Originally posted by moondrago i dont understand why everyone is sticking up for a company that didnt figure out that they needed more servers..
WoW, warhammer, aion, rift, swtor completely screwed up amounts of server at launch. WoW launch was horrible. Aion had 3.5k queue for all servers for first few weeks (and empty servers 3 months after launch). In some ways what warhammer, rift and swtor did was worse because they doubled amounts of servers from prestart to launch which meant half their servers were full, and the other half were empty.
Problem is, all those games you mentioned...they had like 15-20 servers at launch, and I think more for some of those games.
I do know that once WOW reached it launch capacity, and they were unable to secure more capacity, they did halt purchases so people were not buying games that blizzard couldn't support.
ARR has like 4 US server and like 1 EU server (I don't have exact numbers since they refuse to send me the activation code for the game I purchased)
Needless to say, they GROSSLY underestimated this. If they had 10-20 server per region and this was happening, ok that's one thing, but to have so few servers is just a facepalm moment imo.
Everyone knows launch is big then people trickle out...and yeah it sucks if you get on one of those servers that dies out...as they typically drag their feet with server merges (usually making the situation worse as more people leave since the server is dead than would have left had they merged early)
But anyway...this isn't your normal "whoops we got a bit more than expected" its more like "who are all of you people and who said you could come play on this one server we have for everyone who bought the game"
ive never seen anything like this. Unless they expected 5k-15k players per region to show up....I really have no idea what they were smoking when they made the choice to have so few servers.
What makes this so much more painful to watch, is that so many people are giving this company a rare second chance on this mmorpg...This game must have cost SE a fortune to develop, pull off the market, develop further...and launch. They certainly could do with treating those trying to pay them a bit more respect imo.
Not only is there an issue with those who are able to download, but a whole new mess of people who paid and SE went silent on them with no activation code. So you have a LOT of people right now who are wondering why the company went silent before giving them the product they paid for.
Ive never seen anything like this...this has nothing to do with the game itself...but this company...I swear...its like they have no idea what they are doing at almost every step here...and this is their second launch of the game...so they have experience in launches...and they are a large, successful company...its mind boggling.
These kind of server hiccups are part of almost every MMO launch. Those of us who are MMO vets are dealing with this as best we can and realize that we're all not owed a thing.
Get over yourself.
If these issues are still happening after the first 30 days when subs start, then it's fine to be upset. But until then, just play something else/go for a walk/
Relaaaaaaax.....
MMO vet here, and I have not seen a pre-release go this bad since wow in 2004. So yea get off your high horse many other companies have released and dealt with these problems far better than Square. It does not build confidence in their product for the long run. Especially when the first run of the same product went so well.
Then whats happens when this instability hits end game ie SWTOR. Bet all the "vets" such as yourself will continue to justify the game while most will leave.
Anyone start down the path of getting a refund yet. Is it worth even engaging customer service, or should we just contact our bank and get a charge back?
Believe everyone is clear on why consumers would start this process with an online game that is rarely online and barely playable.
You knew very well what you were getting yourself into, I am 90% sure of this.
When a game of this size launches, it can have some issues for a few days, this is normal, or haven't you heard?
What you are in right now, is the early order launch, that's right, it's not even the OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE yet.
The lack of patience and consideration in todays gamers really makes me think what the hell?
We are talking, most likely, about a few days of problems after a game launches, out of years and years of stable service that will ensue post launch if the game is successful enough.
If you don't have the patience for this then, you might aswell just stop playing these kind of games, or stick to free to play online games, that way you really have no right to bicker if there is something wrong with the game, since you haven't spent a dime on it.
I planned on trying out FFXIV: A Realm Reborn but after years of playing MMORPG games I am wise enough to wait 1-2 weeks after the game has been officially released.
That way, most launch issues will be gone and there won't be as many people pounding the servers to bits.
The people and the friends that we have lost, and the dreams that have faded, never forget them~
The biggest issue is that this is starting to become a norm with MMOs. They beta test rarely and claiming they are getting great data but when launch happens a parking lot effect occurs and many of us are just sitting here.
I am cool with giving them some breathing room but I have been trying to log on now for over 3 hours and keep getting the same error message with no info on WHEN I can log in. The fact that there is not a queue to wait in is even worst. This just shows that they are hoping we will get flustered and go away instead of fixing the issue. If its true that they have players AFK and the game is not booting them I will be even more upset because I try to respect my fellow gamers and log out so the server will not have issues.
I know this is a new game but the fact that so many bugs have plagued it for early release only concerns me for when the real flood gates open. The fact that servers are not even able to be access shows that there was not enough foresight into this. As a old school gamer I will wait and watch but right now the name of SE is greatly soiled with failure.
Will I demand a refund? No, that is just silly. But would I hope that they compensate us in some way? Wishful thinking but not holding my breath. I can sit here and complain all day but that rarely makes servers run faster. I will calmly wait for the servers.
Anyone start down the path of getting a refund yet. Is it worth even engaging customer service, or should we just contact our bank and get a charge back?
Believe everyone is clear on why consumers would start this process with an online game that is rarely online and barely playable.
If the appeal of new mmorpgs has drop over the years then the appeal of current mmorpg players has followed suit tenfold. I can no longer log into a mmorpg and feel like a majority of the players crossing my path are even worth getting to know. Especially when examples like this post are being touted by the OP as being worthy of discussion. Very sad indeed.
But technical problems like the ones being experienced from the FFXIV early access serves as a unintentional purpose of straining out players of this caliber. So I'm not too broken up about how things are unfolding. The level of maintenance players like this require are a burden no dev team deserves to shoulder. I can imagine having to group with someone like this when something goes wrong. Just reading his negative reaction would only make me go apesh!t crazy inside. I probably wouldn't say much in chat....but man, flags would be popping up all over the place to never group with this guy again.
Oh well one down, I wonder how many more to go?
Translation: "I'm a Final Fantasy fanboi, and anyone's complaints about my game will be met with the rightwing-esque 'IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, GET OUT!'".
I'm a big fan of this game, but even my patience is wearing thin quickly. I pre-paid to get early access. I've been able to log on a total of 2 hours in two days. To say "This is normal" and excusing this absolute ineptitude on the part of Square Enix is ridiculous, and you are the reason these game launches get worse and worse......because people like you make excuses for them no matter how badly they fail. Not getting server lists, disconnect errors, hit and miss queues (sometimes in queue, sometimes just says "Get bent, world's full")......these things are NOT normal. What has happened here is Square Enix got gunshy after the 1.0 debacle. They didn't open enough servers, and apparently are running the game on very low end servers if they can only handle so few players before locking everyone out.
Couple that with the utter stupidity of not afking people out, and you have people staying online while they sleep and go out, effectively locking others out while they're not even playing. This is 101 MMO shit, and it's pretty bush league to leave crap like that in the game in this day and age.
I know people like the person I quoted, who live off mommy and daddy and are off school for a few more weeks could care less. Those of us who woke up early from sleeping after working all night and are headed back soon are pissed off at this launch. If it doesn't change by real launch, I will be canceling my pre-order, because I refuse to make excuses for poor workmanship.
Sorry too early for me to be a fan yet...I haven't played long enough. Anyway this is how my FFXIV experience played out:
Followed a link someone here gave that pointed me to a Alienware beta-key giveaway in July for beta 3
Pre-ordered the game about a week later after playing B3
Entered my email and waited (just like everyone else)
Played til level 5 in B4 (all I had time for)
Four days ago was able to enter my pre-order code (8/21)
Didn't wait up to play at 4am (CST) because I worked the next day on the first day of early start (8/23)
Woke up at 8am and headed to the gym at 9am came back home, got on to get a FC invite from my guild and experienced the instance bug, maintenance inbound, logged off to get ready work. Got off work at 12am came home jumped on for about 30mins because visitors coming in the morning so I went to bed. (8/24)
Got up at 7am this morning cut the grass, prepared for a visit from my in-laws, fixed my little cousin's laptop, took my brother-in-law to the store, came home and got ready for work. (didn't even get a chance to login) (8/25)
At work typing this and STILL planning on paying it off Monday (so it will be pre-paid, I only owe like $10)
Total playing time so far for early access: about 1-2 hours. So yeah, keep proving my point. BTW I'm not even level 10 yet in my first class, level 8 so far.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I hope those asking for refunds get them. I'd prefer they not be in my game world anyways.
I wonder what game they will be playing instead. Probably nothing. but at least they'll have their $30 back. Maybe they can invest it and retire early.
I hope these entitled little children get so frustrated they altogether give up on the genre.
Originally posted by Mannish Rarely online and barely playable for you. My Arcanist is 23 working on 30 and I already got conjurer 15 so I can class change to Scholar at level 30. Been having a blast and look forward the future of this game. Threads like these don't make sense. A new game launches and go downs a few times for maintenance and its time to get a refund?
Wow, you must be the lucky minority of 1.
For roughly 20% of the population, beta 4 was a no go. (granted, some of them got as much as 1 day in... but others got booted out with less than an hour of play and got to sit there with not even an update for the entire weekend).
At the end of the weekend they announce that they have fixed it... but don't add in any more testing to confirm the fix worked.
At head start, the duty finder(which runs EVERY instance) was down almost the entire time. A common thing I heard was "Crap, I can't even craft while I wait because I need to do my level 10 class quest before I can get crafting".
Think about that. No way to progress the main story, missing a significant portion of your class, no way to change classes or to craft, no way to do dungeons or guildhests... So basically you are advocating that we all just grind all day? Not really interested in playing a Korean grinder, or I would be.
Now those same people can't even get into the game.
It hasn't been down "a few times for maintenance". I've been locked out of the head start for over 20 hours now, and prior to that significant portions of the game were unplayable.... And I am not in the minority. This is the majority of players.
People cleared their calendars for the weekend, didn't make plans, passed on other activities, etc... For two weekends running... And both of them were almost 100% fubar. Get over yourself... Your good luck does not negate the problem.
These kind of server hiccups are part of almost every MMO launch. Those of us who are MMO vets are dealing with this as best we can and realize that we're all not owed a thing.
Get over yourself.
If these issues are still happening after the first 30 days when subs start, then it's fine to be upset. But until then, just play something else/go for a walk/
Relaaaaaaax.....
MMO vet here, and I have not seen a pre-release go this bad since wow in 2004. So yea get off your high horse many other companies have released and dealt with these problems far better than Square. It does not build confidence in their product for the long run. Especially when the first run of the same product went so well.
Then whats happens when this instability hits end game ie SWTOR. Bet all the "vets" such as yourself will continue to justify the game while most will leave.
I say again, this is the pre launch for those that pre ordered the game, if being able to play the game has not improved within a couple of days past the real official launch day, then I'd say you have a reason to complain about it.
It's just a game, not a car that cost you thousands of dollars, it's not stealing your oxygen or messing up your life.
There are plenty of other games to play, other activities to do, waiting for Square Enix to sort things out.
Knowing how much stakes Square Enix has in this, in that the first game failed, I am pretty sure they are working hard on fixing things.
They will probably pass out an official apology on the matter aswell.
If it's really bad, add some free play time to peoples accounts and so on, but for such to happen, they need a bit time to take care of things.
The people and the friends that we have lost, and the dreams that have faded, never forget them~
My issue with all this is that these are not new issues, the game feels still only half finished, and they are trying to paint over the problem by reducing the amount of people able to play on a server. It says to me that they have a high belief that they won't have player retention enough to justify more hardware to bolster the servers. While people can shout over and over that you were not promised anything, the problem is that when a perk is part of an advertising structure that perk is considered to be part of a contract between the person selling the item and the people buying it. If the perk is a prize then they have to award someone the prize, and by law that someone cannot work for them or be related to closely to someone that does.
If the perk is exclusive access to an event or early access to a product then they have to provide it up to a reasonable amount or they risk being hit with legal issues. It's why when any retailer sales something with a free thing thrown onto it to help sales they say, while supplies last, it's a legal disclaimer that says the reward is limited. Now yes, people need to breath, relax, look at the world status before they complain, but they still have a real complaint. Especially when the servers are up, but instead of them investing in boosting those servers to support more people they lock out people from those servers who have been there since headstart and before.
On the whole I'd say SE screwed the pooch with this whole launch, it's one of the worst I've seen and I played shadowbane and SWG at their launches. Personally I can say I won't be subbing to the game unless they show me they plan to do something to commit themselves to their own product. Right now I feel they are being a bit lazy on the whole, and their error checking and code, heck even their graphics people seem to have cut major corners.
As to the people saying SE needs time, the issues being seen today were there since the previous two betas, if they couldn't fix them in time they should have pushed the launch back. They are not racing any other mmo's to market and they had the time. Pushing out a broken product that you tweek enough to work is not good programming.
I hope those asking for refunds get them. I'd prefer they not be in my game world anyways.
I wonder what game they will be playing instead. Probably nothing. but at least they'll have their $30 back. Maybe they can invest it and retire early.
I hope these entitled little children get so frustrated they altogether give up on the genre.
Well, considering that 20% of the player base was affected by 3102, and we have no clue how much this time because SE has gone into radio silence mode(nothing on twitter, forums down, etc. although from what I saw before they went down yesterday and from what they announced before radio silence(and I love how some of their updates have up and vanished), it is pretty much everyone...
If everyone who was dissatisfied with the service they are receiving got their money back and quit playing who the hell do you think would pay for the game? the 20 of you who are left?
Originally posted by moondrago i dont understand why everyone is sticking up for a company that didnt figure out that they needed more servers..
WoW, warhammer, aion, rift, swtor completely screwed up amounts of server at launch. WoW launch was horrible. Aion had 3.5k queue for all servers for first few weeks (and empty servers 3 months after launch). In some ways what warhammer, rift and swtor did was worse because they doubled amounts of servers from prestart to launch which meant half their servers were full, and the other half were empty.
Problem is, all those games you mentioned...they had like 15-20 servers at launch, and I think more for some of those games.
I do know that once WOW reached it launch capacity, and they were unable to secure more capacity, they did halt purchases so people were not buying games that blizzard couldn't support.
ARR has like 4 US server and like 1 EU server (I don't have exact numbers since they refuse to send me the activation code for the game I purchased)
Needless to say, they GROSSLY underestimated this. If they had 10-20 server per region and this was happening, ok that's one thing, but to have so few servers is just a facepalm moment imo.
Everyone knows launch is big then people trickle out...and yeah it sucks if you get on one of those servers that dies out...as they typically drag their feet with server merges (usually making the situation worse as more people leave since the server is dead than would have left had they merged early)
But anyway...this isn't your normal "whoops we got a bit more than expected" its more like "who are all of you people and who said you could come play on this one server we have for everyone who bought the game"
ive never seen anything like this. Unless they expected 5k-15k players per region to show up....I really have no idea what they were smoking when they made the choice to have so few servers.
What makes this so much more painful to watch, is that so many people are giving this company a rare second chance on this mmorpg...This game must have cost SE a fortune to develop, pull off the market, develop further...and launch. They certainly could do with treating those trying to pay them a bit more respect imo.
Not only is there an issue with those who are able to download, but a whole new mess of people who paid and SE went silent on them with no activation code. So you have a LOT of people right now who are wondering why the company went silent before giving them the product they paid for.
Ive never seen anything like this...this has nothing to do with the game itself...but this company...I swear...its like they have no idea what they are doing at almost every step here...and this is their second launch of the game...so they have experience in launches...and they are a large, successful company...its mind boggling.
There are 15 NA server plus an additional 4 legacy NA servers, 20 JP servers plus an additional 5 legacy JP servers and 4 EU servers plus 1 additional legacy EU server.
It seems to me that they planned for a lot of people to log in, just not the amount that actually did.
They refund the money like instantly if you are one of those people who never received a code. Not sure if you have already activated the account though.
But im glad I got out when I did...maybe ill check back in a week or two see if the game is even worth it.
Originally posted by Mannish Rarely online and barely playable for you. My Arcanist is 23 working on 30 and I already got conjurer 15 so I can class change to Scholar at level 30. Been having a blast and look forward the future of this game. Threads like these don't make sense. A new game launches and go downs a few times for maintenance and its time to get a refund?
30+ guildies and only 2 have been able to get on ALL DAY. No one is screaming refund, it's expected but to act like this isn't an issue or the OP is in the minority is ridiculous. Best of luck winning the race.
Hopefully SE can get these issues resolved before launch. This game seems to have some bad juju associated with it.
The biggest issue is that this is starting to become a norm with MMOs. They beta test rarely and claiming they are getting great data but when launch happens a parking lot effect occurs and many of us are just sitting here.
I am cool with giving them some breathing room but I have been trying to log on now for over 3 hours and keep getting the same error message with no info on WHEN I can log in. The fact that there is not a queue to wait in is even worst. This just shows that they are hoping we will get flustered and go away instead of fixing the issue. If its true that they have players AFK and the game is not booting them I will be even more upset because I try to respect my fellow gamers and log out so the server will not have issues.
I know this is a new game but the fact that so many bugs have plagued it for early release only concerns me for when the real flood gates open. The fact that servers are not even able to be access shows that there was not enough foresight into this. As a old school gamer I will wait and watch but right now the name of SE is greatly soiled with failure.
Will I demand a refund? No, that is just silly. But would I hope that they compensate us in some way? Wishful thinking but not holding my breath. I can sit here and complain all day but that rarely makes servers run faster. I will calmly wait for the servers.
Well, lets see...
phase 4 - locked out 40 hours out of 56 (some people were locked out more than 50 hours, and no I don't consider the "extension" valid or part of that, since they basically extended it into the work/school day for the entire population of the NA/EU... barring the unemployed or people playing hookie from work/school)
Early access- not accessible 20 hours out of 36, most of the features broken for the first day...
So out of the first 92 hours of the game, it was completely inaccessible for 60 hours (a lot more for some other people), and the DF was broken for most of the first day(lets be generous and say only 10 hours)... The game has been fully functional for me for 22 hours(and it may have been less, as I slept part of that so can't comment on it).
And their responses are less than encouraging. Especially the one earlier today where they said that they were going to limit the logins, and their stated purpose is to get usage metrics... I run a corporate environment and I can say that every system we put out (DB+ERP, Mail,etc) we test to know how much resources(iops, memory, cpu cycles, bandwidth) are required per user and then we up it by 50%. We know exactly how much resources we need going in. Why don't they know how many resources they require per user? Why are they only starting to collect this now during EA?
Server overcrowding at early access / launch of a new MMORPG is standard fare. I haven't been able to play yet today, so I instead went and read some news, ate lunch, ran some errands, did some work around the yard. Still wasn't able to log in, so I went and played some Skyrim.
If you really want a refund, go for it. Just be warned you will probably see this with any highly anticipated MMO on early access / launch days if this is your first experience with MMO launches. I have experienced this multiple times, so I do not get upset over a few days of login issues for a game that I plan on playing for an extended period of time.
Jesus people. We have a right to be upset. We paid money for a product we aren't able to use. We keep getting the same bullshit cut and paste responses thanking us for or patience, etc, etc, blah blah.
SE gave us a broken piece of crap with 1.0. We now have an excellent game that's broken because we can't log in and play it. I don't know if your money came from your parents or what. Mine came from 16 hour days in the military. I have a right to be upset about the fact that even the errors give no information. "World Full LULZ, try again when there is an opening". Ok... HOW THE HELL DO I KNOW WHEN THERE IS AN OPENING!
Three times while I've been trying to log in I get a queue message. I've been 2nd, 17th, and 94th in the queue and each time it just pops up again with a 1017 World Full message.
It's fucking broke. I paid money. I have a right to be upset about it.
Yes, they also gave you 30 days of game time not 2...
They refund the money like instantly if you are one of those people who never received a code. Not sure if you have already activated the account though.
But im glad I got out when I did...maybe ill check back in a week or two see if the game is even worth it.
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Wow...a lot of rage in this one. All I did was cancel my preorder since they couldn't be bothered to send me the activation code I purchased. Not like I charge backed the company or anything.
Ill check back in and buy the game if I feel like it, don't need permission from some random person to do so ect.
The link does work only for NA by the way, and is the easiest way to resolve the issue of getting no activation code (not to mention the fact that you probably wont get to play a lick of early access if you do get a code)
I wouldn't have done this is SE would have at least said something about the issue. They are 100% silent on this game right now.
Sorry this touched a nerve with some people, didn't know there were people with a vested interest in this game making money here. Sorry...all I wanted was the code I purchased, when it became clear that I wasn't going to get what I purchased, I found a way out. Youll get your money from me if this all blows over by launch (and the game doesn't prove to be another flop I guess, since ive lost the urge to immediately play)
Originally posted by Ganksinatra I love the apathetic, hostile fan bois here claiming that launching a broken game is "normal" and people shouldn't expect it to work. I'd say you were all fail trolls if I didn't know for a fact that 90% of you really think this.
No. Most of us are smart enough to understand the complex issues that SE is dealing with. While the small minded just rage about not being able to play with their new toy - because the world revolves around their "right now". I would offer this advice to you and people like you: grow up.
Except that these problems aren't new or unknown...
Here is a novel suggestion, maybe after they implemented the "fix" at the end of phase 4 they should have tested it...
OR how about they should have metrics for exactly how much horsepower(iops, memory, cpu cycles, bandwidth) each client requires, and be able to actually plan for it rather than guesstimating...
Not sure if you noticed the latest news item, but they said that they have now become aware that the problems have resurfaced and are tightening the login restrictions even FURTHER in an attempt to stabilize the servers. This is the third time they are reducing it... And the first time they put the login restrictions they said that they were doing it to try and determine what their actual requirements were and they would be reducing the restrictions as they went to see how much it can handle...
If any of my employees did something like that he would be fired, in fact one who got fired, guesstimated how much storage we would need rather than taking data growth metrics and actually planning it(he underestimated it by several hundred GB).
I guess we shouldn't be suprised. If a company is dumb enough to release a game as bad as 1.0 then not being able to handle the ARR launch is pretty much standard practice for this company.
The cryptic error messages, complete lack of communication with their EU/NA audience and not logging people out who are AFK is really disgusting.
I will give them one more day. If they waste my time once again on Monday I will be cancelling and never touching a SE mmo again.
To the fanbots who will say good riddance: just realize that in a P2P subscription game every player counts. They number of subs will directly influence the quality of future content additions.
Originally posted by Ganksinatra I love the apathetic, hostile fan bois here claiming that launching a broken game is "normal" and people shouldn't expect it to work. I'd say you were all fail trolls if I didn't know for a fact that 90% of you really think this.
No. Most of us are smart enough to understand the complex issues that SE is dealing with. While the small minded just rage about not being able to play with their new toy - because the world revolves around their "right now". I would offer this advice to you and people like you: grow up.
The massive fail with your logic is that SE is a mega corporation game developer studio with tons of experience in the market, and is NOT repeat NOT having these issues on the Japan servers.
They have made the internal corporate decision to treat NA customer base like 3rd class citizens.
They made the decision NOT to spend the money on hardware that the pre-order numbers flat out told them they needed.
This all comes down to business decisions.. and to add insult to injury this is one of the EXACT same issues as the first time they released this game.
Not enough hardware to provide for the sales numbers, took WEEKS to fix then and cost them 50% of the player base, and doomed the game.
RINSE REPEAT they are doing it all over again, almost as if it is intentional.
I think you need help... is there somebody that you can talk to about your rage?
personal responses are a sign of rage.
Lets be honest here. Does anyone outside of SE think it was a good idea to launch the game in NA/EU with like 5 servers total? Its final fantasy FFS, its bound to get a decent showing even if its attempt #2 at the game.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. You have so many people who bought the game, never received an activation code, and SE is silent on the issue...so tons of people are sitting there refreshing their email wondering what the hell is going on. That is a terrible way to treat paying customers...customers who mind you...bought the game with the expectation that they would have early access...since its scrawled all over the shop page.
It reaches a point where SE should do the honest thing and stop selling the game to people if they cant even muster a response to all the issues.
Its quite sad, so many of these people are giving this game and company a second chance after a terrible first attempt...and really this whole issue of no activation codes sent, and servers being grossly under estimated...seems to be nails in the coffin.
Right now since its technically pre-order (despite early access) its really easy to cancel the order. I expect many like myself did just that...as we all bought the game expecting the early access to be somewhat of a possibility.
We all understand issues with AAA launches...its just their decision to have enough servers for an indy niche game launch made that all worse...rather than some people waiting in queue for a few servers because their friends are there...you have just about everyone who did receive a code waiting...and most of the time when its your turn to log in...you just get an error...so the queue is just enraging people who waited patiently for their turn only to be told "sorry game world full"
This is quite different from server going down due to load, and some queues on the popular servers...its everyone having issues at some point between buying and playing the game. Most enraging of all being the queues failing when its your turn and those who haven't even gotten activation codes (and some have been waiting all weekend for theirs)
So no this isn't your typical "game is broke" or "indy company bit off more than they can chew" This is a large, established, experienced company who seems to have created a situation where most people feel screwed....and the fact that its all being ignored by SE is throwing gas on the fire.
game has been in early access for less than 48 hours and people are talking about a refund because of launch errors. irritating? yes. expected? yes. refund? no.
it will all get sorted out....this must be the first MMO for a lot of you.
Is anything even fixed ? I know most of us can't even play right now, but I haven't heard from anyone who's actually been able to get into the little niche club SE has created. Are instances working ? Or is it still a crapshoot ?
All of this is absurd, and no..this is not "just another mmo launch" anymore. There's been more downtime then uptime from the start of Phase 4 till now, especially when you include the time when the game was up but instances werent working, or now when most people can't play (I consider this indefinitely down atm)
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Problem is, all those games you mentioned...they had like 15-20 servers at launch, and I think more for some of those games.
I do know that once WOW reached it launch capacity, and they were unable to secure more capacity, they did halt purchases so people were not buying games that blizzard couldn't support.
ARR has like 4 US server and like 1 EU server (I don't have exact numbers since they refuse to send me the activation code for the game I purchased)
Needless to say, they GROSSLY underestimated this. If they had 10-20 server per region and this was happening, ok that's one thing, but to have so few servers is just a facepalm moment imo.
Everyone knows launch is big then people trickle out...and yeah it sucks if you get on one of those servers that dies out...as they typically drag their feet with server merges (usually making the situation worse as more people leave since the server is dead than would have left had they merged early)
But anyway...this isn't your normal "whoops we got a bit more than expected" its more like "who are all of you people and who said you could come play on this one server we have for everyone who bought the game"
ive never seen anything like this. Unless they expected 5k-15k players per region to show up....I really have no idea what they were smoking when they made the choice to have so few servers.
What makes this so much more painful to watch, is that so many people are giving this company a rare second chance on this mmorpg...This game must have cost SE a fortune to develop, pull off the market, develop further...and launch. They certainly could do with treating those trying to pay them a bit more respect imo.
Not only is there an issue with those who are able to download, but a whole new mess of people who paid and SE went silent on them with no activation code. So you have a LOT of people right now who are wondering why the company went silent before giving them the product they paid for.
Ive never seen anything like this...this has nothing to do with the game itself...but this company...I swear...its like they have no idea what they are doing at almost every step here...and this is their second launch of the game...so they have experience in launches...and they are a large, successful company...its mind boggling.
MMO vet here, and I have not seen a pre-release go this bad since wow in 2004. So yea get off your high horse many other companies have released and dealt with these problems far better than Square. It does not build confidence in their product for the long run. Especially when the first run of the same product went so well.
Then whats happens when this instability hits end game ie SWTOR. Bet all the "vets" such as yourself will continue to justify the game while most will leave.
You knew very well what you were getting yourself into, I am 90% sure of this.
When a game of this size launches, it can have some issues for a few days, this is normal, or haven't you heard?
What you are in right now, is the early order launch, that's right, it's not even the OFFICIAL LAUNCH DATE yet.
The lack of patience and consideration in todays gamers really makes me think what the hell?
We are talking, most likely, about a few days of problems after a game launches, out of years and years of stable service that will ensue post launch if the game is successful enough.
If you don't have the patience for this then, you might aswell just stop playing these kind of games, or stick to free to play online games, that way you really have no right to bicker if there is something wrong with the game, since you haven't spent a dime on it.
I planned on trying out FFXIV: A Realm Reborn but after years of playing MMORPG games I am wise enough to wait 1-2 weeks after the game has been officially released.
That way, most launch issues will be gone and there won't be as many people pounding the servers to bits.
The people and the friends that we have lost, and the dreams that have faded, never forget them~
The biggest issue is that this is starting to become a norm with MMOs. They beta test rarely and claiming they are getting great data but when launch happens a parking lot effect occurs and many of us are just sitting here.
I am cool with giving them some breathing room but I have been trying to log on now for over 3 hours and keep getting the same error message with no info on WHEN I can log in. The fact that there is not a queue to wait in is even worst. This just shows that they are hoping we will get flustered and go away instead of fixing the issue. If its true that they have players AFK and the game is not booting them I will be even more upset because I try to respect my fellow gamers and log out so the server will not have issues.
I know this is a new game but the fact that so many bugs have plagued it for early release only concerns me for when the real flood gates open. The fact that servers are not even able to be access shows that there was not enough foresight into this. As a old school gamer I will wait and watch but right now the name of SE is greatly soiled with failure.
Will I demand a refund? No, that is just silly. But would I hope that they compensate us in some way? Wishful thinking but not holding my breath. I can sit here and complain all day but that rarely makes servers run faster. I will calmly wait for the servers.
Sorry too early for me to be a fan yet...I haven't played long enough. Anyway this is how my FFXIV experience played out:
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I hope these entitled little children get so frustrated they altogether give up on the genre.
Honestly we really should have known better....
Fool me once shame on you...
Fool me twice shame on me.
Wow, you must be the lucky minority of 1.
For roughly 20% of the population, beta 4 was a no go. (granted, some of them got as much as 1 day in... but others got booted out with less than an hour of play and got to sit there with not even an update for the entire weekend).
At the end of the weekend they announce that they have fixed it... but don't add in any more testing to confirm the fix worked.
At head start, the duty finder(which runs EVERY instance) was down almost the entire time. A common thing I heard was "Crap, I can't even craft while I wait because I need to do my level 10 class quest before I can get crafting".
Think about that. No way to progress the main story, missing a significant portion of your class, no way to change classes or to craft, no way to do dungeons or guildhests... So basically you are advocating that we all just grind all day? Not really interested in playing a Korean grinder, or I would be.
Now those same people can't even get into the game.
It hasn't been down "a few times for maintenance". I've been locked out of the head start for over 20 hours now, and prior to that significant portions of the game were unplayable.... And I am not in the minority. This is the majority of players.
People cleared their calendars for the weekend, didn't make plans, passed on other activities, etc... For two weekends running... And both of them were almost 100% fubar. Get over yourself... Your good luck does not negate the problem.
I say again, this is the pre launch for those that pre ordered the game, if being able to play the game has not improved within a couple of days past the real official launch day, then I'd say you have a reason to complain about it.
It's just a game, not a car that cost you thousands of dollars, it's not stealing your oxygen or messing up your life.
There are plenty of other games to play, other activities to do, waiting for Square Enix to sort things out.
Knowing how much stakes Square Enix has in this, in that the first game failed, I am pretty sure they are working hard on fixing things.
They will probably pass out an official apology on the matter aswell.
If it's really bad, add some free play time to peoples accounts and so on, but for such to happen, they need a bit time to take care of things.
The people and the friends that we have lost, and the dreams that have faded, never forget them~
My issue with all this is that these are not new issues, the game feels still only half finished, and they are trying to paint over the problem by reducing the amount of people able to play on a server. It says to me that they have a high belief that they won't have player retention enough to justify more hardware to bolster the servers. While people can shout over and over that you were not promised anything, the problem is that when a perk is part of an advertising structure that perk is considered to be part of a contract between the person selling the item and the people buying it. If the perk is a prize then they have to award someone the prize, and by law that someone cannot work for them or be related to closely to someone that does.
If the perk is exclusive access to an event or early access to a product then they have to provide it up to a reasonable amount or they risk being hit with legal issues. It's why when any retailer sales something with a free thing thrown onto it to help sales they say, while supplies last, it's a legal disclaimer that says the reward is limited. Now yes, people need to breath, relax, look at the world status before they complain, but they still have a real complaint. Especially when the servers are up, but instead of them investing in boosting those servers to support more people they lock out people from those servers who have been there since headstart and before.
On the whole I'd say SE screwed the pooch with this whole launch, it's one of the worst I've seen and I played shadowbane and SWG at their launches. Personally I can say I won't be subbing to the game unless they show me they plan to do something to commit themselves to their own product. Right now I feel they are being a bit lazy on the whole, and their error checking and code, heck even their graphics people seem to have cut major corners.
As to the people saying SE needs time, the issues being seen today were there since the previous two betas, if they couldn't fix them in time they should have pushed the launch back. They are not racing any other mmo's to market and they had the time. Pushing out a broken product that you tweek enough to work is not good programming.
Well, considering that 20% of the player base was affected by 3102, and we have no clue how much this time because SE has gone into radio silence mode(nothing on twitter, forums down, etc. although from what I saw before they went down yesterday and from what they announced before radio silence(and I love how some of their updates have up and vanished), it is pretty much everyone...
If everyone who was dissatisfied with the service they are receiving got their money back and quit playing who the hell do you think would pay for the game? the 20 of you who are left?
Check out the server status site http://www.arrstatus.com/
There are 15 NA server plus an additional 4 legacy NA servers, 20 JP servers plus an additional 5 legacy JP servers and 4 EU servers plus 1 additional legacy EU server.
It seems to me that they planned for a lot of people to log in, just not the amount that actually did.
Just a heads up, if you go to the Digital River site, and click on customer service https://www.findmyorder.com/sstore?Action=DisplayHomePage&SiteID=findmyor&Locale=en_US
you can search your order and have it canceled.
They refund the money like instantly if you are one of those people who never received a code. Not sure if you have already activated the account though.
But im glad I got out when I did...maybe ill check back in a week or two see if the game is even worth it.
30+ guildies and only 2 have been able to get on ALL DAY. No one is screaming refund, it's expected but to act like this isn't an issue or the OP is in the minority is ridiculous. Best of luck winning the race.
Hopefully SE can get these issues resolved before launch. This game seems to have some bad juju associated with it.
Well, lets see...
phase 4 - locked out 40 hours out of 56 (some people were locked out more than 50 hours, and no I don't consider the "extension" valid or part of that, since they basically extended it into the work/school day for the entire population of the NA/EU... barring the unemployed or people playing hookie from work/school)
Early access- not accessible 20 hours out of 36, most of the features broken for the first day...
So out of the first 92 hours of the game, it was completely inaccessible for 60 hours (a lot more for some other people), and the DF was broken for most of the first day(lets be generous and say only 10 hours)... The game has been fully functional for me for 22 hours(and it may have been less, as I slept part of that so can't comment on it).
And their responses are less than encouraging. Especially the one earlier today where they said that they were going to limit the logins, and their stated purpose is to get usage metrics... I run a corporate environment and I can say that every system we put out (DB+ERP, Mail,etc) we test to know how much resources(iops, memory, cpu cycles, bandwidth) are required per user and then we up it by 50%. We know exactly how much resources we need going in. Why don't they know how many resources they require per user? Why are they only starting to collect this now during EA?
Server overcrowding at early access / launch of a new MMORPG is standard fare. I haven't been able to play yet today, so I instead went and read some news, ate lunch, ran some errands, did some work around the yard. Still wasn't able to log in, so I went and played some Skyrim.
If you really want a refund, go for it. Just be warned you will probably see this with any highly anticipated MMO on early access / launch days if this is your first experience with MMO launches. I have experienced this multiple times, so I do not get upset over a few days of login issues for a game that I plan on playing for an extended period of time.
Yes, they also gave you 30 days of game time not 2...
Wow...a lot of rage in this one. All I did was cancel my preorder since they couldn't be bothered to send me the activation code I purchased. Not like I charge backed the company or anything.
Ill check back in and buy the game if I feel like it, don't need permission from some random person to do so ect.
The link does work only for NA by the way, and is the easiest way to resolve the issue of getting no activation code (not to mention the fact that you probably wont get to play a lick of early access if you do get a code)
I wouldn't have done this is SE would have at least said something about the issue. They are 100% silent on this game right now.
Sorry this touched a nerve with some people, didn't know there were people with a vested interest in this game making money here. Sorry...all I wanted was the code I purchased, when it became clear that I wasn't going to get what I purchased, I found a way out. Youll get your money from me if this all blows over by launch (and the game doesn't prove to be another flop I guess, since ive lost the urge to immediately play)
Except that these problems aren't new or unknown...
Here is a novel suggestion, maybe after they implemented the "fix" at the end of phase 4 they should have tested it...
OR how about they should have metrics for exactly how much horsepower(iops, memory, cpu cycles, bandwidth) each client requires, and be able to actually plan for it rather than guesstimating...
Not sure if you noticed the latest news item, but they said that they have now become aware that the problems have resurfaced and are tightening the login restrictions even FURTHER in an attempt to stabilize the servers. This is the third time they are reducing it... And the first time they put the login restrictions they said that they were doing it to try and determine what their actual requirements were and they would be reducing the restrictions as they went to see how much it can handle...
If any of my employees did something like that he would be fired, in fact one who got fired, guesstimated how much storage we would need rather than taking data growth metrics and actually planning it(he underestimated it by several hundred GB).
I guess we shouldn't be suprised. If a company is dumb enough to release a game as bad as 1.0 then not being able to handle the ARR launch is pretty much standard practice for this company.
The cryptic error messages, complete lack of communication with their EU/NA audience and not logging people out who are AFK is really disgusting.
I will give them one more day. If they waste my time once again on Monday I will be cancelling and never touching a SE mmo again.
To the fanbots who will say good riddance: just realize that in a P2P subscription game every player counts. They number of subs will directly influence the quality of future content additions.
Lets be honest here. Does anyone outside of SE think it was a good idea to launch the game in NA/EU with like 5 servers total? Its final fantasy FFS, its bound to get a decent showing even if its attempt #2 at the game.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. You have so many people who bought the game, never received an activation code, and SE is silent on the issue...so tons of people are sitting there refreshing their email wondering what the hell is going on. That is a terrible way to treat paying customers...customers who mind you...bought the game with the expectation that they would have early access...since its scrawled all over the shop page.
It reaches a point where SE should do the honest thing and stop selling the game to people if they cant even muster a response to all the issues.
Its quite sad, so many of these people are giving this game and company a second chance after a terrible first attempt...and really this whole issue of no activation codes sent, and servers being grossly under estimated...seems to be nails in the coffin.
Right now since its technically pre-order (despite early access) its really easy to cancel the order. I expect many like myself did just that...as we all bought the game expecting the early access to be somewhat of a possibility.
We all understand issues with AAA launches...its just their decision to have enough servers for an indy niche game launch made that all worse...rather than some people waiting in queue for a few servers because their friends are there...you have just about everyone who did receive a code waiting...and most of the time when its your turn to log in...you just get an error...so the queue is just enraging people who waited patiently for their turn only to be told "sorry game world full"
This is quite different from server going down due to load, and some queues on the popular servers...its everyone having issues at some point between buying and playing the game. Most enraging of all being the queues failing when its your turn and those who haven't even gotten activation codes (and some have been waiting all weekend for theirs)
So no this isn't your typical "game is broke" or "indy company bit off more than they can chew" This is a large, established, experienced company who seems to have created a situation where most people feel screwed....and the fact that its all being ignored by SE is throwing gas on the fire.
game has been in early access for less than 48 hours and people are talking about a refund because of launch errors. irritating? yes. expected? yes. refund? no.
it will all get sorted out....this must be the first MMO for a lot of you.
Is anything even fixed ? I know most of us can't even play right now, but I haven't heard from anyone who's actually been able to get into the little niche club SE has created. Are instances working ? Or is it still a crapshoot ?
All of this is absurd, and no..this is not "just another mmo launch" anymore. There's been more downtime then uptime from the start of Phase 4 till now, especially when you include the time when the game was up but instances werent working, or now when most people can't play (I consider this indefinitely down atm)