imVOX

I’m often asked why having a unified, single network is better than 100 hosting companies running our software. Since the industry is so seated in the hosting mentality it is sometimes difficult to explain among other questions.

Having a single network lets us do some cool things, helps certain efficiencies and dodges some problems that other services might have.

Patches and Updating

Since we run a single network, all of our servers are always running the same server software. We don’t have to worry about one out of twenty servers being on an older version of the software. Nor do we have to worry about the clients being of the incorrect version. When you launch imVOX the software checks with our update server and sees if a new version is available. Like most MMOs, there isn’t the option to run an older version and you’re automatically updated to the newest software. We are soon implementing a ‘nightly build’ option that you have switch on and off to always have the most super recent, but potentially unstable version and switch back. This will help us in knowing that our deployed versions always function properly.

Support

Since we operate the network and wrote the code, we are able to answer support questions a lot easier. We also have full logs from our servers and can quickly see the effects of changes on latency, processing power, etc. This enables us to innovate quickly as well since it makes our testing process faster.

If we had hosting companies running the software, getting the feedback would be a lot harder. Also the factors such as hardware and operating system would start to add complexity to the system and make diagnosis more expensive and more difficult. Not only would we need to support you the consumer, but provide support to the hosting company.

Search

With a single network, you can search the assets in the network fairly easily. This means that you can search for servers and soon other users of the service with ease. You don’t have to hand out IP addresses for various servers because everything is mapped internally to our system.

Social Networking

You generally chat with your friends. You want to share your gaming experiences with your friends too! Since we maintain the network, soon you’ll be able to have us search your Twitter followers and recommend friends in the system. You can have a single profile that works across all servers, but also has aliases for various games and servers.

Cost

Most of these also help keep our costs down. Also it is far cheaper to run one company than 100 smaller companies. These costs are passed along directly to you.