Temporarily shutting the servers down until 2.0 is NOT a good idea!

I keep seeing a lot of people saying that temporarily shutting the servers down would be a good idea, but in truth it's really not a good idea at all. It seems that a lot of people are under the impression that the development team could somehow work faster if the servers were turned off, but that makes absolutely no sense because the speed at which the devs work has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the power switch on the server boxes is flipped on or off. Flipping a power switch doesn't magically make people work faster.

Plus, shutting the servers down until version 2.0 is released would cause SE would lose out on the constant stream of feedback from the playerbase. If they keep the servers online and operational, then players can maintain an active role in the development of the game going forward. That wouldn't be possible if SE took the game offline and continued development out of the public eye.

About the only good thing that could possibly be accomplished by shutting down the servers is that SE would save a bit of money on their electric and internet bills each month, which really isn't worth it, especially when you take into account just how valuable a continual feedback loop from the playerbase is.

WELL PUT PLAYER FEEDBACK IS CRITICAL TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

when ppl dont want to pay, they ask for some selfish idea arent they ?

shutting down servers wasn't a good idea 1 year ago, why should be viable now the game it's at least playable ?

It's far more work to keep servers running and push out patches that are compatible with the current client and server structure than it is to just work on in-house builds that can be revised as often as necessary. Even if some members are devoted to either 2.0 or the current stuff, most of the senior staff must be involved in both. Every time Matsui has to oversee something altered in the battle system for the game it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0. Every time Yoshida communicates with us about whatever we're currently whining about or has to go organize information to present to us it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0.

There is no way it wouldn't be faster without having to deal with a live game at the same time. Only the amount of difference is debatable. What you're saying, about the idea that the game wouldn't be as good without player feedback, has nothing to do with speed and efficiency.

That said, I don't think they should shut it down now either. I thought they should shut it down when the new team was announced though, and I still think they should have done that.

I don't think shutting it down now is a good idea, but not because of development reasoning..more so because it will just irritate a vast number of people who bought the game and the people keeping an eye on it. Shutting it down now to fix it faster would have only worked back in beta when people complained about the problems.

Its like APB..the game was broken, it closed...it was brought back later, but most people failed to care. People don't like spending money to not play something >_<

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Originally Posted by smokymcweed

WELL PUT PLAYER FEEDBACK IS CRITICAL TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

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Not always, it's both good and bad because as a whole players don't think about a game for long term, just what they want and then.

Guys, this is a good idea and the reason is a no-brainer.

They are moving to completely new server hardware and operating engines.

These new servers will not be set up in the same way as the old ones, with different servers having responsibility for storing and processing different types of information to what the current ones do. Information transfers may be fiddelly and require far more than a few hours time to process. That, and they'll then want to make sure everything is working properly so it doesn't continuously crash once we're all back in.

In order to make sure that character account data is properly imported, it needs to not be changing while it is being transferred. This is not about reducing power consumption due to power plant being shut down. To put it short, no one can be playing the game while this is underway, or the data can easily become corrupted.

Do you want your character data to be corrupted?

Best idea would be to have us alpha/beta test the "new" game with our characters until it's tweaked and ready for launch and not have another fiasco like when FFXIV launched last year. I feel it's kind of pointless(in my opinion) to be playing this when they are totally redoing everything into literally a brand new game. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for that just for the first month to see how it is.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

Best idea would be to have us alpha/beta test the "new" game with our characters until it's tweaked and ready for launch and not have another fiasco like when FFXIV launched last year. I feel it's kind of pointless(in my opinion) to be playing this when they are totally redoing everything into literally a brand new game. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for that just for the first month to see how it is.

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Which they are doing.

Reinstatement of the free trial period along with the new client and server system and beta-test of the PS3 version. Then followed by the re-launch in stores.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

To put it short, no one can be playing the game while this is underway, or the data can easily become corrupted.

Do you want your character data to be corrupted?

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This process won't be taking place until around next year this time. Playing during the time up to that won't harm data.

Rest assured when the day/week whatever comes and they start actually moving the data over, we won't be playing lol..they'll take the servers down at that time.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Do you want your character data to be corrupted?

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Of course not. But then again, if you're suggesting that SE cannot transfer the player data to the new servers without corrupting it, I'm going to have to disagree.

Do you think SE is incapable of handling data transfer?

**EDIT** Incidentally, they're going to have to transfer our data over to 2.0 whether they shut the servers down or not. So shutting the servers down won't change anything in this regard.

If you do think that all our player data is going to be accidentally lost upon transfer to 2.0, then yes, that would be a valid reason to shut down the servers until 2.0. I just think there's virtually zero chance that that's going to happen.

And there's another problem with shutting the servers down. If they shut the servers down, the current players are probably not going to sit around, twiddling their thumbs for a year. They're going to go out and play different games, spending a year investing their time and effort developing characters in those games. That's going to make it more difficult to get those players back.

There's an adage in business: "The best way to get a customer is to keep a customer." In other words, it's easier to keep the customers you have than to get new ones. If they shut the servers down, it's going to be more difficult to build the player base from zero, than it will be to build the player base from whatever remains through the reconstruction.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino

It's far more work to keep servers running and push out patches that are compatible with the current client and server structure than it is to just work on in-house builds that can be revised as often as necessary. Even if some members are devoted to either 2.0 or the current stuff, most of the senior staff must be involved in both. Every time Matsui has to oversee something altered in the battle system for the game it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0. Every time Yoshida communicates with us about whatever we're currently whining about or has to go organize information to present to us it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0.

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Uh... you act like working on 2.0 and and communicating with players are two different tasks. They're not. Communicating with players is part of developing FFXIV 2.0. If Matsui has to oversee something altered in the battle system, it's not taking away from his time spent on 2.0, it's working towards the eventual implementation of 2.0. The new 2.0 version isn't something that's totally different from the patches that SE is working on right now. Everything SE is currently doing, and I mean everything, is all paving the way for version 2.0 in one way or another.

SE isn't going to be totally changing the direction of FFXIV in the 2.0 version update. They already changed the direction of the game back when the original dev team was replaced a year ago. FFXIV 2.0 is simply going to be a culmination of all the patches we've seen over the past year, and will continue to see in the months to come.

When the 2.0 update finally arrives, FFXIV is likely going to be a very different game than it is now, but that difference will not be the result of one single patch. Rather, it will be a culmination of every patch up until that point. Thus every single patch from now until then is part of FFXIV 2.0.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Guys, this is a good idea and the reason is a no-brainer.

They are moving to completely new server hardware and operating engines.

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Yeah, and that transfer process will take maybe a day to complete, if that. Or at least that's about how long I estimate the servers will have to be down for when they change over. Maybe two days if there are unforeseen technical difficulties.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

Best idea would be to have us alpha/beta test the "new" game with our characters until it's tweaked and ready for launch and not have another fiasco like when FFXIV launched last year. I feel it's kind of pointless(in my opinion) to be playing this when they are totally redoing everything into literally a brand new game. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for that just for the first month to see how it is.

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you will be alpha/beta testing, and you will have to pay to do so.

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Originally Posted by Lavani

you will be alpha/beta testing, and you will have to pay to do so.

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How do you quote me & completely miss what I'm saying? We are not testing a thing right now, nor when we start paying. I'm saying we should be testing 2.0 starting the payment cycle, you know the actual "new" game, not the current one that's being scrapped within a few months which has no real effect at all how the new version will turn out.

The thing is, it's not a "brand new game" it's the same game with things fixed, haven't you seen the timeline of changes?

http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/dow...Roadmap_EN.pdf

The whole world change and class "changed playstyles" thing has been done (read WoW Cataclysm). So yes, it will be the same game with patches and feedback from players pre-2.0.

Oh boy, reality check time, buddy.

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Originally Posted by VydarrTyr

Of course not. But then again, if you're suggesting that SE cannot transfer the player data to the new servers without corrupting it, I'm going to have to disagree.

Do you think SE is incapable of handling data transfer?

**EDIT** Incidentally, they're going to have to transfer our data over to 2.0 whether they shut the servers down or not. So shutting the servers down won't change anything in this regard.

If you do think that all our player data is going to be accidentally lost upon transfer to 2.0, then yes, that would be a valid reason to shut down the servers until 2.0. I just think there's virtually zero chance that that's going to happen.

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When you copy and paste data on your own computer, altering that data while it is being copy/pasted corrupts the data. This is why computers have a fail-safe prohibition against altering data in transit. Saving files 101.
If people were still updating their character data as SE were trying to move it, all sorts of problems would arise, most notably the existence of partial roll-backs. Utter chaos I tell you.

Hence why I believe them competent, as they are shutting the servers down to do this.

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Originally Posted by VydarrTyr

And there's another problem with shutting the servers down. If they shut the servers down, the current players are probably not going to sit around, twiddling their thumbs for a year. They're going to go out and play different games, spending a year investing their time and effort developing characters in those games. That's going to make it more difficult to get those players back...

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What on earth makes you think the servers are going down entirely for the next year? O_o

They have made it quite clear that the current system will continue to be updated and reviewed as it is the working model off which all version 2.0 content is based. Monitoring and amendments to the version 1 system will allow better development on the version 2 system.

Then when everything gets replaced by version 2.0 servers and engines, things will go down for a few days, maybe a week tops, to do the final copy/paste of current character and progression data into the new servers that have been prepared for this over the prior 18 months.

You're not being booted off the game right now. Heck, they're going to be charging us as of next month - they're not about to take the game away from us as well.

Uh yeah, it is a brand new game. If you think a complete reconstruction of an entire game is just "fixing" well, I guess that is a personal problem but unfortunately that is not the case. They have basically scrapped everything from the old, it is without a doubt a new game.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Which they are doing.

Reinstatement of the free trial period along with the new client and server system and beta-test of the PS3 version. Then followed by the re-launch in stores.

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Charging people for beta / alpha access seems, dubious, at best. Which is what they ARE doing.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

Uh yeah, it is a brand new game. If you think a complete reconstruction of an entire game is just "fixing" well, I guess that is a personal problem but unfortunately that is not the case. They have basically scrapped everything from the old, it is without a doubt a new game.

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By that definition the recent scrap they did not long ago would qualify it as a new game, which it's not.

Allow me to put it in layman's terms.

The Version 2.0 migration is the "sever problem fixes" they have been talking about for so long.

Putting 1 and 1 together...

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Originally Posted by Lavani

The whole world change and class "changed playstyles" thing has been done (read WoW Cataclysm). So yes, it will be the same game with patches and feedback from players pre-2.0.

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Cataclysm? Have you actually played that? Hardly ANYTHING was changed, a few of the areas had insignificant landscape changes, no play style was changed, not one. A few classes got a nerf, thats not "changing a playstyle" and I'm telling you this from playing experience. 2.0 FFXIV =/= Cataclysm, so that argument isn't even valid.

Lol I completed all of cataclysm. And as far as world change this game has about as many zones that cataclysm changed/introduced, if not less. The play style did change however little for most classes, healers mana, hunters focus etc. The class playstyle changes coming to FF14 will not be much more dramatic. I know this isn't cataclysm but it's a comparison that proves my point because although those changes were made to WoW, it didn't change the fact that it's WoW. Same will happen with FF14 and i do hope it's for the best. So come P2P ill leave, and come back with a trial for 2.0, if it's fun and worthwhile i may stay. :D

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Originally Posted by Lavani

The thing is, it's not a "brand new game" it's the same game with things fixed, haven't you seen the timeline of changes?

http://wdl.square-enix.com/ffxiv/dow...Roadmap_EN.pdf

The whole world change and class "changed playstyles" thing has been done (read WoW Cataclysm). So yes, it will be the same game with patches and feedback from players pre-2.0.

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I actually "Read: World of Balance/World of Ruin" when I thought of the world change.

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Originally Posted by Lavani

By that definition the recent scrap they did not long ago would qualify it as a new game, which it's not.

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Overhauling the battle system is hardly enough to call it a new game...

Changing EVERYTHING in the game and start from scratch though sure is!

PS: I won't play FFXIV 2.0 as well, as I stopped playing FFXIV around 3 months ago...my RL doesn't give me the chance to play and have any decent progress w/o my RL suffering, so my choice is clear...

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Originally Posted by Lavani

Lol I completed all of cataclysm. And as far as world change this game has about as many zones that cataclysm changed/introduced, if not less. The play style did change however little for most classes, healers mana, hunters focus etc. The class playstyle changes coming to FF14 will not be much more dramatic. I know this isn't cataclysm but it's a comparison that proves my point because although those changes were made to WoW, it didn't change the fact that it's WoW. Same will happen with FF14 and i do hope it's for the best. So come P2P ill leave, and come back with a trial for 2.0, if it's fun and worthwhile i may stay. :D

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Already stated the only changes to classes in cataclysm were nerfs. And claiming you completed cataclysm doesn't really hold much water so pretty pointless to state, and it's not the "playstyle changes" come 2.0 I'm talking about, it's the rest of game so I don't even know what point you're trying to prove. So yeah, I guess this entire argument about playstyle is pointless in itself so I'm done.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

Cataclysm? Have you actually played that

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Originally Posted by Lavni

Lol I completed all of cataclysm.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

And claiming you completed cataclysm doesn't really hold much water so pretty pointless to state

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You doubted my knowledge of the game, I know about it and i'm sure you do too.

The thing is the rest of the game isn't "Changing" they are simply fixing and adding to it.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

How do you quote me & completely miss what I'm saying? We are not testing a thing right now, nor when we start paying. I'm saying we should be testing 2.0 starting the payment cycle, you know the actual "new" game, not the current one that's being scrapped within a few months which has no real effect at all how the new version will turn out.

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The current version isn't being scrapped. All the improvements and additions that SE has made since launch are all going to be kept in the game, as will all of the currently existing content and jobs. SE isn't throwing away everything they've worked on since launch. Version 2.0 is simply going to be the culmination of all the updates and changes they've made over a period of two years.

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Originally Posted by Hanemakikaze

Cataclysm? Have you actually played that? Hardly ANYTHING was changed, a few of the areas had insignificant landscape changes, no play style was changed, not one.

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LOLWUT?

Cataclysm made HUGE changes to WoW. Denying that is just foolish and ignorant.

Topic - Indeed, it may have been a good time a year ago to just shut down the servers until they got something going like now; though now with us where we are now, it is entirely unintuitive to do so. Best thing SE can do is to move forward now.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Oh boy, reality check time, buddy.


When you copy and paste data on your own computer, altering that data while it is being copy/pasted corrupts the data. This is why computers have a fail-safe prohibition against altering data in transit. Saving files 101.
If people were still updating their character data as SE were trying to move it, all sorts of problems would arise, most notably the existence of partial roll-backs. Utter chaos I tell you.

Hence why I believe them competent, as they are shutting the servers down to do this.



What on earth makes you think the servers are going down entirely for the next year? O_o

They have made it quite clear that the current system will continue to be updated and reviewed as it is the working model off which all version 2.0 content is based. Monitoring and amendments to the version 1 system will allow better development on the version 2 system.

Then when everything gets replaced by version 2.0 servers and engines, things will go down for a few days, maybe a week tops, to do the final copy/paste of current character and progression data into the new servers that have been prepared for this over the prior 18 months.

You're not being booted off the game right now. Heck, they're going to be charging us as of next month - they're not about to take the game away from us as well.

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There's some confusion going on, and the problem is that in your original post that you seemingly addressed the OP, it's apparent that you missed what the OP was talking about which is servers being taken offline for several months as some people claim would have been a good thing on SE's part.

As long as my character doesn't get deleted, I could care less whether or not the servers are shut down for awhile. It'll spare me the grief of enduring the constant bombardment from relentless trolls for awhile, for what that's worth.

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

The current version isn't being scrapped. All the improvements and additions that SE has made since launch are all going to be kept in the game, as will all of the currently existing content and jobs. SE isn't throwing away everything they've worked on since launch. Version 2.0 is simply going to be the culmination of all the updates and changes they've made over a period of two years.


LOLWUT?

Cataclysm made HUGE changes to WoW. Denying that is just foolish and ignorant.

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Right, just because it's labeled update cancels out the fact that it's going to be a completely different game that's not even close to what it is now come 2.0. Oh, and if we want to get technical about them not scrapping their "hard work", phyical levels- scraped, SP system- scraped, custom gear- in process of being scraped, 2.0 entire world-scraped, outside dungeons- scraped I could add more to the list but hey, I'm tired and lazy atm.

And cataclysm, huge changes? Don't make me laugh, they added some terrain, nerfed some classes, hell they even ruined the azeroth side by adding flying mounts there & added quests in a few old areas which were all very insignificant minus Thousand Needles(the one area with a huge noticeable change), nothing more than another generic expansion with little more imagination added. I will give them credit for the actual quests in the expansion areas, but other than that it was and still is a huge let down compared to lich king. Same boring ass game, same reskinned content with same crap community. But I can tell by that tone I shouldn't waste my time so I'll leave it at that.

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

I keep seeing a lot of people saying that temporarily shutting the servers down would be a good idea, but in truth it's really not a good idea at all. It seems that a lot of people are under the impression that the development team could somehow work faster if the servers were turned off, but that makes absolutely no sense because the speed at which the devs work has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the power switch on the server boxes is flipped on or off. Flipping a power switch doesn't magically make people work faster.

Plus, shutting the servers down until version 2.0 is released would cause SE would lose out on the constant stream of feedback from the playerbase. If they keep the servers online and operational, then players can maintain an active role in the development of the game going forward. That wouldn't be possible if SE took the game offline and continued development out of the public eye.

About the only good thing that could possibly be accomplished by shutting down the servers is that SE would save a bit of money on their electric and internet bills each month, which really isn't worth it, especially when you take into account just how valuable a continual feedback loop from the playerbase is.

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Enabling subscriptions would limit the feedback they get too.

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Originally Posted by Rhianu

I keep seeing a lot of people saying that temporarily shutting the servers down would be a good idea, but in truth it's really not a good idea at all. It seems that a lot of people are under the impression that the development team could somehow work faster if the servers were turned off, but that makes absolutely no sense because the speed at which the devs work has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the power switch on the server boxes is flipped on or off. Flipping a power switch doesn't magically make people work faster.

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No, but supporting 1.0 would waste resources being put towards running player events, testing and issuing patches for the current client, maintaining player support services, and all of this effort could be thrown into releasing 2.0 faster. Also, being offline allows for more radical changes because you don't have to waste time easing existing players into them. And if they want player feedback, they could get it from the PS3 beta.

I'm not saying it's a good idea, but it does have merit. I think if they were going to do something like that, they've should have done so from the beginning.

They would never temporarily shut down the serves.

Honestly, I'm quite happy with where the game is and where the game is going. If you're not, then just get off the forums, stop playing the game, and go play Rift.

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Originally Posted by FilthyDisco

They would never temporarily shut down the serves.

Honestly, I'm quite happy with where the game is and where the game is going. If you're not, then just get off the forums, stop playing the game, and go play Rift.

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Agreed.
The game is good enough to pay for the way it is now.
SE is working hard to keep us all happy.

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Originally Posted by Catapult

Guys, this is a good idea and the reason is a no-brainer.

They are moving to completely new server hardware and operating engines.

These new servers will not be set up in the same way as the old ones, with different servers having responsibility for storing and processing different types of information to what the current ones do. Information transfers may be fiddelly and require far more than a few hours time to process. That, and they'll then want to make sure everything is working properly so it doesn't continuously crash once we're all back in.

In order to make sure that character account data is properly imported, it needs to not be changing while it is being transferred. This is not about reducing power consumption due to power plant being shut down. To put it short, no one can be playing the game while this is underway, or the data can easily become corrupted.

Do you want your character data to be corrupted?

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1. I miss understand the thread
2. you miss understand the thread

as I understand the OP was said about ppl ask for server shut down at december and work until 2.0 after server transfer and engine. Other wise, the server need to be shut down if they move to new server ofc it is obvious

Hmm well i remember that when EA transferred the Battlefield servers they were down for 1 day.
I can imagine the database is pretty big.
But could also be they will take a week or a few das to transfer world after world.
Prolly will have a new client and all so yeah.. Server related things can sometimes take time....
I know lol i hate it when i had to transfer my servers over..
It's not like billions of tasts but it's all little thingys that need to be done and they can take time.