Serious SE? Really?!

[Sovereign]

Well how bout you help them out then genius?

Relax. I said I don't know how their system works and that I was guessing. Do you think having a stable MMO launch with a million players should be possible to do?

[inrainbows]

Well, while I don't claim to have any insight into how their infrastructure is setup, it would seem that most people aren't even getting into a queue to get into the server. To me, that means what whatever systems handle getting players into the queue isn't performant enough to handle traffic on this scale. Generally, that means you need to either find a way to optimize the system or expand it's hardware and networking spend. Just a guess though.

In any case, this shouldn't be an impossible problem to solve, and yet in the last 10 years no one has solved it. Every major million-player+ MMO launch has been a mess.

The problem isn't the technology or the knowledge of how to do it. It's simply that no company wants to spend millions of dollars on infrastructure that will only be useful for a few days a year at most. They weigh up the inconvenience to players versus the cost of the infrastructure needed to fix it and it's just nt worth it.

[Nabian]

Relax. I said I don't know how their system works and that I was guessing. Do you think having a stable MMO launch with a million players should be possible to do?

Actually I do think it is possible..not only that but it should be expected.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

via twitter about not being able to access certain worlds.


We're currently preparing measure to address this.

[Krylo]

In any case, this shouldn't be an impossible problem to solve

Well, as you said, hardware upgrades/expansions are the solution, but hardware upgrades that will only be necessary or useful for a few hours to a few weeks out of a multi-year run isn't a good way to spend money as a business. Which is why no MMO launches smoothly--it's not smart to spend a bunch of money on server infrastructure that you'll only be using for a few hours. Would you buy a condo in a new city because you're going on a business trip there for a week?

Same idea.

[Dree-Elle]

Whoop-de-damn-doo-doo. They should have prepared for this. 1014 and 2002 are now becoming my least favorite numbers. Like EVER.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

on the bright side the servers havent actually crashed. Its way better than it was in the past.

[Sovereign]

Well, as you said, hardware upgrades/expansions are the solution, but hardware upgrades that will only be necessary or useful for a few hours to a few weeks out of a multi-year run isn't a good way to spend money as a business. Which is why no MMO launches smoothly--it's not smart to spend a bunch of money on server infrastructure that you'll only be using for a few hours. Would you buy a condo in a new city because you're going on a business trip there for a week?

Same idea.

True. But I might rent one, and I think there are companies that allow you to lease either direct hardware or capacity in existing datacenters. I could be totally wrong of course, but given how annoying these errors are and how many people are impacted, I think there has to be some kind of reasonable solution.

[Rizon]

The problem isn't the technology or the knowledge of how to do it. It's simply that no company wants to spend millions of dollars on infrastructure that will only be useful for a few days a year at most. They weigh up the inconvenience to players versus the cost of the infrastructure needed to fix it and it's just nt worth it.

I do not know how it is for Japan but the NA/EU server farms are outsourced. Why couldn't SE rent additional lobby servers on a short term basis til things settled down? It's a lot cheaper then upsetting your player base.

[Taika]

You chose this exact time to 1. create a new character 2. on one of the already most popular servers in the game?