[MUD-Dev] business models

[Auli]

Koster, Raph wrote

> There's a lot of other factors, though, and they can all affect your
> bottom line. Co-located servers also increases customer service cost
> and makes it harder to do stuff like hardware upgrades, and routine
> maintenance. Not having co-located servers means single point of
> failure for connectivity (cf what bit EQ during initial
> launch). Players not geographically nearby tend to pick a given
> server anyway (eg, in UO prior to launch of Korean shards or
> Japanese shards, there were servers clearly identifiable as "the
> Japanese shard" among the shards located in the US). No co-located
> servers curtails your ability to target specific content or gameplay
> towards specific audiences. And so on... lots of tradeoffs going
> both ways.

Interesting.  I always thought Verant got it right (eventually,
release was a bit rocky).  When you buy bandwith you buy it based on
the size of the pipe you need.  The size of the pipe needed would seem
to be peak US play time for the foreseeable future.  You pay for this
maximum bandwith all day long so servers in a centralized location
would seem to make more sense from an international standpoint.  Any
international customers playing at any given time do not add to your
peak needs.  They would seem to be pretty much free of bandwith
concerns; anything not added to peak requirements doesn't add to
bandwith costs.

> As a side note--I was handed the June 2001 issue of Login magazine
> (from Japan) while at E3, and UO: Third Dawn is currently the #2
> bestseller there.  I'd argue that local servers, customer support,
> and a localized client and server are a big part of why.

Sure, but can't this be 'virtualized'?  Can you have the third shift
hired for their language fluency (and can you afford that added labor
cost)?  Are customers Internet-savvy enough to care if the 'Japanese'
server is really in Japan?

I don't know the answers to any of my questions, they are fueled out
of curiosity.  Is the cost of connectivity a large enough factor to
centralize servers?  I would think so, but I've never seen the bill.


Dwayne Hall
Savannah, GA
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