Some common misconceptions

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Edge100x
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Some common misconceptions

Post by Edge100x »

Some misconceptions have come up a few times recently in email and I want to clear them up a bit.
Running game servers is immensely profitable.
We do not actually make a profit. Most other GSPs actually lose money and have significant debt. This relates to the next myth.
Game servers are cheap and easy to run.
Good bandwidth is surprisingly expensive, and game servers use a ton of it. Hardware (and power and cabinet space) are also expensive, and to have servers that run flawlessly, machines need to stay very lightly loaded and be highly well-managed and well-tweaked. Customer support encompasses a huge array of different issues and takes significant time and energy to do right.
Other providers, especially new ones, can give you the same thing that NFO does at a lower price.
New providers have lower prices because they don't yet understand how much game servers cost to run well, and they universally have to raise their prices after some period of time, reduce quality, or simply go out of business. Existing providers with very lower prices are simply in a different quality class than we are -- there is a trade-off involved.
NFO and other large GSPs are soulless corporate behemoths.
We're one of the largest GSPs, and we probably have less yearly revenue than your nearest fast food restaurant. When you email us, the owners are the ones who answer. We are far from soulless and care about every customer -- every new signup and every cancellation.
The market for game servers is huge and getting bigger.
GSPs can generally only run servers for PC games, and the PC gaming market is shrinking, not expanding, so the market for game servers is similarly shrinking.
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Re: Some common misconceptions

Post by Edge100x »

A custom Linux kernel means higher performance.
When they say they run a custom Linux kernel, most GSPs mean that they compile one and choose different options than the defaults in "make menuconfig". That sort of "custom kernel" does not necessarily lead to high performance.

We go beyond simply customizing the compile options of the kernel we use for our ultraaccelerated servers by writing new code for it to increase the performance of our servers. This new code also allows us to run Source servers at 2000fps (and higher) reliably.
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