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Release time of day - Confidence or Unnecessary Risk?

GruntiesGrunties Member Posts: 859

Most of us have been through multiple mmo releases. Few have gone perfectly according to plan, but some of the luckier ones have managed to pull it off without leaving a bad impression. The first hours the servers come up are usually the rockiest as everyone clammers to get in. Outages, login queues, high load problems that never showed up during regular beta/stress tests. Sometimes the mmo doesn't even become playable until several hours after the time it was scheduled to come online.

As has become recently known, GW2 headstart will be taking off at midnight pacific time. A very unusual time for a release imo. Not because of the schedule of the players -  No matter what time of day that is chosen, there will be some locations in the world that it appeals to and not others. No it seems risky because it leaves little room for error from a technical/support standpoint.

Is ANet going to be able to field the full support staff that the game and the players deserve at this hour and the hours that follow? Are they going to be able to stay up all night as long as it takes to fix any problems? Are they going to be alert enough to do it properly? This would be a trivial thing if it was released in the middle of the day as other mmos have done, when they are fully staffed. So a part of me is concerned that they will only have a skeleton crew to clumsily deal with problems until the morning.

On the positive side, everything about the game so far has been quality, we have seen no major stopping issues in any of the stresstests or beta events, and ANet has a solid track record. Perhaps they are simply very confident in their product and figure support will not be a concern. You only get one chance to make a good first impression though, is it an unneccesary risk?

I would appreciate feedback from players to perhaps ease my fears, and maybe give examples of other mmos im unaware of that went a similar route.

Waiting for: A skill-based MMO with Freedom and Consequence.
Woe to thee, the pierce-ed.

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Comments

  • RoxtarrRoxtarr Member CommonPosts: 1,122

    Blizzard does the same thing these days, if I recall (it was for MoP, I know)

    If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
    image

  • ionxeelionxeel Member UncommonPosts: 318

    I doubt any developer (not just ANet) would leave a "skeleton crew" to cover a launch of a game they've been working on for so long.

  • RoxtarrRoxtarr Member CommonPosts: 1,122
    Originally posted by Epic1oots

    12midnight? I thought its 12pm.

    Original timer was wrong, it's confirmed midnight PST according to anet

    If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
    image

  • JustsomenoobJustsomenoob Member UncommonPosts: 880

    I'm sure they'll have plenty of people around at night in this special case.

  • GruntiesGrunties Member Posts: 859

    Originally posted by ionxeel
     

    I doubt any developer (not just ANet) would leave a "skeleton crew" to cover a launch of a game they've been working on for so long.

    As do I. But I also haven't seen many that were well staffed from midnight to 6. Every time ive seen a major issue during such a time period, it typically meant players had to wait until morning for it to be resolved. Thus my concern. I don't want GW2 to get flak for something like that.
    Originally posted by Epic1oots

    12midnight? I thought its 12pm.

    The countdown timer on the website was apparently false, the GW2 twitter identified it was an error and that it was actually 12am midnight.

    Waiting for: A skill-based MMO with Freedom and Consequence.
    Woe to thee, the pierce-ed.

  • HybridvampyrHybridvampyr Member Posts: 61

    Im sure they can afford to pay people Night rates to work on launch night. Hell I'd imagine the atmosphere there will be fantastic so im sure they'll have no trouble staying awake either!

  • HonnerHonner Member Posts: 504

    Well, during beta weekend 2, 3 I log in right when the event started and I had no problems of any kind, I don't see why the head start day will be any different.

  • CelciusCelcius Member RarePosts: 1,865

    The only thing about launch that concerns me is server capacity. During the beta there were times where me and my friends tried to make characters on the same server at different times of the day and eventually someone would not be able to make a character because the server was full. When they announced overflow servers I kinda figured that this would be part of that, but it seems like it is not the case. Hopefully they do some kinda free transfers at launch or they do what it originally sounded like they would do. (have you go to another server as an overflow temporariliy)

    Beyond that, I have no real major concerns. There was occasional lag during the betas (mostly during BWE3 for me) but it was usually fixed pretty quickly.They will be all hands on deck come launch day though, you can trust me on that. They will probably have the whole company working that day from before launch until well into the evening. I am sure they set it up like black friday at a toy store in terms of schedule.

  • XiaokiXiaoki Member EpicPosts: 3,823

    I guess they figure that a lot of people wont stay up to log in as soon as the servers open which means that the servers wont be as congested which in turn means that support wont be overloaded.


    Im on EST so I will be there for the 3am start time but probably only for an hour or so.

  • JustsomenoobJustsomenoob Member UncommonPosts: 880

    It'd be funny if the servers crashed 2 minutes in and were down til 8 am, then in the morning there's a MOTD saying:

     

    "SORRY GUYS DIDN'T THINK PEOPLE WOULD BE LOGGING IN ALREADY LOL"

  • azmundaiazmundai Member UncommonPosts: 1,419

    time and 1/2

    temporary staff working in shifts along with standard tech staff = 24 hour support.

    it's not like there was no support for rift, or swtor or tsw after 6pm.

    the start time really makes no difference in the level of support.

    LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
    I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already :)

  • GorillaGorilla Member UncommonPosts: 2,235

    Most devs struggle to get the servers up and they are late either 10's of minutes or even hours. Of course many people sit at the login page clicking play over and over, things get chaotic as time passes more and more people arrive and start hitting play.

    Anet are fairly radical. They open the servers early (or did in beta) people arrive, get in, start playing, chaos averted (at least partially).

    Justified confidence imho.

  • TokkenTokken Member EpicPosts: 3,547

    The devs want a smooth launch which will enhance the reputation of the game.... so they will have plenty of staff on hand to deal with problems.


    Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004!  Make PvE GREAT Again!

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    Originally posted by Grunties

    Most of us have been through multiple mmo releases. Few have gone perfectly according to plan, but some of the luckier ones have managed to pull it off without leaving a bad impression. The first hours the servers come up are usually the rockiest as everyone clammers to get in. Outages, login queues, high load problems that never showed up during regular beta/stress tests. Sometimes the mmo doesn't even become playable until several hours after the time it was scheduled to come online.

    As has become recently known, GW2 headstart will be taking off at midnight pacific time. A very unusual time for a release imo. Not because of the schedule of the players -  No matter what time of day that is chosen, there will be some locations in the world that it appeals to and not others. No it seems risky because it leaves little room for error from a technical/support standpoint.

    Is ANet going to be able to field the full support staff that the game and the players deserve at this hour and the hours that follow? Are they going to be able to stay up all night as long as it takes to fix any problems? Are they going to be alert enough to do it properly? This would be a trivial thing if it was released in the middle of the day as other mmos have done, when they are fully staffed. So a part of me is concerned that they will only have a skeleton crew to clumsily deal with problems until the morning.

    On the positive side, everything about the game so far has been quality, we have seen no major stopping issues in any of the stresstests or beta events, and ANet has a solid track record. Perhaps they are simply very confident in their product and figure support will not be a concern. You only get one chance to make a good first impression though, is it an unneccesary risk?

    I would appreciate feedback from players to perhaps ease my fears, and maybe give examples of other mmos im unaware of that went a similar route.

    No matter what time they releases it will be plenty of overtime for all tech people and programmers. So I don´t really see what it matters, people will work around the clock the first 2 weeks no matter what time the release is.

  • Lord.BachusLord.Bachus Member RarePosts: 9,686

    Early acces Release time overehere in Europe is 9AM on a Saturday morning..

     

    Meaning the servers will be stressed right away and continously for the whole weekend , with a worldwide release time, there will allways be prime time somewhere 

    Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)

  • eye_meye_m Member UncommonPosts: 3,317

    If a million ~ish people stay up late to log into GW2 when the gates first open, Anet will be having one hell of a party.

    All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.

    I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.

    I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.

    I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.

  • InFlamestwoInFlamestwo Member Posts: 662

    Unusual for Americans. Europe never get the chance to have a good time like this, we only get the shit times when it comes to releases of new games. Please let us have this.

    image

  • TheDarkrayneTheDarkrayne Member EpicPosts: 5,297

    I think it's a bad time to have a launch. Mainly because it encourages thousands of people to stay up all night.. and we know they will. Glad I'm in the EU and don't have to totally ruin my sleeping pattern.

    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
  • KanethKaneth Member RarePosts: 2,286
    Originally posted by Vannor

    I think it's a bad time to have a launch. Mainly because it encourages thousands of people to stay up all night.. and we know they will. Glad I'm in the EU and don't have to totally ruin my sleeping pattern.

    It's called personal responsibility. If folks want to stay up for the launch of a game, that's their choice. It's not like midnight releases are uncommon. Plenty of games, movies, books, etc. have all had midnight releases in the past.

    I'll be up....working in the ER..../sigh.

  • MagnetiaMagnetia Member UncommonPosts: 1,015

    No sub. Just play whenever you can XD

    Did we care when diablo or swotor opened?

    Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?

  • EzhaeEzhae Member UncommonPosts: 735

    It's a launch day. No matter at what hour they would start, the staff will be working 24 hours anyway. It's a global launch and people will be loggining in at every point of that day. It's not relaly uncomon in game industry for developers and support to stay extra hours on release. They are most likely prepared for it and they all know how it works and what kind of attention it requires.    

     

  • EctoronEctoron Member UncommonPosts: 5

    I bet they will have a launch party at their office at Friday evening and after a few hours of having fun, something good to eat and congratulating themselfes for the good work done so far they just start up the servers at midnight.

  • Matheusor1Matheusor1 Member Posts: 174

    The headstart will have less players than BWE 3, because it will be populated only by pre-purchasers. In the beta event, they handed out keys like candy, every single server was full, and still we had no login issues.

    I don't get people complaining about the time. They were complaining when they thought it was 12pm (blah blah we'll be getting 12 hours less), now they're complaining it's 12am (you got your hours back, didn't you?). If that time is not good for you, big deal, there's no need to rush. After that day, you'll have the game forever anyways.

    Also, this is not the release, this is the pre-purchase headstart. Save your release worries for the 28th.

  • NeferaNefera Member Posts: 426

    I do have a fair bit of confidence in ArenaNet to be able to handle the pre-release and launch. Three beta weekends, two stress tests, and another stress test today - it does seem like they're trying to do a fair bit of testing and practice to make sure things go smooth on launch day. To me this looks like they're at least aiming to be very prepared.

  • fiontarfiontar Member UncommonPosts: 3,682

    It's a dumb time, but it seems that Arenanet needs to feel they are the center of the universe.  Midnight Eastern time would have been better for the largest percentage of players in US and EU time zones. It would have put the 1AM to 5AM start times out over the Atlantic Ocean, Giving all of the EU dawn time or later starts and all of the NA time zones no later than a 1AM start. Fine for Oceana as well.

    On the plus side, it's a true 3 day head start, not 2 1/2 days like most games pull, but the entire eastern half of the US/Canada and most of South America are completely screwed. (I'm going to make an educated guess that we are talking about 30% of all the pre-purchase customers of the game will be in a time zone where the start time will be between 2AM and 4AM local time).

    I think the Arenanet tech and CSR staff would probably prefer a 9PM PST start time as well, as the first few hours are typically the roughest.

    Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
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