ELI5 Request: NBA 2k Servers

[jml475]

Hi All.

I would like some help with a concept that I don't quite understand the technicalities of. 2k servers.

People complain immensely about "2k's servers".

what does this mean? What is going on? Who is to blame? etc.

Why does my player get stuck in the rec for 90 seconds and cannot move off a got-next spot? If this happened in Cod/Halo it would be a joke...

[snocone]

Amongst many other issues, it comes down to a matter of time. 2K has one team putting out a large AAA game every year. Outside of sports franchises, this model has gone completely extinct in the game industry. While there is a new COD game every year, they have two (maybe 3 now) studios that work seperately from eachother. So rather than a studio putting a game every year, they now have 2-3 years to build the game and make it fully stable.

I don't think this approach would work in sports in games, which build on themselves by nature, and thus having separate games that don't share advances wouldn't work. I also don't think they would switch to putting out games every few years (and give themselves more time to perfect each one), because they would probably lose a significant amount of sales.


There is a third option which EA most likely uses, which is to pool resources. At EA, all of the sports games are using their Frostbite engine, which means that they can probably transfer code between games fairly easily. It makes sense that OTP is being added to both NHL and Live during the same year, since they can probably port the code between the two. This means that they have twice as many eyes looking at issues, twice as many testers, and likely much larger resources to throw at problems.

Basically, 2K is stuck without the ability to really embrace any of three easy options to guarantee stability, so they're stuff is frequently broken

[JedAustin]

Quote: Originally Posted by snocone

Amongst many other issues, it comes down to a matter of time. 2K has one team putting out a large AAA game every year. Outside of sports franchises, this model has gone completely extinct in the game industry. While there is a new COD game every year, they have two (maybe 3 now) studios that work seperately from eachother. So rather than a studio putting a game every year, they now have 2-3 years to build the game and make it fully stable. I don't think this approach would work in sports in games, which build on themselves by nature, and thus having separate games that don't share advances wouldn't work. I also don't think they would switch to putting out games every few years (and give themselves more time to perfect each one), because they would probably lose a significant amount of sales. There is a third option which EA most likely uses, which is to pool resources. At EA, all of the sports games are using their Frostbite engine, which means that they can probably transfer code between games fairly easily. It makes sense that OTP is being added to both NHL and Live during the same year, since they can probably port the code between the two. This means that they have twice as many eyes looking at issues, twice as many testers, and likely much larger resources to throw at problems. Basically, 2K is stuck without the ability to really embrace any of three easy options to guarantee stability, so they're stuff is frequently broken

Clearly you have bought in an accept any excuse as to why they can't make a stable game. I for one buy none of this and believe them to be incompetent in this area. They have bad servers because they aren't capable of better. Wether it be the netcode or lack of resources put into servers they simply fail to deliver based on incompetence. The fact that EA acheives the level of server stability they do shows its possible. Say whatever you want about why 2k "can't" do it, fact is its a fabrication.