Best Server Location For Player Traffic

[TimSad]

I have been and pretty much always will be running most of my servers in the LA area to appeal to the abundance of players in the general area. However, I'm going to break the rules for one of the BF4 servers I will be running so I have a question... Which location tends to get the most player traffic through the servers hosted there throughout the whole 24 hour days? - Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, LA, New York, San Jose, or Seattle?

I'm aiming to make this a GameTracker Top 3 Battlefield 4 server. So, any input and past findings would be greatly appreciated here. Thanks!

[kraze]

I don't think there is a real specific answer to this. However, if I had to guess I'd say Chicago since that is right in the middle of the US and would appeal to people all over since everyone normally sees a solid ping to Chicago.

NYC would be good if you're targeting overseas players, though.

[soja]

Frankfurt would be best for 24hr traffic imo. Eu has more pc gamers than us in my experience. If you are dead set in us though, Chicago is probably the best option, as kraze said it appeals to all of the us and southern Canada.

[Edge100x]

Chicago is the most popular location, followed by NYC. Chicago is popular because it's central for players scattered within the US and Canada; NYC is popular because it's central for players between the US and EU, and because BR players also do well there (strangely enough).

With an established game, the best location would be wherever your seed players want to play (since that core group of players is key to success). For a new game like BF4, you may be able to bootstrap a new community fragment with new seed players, using fewer people at the beginning -- but it could still be tricky .

[TimSad]

Yeah, I just looked through all the IP's of the top BF3 servers on GameTracker and found of them to be based in Chicago. Thanks for the replies, guys!

[TacTicToe]

IMO if you wish to go central, then Dallas is the better choice. Right in the middle of the country, just like Chicago. Chicago has a tendency to attract more DDoS attacks then any other datacenter, mainly because of its popularity. Anytime I choose to go local and appeal to the most in the US, I go with Dallas. East coast gets you more players IMO. Our servers are in Atlanta, as we seem to get a lot of EU traffic. You will see less of that EU traffic, if youre on the west coast.

So I guess it depends on whom you wish to cater to.

[FlyingMongoose]

Chicago gets you a lot of Ontario based canada players and sometimes some Quebecois, you'll also get indiana, wisconsin, ohio (I'm in ohio and get 15-20 ms pings to chicago), west virginia is toss up whether they hit chicago or new york or atlanta. So the previous responses are correct, depends on who you wish to cater to, while chicago gets a lot of ddos's it's still my personal preferred as I get the best pings there.

[soja]

Other than the recent attacks, I have had no issues for a long time in Chicago as a whole.

[.=QUACK=.Major.Pain]

They probably got a lot, but they are handled better so the appearance is more of a blip.

[soja]

I meant attacks that would effect all customers. Getting targeted will happen at any location, we get (D)DoS every week or so, but nothing that would effect all Chicago customers, as is being discussed here.

[Trick]

Chitown tends to be a great choice. But sticking it in New York helps keep a fuller population during the hardest time(5am-noonish) seeing that its about noonish in alot of europe at 5 am in the us.



this was dec on bf3 launch.
Just need to make sure you have a good admin staff, offer a good time both in and out of TS and stop your admins into becoming badmins.

Badmins and horrible ran servers is what killed me in Bf3. Instant vehicle spawn is horrid! I dont know why so many servers have it, It doesn't promote skill or the individual vehicle assets worth.

[Edge100x]

They're not supposed to have it . Every server of each type is supposed to use the same settings right now across the board, apart from the name (though it has a prescribed format, too) and description. We are careful to follow the rules, but some other hosts do not.

[soja]

They're not supposed to have it . Every server of each type is supposed to use the same settings right now across the board, apart from the name (though it has a prescribed format, too) and description. We are careful to follow the rules, but some other hosts do not.

Was this the case in BF3 as well? Customizing the experience is part of what makes dedicated community-owned game servers great.

[Edge100x]

soja, what I said applies only to official beta servers during the beta.

[soja]

soja, what I said applies only to official beta servers during the beta.

Oh ok I misinterpreted what Trick said then, thanks.