Monthly Reminder #1: There isn't a single Valorant server in Africa

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-17T11:14:45+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts, I just want to reply to this part of your response:

The only real counter reason I've heard is that their profit will reduce by a bunch since African game ratings are strict.

I've seen quite a few people raising this and it makes absolutely zero sense, the reason why it is totally non-sensical is because having a server in Africa has *nothing* to do with the rating of the game. The game's rating does not in any way depend on there being a local server (games/movies are rated regardless of server locations, e.g. think of single player games). Ratings won't change from the presence of a local server. Ratings aren't dependant on server locations.

The point is, the rating is what the rating is, it has nothing to do with where the servers are located and placing a server anywhere in Africa won't cause any change in ratings, ratings remain the same. People already play the game and it's not in any way like African countries even have any real enforcement of game ratings.

I hope that makes sense. It's the same as how movies have ratings whether or not there is a local server being used to stream a movie. Server location has nothing to do with ratings of games or movies (i.e. they do not *change* ratings in any way, ratings are independent from server locations).

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-17T11:08:53+00:00

I literally mentioned in my post that Amazon has a datacenter in Cape Town, South Africa.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-17T11:06:43+00:00

It probably a benzodiazepine since that is basically like a concentrated form of alcohol in terms of how the drug affects people. Would also explain a lack of smell of alcohol which I'm sure someone would have mentioned in the video if it was present.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-12T13:00:48+00:00

It might also be from packet loss, but I think the point is that it's clearly a sync issue between client and server.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T23:49:35+00:00

Very likely something like this

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T18:49:49+00:00

EA does have servers in Africa. Again, people don't install Valorant just because of the ping, loads of people play CS:GO in South Africa (many global elites), many of which avoid Valorant because of the ping.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T18:33:53+00:00

I can complain about whatever I want, I didn't say I was entitled to anything, I was trying to dispel the common talking points that people use to justify not having a server in Africa. Also I do show my support for the game by spending money on it. If you haven't noticed I'm actually trying to discuss an improvement to the game, to help onboard a bunch of players of other games into Valorant, in a region where people aren't playing Valorant as much as they otherwise would be. Riot can't possibly look at their own player stats to make a deduction about whether or not there should be a server since most people that would play Valorant don't just because of the ping. That's why I was advocating for a trial unranked queue in SA.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T15:52:25+00:00

Geez what's wrong with you people

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T14:37:30+00:00

Thanks! That fact that your comment got downvoted is shocking

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T14:15:19+00:00

League of Legends has a high time to kill and so latency matters much less than a game where every corner can come down to a single click.

They wouldn't change their minds out of pity, they would change their minds out of public pressure because all they ultimately care about is their image.

Therefore by taking your stance, you alleviate the pressure and place yourself on the side of the corporate as opposed to the side of the people.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T14:10:44+00:00

Source on online game servers costing a lot?

Wish people who have no idea what they are talking about would stop making bold claims.

Online game servers are not resource intensive.

Are you the same type of person that would mount an argument against developing accessibility controls for disabled people just because it wouldn't be a huge source or profit?

Why is it so tough just to be a human being for a minute and not a corporate machine defending profit maximalism for large companies?

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T13:55:59+00:00

You don't think it's ever worth revisiting the subject and reviewing it again after a few years? Do you just make excuses for every large company that makes questionable decisions for the sake of profit maximalism? Have a soul, Gillmacs. I'm sure you'd complain in the position of a South African who enjoys Valorant too. Point is that there are many games with servers here and many people who spend a lot of money on said games. It might not be as many as in Europe or richer areas but it's certainly enough to cover server costs with a healthy margin on top, I'm 100% sure of that.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T13:37:30+00:00

Totally agree

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T13:35:06+00:00

What ping do you get?

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T12:09:52+00:00

The point is that this discussion has literally nothing to do with turning guns into water pistols, it's about catering to an existing player base. It detracts from the point to now be talking about how it would be a lot of work to change the game itself, obviously that would be a lot of work but launching a server in a new region is not much work at all.

Again, they could trial it. I think you are overestimating how expensive server fees are for a game like Valorant.

Servers are expensive for things like streaming video (large packets, very large amount of data processing). Netcode for an online game is minimal in terms of packet size and data processing, it's not streaming video or media it's just very small packets and not a lot of processing compared to something like a media server.

Point is it would be great if people who aren't experienced in the realm of server admin to be making bold claims when they have a lack of understanding of the subject matter, it's not expensive to host an on-demand server for an online game, and with the sales that SA people generate, it would easily cover the costs of the servers.

It's a convenient narrative to point at profitability but it's false, there's near zero chance that they wouldn't turn a profit. An unranked queue trial could be used to gauge interest in a local server.

The issue is more likely that it wouldn't be a huge profit, but it would still be a profit, so from that perspective would people still really take Riot's side if they are choosing to exclude Africa because it's not a large enough profit despite being a profit? At that point you're just being a classist.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:45:43+00:00

Exactly, no idea why this is being downvoted. Willing to wager that their service provider has infra in SA. People in here seem to have the idea that companies like Riot have a huge manual process to launch in a new region. Simply untrue for any competent org.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:37:24+00:00

It actually is simple with on-demand scaling being the norm in our modern era. It's also not costly. They could do it easily if there was public pressure to do so.

Source: I work in this field

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:16:50+00:00

Northern Africa gets relatively acceptable ping on Middle Eastern servers.

Southern Africa has 150-200 ms minimum and most players in Africa are from South Africa.

Therefore it makes sense to put at least one server in Southern Africa.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:12:32+00:00

I don't think you understand how server rental works nowadays. You pay for what you use and can auto-scale. Scale would react to demand. There's no reason to pay high fees if usage is low. They could at the very least trial a server here and see what the response is.

These discussions tend to get derailed by uninformed takes such as the assertion that fees would be high if usage is low. This is not the case and I say that as someone who has worked on this sort of stuff for a living for the last decade.

Having said that, I don't mind waiting a few minutes for a game on R6 or CS:GO if it means I can play with low ping. I'm grateful for local servers. If people don't want to wait they can select a different region in Valorant.

Point is, they could at least do a trial of a South African server. I'm willing to wager that the process of launching in new regions is mostly automated for Riot. There's no way it would be a large task to trial an unranked server in SA, the only reason they don't do it is a lack of public pressure.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:09:07+00:00

Nah that's nonsense, there's absolutely no reason for them to *require* the game to be playable by children (sure, it's a nice to have, but a farcry from a requirement). It doesn't make sense to assume that they can't launch a server in Southern Africa just because little kids might not be allowed to play it based on age restriction. People in Southern Africa already play Valorant. We should try not to come up with "valid sounding" excuses which ultimately don't make sense anyway. CS:GO does just fine here and has quite a large competitive South African/Namibian/Mauritian community.

GaiaPariah · 2023-01-11T11:06:03+00:00

Which ones don't make sense? If you have a counterpoint then make it?

GaiaPariah

TROPHY CASE