After moving from the US to Korea 8 years ago, I've had the pleasure of playing & raiding with some of the most memorable people of my life. The Oceanic community is made up of some of the best people, and the best players, that I have come across in almost 20 years of MMOs. And, in a guild comprised of members from over 10 different countries, rarely is there a dull moment. But, I shall get to my point... The Oceanic community (Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Indonesia, etc.) has the potential to make up a significant percentage of the player base for Pantheon.
Point 1: Oceanic Server (not too big a big deal)
Whild I'm not under the dilusion there will be a server physically located in Australia, I would ask that you please label one "Oceanic" for us. While this is not too big a deal, as we will dedicate one ourselves through the forums, it helps those that don't read the forums to find their way.
Point 2: Server Down Time (very important, especially if there are weekly resets)
I will just point you to Rift. They made it work and very few complained. Basically server resets & maintenance were done mid-week, and at about 7am PDT. This means for the Oceanic community, the downtimes came about 11pm or 12am depending on where you were located, dst, etc. This gave both communities the chance to raid in the evenings without interruption*. Also, the Americans could still play into the wee hours of the morning. Yes, it did affect those who woke up early to play, but I would imagine they will be the minority, as most of us have jobs/school to get to.
*Let's also not forget about the Americans who work 3rd shift, as well as the military personnel stationed overseas. They have a tendency to migrate towards Oceanic guilds for raiding purposes for obvious reasons.
So, please VR, do not forget about your faithful followers from the other side of the globe. Throw us a bone :p
Considering that we have three Australians on the team (including myself) in different departments, it is pretty safe to assume that we will take this into consideration mate :)
It can still be tough for a US based IT staff member to reset servers at 1-5 am their time to allow for a decent Oceanic or Euro reset but we will certainly do our best to not reset the game or have downtime in the middle of some regions prime time and this is something we can probably discuss with you all during testing to get the best times for all regions and use them going forward after the official launch.
Kilsin said:Considering that we have three Australians on the team (including myself) in different departments, it is pretty safe to assume that we will take this into consideration mate :)
It can still be tough for a US based IT staff member to reset servers at 1-5 am their time to allow for a decent Oceanic or Euro reset but we will certainly do our best to not reset the game or have downtime in the middle of some regions prime time and this is something we can probably discuss with you all during testing to get the best times for all regions and use them going forward after the official launch.
I had no idea you were Aussie. I'm sure you'll be looking out for the Oceanic community then. I will worry no more.
And tell the IT guy that coffee's on me :)
Panda said:Absolutely - Positively. Who cares about the rest of the world as long as you get to play during your time off from work. Maybe you can send your spare time calender to them so they can shut down when you are not online. By the way, do you get a headache being upsidedown all the time??? And who cares if the IT techs don't make it home to thier families,as long as you are not inconvienced.After moving from the US to Korea 8 years ago, I've had the pleasure of playing & raiding with some of the most memorable people of my life. The Oceanic community is made up of some of the best people, and the best players, that I have come across in almost 20 years of MMOs. And, in a guild comprised of members from over 10 different countries, rarely is there a dull moment. But, I shall get to my point... The Oceanic community (Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Indonesia, etc.) has the potential to make up a significant percentage of the player base for Pantheon.
Point 1: Oceanic Server (not too big a big deal)
Whild I'm not under the dilusion there will be a server physically located in Australia, I would ask that you please label one "Oceanic" for us. While this is not too big a deal, as we will dedicate one ourselves through the forums, it helps those that don't read the forums to find their way.
Point 2: Server Down Time (very important, especially if there are weekly resets)
I will just point you to Rift. They made it work and very few complained. Basically server resets & maintenance were done mid-week, and at about 7am PDT. This means for the Oceanic community, the downtimes came about 11pm or 12am depending on where you were located, dst, etc. This gave both communities the chance to raid in the evenings without interruption*. Also, the Americans could still play into the wee hours of the morning. Yes, it did affect those who woke up early to play, but I would imagine they will be the minority, as most of us have jobs/school to get to.
*Let's also not forget about the Americans who work 3rd shift, as well as the military personnel stationed overseas. They have a tendency to migrate towards Oceanic guilds for raiding purposes for obvious reasons.
So, please VR, do not forget about your faithful followers from the other side of the globe. Throw us a bone :p
@Isaya:
No disrespect, but I don't think the Panda-man here was asking for anything out of line. A good deal of online games cater to the "overseas" communityin various ways.
Also, South Korea is on the same Latitude as the central continental United States, why would he be upside-down? Unless you’re referring to Kilsin, which I just can’t grasp.
-Tk
One of the nice parts about cloud services for hosting your servers is you can easily spin up servers anywhere in the world. I had the pleasure to watch a Microsoft Azure demo and while I have not had experience with AWS yet, I can say that Microsoft platform makes spining up servers anywhere in the world a very easy task.
Isaya said:Absolutely - Positively. Who cares about the rest of the world as long as you get to play during your time off from work. Maybe you can send your spare time calender to them so they can shut down when you are not online. By the way, do you get a headache being upsidedown all the time??? And who cares if the IT techs don't make it home to thier families,as long as you are not inconvienced.
And I guess it would be too much to ask if the server comes down at 1 in the morning that they get it back up as soon as possible, because they're at home with their families? I think the OP's request was perfectly sensible. If VR wants to do it they will, if they don't want to they won't. The OP was just asking.
Panda said:Kilsin said:Considering that we have three Australians on the team (including myself) in different departments, it is pretty safe to assume that we will take this into consideration mate :)
It can still be tough for a US based IT staff member to reset servers at 1-5 am their time to allow for a decent Oceanic or Euro reset but we will certainly do our best to not reset the game or have downtime in the middle of some regions prime time and this is something we can probably discuss with you all during testing to get the best times for all regions and use them going forward after the official launch.
I had no idea you were Aussie. I'm sure you'll be looking out for the Oceanic community then. I will worry no more.
And tell the IT guy that coffee's on me :)
Haha, will do mate :)
bigdogchris said:One of the nice parts about cloud services for hosting your servers is you can easily spin up servers anywhere in the world. I had the pleasure to watch a Microsoft Azure demo and while I have not had experience with AWS yet, I can say that Microsoft platform makes spining up servers anywhere in the world a very easy task.
Exactly, it is becoming much easier to manage them these days which is really good for us at this stage of development. :)
Panda said:... I would ask that you please label one "Oceanic" for us....
I actually think this point has implications for all players, and is a VERY worthwhile point.
Regardless of whether a server is to have scheduled down-time etc based on the specific geographic location of its player-base, it makes great sense - from a social community perspective - to have a server (or two) indicated as 'suggested' for specific areas (based on georgraphy / time zones). This would mean a new player will know which server is most likely to have other players from his time zone on it. Thus the populations for that server will find enough players to make guilds, raid etc - or even just enough for PUGs.
Clever strategy might also be to have Oceanic and (the almost opposite) other time zone(s) indicated for a specific server so the population is 'balanced' between two time zones without overcrowding. Fewer servers... more people... better for people with 'wierd' job/life patterns!
Just my 2 cp.