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Managing a high-end MMORPG is no picnic, and it's in this State of the Game update from the guys behind the scenes in Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London that we get an inkling of how. From the inevitable onrush of players commenting about a sudden server downtime (which the staff had warned about a few moments in-game) to dealing with a web server crash, it's all in a day's work for Bill Roper and his crew.
So, what's this State of the Game update about? Well, we learn that the guys managing the game ran into a few issues early into Hellgate: London's opening. The most notable one being a slight hiccup with the subscription transactions not being correctly processed. While it was nothing major like this or that account having loads of incorrect charges being applied to it, it was still enough for them to decide on turning off subscriptions for a while, to see just what was going on.
Turning off the ability to subscribe for players solved things a bit, but it also meant that players who have not yet subscribed will not be able to see all the awesome content the developers had whipped up for All Hallows' Eve. This would mean that only those who subscribed will, and it wouldn't have been as fun. Thus, the team made the decision to allow everyone to view the content, by way of turning off the servers temporarily to issue a new downloadable patch.
It was then that things started going crazy. Although the team had notified players in the game and on the official messageboards about the impending downtime, it seems that quite a few didn't quite get the message. Players who were surprised to find that they were unable to log back into the game swarmed into both the official site and the forums, causing a server crash due to overload. Ouch.
What did the team do, then? Lesson learned, it seems - they've made arrangements to procure more web servers, as well as to make a contingency plan in case of another overflow. And as for the game, the servers were turned back on again with no hitches, with the new content squeezed in, and it's been up and running ever since. Huzzah!
Well, with that over with, what's next for Hellgate: London? The team is a bit mum with this update, but they revealed just enough for us to drool over - specifically, the news about an upcoming Special Event. Here's a quote from the update itself, taken as is:
We’re putting the final touches on what is making it into our next patch, and details will be coming VERY soon. One hint – there’s going to be fire. LOTS of fire…
Lots of fire, eh? While we certainly don't want to bring false hopes up, we can't help but dream about a certain level filled with fire and brimstone and molten hot lava - and maybe a certain demon lord at the very end. Sounds crazy? Probably, but there's no denying that it sounds absolutely awesome.
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