SlyJeff Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 Not going to address the PR aspect, but from a technical aspect the approach to staged delivery has done nothing but boost my confidence level in BW as a software company. I say this from the perspective of a software developer who has been involved in large rollouts to large numbers of users before- staged delivery is absolutly the best way to give your end users the best experience from a technical perspective. I see a lot of people not understanding the value and citing things like the Beta stress test and the notion that everyone's going to be on within a week, so what good does it do them to bring people on gradually. I would suggest that unless you are someone with experience in this type of thing, the best approach is to recognize this is a VERY challenging thing to do well and there are probably a lot of issues you don't know about that they are addressing by doing this. It isn't simply about server load and stress. From my experince I can tell you, there is just no way to get a solid picture of what production is going to look like until you do it. Flipping the switch and opening the floodgates is risky at best and can be a disaster at worst. There's just no way to know all of the issues you are going to encounter. The right technical way to handle this is to bring some people on, observe, course correct if necessary, and repeat until everyone is live, ramping up the numbers as you gain information that the system will be able to handle the activity without comprimising the user experience. People may not like the way the process feels, but they way BW is going about it will give everyone the quickest access they can possibly have while still maitaining a reasonable expectation of a quality experience. I know a lot of people would be willing to sacrifice the quality experience for the sake of equal footing, but I LIKE BW's choice in the matter- it stands for quality and that means a lot to me as a consumer. I guess it would help people feel better if they would put out a schedule, but I'm glad they haven't. The only non-risky way to do a schedule is to make it super conservative so they know they'd not miss it and then stick to it. In a sense, actually, that's whay they've done by promising every one day. But the best thing is for them to bring people on as fast as they possibly can as soon as they feel comfortable that the system can handle it. That sure sounds a lot better to me. Anyway, my hats off to BW for taking an approach that will most likely lead to the best experience for me personally when I play the game. I don't get a lot of time to devote to playing and I want that time to be well spent. Seeing the technical approach to a large scale rollout gives me a lot of confidence that when I play this game, both during EA and for the months to come, it will be a quality, engaging experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlyJeff Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 Are these posts going in at post creation time or post completion time. Because I think this one was created on page 4 . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rizael Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 From my experince I can tell you, there is just no way to get a solid picture of what production is going to look like until you do it. Flipping the switch and opening the floodgates is risky at best and can be a disaster at worst. There's just no way to know all of the issues you are going to encounter. The right technical way to handle this is to bring some people on, observe, course correct if necessary, and repeat until everyone is live, ramping up the numbers as you gain information that the system will be able to handle the activity without comprimising the user experience. I thought this is what open beta is for, not a head start situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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