Reality check for DPG howler monkeys....

I bet what they are dealing with is pretty challenging.

Its easy to, on days where this happens, just attack the people dealing with the problem, and assume the problem is with them.

Maybe the issue is there isnt enough funding for staff that could work through the bigger issues in a 22 year old game. (while things are running "smoothly" on "Good days" )

Our approach could be wrong, expanding the player base and there by raising capital may be the real solution.


Maybe advertising is the answer? It may also be a bad idea depending on the cost, i don't want to bankrupt our game witch seems to just be hanging in there with its small team and cookie cutter, expans with ever decreasing size.

I'm a mason, this is not my field, just trying to look at it from a different angle then the normal


"FIX IT OUR ILL CANCEL AND WRITE A SCATHING POST"

Wow, I have not been on the forums in years and it doesn't look any different. Same rants. Same replies. Just a prettier environment. Aaaaaah.... nostalgia.

It is pathetic and sad the forums have devolved into a censor fest. This is the new "Community" I guess.

OMG... I seriously got a mental image of Holly running out the building with Cat6 network cables stuffed down her shirt and ends coming out of her work briefcase..... it was kinda hawt.

....and freaking hilarious..... just thought I'd share....

If you had the chance to log in to the chat channel before you got kicked: You'd see 99 general chat channels maxed out at 200 persons each. This is at a MINIMUM $300,000 in Sub revenue. If you think that doesn't fund this dinosaur, I'd like to point you to Amazon's services where 20k simultaneous connections costs you a SIGNIFICANT fraction of that, running on EPYC hardware. Theyre probably losing money trying to continue to host their data centers in house.

Someone doesn't understand how chat channels work (or how people spam /join general over and over trying to get in the "real" one)....

You do know they have limited the number of connections that can join a server, right?

And that limit is like 15% of the number you quoted?

Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS.

Pick one. Fix your problems. Fire your network staff and let professionals handle network traffic, database redundancy, 99.999% uptime, and regionalized connectivity. PaaS, SaaS, whatever man. Just do it already.

Im talking about the Chat client built into the server select screen... Not an in game chat channel.

That is the thinking I am paid to correct in real life. The "excuse farm" method. Truth is, there is no excuse in the bigger picture, and if you go back and re read, this has nothing to do with individual efforts really, more of the whole enchilada sort of thing.

Advertising can be the answer, but if you actually worked in that world you know that costs are inflated by about 300% on a good day right now because everyone, including their dogs, literally.... are on their technology, streaming, watching TV, so all advertising is at a premium right now, hidden in as "covid risk fees" in some platforms of adverstising developers, which is utter BS. But I digress.

It doesn't matter what the cause is... it could literally be howler monkeys and hamsters that I always profess.... you can still change it for the better.

Ultimately the problem with interruptions in any service is with "them". That is what people are going to think, no matter who or what exactly is at fault, even a secondary provider that provides them with hosting, or ISP or whatever.... it is still the fault of "them". That is the first thing I get my clients to accept. I also tell them that there are often extenuating circumstances beyond their control, but you still have to.... Take ownership of your issues...... This is another step in fixing issues when I consult.
This is because your clients may not really understand there are things out of your control, so why spend effort trying to explain something that will sound like an excuse, unless you are really adept at doing so, and the customer already understands the ramifications behind it?

I don't know what would be the exact correct action either, I have my suspicions, but with out more data and a more complete picture, other than the stuff I have already extrapolated by deduction, I don't have an exact answer as to what that "fix" might be.


What I do know, as well as many many other players know, what they are doing right now isn't working....

They need to come out and REALLY communicate with the playerbase on what the heck is going on with the servers, and do whatever is needed to resolve the issue. No more bandaids on a wound that requires stitches. That is lunacy. I have walked away from EQ1 until that happens. Not putting up with it anymore. I have better things I can do with my time.

HEY!!! What are you doing on here!!!??!? Go help your cousin howler monkeys fix the issues....

Seriously, welcome back, and I don't think I am prettier, just gotten a bit better, like a fine wine aging... but thank you for the compliment!!

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Addressing all the replies via SaaS AWS, PDF, BBQ, ETC ETC.....

Ya I would really like to know what they use. Most of these services are better and cheaper. Hell even Rackspace would be cheaper than maintaining in house anything. Most big indie games run on services/remotes like these, and they are pretty good comparatively....

This is what I am saying, big picture, there has got to be a better solution, and you guys are all contributing to it.... I just don't understand, they are getting free pro advice, powerful brainstorming solutions, and all we want out of it is to pay them and enjoy our hobby..... *shakes head*

We're on their side for making it better, but they gotta listen to other suggestions if what they are doing obviously isn't working....it would be madness not too.... (Madness? This is DARKPAWWWWW!!! LMAO)

I can vouch for this. I worked at a company that managed the multiplayer infra for Call of Duty and similar games, and then an ad tech company that served billions of impressions/hr -- all of which ran off of AWS. I don't remember a single session of downtime more than a couple mins over the course of years being hit 24/7 under load. I doubt there is any containerization, sharding or replication going on at DBG.

These days, for a server to be down multiple times/month for hours or days at a time is the most pathetic thing in all of technology. I would love to see these people add that as a bullet point on their resume.

EQ might have demanded the biggest baddest hardware on the block 20 years ago, but it barely scratches the surface of what modern solutions can service. It is super, abundantly clear that they are pairing incompetent developers/decision-makers with very bad infrastructure.

DBG needs to hire new senior developers to work on EQ. I'm not advocating they fire the current ones (though this is really bad performance), but if the only head developers they have are ones that have been there for 20 years, then there probably aren't many new/novel ideas coming to the table. They just having a swath of junior devs being indoctrinated into extremely out-dated practices.

like i said im a mason / artist lol.

I was just throwing ideas out there.

Judging from just the response of those watching I was searching in the wrong direction.

It's all good Bronut, you are right though... it does need to be looked at from another angle! You know from your experience, that if something doesn't work one way, you build it another way that does work.

Your suggestion is probably the core of what needs to be changed, it needs to be rebuilt. You were spot on. As to the "how", ya that's a bit messy and a bit confusing, and a bit complex, and requires a lot more information than just unhappy clients, and sub par performances from DPG.

So many nerds in one forum who have all the answers...I know if I was Daybreak I'd be taking notes!

Totally getting that name when Aradune opens back up in 2021