Temporarily shutting the servers down until 2.0 is NOT a good idea!

[Rhianu]

I keep seeing a lot of people saying that temporarily shutting the servers down would be a good idea, but in truth it's really not a good idea at all. It seems that a lot of people are under the impression that the development team could somehow work faster if the servers were turned off, but that makes absolutely no sense because the speed at which the devs work has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the power switch on the server boxes is flipped on or off. Flipping a power switch doesn't magically make people work faster.

Plus, shutting the servers down until version 2.0 is released would cause SE would lose out on the constant stream of feedback from the playerbase. If they keep the servers online and operational, then players can maintain an active role in the development of the game going forward. That wouldn't be possible if SE took the game offline and continued development out of the public eye.

About the only good thing that could possibly be accomplished by shutting down the servers is that SE would save a bit of money on their electric and internet bills each month, which really isn't worth it, especially when you take into account just how valuable a continual feedback loop from the playerbase is.

[smokymcweed]

WELL PUT PLAYER FEEDBACK IS CRITICAL TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

[Shneibel]

when ppl dont want to pay, they ask for some selfish idea arent they ?

[yukikaze_yanagi]

shutting down servers wasn't a good idea 1 year ago, why should be viable now the game it's at least playable ?

[Tsukino]

It's far more work to keep servers running and push out patches that are compatible with the current client and server structure than it is to just work on in-house builds that can be revised as often as necessary. Even if some members are devoted to either 2.0 or the current stuff, most of the senior staff must be involved in both. Every time Matsui has to oversee something altered in the battle system for the game it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0. Every time Yoshida communicates with us about whatever we're currently whining about or has to go organize information to present to us it takes time away from his involvement with 2.0.

There is no way it wouldn't be faster without having to deal with a live game at the same time. Only the amount of difference is debatable. What you're saying, about the idea that the game wouldn't be as good without player feedback, has nothing to do with speed and efficiency.

That said, I don't think they should shut it down now either. I thought they should shut it down when the new team was announced though, and I still think they should have done that.

[Ayaseth]

I don't think shutting it down now is a good idea, but not because of development reasoning..more so because it will just irritate a vast number of people who bought the game and the people keeping an eye on it. Shutting it down now to fix it faster would have only worked back in beta when people complained about the problems.

Its like APB..the game was broken, it closed...it was brought back later, but most people failed to care. People don't like spending money to not play something >_<

[Jennestia]

WELL PUT PLAYER FEEDBACK IS CRITICAL TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

Not always, it's both good and bad because as a whole players don't think about a game for long term, just what they want and then.

[Catapult]

Guys, this is a good idea and the reason is a no-brainer.

They are moving to completely new server hardware and operating engines.

These new servers will not be set up in the same way as the old ones, with different servers having responsibility for storing and processing different types of information to what the current ones do. Information transfers may be fiddelly and require far more than a few hours time to process. That, and they'll then want to make sure everything is working properly so it doesn't continuously crash once we're all back in.

In order to make sure that character account data is properly imported, it needs to not be changing while it is being transferred. This is not about reducing power consumption due to power plant being shut down. To put it short, no one can be playing the game while this is underway, or the data can easily become corrupted.

Do you want your character data to be corrupted?

[Hanemakikaze]

Best idea would be to have us alpha/beta test the "new" game with our characters until it's tweaked and ready for launch and not have another fiasco like when FFXIV launched last year. I feel it's kind of pointless(in my opinion) to be playing this when they are totally redoing everything into literally a brand new game. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for that just for the first month to see how it is.

[Catapult]

Best idea would be to have us alpha/beta test the "new" game with our characters until it's tweaked and ready for launch and not have another fiasco like when FFXIV launched last year. I feel it's kind of pointless(in my opinion) to be playing this when they are totally redoing everything into literally a brand new game. I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for that just for the first month to see how it is.

Which they are doing.

Reinstatement of the free trial period along with the new client and server system and beta-test of the PS3 version. Then followed by the re-launch in stores.