Servers are Down

[ApplePie]

Nobody is saying that at this instant SE should completely forget about their friends or family members during this crisis. Players are just suggesting that they come up with a plan after this crisis is at a point where people are going back to work and continuing with their daily lives to look into the possibility of back-up servers in other locations. Nobody is saying they should have server in South America or in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Possibly looking into putting remote servers in a country like Hong Kong or Singapore. To also imply that SE doesn't have the capital available to have at least one server farm in another country is inaccurate. SE can learn from this crisis just as others who are greatly effected by this crisis that they don't have to go at this alone. If another crisis, God forbid, like this were to happen and they had another server location in another country, SE would not have to worry about their servers to decide to have to shut the servers down, allow the remote access workers at the other server locations to initiate an emergency maintenance to allow for the other server locations to pick up the game. It isn't just a smart business practice, but it is a logical business practice. Nobody claiming they should have other servers is personally attacking anybody that is having a hardship at this current time in Japan. Yes, saying this now so soon after an incident is slightly less tactful than after the servers are back up, but nonetheless, it is just as tactless for you to personally attack that person.

I hope everyone in Japan who is missing is found and all those who are killed will rest peacefully knowing that the loved ones they left behind care about them and will always have them in their thoughts and prayers. We respect the decisions of SE, because we cannot make these difficult decisions at this very difficult time. I hope everyone will survive the aftershocks that continually assault Japan. Please be safe everyone!

[Discordia]

You guys misunderstood what was said. Large companies should always have a contingency plan with multiple locations ready to go. I am a programmer and server/database administrator and I have had to setup many companies with these type of fail over/backup plans. It doesn't cost that much for servers to have a fail over or even both in production at the same time and fails over if 1 place goes down.

This goes to the saying...
Don't put all your eggs in 1 basket.

SE did just that, put all their companies servers in 1 location and if that goes down, so does the company.

I am not mad about the server downtime, I may find another game to play in the meantime and then I wouldn't have to look back. I'm just clearly pointing out that here is another fault in the company. Failing to plan for disasters (whatever type it might be).

Who cares about that? I'm sure if something disastrous happened to you and you lost both of your parents, gaming would be the last thing on your mind.

Grow up.

[Discordia]

Nobody is saying that at this instant SE should completely forget about their friends or family members during this crisis. Players are just suggesting that they come up with a plan after this crisis is at a point where people are going back to work and continuing with their daily lives to look into the possibility of back-up servers in other locations. Nobody is saying they should have server in South America or in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Possibly looking into putting remote servers in a country like Hong Kong or Singapore.

You realize how much that would cost, right? Even after Blizzard had 5 million active accounts they were still on the edge about opening up another data center in Seattle. That's 5 MILLION USERS. FFXI is less than 5% of that and FFXIV probably about the same. You expect SE to bleed out just to put out a contingency for a few thousands of players in case of emergency?

Everyone, just go somewhere else and rethink life priorities. Go and seek out a loved one and give them a hug. God knows when you'll end up in some bus accident or earthquake. Life is too short to be hung up on an online game.

[Xzen]

You realize how much that would cost, right? Even after Blizzard had 5 million active accounts they were still on the edge about opening up another data center in Seattle. That's 5 MILLION USERS. FFXI is less than 5% of that and FFXIV probably about the same. You expect SE to bleed out just to put out a contingency for a few thousands of players in case of emergency?

Everyone, just go somewhere else and rethink life priorities. Go and seek out a loved one and give them a hug. God knows when you'll end up in some bus accident or earthquake. Life is too short to be hung up on an online game.

This kind of redundancy is common place and relatively inexpensive. I don't think anyones priorities should be called into question here. People can and will talk about what ever they want. Just because some one suggests a remote back up does not mean they don't care about the horrible tragedy unfolding in Japan right now.

[Ouka_Ranbu]

Talk about being tactless....
Basically what people are saying is "I'm sorry you were hit by Earthquake and you did right thing by shutting down server hope you recover soon. By the way... just in case next time major disaster hits... you should have back up server and don't shut down server for other people who aren't affected by major disaster and still wants to play while feeling sorry for your nation" is basically what being said.

ok....
1) Where would you put the server? China (had major earthquakes in recent years), Korea (Too close to japan), California (The magnitude of earthquake is so serious parts of california suffered Tsunami), South America (yep hit by Earthquake recently not to mention other drug/political issues). I guess that leaves Europe where there is never a riot or any major disasters! (yes I'm being sarcastic)

2) Contingencie plans? There aren't any contingenies that can deal with type of disaster that hit Japan. The magnitude is so freaking serious that Hawaii, Korea, South America, and Western US coast is affected.

3) This is game forum and we should be able to talk about other gaming related issues: Of course I agree with that but don't be tactless and bitch about forced emergency decision caused by unforseen event.

I fear that FFXIV will be taking major hit from earthquake and forced server shutdown, but I don't think it's time nor right thread to talk about some back up servers in some off place

[Chezen]

Shutting down the servers is the right thing to do, even if it wasn't required. Let's please be united in this FF fans, and consider this our moment of silence for the victims.

[Xzen]

Shutting down the servers is the right thing to do, even if it wasn't required. Let's please be united in this FF fans, and consider this our moment of silence for the victims.

Lets post this in all the threads!

[Abriael]

Also you need to look at the fact that because they might have servers in another location/country does not mean they will sit idle and do absolutely nothing waiting for this disaster. They should have them deployed and used the whole time operating in 2 or more locations at the same time. Also there would have to be nightly or scheduled data backups across locations to each location this way if 1 place goes down for ANY reason, not just earthquakes, but could be simply the data center goes down for any unknown reason.

Sorry but no. The more you post, the more you demonstrate how this kind of things work.
Do you think SE doesn't have scheduled data backups? of course they do. But Backupped data still needs to be transferred and installed to the alternate location, and this is NOT as elementary as you try to make it sound.
Also, if servers operated in two locations at a time, they would still have to split the worlds between locations. This means that even if they had two locations, half of the game population would see their servers shut down, which is a scenario that's even worse than the current one "why they can play and I can't!" I can already hear the whines and tantrums.
They cannot operate all the game worlds on half the servers without a major server architecture overhaul that would probably take weeks.

How many servers/locations do you think Google, Microsoft, WoW or any other successful gaming company has? I know google has servers everywhere in the world... Tell me why they would do something so stupid? Because they understand that the internet is an uncontrollable and the more locations you have, the more control over 1 or more failed locations.

You're comparing apples to oranges. First of all WoW doesn't have "backup" server locations. Not even one. They have servers located in different facilities (and they aren't scattered around the world lol, servers that serve the same region are still located in the same general area, simply because of ease of operation, and this means that would be all involved in a possible disaster situation) are so just because they have so many server clusters that they simply don't fit in a single facility.

It has nothing to do with "backups". As for google or microsoft, they don't run MMORPGs. Their servers don't rely on complex and sensitive character data, and their users won't even notice if the status of google search is rolled back a few days.

Apples and oranges are different things. Comparing them isn't smart.

Again, I could care less if the game is running, just pointing out a major flaw in their business process.

No, you're pointing out a flaw that you perceive due to your lack of knowledge (or oversimplified idea) about the ins and outs of the operation of a MMORPG.

And to the one who said they don't have a staff in another country, have you heard of remote access? You can SSH/SFTP or anything else across the internet and control everything somewhere else.

Servers, especially complex server clusters like MMORPG ones can operated remotely only for SOME functions. They still need on-site maintenance and surveillance. Again, lack of any kind of knowledge on the subject shows.

Another benefit to multiple locations is that clients whom are closer to one of those locations can get reduced ping times better game play, and possibly less lag.

Which causes fragmentation of the community. Many people play final fantasy games especially because they enjoy the truly international nature of the server. The "benefit" you posted (that normally is negligible for non-twitchy games), comes with the loss of another benefit.

[Paksenarrion]

I cannot believe some of the stuff I'm reading.....

Are certain people on FFXIV really saying there should be servers elsewhere IN CASE of natural disasters? So people can continue playing if one area is badly effected? Unbelievable. This might sound shocking, but there is more to life than gaming.

Have some compassion for fellow humans instead of worrying about how little gaming you get to do during the week.

[Chezen]

[Removed inflammatory quote]

Florida isn't host to world-wide game servers, the residents did have more than a 15 minute warning, and the whole country did respond, along with condolences around the world. More countries would probably have chipped in to help if the US had needed it.

I'm not mad at people for going on about their lives either, but in this case, a company needs to shut down to help their people. There's no reason to be anything but understanding of that.