Earthquake caused suspension? What is the motive?

[Jackson]

First off, I hope the situation in Japan gets better real fast. I have been monitoring the news and it seems like a complete disaster there.

My questions below are the result of my curiosity.

What is the motive behind the suspension?

I am curious if it is the power usage from the servers them self or the complete operation of the game is what SE wants to save. It seems like a huge trade off if it was just the power used by the servers and whatever air conditioning the server rooms have. The benefit probably comes from all the players that would stop playing. And that is a great thing for SE to be able to save so much power.

If this is the case, shouldn't the players have the freedom to choose?

If people are in such a bad shape, wouldn't the Japanese just not play anyway? In which case the other countries would continue giving the other players some kind of an advantage?

Would SE do the same if there was an earth quake in the US or some European country?

[origamikitsune]

Has has been answered in other threads, Japan is under mandatory rolling blackouts. The electric company has also requested that as much energy as possible be conserved so that it can be re-routed to northern japan in order to aide rescue teams, emergency services, keep hospitals and other critical services up and running. This has been done because an estimated 25%-50% of Japan's ability to produce power has been compromised. The Japanese power company is expecting a need for blackouts at least until April.

[Far]

its simple, there isnt enough power to go around for saving lives (like the use in hospitals and search & rescure efforts) so as being the kind hearted people they are, they shut down the servers to avoid taking energy away from places that need it more

[Laughlyn]

I dont mean to be rude, but who the hell choose games over life?

[Bebekurenai]

The reason behind this is the japanese electricity company asking to save the most energy so they can repair their installations while providing just the most necessary electricity to the country. It's not a question of play or not play, it's the energy provider who can't feed "useless" electricity at this moment.

[TonyMontana]

I dont mean to be rude, but who the hell choose games over life?

When I managed a retail store I had an employee die on the sales floor, as they were wheeling her dead body out we went to lock the stores door behind the paramedic and we had 2 customers wanting us to let them come in and pay their cell phone bill. There are a lot of selfish people in the world its not even shocking to me anymore.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

And would have known this if your watching the new > . >
I best all buinesses minus stores are closed for power. Unlike us a good part of japan is high tech, like above us. They have alot of indoor parks like indoor snow resort indoor beaches. SE is prob closed.

I seriously hope ppl are not thinking "oh we will get an update after this woot" chances are everyone is helping out with clean up and aide. Or mourning the loss of families.

not to get wierd.... cuz I was just wantching a romantic anime. but.....

yoshida would look cute/hot in work cloths help cleaning up ( i got weird tastes XD)

[Carpe]

Has has been answered in other threads, Japan is under mandatory rolling blackouts. The electric company has also requested that as much energy as possible be conserved so that it can be re-routed to northern japan in order to aide rescue teams, emergency services, keep hospitals and other critical services up and running. This has been done because an estimated 25%-50% of Japan's ability to produce power has been compromised. The Japanese power company is expecting a need for blackouts at least until April.

This. And you can probably expect the servers to be down for more than just a week.

[Neptune]

When I managed a retail store I had an employee die on the sales floor, as they were wheeling her dead body out we went to lock the stores door behind the paramedic and we had 2 customers wanting us to let them come in and pay their cell phone bill. There are a lot of selfish people in the world its not even shocking to me anymore.

wow. .

[Bebekurenai]

On a side note, how do you guys get your profile sig to be saved? I tried all codes and it won't allow url code, and others like html it just won't display them :/ Do you perhaps just save the image without being updated?