"Always On" and food for thought

by Revenant1988 , How do I forum?, Friday, March 08, 2013, 09:53 (4067 days ago) @ Cody Miller

The server load for Sim City is undoubtedly higher than it will be for Destiny. XBL and PSN are very lite, in that the matchmaking servers only pair players up, then the host player's connection is responsible for maintaining the game. In contrast, the Sim City servers actually run simulation code, and so one of the things EA is doing is removing game features to alleviate problems (such as limiting the simulation speed to llama, and not letting you choose cheetah).

Like Diablo 3, running critical code server side is without question an anti-piracy move. And like Diablo 3, whose console versions will NOT require an internet connection, the game will probably run fine locally.

A couple of my buddies are big Diablo players and they bitched like nobody's business the first few weeks after that game came out about connection issues and server availability.

I don't necessarily know that PSN and XBL are...lighter. I would imagine they've seen significant growth in the time they've been out (especially with all the stuff Sony plans to do with PSN and PS4).

The reason Blizzard isn't requiring a connection for the console versions is simply because folks don't pirate console games in large numbers since it is much harder, and even if they did they couldn't get online with it. So Bungie would be foolish to be running large chunks of the game code on servers, since the 'problem' it's meant to solve doesn't really exist, because 1. people don't pirate console games in significant numbers, and 2. even if they did they couldn't play online anyway.

I think its cute that you think that, I really do.

Buddy, I used to pirate xbl games. It's easier than you think, and the community is pretty large. I only ever lost one xbox to being console banned, and the reason I did is because I got cocky and played a ripped game without applying a firmware update.

I didn't get caught on that box and gamertag for 4 years. I easily played a couple thousand worth of games.

When I got console banned on that account, I stopped because I wised up after I had my fun. My main gamertag has never been...disgraced, I should say. I essentially used the other one for all the games I wanted to play but didn't want to buy new. Thankfully, I've seen the light and have changed.

The two other guys that modded with me still do it, and haven't payed for a game in years. I'm sure the hacks and mods have changed but I haven't kept up with them. I still see em online allll the time, and they play the same games we do.

Piracy is more present than you think, I think. But, for Destiny I don't think that will be an issue at present, because who knows what counter measures the PS4 and next xbox may have.

Basically, Bungie would have to be dumb to do what was done with Sim City.

Destiny seems to be shaping up to be something really big. Since its on multiple platforms, I wonder how much of this will be housed and provided by Bungie or that might be hosted by someone else. I'll clarify that I'm referring to the servers and network relationship in this case.

Basically, I'm curious if there will be similar....outages(?) and demand for this title?

There's a few others but I have to get back to work. I'll check back here in a bit.