# Obamacare sign up

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 1, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089 "2013-10-01T14:13:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/61 "2013-10-03T16:23:05Z")

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> [@Karrius](#):
>
> GTAV, SimCity, Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV, Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxy, Aion, all off the top of my head, had massive server problems at launch. Some of those for much, much longer than two days. In fact, I can’t think of a popular or semi-popular MMO that didn’t have log-in errors at launch.

The _Shadows of Luclin_ launch for Everquest was horrible. The game was unplayable for weeks because of errors (including server issues). The previous _Ruins of Kunark_ launch wasn’t much better.

The big problem is that you theoretically _could_ get an obscene number of servers for the inital crush, but then what? It’s not as though you just ask NewEgg to take half of them back a month later. Would the critics really be happier with or less likely to jump on the “Half of the Obamacare website servers are mothballed weeks after the launch” story? Sometimes you just need to ride it out.

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**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/62 "2013-10-03T16:32:18Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> The Shadows of Luclin launch for Everquest was horrible. The game was unplayable for weeks because of errors (including server issues). The previous Ruins of Kunark launch wasn’t much better

Which is why Sony is now a bankrupt company that nobody has ever heard of.

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**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/63 "2013-10-03T16:57:02Z")

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> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> The big problem is that you theoretically _could_ get an obscene number of servers for the inital crush, but then what? It’s not as though you just ask NewEgg to take half of them back a month later.

You can now, you just have to build out to scale on something like Amazon EC2. They’ve got automated ways to spin up and down servers based on demand, and charge you per _hour_. So yes, if you knew what you were doing and designed your game that way from the start you could always scale servers reasonably closely to demand.

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obamacare-sign-up/670089/64 "2013-10-03T19:09:56Z")

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**Moderator Action**

The OP has been pretty well asked and answered, and this thread is straying a little too far out of the bounds of GQ. Since there are other threads in other forums related to Obomacare, I am going to direct folks who want to discuss it to those instead of moving this thread to a different forum.

Thread closed.

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