A-Net ~ Biting off more than they can chew.

Little something for A-Net here.
Since the introduction of Hard Mode this weekend... I have been unable to play Guild Wars after work... at all...
Why?

This is why:


As it happens, that time it peaked at about 24,000ms since the last ping, though it changed rather erratically and that was the highest I was able to cap. The "average ping" actually continued to go up after that, matching the obscenely high numbers I had been getting for "last ping".

Now see... that is around average now... since the weekend.
If I'm lucky it gets less busy in the early hours of the morning.... when theoretically nobody else is up yet.... but having just tried right now, that is not the case as I'm still getting in the red at around 2000 to 3000 average.


Now... since A-Net don't charge us fees, I understand that they're probably poor as hell and can't afford to fix up their servers to handle this number of people..... so I say instead: Please stop trying to do so much to encourage people back to the game UNTIL you have the servers to handle it. It is just irresponsible, and ruining it for those of us who didn't need encouraging back because we were still contentedly playing.

Have you checked with anyone else, or run tracerts before blaming anet? Other than the odd texture buffering lag from an early april update, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

what kind of connection do you have? If you are on dial up then I'm not in the least bit surprised.

No one I know has reported lag problems that bad since the release of hard mode. Maybe you should try to reinstall guild wars all together. Just a thought.

Also your FPS is a bit low. Afaik your fps has nothing to do with your connection but rather your video card. That's probably where a lot of your lag is coming from.

I'm blaming A-Net primarily because I had NO problem before the introduction of Hard Mode... except at one of the previous bonus weekends. Every bit of lag has been correllated perfectly with a spike in activity among the populace.

It might not be serverside fault.... but that is where the evidence points.

My connection is wireless broadband... Running currently at 54mbps.


Regarding the video card matter... I have tried fiddling with video settings in the past but it never seemed to make any difference. There were times when I could run it on high video settings without any problem whatsoever... and yet other times when even low video settings won't speed it up any.
But if it helps any... my video card is an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 .... and I have 1536mb RAM.

He doesnt have to, i have 60k+ ping spikes daily.. and its only getting worse and worse.

im in an international alliance and no one has been complaining about lag at all.

also how are you even able to play with only 10 fps, thats like watching a slide show.

In case you hadn't read my post at all.... I was just saying I can't. ¬_¬
That is why I haven't been able to play lately. I got some time in yesterday morning as it had calmed down into the orange then..... but I couldn't tolerate it this morning. My char was rubberbanding all over the place, bounced into a group of Madness Titans I was deliberately trying to avoid (and could have done too, without the lag).
Nightmare. v_v;

Actually a lot of my guildmates (and me) had some quite severe lag yesterday while in hard mode, I had an average fps of around 10-20 for over 3 hours (although I blamed my PC/connection as its quite old and only running at 250kb/s )

fps has nothing to do with your connection, it means you pc cant handle the graphics and you should turn down your settings

My highest ping EVER was about 1500, which was on broadband shaped to 64k with me on vent.

And still, why blame this on Anet? The closer to the servers it gets the more it will affect everyone. If their servers are at fault then *everyone* will have the problems, as is many (including myself) have none.

More than likely there is something in the chain that you connect with Anet that is at fault. Maybe an update changed something that your computer can not handle (thus the 10 FPS), there are places mine *always* gets a huge ping time and it is a problem with my computer, some a few graphics update have introduced. Maybe it is one of the routers between you and Anet, use the above mentioned trace programs to check that. Maybe it is a combination of things.

However, if people are getting a decent response from Anet's servers then it is not their servers - unless they are doing some strange thing where they screw some players to make other always get a good connection it is you. While possible, it is highly unlikely, hard to program, not useful to do so, and basically a worse business decision than just upgrading stuff. If you think this is the case then there is no reason to bother asking as nothing short of someone telling you that will suffice.

Wow, should I feel bad mine was over 80,000 before on many accasions? ^_^' My net connection to everything else was fine though and I'm on Broadband. Eh, made getting screen shots pretty fun. Have one with my Rit walking along with Wardens on patrol.

SotiCoto.... *roles eyes*... (ya know I mean this in a nice way)

Didnt I already bash you for mentioning this in my thread?

You cant complain because the game is busy, as a result of Anet adding a new (long over-due) feature.

New addons, patches and campaigns are bound to cause ping and lag issues, because of the influx of players wanting to try the new stuff out. There are also bound to be the odd interface, and programmes issues for the odd player.

But any lag issues calm down after a few days. It isnt a question of "Anet biting off more then they can chew", because this exact same thing happened when with the released of factions and nightfall.

There was immense lagging for a few days after their release. But its all calmed down now and its fine.

Your just getting wound up and annoyed. Yes its frustrating, but you know fine well it will calm down and be fine within a few days. If you're having programme issues, then they will probably fix that within a few days.

Chill dude!! Breath! Is a few days of no GWs really going to kill you?

As for expecting a better service because the game isnt subscription. From my experience, the game performance is better then that of games such as WoW.

When I first played WoW, I was getting kicked out of the game (litterally) every 30 minutes, and my character was freezing on the spot for 30-45 minutes at a time.

It was extremely frustrating.

In the 2+ years i've been playing GW, I have never once experienced anything as bad as that. Its very rare that I get kicked out of GWs and rubber-band issues are far and few between.

The performance of GWs online is extremely impressive for a non-sub game. Yes they have issues, but generally only after major updates or campaign releases.

But those end after a few days.

I kinda had a similiar problem as the OP.. After the update, fun and shananigans that transpired this weekend I have now, this morning, had really bad Lag. This kinda happens to me once in a while. Especially after big updates. I made a copy of my gw.dat file some time ago. And when my internet connection seems fine (after various speed tests) I simply overwrite my existing .dat file with the older copy. And yep.. it worked again Might not be the same for everyone, maybe it is A-Net... i couldn't say. My GW experience has been pretty sweet and I have had a relatively lag free 8 month stay at Guild Wars. (With Lag free I mean I've never had stupid crazy 1000 ping + lag that lasted for more then a couple of days). And I'm connecting from Africa, where the Internet is a myth in alot of places here.

A rock falls from a building towards 42nd street and at the same time a man falls over dead on 53rd.
Did the rock kill the man?

If it happens three times in a row... the same way every time.... then it begins to look very possible.

Or had you failed to take note of that vital aspect of the statement? Once isn't a trend. Twice isn't a trend... But when something happens consistantly three or more times, that is when I begin to suspect pattern.

I don't have any lag issues, even on dial-up.
Thus, the problem cannot be global (unless I was just lucky to be on the right server at the right time, unlikely).

Thus, it is not ANET's fault.

For those of you who can see the image in the first post.... would you mind checking which server address you link to... and then telling me whether you get lag or not?
It might just be that one particular server....

I'm sure that's your router speed not your broadband / ISP speed, if it is however mind telling me your ISP?

I have a 4mb Virigin Media line and lately i've been having general internet problems, only really started to happen in the past 2 weeks.

I had some nasty lag spikes last night but it wasn't due to GWs.

heh I've had worse

Probably. I was just reading off what the little connection icon next to the clock told me... I figured it was probably in MegaBits... as that would make much more sense.... since our connection is 6 megabyte... which is pretty good as connections go. We're with Pipex.

[For the record, to give you a better idea of my connectivity situation... I have two Internet connections... both wireless. One is slow and I pretty much have that to myself... and the faster one (6mb) I share with my flatmate Adam... who plays Everquest 2. It is important to note though that I got serious lag this morning and Adam was asleep... so it isn't him to blame. I get the same problems to the same magnitude on either connection most of the time anyway.]

2 people sharing a 6mb line for gaming shouldn't cause you lag anyway, up until Virigin Media took over my connection it's been find and my wife plays at the same time using the same connection.

I could try upgrading my graphics card and seeing if that makes a difference.... (or at the very least turning down my graphics settings to Game-And-Watch level) ... though I am sceptical since it never has done with GW in the past (though it made a big difference to fully modded Morrowind before I upgraded my RAM).

Same. Nobody in my alliance has complained about lag since Hard Mode, and I haven't noticed any major lag.

5 digit number lag! that's really bad! I'm on 8mb with BT and the highest lag was 3000 each, normal ping rate for me is 150-250+, even on the last weekend. I share my connection with my girlfriend as well, we did get a few rubberband in HA but apart from that everything was ok.

I didn't use wireless, had a bad experience with it, a few walls between the PC and the router and the connection speed drop all the time.

you running a hand cranked modem?

ye i seem to be having lag spikes aswell but my ping on xfire is normal 20-40

sometimes i got to 400max

No it's Anet for sure, got 5mb per second dsl here and I get lag spikes once in a while 2. I believe arenenat actually has a 'Network news' Link on the guild wars site that reports when a server is kinda not doing it's job right.

Heh... you think thats bad?

I've had over 160,000 before. I can't remember which weekend it was but it was one of these bonus weekends... and I was killing those undead walkovers in the Desolation (outside of wurms, as it happens)... on some mission for Paloko... or whatever the hell his name was.
And I got weirded out because I couldn't seem to move, and everything came to a stop in the middle of battle. I tried to attack an enemy but nothing was happening. After some moments I gave up and went to make myself a sandwich. It was still like that when I got back.

... And then a few minutes later again, it suddenly sprung forward. The entire undead group was beaten.... and more bizarrely again... ANOTHER patrol group of undead was lying, pwned on the ground nearby. The whole lot had been beaten by my heroes and henchies... thankfully...
But I still couldn't move. I was running blind at about one jerky step a minute... average.
I just got amused that I was able to survive there like that though. I think it is the fact that my party relies heavily on fire damage (Greater Conflagration + Mark of Rodgort + Minions) and undead burn like nobody's business. I get them killed just as fast outside the Wurms as inside them.

But yeah... sometimes I have the worst lag imaginable, though usually a faster FPS.... and other times the game runs smooth as a baby's bum.

You all need to understand that there are a hundred variables that could cause you to have lag and only one of them is ANET server load. Considering that MOST people don't have lag issues, I'd say that you should stop whining and looking for other people to blame and spend the time getting a better connection/supplier.

I don't even have that great of an ISP, and I play GW peak hours daily - including all through this last weekend, and never once experienced any sort of lag at all.

The point is - we can all share anecdotes about our connections, but whining about yours doesn't fix the problem. There are many things you can do to fix your personal lag issues that don't include whining about it every weekend.

ive had some severe lag spikes, to the point where the game has been near unplayable for say...1-2 hours. Its not me, im on a 1500/256 connection with a really fast pc, avg fps is 60-70.

Im going to venture a guess, that it's the info where your data is stored thats lagging right now, such as the anet server, perhaps because of overuse as in the past I have had hooorrrrible lag. but other times its been fine and smooth sailing.

I doubt you'll have this lag forever, maybe just for a few days etc.

Also...defrag. It helps I've noticed.

Well, I think you need to learn a bit about networks, I'm certainly not an expert at it, but usually you are routed on a couple of big choke points if u experience lags, seldomly it has something to do with the end server. Maybe there is one exception, GURU. But I guess they have quite the serverload, maybe combined with lack of enough computational power or upload bandwidth. When servers are slow its usually extended databases, many requests of clients, or an avalange of calculations to create the pages.

try to ping adresses in the "neighbourhood" of the server you connect too, and most likely you will see lag as well. You could work your way back ur up to see where the lag is caused. Sometimes its even at home due use of switches instead of routers, and other activities by computers on the same network. Some broadband connections "share" bandwidth among severeal clients. If there are a lot of clients on one access point (for example in a flat) it might be much more laggy then in a nice suburb.

Dont start blaming Anet while u have no clue where and for what reason the lag is caused.

I've never had more than 1 sec lag, and SotiCoto you really need to chill and stop blaming anet before gathering enough proof that it's actually them. Don't act like a smart guy before you're 100% sure about something, that would work for some other threads/posts you made as well. In most of them you got no idea what you're talking about.

Sure sucks to be the OP.

I do got a lag spike a few weeks already.It make my GW sessision queit bad.

O come are you seriously complaining about 10fps I go trough threw that every time I play. I have a AGP card.. and I will start getting framerate lag shortly after I start playing..Ive got used to it I dream of reaching 48fps

lol, 63 ms ping... do you live across the street from the server or something? God that would be nice. I've checked my routing to pretty much every one of their servers and the best ping I can get is 110 ms.

You guys could also run a -diag switch on the shortcut to guild wars to check you connectivity. Also, try to eliminate the possibility of spyware or malware by running scans. Spyware and malware can seriously mess up connection settings and corrupt your winsock file.

Not quite across the street. I'm in western canada connecting to the Euro servers, so about 4200 miles or so.

From extensive experience troubleshooting my own connection and others, if you have a bad frame rate / bad ping, there's a 99% chance it's 100% your fault.

GW was built to run on Dialup, and I have a couple guildies and friends who play it on dialup.

Tips:

*If you're on Dialup, don't use VoiceCom unless you have to. Use a VERY LOW CODEC.

*No matter what connection you have, DO NOT run Firefox in the background unless you have to. This alone has caused me undue lag in the past (and I play GW on Cable).

*...For that matter, don't run anything you don't have to in the background. Either play GW or don't, but if you try to multitask, there's a chance your ping will shoot through the roof.

*Check your connection, double check it, and check it again. Sometimes things can be a little wonky. Especially during storms, or network strain.

First of all, I can gaurantee you that Anet is not as "poor as hell" If you do the math, they are making as per average player than a pay-to-play MMO. They have sold more than 3 million units in the space of 18-20 months. That's 150 million dollars gross in less than 2 years, and that's not counting the extra money from some of those sales being Collectors edition.

WoW (generally regarded as the gold standard of MMOs will make about $180 million in the same time period from the same number of players.

Anet is not suffering for money. Thier server architecture, and game design is hundreds of times more efficient than WoW's and allows for more flexibility, causing less and less lag, where doing the same for WoW would cost hundreds of times more.

Blaming Anet for a slow connection is like blaming the New York Nicks for the fuzzyness of the picture of the game that you are watching, or like blaming the bank because when you called thier customer service line on your cell phone, the connection was full of static and interference.

What evidence? A tracert? Packet tracking? What evidence, beyond circumstancial and ancedotal, do you really have?

That right there could be your problem. Wireles is notorious for being quirky and variable at best. Oftentimes it will show a connection of XX, but actual speed varies because it's "Speed" is based on the faster of either download or upload, but for a good solid connection to an online game, you have to have both upload and download to be fast. Wireless is not the best way to connect to an online game. Interference from a dozen different sources can affect it, and it can have blazing fast upload speed while having worse than dialup download speeds. Connect your computer to the CAT5 directly, then come and talk to us.

The other thing is this: Where are you physically located? In Europe, complaints of lag prometed Anet to work with the companies that provide broadband, and in the end solved an issue that was on the ISP's side of things.

Have you reported this? If not, make a report, it could be that there are others in your area that have the same issue, and Anet can start to track the cause, and they can get the ISPs to fix the issues on the ISP's side.

Report the issue to Anet. Run a tracert and see if you can see where the hops are taking the longest. (I can assure you the majority of it will be before they get to the server) Connect your computer directly to the CAT5 instead of the wireless, and see if makes a difference.

As a previous poster said, there are a huge number of things that can cause the lag, and server load is just one of them. However, becuase of the server architecture, instead of (like other mmo's) a single server assigned to all the people that happened to connect to that server, you can connect to any number of servers for each connection. If a server is filling up, the next connection goes to a different server. It's not like one server is handling too many people.

Anet is not to blame here. And if you haven't reported the issue to tech support, the only person to blame for continued lag is you.

Don't suppose you see the hypocrisy of whining about whining... do you?


Apparently you don't know what I'm talking about, thus you seem clueless to the fact that in most cases I do know what I'm talking about. In this particular case though I only have simple logic and a few facts to work on though... and NOT a thorough, in-depth knowledge of networking.


Yes... yes it does.


No. I'm complaining about the 5-figure ping time. The FPS is a one-off, as last time I had this high a ping time the FPS was significantly higher.

As I have already indicated... I use wireless broadband; not Dial-up.

I do not use Firefox. That browser is worthless scum and I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. I use Avant...

Been there. Try to avoid it generally... but it doesn't actually seem to corellate. For what it is worth I have quite a lot of RAM... so multitasking isn't likely to be the issue anyway.

The weather has been clear and sunny for days now. No storms... nothing like that. The little green light on the wireless receiver blinks away to itself, indicating that it is certainly getting signal well enough... and other web-based stuff works perfectly quickly.