup quickly and we can get some things back up and running next week. SE felt confident enough to announce a potential window for the version update...maybe that's a good sign. At least we know they are in conference trying to figure out what to do about the situation.

Raist

[Neika]

Ya i was shocked when i checked the server population on Caitsith just before they shut the servers down. I hadn't seen the numbers that high in quite a while. Wonder if they'll still be that high when the servers come back up...

[Valiarius]

This is historically the longest time a MMORPG has been down, SE doesn't even have any idea of the consequences the forced downtime will have on the interest of the playerbase, it's customers, and neither do we. We can go on and on about how it's reasonable to expect SE to keep FFXI and FFXIV down for a long period of time, but every day that goes by the players get weaned off the online games and start losing interest. In the end, this is a lose-lose situation that SE is in, as it's not their fault that disaster struck Japan but at the same time people who simply want to play their beloved games can't, even when they live far away in countries far from Japan which simply are minimally affected by the earthquake, if at all. The only way SE can keep most of it's customers (who are simply observers of the events in Japan and also aren't responsible for what happened over there and deserve to be able to play if they so want to) is to find a way to turn on those servers, or run the games from somewhere else, outside of Japan. Since this is a highly unlikely scenario, we can only wait and see what the ooutcome will be.

[Rambus]

I expect it to be more then a week I just hope my ls point list is all updated before the week end so we are ready just in case.

I really really rally really really really do not want to see anymore threads on " omg why can't i play ffxi move servers!" threads.

I am fine with this one and I am hoping this one stops others like that from reappearing.

[Volckian]

Don't expect this game to come back up on SUN, even though SE said "no less then a week" many people translate that to "only a week" It could be down two weeks, three, or even a month or two. In away I know this thread is pointless, but I am sure we will hear it, by SUN some will start whining because the servers are not back up "like SE said they would"

SE stated "At least a week". This is just a rough estimate of how long they could be down. It could range from 4days up to an indefinite amount of time. As far as we know, they may be working on moving their equipment to another country. (Just speculating.) Yet again, they could just be waiting until Japan fixes their power grid problems. But I do agree with Kailea_Nagisa and Dreamers, There will be a lot of annoying ranting about how bad SE is. In this situation I don't believe anyone has the right to leave negative feedback. Situations like this cannot be helped, you can complain all you want to. It's not like SE can say, "Well we apologize for the servers being off, I'll head over there right now and turn them back on for you."

Just keep in mind, this isn't a quick fix type problem. If their government orders them to shut down, then they have to shut down. If people want to complain to somebody, complain to the government of Japan for telling its people to help save energy for more important needs. Then if they don't comply with your demands, get on a boat and go over there and make them allow SE to waste valuable energy so you can play your game. ^^ And why not, while your at it you could also walk into the hospitals and tell people that a video game is worth more than their lives. (This is how I see people that would rather cry and complain about a stupid game, over human lives.)

If you cannot take a break from playing FFXI, you really need to take a good look in a mirror and find out what you're missing in your life. There is soo much more to life than video games.

~Enjoy
Volckian