Snapshot of PF activity on North American data centers

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Originally Posted by Ryvick

I don't want to be "That guy" but not really sure what data on the Saturday right after a Major US holiday where the majority of people fly to relatives (most likely without any game access) really is supposed to be indicative of other than:

People enjoy cold turkey?

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Yes because clearly this is only a Thanksgiving thing.

God forbid someone shows evidence of their claim.

"It was Thanksgiving loooooool what are you trying to prove huh ????"

Talk about bad faith

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

Yes because clearly this is only a Thanksgiving thing.

God forbid someone shows evidence of their claim.

"It was Thanksgiving loooooool what are you trying to prove huh ????"

Talk about bad faith

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It isn't "bad faith" at all, the same point occurred to me.

Not only that, but we're currently still in the cloud server stress test period, so that could also affect the populations, and possibly to varying degrees.

So it's an interesting exercise, I would repeat it a few times, as it's been said- this is *one* snapshot in time, and compare the numbers, before drawing any conclusions.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

It isn't "bad faith" at all, the same point occurred to me.

Not only that, but we're currently still in the cloud server stress test period, so that could also affect the populations, and possibly to varying degrees.

So it's an interesting exercise, I would repeat it a few times, as it's been said- this is *one* snapshot in time, and compare the numbers, before drawing any conclusions.

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This complaint has been raised multiple times over the past several months, it's not just because of the holiday or the stress test. Even when Dyna was first created the difference in people going to Aether vs other DCs was noticeable. It's only proceeded to get worse.

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Originally Posted by EorzeaWanderer

As for my own conclusions/opinions...

1) We are seeing the logical and inevitable effect of players being able to move freely. In the absence of any technical constraints imposed by the game designer (SE), people are going to cluster together because they all benefit from doing so. It's easier to find groups, it's easier for DF to pop, etc. It's just easier to play the game when players cluster together.

2) As for *why* Aether became the de facto "place to play in NA", it doesn't really matter anymore. It's already happened.

3) We can see that Crystal and Primal, communities that were about equal to Aether prior to DC travel, have not been immune to this powerful pull to a single data center, which, unfortunately for them, has become Aether and not Crystal or Primal.

4) Crystal has more PF entries in "other", and indeed, unique player housing is something that one data center can offer that another can't.

5) One wonders what the purpose of being on Primal and Dynamis is at this time.

This is one shapshot in time, but I hope that SE is collecting and looking at this kind of data and thinking about what DC travel naturally does to the people who don't happen to be on the DC where people actually play content.

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With the Cloud server test, it seems to show there's an interest in other locations for DCs. If they were to move the DCs to other regions like East Coast or the Midwest, people would definitely swap over to a different DC for the lower ping to play.
The issue now is there is no difference between Dynamis/Primal and Crystal/Aether other than things that require home world like housing and retainers and island sanctuary, but if one DC had lower ping for people there would be a reason to stick around and try to make it work.

Maybe they should block travelers from creating party finder listings, but not from joining them until cross data center party finder is implemented.

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

This complaint has been raised multiple times over the past several months, it's not just because of the holiday or the stress test. Even when Dyna was first created the difference in people going to Aether vs other DCs was noticeable. It's only proceeded to get worse.

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I agree, Dynamis likely has its own specific concerns as the newest DC , however my comment was directed to the other DCs i.e. Crystal and primal and I would expect my logic to stand,. Once again, as I said- I would expect to repeat this test and see how the number are before drawing any conclusions.

I know this would be a nightmare to implement, but honestly a cross DC party/duty finder would basically mean problem solved for the most part.

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Originally Posted by IDontPetLalas

I agree, Dynamis likely has its own specific concerns as the newest DC , however my comment was directed to the other DCs i.e. Crystal and primal and I would expect my logic to stand,. Once again, as I said- I would expect to repeat this test and see how the number are before drawing any conclusions.

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The conclusions are already drawn, Crystal is the rp DC, Aether is the content DC, Primal is the middle ground and PVP.

Idk why you're coping saying we have to see multiple tests to draw conclusions, it's been happening since DC travel has existed, there is nothing more to see, there's months of data.

If you are tired of DC travel bs, just move to OCE. PF is active-ish (mainly 6am-1pm GMT), we speak english(-ish) and minimal competition for all types of housing.

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Originally Posted by Stormpeaks

The conclusions are already drawn, Crystal is the rp DC, Aether is the content DC, Primal is the middle ground and PVP.

Idk why you're coping saying we have to see multiple tests to draw conclusions, it's been happening since DC travel has existed, there is nothing more to see, there's months of data.

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Lol, it's hardly "coping" to point out that OP's conclusions were based on a single test. and if he wants to have more confidence, then the test should be repeated. No one is forcing him to do so though, Square should have all of that data.

That doesn't detract from the popular sentiment, as you pointed out, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that way either.