Africa based servers

[Stevie Wonder]

I know this question has been asked before but how would one go about pushing for the devs to establish a server in Africa, perhaps in South Africa? It seems Africa is the only continent not covered from a HLL server perspective but we have the highest piing 220+ I did make contact with Jonno last year on Discord and he mentioned he would get feedback from the devs but have heard nothing.

[Stevie Wonder]

Originally posted by TWB*Clell_Miller:

I should think you could easily answer that question yourself. Study the weekly average salaries in African nations. You'll start to get the picture. There are only about two nations where the average monthly salary for a single person with no dependents might be able to sustain a $70.00/mo leased server. Then factor in the additional monthly internet costs (where available). Then the initial costs of even a low end gaming rig. Then there's the matter of cultural interest in a game like HLL in the first place. The size of the market justifying an investment in gaming grade server arrays is probably mighty limited, and only available in certain areas. SA would be the likely place to look for a market for leased servers. But if you think the publisher is going in there with money to invest in a server presence? For this individual game? Archaeologists will be examining our bones first. Look up the term ROI, Return On Investment.

Not sure if you are based in South Africa or Africa...my hunch is you are not. If you are from Africa ...you should know better. I have not checked how the average monthly salary in say South Africa compares to say Chile, Argentina or Brazil or even the UK. In my view that is irrelevant. We can turn the argument into a sociopolitical one if you wish. We can start asking questions on why Africa gets shafted in just about every single way including in simple computer games but I play games to escape the harsh realities of life. If the devs want to grow the game in Africa they should provide the infrastructure for that to happen. Your ROI argument is irrelevant. How can the devs gauge ROI unless they actually have data to back up their non investment argument. The wheel was not a very big thing in Africa when first introduced by those clever people up north but look at us now. We love cars and adore bicycles. There are people with money in Africa...we don't still trade in hides and cattle...there are no lions roaming the streets(on most days) and we do have those machines that allow us to communicate commonly know as phones and computers. ...but yes you are correct we do have poverty. Quite a bit of it really. However that to is irrelevant in terms of this post. If you look at the data of some games like say Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 (these games have local servers)) at their peak there were at least 3-5 full servers running on any night in SA. Dice lost most of those players due to their disastrous PR and treatment of the player base down here but that is another story. In my view it would not cost much in monetary terms for Team 17 to set up servers in SA(especially considering the pound to rand exchange rate of 1-20). Its not a monetary issue. It goes deeper than that I am afraid....and you answer just proved it.

[TWB*Clell_Miller]

Originally posted by Stevie Wonder:

Originally posted by TWB*Clell_Miller:

I should think you could easily answer that question yourself. Study the weekly average salaries in African nations. You'll start to get the picture. There are only about two nations where the average monthly salary for a single person with no dependents might be able to sustain a $70.00/mo leased server. Then factor in the additional monthly internet costs (where available). Then the initial costs of even a low end gaming rig. Then there's the matter of cultural interest in a game like HLL in the first place. The size of the market justifying an investment in gaming grade server arrays is probably mighty limited, and only available in certain areas. SA would be the likely place to look for a market for leased servers. But if you think the publisher is going in there with money to invest in a server presence? For this individual game? Archaeologists will be examining our bones first. Look up the term ROI, Return On Investment.

Not sure if you are based in South Africa or Africa...my hunch is you are not. If you are from Africa ...you should know better. I have not checked how the average monthly salary in say South Africa compares to say Chile, Argentina or Brazil or even the UK. In my view that is irrelevant. We can turn the argument into a sociopolitical one if you wish. We can start asking questions on why Africa gets shafted in just about every single way including in simple computer games but I play games to escape the harsh realities of life. If the devs want to grow the game in Africa they should provide the infrastructure for that to happen. Your ROI argument is irrelevant. How can the devs gauge ROI unless they actually have data to back up their non investment argument. The wheel was not a very big thing in Africa when first introduced by those clever people up north but look at us now. We love cars and adore bicycles. There are people with money in Africa...we don't still trade in hides and cattle...there are no lions roaming the streets(on most days) and we do have those machines that allow us to communicate commonly know as phones and computers. ...but yes you are correct we do have poverty. Quite a bit of it really. However that to is irrelevant in terms of this post. If you look at the data of some games like say Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 5 (these games have local servers)) at their peak there were at least 3-5 full servers running on any night in SA. Dice lost most of those players due to their disastrous PR and treatment of the player base down here but that is another story. In my view it would not cost much in monetary terms for Team 17 to set up servers in SA(especially considering the pound to rand exchange rate of 1-20). Its not a monetary issue. It goes deeper than that I am afraid....and you answer just proved it.

I looked up the average monthly for every nation on the continent, Yes SA is the most wealthy. I'm not here to debate percapita income. I'm trying to explain why servers on the continent are rare and none. I tried to explain why the publisher is not going to fund servers on the continent out of pocket. Apparently I failed. If THEY thought there was a market vacuum there, there would already be a handful of public servers available. If you want a server on the continent, lease one and run it.

[Stevie Wonder]

The current population of Africa is 1,407,204,731 as of Sunday, July 31, 2022. Africa is the second-largest and second most populous continent on earth. There is no way that any company can argue there is no market for their product in Africa. Yes there are very few local servers running in say South Africa but its a cart before the horse scenario. You cannot expect to grown any fps game in Africa on 220 -260 ping. Should the devs set up a few servers then they would distinguish their game from the competition just on that point alone. The local game community can do the marketing for them and grow the game further. Its not a GDP question really. As for running a community server I have not been able to find any company that would host local servers for HLL.

[FentanylWallaby]

You know if you really want something done you just have to say the magic word and sit back, kick your feet up & watch the devs fall over themselves begging pleading hysterical desperate to set up a server for the Africans.

Just sayin. Like depends on how badly you want this lol

[Stevie Wonder]

Originally posted by HDoom:

You know if you really want something done you just have to say the magic word and sit back, kick your feet up & watch the devs fall over themselves begging pleading hysterical desperate to set up a server for the Africans.

Just sayin. Like depends on how badly you want this lol

Hmm it seems so hey. Will have to perhaps migrate to Arma . They have local servers.

[Reuben]

This is the problem when you can only rent servers. It kills the game eventually (in certain regions where the ping is too much and they don't have any local licensed server providers, where it could have been a popular game in said region) until someone makes a mod (still requiring a valid game install of course) that has its own servers and server browser like Venice Unleashed.

I get trying to monetise the servers as well, I wouldn't mind paying a one time fee for the server software if it came with some extra stuff.

The above would solve issues of coverage for the likes of South Africa.

[oldman]

we now have a ZA server, called Zuid Afrika

[Stevie Wonder]

Originally posted by oldman:

we now have a ZA server, called Zuid Afrika

Awesome news.