My Short Interview with a Nexon America Intern

• Koishi wrote on 2010-12-24 22:50
  Today, I was involved in a Shadow Wizard Adv run that went sour, due to massive spawn lag on the last orb. However, it also afforded me the opportunity to speak with a Nexon NA intern, who just happened to be in my party. From this, I was about to garner some useful information. Now,
  
  Firstly, Nexon's cost-cutting practices were in full view once again. This intern works directly in the part of the staff that deals with things like lag and latency. From what he told me, the bulk of the staff are interns and college students. While there is no direct evidence this also applies to patches and customer service, it definitely would make sense given the poor record of Nexon in these areas.
  
  Partly because of this, the intern describes conditions at work as not altogether professional, or organized.
  
  Secondly, server resources were actually moved FROM Vindictus to Mari in order to help with the lag.
  
  In general though, this intern proffered several excuses for Nexon's poor performance, such as the faltering economy (in real life of course), and the difficulty of running a game of this size. However, he refused to respond when I asked why other companies do not suffer from the same problems as Nexon in key areas. In any case, this excuse fails to make sense logically, as Nexon makes record profits, and at the same time, high unemployment would make it much easier to attract talent, no?
  
  And if running this game was so difficult, why would Nexon mostly hire student interns to do it?
  
  Finally, I was given insight as to Nexon's plans for dealing with the lag problems. The intern suggested that Nexon would perform a large maintenance, unprecedented in length, that would presumably fix the problems with Alexina. This would include moving character data off the Alexina server to another location, so that the server could be wiped. However, he did NOT mention purchasing or otherwise acquiring new server hardware for Alexina.
  
  This is all the info I was able to gather from him. I hope that the Mabinogi community finds this info useful.
• radionoise wrote on 2010-12-24 23:09

  Quote from Koishi;261374:

  Finally, I was given insight as to Nexon's plans for dealing with the lag problems. The intern suggested that Nexon would perform a large maintenance, unprecedented in length, that would presumably fix the problems with Alexina. This would include moving character data off the Alexina server to another location, so that the server could be wiped. However, he did NOT mention purchasing or otherwise acquiring new server hardware for Alexina.

  
  
  Now I just fear Ferghus will trip on some wires during the transfer and we'll lose everything.
• Piko wrote on 2010-12-24 23:16
  How can you prove he really was a Nexon Intern and not some really smart player?
• Moppy wrote on 2010-12-24 23:17

  Quote from radionoise;261383:

  Now I just fear Ferghus will trip on some wires during the transfer and we'll lose everything.

  
  
  It seems like they fired Ferghus ages ago, unless he's a college student.
• Mentosftw wrote on 2010-12-24 23:20
  They were so fed up with college kids complaining then made them do the job instead.
• Koishi wrote on 2010-12-24 23:20

  Quote from Pikablu;261386:

  How can you prove he really was a Nexon Intern and not some really smart player?

  
  
  Technically, we can't. But like I said, the info I got was consistent with what we would expect from Nexon.
• Osayidan wrote on 2010-12-24 23:33
  Regardless if this was real or not Nexon clearly sucks on the technical back-end. They probably do everything in-house for as cheap as possible instead of hiring professionals to do their server/network architecture.
• Kansi wrote on 2010-12-24 23:43

  Quote from Osayidan;261393:

  Regardless if this was real or not Nexon clearly sucks on the technical back-end. They probably do everything in-house for as cheap as possible instead of hiring professionals to do their server/network architecture.

  
  
  And if anything major happens they call in the Koreans.
• EndlessDreams wrote on 2010-12-24 23:43

  Quote from Koishi;261390:

  Technically, we can't. But like I said, the info I got was consistent with what we would expect from Nexon.

  
  
  Wouldn't that be called confirmation bias? You simply believed in the lies that person made up.
  
  Nexon should just wave their magic wands around more often to fix their problems. Afterall, people nowadays expect company to fix problems both instantly and magically.
• Kenero wrote on 2010-12-24 23:47
  There's no proof. And Nexon NA Interns wouldn't blatantly show themselves because of their contract in how they interact with players. Nexon always always stresses that they won't reveal themselves in-game unless it's for an event, etc. and having the GM tag.
  
  I could walk up to people and say I am a Nexon NA intern and just say stuff that people are already suspecting or things that are really obvious and get them to trust me.
• NotAnElf wrote on 2010-12-24 23:51
  I am also a Nexon NA intern.
  I like ponies.
• Osayidan wrote on 2010-12-25 00:11

  Quote from EndlessDreams;261398:

  Afterall, people nowadays expect company to fix problems both instantly and magically.

  
  
  The technology exists and is very affordable for enterprises like nexon to have uninterrupted service. You could smash the mabinogi server with a sledge hammer and we wouldn't notice because another server would either be running in parallel to it or take over the load as soon as it's down.
  
  VMware has products like this and I'm sure other vendors do too.
  
  So when I see a nexon server crash and it's down for most of the day I have absolutely no tolerance or respect for such stupidity. They probably use the same network architecture now as they did when they first started out.
• Chillax wrote on 2010-12-25 00:14

  Quote from Moppy;261388:

  It seems like they fired Ferghus ages ago, unless he's a college student.

  
  
  Ferghus transcends age.
• Kenero wrote on 2010-12-25 00:16

  Quote from Osayidan;261414:

  The technology exists and is very affordable for enterprises like nexon to have uninterrupted service. You could smash the mabinogi server with a sledge hammer and we wouldn't notice because another server would either be running in parallel to it or take over the load as soon as it's down.
  
  VMware has products like this and I'm sure other vendors do too.
  
  So when I see a nexon server crash and it's down for most of the day I have absolutely no tolerance or respect for such stupidity. They probably use the same network architecture now as they did when they first started out.

  
  
  I can understand server stability and issues, but when it comes to update problems, the contract only ask that devCat takes care of it. Which I do sympthasize Nexon on that they have to wait for any production update, but server wise, no sympthany as well.
• Chihaya wrote on 2010-12-25 00:20

  Quote from ScoutNinja;261397:

  And if anything major happens they call in the Koreans.

  
  
  Mm? Did someone say something?