REAL reason game is going Free 2 Play...
By
Ad Astra,
Posted on: 2011-09-27 06:17 in Player Questions
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With Freedom, they're introducing a whole new system. New Databases, new servers (not just game servers), etc.
Whenever *that company* introduced something new, there was also game outages even unexpected ones.
WotLK, I remember almost two weeks of scheduled downtimes, daily, for 4-8 hours. Every night at about 1am EST, the servers were shut down for maintenance. Let's not forget the first few months of *that game* when server outages were rampant.
There is something to note: *that company* employs thousands of people that work on one title 24 hours a day. NCSoft doesn't.
Let's not forget that when they add more and more stuff to a 10 year old engine, unexpected things will happen. What might be fine on an internal or test server might not be fine on a live server where people are trying to break the game for their benefit.
Sure, downtimes are a pain, but you've got to take the good with the bad. But I do find it interesting that the majority of people up in arms over CoH's downtime have one thing in common: they love the game so much that they're mad when the game is down.
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My presumption is that all the recent downtime & patching is because they want to make really, really sure that the Freedom launch goes smoothly.
If I've learnt anything from watching other MMOs it's that the single most important thing is to have a game that *works* at launch. Look at all the "Gorilla Killers" that have been launched in the last 7 years and failed. Now look at how many of them were laggy, buggy content-free messes at launch.
It sucks for us, in my case the last 3 weeks I've had off work (well, I quit my job, so I guess that counts as "off work") and so I've been hit hard by the downtime, but ultimately I would rather have a month of heavy downtime if it means a smooth launch for Freedom and a large influx of new players who hang around and buy stuff.
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No real reason? Yeah I'm sure the folks who work at Paragon Studios just love to randomly take the game servers down just to piss their customers off. |
Originally Posted by Tourettes
But it NEVER fails to piss me off to a degree it's hard to describe to any person who doesn't have rage issues when random LONG intervals of playtime are interrupted for no real reason.
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If you've played this game as long as your forum reg date implies then you'd know that the increased maintenance periods we've had in the last few weeks are hardly typical for the YEARS worth of solid up-time this game has enjoyed. The game is undergoing a major shift in its infrastructure - it's only natural that something like that would require above average maintenance for a while.
So while any down-time is annoying I'd hardly think that in the 7+ year context of this game what we are seeing now is all that alarming. If these above average periods persist AFTER CoH:Freedom finally goes live then I'll be worried about it. *shrugs*
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Bring back the good old days! When they took the servers down every morning because the memory leaks were so bad.
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I rarely use the drive-thru as it is. |
Originally Posted by Tourettes
Imagine if McDonalds closed all their drive thru's. Think people would still go there if it was a sit down only restaurant? Only die hard fatso's and parents.
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1. Where's your question?
2. Comparing NCSoft to your former employer is like comparing apples and oranges.
3. You're apparently highly uninformed about what's been going on in NCSoft's Texas offices lately
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So the reason for going F2P is to allow for downtime to go F2P?
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And because no one did maintenance server on the weekend, you could be sure that Sunday night meant degrading play experience until the servers crashed.
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Originally Posted by Fulmens
Bring back the good old days! When they took the servers down every morning because the memory leaks were so bad.
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Exactly. I realy dont understand why nobody can see that conspiracy! The whole reason, the whole downtime, the updates, the new stuff, the shop, the points, its all because they go F2P. A lame excuse for the huge ammount of downtime, they use F2P as a lame excuse for their downtime, because they go F2P.
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Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
So the reason for going F2P is to allow for downtime to go F2P?
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You mean like they are in most places that aren't America?
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Originally Posted by Tourettes
Imagine if McDonalds closed all their drive thru's. Think people would still go there if it was a sit down only restaurant? Only die hard fatso's and parents
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Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
So the reason for going F2P is to allow for downtime to go F2P?
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In all honesty, though, the real reason (and it is completely obvious) is that NCSoft wants City of Heroes to be more profitable. Properly managed FTP games have been proven to provide more income than retail box / subscription games because of the perks / cool stuff that can be purchased.
Heck, I resubbed two weeks ago and have already dropped $80 ($15 sub + $15 points +$50 points). They got 5.33 months worth of revenue from me in literally a day and a half.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Freedom's purpose is to generate additional revenue (And, thusly, additional income).
Patches normally roll out on Tuesday, servers are tweaked normally on Thursday.
They gave us a 4 day notice about today's patch. It was in the forum announcement section as well as the game's website. Do you want them to e-mail you the notice?
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Would be nice if they txt me or just call me, send a few beers for the inconvenience i would apriciate.
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
They gave us a 4 day notice about today's patch. It was in the forum announcement section as well as the game's website. Do you want them to e-mail you the notice?
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Sign the petition, dont let CoH go down! SIGN!
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Ah yes. Nothing like a 2 hour downtime every weekday to put things in perspective. |
Originally Posted by Fulmens
Bring back the good old days! When they took the servers down every morning because the memory leaks were so bad.
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I believe Billy Joel put it well, when he said:
Cause the good ole days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems
---Billy Joel, "Keeping the Faith"
Downtime sucks, I understand. Mornings (EDT) are my prime playing time. However, gotta tell you, the game is in pretty decent shape, considering the changes that have been made the past few weeks.
I find your lack of signature disturbing.
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appreciate|
Originally Posted by SinergyX_EU
Would be nice if they txt me or just call me, send a few beers for the inconvenience i would apriciate.
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Looks like the beers already got there.
I find your lack of signature disturbing.
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I think your being extremely hard on the devs. They hardly patch come paired to some games. Rift patches almost daily and forces manditory respec if such patches change the powers significantly. How would you feel if CoX did that? And those guys have a smaller dev team than we do as far as I know. Seriously you just need to open up more time you are available to play and keep in mind **** does happen from time to time that needs patching.
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Originally Posted by Tourettes
This isn't going to be a rant...but it's certainly not pleasant to hear. (Could not find a forum to post dissatisfied issues w/ the game, so if a Mod sees this and wishes to put it in the proper place please do so)
Live Server Publishes. Why so many of them? And who gave them my work schedule? Seems EVERY SINGLE TIME I have some hours to play w/o kids, the wife, or work...there's an unexpected 4 hour maintenece, or live server publish. Wait...don't they have a once a week Server Maintence? Oh yeah...that's Thursdays. Honestly, I cannot WAIT for my subscription to go "Free" because I love this game. Really I do. But it NEVER fails to piss me off to a degree it's hard to describe to any person who doesn't have rage issues when random LONG intervals of playtime are interrupted for no real reason. I worked for a game company for a while. They had a policy that NO ONE would dare break. All patches went in on patch day. PERIOD. There had to be some kind of EPIC flaw in the game or exploit that hundreds of people were using to usher in a "hot fix". Most games are like that. Know why? People will not continue to pay for something that's not available to them at their convenience. Imagine if McDonalds closed all their drive thru's. Think people would still go there if it was a sit down only restaurant? Only die hard fatso's and parents. Tourettes. |
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I for one am loving the game play improvements and faster loading I am experiencing after some of the recent efforts.
I laud what they are doing, and if I have to put up with a couple more intervals of interrupted playtime so things continue to get better, I say "hooray!".
City of Heroes was my first MMO, & my favorite computer game.
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Also I have been to Mc Donald's where they have closed the drive thru as well as not having things that are listed on their menus. So try again.
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Originally Posted by Tourettes
This isn't going to be a rant...but it's certainly not pleasant to hear. (Could not find a forum to post dissatisfied issues w/ the game, so if a Mod sees this and wishes to put it in the proper place please do so)
Live Server Publishes. Why so many of them? And who gave them my work schedule? Seems EVERY SINGLE TIME I have some hours to play w/o kids, the wife, or work...there's an unexpected 4 hour maintenece, or live server publish. Wait...don't they have a once a week Server Maintence? Oh yeah...that's Thursdays. Honestly, I cannot WAIT for my subscription to go "Free" because I love this game. Really I do. But it NEVER fails to piss me off to a degree it's hard to describe to any person who doesn't have rage issues when random LONG intervals of playtime are interrupted for no real reason. I worked for a game company for a while. They had a policy that NO ONE would dare break. All patches went in on patch day. PERIOD. There had to be some kind of EPIC flaw in the game or exploit that hundreds of people were using to usher in a "hot fix". Most games are like that. Know why? People will not continue to pay for something that's not available to them at their convenience. Imagine if McDonalds closed all their drive thru's. Think people would still go there if it was a sit down only restaurant? Only die hard fatso's and parents. Tourettes. |
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... amen brother.....
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Originally Posted by Tourettes
........ People will not continue to pay for something that's not available to them at their convenience. .......
Tourettes. |
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Originally Posted by Tourettes
People will not continue to pay for something that's not available to them at their convenience.
Tourettes. |
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Originally Posted by preachmoore
... amen brother.....
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I find your lack of signature disturbing.
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Yes, I remember several years ago when there was significant downtime twice a week for maintenance. They cut that down to once a week, and the servers were basically up all the rest of time for months on end.|
Originally Posted by Lothic
If you've played this game as long as your forum reg date implies then you'd know that the increased maintenance periods we've had in the last few weeks are hardly typical for the YEARS worth of solid up-time this game has enjoyed.
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You've got to expect hardware and software problems when changes this huge occur. This latest downtime was announced last Friday, for the day when downtime is regularly scheduled. So I'm not sure what the OP has to complain about.
This could have passed for a genuine rant IF you'd left out the part about working for that game company.
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This isn't going to be a rant...but it's certainly not pleasant to hear. (Could not find a forum to post dissatisfied issues w/ the game, so if a Mod sees this and wishes to put it in the proper place please do so)
Live Server Publishes. Why so many of them? And who gave them my work schedule? Seems EVERY SINGLE TIME I have some hours to play w/o kids, the wife, or work...there's an unexpected 4 hour maintenece, or live server publish. Wait...don't they have a once a week Server Maintence? Oh yeah...that's Thursdays.
Honestly, I cannot WAIT for my subscription to go "Free" because I love this game. Really I do. But it NEVER fails to piss me off to a degree it's hard to describe to any person who doesn't have rage issues when random LONG intervals of playtime are interrupted for no real reason.
I worked for a game company for a while. They had a policy that NO ONE would dare break. All patches went in on patch day. PERIOD. There had to be some kind of EPIC flaw in the game or exploit that hundreds of people were using to usher in a "hot fix". Most games are like that. Know why? People will not continue to pay for something that's not available to them at their convenience. Imagine if McDonalds closed all their drive thru's. Think people would still go there if it was a sit down only restaurant? Only die hard fatso's and parents.
Tourettes.
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