Minimise the downtime please.

[Runespider]

So FFXI and FFXIV will be down for an unknown length of time, could be a week, could be a month, could be a lot longer.

I do understand the situation in Japan and I also understand that the situation didn't really effect Square directly that much as a company and the server downtime is more because of the power stations asking big companies to conserve power(correct me if i'm wrong). Understandable, but shouldn't a company the size of Square have some kind of plan being worked out to bring the servers back up asap? (maybe moving them to a different location to get around this or something?).

Would Blizzard let the game be down for an unknown amount of time if this happend, would any of the big TV stations? This maybe just a game but SE is a games company and that's pretty much all they are. Their entire work force exists to make and run games so it's a big deal for them. Something like this is a godsend to your competitors in the MMO field, ie Rift and WoW.

The reason I say this is because I assume long downtime will do damage to the games userbase, downtime on addictive games like MMOs that require a monthly payment and want to keep as many players on board as possible is a bad thing. What if a large number of your subscribers go off and try other MMOs and get hooked on those or if they lose the yearning to carry on with the games, I've had breaks from many games in the past and wholely lost intrest when I had the opportunity to go back.

FFXI is currently in an upsurge and I would hate for that to slide away. If this is a week then that's one thing but if there is a chance it could be extended and go on for a long time I hope there are plans to get around it and get the game back up asap.

Since FFXIV has been run for free for 6-7 months which is being done at a vast loss of money I can assume money can also be spent on something like this, which is far more important to both games and the bottom line of SE as a company long term.

This post is not being mean, it's not trolling it's being realistic.

[Rambus]

No idea how much the downtime will keep people from coming back.

I have a feeling that if one day downtime would stop someone from playing, a week will, and if a day didn't stop them from playing a week wont.

[Porcius]

I have to agree with Runespider on this. Although unfortunate this tragedy is, the rest of the world will go on. This tragedy will be overcome in time. Square-Enix has already taken a hit by shutting down it's servers and giving free play time which is most of their income as a company aside from add-ons. In a situation such as this, they should start preparing servers in their offices in California to have servers ready not only in rare cases such as this, but so that they may also minimize down time when it comes to doing server maintenance and updates which they can install on one server while the other is running. Please comment.

[Greatguardian]

Don't worry, Square Enix has plenty of management-level employees to worry about their revenue. I know we want to make sure they don't lose all their money, because that would mean we would be out of a game. But I'm sure their accountants want to make sure they don't lose all their money either, because that would mean they would be out of a job. Your concern is touching, though.

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

Are you serious? Their reactor is going to melt and poison the whole of japan and the currents and winds will carry it over to the US or East Asia.

The USA is not even able to keep a stable power grid and has outages of whole states and bigger quite regularly. Big power consumtion industries incl. TV stations have been asked to go offline on a regular basis.

If a reactor is going to melt in your backyard we can talk about you beeing realistic asking your favourite game company to keep up the service so you get your daily kick.

PS: Don't give me that ***, I care about the game, this will affect the company revenues crap. If the servers are down they also don't generate any cost and i am sure a week or mroe will not affect the games in any way. You will be back like everyone else that is hooked.

[Kailea_Nagisa]

This game is not SEs only revenue you know -.- even if FFXI has to be down a month, if it will help the problem over there, then so be it. "Would Blizzard allow this" what a stupid question, its a DISASTER!......... normal does and don'ts are not applicable.

[Runespider]

I honestly dont think you do AT ALL. People have died our friends and family are unable to be contacted so yeah STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THE TIME FFXI IS DOWN

What does this have to do with it? The reasons they gave for the downtime was that the power companies have asked them to reduce power usage and nothing to do with what you are saying. If this is the case then they need to take action to bring the servers back up asap to minimise the damage to the company. All the nice talk and good feeling in the world won't fix their bottom line when they realise how much damage long time downtime will do to two titles they run.

If this means hosting the game on servers in another country or indeed their other offices then why not? Don't they have Square US, Square EU etc?

[Darkren]

What does this have to do with it? The reasons they gave for the downtime was that the power companies have asked them to reduce power usage and nothing to do with what you are saying. If this is the case then they need to take action to bring the servers back up asap to minimise the damage to the company. All the nice talk and good feeling in the world won't fix their bottom line when they realise how much damage long time downtime will do to two titles they run.

If this means hosting the game on servers in another country or indeed their other offices then why not? Don't they have Square US, Square EU etc?

This has all relavance, if you cant even have power for telecommunications, do you really think they give a damn about power for SE servers.
your original post seemed like you were more bothered about keeping your gaming addiction up, I really dont think you care about SE's financial losses.

[Lurea]

You do realize that the death toll is well over 10,000 and counting right? "A tide of up to 2,000 bodies washes up along the coast as millions struggle with quake's aftermath." is the current front page of most news pages. As important as the game being up may be the SE, I'm fairly certain that aside from saving power, these people need time to find and support their families, as well as grieve over the loss of their loved ones. You do not understand the situation clearly, so please stop offending the others that do.

"On the coastline of Miyagi prefecture, which took the full force of the tsunami, a Japanese police official said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across the coastline. Kyodo, the Japanese news agency, reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi."


SO let me ask you, if you and your family had 2,000 bodies washing up into your back yard, would you have ANY mindset to play a game? Stop worrying about SE's finances, LET THEM do that. Have some heart and just wait it out like all of us are. It's much easier to wait for a game to come back up, than it is to find that your family and friends have died.
This is one of the worst natural disasters we have ever seen.

[Izzybella]

1) minimize
2) empathy please