This goon flags himself as a game developer. This is my answer.
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So it doesn’t matter if servers are forced or not, there will always be a rush of people logging on at 5:00pm in that time zone. You’re not going to stop that rush no matter what. This is so obvious, I don’t know how you overlooked this.
In fact you overlooked this. Let’s say that a server is capped at 3k of users at any given time (arbitrary number), ok? This is the limit of the server without lag.
Now, let’s say that this retarded policy goes live. Well, you’ll have 100% of those 3k of players being NA. And yes, they rush during peak hours.
Now we change the policy and see what happens if even other countries can import the box and play on NA servers. What will happen? That WoW will sell better right on NA release, of course. But now you say the the lag increases as well but this isn’t true. Why? Because the cap on the server won’t magically rise above 3k of players if there are foreigners. Instead, at any given time, there will be a mix of NA and European players, probably 90% of NA and 10% of foreigners. BUT THEY ARE STILL 3k!!!
The *raw* number of boxes they sell doesn’t affect lag. What will happen if the game will sell 100k in NA? And what will happen if, then, they sell another 50k the month after? They are going to say: “No, sorry, you cannot play or you’ll lag our server”
An european player counts ONE as an American player counts ONE. Becuase I’m european doesn’t mean that I lag your server. Instead you are blind on the other front. While 150k of NA players and west coaster (for example) FOR SURE will log at the same time. INSTEAD a blend of players from both coasts PLUS foreigner players will smooth down the off peaks and high peaks. The effect of this is that a single server will “hold” more unique accounts before capping out.
This is a simple math formula:
IF Blizzard sells 100k NA boxes with local servers they’ll need (for example) 10 servers active to offer a playable experience.
IF Blizzard sells 100k of mixed boxes without local servers, they’ll need to mantain LESS servers. Because the servers will have relaxed peak times.
Yes, if the second option will happen they’ll sell more boxes but this has NOTHING to do with the lag. It only matters on the number of servers that Blizzard needs IN PROPORTION with the sales. And now, if you are assuming that the more boxes Blizzard sells, the less is the profit, well, you are obviously WRONG.
But if there aren’t forced servers, the server traffic will include the regular congestion of the peak time -plus- the additional players from all over the world. This will increase lag, so you guys are wrong on that point.
What damn are you saying? Are you going to offer only 50k of boxes because one more will lag the servers? Where is exactly this foul criterion that NA players don’t lag the servers, while foreigners will? We carry with us some sort of plague?
If you want to talk about deserted servers you should be talking about the servers that the Europeans and Asians will leave behind. What do you think will happen to those during “off-peak” hours. The situation will be much worse. You will be dealing with off-peak situations no matter what. Using that in your argument really leads to a dead end.
What are you smoking? No really.
If everyone plays on the same servers, where “x” server is a mix of NA players+foreigners, tell me why the off-peak will be worst. Because it’s exactly the opposite.
If you don’t believe my words go read the report and analysis of Final Fantasy servers and the golbal behaviour of log ins along the different timezones and across a server. Or read what wrote a producer of DAoC:
“WoW’s population peaks and valleys will be worse than most other MMO’s out there. / Having a worldwide server – like EQ – means that population lows in Europe, East Coast, West Coast and Asia don’t coincide – the servers remain relatively populated as players log in and log off throughout their peak playing hours. / WoW won’t have that – when they are at off-peak, they will *really* be off peak, and their server populations will be very low.”
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As for people talking about their pings. Mine always hovers between 40-80ms. Feels more like 600-800ms in populated areas to me. Either the meter is lying or I don’t think it really reflects the in-game lag. It doesn’t really seem to mean much of anything.
The ping has a precise meaning, which you probably don’t know, that isn’t subject to opinions. It measures your connection to the server. Not the lag on the server. Foreigners players, like me, play mmorpgs, even this one, from various years. If Blizzard now has real problems with lag it will mean, at best, that their programmers need to be fired ASAP.
But this isn’t true. In fact their excuses were just ways to fool the more gullible players in the community. And they were right, it seems.
There aren’t many choices:
Or they are idiots
Or it’s about money
Or a mix of both
You pick. They range from being idiots to being liars.