I was stuck in the very long queue for an upcoming online game (like a few thousands in front of me) and the reasoning for that is they need to stress the server so they can optimise it and the queue and then have servers ready for the release date. It’s always like that during betas, stress events and release dates. Before the release day, any queue is justified by ‘we need players to test the server for us’ and after the release day the justification is that ‘we didn’t expect so many players’.
Buy why do you need real people to connect to your server? If DDoS can overwhelm the server then why can’t you use it to test it and treat it as fake players that stress your server?
In: Technology
Think of it like “soft opening” a restaurant a few weeks before the “grand opening”.
You *could* bring in the full staff that day and run through a full evening with a handful of invited guests… but test-running a “slow night” like that wouldn’t really tell you whether your staff can keep up on a busy night (like the upcoming “grand opening”). So instead, you maybe rope off half the restaurant and only bring in half the staff; now your same number of invited guests will feel twice as busy to the servers and cooks who are working. Or, take it even further and rope off 1/4 of the restaurant and bring in 1/4 of the staff… etc.
These kinds of “practice-runs” can really help you figure out if your staff can keep up with the customers or if you have to hire way more staff, or cut back on certain menu items, etc. They are also much better at finding unforseen issues than “DDoS”-type stress tests. Like, you could totally hire a person to make a million reservations by phone or to open-and-close the front door a million times to check if your phones and doors can handle a million customers… but neither of those tests can tell you anything unforseen like how a guest asking *”Do you have any toothpicks?”* or *”Is this menu item gluten-free?”* might.
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