Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:44 am
I understand and agree with the concerns over any individual suddenly dropping interest in the game and there should be a facility built into the game where "if lobby server A is unavailable check B then C", etc. in order that the game continue. There should not be a single point of failure.
Thalgor kept the servers up and now TigerEye does that, in turn. Having the servers up is more important than anything else and bitching at the people letting you play the game is not the right strategy.
It is easy to get emotional about this game and it's survival. In fact, I not only think it is valid to ask "what would happen if TigerEye (or whoever else) got hit by a truck today?", I think it is unreasonable not to have a backup plan for that.
I've been out of it for quite awhile but my opinion is there needs to be a plan (I hope there already is) where if one lobby server is down a mechanism exists to check for others.
After Microsoft dropped the game I made a program where individuals running independent servers could be accessed. If one was down that would not prevent you from accessing another (you had to enter them though, and we published them on the zone staging room. It was painful but worked). While suboptimal we operated in survival mode like this until Thalgor got dedicated servers running.
Then, after malicious folks tried to end the game I offered code for Thalgor (and Pook) to use (via lobby hooks) to protect the game if he chose. There was no requirement to run it and there were never any back doors. I did not run the site and I could only play the game (which was all I cared about). My point here is that there can quite easily be a segregation between these roles; I've always held that systems software and operations should be independently managed departments.
Having someone keep up servers for everyone else deserves a lot more respect than they get. Keeping the systems up is like being a firefighter but people focus more on the downtime than the efforts required to keep them up. Operations is a thankless job. It's easy to overlook but, honestly, this is crucial to the game's survival and deserves serious respect.
And to chime in on the OP's topic, this is a game for which (since MS) everything has and should continue to be done simply because you want to, without obligation. If you find you can't (like myself) then you need to transition your work to others.
In summary: have a backup plan and try to avoid creating hell for the folks making it possible for you to play a fun game. I don't know all the details of everything going on nowadays but having servers to play on around the clock trumps most every other concern.
-VenCain
Thalgor kept the servers up and now TigerEye does that, in turn. Having the servers up is more important than anything else and bitching at the people letting you play the game is not the right strategy.
It is easy to get emotional about this game and it's survival. In fact, I not only think it is valid to ask "what would happen if TigerEye (or whoever else) got hit by a truck today?", I think it is unreasonable not to have a backup plan for that.
I've been out of it for quite awhile but my opinion is there needs to be a plan (I hope there already is) where if one lobby server is down a mechanism exists to check for others.
After Microsoft dropped the game I made a program where individuals running independent servers could be accessed. If one was down that would not prevent you from accessing another (you had to enter them though, and we published them on the zone staging room. It was painful but worked). While suboptimal we operated in survival mode like this until Thalgor got dedicated servers running.
Then, after malicious folks tried to end the game I offered code for Thalgor (and Pook) to use (via lobby hooks) to protect the game if he chose. There was no requirement to run it and there were never any back doors. I did not run the site and I could only play the game (which was all I cared about). My point here is that there can quite easily be a segregation between these roles; I've always held that systems software and operations should be independently managed departments.
Having someone keep up servers for everyone else deserves a lot more respect than they get. Keeping the systems up is like being a firefighter but people focus more on the downtime than the efforts required to keep them up. Operations is a thankless job. It's easy to overlook but, honestly, this is crucial to the game's survival and deserves serious respect.
And to chime in on the OP's topic, this is a game for which (since MS) everything has and should continue to be done simply because you want to, without obligation. If you find you can't (like myself) then you need to transition your work to others.
In summary: have a backup plan and try to avoid creating hell for the folks making it possible for you to play a fun game. I don't know all the details of everything going on nowadays but having servers to play on around the clock trumps most every other concern.
-VenCain
