Why is Wizard's Site down at this critical time?!?

[Mark]

Well, considering that the fullness of the release is still eight months away, this is hardly surprising. Entire server farms can be installed in that much time - so what we see today really isn't an indication of what we'll see in May.

You do not believe that the preparation for August and what we see in August is an indication of the preparation that will be taken for May and what we will see in May?

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

You do not believe that the preparation for August and what we see in August is an indication of the preparation that will be taken for May and what we will see in May?

I don't.

What we saw now was a sudden spike after a huge announcement from people that are interested, and those that were just coming in from places like slashdot and fark. The latter part is the kind of thing that happens with most all major announcements of any kind on the internet.

But in May, its not a major announcement. In May, its out, and the people getting it and using it will be the ones involved, not the glut of thousands of other random people from places like slashdot and fark and such.

That and, as Umbran said, there's a lot of time between now and then. Who's to say servers won't be added, etc, to prepare for extra strain?

 

[Mark]

I don't.

What we saw now was a sudden spike after a huge announcement from people that are interested, and those that were just coming in from places like slashdot and fark. The latter part is the kind of thing that happens with most all major announcements of any kind on the internet.

But in May, its not a major announcement. In May, its out, and the people getting it and using it will be the ones involved, not the glut of thousands of other random people from places like slashdot and fark and such.

That and, as Umbran said, there's a lot of time between now and then. Who's to say servers won't be added, etc, to prepare for extra strain?

See, that seems a bit odd to me, since you can explain what happened and fully expected it to happen and I can explain what happened and fully expected it to happen and . . .

In any event, it is certainly true that WotC boards go down with a fair amount of frequency, as well.

Now, do not get me wrong, I am a fan. Switched with each edition since 1974 and will no doubt be in the front ranks trying out the virtual tabletop. I've used a PDA at the table for years and use a laptop these days. I can even imagine myself as someone who gets a persistent connection to make my laptop even more usable. So I am, despite my age , definitely in the target market for WotC's goods.

On the other side of the coin, I am not just a fan but a dependent of sorts. My company rides the coattails of WotC and, with the announcement of 4E continuing to support the OGL and d20 license, it will continue to diaper my baby, as is said. So, I am doubly in their corner when comes to the success of WotC and the future of D&D.

However, what WotC is embarking on is a new business model that will include having people pay a monthly fee and if the site goes down then, it is no longer a matter of saying, "Oops! We just were not ready for the turn out." So, I feel it is a concern and I have to look at this as an indicator that they are not quite on top of things just yet. I will continue to cheer them on and watch as things develop.

 

[The Little Raven]

Though I agree that Wizards should've been more prepared, I don't think that's a very good comparison. Not to mention that when Blizzard released the game, they were totally unprepared as well. Server stability was not the worst I've seen, but I certainly wouldn't call it great, or even good.

To be fair, Blizzard was shooting at having 100,000 users by the end of December 2004. They ended up with over 2,000,000. When you're hit by 20x the number you expect, things don't always go as planned (as opposed to games like Vanguard, which plan for 100,000, get less than 50,000 and still can't maintain their service).

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

However, what WotC is embarking on is a new business model that will include having people pay a monthly fee and if the site goes down then, it is no longer a matter of saying, "Oops! We just were not ready for the turn out." So, I feel it is a concern and I have to look at this as an indicator that they are not quite on top of things just yet. I will continue to cheer them on and watch as things develop.

I guess it doesn't concern me because its so common with MMOs, who draw much larger crowds, especially on day 1.

These guys prepare for overloads as much as they possibly can, knowing going in how heavy the first day traffic will be...and yet, they still crash. No matter how much people plan, you can't really be sure, and you can only prepare so much before you just have to release it and go from there.

At least then, once they've seen the real traffic, they can adapt with knowledge rather than pure speculation.

 

[RFisher]

from my uneducated view, the countdown was a problem in that you have so many people hitting the link at once.

There's no doubt in my mind that it was...let's say: a very poor decision...to exacerbate the situation with the countdown. On the web, you want to use any ability you have to influence when traffic will come to spread it out, not concentrate it.

Arguably that's a real flaw in the web itself, but it's still the reality you have to live with.

 

[WayneLigon]

I have never yet seen a truly huge announcement come along and not crash the servers of whatever company made said announcement. I expected it to crash and it did, and that was wholly expected and normal for this sort of thing.

 

[Mark]

This might prove interesting -


http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200011/ai_mark01019386

 

[SSquirrel]

Plus let's be honest here. There are more than 9 million D&D players worldwide. Especially when you consider that news of a new edition brings people who haven't played D&D in decades back to hit the site to see what the new hotness is. Plus all the people who don't even care about D&D but are mildly curious b/c they already clicked their slashdot link once, may as well do it again

WoW at launch was painful. I still play on Whisperwind, one of the 20 day 1 servers. We had insane lag, especially in the newb areas and not nearly enough mobs for everyone to kill to level, crashes, all kinds of insanity. By the end of the first weekend they had 40 servers not 20. It came out on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. You know those server guys were pissed heh. By the end of the first month they had something crazy like 80 servers. They currently have something past 130 I think.

They only printed 250k copies of the original game's first pressing and were hoping to have those sold by New Years or a lil after. They were gone by the first weekend. Otehr people have mentioned the forumso nTuesdays. You can't get to blizzard's website b/c peopel are trying to find out if there was a patch or to bitch about teh patch notes. Until recently, and ya maybe still can't, you can't login and post on teh forums while teh game servers are up. They, rather stupidly, have them connected.

Anyway, I'm willing to give WOTC some slack on their announcement day b/c DI isn't even up yet and it has yet to be a pay service. I honestly don't expect to see subscriptions based material start making its way to DI until around March next year. Once people are paying for the stuff and having lots of downtime, then I'll agree there is an issue. This is just another learning experience for them.

 

[Legildur]

This might prove interesting -


http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pwwi/is_200011/ai_mark01019386

u sure that link is legit? It took me through to 'drivecleaner' crap.