Why are SEA servers not a thing yet? [Merged]

[Peter.3901]

At this point, Anet should expand its servers to cover more regions; otherwise, the player base will dwindle, as not everyone wants to play with 200ms.

I know a lot of players that don't play because they live in SA and the actual ping is just unpleasant.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Peter.3901

[sdren.4193]

On 3/29/2022 at 9:36 PM, Danikat.8537 said:

I think WvW is one complication - servers can only play against others in the same region/data centre they are (and the Alliance update is not going to change that) so if there was just 1-2 SEA servers they wouldn't be able to play WvW. If there were only 3 then they'd have the same match up every week. Ideally there would need to be at least 6, but then you need enough people for 6 servers.

SEA server on albion is currently more populated than NA+EU server. I wouldn't underestimate the region's ability to fill servers.

[sdren.4193]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:29 PM, Astralporing.1957 said:

I'm afraid not. The issue is not the map servers. The issue is the character data server, which needs to be the same for the whole zone. The data replication you speak of is just not fast enough (in fact, it suffers the same latency as the normal GW2 connections, you just don't see it due to the media used - noone cares or notices if youtube video shows up in OCX few seconds later after all).  Notice, that if the tech existed to make OCX have a separate set of servers but still be part of NA (or EU) zone, it would also have been possible to merge NA and EU into one.

So, yes, currently the only option for OCX servers would be a separate OCX zone with their own, independent set of players and WvW servers.

That's not true. Crowfall had all regions connected to local data centers, and even individual maps had their own region so people could compete globally and areas on the map where they'd have low ping. I could be in the oceanic maps and have 20 ping, or go invade the EU maps and play on 300 moments later.

[sdren.4193]

On 5/3/2023 at 1:59 AM, Astralporing.1957 said:

Why do you think LFGs in SEAs server would be better? It would still be those same people. And even less of them, because not every OCX player would migrate from NA/EU.

People from these regions simply DONT PLAY gw2 at the moment because nobody likes playing with 250 ping. They play wow, albion and FF14 instead, since those are the mmos that have oceanic servers. Gw2 could absolutely throw their hat in the ring and draw players from those MMOs if they opened up local servers.

[WeightTrainer.3219]

On 3/27/2022 at 12:03 AM, inoriol.1250 said:

Hello! Three years ago I moved from Europe to Japan and after that Guild Wars 2 became highly unplayable for me. Sure, transfering to the NA servers and using WARP helped a little, but I find myself too annoyed by the delay to play the game. 

 

But I don't want to whine actually. I just want to understand what is stopping Arena Net opening a SEA server? Sure, there are probably far fewer people who like western MMORPGs in the region, but those people exist. 

 

So... What can possibly stop ArenaNet from renting a server or two in, for example, Singapore datacenter (which has relatively low ping to most of the cities in the region) to just see if they can make money in the region or not? In the worst case scenario they will be losing just a couple thousands dollars.

I am sure having SEA based servers is a conerstone for them and on their to do list. It will be coming after alliances. Honestly though, it is kind of weird since anet is owned by ncsoft.

[Sobx.1758]

1 hour ago, sdren.4193 said:

SEA server on albion is currently more populated than NA+EU server. I wouldn't underestimate the region's ability to fill servers.

Where can I see the stats?

[sdren.4193]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Where can I see the stats?

Below the map in-game. Currently in SEA off-peak + EU peak and SEA has more players online in cities.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Screenshots would be helpful. 

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, sdren.4193 said:

That's not true. Crowfall had all regions connected to local data centers, and even individual maps had their own region so people could compete globally and areas on the map where they'd have low ping. I could be in the oceanic maps and have 20 ping, or go invade the EU maps and play on 300 moments later.

Different game with different network architecture. Maybe if at the very beginning Anet made some different decisions about how GW2 servers would be structured, we'd be in a different situation now - but they did not. When they made this game, they decided on a certain design, and now we have to live with it.

Notice, btw, that different solutions have their own downsides. I.E. FF XIV does have regional servers, but the price for this is severe segmentation of the playerbase - a problem they are not content with, and one they have been working for years already to solve (with very limited success, i might add).

[sdren.4193]

7 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Different game with different network architecture. Maybe if at the very beginning Anet made some different decisions about how GW2 servers would be structured, we'd be in a different situation now - but they did not. When they made this game, they decided on a certain design, and now we have to live with it.

Notice, btw, that different solutions have their own downsides. I.E. FF XIV does have regional servers, but the price for this is severe segmentation of the playerbase - a problem they are not content with, and one they have been working for years already to solve (with very limited success, i might add).

I was responding to the remark that the technology doesn’t exist. Wow has done it for over a decade and crowfall took it to another level.

Impossible to speculate on technical limitations unless you have the source code so no point assuming anything.

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, sdren.4193 said:

I was responding to the remark that the technology doesn’t exist. Wow has done it for over a decade and crowfall took it to another level.

Impossible to speculate on technical limitations unless you have the source code so no point assuming anything.

WoW has the same approach as FF XIV i mentioned earlier - multiple servers with no connection to each other. It also has the issue of many of those servers having significant population problems. It's exactly as if it was done the GW2 way, by creating SEA/OCX zone - and separating its players from NA and EU communities.

Now, notice that it's much easier to splinter a 10-20 million strong community than one that is 10-20 times smaller.

And as for GW2 technical specifications - i do not assume anything. I am basing it on what GW2 devs said when they were explaining the server architecture during the time leading to GW2 launch.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Astralporing.1957

[sdren.4193]

5 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

WoW has the same approach as FF XIV i mentioned earlier - multiple servers with no connection to each other.

This just isn't correct. When is the last time you played wow? The whole americas + oceanic are connected, servers are virtually meaningless.

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 7/26/2023 at 10:41 PM, Izzy.2951 said:

They could definetly open servers in Korea very cheap, translate the text at least to korean and open servers there. Maybe people from australia would have less ping there? 

Otherwise theres just simply not enough population

yeah, only a few billion people here....

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 7/26/2023 at 11:44 PM, Gravitron.7982 said:

What we can speculate is that it's clearly not an investment Anet thinks will generate them a good return on the investment required to open and constantly maintain a SEA server. Who knows what other licensing and regulation challenges they would have to deal with on top of the cost to rent VMs or a server cluster, cost for bandwidth, the cost of scaling, the cost to pay people to maintain said server when it goes down and needs physical reboots, etc. On top of all of that, you still have to deal with different VATs/tariffs per country per region, so billing becomes a nightmare. 

After all this trouble, all these costs and fees, time sunk, effort, etc, what will the ROI be for this? Are they going to at least 3x? My gut says no. 

According to investment news they made more money over here in SEA.. You need to check the news.

[Kal Durak.2830]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:32 AM, sdren.4193 said:

People from these regions simply DONT PLAY gw2 at the moment because nobody likes playing with 250 ping. They play wow, albion and FF14 instead, since those are the mmos that have oceanic servers. Gw2 could absolutely throw their hat in the ring and draw players from those MMOs if they opened up local servers.

Let's not count the millions..yes millions of Chinese players and start pewing non factoids you know nothing about.

[Kal Durak.2830]

23 hours ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

Different game with different network architecture. Maybe if at the very beginning Anet made some different decisions about how GW2 servers would be structured, we'd be in a different situation now - but they did not. When they made this game, they decided on a certain design, and now we have to live with it.

Notice, btw, that different solutions have their own downsides. I.E. FF XIV does have regional servers, but the price for this is severe segmentation of the playerbase - a problem they are not content with, and one they have been working for years already to solve (with very limited success, i might add).

Wrong again, Anet switched their original design to AWS servers... 

Edited July 27, 2023 by Areoh.7495

[Freya.9075]

1 hour ago, Areoh.7495 said:

Let's not count the millions..yes millions of Chinese players and start pewing non factoids you know nothing about.

Chinese players already have a server. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2_China

[Astralporing.1957]

2 hours ago, Areoh.7495 said:

Wrong again, Anet switched their original design to AWS servers... 

You are confusing the "computer servers" (hardware) with "game servers" (software). Change to AWS did nothing about game server architecture.

[babana.7521]

If and when there is a SEA or OCX server I would still play on NA server . 

[Gravitron.7982]

18 hours ago, Areoh.7495 said:

According to investment news they made more money over here in SEA.. You need to check the news.

That makes sense to me, GW2 just isn't as popular in the NA region as it is in other regions. 

[Tofu.1865]

This should happen, Asian people is only starting to discover GW2 and they like it.