O.K.  just for fun... allow me a bit of leeway, and then let me know what you think.

1) Let's assume that DarkFall does indeed launch on Jan. 22nd as they've said they will.

2) Let's assume that everything is Feature Complete as Tasos has said.

3) Let's assume that the game is pretty stable and relatively bug-free... again as Tasos has said.

4) Let's assume that 100k+ people download and install the game (and/or buy the box if in European countries) to play it on day one.

O.K.... now with those assumptions out of the way.

• How long will it take Aventurine to get GNi to bring more servers online?

• How will Aventurine deal with too many people trying to login to their server?

• We know how long it took Blizzard with their Dev. team and resources to bring more hardware online... how would Aventurine handle such a problem?

• Does Aventurine even WANT more than one server for DarkFall? 

• If there are player queues...
• Will Aventurine give preference to European players first, or will the NA players have equal rights to play on the European server?

Just an FYI

I realize DarkFall has said they can add more physical machines to be able to handle more users for a server... however, they've also said that at a certain point it becomes inefficient to keep adding more machines and you just need another server.

That was why the last I'd heard they were aiming for a max. of 10,000 users per server (logged in at one time).

There is also some debate on what percentage over your max. for users you can have residing on each server.  Some say only 10% are logged in at a time, but I don't think that's an accurate percentage... especially at release.

Anyway,  this is just for discussion and hypothetical situations.  Please don't get worked up about it one way or the other. 

Thanks. 

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

People wonder why there is no marketing but there is a lot of interest in this game and they are starting from nothing with no infrastructure.  Has any other company done this recently? I can't think of any though there might be.

  Maybe they could purchase some of Funcom's equipment.  : )

 Seriously, I hope they will add as many servers as needed.

Originally posted by Blodpls

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

That makes absolute sense because we all know they are in it for the passion so they will only sell the optimal number of boxes to keep the servers stable. 

I wish MMOs would just do what Eve does and let everyone play in the same game world.

Would be awesome if 200k subs played together.

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by Blodpls

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

 

That makes absolute sense because we all know they are in it for the passion so they will only sell the optimal number of boxes to keep the servers stable. 

So I assume that you would just sell unlimited quantities of the client via download and then not support them, get universally panned by all and go out of business because everyone leaves in a month?  Good plan!

You live in London you should go work at Heathrow Terminal 5, fit right in.

From my EQ days I think the servers would cater for about 40% of the population being on at a given time, but with a launch weekend that would probably be higher (60%).  10,000/.60 = 16,667, so I would guess they plan to limit sales at about 15000, until they're ready to bring a new server shard on line.

Obviously I've got no idea how many boxes they distribute, but say it's 10,000, they would hope for about 80% sell through, which would mean they'd have around 7000 download client sales to cap out.

There's a lot of risk in that, in that by limiting their initials sales, unless the game is great they're not going to be able to recuperate a big chunk of their development cost on box sales like Funcom and EA have. However, if the game is as great as they say it is, they'll be able to control the growth of the game (maybe even raise box prices) and have a smooth launch.

It should be interesting.  Again, the whole strategy is going to revolve around doing what they've said they're going to do.

Mountains will erupt and vanish, becoming deserts, and the sea will wash over the islands and the earth split open like a gassy corpses stomach and the sun will turn black as a widows skirt and the full moon will turn red with blood swollen inside it and stars fall from the sky like wind blown apples.

Originally posted by grimfall

From my EQ days I think the servers would cater for about 40% of the population being on at a given time, but with a launch weekend that would probably be higher (60%).  10,000/.60 = 16,667, so I would guess they plan to limit sales at about 15000, until they're ready to bring a new server shard on line.

Obviously I've got no idea how many boxes they distribute, but say it's 10,000, they would hope for about 80% sell through, which would mean they'd have around 7000 download client sales to cap out.

There's a lot of risk in that, in that by limiting their initials sales, unless the game is great they're not going to be able to recuperate a big chunk of their development cost on box sales like Funcom and EA have. However, if the game is as great as they say it is, they'll be able to control the growth of the game (maybe even raise box prices) and have a smooth launch.

It should be interesting.  Again, the whole strategy is going to revolve around doing what they've said they're going to do.

Yes.

That was my thinking on the subject.

Everything that Aventurine has been doing points to wanting to LIMIT the number of players to match what their hardware and/or staff is capable of supporting.

If that is indeed what their strategy is, it will be very interesting to see how it play out.

It's almost the exact opposite of what every other developer has tried to do with their MMO's release.

The reason why I think this train of thought makes sense; is that it makes some of their other decisions seem a bit more logicial.

I was just thinking that some of the decisions they have been making seemed very illogical when examined from a business perspective.

However, if it has always been their desire to only have around 10-40k players on the server, and then grow it from there.... then a lot of their decisions make quite a bit of sense actually. 

Who knows... I could be way off on my thinking here. 

For now though, that is what it looks like to me though.

So then the question becomes... what do you do if you want to play DarkFall... but can't? 

Originally posted by -Rodriguez-

Mountains will erupt and vanish, becoming deserts, and the sea will wash over the islands and the earth split open like a gassy corpses stomach and the sun will turn black as a widows skirt and the full moon will turn red with blood swollen inside it and stars fall from the sky like wind blown apples.

Hmm... I think I see where you are going with this.

I have one question though...

Are the apples Red or Green?   ... cause I like Green apples best! 

Originally posted by Blodpls

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by Blodpls

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

 

That makes absolute sense because we all know they are in it for the passion so they will only sell the optimal number of boxes to keep the servers stable. 

 

So I assume that you would just sell unlimited quantities of the client via download and then not support them, get universally panned by all and go out of business because everyone leaves in a month?  Good plan!

You live in London you should go work at Heathrow Terminal 5, fit right in.

Yes you can do it the stupid way (what you said above) or you can plan ahead and make an estimate of what you need and have infrastructures ready to accommodate extra sales if they happen. You sure know how to do business, take the first stupid idea that comes to your head! Keep them coming.

Prediction

In 30 days it won't matter

It will take a Dark Fall into........................oblivion

Yes you can do it the stupid way (what you said above) or you can plan ahead and make an estimate of what you need and have infrastructures ready to accommodate extra sales if they happen. You sure know how to do business, take the first stupid idea that comes to your head! Keep them coming.

Having previously worked for a major blue chip and been involved in setting up customer support services from scratch I can assure you that this not the best way to go about doing this.  What you are suggesting would involve a large outlay of money up front and hiring / training staff only to potentially waste it all weeks later.  Why would anyone do this?  The sensible route and the way that the majority of projects of this kind are undertaken is in phases.

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by Blodpls

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by Blodpls

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

 

That makes absolute sense because we all know they are in it for the passion so they will only sell the optimal number of boxes to keep the servers stable. 

 

So I assume that you would just sell unlimited quantities of the client via download and then not support them, get universally panned by all and go out of business because everyone leaves in a month?  Good plan!

You live in London you should go work at Heathrow Terminal 5, fit right in.

 

Yes you can do it the stupid way (what you said above) or you can plan ahead and make an estimate of what you need and have infrastructures ready to accommodate extra sales if they happen. You sure know how to do business, take the first stupid idea that comes to your head! Keep them coming.

I think that is part of the problem.

From my point of view everything Aventurine has been doing points to them wanting a limited Release.  We could go on for pages on WHY they would want to have a limited Release... but that wouldn't really get anywhere.

For me anyway, the only real question is thus:

IF Aventurine is planning on a limited Release does it make some of their more recent decisions seem more logical?  For me the answer to that is YES.

With that idea in mind it then leads to the questions that I put in the OP, and on the title of this thead.  Again, I'm not sure what the reasoning behind wanting to do a limited Release would be... for me that isn't really worth pursuing. 

For me, it is enough to see if the logic behind a limited Release gives more weight to the logic that we've been witness to so far in Aventurine's decisions.  I think that answer is affirmative, but I'm interested in other poster's opinions on the subject.

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Originally posted by xzyax

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Originally posted by grimfall

From my EQ days I think the servers would cater for about 40% of the population being on at a given time, but with a launch weekend that would probably be higher (60%).  10,000/.60 = 16,667, so I would guess they plan to limit sales at about 15000, until they're ready to bring a new server shard on line.
Obviously I've got no idea how many boxes they distribute, but say it's 10,000, they would hope for about 80% sell through, which would mean they'd have around 7000 download client sales to cap out.
There's a lot of risk in that, in that by limiting their initials sales, unless the game is great they're not going to be able to recuperate a big chunk of their development cost on box sales like Funcom and EA have. However, if the game is as great as they say it is, they'll be able to control the growth of the game (maybe even raise box prices) and have a smooth launch.
It should be interesting.  Again, the whole strategy is going to revolve around doing what they've said they're going to do.

---

Yes.
 
That was my thinking on the subject.
 
Everything that Aventurine has been doing points to wanting to LIMIT the number of players to match what their hardware and/or staff is capable of supporting.
If that is indeed what their strategy is, it will be very interesting to see how it play out.
It's almost the exact opposite of what every other developer has tried to do with their MMO's release.
 
The reason why I think this train of thought makes sense; is that it makes some of their other decisions seem a bit more logicial.
I was just thinking that some of the decisions they have been making seemed very illogical when examined from a business perspective.
However, if it has always been their desire to only have around 10-40k players on the server, and then grow it from there.... then a lot of their decisions make quite a bit of sense actually. 
 
Who knows... I could be way off on my thinking here. 
For now though, that is what it looks like to me though.
 
So then the question becomes... what do you do if you want to play DarkFall... but can't? 

---

I had never thought of it this way, but this makes perfect sense. I would be willing to wager now that this has been their plan from day one. It's brilliant.

I would assume they would have more than one server how many im not sure I would go with 10 at the least. Im sure there will be a lot of people trying out the game for the free trial, more thank 100k people of that im sure of. Reason being is that it is a free trial, and its something different than any game that has come out lately.

One of the two things will happend to  Darkfall, not having enough servers, thus leading to queues. Or having to many servers thus having some servers with to low of population to have any fun.  We saw what happened to WAR with to many servers at launch.   Its hard to get the perfect ballance with servers at launch and it could make or break the game.  But I guess having queues would be the better of the two, Id rather wait in line to play on a full server than not have to wait and play on an empty server.

 I've actually been thinking of actually trying the game out, as much as I don't like the idea of Full Loot which is really the only thing Im thinking I won't like aobut the game.  I've been gettin curious about how the game will play and maybe I might actually like Full Loot.   I just want something different, something thats not holding my hand the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want to.

People have just been caught up in the DF hate, me being one of them and it is easy to get caught up in the hate sometimes.  Im still skeptical on if the game is actually going to release and Im still not sure if Im going to like it or not. But if it does realease Jan 22, I will try the game out and find out for myself and stop giving in to the hate.

Originally posted by Leodious

 

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Originally posted by xzyax

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Originally posted by grimfall

 

From my EQ days I think the servers would cater for about 40% of the population being on at a given time, but with a launch weekend that would probably be higher (60%).  10,000/.60 = 16,667, so I would guess they plan to limit sales at about 15000, until they're ready to bring a new server shard on line.
Obviously I've got no idea how many boxes they distribute, but say it's 10,000, they would hope for about 80% sell through, which would mean they'd have around 7000 download client sales to cap out.
There's a lot of risk in that, in that by limiting their initials sales, unless the game is great they're not going to be able to recuperate a big chunk of their development cost on box sales like Funcom and EA have. However, if the game is as great as they say it is, they'll be able to control the growth of the game (maybe even raise box prices) and have a smooth launch.
It should be interesting.  Again, the whole strategy is going to revolve around doing what they've said they're going to do.

---

Yes.
 
That was my thinking on the subject.
 
Everything that Aventurine has been doing points to wanting to LIMIT the number of players to match what their hardware and/or staff is capable of supporting.
If that is indeed what their strategy is, it will be very interesting to see how it play out.
It's almost the exact opposite of what every other developer has tried to do with their MMO's release.
 
The reason why I think this train of thought makes sense; is that it makes some of their other decisions seem a bit more logicial.
I was just thinking that some of the decisions they have been making seemed very illogical when examined from a business perspective.
However, if it has always been their desire to only have around 10-40k players on the server, and then grow it from there.... then a lot of their decisions make quite a bit of sense actually. 
 
Who knows... I could be way off on my thinking here. 
For now though, that is what it looks like to me though.
 
So then the question becomes... what do you do if you want to play DarkFall... but can't? 

---

 

I had never thought of it this way, but this makes perfect sense. I would be willing to wager now that this has been their plan from day one. It's brilliant.

Yes.

The part for me that tipped me over to being convinced this was their strategy was the 1 Beta Key give-away.

That in and of itself is fairly inconsequential.  However, when taken together with all the other "odd" marketing, publicity, advertising, publishing, etc.  It starts to make a lot more sense.

It's a pretty big gamble on Aventurine's part if DarkFall isn't all that good.  If the game is solid though... their strategy might work for them in the end.  They will be counting on just a few thousands of people to like their game enough to not only to continue to play, but also convince their friends that it is THE GAME.

I think they do not know how many players will buy the game, but I reakon that they will restrict the flow from NA until there appears to be a drop of sales, of which time I think this is when if they do allow the players from NA and beyond. Personally I think that would be a good move, because then it will prevent the players who intentd to play on just NA servers from just ruining the start and abusing the game causing all sorts of problems.

On DF forums the players from NA have made it plan that they mean to cause so much grief until they get their servers because they don't care and are pissed off at Euroland getting to the action first. So lets see what happens but I am not too concerned as it will all come out in the wash one way or another.

I live in the UK and I think I may well just wait until the NA servers go live and then start to play the game so as to have my fun, purley because I am having a spine operation on 05/01/09 and wont be able to sit up for four weeks if even then so it will give me time to recover and then join in the fun on a new server.

Originally posted by NightBandit

I think they do not know how many players will buy the game, but I reakon that they will restrict the flow from NA until there appears to be a drop of sales, of which time I think this is when if they do allow the players from NA and beyond. Personally I think that would be a good move, because then it will prevent the players who intentd to play on just NA servers from just ruining the start and abusing the game causing all sorts of problems.

On DF forums the players from NA have made it plan that they mean to cause so much grief until they get their servers because they don't care and are pissed off at Euroland getting to the action first. So lets see what happens but I am not too concerned as it will all come out in the wash one way or another.

I live in the UK and I think I may well just wait until the NA servers go live and then start to play the game so as to have my fun, purley because I am having a spine operation on 05/01/09 and wont be able to sit up for four weeks if even then so it will give me time to recover and then join in the fun on a new server.

I too have read some of those posts.

It will be a shame if they do follow through with those threats. 

Originally posted by rav3n2

Originally posted by Blodpls

This is why I suspect that there might be limited numbers of copies of the client available for purchase on day 1.

 

That makes absolute sense because we all know they are in it for the passion so they will only sell the optimal number of boxes to keep the servers stable. 

Wow, really sure about  yourself using that icon on someone that makes much more sense than you. Nobody serious wants angry costumers, even if this means many sells at first.