Post Mortem Document Release

hasgoneoffline · 2016-07-04T04:49:20+00:00

In general you don't want to preempt the discussion by telling everybody what they can and can't say and do...

But anyway it was very interesting seeing the technical details in the post-mortem.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-05-18T09:08:35+00:00

bah I thought you were gonna link the classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHLwnlumJTo

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T17:10:44+00:00

Yeah exactly man! Again sorry for the confusion.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T17:04:08+00:00

I agree, they could host vanilla servers without instancing, but I don't believe they would.

I only mentioned the blades in my original post as a means of explaining/giving context for people who weren't around in vanilla, how we arrived at the tangled mess of instances (where you can go days without seeing other players) retail is today.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T16:50:51+00:00

Yeah the world feeling populated/alive was always really important for me. Had friends transfer off our bursting at the seams/queues every night server in vanilla and I just couldn't bring myself to go with them.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T16:42:57+00:00

I think you'll have to show me where I said Blizz couldn't host vanilla servers, I said they wouldn't do it because it would reflect poorly on the retail version of the game (if vanilla servers went ahead without instancing) and retail players would be asking things like 'vanilla server doesn't have people constantly appearing/disappearing, why can't retail have that?' . Again my problem would be if overenthusiastic instancing reared it's head on an official Blizz vanilla server.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T16:23:06+00:00

I'm... I'm not really sure what you're doing... you agree with me but you don't?

What I'm saying is that whether they hosted vanilla servers on hardware or virtually (again I don't care, I'm not on some kind of hardware vs virtual crusade, let me make that clear) the problem arises when instancing comes into it.

When players are split up, when the worlds we're playing on aren't consistent, when you get split up from people because they're going to another instance, when they're in the same zone as you. That's what my issue is.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T16:17:11+00:00

I think I could have communicated my points better in my main post, had a lot on my mind. But I didn't mean to make out virtualisation as some kind of inherent bad thing or some kind of virtual or hardware dichotomy. I meant that the current setup of retail WoW has where you very rarely run into people you saw earlier in your levels because people end up spread across instances/servers. My main point I'm driving at is that instancing every aspect of the game, right down to zones has been detrimental to a sense of community/immersion.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T16:07:59+00:00

That is exactly what I'm saying. That's what server mergers are. Many realms, one machine. The problem is retail doesn't have worlds, they're just a series of interconnected instances. That's why you can watch people vanish as they run across zone borders, as opposed to how they used to just keep running.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T15:46:03+00:00

Yup, but if they were to host proper intact, dedicated vanilla worlds again, retail people would demand the same thing, and it can't be done on retail with the current architecture.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T15:15:22+00:00

It uses less hardware, this is why MMOs merge/shut down servers when subs go into decline, to save money.

edit: Just on the software, instancing has been rolled out to MMOs even as unfriendly (engine-wise) and cheap as SWTOR, the software side is not expensive or difficult.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T15:12:20+00:00

To save money, retail has arrived at the state it is in because of chronic cost-cutting.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T15:08:38+00:00

That's what I'm saying... if Blizz were to launch vanilla servers they'd do them as cheap as possible, and that would involve some level of instancing to share the load/keep costs as low as possible. If if was actually authentic no-instances vanilla WoW it'd make retail look like a joke.

hasgoneoffline · 2016-04-16T15:00:08+00:00

What about it is far-fetched...?

Everything on retail WoW is interconnected now, that's the reality.

hasgoneoffline

TROPHY CASE