Lack of SE Response to Lag

[Billie21]

More or less. You can test this yourself by pinging your servers IP address. Famfrit's IP is 199.91.189.39 - http://arrstatus.com/

Open your command prompt and type (without quotations) "tracert 199.91.189.39" and hit enter. Watch for asterisks and high latency values. You will have to run this multiple times as the bandwidth ebbs and flows. You should be able to tell if the issue is on Square (asterisks are after Montreal) or on the node/ISP/backbone (before the Montreal hop).

I've done tracert before. My latency always spikes (more than doubles) from the last hop before SE. Though the numbers aren't that high, tbh (nothing like the 200-300+ ms aussie players often describe).

10 46 ms 45 ms 45 ms be2283.ccr21.lpl01.atlas.cogentco.com [130.117.49.34]
11 116 ms 114 ms 115 ms be2384.ccr21.ymq02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.44.137]
12 117 ms 116 ms 116 ms 38.122.42.34
13 116 ms 172 ms 116 ms 192.34.76.10
14 117 ms 119 ms 116 ms 199.91.189.242
15 116 ms 116 ms 116 ms 199.91.189.39

Blizzard did what? Sign a service agreement with multiple ISP's for direct drops to the node over a pure fiber connection with their own racks where the ISP probably had the same thing done to a major node in the area? I'm pretty sure they did. I can't tell you 100% that they did, but if you can get me root access into their terminal(s) I can tell you.


I wouldn't call it an assumption, but rather a hypothesis. As I said before, though I don't work in the gaming industry, I do work as an IT admin and no matter what the end application is, data is data and infrastructure is typically universal. I try to put myself in the companies shoes and I have dealt with backbones and ISP's (they are difficult to deal with to say the least).

TATA isn't even a T1 backbone in the US. They are T3 at best. Have you asked your ISP for a re route? They may be more inclined to re route around a T3 since they normally don't pull a whole lot of weight.

I'm not invalidating your concerns, they are obvious to see. I just don't know what people expect Square to actually do. It's lose-lose for them:

1.) They can come out and say there is latency that is impacting performance but then people see them taking responsibility and demand THEY fix it (the average Joe who thinks of the internet as a singular entity) making them look bad and instigating bad press hurting sales and generating churn.

2.) They can say there is latency impacting performance and it looks like the issue lies with another company and to call them (their service contract may bar them from doing this and if they start pointing fingers without being 100% sure, they WILL be sued for libel).

3.) They can simply not say anything. Yeah, people will be upset and cause an uproar but at the end of the day, they are able to preserve their name as a business, not be held accountable for issues not their own, and avoid law suits.

Their admins in Montreal are probably taxed as it is and after the whole 3102/90000 thing I would imagine someone got the axe for that (not their fault, but someone's gotta be accountable for stuff like that). I also imagine that they are on the phone with their ISP/backbone/providers daily to try to route around or figure another solution (there really isn't one). Also remember that their admins are responsible for maintaining the integrity of their clusters, monitoring the hardware for changes/driver conflicts/temp overloads/etc. while running private server testing for future sprints, monitoring software stability and clearing VRAM cache (this one blows my mind. IF YOU HAVE MEMORY LEAKS THAT BAD, YOUR CODING NEEDS REWORK OR YOU HAVE BAD HARDWARE). They don't rent their racks either which means it's all on Square to manage and monitor their internal hardware/software and from what I recall, they aren't doing so hot financially and we all know that when times get even remotely tough for a company, they start the layoffs (especially for service/IT/Software/Engineering companies).

I'm just as irritated as you at the latency issues and that there is no visible movement, but I have experience in the field and I know that Square's hands are pretty much tied in the situation (from a maintenance and business standpoint) so I have to either VPN (which I do BOI > Vancouver > Montreal direct tunnels) or take it in stride and file bugs with the backbone/ISP till it gets fixed. Though I'm quoting your posts, my responses are more for general information and not directly contesting your points.

You're basically confirming I was right to unsub.


There is a difference between "can't" and "won't", a difference between "impossible" and "can't/won't afford".

Also, you can only speculate. I'm not saying you're incompetent (I wouldn't know), but the only one that could confirm this is SE.
When they reduced the position checks from 0.3 to 0.1 in specific dungeons, I was hopefull that they would be doing something in the future, and that's the only reason why I didn't unsub at the time. Since then, they have outragiously dodge the question, which is why I have unsubed after all. Just to illustrate how communication can actually make a difference between money flowing in or not.

Even if all you're saying is true, then they could(should) have designed the game accordingly, not basing difficulty solely on twitch reaction dodging-or-dying mechanisms that cannot tolerate the slightest delay.


Again, customers aren't all IT techs. They don't want to have to tweak their PC, call their ISP, beg for favors or pay additional services to be able to play. If the game doesn't work, they stop paying. Or if they like it enough, they complain. Then stop paying when they are ignored/ridiculed (I'm still talking about SE, not other players... again, communication can do wonders).

Maybe it's finacially more interesting for SE to ignore this problem, as you are guessing (I had guessed as much when Yoshida started dodging the question when interviewed).
I just wish it didn't make me feel cheated and wishing I hadn't given my money to people who just weren't interested (financially or otherwise) in delivering.

If they are actually trying to negociate with other companies, improving their network, or whatever else (even just investigating, even if they aren't sure they will be able to do anything), saying so to the players might have been a good move. Personally, I'd have keep my sub running, and bid my time if that was the case. I like this game as much.
That's actually what I did before Yoshida started saying they couldn't design hard content for 3 digit latency. That's a great example of terrible communication.

Btw, I thank you for keeping a cool head and trying to be constructive.