Ragefire Server Launch Delay & Debacle

Ragefire’s launch didn’t go so well yesterday. In fact, I think I called it rather nicely.

I’m not going to be overly negative. The entire thing was a debacle. If you’re looking for the facts, here you go:

  • Ragefire came up 30 minutes early with no warning
  • The moment the server came up people were logging in level 50 with gear and spells
  • People proceeded to buff and power level their alts/friends
  • Daybreak locked the server, but did not remove the thousands of people online abusing the bug
  • Daybreak insisted “No one benefited unfairly.” See below:

More of the insistence.

  • Server was brought down completely at this point
  • Daybreak brought the server back up after over an hour of downtime
  • Annnnnd this:

Needless to say, server came back down. And guess what? A few more hours later, they wiped. 

After a few hours of testing by allowing only a few people on at a time, they finally let people on and at 9:30pm pacific (ish) level 50s started appearing again. They announced that Ragefire would launch (hopefully) around Noon pacific today on May 21.

I’m disappointed about not getting a Wednesday launch. Wednesday was perfect for me, and Thursday (today) sucks because it’s my busy day where I’m stuck at work. But, hey, that’s how these things go. Welcome back to 1999. I remember the server being offline for like a week and all we had was that archaic chat room you could access from the patcher. Remember that?

Every time this happens, people (including me, I can’t help it) will rattle off the “Dey Break Games” stuff. I pity their marketing department. The name really should have been vetted a bit more. But calling a spade a spade here, this wasn’t handled great. The minute you had 100 level 50’s appearing within minutes of launch it should have been brought down. Not locked. Not looked into. Shut down, wiped clean, and brought back up for testing.

We’re paying customers now, not a free-to-play crowd, and we’re paying for a progression server. When level 50s are able to get in there and buff people up and boost other people that affects how the server progresses. Ultimately, I think that’s why they wiped and will hopefully handle this with a little more finesse moving forward.

  • Of course Daybreak is responsible for letting this happen but 100’s of players were ready to exploit this within seconds of the server opening? The average MMO player today has a very different mindset than one from 10 – 15 years ago. We knew this but I think this confirms it to the point you can’t overlook it anymore.

    The great part about EQ was the community. The only way I think you can get that now is by going in as a group like KGC or some real life friends and sticking together. 95% of the people will be trying to beat the game rather than experience the world.

    I can’t help but feel the overall community is doomed. They may wipe the characters and fix the loopholes but those players will be back. Those min/maxers are the ones you’ll have to share the world with.

  • @Gringar: Yeah, I feel the same way. That’s why I’m going in with KGC/Friends and realizing that my goal is to go and see the world, experience the zones, dungeons, etc., with friends and not care one iota about “beating” the game. All of these people and their 6 boxes, min/maxing, “race to 50” etc., can have fun however they want — I won’t dictate that they can’t enjoy the game that way — but it’s not for me, and it’s not reminiscent of the truly old school days.

  • I decided against multi boxing, and I’m also going to play in first person mode only, without using the map or compass(I’ll still mash sense heading if I need to, though.) I know that the economy is going to be shaped/owned by ‘those people’ and I’m never going to get any rare spawns as a result, but I think there is still plenty of game for me to experience.

  • Back as a professor during semester breaks we used to joke that the university would be such a better learning environment if it wasn’t for all of the students, all irony intended.

    I feel the same is true for MMO’s where players shit where they eat and then proudly post it to YouTube.

    Of course we shouldn’t deceive ourselves into thinking that exploiting game mechanics is a recent development, although perhaps it is a more widespread phenomenon now?

    http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dick-moves-in-history-online-gaming/

  • Is it confirmed that people were doing this intentionally?

    From what I heard and read yesterday, it honestly sounded more like people were just logging in AS 50s with gear for some reason, not from anything they actively did.

    My guess, if this is the case, is that DBG failed miserably and left some of the live server database in the new Ragefire server, and so when someone chose “Mynamehere” as they always have, they were simply their other character for whatever reason.

    But I could be wrong, because people are indeed utter asshats.

  • My understanding (and without an official post from DBG saying so it’s just speculation) is this was happening automatically and had something do with accounts that have had a heroic character purchase. The issue arose when these accounts entered an instanced starting zone. I have no doubt there were a handful of people attempting malicious activity but I think the main issue here is no fault of any players and some issue deep in their code.

    It’s hard not be negative here. With the amount of hype surrounding this and beta testing time you’d think this should’ve presented itself prior to the launch. Launching 30 minutes early was bogus. Also, it’s not like this is a new game launch. It’s a 16 year old game that’s seen how many launches in the past for how many servers and expansions? Why can’t anyone ever get this right?

    I’m an IT professional and if I ever botched an install or deployment this badly I’d be fired. It’s unfortunate for everyone involved and I think it’s easy to forget there are human beings there working on this away from their friends and family and stressing pretty hard right now I imagine. Hopefully they will take this into account and prepare better in the future.

    I was really looking forward to playing over the holiday weekend so here’s hoping for a speedy resolution.

  • This highlights the issue of whether a player should be blamed for utilizing an exploit even if they didn’t create it, especially if it should have been an obvious “not working as intended” matter.

  • In addition to it being automatic…

    You guys sound like a bunch of cranky old men that have convinced themselves the past was something it never was.

    People have always used available exploits in this game. Period.

  • For the non-EQ players out here, what is the significance of mentioning the bard players?

  • Most people seemed to believe the server would go in July-ish.

    Their ‘beta’ lasted a week and allowed me to buff to 50 and get teleported to PoK.

    I feel like this was Daybreak trying to get this server online:
    http://i.imgur.com/k3qcfFR.gif

  • @virtual swayy

    Actually the past was actually that good and why it pains us this much to experience the new depths. Constantly lower. Year by year.

    This is likely just one of many new lows, but the hole can get deeper. Daybreak are clearly amateurs. I love how the nekkid Keen was staring at all those level 50s in shiny armor. I guess it’s heartening that daybreak didn’t turn out to be a slash and burn, peel off the IP and sell for profit company.

    Just. Merely incompetent. Really incompetent.

  • I agree with Keen…LOL you can’t have an EQ progression server without a 1999 type of MMO launch…that is part of the experience!

  • The level 50s were granted automatically, but it’s not the people who were level 50 who should’ve been punished or anything. It’s the people who took the level 50’s and abused the glitch hoping to seek an advantage. If you took the glitch and ran with it to buff and abuse it, that makes you a cheater.

    I subscribe to the school of thought that believes a glitch should be reported, documented, and left alone. Anyone who abuses it and believes that they are just playing what the devs gave them is using a poor excuse to cheat.

    @Gankatron: I think it was just the first person to hit 50 was a bard or something. No idea. Plenty of non-bard 50s were granted.

  • The earliest online games were set in a time when most people had not been using the fairly primitive Internet for long, and the ‘immediate lowest common denominator’ environment had not yet developed. At the time people treated online interaction more like you would treat doing something in person with friends.

    It is true that there were always people who exploited issues, but it was viewed by the culture as more of an edge case rather than an inevitability.

    It is probably reasonable if one were raised in the current environment to believe it impossible that it was ever any other way.