Quote Originally Posted by nasomi View Post
As a programmer, I understand the complexity of hte task. However character files are merely that, files. No one in their right mind would store character information in a database. What, a new table for every character? Or one table, with a billion columns with an x for every flag/item/etc? They're stored in files. So, if you even went with a new database, it wouldn't be that hard to write a script to re-write the character files for hte new database format, because new file format for storing character data is very reasonable. However a batch job to convert what, 20,000 character files to the new format? far from difficult.

I'm all about having 2.0 be as great as it can be. However to toss people out is pretty brutal. They are trying to stay afloat, this stuff costs money, and that comes from subscriptions. So as much as folks may want to say "do away with the nay-sayers".
There will be downtime. You can't convert 427k+ accounts in a day or two to the new format.

I work for one of the largest CRM provider's in North America and we had to convert our customers to the new version. It took three months in staged releases and testing.

As a programmer worth your salt you would know the limits of such. If this is the be-all end-all for you; and it will cause you to quit; I hope you find a game worth your time.

SE wants money; but really what they want to is to honor the FF franchise and build a quality product above all else. If it means shutting down some of the game for it; so be it.