Sure, twice as many dollars in the immediate term. In the context of a particular tick rate being decade(s) old, it's more like deciding whether you can host 50x or 100x as many players per dollar of infrastructure. The upside of a higher tick rate grows as computers and connections improve and the downside shrinks semi-exponentially.
Also twice as many dollars in the future term! The downside very much does not decrease “exponentially”.
It would be interesting to know what Valve’s server costs look like over time. They definitely spend the pretty penny. And any business would prefer to spend one penny rather than two.
> Also twice as many dollars in the future term! The downside very much does not decrease “exponentially”.
The downside measured in dollars continues to decrease exponentially. If it's $100 today, soon it will be $30. It's still "twice", but the thing you're twice-ing is smaller and smaller and smaller.
