[Feedback] Data Center Travel Changes

[NanaWiloh]

One week later and this is the impact of the new data center travel system on my friends and me:

Those of us who are not on Aether, log into Aether in the morning before the rush. Most members are on Aether and we will not risk trying to have everyone log into Dynamis because we got burned real bad a week ago. An entire night was lost. No gaming at all. We are fully aware of the longstanding congestion problems on Aether because most are Aether natives. But friends are friends and having a common time to play together is limited and precious. We will continue to log into Aether under the current data center transfer system until there are changes. This is human nature, sticking with friends in familiar places and minimizing risks. It goes against human nature to start new and risk leaving friends. The current data center transfer system creates pressure to do the latter, it goes against human nature, and so it will have limited success.

I am currently babysitting a connection on Aether for eight hours so I can play with friends tonight. I am fully aware this is not what SE wants players to do. But they are my friends. We have limited time to play together. I will continue to do this.

I am also getting the impression that it's getting harder to data center transfer into Aether. I suspect this is because an increasing number of players are using plugins to stay logged in. I don't blame them. It's human nature to stick with friends in familiar places with years of investment and less risk of an obliterated gaming night for all friends. This is just my speculation about an increasing impact of the current data center transfer system.

Maybe Aether will become impossible to transfer into all day long all week long. Maybe Aether will officially go on complete lockdown. Maybe the same will happen to other specific world servers. I hope Dynamis will be ready to serve as a reliable data center transfer for NA. My friends and I were ok with doing gaming nights on Dynamis before the mess of the current system. We would change our behavior and return to playing on Dynamis if it went back to being... RELIABLE.

How about an official announcement recognizing these concerns, SE? Or — real talk — we can just keep doing what humans do, ToS be damned.

SE has come down hard on congestion like this before just at a smaller scale and they didn't budge despite community backlash so I wouldn't hold your breathe on them changing their stance. More to the point players responded the same way you and many others have. In the end SE got what it wanted less congestion as Void said earlier if it continues to get worse SE could forcibly move players back to their Home DC/worlds.