My experience in the Metal Gear Online beta was rather mediocre. However, I was mainly doing automatching instead of searching for servers, and thus good connections, myself. Once I start searching for games myself and filtering out any poor quality connections when Metal Gear Solid 4 came out, I started having a good time. Only when your shots register instantly does the game provide you with a good time.

After a month of good playing, yesterday's update has brought the complete horror of Konami's Metal Gear Online rearing it's ugly head again. Yep, the release of the 'Gene pack' has again destroyed the Konami servers and sent things to a crawl. I couldn't log in a couple of times today and when I finally got in and got the 1.10 update, I recieved three 'Message of the Day' messages from Konami. The messages weren't really written properly and looked something like this,

"We apologize for the current problems that Metal Ge

ar online is currently having. We are working as hard as possi

ble to fix these issues and get your online experience working ag

agin."

The online store hasn't fared any better. Despite not remembering my KonamiID and password, I decided to load up the store for the heck of it to find a very hard to read message. Yes, apparently they've placed randomly chosen hourly IP bans on people to try and lighten the load to the servers. To make it worse, it's black text infront of a dark blue background so the only possible way I could read (let alone see) any message was if I zoomed in all the way.

Konami should cut their losses now and fix this problem... perhaps by dropping this Konami/GamerID crap and using the already established, and already exceptional, PSN service.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Don't believe me? Read for yourself,

"Before Kojima Productions and Konami get Hideo Kojima that editor he so desperately needs, perhaps the company should hire someone who knows how to launch an online multiplayer game. The Metal Gear Online "Gene Expansion" was released yesterday and promptly melted Konami's servers, resulting in the closure of the game's MGO Shop and Reward Shop and difficulty logging in to the service. Some MGO players have reported paying for the new expansion and getting nothing in return.

Konami's solution to some of these issues was to restrict random IP ranges from accessing the shops, in an effort to lighten the load.

The company has also cancelled all Metal Gear Online "Survival" battles planned for this weekend, promising to have a new hamster wheel installed to power the servers as soon as is technically possible."

via - http://kotaku.com/5026858/metal-gear-online-expansion-surprisingly-a-huge-technical-disaster

The good news? The new update adds more server list filters and a ping indicator to the in-game scoreboard.

I feel your pain, CoD4 had many problems during the first 3months and getting online most of the time was impossible, but at least these guys say stuff about whats happening, we were left in the dark until the 360 started to have problems.

I hope they fix it fast and switch over to PSN, i can't even imagine why they would use their own system for online play.

Don't they get all the money by doing it themselves as opposed to losing a little to go through the PSN? Perhaps they should ask Valve how to do that correctly, because they can't seem to get it right here.

I should also add that unless it was my internet connection, I was getting a terrible connection in the three games I joined despite filtering the games so that only good connections would show up.

They really should have gone with PSN. Sure they lose a little money, but it would be worth it...and a lot better. :/ I would feel a little better about it if it was only one log-in...but the whole Konami and GamerID thing is really pissing me off. Why do we need TWO accounts?

I think it's for other Konami games since the KonamiID/GameID system is for Konami's games. I'd guess that they probably thought that their current system would be better than the one already in use for the PSN system that already works on the PS3 lol.

Perhaps they didn't realize that much has changed with Sony's online strategy from the MGS3:Subsistance online.

Meh, I just hope they can at least fix these problems. I don't think I'm going to be picking up the expansion either unless I use a giftcard. I don't want to offer more personal information into their servers because they don't want to use the PSN. I mean come on, all you'd have to do is throw some money onto your wallet, go into the PS store and buy (and then install) the expansion. Boom, you're done. Oh, and not to mention that the character slots you have to pay for feel like a slap in the face.

If anything, I hope that Sony becoming more engaged with the PSN could help to remedy problems like this. The whole single ID thing is looking rather nice.

Ohhhhh that's why I couldn't login....I thought it was just matainance.

Yeah Konami screwed MGO from the get-go by not using the PSN

its almost like they went, "hmmmm we actually have a pretty fun online game, how can we mess it up and piss a lot of people off......I know! multiple logins and a separate store!!!"

they have their own store? is this like the psn store?
and if it is...why? is it to cut sony out of the loop regarding sales? that would be a pretty rude thing to do.


regarding the hourly ip bans:
seems like a decent temporary solution.

Seriously lol. When you filter out games so you only see well pinged games, the actual gameplay can be engaging and fun.

@MrBubbles,

I don't think it's like the PS store at least in how you access it (though I have no idea how you pay for stuff and if it's like the wallet system used on the PS Store). Once you use your gameID and password to log in, the internet browser will open up when you select the MGO store. When it loads up the page, you have to input your KonamiID Konami password just to access the store. Add that you have to pay $7 to buy a character slot to make more than ONE character and you have a way in which they're going to try and squeeze money out.

Yea, I think they're doing it to cut Sony out of the loop.

Also, temporary IP bans may or may not be a good short term solution.... You'd think after the disaster of the MGO beta they'd have been able to expect problems?

never bothered to play MGS4 online. Is it even worth logging in or is it all campers with sniper rifles, as I hear?