Yo Funcom - Servers

[Maelkjar]

Yeah, I understand the reasoning that is supposed to be behind this, though I dont know how they estimated the player numbers then. Or why it seemed to be impossible to downgrade the server capacities to their needs. Ah well, that's dead and gone, no matter how you look at it. Its just sad. Wonder how they're planning to recover from LEGOs huge...success.

[Nephturi]

I do remember how they announced it back in the day, though. They mentioned a "test phase" which turned out to be the fullscale move from day1, never even intending to get/heed any feedback on it first. Gotta love that!

Do you have a source for that? Because it says here that it's a fullscale move. The relocation of the physical servers and the merge of the EU and US servers was the first phase (not a test phase) of the single-server tech. The other phases have been cancelled since then (shared minis, dungeons and raids.)

[Mustaine]

Do you have a source for that? Because it says here that it's a fullscale move. The relocation of the physical servers and the merge of the EU and US servers was the first phase (not a test phase) of the single-server tech. The other phases have been cancelled since then (shared minis, dungeons and raids.)

Does Crom count as single-server tech?

On a more serious note; common' FUNCOM ~ take some of that "success" money from The Park game and throw into some new hires for AoC. I'm seeing the tweets about the "hit"

.

[Maelkjar]

Do you have a source for that? Because it says here that it's a fullscale move. The relocation of the physical servers and the merge of the EU and US servers was the first phase (not a test phase) of the single-server tech. The other phases have been cancelled since then (shared minis, dungeons and raids.)

Might be my bad reading comprehension, but in the thread you linked i didnt read "we're moving everything to the US", but rather that EU and US would get separated single-server-tech implementations, as a full-scale merge of all servers existing back then was too difficult.
As for your question about a source, pls feel free to sift through the course of this Thread.
To me the initial discuission didn't sound as if the final call mentioned on Page 13 was already made from the start. In Nusquam's post is the first time I've encountered the inevitable nature of the move.

[Rathothis]

Yeah, I understand the reasoning that is supposed to be behind this, though I dont know how they estimated the player numbers then. Or why it seemed to be impossible to downgrade the server capacities to their needs. Ah well, that's dead and gone, no matter how you look at it. Its just sad. Wonder how they're planning to recover from LEGOs huge...success.

They were megalomanic. Their target scenario featured 30% higher client sales than of AoC (i.e., around 1.4 million copies), and a retention of 490,000 average subs. See here. Those were the grand ideas that our AoC sub money was thrown at back then.

[Roragar]

They were megalomanic. Their target scenario featured 30% higher client sales than of AoC (i.e., around 1.4 million copies), and a retention of 490,000 average subs. See here. Those were the grand ideas that our AoC sub money was thrown at back then.

Excuse me while I laugh

The delusion was high back then & it still stalks the Funcom offices even now

[Rathothis]

Excuse me while I laugh

The delusion was high back then & it still stalks the Funcom offices even now

It's funny but also sad. They had high ambitions for TSW, and in some respects (like the storytelling) it is a very good product. But quality doesn't always sell, and their executives (rather than their creative people) should really have seen this coming...

[Roragar]

It's funny but also sad. They had high ambitions for TSW, and in some respects (like the storytelling) it is a very good product. But quality doesn't always sell, and their executives (rather than their creative people) should really have seen this coming...

Yeah its only funny in hindsight i'll agree.

You do have to wonder at what stage did the target scenario obviously become unobtainable & the falsifying of information begin?
Its just a shame that rather than try to amend/reorganize they pushed ahead with TSW & ultimately killed both TSW & AoCs future prospects when if they had just scaled back rather than lie about it Funcom might be in a far better state today.

EDIT: Im not saying they should have cancelled TSW but rather resolve the financial side of it with publishers / finance instead of lying about it & hoping it will turn out ok.

[Nephturi]

Might be my bad reading comprehension, but in the thread you linked i didnt read "we're moving everything to the US", but rather that EU and US would get separated single-server-tech implementations, as a full-scale merge of all servers existing back then was too difficult.
As for your question about a source, pls feel free to sift through the course of this Thread.
To me the initial discuission didn't sound as if the final call mentioned on Page 13 was already made from the start. In Nusquam's post is the first time I've encountered the inevitable nature of the move.

The thread you quote is more than 3 months older than the official announcement, and Nusquam himself says (3 months before the move) that there is not enough negative feedback to consider not doing it. There's still nothing about a test phase.

And yeah, I linked the wrong thread. The official announcement for the US/UE merge is here, one year and one month after the relocation of the servers in the US. It was a good thing, because there was no reason to keep both populations separated anymore. I mean, we're all playing the same game, better to play it together.

[SamHam]

I love the people like you that have no idea how a business operates. They did it for financial reasons to keep operating costs at a minimum as well as logistically getting it closer to the Funcom US office for obvious reasons. They are not in the business of making the best experience possible for the players, they are a business and money is king.


*Edit* I'm not saying I'm happy about the move, but you guys need to understand why they did it at least.

Strange... It's like stripping all the stuff off your pizza to cut costs and expect your company to turn an immense profit. Obviously in the short term the consumer won't be the wiser, but one taste and long term you've lost your clientele. Might be that's a sound business decision, in Mickey Mouse land.