Here is why I don't believe it's a DDOS attack.

Guys this is bullshit, game is literally unplayable right now 16:05 GMT time, wtf is going on? Are you going to give us a free lootbox for all the lost time / items or what is the compensation here?

"

CloudSP12#3948 wrote:

Okay but why is only GGG getting ddos attacks for weeks and Not EA, Blizzard or Ubisoft? They all have plenty of haters.

Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it isn't happening. Square Enix (FFXI and FFXIV) is suffering from DDOS all the time, since you're looking for comparison with other large companies.

"

CloudSP12#3948 wrote:

Maybe its because they all found ways to Protect the Servers?

You can't protect your servers against DDOS. You can mitigate it but never fully prevent it.

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CloudSP12#3948 wrote:

GGG is Not willing to do anything and Just ignores the Problem.

They openly communicated what is happening and acknowledged the issue. What do you want them to do, call you and give you an update every other hour?

"

Crîmnor#4334 wrote:

"

CloudSP12#3948 wrote:

Maybe its because they all found ways to Protect the Servers?

You can't protect your servers against DDOS. You can mitigate it but never fully prevent it.

Game instance crashes are something they can (near) 100% prevent with a proper system design.
And if they would use big cloud computing provider properly (like AWS) they could also for most practical purposes protect themselves from other symptoms (supposedly) caused by DDoS with proper setup and coding.


Edit: Added "Game" to make it clear that this is about in-game instances.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cloudflare-blocks-record-73-tbps-ddos-attack-against-hosting-provider/

Interesting reading.

Edit: And not saying this is related to anything happening with GGG. This is just for those interested in these kinds of things, and for some who might understand what DDOS is better after reading that. DDOS is not fun.

Hi! I just came here to ask if servers are fixed yet but I guess they aren't. That's quite sad :(

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

The problem with all of this is simply that it doesn't explain why servers become vastly more stable when the player numbers go down, and vastly more unstable when player numbers go up. I can literally see it happen in-game during EU peak hours in the evening (~18:00-02:00h). If it isn't a "load balancing" issue as others described, then how come the "DDOS" always seems to go nuts around those times? You think it's someone from EU who only DDOSes the servers after they get home from work? Sounds quite realistic.

Spot on.

Speaking from the perspective of a server engineer, who looks after various businesses infrastructures at a datacentre, the situation is very clear.

GGG does not want to put themselves in a position where the only option they have is to publicly acknowledge the following:

> "We're aware of player count increases, and we're also aware that within a month these numbers will go down and server stability, to a fashion, will return. With this in mind, there is no long-term financial incentive for us to immediately increase system resources when the natural course is that numbers will go down on their own. This being the case, we have made the decision to not scale up our game's underlying infrastructure in response to the recent surge in players."

Thus, the only option on the table is to play the DDoS card. With nobody being in a position to state whether this is 100% the case or not, as GGG do not need to publicly disclose evidence of this. They are not obligated to do so.
I mean, technically speaking, they're not wrong. Essentially, what is being experienced could be classed as a DDoS, just not an attack. It's a DDoS in concept only, where there is a sudden massive and sustained spike in system resource utilisation. The so-called "Distributed Denial of Service" is being caused by their players, their customers. It is entirely unintentional, but simply the nature of the beast.
They release a new expansion, a new challenge league, people are fed up with PoE2 EA, fed up with Diablo and other competitors in the genre, so they flock to PoE1.

Sure, I'm backseat-engineering here, but there's just no universe that exists in which there is a malicious DDoS taking place. At least not one of a scale that causes the consistent player disruption that various regions are experiencing at various different times (most notably during those regions peak player hours).

Some honesty would be nice, that's simply all there is to it. I'd continue playing if they'd just be more transparent about this situation. However, coming clean on this requires facing a PR nightmare, so that isn't likely going to happen.

I'll keep an eye on Steam charts and wait until it returns to the 10-20k concurrent players mark, and continue playing then.

"

MGD#3081 wrote:

Some honesty would be nice

That ship sailed a while ago, and the irony is that their deliberate methods of avoiding bad PR are creating bad PR because they effectively are being ddos'd by their own players due to barely passable infrastructure. It was easy to see this coming from a mile away as soon as the EU players started migrating.

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BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

The problem with all of this is simply that it doesn't explain why servers become vastly more stable when the player numbers go down, and vastly more unstable when player numbers go up. I can literally see it happen in-game during EU peak hours in the evening (~18:00-02:00h). If it isn't a "load balancing" issue as others described, then how come the "DDOS" always seems to go nuts around those times? You think it's someone from EU who only DDOSes the servers after they get home from work? Sounds quite realistic.

if your goal was to disrupt players and your resources limited wouldnt you target the servers at peak hours?




these threads are so ridiculous, these endless attempts to grasp at random things to hold against ggg or blame them for or make them out to be bad people.



they obviously dont want their servers to be unstable and are obviously doing what they can to sort it out, its their entire company and everything jonathan has spent his last 17+ years, his entire working life dedicated to. whatever is wrong if he could fix it he would, so what does it matter either way?

i have no reason to doubt them and see no meaningful consequence regardless.


god these forums are so full of it, its fking miserable coming here and reading them as someone who actually likes this game and enjoys playing it. its just over run by people who want nothing but the worst, to smear the devs in a bad light, the game in a bad light, this endless need to find that next thing that proves its all shit and everyones a terrible person. its the steam numbers its the retention data its the server stability its this person leaving, that person saying something i can twist out of context, see, that proves it, i was right all along that PROVES the game is bad and the devs are bad and my endless negativity here every day is so justified...


yeah great, u were right all along, fantastic, you win. now go find something that makes you happy and post something positive in a forum dedicated to that rather than hanging around here making this place a toxic cesspit all day.

"

Snorkle_uk#0761 wrote:

"

BaumisMagicalWorld#0673 wrote:

The problem with all of this is simply that it doesn't explain why servers become vastly more stable when the player numbers go down, and vastly more unstable when player numbers go up. I can literally see it happen in-game during EU peak hours in the evening (~18:00-02:00h). If it isn't a "load balancing" issue as others described, then how come the "DDOS" always seems to go nuts around those times? You think it's someone from EU who only DDOSes the servers after they get home from work? Sounds quite realistic.

if your goal was to disrupt players and your resources limited wouldnt you target the servers at peak hours?




these threads are so ridiculous, these endless attempts to grasp at random things to hold against ggg or blame them for or make them out to be bad people.



they obviously dont want their servers to be unstable and are obviously doing what they can to sort it out, its their entire company and everything jonathan has spent his last 17+ years, his entire working life dedicated to. whatever is wrong if he could fix it he would, so what does it matter either way?

i have no reason to doubt them and see no meaningful consequence regardless.


god these forums are so full of it, its fking miserable coming here and reading them as someone who actually likes this game and enjoys playing it. its just over run by people who want nothing but the worst, to smear the devs in a bad light, the game in a bad light, this endless need to find that next thing that proves its all shit and everyones a terrible person. its the steam numbers its the retention data its the server stability its this person leaving, that person saying something i can twist out of context, see, that proves it, i was right all along that PROVES the game is bad and the devs are bad and my endless negativity here every day is so justified...


yeah great, u were right all along, fantastic, you win. now go find something that makes you happy and post something positive in a forum dedicated to that rather than hanging around here making this place a toxic cesspit all day.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to write all that, as if you have a personal stake in the game's success. You're just a player, and this is just a game. There are more important things in life to get emotionally attached to.

Remember, no matter how hard life might be, seek out your family and friends when things get tough. Best of luck, my man.

"

Snorkle_uk#0761 wrote:

these threads are so ridiculous, these endless attempts to grasp at random things to hold against ggg or blame them for or make them out to be bad people.

What's ridiculous is white-knighting for a company that has been shown to flat-out lie to their customers on multiple occasions.