SE should get what they never had

[Xor]

I agree the servers being down and the reason for it doesnt change anything but our ability to get our gaming fix. It's funny that some people think that writing a program and the constructs of a video game are the same. well they are not, there is a reason it takes millions of dollars and hundred of program and graphics engineers years to make a playable MMO. If everyone on the planet used the exact same system and internet connection it would cut some of that time down but would require no less people to do it.

Changing any of the coding in the game has residual effects that cannot be predicted, usually why they run a test server separate from the main servers. A small code change can crash the entire server or cause something to work in a way other then intended. So now imagine changing 300+ lines of coding just to change the way you use an in-game command. Now imagine changing 1 line of code thinking about your wife/brother/sister or whomever being crushed to death in an apartment complex less then a week ago....yeah, thats what i thought...anyone living in Japan has my utmost respect and are in my thoughts. Bringing the game servers up are the last thing anyone should be thinking about.

[Spuffin]

lol how can you say that this is an opportunity to put more time into their game.... The servers are down... I can guarantee most of them are not even working at the moment and they are with their families. The producer may be working from home but the crew most definitely is dispersed and probably not at their HQ.

"Our nation is literally falling apart!!! Quickly we can shut down the servers to every game and focus all of our attention on FF14 for the next couple of weeks while we ignore our community! None of you are able to lend helping hands nor attend family matters at this time... YOU MUST WORK!"

[Akumu]

lol how can you say that this is an opportunity to put more time into their game.... The servers are down... I can guarantee most of them are not even working at the moment and they are with their families. The producer may be working from home but the crew most definitely is dispersed and probably not at their HQ.

"Our nation is literally falling apart!!! Quickly we can shut down the servers to every game and focus all of our attention on FF14 for the next couple of weeks while we ignore our community! None of you are able to lend helping hands nor attend family matters at this time... YOU MUST WORK!"

lol I finally agree with Spuffin on something. While we were suppose to get 2 patches at the end of the month it has been delayed 1-2 weeks. The entire team is safe but some do have families in the affected areas and french and german localization teams also left. Analyzing the letter from Yoshi-P they are still at work but there pace has been slowed down a bit.

Also, the servers being down does not help SE work faster in anyway. So I would rather play while they fix XIV instead of waiting 6 months to a year to play.

[Shura]

I think the SE team and people affected in Japan should take as much time as needed before worrying about this game but i don't agree with the OPs proposal of leaving the servers down for months in order to get the game fixed faster. The reason is, as stated by others already it will NOT matter if the servers are up or down in terms of fixing the game. The Development team uses a "Test Server" to test the changes, test new content and fix bugs, once they are satisfied with certain changes made, they implement the change to the game servers through patches.

For those who still don't understand, let me explain it in an even simpler way; Lets assume the team is working on a brand new instance, this process will take 2 months to finish (random numbers, in reality takes alot longer to design a new instance).

Option A (Game Servers Offline) -
10 days to plan
10 days to design
30 days to code
1 day to implement(on test server
5 days to test
4 days to figure out and fix bugs

Option B (Game Servers Online)
10 days to plan
10 days to design
30 days to code
1 day to implement(on test server
5 days to test
4 days to figure out and fix bugs
1 day to implement on game servers

As you can see, whether the server is online or offline, the amount of time it takes to create content is the same; with it taking an extra day to implement the changes to the game servers through maintenance. I rather play for 6 months and wait 1 day for maintenance rather then not play for 6 months. Similar Process applies to ALL MMO games, no company or team does initial tests on the actual game servers, its all done on test servers to avoid the risk of any unintended problems that may arise from the changes.

Even with test servers there will be problems since everyones PC is not the same, but its in fact FASTER for the dev team to let players report bugs rather then testing the same change on 100+ different PCs with different Specs.

[sharky]

Assuming that everyone is level 50+ and have nothing more left to do in the game. I still have plenty of ranks and skills to level up, plus I like partying. I'm probably alone in finding the game enjoyable as it is right now, though it could use more content.

I don't think that the people who left FF14 are ever going to like it anyways. If they insist on always comparing everything to WOW you're always going to get 'Rift', an unoriginal WOW clone, which WOW people disliked BTW. So even if FF14 were redesigned to appease the unappeasable it's just destined to be panned anyway.