Patience, Servers, and your Expectations

[Nomial17]

Hey everyone!

Following the release of GTA 5 online, a couple of friends and myself have been debating what kind of expectations a person should have with video game products and online services. FFXIV ARR had similar issues with a release, and took roughly a week to sort out most of the problems for their servers. So as a player, what do you expect of an online service, and how long are you willing to wait for an online service to "work" for you.

And more importantly, does anyone have any idea how long the server upgrade process takes? I think that would help greatly for a lot of people in re-thinking their expectations for these kinds of things.

Everyone please keep in mind, i dont want this to be just a "flame X game" thread, just interested in what peoples general expectations are for these kinds of services/media.

Myself personally, I believe that in the case of GTA 5, with the amount of money they made on Day 1 sales alone, they should have been more prepared for this kind of traffic. Granted 2 days isn't awful so far, but in my eyes, with something being known two weeks prior, then more planning should have gone into it.

The same goes for ARR to me, both games failed to utilize the indicators that both games received in terms of future traffic.

[poser765]

Wait...so an online feature of a MASSIVELY hyped video game had server and connection issues when multi player went live? This king of even lost it's wow factor in like 1997 for me

[Nomial17]

Well that's what I'm saying. A massively hyped video game that broke some insane profit records in a 24 hour period could have known at that time to put off releasing online for an extra week or two in order to stabilize servers for the increased KNOWN data about maximum traffic.

[obdigore]

What the hell do you mean the 'server upgrade process'?

I don't think you understand the infrastructure behind a worldwide release, the money constraints, or the fact that if you have 100million copies sold you generally aren't expecting all 100million to be online at the same time, except the first day or two after release. At this point you either have two options:

1) Host your servers yourself, which would require you to overbuy everything just to support the initial rush, or allow an initial problem to smooth itself out to the more normal numbers afterwords
or
2) Have a 3rd party do hosting, pay them through the nose for an initial rush overcompensation, and then scale back. But then it depends on the 3rd party to have the infrastructure in place to handle the initial rush.

[poser765]

Well that's what I'm saying. A massively hyped video game that broke some insane profit records in a 24 hour period could have known at that time to put off releasing online for an extra week or two in order to stabilize servers for the increased KNOWN data about maximum traffic.

This is just the nature of these things.

[Nomial17]

Yea man, if you sold 100m copies, you should probably at that point start thinking "Let's make sure we can at least ensure 70% of these can get online at release"

[obdigore]

Yea man, if you sold 100m copies, you should probably at that point start thinking "Let's make sure we can at least ensure 70% of these can get online at release"

So you don't understand that whole profit thing, or the cost of infrastructure? Excellent.

[Payday]

I can't be the only one who thought this would be an Obamacare thread..

[obdigore]

I can't be the only one who thought this would be an Obamacare thread..

I did too, but I'm busy watching Louie so I'm not too bothered :P

[jbombard]

GTA V is a single player game with a multiplayer mode, that they announced would be a work in progress. I think their handling of the situation is fine. If the game was being marketed and released as an MMO,like lets say FF XIV, it would be inexcusable.

[Deleted]

I did too, but I'm busy watching Louie so I'm not too bothered :P

I was expecting it to be a thread about restaurants. This thread should be here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/2...mes-Discussion

[obdigore]

I was expecting it to be a thread about restaurants. This thread should be here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/2...mes-Discussion

You can report the post and ask that it be moved :P