A sad but common practice...

[Tygerr]

As a note, the following is not a rant, but just wanted to share something I had on my mind.

You know, something has been bothering me a lot ever since the Early Access started. Now as a note, I've been part in many, many MMO launch, and the kind of troubles we see these days is nothing new, nor is it something I didn't expect. I'm used to it, and I usually just remain patient until those troubles go away (usually after a couple of days after launch).

But being in all those game launches, something is really starting to tick me off with almost every game companies running online servers. They always play the "we didn't expect that many players" card, and send us nice little apologetic messages through forums or twitters. And I'm really sick of that. This is bullcrap at it's best. The truth is, it's all about money.

Those companies build games that costs millions of dollars in developpement. There is no decisions that isn't being thought through, no details left unattended. They got specialist studying the markets, they got the sales numbers from preorders. There is no way in hell they can make me believe they didn't know how many players would be logging.

Fact is, they know full well that there is no reason to buy 5000 servers (just throwing that number here) to support a launch when they know full well that 2 weeks later, they will only need less then half of those servers to run everything on cruise control... And I'm pretty sure that when they get down to it, they prefer to lose the few people who will lose patience with the server problems then to lose all that money with those useless servers...

It's a common practice. Almost all online games nowadays, be it diablo 3, Sim city 5, or any other MMOs run into those kind of connection problems. While I do agree that problems are bound to happen (and I'm fine with that), failing to provide the required hardware to support to initial flow of new players is just cheap and unfair to us, the buying customers. and sadly, we fall for it everytime.

And all this is twice as lame when you thing that Realm Reborn is NOT a new game at all....it's a relaunch. They are in the very unique position to know full well what was coming. They only needed to look at the launch history for the version 1.0 to have a pretty good clue. Granted it's a new engine and all, but it's still the second launch for Final Fantasy XIV which went through pretty bad hell on the initial launch and the following year.

and yet, they play the card telling us they didn't expect that many player....I just don't buy it.

[Dieadre]

I'm actually inclined to agree with your position, at least to a point. However, P4 beta pulled in record numbers, and there is the possibility that until that point they really didn't realize just how much people would want to play. Given that there's a week between then and now there may have not been enough time to prepare. Add to that more people in EA, and likely more in Launch coming up... well we'll see how they handle things.

Having said that, I'm inclined to believe you scenario more
P.S. they have experience running FF11 too so, yea I think they could have seen this coming.

Just remember though, server admins have it rough, never enough budget to do the job right (coming from a soon to be admin with a degree in computer science)

[Nataskiller]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=OZF0cvJhQgA just watch this it will make your day so much better.

[Otoha]

OP

Your rant is arrogant, some people actually take pride in their work.

[kelsethel]

^ and your comment is ignorant

[Tygerr]

there is nothing arrogant in my post. I didn't bash the ITs over there working their ass with terrible pressure on their shoulders. But what I'm trying to say is that with every MMO launches ever since Everquest, most of thos MMOs had troubles with servers congestions and stability. And the same excuse always comes up : we didn't expect that many people. Yet we are all into the Early Access for either of the 2 following reasons : You were a legacy player with 1.0 or you pre-ordered the game. I think it's safe to say that everyone who pre-ordered the game didn't do so just for a moogle cap and a caith sith doll. We all did it for early access. All those pre-order sales are tallied somewhere. It gives them a number. A number of people who WILL try to connect once the servers are up. Throwing the excuse that they didn't know just doesnt cut it : not for this game, nor any other online games out there.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the server troubles, the bugs, or whatever. I will patiently wait for them to resolve it, and unlike many on the forums, I know those problems will be a thing of the past in a week or 2, probably less, and we'll all be able to enjoy a great and fun game. Like I said, I'm used to those launch day problems, and I pre-order an MMO fully aware how it's gonna be. But I'm debatting that this "particular excuse" all game companies always throow at us is just bad PR.

[Eldaena]

Actually, I would have thought they had some rough idea by the number of beta keys they gave out and pre-orders in process. Rather than planning for those that won't show, I'd plan for those that would, personally. =/

[Esus]

OP

Your rant is arrogant, some people actually take pride in their work.

How is that arrogant?

All companies have 2 "drives". Money and more money. SquareEnix wants to make profit, and that's what they'll do. If they do not make profit, they'll remove the product and either toss it in the trash or remake it and sell it as the "much improved new product". If you realy think that SquareEnix is only doing all this "because we have the moral obligation to provide thousands of people with a pleasant, virtual, fun time", then you are being ignorant.

That being said: I don't really agree with the OP either. I don't think the massive influx of players is the core-problem of all the issues right now. I guess there's something else up. I assume the amount of Japanese players equals the amount of NA/EU (since the FF-franchise is realy popular over there).

Anyways, the same thing is discussed in 2000 other topics. I guess I'm just preaching to the choir here...

[Evilmog]

I already stated once the internal damage that could be do e by ghosting in say 10000 characters per server would have had an immediate impact. And that would have been postponing the launch date a few weeks since they just fried everything.

They failed the stress test of P4 beta. Find me ONE game that didn't.

[Lockisezmode]

OP

Your rant is arrogant, some people actually take pride in their work.

If you do something with PRIDE, you tend to do it well. Are you trolling or just foolish? Either way this has been a typical launch and after all the promises SE made it isn't living up to the standard they set for themselves.