FFXIV ARR is 3 this year, Server upgrades?

[Kosmos992k]

Servers dont generally get updated like home computers do.

That'll come as news to the infrastructure guys where I work since servers have a life-cycle just as desktops do.

Most of the "server/memory" limitations you hear about are not actual server HARDWARE limitations, but SOFTWARE limitations. or Client side limitations, as in, our minimum spec can't handle more than what we have, so we can't add this, that, and the other or that player would no longer be able to play without a pc upgrade

Almost every time limitations come up, with regard to player character data, the biggest limitation mentioned is always the ability to write back a complete copy of the live character data to the database every 15 seconds. The memory budget is tight both to keep client side requirements lower, but also to keep the data below a critical threshhold that prevents the constant backup of character data.

**snip**
Also, SE's side of things, and the datacenter where the servers reside are not where we see networking difficulty, but the ISP that controllers the backbone in the Montreal area. SE upgrading the networking they have in the datacenter would do nothing to relieve the dropped packets by the network infrastructure outside their control.

The biggest networking issue SE has with Level 3 is not bandwidth it's latency. Upgrading their internal backbone for the servers dioes have an impact, but it won't help latency as long as Level 3 are out to lunch.