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ArcheAge boasts two million registered players
ArcheAge's local launch has gone pretty well, according to producer Scott Hartsman. A recent letter to the players confirms last week's whispers that over two million players have registered for the game, which certainly goes a long way to explaining those launch queues. Between North America and Europe, the game currently has 21 active servers in total, and Hartsman stated that character creation restrictions are being rolled back as the populations begin to stabilize. The letter goes on to address the issue of bots, many of which have already been unceremoniously ejected from the game. The game's most recent patch restricts chatting in several channels (Faction, Trade, Nation, Shout, and Need Party) to characters who are level 15 or higher, and a learning anti-spam feature is on track to be integrated into the base game. There's also discussion about catching up with holiday content and the like, so those two million registered players should have plenty of stuff to do.
WildStar settles on megaserver names
Players have cast their votes for the new megaservers coming to WildStar, and the decisions have been reached. In North America, the PvE server will be Entity and the PvP server will be Warhound. European players will soon be hanging out on Jabbit (PvE) and Luminai (PvP). WildStar previously announced that it would be merging all current servers onto these four megaservers to facilitate increased population density and player interaction (and, presumably, to clean up the desolated servers). Until megaservers are instituted, players may transfer to other servers for free within their region.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV and the housing mess, part 2
Wait, part 2? When was part 1 a thing? January, my friends. And while I had prayed for sun, I planned for rain, and that turned out to be a wise move. What happened in the end was unpleasant but entirely unsurprising, as Final Fantasy XIV's second implementation of housing went little better than the first. In the interests of full disclosure, yes, I am one of the vanishingly small number of people with an in-game house at the moment. I work at home and happened to have both the money and the time to grab myself a place to live in-game. That doesn't mean the system is anything remotely approaching good or even acceptable, which is why I want to spend this week talking about the mess that has been made and what, if anything, can be done to correct this fact. Housing in Final Fantasy XIV is a sore spot right now, and that's a problem, especially when it doesn't have to be.
Destiny servers down, blame the cattle [Update]
Bungie's Destiny is currently experiencing issues with matchmaking and login on all platforms, according to a (since-deleted) tweet from the Bungie Help Twitter account. You can see a screenshot version of said tweet after the break. This marks the first time since we wrote our week one State of Service review for Destiny that servers have encountered a serious problem. We have reached out to Bungie and Activision, and will update if we hear anything back. Update: The only thing Bungie's Guardians should have to fear at the moment are the various agents of The Darkness out to blast them to bits; the servers are back up.
ArcheAge battles queues with new servers, character creation blocks
In a post on the official ArcheAge site last night, Trion Worlds confirmed that it had opened two new servers and shut down character creation on others to alleviate some of the queue congestion plauging players since the game's head start last weekend. The entry reads, We've added two new worlds to our North American server list: Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA)! These servers were racked (physically installed) and imaged (updated with ArcheAge server software) in our Texas data center all in the past day. Here you can see Ezi (NA) and Lucius (NA) in their new home with Senior Systems Engineer Jonathan Johnson. These two servers will be on the new Auction House cluster 5 (AH5). These new servers are now online and available to play right now: Friday September 19 at 4:15 PM PDT (GMT-7). Critically, four US servers -- Kyrios, Ollo, Salphira, and Aranzeb -- have been "temporarily closed to new character creation," so we sure hope you aren't trying to join friends there today. The studio also says new European servers are physically en route to the Amsterdam data center. [Thanks, Siphaed.]
ArcheAge brings two new head start servers online
ArcheAge responded to "burgeoning" player populations during the head start period by releasing a pair of new servers today. North America gets the Inoch server while Europe is graced with Aier. Since everyone is in a mad scramble to secure housing plots right now, a fresh server might be your ticket to a primo location. [Thanks to Stephen for the tip!]
PSA: PSN gets knocked down again [Update: Back online]
The PlayStation Network servers are currently out of commission for the second time in as many days. Sony posted a notice to its official Twitter account that its engineers are "aware of connectivity issues" and "are working to resolve" them. PSN suffered an outage for the majority of Sunday thanks to an apparent DDoS attack (distributed denial of service). Sony noted that no personal information was accessed in the attack. b=Both PSN and Sony Entertainment Network were "impacted by an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic," though it's unclear if that's also causing today's issues. We'll update this post when PSN is up and running again. Update: Sony said that "network connectivity is being restored," and thanks players for their patience. [Image: Sony]
SOE Live 2014: H1Z1 is a full-fledged survival experience
With an event like Zombie Prom, it was hard not to notice a certain undead theme at this year's SOE Live. That's all courtesy of the studio's upcoming apocalyptic survival game H1Z1. And thanks to plenty of panels, interviews, and the keynote, we learned even more about the game: The new sandbox is so much more than a zombie shooter; it's a full fledged survival experience. There were even opportunities for fans to nab some hands-on playtime. We had the chance to mix and mingle with Producer Steve George, Senior Game Designer Jimmy Whisenhunt, Art Director Bill Yeatts, Technical Director Tom Schenck, and Game Designer Adam Clegg to discuss where H1Z1 came from, where it is going, and how far it has gotten. Delve into the new air drops, the heat and temperature systems, and so much more. We've also embedded the full keynote panel for you.
Apple's now storing some personal user data in China
It's no secret that the relationship between Apple and China hasn't always been the best. From the banning of its products for government use, to the Chinese state media wanting the Cupertino company "severely punished" for NSA spying, these cases are well-documented. That said, China's consumer market is extremely important to Apple -- which isn't really surprising, given the sheer magnitude of it. But now, with a number of new iDevices hitting shelves there of late, Apple's had to look to servers located in mainland China to store Chinese users' personal data. As Reuters notes, this is the first time the company has begun storing this type of data in that country -- Apple says the decision was made as part of a plan to improve the overall performance of its cloud service, iCloud.
Microsoft resists US government demand to seize offshore emails
Microsoft has filed a court challenge to a US government demand that it hand over emails from its data center in Ireland. That appears to be the first time a US corporation has opposed such an order, and Microsoft has been backed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and an amicus brief from Verizon. The US prosecutor heading the drug case in question said that if the objection succeeds, tech companies like Microsoft could stymie domestic cases by merely storing data overseas. However, experts say the suspect was likely abroad when he sent the emails in question -- making the legal situation murkier.
WildStar releases its server list
Head start for WildStar starts on Saturday, but where will you be creating your character? How can you know without a server list? You can't. So it's a good thing that the official server list has been released for both US and EU servers. A grand total of 22 servers will be available, with equal numbers for both regions and at least one PvE, RP-PvE, and PvP server for each. US PvE servers are Avatus, Caretaker, Mikros, Thunderfoot, Orias, and Stormtalon. PvP players in the US can choose between Widow, Pago, and Pergo, while roleplayers will be on Evinora. There's also an Oceanic PvE server available, Myrcalus. Meanwhile, English-speaking players in Europe will choose between Ascendancy and Eko for PvE, with Hazak for PvP and Lightspire for RP. German players get Ikthia and Kazor for PvE, Progentior for PvP, and Toria for RP. Last but not least, French players have three servers: Stormfather (PvE), Treespeaker (PvP), and Triton (RP-PvE). So you can start making your plans about where you want to go; the servers are all right here.
Google uses self-aware datacenters to cut the cost of searching
Google spits out about 4 million search results per minute (among many other duties), which consumes a lot of energy. According to a recent blog, it cut its electrical bills significantly by applying the same kind of machine learning used in speech recognition and other consumer applications. A data center engineer on a 20 percent project plotted environmental factors like outside air temperature, IT load and other server-related factors. He then developed a neural network that could see the "underlying story" in the data, predicting loads 99.6 percent of the time. With a bit more work, Mountain View managed to eke out significant savings by varying cooling and other factors. It also published a white paper to share the info with other data centers and prove once again that humans are redundant.
Report: China pushing banks to abandon American hardware
There's a growing undercurrent of tension between the US and China because both countries think the other is trying to hack them. They're both probably right, but China seems to be taking some concrete fiscal steps to make its displeasure known. According to a new report from Bloomberg (and the usual spate of unnamed sources), the Chinese government is quietly asking the country's big banks to give up their IBM servers in favor of some homegrown hardware.
Why WildStar's name reservations were screwed up
So WildStar's name reservation system didn't work quite right. It's working now, but when it went live it wasn't working at all, and for a first-come-first-served thing that's kind of a catastrophic problem. Compensation has been announced, but why did everything go wrong? Carbine's director of operations posted in the forums about how things went from bad to worse and where the breakdowns in communication took place. The short version is that it started when a big information drop introduced a lot of new assets to the site, causing even more load than was expected for the page when the name service went up. After that was handled, however, another problem surfaced with the site's feedback, leading to what is described as the server performing what amounts to a DDoS attack against itself. And once that was fixed, another problem surfaced. If you'd like to see the whole breakdown in detail to understand how everything got messed up, take a look at the full post on the official forums.
Halo: Combat Evolved multiplayer lives on with GameRanger
The PC versions of Halo: Combat Evolved, its demo and Halo: Custom Edition are now playable through the third-party matchmaking and online gaming program GameRanger. Halo was slated to suffer loss of online functionality when GameSpy's matchmaking services go dark on May 31. GameRanger began in 1999 and supports nearly 700 PC games and just under 200 for Mac. Prior to the news of GameSpy's impending shutdown, which also affects games like Crysis and Crysis 2, the Australia-based company announced that it achieved five million registered PC users in March. GameRanger picked up other games whose servers got the ax, such as 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted in August 2011. Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption will remain mostly unaffected by the closure of GameSpy's online services, though other Rockstar games will suffer. EA announced last month that it was working to transition its older Battlefield games to its own Origin service. [Image: Microsoft]
Shards Online developers plan for a player-run MMO
More or less every MMO starts up its advertising with some trace of the idea that you can play however you want. Not every MMO talks about the idea of letting players run the servers at the top level, however. But that's what Shards Online is aiming to provide. A recent interview with the developers discusses the idea, with studio co-founder Derek Brinkmann explaining that it's one of the first steps to dismantling the idea that the designers have to tell you how to enjoy yourself. Citadel Studios is a team made up of former Ultima Online developers who wondered why more games haven't embraced the idea of taking live events to their logical conclusion with modern technology. Shards Online is set in a multiverse, with several different worlds featuring slightly different rules, while players can tweak the overall structure to their individual preferences by running their own servers. The game is in development for Windows, Linux, and Mac, with an alpha expected later this year.
Access Twitch servers from Paris, with love
Gameplay broadcasting platform Twitch announced the addition of servers in Paris, France, bolstering the service's stability in Europe. The Paris addition is just the latest in a string of Twitch overhauls; Twitch also upgraded its infrastructure this month in Dallas and London while Los Angeles got a facelift back in January. December saw an upgrade for Amsterdam, as well as a new a "point-of-presence" in Prague. Of course, this good news will particularly surface when Joystiq Streams eventually tours the globe, streaming games like Dark Souls 2 and Infamous: Second Son from exotic locales (hey, one can hope). Twitch's improvements in the past few months go beyond its infrastructure, as the company launched support for iOS and Android game streaming, as well as its app for Xbox One. Twitch also inked a deal to become E3's official streaming partner for three years following its corporate umbrella name change in February. [Image: Twitch]
ArcheAge Russia struggles with overloaded queues
ArcheAge's recent launch in Russia has not gone completely smoothly, as overloaded and somewhat unstable servers have struggled to accommodate those interested in trying out the fantasy sandbox. A post on the official Russian website says that XLGAMES is working hard to bring new servers online in order to reduce the queue. The team is also looking at ways for players to transfer characters from full servers to the new ones, but this may take time and further testing. "Developers continue to work to improve the function of the client and working on priority entrance to the server for premium account holders," the team posted. It informed players that those trying to stay logged in while AFK will be "forcibly disconnected" going forward. The free-to-play game is rumored to have brought in $10 million so far from its Russian launch.
The Daily Grind: Are single-server MMOs uncomfortably big?
If I had my way and technology were easy, every MMO would be a single-server experience akin to EVE Online's or Champions Online's. You might never come in contact with the majority of players or ever encounter a scenario when hundreds of players gathered together, but the unified economy would be a trader's paradise, and it'd be a boon for developers, too, being easier to balance and avoiding the late-game server-merge nightmares that most MMOs eventually suffer. Best of all, you'd never have to find out your new co-worker plays your favorite game too... on another server. But there is a considerable contingent of MMO players who still balk at the idea of an MMO melting pot and tools intended to bridge servers like LFG systems or World of Warcraft's connected realms and battlegroups. Sharded server structures create tight communities, the argument goes. People don't want to deal with folks from around the world who don't speak their language, and they don't want to fade into the background of a massive server with what they perceive as no personality and no community ties or loyalty. Do you agree with that sentiment -- are single-server MMOs just uncomfortably big? Do you prefer a classic, sharded experience? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
World of Warcraft updates its realm connection timetable
Do you play on a lower population server in World of Warcraft? Fear not, as more server merges connected realms are incoming for everyone. The next batch of connections will be taking place on Thursday, January 9th. Maintenance for these realms starts at 9 a.m. EST and should run until 2 p.m. EST; as always, completion times are subject to change based upon unforeseen issues. Another group of realms is slated for connection but does not currently have a timetable, although one of the slated connections (Anvilmar and Undermine) is currently on hold due to undisclosed technical issues. The addition of new realms means more people to play alongside, so for lower-population servers these merges can't come fast enough. Check out the official post for the full list of realms being merged.
