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lookinin's avatar
lookinin
Seasoned Veteran
5 years ago

The fall guys: why big multiplayer games almost always collapse at launch

Hi,

I just want to share this article I read today in The Guardian. It provides some insight into  the various challenges developers face when creating and maintaining an online multiplayer game. 

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/aug/27/multiplayer-games-collapse-at-launch-mediatonic-fall-guys-ultimate-knockout

As much as I try to understand the developer side of a game, it's completely opaque to me. I figure the more we learn and understand about that aspect of a game, the better questions we can ask or problems we can present. And in turn we'll get better answers and solutions. 

 I'm glad to see so much new participation in the forums. 

Regards to all.

5 Replies

  • benn1nat0r's avatar
    benn1nat0r
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @lookinin Thank you for sharing this with us. I know the dev's work is way more complicated than we can imagine and I like to give them credit when they do something right. However, I'm puzzled why other dev teams seem to have less problems in this current situation. Popcap has been very quiet lately, which is not good. Even showing presence by maybe commenting here on the forums for once would greatly improve the community's mood and opinion of their work.
  • Iron_Guard8's avatar
    Iron_Guard8
    Legend
    5 years ago

    Very interesting article. Some of this I had guessed at already, especially after playing not only online shooters, but also MMOs for years. There are a lot of variables involved in even getting the games to run decently in the first place, add some network outages, DDoS attacks, and other such external problems and things can go south in a hurry.

  • lookinin's avatar
    lookinin
    Seasoned Veteran
    5 years ago

    @benn1nat0r It is puzzling but I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and conclude that they're overwhelmed for whatever reason.  Still, it must not be a priority for them which is a shame- If they would at least tell us that we could manage our expectations. You're of course correct -just a little communication goes such a long way. 

  • benn1nat0r's avatar
    benn1nat0r
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @lookinin I completely agree. I also really like their work, but just a tiny bit of communication here would make everyone feel so much better and enable us to manage our expectations.

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