@Devs: Please allow us to travel at will between servers.

[Alhanelem]

You didn't even know that this was already done (despite having been told, multiple times). I'd say this pretty much shows how much you know about this kind of techology.

Knowledge of games using a tech != knowledge of the tech itself. therefore, you're wrong in implying how much you think I know. I have studied networking in and out of college, so please stop making insulting statements when you don't know the actual facts.

I don't need to "resort" to fallacy, as your arguments are fallacious in themselves.

My arguments have not been fallicious. I have been making reasonable comparisons between similar situations. You branding them "different" doesn't take the similarities away. Saying one situation is just like the other is not the same as saying the situations are identical. It's a good thing I wasn't doing what you were describing.

No, I'm talking about the software. And if Square Enix (or any other MMORPG developer) didn't design their systems to be modular, then they are incompetent (and I doubt they are), because you never know how successful your game can be, and you always should prepare in advance for a possible surge in playerbase.

Server software doesn't have to be modular to prepare for a possible surge in playerbase. If there is a surge of playerbase, you simply open more servers and offer server transfers to balance the population. Every server based game has done this for years and years. If you want to call SE "incompetent," well, look at FFXI- they made that too, it's server based, and their code structure is obviously anything but modular given their approach to solving the game's issues. Yeah, its a slippery slope, but you've been using it too so why can't I?

[Abriael]

Knowledge of games using a tech != knowledge of the tech itself. therefore, you're wrong in implying how much you think I know. I have studied networking in and out of college, so please stop making insulting statements when you don't know the actual facts.

You demonstrated that you don't know how that technology is used, and if you don't have any idea on how technology is applied, your knowledge is evidently lacking, and you're not qualified to make a cost assessment on it, since you don't even know how this kind of system works.

This is further demonstrated by the fact that you ignore that the base of the system is already in place, since the servers are already designed for on-the-fly character and data transfer between themselves. Otherwise there would be not cross-server anything, and even less cross-server gameplay like the dungeon finder.

My arguments have not been fallicious. I have been making reasonable comparisons between similar situations. You branding them "different" doesn't take the similarities away. Saying one situation is just like the other is not the same as saying the situations are identical. It's a good thing I wasn't doing what you were describing.

The difference is that the situations are evidently different, as they imply a completely different level of effort from the users in question.

Making time to spend it with someone is not comparable with having to create (and level up) a whole new character or transfering servers (which also costs money) while abandoning your whole contact list.

Arguing differently is like arguing that going to see someone that lives in the same neighborhood is the same as going to visit someone that lives in a different nation, and pretty much the very definition of grasping at straws.

Server software doesn't have to be modular to prepare for a possible surge in playerbase. If there is a surge of playerbase, you simply open more servers and offer server transfers to balance the population. Every server based game has done this for years and years. If you want to call SE "incompetent," well, look at FFXI- they made that too, it's server based, and their code structure is obviously anything but modular given their approach to solving the game's issues. Yeah, its a slippery slope, but you've been using it too so why can't I?

No, I don't want to call SE incompetent (but I knew you would have tried to paint it that way), because i know that, like every other MMORPG developer out there, they design their servers systems so that they are modular, in order to facilitate expansion and evolution.

Doing it differently means not being able to react to unforeseen situations and to the trends of the market, which is a very bad idea.