Servers are Down

[Paksenarrion]

People. It's a game. It's made by Japanese and run by Japanese. Why should they have servers anywhere else other than in Japan? Just in case an earthquake occurs in Japan so non-Japanese people can continue playing?
Sure, maybe it's a good idea simply because it's a WORLD played MMO, but for any other reasons. (Like keeping the game running due to special circumstances, that's just ridiculous.)
I am not upset at all that the servers are down. There was an 8.9 earthquake, followed by tsunamis and numerous aftershocks. It is perfectly understandable the servers are down, and I would prefer all of the Japanese people, and FFXIV staff go somewhere safe, instead of continue working so people can continue playing a game.

[Geist]

People. It's a game. It's made by Japanese and run by Japanese. Why should they have servers anywhere else other than in Japan? Just in case an earthquake occurs in Japan so non-Japanese people can continue playing?
Sure, maybe it's a good idea simply because it's a WORLD played MMO, but for any other reasons. (Like keeping the game running due to special circumstances, that's just ridiculous.)

This, exactly. There's a limit to the amount and variety of contingencies you can devise, and more importantly, we're talking about an unprecedented calamity, a natural disaster.

It is perfectly understandable the servers are down, and I would prefer all of the Japanese people, and FFXIV staff go somewhere safe, instead of continue working so people can continue playing a game.

Seconded. The road ahead looks hard and winding enough as it is for them, let's pray for the best.

[Paksenarrion]

This, exactly. There's a limit to the amount and variety of contingencies you can devise, and more importantly, we're talking about an unprecedented calamity, a natural disaster.

Seconded. The road ahead looks hard and winding enough as it is for them, let's pray for the best.

Couldn't agree more.

[Griss]

Its a totally understandable and its frankly the correct call to make given the situation. while i will miss logging in for the short time the servers are down talking with my in game friends and having many misadventures along the way. i realise the issues facing the Japanese people are far greater then our leisure time.

Best wishes to all who were seriously affected by this disaster

[AuctionGirl]

You have to prepare for the worst if you make money with the internet. ISPs shut down for unknown reasons, maybe the data center loses power and now everything is down. This isn't only a plan against earthquakes, its a plan against unknown failures.

Also you need to look at the fact that because they might have servers in another location/country does not mean they will sit idle and do absolutely nothing waiting for this disaster. They should have them deployed and used the whole time operating in 2 or more locations at the same time. Also there would have to be nightly or scheduled data backups across locations to each location this way if 1 place goes down for ANY reason, not just earthquakes, but could be simply the data center goes down for any unknown reason.

How many servers/locations do you think Google, Microsoft, WoW or any other successful gaming company has? I know google has servers everywhere in the world... Tell me why they would do something so stupid? Because they understand that the internet is an uncontrollable and the more locations you have, the more control over 1 or more failed locations.

Please don't post if you are ignorant to how Companies setup/use multiple servers/locations in case of anything. Maybe after this issue, they might think about splitting their servers into multiple locations.

Again, I could care less if the game is running, just pointing out a major flaw in their business process.

And to the one who said they don't have a staff in another country, have you heard of remote access? You can SSH/SFTP or anything else across the internet and control everything somewhere else.

Another benefit to multiple locations is that clients whom are closer to one of those locations can get reduced ping times better game play, and possibly less lag.

Who buys OC3s anymore? This is old technology for phones/voice, Data plans are purchased 10mbit/100mbit/1000mbit increments. If any of you know in California USA, you can purchase 1000mbit or 1gigabit up/down bandwidth for under $20,000/mo. Yes OC3s are still being used today by ISPs and phone companies.

This will be my last post about this. Have fun with your week plus off, I hope all of you find another game you enjoy more than XIV during this downtime.

[Ava]

You have to prepare for the worst if you make money with the internet. ISPs shut down for unknown reasons, maybe the data center loses power and now everything is down. This isn't only a plan against earthquakes, its a plan against unknown failures.

Also you need to look at the fact that because they might have servers in another location/country does not mean they will sit idle and do absolutely nothing waiting for this disaster. They should have them deployed and used the whole time operating in 2 or more locations at the same time. Also there would have to be nightly or scheduled data backups across locations to each location this way if 1 place goes down for ANY reason, not just earthquakes, but could be simply the data center goes down for any unknown reason.

How many servers/locations do you think Google, Microsoft, WoW or any other successful gaming company has? I know google has servers everywhere in the world... Tell me why they would do something so stupid? Because they understand that the internet is an uncontrollable and the more locations you have, the more control over 1 or more failed locations.

Please don't post if you are ignorant to how Companies setup/use multiple servers/locations in case of anything. Maybe after this issue, they might think about splitting their servers into multiple locations.

Again, I could care less if the game is running, just pointing out a major flaw in their business process.

And to the one who said they don't have a staff in another country, have you heard of remote access? You can SSH/SFTP or anything else across the internet and control everything somewhere else.

Another benefit to multiple locations is that clients whom are closer to one of those locations can get reduced ping times better game play, and possibly less lag.

Who buys OC3s anymore? This is old technology for phones/voice, Data plans are purchased 10mbit/100mbit/1000mbit increments. If any of you know in California USA, you can purchase 1000mbit or 1gigabit up/down bandwidth for under $20,000/mo. Yes OC3s are still being used today by ISPs and phone companies.

This will be my last post about this. Have fun with your week plus off, I hope all of you find another game you enjoy more than XIV during this downtime.

How much money do you really think SE is making off the "internet" via FFXIV atm? For all we know when the game bombed they could have shut down their other server farms to save money. IIRC there was a pre release interview that stated they were using multiple international server farms, so idk.

[BOOMstick]

You have to prepare for the worst if you make money with the internet. ISPs shut down for unknown reasons, maybe the data center loses power and now everything is down. This isn't only a plan against earthquakes, its a plan against unknown failures.

. . . Blah Blah Blah . . .

This will be my last post about this. Have fun with your week plus off, I hope all of you find another game you enjoy more than XIV during this downtime.

My question to you is, in a thread that was started off with the intention of wishing the Japanese people well and a speedy & safe recovery . . . why exactly do you feel that you need to even start a discussion about SE's bad business model? While you may have a valid point, this is possibly the most inappropriate place and time to bring it up. Right now, the majority of the player base doesn't give a rat's ass about the game. They are concerned about their fellow human beings.

[Abriael]

Also you need to look at the fact that because they might have servers in another location/country does not mean they will sit idle and do absolutely nothing waiting for this disaster. They should have them deployed and used the whole time operating in 2 or more locations at the same time. Also there would have to be nightly or scheduled data backups across locations to each location this way if 1 place goes down for ANY reason, not just earthquakes, but could be simply the data center goes down for any unknown reason.

Sorry but no. The more you post, the more you demonstrate how this kind of things work.
Do you think SE doesn't have scheduled data backups? of course they do. But Backupped data still needs to be transferred and installed to the alternate location, and this is NOT as elementary as you try to make it sound.
Also, if servers operated in two locations at a time, they would still have to split the worlds between locations. This means that even if they had two locations, half of the game population would see their servers shut down, which is a scenario that's even worse than the current one "why they can play and I can't!" I can already hear the whines and tantrums.
They cannot operate all the game worlds on half the servers without a major server architecture overhaul that would probably take weeks.

How many servers/locations do you think Google, Microsoft, WoW or any other successful gaming company has? I know google has servers everywhere in the world... Tell me why they would do something so stupid? Because they understand that the internet is an uncontrollable and the more locations you have, the more control over 1 or more failed locations.

You're comparing apples to oranges. First of all WoW doesn't have "backup" server locations. Not even one. They have servers located in different facilities (and they aren't scattered around the world lol, servers that serve the same region are still located in the same general area, simply because of ease of operation, and this means that would be all involved in a possible disaster situation) are so just because they have so many server clusters that they simply don't fit in a single facility.

It has nothing to do with "backups". As for google or microsoft, they don't run MMORPGs. Their servers don't rely on complex and sensitive character data, and their users won't even notice if the status of google search is rolled back a few days.

Apples and oranges are different things. Comparing them isn't smart.

Again, I could care less if the game is running, just pointing out a major flaw in their business process.

No, you're pointing out a flaw that you perceive due to your lack of knowledge (or oversimplified idea) about the ins and outs of the operation of a MMORPG.

And to the one who said they don't have a staff in another country, have you heard of remote access? You can SSH/SFTP or anything else across the internet and control everything somewhere else.

Servers, especially complex server clusters like MMORPG ones can operated remotely only for SOME functions. They still need on-site maintenance and surveillance. Again, lack of any kind of knowledge on the subject shows.

Another benefit to multiple locations is that clients whom are closer to one of those locations can get reduced ping times better game play, and possibly less lag.

Which causes fragmentation of the community. Many people play final fantasy games especially because they enjoy the truly international nature of the server. The "benefit" you posted (that normally is negligible for non-twitchy games), comes with the loss of another benefit.

[cloverkitty]

Even if there are backup servers which i would not be surprised if there were at least for FFXI. The game is worldwide (unlike other games) all servers share across the world the same information live. If you take down 1 set of servers it would have an impact on the entire play world as an entire audience and some of the load balancing would be affected.

Even if it was possible to split the servers like that I would still be supportive of shutting down the world for a week or 2 if nothing else just out of support of Japan and respect to the players in Japan that would be missing out also as the world changes without them.

However as a company faced with 2 choices below, it is really a no brainer and if nothing else I would just do it out of support. The fact that on XI they will be not charging for April is very nice, although I kind of wish they allowed people to opt in for an April charge and donate and donate all that was collected to the Japanese that need it or services there that need it.
1. Keep and Support a Virtual World so that those not affected can play and risk increased power issues to a ravaged nation, as well as life and death just to keep this Virtual world afloat

2. Turn off the Virtual world, get the cities and towns and power up and running again, then turn it back on taking Real Life and Safety first and Virtual World second. <---- This one is the no brainer

[Ouka_Ranbu]

Too lazy to copy and paste some ignorant people's post and rebutt. People are dying (Earthquake isn't over) and still embracing for maginitude 7 aftershocks that they don't know when they are going to hit. Any power/water reserve that they can save should be reserved for those that are in dire need of help. Japan's main priority isn't whether or not You can play online game, their priority is to save people's live and reduce any more casualties. You think government isn't aware of the economic hardship that they are going to face by shutting down global company's income producing operations? Of course they are well aware of that, but right now it's more important to save people's lives and reduce casualties rather than worrying about off terriotry customer who looses few playing hours. Half of self defense force is mobilized to rescue works (news said 100,000) and US is sending air craft carrier, that's how dire the situation is. Stop bitching about your play time and pointing out business operation contingencies (which is method to reduce not prevent loss from unexpected event, and the event is unexpected as they can get) rather show some respect to those who just lost family, friend, and their entire livehood in blink of an eye.