I really hope this isnt some underhanded way of introducing "scarcity" for prepurchases. Not that we would ever know the difference.
For you techies out there, is there such a thing as a "beta server capacity?"
Short answer....yes.
Long answer....This is due to a couple of factors.
The first being bandwidth, it is unlikely they have purchased the bandwidth to support a ton of servers at this point in development. Less bandwidth means less physical servers leading to point 2.
Each physical server is only capable of handling a certain set amount of send/recieve requests without introducing major lag. So they can't just put an unlimited amount of players on a server.
I really hope this isnt some underhanded way of introducing "scarcity" for prepurchases. Not that we would ever know the difference.
For you techies out there, is there such a thing as a "beta server capacity?"
Short answer....yes.
Long answer....This is due to a couple of factors.
The first being bandwidth, it is unlikely they have purchased the bandwidth to support a ton of servers at this point in development. Less bandwidth means less physical servers leading to point 2.
Each physical server is only capable of handling a certain set amount of send/recieve requests without introducing major lag. So they can't just put an unlimited amount of players on a server.
I really hope this isnt some underhanded way of introducing "scarcity" for prepurchases. Not that we would ever know the difference.
For you techies out there, is there such a thing as a "beta server capacity?"
Short answer....yes.
Long answer....This is due to a couple of factors.
The first being bandwidth, it is unlikely they have purchased the bandwidth to support a ton of servers at this point in development. Less bandwidth means less physical servers leading to point 2.
Each physical server is only capable of handling a certain set amount of send/recieve requests without introducing major lag. So they can't just put an unlimited amount of players on a server.
Cool, thanks for the good explanation.
This is what the 'overflow' servers are for and I would think that mechanic would require quite a bit of testing to insure there is no data loss when transition.
Yeah seems a bit underhanded to offer guaranteed beta access then reneg on it. Get more servers for the people you promised beta to, you will need them for launch anyway.
At this point I wouldnt be surprised if it was a quick cash grab before they tell the Europeans that they are dropping the region locking.
Yeah seems a bit underhanded to offer guaranteed beta access then reneg on it. Get more servers for the people you promised beta to, you will need them for launch anyway.
At this point I wouldnt be surprised if it was a quick cash grab before they tell the Europeans that they are dropping the region locking.
It's not a reneg. They'll allow anyone who has prepurchased into the beta. They'll just stop allowing new pre-purchasers when they get to their capacity. When they feel they can/are able to add capacity they restart pre purchases. Nothing underhanded going on here.
It's not a reneg. They'll allow anyone who has prepurchased into the beta. They'll just stop allowing new pre-purchasers when they get to their capacity. When they feel they can/are able to add capacity they restart pre purchases. Nothing underhanded going on here.
This ^
They never claimed pre-purchases would be unlimited. In fact they've been stressing (repeatedly) the exact opposite.
If it was just a marketing ploy, they would make it a true limited quantity offering, fail to guarantee that pre-purchases will be available right up until shortly before launch and they wouldn't have offered assurance that if capacity causes a temporary halt, they aim to increase capacity asap in order to be able to re-open pre-purchase.
Obviously, if they exceed capacity with enough lead time before the next Weekend Beta Event, they will likely have the time to add capacity with out any pause at all. I think this is more to prevent capacity being over-run by people pre-purchasing en masse just before, or even during, a WBE.
I think the announcement is because they've probably sold many more copies than they originally anticipated to sell and now they're trying to hedge in case they can't fit everyone in for beta.
Because, if they hadn't sold a bunch . . . why bother with this message? They would just remain quiet and keep advertising the pre-purchase.
If they've sold many more copies than they originally anticipated, then they should have no problem adding capacity. It's not like they have to add that capacity yesterday to deal with sudden demand. They know exactly how many pre-purchases they have - thus they know exactly how much capacity they need.
If it sounds like spin (sorry fanboys) it probably is!
I think the announcement is because they've probably sold many more copies than they originally anticipated to sell and now they're trying to hedge in case they can't fit everyone in for beta.
Because, if they hadn't sold a bunch . . . why bother with this message? They would just remain quiet and keep advertising the pre-purchase.
If they've sold many more copies than they originally anticipated, then they should have no problem adding capacity. It's not like they have to add that capacity yesterday to deal with sudden demand. They know exactly how many pre-purchases they have - thus they know exactly how much capacity they need.
If it sounds like spin (sorry fanboys) it probably is!
Like the post above mentions if there's a massive surge in purchases right before a weekend or even during it then no they will not know exactly how many pre-purchases there are. It wouldn't suprise me if quite a few people are holding off until they know the date of the first beta weekend.
Like the post above mentions if there's a massive surge in purchases right before a weekend or even during it then no they will not know exactly how many pre-purchases there are. It wouldn't suprise me if quite a few people are holding off until they know the date of the first beta weekend.
A lot of people are holding off until they know they wont be region locked.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I'd say there's a bit of marketing going on with this annoucement, but not surprising since they are following the EA/SWTOR script pretty closely.
1) High priced Collectors editions - Check
2) Now we get the "Quantities are limited, buy soon" message - Check
3) Early beta access for pre-orders - Check
Pretty standard tactics for almost all MMO's these days actually.
I would agree. This is a classic marketing technique, done by pretty much every business in the world from carnies working rubes at summer fairs to guys selling mult million dollar condos in Martha's Vinyard, and pretty much every stop in between.
The people who have already bought it get the feeling of exclusivity--you may say you don't care on an individual level, but human nature dictates otherwise when considering the whole. Also it applies pressure to those who are on the fence, considering the option to do so.
They may suspend it a day before head start or even a week prior, and fulfill all of their promises of limited early release.
I don't think it's really really matters them when do you buy the product, 2 months before release or 2 days. Also all boxed prepurche sold here in the first day morning, I had to buy a digital copy from buy.gw2.com.
It is a very obviouse bussiness strategy, the fact they are stating that they wont have good service because to many bought the game is just very very stupid statment.
With all the money they get from the pre-purchase they can buy as many servers as they need, there should not and will not be a reduction in service.
If they actually did reduce service quality, to me it means that they prefer to keep the money rather than produce quality.
While marketing may be heavily involved, the truth is there is not an ounce of proof; this board is jumping to conclusions based on others actions.
The fact of that matter is that the reasoning associated is completely fallacious and lacking logic.
In this case it would be the fallacy of composition.
It's also pretty humorous to see all these MBA's outlining spouting off uneducated assumptions and then making the disclaimer that anyone who thinks otherwise is some sort of fanboi.
It is a very obviouse bussiness strategy, the fact they are stating that they wont have good service because to many bought the game is just very very stupid statment.
With all the money they get from the pre-purchase they can buy as many servers as they need, there should not and will not be a reduction in service.
If they actually did reduce service quality, to me it means that they prefer to keep the money rather than produce quality.
You have NO idea what beta is then. You dont just throw money at it, and get as many servers as possible, you have to stress test it. This is how they know if thier coding is working or not.
I fully expected the pre-purchase option to stop and go as they need more people for testing, this is not something new.
Besides we want large scale battles, you cant have that if the population is spread out among 50 servers.
You have NO idea what beta is then. You dont just throw money at it, and get as many servers as possible, you have to stress test it. This is how they know if thier coding is working or not. I fully expected the pre-purchase option to stop and go as they need more people for testing, this is not something new. Besides we want large scale battles, you cant have that if the population is spread out among 50 servers.
I may be wrong but I don't think that the prepurchase betas are being used to stress test. That wouldn't be a very good way to show your game off... tens of thousands of people who can't play because your servers lag and crash.
I think the prepurchase is all about NCSoft not wanting to buy X servers and Y bandwidth before knowing how many copies will actually be sold. It's a huge risk that every MMO faces. Game companies started using PreOrders to guage their sales but found that people would PreOrder and then cancel those orders before release leaving them stuck with extra bandwidth and servers that they had to pay for. The PrePurchase with no way of backing out will greatly reduce NCSoft's risk when setting up their data centers for GW2.
Actual i just see it as a needed way to be able to say to someone prepurchaing late and register under the beta event - that it might be to late to be able to join that event.
Arenanet have answered questions about Pre-purchase availability on the FB page today. People will be aby to pre-purchase until shortly before launch, but pre-purchase may be turned off and on at various points if beta capacity is exceeded:
Many of our community members are asking about how long the pre-purchase offer will last.
Pre-purchase will run up until shortly before launch. However, we also want to maintain a high quality of service for those who have pre-purchased and are participating in the Beta Weekend Events.
With that in mind, if we max out our beta server capacity, we may *temporarily* make pre-purchase unavailable until we can bring more capacity online. Bottom line is if you want to participate in the Beta Weekend Events, don’t wait. ~RB2
Anything is limited... Of course if enough players would pre purchase the game they will have to quit taking in orders until they buy more servers and of course they stated that this might happen, or they will be in trouble later.
So you might miss the next beta event if you wait too long, nothing strange there.
I love how the assumption is always that Arenanet is lying. I have been playing GW1 from the beggining (though less so these days admittedly). Not once since 2004 have i been made aware of any dishonesty on thier part. Since that time i have lost all of my former best friends because they couldnt be honest (or loyal). I have even had to replace the girl i was in a LTR with when GW1 launched for the same reasons. Most of my family, i disowned for the usual lack of honesty that we have all come to expect from people. I only have maybe a handful of people still in my life from 2004. And yet this company who i have had a steady relationship with there product, has behaved more respectfully towards there customers than most of us can managed to treat each other with as individual people.
Im not saying i have liked everything that they have ever done with thier game. I have disagreed with some of thier decisions, but ive never felt lied to or otherwise betrayed by what they have done. Point is that maybe, just maybe, your not being lied to. I know its expecting alot from the "But ive been burned before" crowd. We have all been burned before. Just because my last GF lied to me doesnt automatically mean that my current one is too. Unless your willing to paint all humans with the same brush, why treat all companies the same way (who are all also made of different humans). Yes, most companies will lie to you. So will most people.
Sorry for interupting the witch hunt. Carry on with your pitchforks and torches.
You have NO idea what beta is then. You dont just throw money at it, and get as many servers as possible, you have to stress test it. This is how they know if thier coding is working or not. I fully expected the pre-purchase option to stop and go as they need more people for testing, this is not something new. Besides we want large scale battles, you cant have that if the population is spread out among 50 servers.
I may be wrong but I don't think that the prepurchase betas are being used to stress test. That wouldn't be a very good way to show your game off... tens of thousands of people who can't play because your servers lag and crash.
I think the prepurchase is all about NCSoft not wanting to buy X servers and Y bandwidth before knowing how many copies will actually be sold. It's a huge risk that every MMO faces. Game companies started using PreOrders to guage their sales but found that people would PreOrder and then cancel those orders before release leaving them stuck with extra bandwidth and servers that they had to pay for. The PrePurchase with no way of backing out will greatly reduce NCSoft's risk when setting up their data centers for GW2.
Actually I think you have the wrong Mentality, Pre-Purchased Betas should be pretty good, but its still BETA
BETA are used as tests to test out everything including Crashes, Lags and Bugs.
They do all major testings in house, but with the amount of players going into Pre-Purchased BETA its the best time to stress test game codes and game stability.
If the BETA client Crashes, it means they have time to figure out what caused the crash, how to fix it in preparation to the next Beta Weekend. And if it crashed again, they can test and figure out another way to fix it. All before Actual Launch Date.
This is BETA its not Head Start, you will not be given an POLISHED READY FOR LIVE GAME.
Remember its also your job to submit bugs and lag reports so that when it does go live, you will have a better game.
Life is a Maze, so make sure you bring your GPS incase you get lost in it.
Comments
Short answer....yes.
Long answer....This is due to a couple of factors.
The first being bandwidth, it is unlikely they have purchased the bandwidth to support a ton of servers at this point in development. Less bandwidth means less physical servers leading to point 2.
Each physical server is only capable of handling a certain set amount of send/recieve requests without introducing major lag. So they can't just put an unlimited amount of players on a server.
Cool, thanks for the good explanation.
This is what the 'overflow' servers are for and I would think that mechanic would require quite a bit of testing to insure there is no data loss when transition.
Yeah seems a bit underhanded to offer guaranteed beta access then reneg on it. Get more servers for the people you promised beta to, you will need them for launch anyway.
At this point I wouldnt be surprised if it was a quick cash grab before they tell the Europeans that they are dropping the region locking.
It's not a reneg. They'll allow anyone who has prepurchased into the beta. They'll just stop allowing new pre-purchasers when they get to their capacity. When they feel they can/are able to add capacity they restart pre purchases. Nothing underhanded going on here.
This ^
They never claimed pre-purchases would be unlimited. In fact they've been stressing (repeatedly) the exact opposite.
If it was just a marketing ploy, they would make it a true limited quantity offering, fail to guarantee that pre-purchases will be available right up until shortly before launch and they wouldn't have offered assurance that if capacity causes a temporary halt, they aim to increase capacity asap in order to be able to re-open pre-purchase.
Obviously, if they exceed capacity with enough lead time before the next Weekend Beta Event, they will likely have the time to add capacity with out any pause at all. I think this is more to prevent capacity being over-run by people pre-purchasing en masse just before, or even during, a WBE.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
If they've sold many more copies than they originally anticipated, then they should have no problem adding capacity. It's not like they have to add that capacity yesterday to deal with sudden demand. They know exactly how many pre-purchases they have - thus they know exactly how much capacity they need.
If it sounds like spin (sorry fanboys) it probably is!
When someone says "limited supply," it makes me want to buy it before they run out of product.
Like the post above mentions if there's a massive surge in purchases right before a weekend or even during it then no they will not know exactly how many pre-purchases there are. It wouldn't suprise me if quite a few people are holding off until they know the date of the first beta weekend.
A lot of people are holding off until they know they wont be region locked.
I'd say there's a bit of marketing going on with this annoucement, but not surprising since they are following the EA/SWTOR script pretty closely.
1) High priced Collectors editions - Check
2) Now we get the "Quantities are limited, buy soon" message - Check
3) Early beta access for pre-orders - Check
Pretty standard tactics for almost all MMO's these days actually.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I would agree. This is a classic marketing technique, done by pretty much every business in the world from carnies working rubes at summer fairs to guys selling mult million dollar condos in Martha's Vinyard, and pretty much every stop in between.
The people who have already bought it get the feeling of exclusivity--you may say you don't care on an individual level, but human nature dictates otherwise when considering the whole. Also it applies pressure to those who are on the fence, considering the option to do so.
They may suspend it a day before head start or even a week prior, and fulfill all of their promises of limited early release.
It's no big deal, it's just business.
I don't think it's really really matters them when do you buy the product, 2 months before release or 2 days. Also all boxed prepurche sold here in the first day morning, I had to buy a digital copy from buy.gw2.com.
It is a very obviouse bussiness strategy, the fact they are stating that they wont have good service because to many bought the game is just very very stupid statment.
With all the money they get from the pre-purchase they can buy as many servers as they need, there should not and will not be a reduction in service.
If they actually did reduce service quality, to me it means that they prefer to keep the money rather than produce quality.
While marketing may be heavily involved, the truth is there is not an ounce of proof; this board is jumping to conclusions based on others actions.
The fact of that matter is that the reasoning associated is completely fallacious and lacking logic.
In this case it would be the fallacy of composition.
It's also pretty humorous to see all these MBA's outlining spouting off uneducated assumptions and then making the disclaimer that anyone who thinks otherwise is some sort of fanboi.
You have NO idea what beta is then. You dont just throw money at it, and get as many servers as possible, you have to stress test it. This is how they know if thier coding is working or not.
I fully expected the pre-purchase option to stop and go as they need more people for testing, this is not something new.
Besides we want large scale battles, you cant have that if the population is spread out among 50 servers.
I may be wrong but I don't think that the prepurchase betas are being used to stress test. That wouldn't be a very good way to show your game off... tens of thousands of people who can't play because your servers lag and crash.
I think the prepurchase is all about NCSoft not wanting to buy X servers and Y bandwidth before knowing how many copies will actually be sold. It's a huge risk that every MMO faces. Game companies started using PreOrders to guage their sales but found that people would PreOrder and then cancel those orders before release leaving them stuck with extra bandwidth and servers that they had to pay for. The PrePurchase with no way of backing out will greatly reduce NCSoft's risk when setting up their data centers for GW2.
Actual i just see it as a needed way to be able to say to someone prepurchaing late and register under the beta event - that it might be to late to be able to join that event.
Anything is limited... Of course if enough players would pre purchase the game they will have to quit taking in orders until they buy more servers and of course they stated that this might happen, or they will be in trouble later.
So you might miss the next beta event if you wait too long, nothing strange there.
I love how the assumption is always that Arenanet is lying. I have been playing GW1 from the beggining (though less so these days admittedly). Not once since 2004 have i been made aware of any dishonesty on thier part. Since that time i have lost all of my former best friends because they couldnt be honest (or loyal). I have even had to replace the girl i was in a LTR with when GW1 launched for the same reasons. Most of my family, i disowned for the usual lack of honesty that we have all come to expect from people. I only have maybe a handful of people still in my life from 2004. And yet this company who i have had a steady relationship with there product, has behaved more respectfully towards there customers than most of us can managed to treat each other with as individual people.
Im not saying i have liked everything that they have ever done with thier game. I have disagreed with some of thier decisions, but ive never felt lied to or otherwise betrayed by what they have done. Point is that maybe, just maybe, your not being lied to. I know its expecting alot from the "But ive been burned before" crowd. We have all been burned before. Just because my last GF lied to me doesnt automatically mean that my current one is too. Unless your willing to paint all humans with the same brush, why treat all companies the same way (who are all also made of different humans). Yes, most companies will lie to you. So will most people.
Sorry for interupting the witch hunt. Carry on with your pitchforks and torches.
Actually I think you have the wrong Mentality, Pre-Purchased Betas should be pretty good, but its still BETA
BETA are used as tests to test out everything including Crashes, Lags and Bugs.
They do all major testings in house, but with the amount of players going into Pre-Purchased BETA its the best time to stress test game codes and game stability.
If the BETA client Crashes, it means they have time to figure out what caused the crash, how to fix it in preparation to the next Beta Weekend. And if it crashed again, they can test and figure out another way to fix it. All before Actual Launch Date.
This is BETA its not Head Start, you will not be given an POLISHED READY FOR LIVE GAME.
Remember its also your job to submit bugs and lag reports so that when it does go live, you will have a better game.
Life is a Maze, so make sure you bring your GPS incase you get lost in it.