Someone please explain to me

mdhammond

This isn't another rage thread, I understand mmo launches suck. I'm trying to understand what happens.
So you have a launch set up for a game, you buy what you think is enough server space, and you get a lot more players than you had anticipated and totally *** your servers?
Is this what happens?
I'm failing to understand what consistently causes these launch fails, does the game company wait until all the revenue fluds in from the initial sales and then beefs their servers up?
Would it not pay in the long run to anticipate a strong launch, invest the appropriate money, and save 10s of thousands from quitting?
Only other mmo I played at launch was GW2, it was actually my buddies but I was there for launch and at his house first few days he played it and it was smooth as glass, how come some can pull it off where others can't?
No way the makers of GW had more revenue than ES.

Someone please explain is love to understand how these problems are not solved in an industry worth so much

spoqster

In the end it comes down to a bit of luck. An MMO is a f*** complicated system. You can only test so much before the launch even if you do your best.

Nyghthowler

Because in the end it's cheaper to have 10,000 rage quit after they have bought the game then open up too many mega servers and have massively expensive ghost towns 5 months down the road.

mdhammond

@ nyghthowler. That's kind of what I was thinking was the jist of it

xMegaJohn

Nyghthowler wrote: »

Because in the end it's cheaper to have 10,000 rage quit after they have bought the game then open up too many mega servers and have massively expensive ghost towns 5 months down the road.

I'm gonna go with that theory lol
because when you launch, people get so frustrated with the servers not being up to snuff that they five up on even playing, and take a $60 loss. Thus negates the need for the developer to waste resources and money on more or better servers. Seems legit to me.

Phinix1

If you are serious then I will bite. To be honest, I don't think it is quite so simple as...



I don't think even the soulless bean counters would see it as particularly in their best interest to have a launch fail and a bunch of unhappy customers quitting and reporting negative experience to the various media channels for the industry, pouring gasoline on an already smoldering public image.

So, perhaps they just underestimated the demand? This seems believable given PC sales were generally reported lower than expected. Also, You don't have to buy servers for launch day and risk having over-spent on hardware you don't need once things settle down. You could do what Blizzard does for WoW expansions and RENT launch week servers for short-term use only.

So, if I were a betting man, my money would be on "they just screwed up" and underestimated demand.

The good news there is that they will probably rent some servers to shore up the problem now that they have real-world figures. I would expect that to happen within the first week if this were in fact the case.

cwebbx

I've been in queue to get in NA server for over 15 minutes. I am literally in line to play a game I paid $80 for 3 days ago.

Nyghthowler

cwebbx wrote: »

I've been in queue to get in NA server for over 15 minutes. I am literally in line to play a game I paid $80 for 3 days ago.

Im not being a jerk, or belittling your frustration, but this makes you special HOW? Anyone who has played MMORPG's has waited in a queue when a AAA game launches.
Authentication servers can only handle so many handshakes at a time. When they're getting hammered by tens of thousands of players trying to log in simultaneously..... you get queues.

hamgatan

cwebbx wrote: »

I've been in queue to get in NA server for over 15 minutes. I am literally in line to play a game I paid $80 for 3 days ago.

oh boo hoo. here have a tissue and cry me a river princess.

we all paid $119 or so for early access imperial edition when PC dropped and it was bug ridden and broken from launch.

we all paid $15 a month for an entire year until the whole F2P debacle happened.

some of us STILL pay $15 a month since then under the broken promises that we will get new DLC, and better perks whilst Zenimax ignore us and attempt to snatch more dollars by targeting the console market.

I'm down $353 so far on a product that whilst has improved drastically in the last year is still far from perfect.

and you're whining over $80? suck it up! - it'll get better. it did for PC, it will for console.

mdhammond

@Alien. How the hell is this trolling? Trying to understand launches and mega servers is trolling? The reason you gave is one that I listed you goob. "Underestimated demand"

So I'm trolling yet I listed the exact reason you gave as a possibility, solid reasoning ......

Phinix1

mdhammond wrote: »

@Alien. How the hell is this trolling? Trying to understand launches and mega servers is trolling? The reason you gave is one that I listed you goob. "Underestimated demand"

So I'm trolling yet I listed the exact reason you gave as a possibility, solid reasoning ......

Relax mate, I never said you WERE trolling. That silly cartoon meme image was meant to be funny, you know, to lighten the mood.

That said, I can't help be initially suspicious of threads that start with "This isn't another rage thread," no offense. It's like my gut tells me there is going to be some potentially passive-aggressive type message being spoken between the lines.

I don't think that was your intention, and I don't think you were trolling. I hope ZOS gets their console queues squared away soon.

BuggeX

A simply Answer.

Admins calculating the req. Server power, based on this, most admins want +15-25% Power to be sure.
This is to expensiv to do (for the CEOs or wathever) and the Serverfarm miss the extra power.
After the complains from the costumer (we) CEOs blame the admins for the *** work, admins blame the ceos to be parsimonious.
At this Point the Server get upgraded slowly until the Point the initial Plan was.

Merlin13KAGL

spoqster wrote: »

In the end it comes down to a bit of luck. An MMO is a f*** complicated system. You can only test so much before the launch even if you do your best.

Yes...like a year...or two...*cough*

Tan9oSuccka

Nyghthowler wrote: »

Because in the end it's cheaper to have 10,000 rage quit after they have bought the game then open up too many mega servers and have massively expensive ghost towns 5 months down the road.

Bingo.

Be patient OP. It hasn't even been a week yet.

Servers are getting pounded due to the lack of quality next gen games on Console.