AS Being Shutdown - Thoughts + Suggestions @Devs, Sr. Staff

[dv90]

Another potential option could be decreasing the amount of CA servers. I do not know for a fact, however I do believe many CA players have a very similar connection to the CA severs as they do the US servers. The CA server hosting location is much closer to the US location.

When I say that, I don't mean taking them all away, I mean just a few. From my understanding, you pay for each server monthly (I could be wrong) and decreasing it by just two or three can really save you some money, which can be used to fund AS.

You could even do the same with US. Yes, US is the current largest community (I think), but two or three servers cut down would hardly even be noticeable, and if it was, these players can just as easily connect to CA.

Asking a US player to connect to the CA, and a CA player to connect to US if needed shouldn't make a huge difference because of the similar connections, and while it may drop slightly, it shouldn't be anything noticeable. Even if it is, it is certainly less noticeable than asking an AS player to connect to US, AU, or CA.

I think what is really being missed out on is the fact that the AS community is here. They are small, but they are here. It has been made clear through their posts that they are willing to compromise, with even just two AS servers.

I am absolutely positive that most of the US and/or EU community would be willing to lose only 2-3 servers so that the AS community could reopen, because it will hardly make a difference for us, but will make a huge difference for them.

I think even if you gave AS members a chance to donate beyond donor to help with the costs, they would. They aren't just having a grand old time arguing about this, they're doing it because they love their servers and want them back, and I'm sure they'd be willing to help however they can to get them back.

This is kind of like building a bird house in your backyard, leaving it up for several months, long enough for some birds to grow to rely on it, then removing it from the tree completely at random one day, leaving the birds who rely on that with nothing.

You can't build something this big up (despite their actual small size in numbers, the AS community is still in fact very large) and be so quick to take it down.

Let's be completely clear about one fact: MCGamer cannot simply remove a few servers. As every staff member has already explained, we utilize fully dedicated systems - not shared hosting. It is physically impossible to simply remove a few servers from one location, then take that money and put it toward a few servers in another location. It just doesn't work like that.

I cannot speak for Chad who has the ultimate authority, but I personally suggested the removal of AS on multiple occasions. MCGamer is not only a community, but a business; this does not mean that we're in it for the money, this means that you have to recognize that it costs money to run a community of this scale. In order to maintain a stable community, stable servers, and a stable business overall, there are many factors that must be accounted for. As it stands, the cost to run AS was not feasible when you take into account the number of players on the servers. On top of that, having so many other locations - especially if we were to deviate from the normal hub system - would cause extra work for the developers, who are already working very hard on bringing new and old gametypes to MCGamer.

Now for my personal opinion: if we were going to bring AS back, it should not be done any differently than the other locations. MCGamer has expectations, both from players and ourselves, to provide a stable, reliable, fun, and well-rounded server. By skipping the hub and just running a small number of servers, it really wouldn't be MCGamer.

I think most AS players would be satisfied if there were a few servers hosted in Perth as many of us can get 100ms or so there.

That's not a bad idea at all. You must understand though, there is a huge amount of work when it comes to migrating from one location (or datacenter) to another; this ultimately puts more work on the devs, allowing them less time to work on features and gametypes. Furthermore, the selection of reliable and affordable datacenters in Australia is extremely limited. In any case, I'm sure this is something that we can look into.

Point 1. You say that it cost 3 US Servers for 1 AS Server. There are only 4 AS Servers, but there is a total of 150 (?) US Servers. The amount incurred to host the US Servers is nowhere near the amount to host just 4 AS servers. Right now, we don't even need those 4 servers. We can even have 1 or 2 servers. I doubt you have seen the peak periods of Asia. That's during the June/December breaks that we have and the flow of players will increase as most people have their breaks and spend time playing servers.

Not only that, I understand that it takes alot of money to have 1 device to host ~25 servers (?) and I'm pretty sure that having 1 or 2 servers in the Asian region isn't that hard. In case you didn't know, I quote you: "Chad did warn you that if we did not get more players there then it would shut down." we do have a steady stream of players, with a few AS Clans and occasionally AU players do come over to AS too.

Point 2: We don't need 300 players to fill up 4 servers. We only need ~100 or so. And with the list that Tartanian just listed, that can easily start 2 games with the servers filled. Not only that, he missed out ALOT of regular AS players that play too. What you're impacting is not only what people enjoy - you're taking away the fun they had of the so called "negative 2 ping"

EVERYONE enjoys "no-lag negative 1337 ping" connection, they enjoy playing with good ping and they all know that it can benefit you. You've got to understand not everyone has the best of internet erhem *@Quackeryy*. This just shows negligence towards your players - your donors, your players that enjoy MCSG.

They play AS for a reason, and by taking away the AS servers, you take away the reason for them to play.

Please read above.

 

[Dave]

This is not the kind of attitude an administrator should have...
As a staff member, you're supposed to have patience.

We heard what you said, Dave.

Personally, I think what duckluv321 wrote was a good (enough) plan:

first do not be rude to an admin second most of that you would have misunderstood as rude given i did not mean it to be but as you can guess i struggle with typing so i didn't mean it that way.

 

[Dave]

EU do NOT need that many servers. Most are empty. Maybe don't deprive an area of servers and give another one too many?

its not a simple case of taking 25 servers to pay for one AS server we would need to take away 75 servers

 

[Virtual]

first do not be rude to an admin second most of that you would have misunderstood as rude given i did not mean it to be but as you can guess i struggle with typing so i didn't mean it that way.

Oh, okay.

 

[DerpyDash11]

its not a simple case of taking 25 servers to pay for one AS server we would need to take away 75 servers

Dooouuuble post. Anyway; AS do not need 25 servers. MCSG has 150, 50 are rarely used. (Also, for EU it would count as an incentive to pay for donor, thus making more money to spend on other servers such as AS.)

EDIT : after reading Dv's post, I understand; but I still think that AS players should have somewhere to play.

 

[le quack]

Let's be completely clear about one fact: MCGamer cannot simply remove a few servers. As every staff member has already explained, we utilize fully dedicated systems - not shared hosting. It is physically impossible to simply remove a few servers from one location, then take that money and put it toward a few servers in another location. It just doesn't work like that.

I cannot speak for Chad who has the ultimate authority, but I personally suggested the removal of AS on multiple occasions. MCGamer is not only a community, but a business; this does not mean that we're in it for the money, this means that you have to recognize that it costs money to run a community of this scale. In order to maintain a stable community, stable servers, and a stable business overall, there are many factors that must be accounted for. As it stands, the cost to run AS was not feasible when you take into account the number of players on the servers. On top of that, having so many other locations - especially if we were to deviate from the normal hub system - would cause extra work for the developers, who are already working very hard on bringing new and old gametypes to MCGamer.

Now for my personal opinion: if we were going to bring AS back, it should not be done any differently than the other locations. MCGamer has expectations, both from players and ourselves, to provide a stable, reliable, fun, and well-rounded server. By skipping the hub and just running a small number of servers, it really wouldn't be MCGamer.



That's not a bad idea at all. You must understand though, there is a huge amount of work when it comes to migrating from one location (or datacenter) to another; this ultimately puts more work on the devs, allowing them less time to work on features and gametypes. Furthermore, the selection of reliable and affordable datacenters in Australia is extremely limited. In any case, I'm sure this is something that we can look into.



Please read above.

So what if our McGamer server will be abit different from the others.

I'm Asian, I'm Asian, I do the math equation.

The AS servers can be different we'll be happy to even have one server and no hub. Just SG. We just want to play on McGamer

Also if you do look into your perth idea that will work out. People in Perth will most likely recevie approximatly 10 ms to their own state. Since Perth players get 30-20 ms to AS, according to statictics Malaysians, Singaporeans, Indoeanions will get the 30-20 ms(depending on internet speed)

 

[reven86]

I have to actually agree with the removal of the AS servers tbh.

The way I see it, it seems like the AS servers are more of a pain than they are good. The servers are more expensive from what I have been told and less ppl play there than all other place. A lot of you have been complaining that they should "take away" servers from EU and CA because late at night the servers are pretty empty. What about the rest of the day? During normal times, most of EU and CA servers are full, but yes, ofc late at night the servers are empty... when half of EU is sleeping lol. Besides, Dave and the rest of the devs have already said, it's not possible to simply take servers from somewhere else and use them elsewhere. They can't simply just remove a few servers.

Honestly tho, why would they want to? So few players on the AS servers, which means so few donors. Like it or not, MCSG is a business, and businesses have to do what's right for business. I am not saying they are doing it for the sake of money, but if a business sees something that is not working out very well, they aren't going to keep it for long.

I do feel bad for the AS players, I really do. But you have to understand, there just aren't enough players. That is not their fault.

 

[le quack]

I have to actually agree with the removal of the AS servers tbh.

The way I see it, it seems like the AS servers are more of a pain than they are good. The servers are more expensive from what I have been told and less ppl play there than all other place. A lot of you have been complaining that they should "take away" servers from EU and CA because late at night the servers are pretty empty. What about the rest of the day? During normal times, most of EU and CA servers are full, but yes, ofc late at night the servers are empty... when half of EU is sleeping lol. Besides, Dave and the rest of the devs have already said, it's not possible to simply take servers from somewhere else and use them elsewhere. They can't simply just remove a few servers.

Honestly tho, why would they want to? So few players on the AS servers, which means so few donors. Like it or not, MCSG is a business, and businesses have to do what's right for business. I am not saying they are doing it for the sake of money, but if a business sees something that is not working out very well, they aren't going to keep it for long.

I do feel bad for the AS players, I really do. But you have to understand, there just aren't enough players. That is not their fault.

So the Devs expect us to buy a new home in anouther reigon? kbai

 

[reven86]

So the Devs expect us to buy a new home in anouther reigon? kbai

The sad truth is if you can't play on the other servers.. you are just going to have to not play :/. They can't change things for the sake of a few hundred players. That would be like 100 ppl from Antarctica wanting servers hosted down there lol. It's more of a pain than it was a reward. If you aren't able to play, then you simply.. just can't play. Mcsg isn't for the entire world. I am sure that there are tons of players besides you and AS players who would love to play, but simply can't because of the connection.

 

[le quack]

The sad truth is if you can't play on the other servers.. you are just going to have to not play :/. They can't change things for the sake of a few hundred players. That would be like 100 ppl from Antarctica wanting servers hosted down there lol. It's more of a pain than it was a reward. If you aren't able to play, then you simply.. just can't play. Mcsg isn't for the entire world. I am sure that there are tons of players besides you and AS players who would love to play, but simply can't because of the connection.

lol pengiuens asking for servers

 

[DerpyDash11]

lol pengiuens asking for servers

ikr wot nubz

 

[reven86]

lol pengiuens asking for servers

ikr wot nubz

lol that is amazing. GG 10 hearted by a penguin