? about Blizzards network code.

[F9thRet]

as in did they change something? For those who don't know, I box using a satellite modem, an old quad 4 phenom, an old 4350 Vid card, and 4 gig of ram, on my main system.

For grins and giggles, and to touch base with my guildies since I took a week off from burnout, I figured I'd log in to 5 box, and run through the BC area on my DK's. I log right into SW, at peak time, and man, no lag, everything was running better, frame rates, ping times where around 1200 (this during a cloudy day no less.) So I have to ask, since I have changed nothing on my end, did WoW do a major change, or was this just a fluke? Has anyone heard of anything being changed server wise, as I must say, it was a most enjoyable experience.

And heck, I just tore through Dungeons today, without any studdering. Took about 3 and a half hours to take them from 60ish to 70ish.

Stephen

[JohnGabriel]

I definitely don't know for sure, but WoW has been losing customers lately with a blogging site estimating it at 300k subscribers a month. Maybe the reduced lag is just less people playing.

[Sajuuk]

I definitely don't know for sure, but WoW has been losing customers lately with a blogging site estimating it at 300k subscribers a month. Maybe the reduced lag is just less people playing.
Sometimes if you don't know the answer to something, you should keep your mouth shut.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

how about a bit of googling?

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-optimization

[Zub]

Sometimes if you don't know the answer to something, you should keep your mouth shut.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

how about a bit of googling?

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-optimization

So you're saying that reducing the size of the files on drive give better latency?

[Sajuuk]

So you're saying that reducing the size of the files on drive give better latency?
I said nothing of the sort.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Sometimes if you don't know the answer to something, you should keep your mouth shut.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

how about a bit of googling?

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-optimization


So you're saying that reducing the size of the files on drive give better latency?


I said nothing of the sort.
So what exactly ARE you saying? Just so we're clear who you're calling out here and why, and what exactly you're contributing other than snarky, open-ended snipes that really don't back up your point (assuming you had one) and, in fact, make you sort of a hypocrite. Just sayin...

[Zub]

I said nothing of the sort.

i only read the Blizz message sideways but it seems to say that it's cleaning disk files (basically just reorganizing the various patch files into a cleaner one or something), but F9thret's (non-)issue is about latency and ping.. Hence my question.

so yeah, as Ugh said.

[Sajuuk]

So what exactly ARE you saying? Just so we're clear who you're calling out here and why, and what exactly you're contributing other than snarky, open-ended snipes that really don't back up your point (assuming you had one) and, in fact, make you sort of a hypocrite. Just sayin...


What am I say? Nothing. I don't know anything regarding "network code" changes, but somewhere I heard about the optimization being run, so, rather than making some reference to a blogging site(and not linking to it, or saying the name of it) that said Blizzard was losing 300k subscribers a month and that alluding to the possibility that that [Losing subscribers] was why his game was running better, I linked directly to a page hosted by Blizzard that addresses the issue.

Had a link to the blog been provided, more details could have been ascertained and numbers could have been conceivably crunched (being fair, running an average of 300k users over however many servers blizzard has now, depending on continent/region. 300k is a large number, and blizzard has been around the block with wow for...THREE expansions. I certainly hope they've solved latency issues on their end, sudden hardware failures notwithstanding.


ASSUMING US realms only, and assuming 236 realms (Source: chacha, terrible source in my opinion but better than nothing, lets rough numbers be crunched (http://www.chacha.com/question/how-many-servers-does-blizzard-have-for-world-of-warcraft-players)).
300k Subscribers/236 realms = 1271.19 subscribers(accounts)/month per server, but this number doesn't apply, since we don't have access to how much and when each subscriber/account was playing, taking into account peak time loads. People let their accounts expire, try a new game, come back. I'm sitting on 5...no 6 accounts. I think. I don't really care to be honest. If all of those accounts were connected to the servers all the time, you might be able to perceive a difference in speed and or latency. Maybe. I highly doubt it.


Consolidation of resources can certainly improve performance, and all the sub-facets (FPS, etc) that make up the term.

i only read the Blizz message sideways but it seems to say that it's cleaning disk files (basically just reorganizing the various patch files into a cleaner one or something), but F9thret's (non-)issue is about latency and ping.. Hence my question.

so yeah, as Ugh said.


no lag, everything was running better, frame rates, ping times where around 1200
The only thing latency/network related mentioned here is ping time, and only one number is given. 1200. While certainly terrible compared to our standards, F9thret didn't provide a "standard" reference number, so I don't know how it compares to past performance.

He mentions "No lag, frame rates, running better," there are more facets to performance than simply network speed. Hard drive seek times, RAM speed, video card specs and settings. Since he changed nothing deliberately, then something else changed on his system. It's plausible to think it was the optimization, if it happened to have ran during that time, or shortly before. I'm unsure.

But it's a more plausible explanation than "A blogging site said wow was losing 300k subscribers a month, maybe that's why."

[Zub]

The only thing latency/network related mentioned here is ping time, and only one number is given. 1200. While certainly terrible compared to our standards, F9thret didn't provide a "standard" reference number, so I don't know how it compares to past performance.

He mentions "No lag, frame rates, running better," there are more facets to performance than simply network speed. Hard drive seek times, RAM speed, video card specs and settings. Since he changed nothing deliberately, then something else changed on his system. It's plausible to think it was the optimization, if it happened to have ran during that time, or shortly before. I'm unsure.

But it's a more plausible explanation than "A blogging site said wow was losing 300k subscribers a month, maybe that's why."

Fair enough.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

The loss of subs since the immediately-post-Cataclysm peak has been well documented. They did stop the leaks a little bit, only losing ~100k subs this last quarter, though that could, as Blizzard has said about the losses, be accounted for by seasonal or other stuff. We'll see next quarter.

4Q 2011 = 10.2mil http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=647732
3Q 2011 = 10.3mil http://seekingalpha.com/article/306409-activision-blizzard-s-ceo-discusses-q3-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript
2Q 2011 = 11.1mil http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/03/activision-q2-financials-show-better-than-expected-results-with-revenues-of-1-1-billion/
1Q 2011 = 12mil http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101007005648/en
4Q 2010 = 11.5mil where it was since late 2008 http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/10/morhaime-confirms-the-unthinkable-wows-stopped-growing/

That comment about WoW "Growing" might have been a poor focal point in the context of this discussion. ;)

Based on the data above (that they only lost ~100k subs this last quarter) then considering he only took a week off, I can't imagine the change in subs during that time would have any perceptible effect on performance.

[F9thRet]

I should have mentioned what my normal, pings are. they are easily around 1800-2200 , or well they used to be. I did have another thought though. Since the Viasat went up, and is slowly getting peeps on that bird, I wonder if congestion on the normal spotbeam I use, has went down that great a measure. I haven't really noticed a change in any normal activity, except for WoW itself.

I had wondered about the Sub thing myself, and had came to the same conclusion as ugh, that 100k , unless they where all on Sen'jin at prime time, in Stormwind, I just don't see it. Of course if we had numbers like that, everyone would be lucky to have 1200 ping LOL.

Anyways, thanks for the brainstorming guys. It's just one of those mysteries, that While It's frustrating not knowing the answer, It's a good thing. This has just been a good week on my poor old Sat. Modem I suppose.

It is very possible the optimization had a lot to do with the frame rates though. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm sure that might be the case.

Stephen

[MiRai]

After some very thorough investigation, I've concluded that the ISP in question has
swapped some vital equipment from the USB 1.1 port over to the USB 2.0 port.

Case closed.

[JohnGabriel]

Sometimes if you don't know the answer to something, you should keep your mouth shut.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

how about a bit of googling?

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-optimization

You could have googled the subscriber loss, the OP could have googled the question. This isnt elitistjerks.com (though you have the jerk part down) so not really a need to document long discussions and link to every gaming blog referenced. Especially since the OP question is borderline hypothetical, asked in jest with jokes sprinkled throughout.

[Sajuuk]

You could have googled the subscriber loss, the OP could have googled the question. This isnt elitistjerks.com (though you have the jerk part down) so not really a need to document long discussions and link to every gaming blog referenced. Especially since the OP question is borderline hypothetical, asked in jest with jokes sprinkled throughout.
Yeah, but I didn't.

Funny how that works.

[Apps]

After some very thorough investigation, I've concluded that the ISP in question has
swapped some vital equipment from the USB 1.1 port over to the USB 2.0 port.

Case closed.


^This.



Yeah, but I didn't.

Funny how that works.

..And Lol.

[F9thRet]

After some very thorough investigation, I've concluded that the ISP in question has
swapped some vital equipment from the USB 1.1 port over to the USB 2.0 port.

Case closed.

you know man, that actually makes a lot of sense. That very well could have been the case at their network center, since they where moving some people over to the new Viasat.

Stephen

[lans83]

you know man, that actually makes a lot of sense. That very well could have been the case at their network center, since they where moving some people over to the new Viasat.

Stephen

Just imagine if they updated everything to the 3.0 usb ports. The Leatrix tool in my sig might also help you out some too if you haven't applied it to your OS. I think Visat 7 has something similar built into it, but not 100% sure, as I'm new to it myself. I play on a wifi connection with the signal reaching over 200 feet, give or take, and this helped drop my ping alot.

[F9thRet]

thanks Lans83, I'll check it out here shortly.

Looking at it, I think I did use it once before myself, but it has been a good year or two ago, It certainly wouldn't hurt to give it another shot.

Am I to understand, your on the new Viasat? If so, what are your over all impressions of it? I have two of the older Pro accounts I use out here, But have been tempted to switch over.

Stephen

[Zub]

I live in Sydney, Australia, and in the last 6 years i've been playing with a ping of ~400ms.
I've logged with a starter account this week (after a year off) and had a ping of ~120ms.So it seems something happened indeed

[F9thRet]

See, now that makes me happy to hear Zub. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this.

@ Lans83, I did your little download, and did in fact a small drop in ping. Right now I think It's about as good as it ever will be, considering the speed of light, and the way my internet works. All that sending a beam to outer space and back, then back again, I feel damn lucky.

Stephen

[lans83]

See, now that makes me happy to hear Zub. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this.

@ Lans83, I did your little download, and did in fact a small drop in ping. Right now I think It's about as good as it ever will be, considering the speed of light, and the way my internet works. All that sending a beam to outer space and back, then back again, I feel damn lucky.

Stephen

Every little bit helps.

[Zub]

Checked again, with 3 Wow running my ping on all 3 was around 180ms
definitely an improvement

[Sajuuk]

Checked again, with 3 Wow running my ping on all 3 was around 180ms
definitely an improvement
That's absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

[Zub]

That's absolutely fantastic. Thanks for sharing.
Then again, it could all go back to *normal* tomorrow.. Enjoy while it lasts ;-)