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Colon and I were doing a little brainstorming on the economics of the server situation over at FFZ
Here is the basic analysis:
GS should upgrade the server if it makes sense economically. If the costs of providing more server space are lower than the added revenues, they should provide the space.
The revenue that Poly generates for GS is based on advertising. Markos gave some recent figures about the numbers of pageviews we're experiencing, here. If we figure 100,000 page-views per day, then this equates to $200-5000 dollars per day based on Colon's estimate of $2-50 dollars per thousand page views (note this is from the GS perspective...not what Mark and Dan get...since they are not in the hosting/server providing market...yet!) If we figure that GS gets the low end figure, that still equates to $200 per day. If we figure that the server problems are causing us to miss 50% of our possible market (seems reasonable given down-time, OT locking and chat locking and most importantly that new visitors are unlikely to return to a site that's unavailable.) This means that the lost revenue is $100 per day.
I'm not an expert on server costs, but it sounds like the servers used are basically souped up desktops, so let's figure $2000 for a new server.
This pays for itself in 20 days!! I think it's reasonable to expect current hit rates to continue through the rest of November considering the game hasn't hit yet in Europe. Please also note (in case my servers cost numbers are too low) that the lost revenue figures may be conservative. If we tried to boost demand instead of stifling it, we ought to be able to be at triple current page views, at least while Civ is "hot".
of course there are some other options to consider. Are both of the Gamestats servers at capacity? Could capacity be added by shifting associates off the "associate" server and onto the "main" server. What about streamlining Poly content (without reducing demand perhaps by eliminating unused features like the "thread rating" concept). Or reducing other affiliate/GS demands on the servers (only if this can be done without reducing demand.)
The key thing is to act now!! This high useage won't last forever. In fact, GS and Poly may have missed some considerable revenues already. If we "wait until things go back to normal" than all of this analysis will be superceded. Take a look at the economics and act!
Here is the basic analysis:
GS should upgrade the server if it makes sense economically. If the costs of providing more server space are lower than the added revenues, they should provide the space.
The revenue that Poly generates for GS is based on advertising. Markos gave some recent figures about the numbers of pageviews we're experiencing, here. If we figure 100,000 page-views per day, then this equates to $200-5000 dollars per day based on Colon's estimate of $2-50 dollars per thousand page views (note this is from the GS perspective...not what Mark and Dan get...since they are not in the hosting/server providing market...yet!) If we figure that GS gets the low end figure, that still equates to $200 per day. If we figure that the server problems are causing us to miss 50% of our possible market (seems reasonable given down-time, OT locking and chat locking and most importantly that new visitors are unlikely to return to a site that's unavailable.) This means that the lost revenue is $100 per day.
I'm not an expert on server costs, but it sounds like the servers used are basically souped up desktops, so let's figure $2000 for a new server.
This pays for itself in 20 days!! I think it's reasonable to expect current hit rates to continue through the rest of November considering the game hasn't hit yet in Europe. Please also note (in case my servers cost numbers are too low) that the lost revenue figures may be conservative. If we tried to boost demand instead of stifling it, we ought to be able to be at triple current page views, at least while Civ is "hot".
of course there are some other options to consider. Are both of the Gamestats servers at capacity? Could capacity be added by shifting associates off the "associate" server and onto the "main" server. What about streamlining Poly content (without reducing demand perhaps by eliminating unused features like the "thread rating" concept). Or reducing other affiliate/GS demands on the servers (only if this can be done without reducing demand.)
The key thing is to act now!! This high useage won't last forever. In fact, GS and Poly may have missed some considerable revenues already. If we "wait until things go back to normal" than all of this analysis will be superceded. Take a look at the economics and act!
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