What happens if....?

[Allanon the Mystic]

I'm sure every other person understood what he meant, but why post constructively when you can troll?

We got the same Forum post count. Also, anything that I could of said has already been said and I didn't see anything I could build upon.

[Dodrin]

I believe that the betas following the pre order date will be constructed in such a way that th server can accommodate a large number of players. Whether this means lager, more stable servers, or simply more servers, I can't say. But with a brand new mmo liked this, the developers have to do extreme stress testing to make sure that the servers are stable for release, and that is the purpose of later beta tests.

[Drofu]

Then suddenly the beta turns into a stress test!

[Rofflemau]

it's the perfect chance to test the overflow server too, so i wouldn't worry too much about it

[Hockeyhacker]

Let's say that 10.000 people pre-purchase the game 10th april. As we all know they are supposed to get into the upcoming betas. But what happens if they only have limited spots in the next beta? Let's say they only have 8.000 spots in the next beta.
hope they have a good solution on this?

Real simple solution, if they planed on having say 2,000 people per server expecting 8,000 so only have 4 servers, they just add one more server... but comparing that the main point of letting any and everyone who pre purchases the game into the betas is for stress testing the servers, so why not go ahead and see what the servers can handle, that's the main point of mass beta events over a short time are for... if your tests are 2-3 days long your going to have people who if it was open beta playing Tues/Wed because those are their days off, playing before or after work during the small window, and so testing stress more so on short beta events rather then open beta. To decline people to participate in the stress test because it would cause stress would defeat the purpose of the test.

[grandpab]

It sounds like they might have do some optimizing before the first pre-purchase beta begins. Somebody said they didn't even bother doing WvW (TB I think?) because of the fps issues in this recent beta event, and that was with only server having a decent population. The press have been saying all the other servers were nearly dead and there was only a few really good WvW fights, yet people were still having big fps issues. It would have been even worse if the other servers were full and there was a fair balance in numbers.

I'm more worried about how the game will perform with that many people, and not how many people will get in.

[Deleted]

10.000? LOL where do You live?
over 1 mil signed up just for Beta. I think we can expect more than 1 mil to actually pre purchase the game.

[Saggypoo]

10.000? LOL where do You live?
over 1 mil signed up just for Beta. I think we can expect more than 1 mil to actually pre purchase the game.

Signing up for a free beta weekend is a little different than dropping the full price of a game months before release. I honestly wouldn't expect a million pre-purchases.

Even if it's the same build as this past weekend beta, I'm sure ArenaNet will set up enough servers to handle the load. If not, it would be a good time to test the queue for full servers. Of course, just because we get access to all of the weekend betas, it doesn't mean we get quality access.

[Conscious]

I just hope they don't send it out in waves like MoP. Sucky not getting your Key after a week even though it's guaranteed to you

This. You're not going to get shafted if you pre-purchase, as it guarantees you entry into all the forthcoming events.

[Delias]

Signing up for a free beta weekend is a little different than dropping the full price of a game months before release. I honestly wouldn't expect a million pre-purchases.

Even if it's the same build as this past weekend beta, I'm sure ArenaNet will set up enough servers to handle the load. If not, it would be a good time to test the queue for full servers. Of course, just because we get access to all of the weekend betas, it doesn't mean we get quality access.

Queue?
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/23/gu...s-kill-queues/
Pshaw, queues are a thing of the past.

[Durzlla]

Queue?
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/23/gu...s-kill-queues/
Pshaw, queues are a thing of the past.

Aw you beat me to it xD

Queues are for the weak!!

---------- Post added 2012-03-27 at 09:48 AM ----------

10.000? LOL where do You live?
over 1 mil signed up just for Beta. I think we can expect more than 1 mil to actually pre purchase the game.

lol that's what i was thinking, you know i wouldn't be surprised if MORE people bought the game then sign up for the beta...

[Bridger]

I believe what the OP is trying to say is, what happens if there are so many people who pre-purchase the game they don't have enough slots to accomidate them all. As in, 1 million people pre-purchase and they are only planning for 10,000 people. Will they tell people too bad or will they just live with a laggy game.

One of the reasons for the public beta events is that they need to stress test their servers. They need enough servers for millions of people at launch, so they will be testing them with the beta events. Why would they only plan on 10,000, or 50,000 or 100,000? Plan for the 5 million you expect to get on launch day.

[terrahero]

Im a bit skeptical about this whole "acces to all the beta's!"-stuff.

First, there is no talk about how many beta's there are going to be. Infact i havent seen any confirmation there will be any at all, sure we all assume there will be some more and it would make sense. But access to all the beta's could be 1 or two weekends. No promise its anything noteable.

Secondly. If they are getting a ton of prepurchase thye might run into the issue of fitting everyone into beta servers. Its a popular up and commer and i think a lot of people will jump at the oppertunities from the prepurchase to get into the beta and play with early-access.
So it could brew a big shitstorm if they fail to deliver. Unlike Blizzard, which is now crawling back and cowering behind how you could read the Annual Pass bonus stuff because they couldnt fit everyone into the beta, Arena Net has no dubious read between the lines thing. They are going to guarentee you get into every single beta event.

And thats another thing, WHEN do i get into the beta event is a big deal aswell. It might be a saterday+sunday event, that closes at midnight on sunday. They could let me in at 11:45 and technically they fullfilled their promise of letting me into the beta event, cant argue that. But obviously, thats not what people are expecting.

So for me personally ive adjusted my expectations. I am not convinced as of yet that there will be a whole lot of beta events to come, if there are thats super but i'd rather we see a finalized product. Im not holding my breath that they can actually keep their promise and get every prepurchase into the beta event. And even if i get into a beta event, there is no telling itll be a meaningfull experience for me.
So, i prepurchase because i can get early access.

[grandpab]

Im a bit skeptical about this whole "acces to all the beta's!"-stuff.

First, there is no talk about how many beta's there are going to be. Infact i havent seen any confirmation there will be any at all, sure we all assume there will be some more and it would make sense. But access to all the beta's could be 1 or two weekends. No promise its anything noteable.

They have said that there will be a beta at the end of April, as well as one in May. They've also said there might only be 1 beta weekend a month, but it's possible they could do more. They've been pretty clear...if you expect something more then you haven't read anything directly from the source, or anything anyone has been saying here.

Secondly. If they are getting a ton of prepurchase thye might run into the issue of fitting everyone into beta servers. Its a popular up and commer and i think a lot of people will jump at the oppertunities from the prepurchase to get into the beta and play with early-access.
So it could brew a big shitstorm if they fail to deliver. Unlike Blizzard, which is now crawling back and cowering behind how you could read the Annual Pass bonus stuff because they couldnt fit everyone into the beta, Arena Net has no dubious read between the lines thing. They are going to guarentee you get into every single beta event.

They already added more servers for the last beta event, I don't see why they couldn't easily add more as they need. They even have a solution for preventing server queues, this would be a perfect time to test that.

And thats another thing, WHEN do i get into the beta event is a big deal aswell. It might be a saterday+sunday event, that closes at midnight on sunday. They could let me in at 11:45 and technically they fullfilled their promise of letting me into the beta event, cant argue that.

Ya...that's not how they'll do things.

[terrahero]

Ya...that's not how they'll do things.

Rather baseless thing to say. I agree with you that i dont exactly think Arenanet would pull something like that lightly. But im not putting them in a spot of blind faith. They are still a bussiness, and not all descisions are up to Arenanet to make.

But bare in mind that Blizzard, a rather large and established company, couldnt handle all the beta influx for MoP. Not even close. Its not always as simple as "just open more servers" and even the overflow server has to have its limits.

So i prefer my cautious approach, less chance of being disapointed. Wouldnt be the first time a company bit of more then they could chew, dont rule it out completely.

[grandpab]

I'd trust Anet with my life

[Saggypoo]

Queue?
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/02/23/gu...s-kill-queues/
Pshaw, queues are a thing of the past.

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. You're queued into an overflow server, but you're still queued to join the main server. If they have a ton of people pre-purchasing, why not test it out in one of the weekend events.

[Ethas]

Is it even a problem to have a server for 10k players? Especially if they have some more than that.
Honestly we shouldn't expect same number of people who signed for beta events. It surely will be lower number. Don't think it will be huge problem for ANet.

[grandpab]

Btw... https://twitter.com/#!/GuildWars2/st...31206511980545

@GuildWars2 Everyone that pre-purchase's gets in to every beta weekend right? Will this still be true if more people that expected buy?

That is correct, and we will not change that. ~RB2 #GuildWars2

[vicious796]

Thanks GrandPab for the twitter link and showing. Sadly, I can't even quote links but just look above me, folks.

I highly doubt we'll see a million folks in the prepurchase beta weekends but I wouldn't be surprised if it was over 100k. I think it will be an excellent opportunity for arenanet to do 2 things:

1.) Know exactly how many servers it's going to need at launch by monitoring playtime statistics, server loads, etc.
2.) Test out this overflow server idea.

Time will tell, of course.