I can only hope they are hit where it counts -- in the wallet, over this.
So nasty.
In any case how exactly is this different from World of Warcraft's launch?
I think the answer to that is simple....short selective memories.
I dunno, I had zero significant issues with WoW launch. I think it was people who insisted on playing on high pop servers that ran into most of the issues during WoW launch.
Form my experience FFXIV 1.0 was the worst AAA launch in the last 10 years.
To be fair all the OPs issues (aside from all the land being gone in like the first 3 days.) would be fairly insignificant if he hadn't been suckered into paying $150 before the game even launched. This post seems far more of a "I spent $150 and got almost nothing to show for it." rage thread rather than real launch issues.
queue times suck but that's to be expected for the first few weeks before everyone moves on to the next game.
Yup. It was pretty bad. But my heart goes out to the OP as a fellow gamer (although I think it's silly to spend 150 dollars to get ahead of others.
I'm not sure how he knows so many exploited either even though I'm sure it's possible. If it were me and money was no object I'd wipe the servers and start over with another headstart just to spite the cheaters as long as they could stop anyone from having an unfair start (other than paying 150 dollars).
Now I wonder if they had set the price at 600.00 if they would of had the same problem.
Originally posted by shamall As it has already been stated, nothing has even come close to AO at launch. Any one that survived that will laugh at this thread.
That was a nightmare I tried to forget. Ruined a good game.
This thread did teach me something. I got the black screen after selection (and a 30minute que) and assumed it was just my old laptop that couldn't run the game. It happens a lot and since I was playing for free I wasn't that concerned (very laggy too during the char selection process) but now I might try again before I uninstall.
You were present for ALL those launches and you STILL dropped 150 on a CE preorder?!?! Of a F2P game!?!? Game publishers lick their chops over people like you.
I'm not saying it's ok for companies to rip people off, but jeez, sometimes it's a little bit the consumers' fault too ya know?
The fact that all real estate is gone and elitist guilds run the game is something I would not be interested in playing.
they didn't develop their game to consider non elitist players. The best way to do this is by making the game about server resets resulting from total take over in a weeks time for example. So even in one person can do a lot by themselves but will lose a lot as well. But they make a lot of gold while they play and the more money they have and invest into their conquered lands the better chance they have of keeping this land. So the dynamic becomes more about when to place their bets and keep as much as possible for their continued expansion. Also allow phone apps.
unless they do something like this I doubt any sand box will limited real estate wil be more inclusive to all players and not just elitists.
edit- to add to the idea imagine that people spawn in random locations for resets. So guilds don't have it so easy. Also terrain changes.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Originally posted by Bladestrom I sympathise with OP, he clearly tried to be patient. There is a moral to this story - never pay in advance if you can help it, and companies will take more care over launch.
Well, I have played a ton of MMO's at launch, and I have NEVER seen 3500 in queue on EVERY server at 11:30 pm CST. If Trion doesn't know it needs some more servers, I don't know what to tell them......
Because it's 2014 not 2004. Been around this block too many times to still be giving it a pass.
Or, you can make the leap (or is that expecting too much?) and...
Same'ol excuses, different MMO.
How about we stop making them, demand quality, and perhaps we may actually see an MMORPG do well for more than a year or two for a change.
Crazy idea huh? Holding a company up to a standard and telling them they better do it or lose them as a customer.
There's only so much water that can be put in a bucket.
Look at what other games have done.
queues, Guild wars 2 has their overflow server or neither of those.
So sure, maybe an overflow server where people can play. But you aren't going to be able to plant things or trade which is a huge part of this game for some.
So we are back to the "there is only so much that can be put into a bucket".
Demand all you want, sometimes there are actual, real, limitations and "you have to wait your turn".
You go to an amusement park you have to wait your turn, you go to the grocery store you have to wait your turn.
That's life.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I can only hope they are hit where it counts -- in the wallet, over this.
So nasty.
In any case how exactly is this different from World of Warcraft's launch?
Because it's 2014 not 2004. Been around this block too many times to still be giving it a pass.
Or, you can make the leap (or is that expecting too much?) and realize that a LOT of players is a LOT of players.
In any game.
And you know what? while players are crying and wailing there are huge lines of people who just queue up and wait their turn.
doesn't matter the year, if a game can only accommodate so many players then that's what it can accommodate.
Just wait your turn like any adult.
OK, but I was responding to your question as to why WoW gets a pass and AA doesn't.
Yes, I know.
Your moniker is "geezer gamer". I'm assuming (and I haven't looked at your age to see if you really are a "geezer") that you have been around the block a time or two.
And if you have you've seen quite a bit and one tends to "get" that there are certain things that are what they are.
Game has only "x" amount of slots. Doesn't matter the year. You buy a houes and want storage (oh no it's 2014) but you are only going to have so many closets.
There are x amount of slots on these servers and if they open them up too much then it's just going to crash and then we will get more crying.
So people have to wait their turn. this has been going on for a long time. Longer than you or I have been around.
wait ... your ... turn.
It sucks but it's doable.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Originally posted by rjjii1980 Well, I have played a ton of MMO's at launch, and I have NEVER seen 3500 in queue on EVERY server at 11:30 pm CST. If Trion doesn't know it needs some more servers, I don't know what to tell them......
Saturday night shortly after a games launch is busier than primetime. You should probably just out to the bar or bowling and come back later.
Just to question the philosophy. Army of Socrates.
Now before you attack me - as i'm sure some of you will.
Understand that i have been presented for the following launches of MMOs.
Everquest - Lineage 2 - Star Wars Galaxies - World of Warcraft - Tabula Rasa - FF11 - FF14 - FF14ARR - Aion - Rappelz - Star Trek Online - Star Wars Old Republic - The Secret World - All Points Bulletin - Dragon Nest - TERA - Warframe -Firefall -Perfect World - Forsaken World -
* I've played more; just those are launches i was present for - so i can safely say i've experienced a few MMO launches.
Now; it is true that pretty much every MMO experiences launch problems - However; what is also true is they are all mostly predictable, and AVOIDABLE - Yet they rarely are avoided - but they are contained; and resolved in timely manners.
Today's markets day 7 of my Archeage disaster of an experience - i shall outline it day by day.
Purchased my 150 dollar founder pack in April the day they went on sale due to what i was told would be a "limited supply, highly exclusive". -- As of the morning of head-start day 1; they were still on sale - First big lie.
Day 1 - Headstart 1 - I log into the game to my first que - Expected; 2 hour wait - i'm in the game - Woohoo; i'm cheesing a nice smile - Then i notice no founder items i paid for - oh well no biggie; get into the game 20 minutes; another crash --- Okay okay; this happens; i'll just continue playing the next day.
Day 2 - Greeted by the infinite cinematic bug where it just loops the cinematic after telling you; it can't authenticate your credentials. - That's fine went to the gym - came back 3 hours later; problem still exists - 2 hours later i can finally log in; but now experience constant D/Cs when i have no networking issues putting me right back into the 1H que.
Day 3 - First day i actually got any real play time; at this point headstart is about over; i'm kinda annoyed by the whole experience - but i'm trying to deal with it - I make it to level 20 start looking for some land -- Oh look; there is none - i start checking the forums; people were reporting -hours- after launch that all available land was pretty much claimed by elistist guilds who exploited game mechanics to monoplize the land -- At this point' i'm kinda pissed - This was the whole point to being in the head start - to get a chance at prime real-estate. Now NOTHING is left; and my headstart is pretty much over - still no founder items - so i decided to voice my opinion on it -- I was rather well worded; no vulgarity; nor did i attack anyone directly over it -- i simply stated it was "not what i had expected from an MMO i had long looked forward too" -- The page got a few hundred replies - i did not reply to anyone; only my OPost remained - i was banned for 2 days for "attacking TW staff" -- A false charge; but it's whatever.
Day 4 - Last day of headstart - The ques were generally shorter on this day 10-15 minutes; however the game would not launch from the selection screen - the game launched; but the screen was blacked out - after 2-3 restarts of the game it would work; which requires 2-3 times waiting in the que to play. But i could sorta play - Til of course the crashes; and D/Cs started. Still no founder items - TW Community Manager makes claims about all the problems being fix'ed - yet forum is full of thousands of reports that it is NOT fixed - oh; and of course the self-defeating claim of a DDOS attacks.
- I say it's false because i work IT for a company of 600 employees -- our infrastructure in our 2 local data rooms combined with our data-center colocation would be nearlly untouchable to any script kiddy running a multiple pronged LOIC - type DDOS attack -- Due to modern backend structuring like VLAN SUBNETTING - DNS Bypass; TCP Pulse drops; it's easy to throttle incoming data bursts - and we are a mom; and pop shop - TW is running infra that must hold tens of thousands of users - So either A.) Its a giant lie to cover their failings - B.) They have infrastructure; and incompentant Net Admins working their most vital aspect of play - Either way; they lose.
Day 5 - "Launch Day" - Game patches to recent build - totally broke. Broke. - Won't even start -- "Failed to Find Game Data" -- Check their forums; and again their "Community Manager" (who is reminding me of Badgdad Bob) - Claims the fault is because you are running the game off a drive that is not the native OS drive - again as an IT person; i face palm -- The first person under him replies that he is lying - the game's patcher is curropting it's own build - and replacing the bin32 file fixes the issue - Sure enough; he provides a link to download the file; and bam it works -- Some random guy does the job for TW; and TWs community point of contact is caught as a fat lier. -- Oh; and i log into 3 hours ques; and still no founder items.
Day 6 - Still no founder items; and same issues as above; none are fixed - nothing is different - I go to the forums again; since i'm no longer banned - and state again i'm incredibly displeased - and want some form of reparation in 5 minutes i was permanantly banned from the forums of what was stated as "Ban Evasion" - Huh? I go to make out an support ticket and disput the ban - and i get "Admin has disabled this feature for your account" -- I can't even e-mail them?
Day 7 - I'm currently waiting in what will easly be the longest que of the week - I'm in position 3,400 as a patron with wait time at >1hr - and i typed this paragraph; i do not expect to see my found items.
No matter how bad the launch problems -- I never seen a company out right lie; and mislead their customers -- i never seen a company not only continue to push their product even when they can not currently deal with the current active load -- but punish their founders by providing a same price but better reward "starter" pack with superior items that are actually delivered when founder items are not -- Every day the old problems persist; new problems arise - and they give little communication outside of lies -- when you voice your displease you are suppressed; and banned.
Archage is the best MMO to have hit the industry in atleast 5 years --- TW has provided the worst launch of the best MMO - in the history of MMOs.
I can only hope they are hit where it counts -- in the wallet, over this.
I have same experience as OP. Except I started on server Eanna. A server that was plagued by many interruptions of service on the first saturday, 10 minutes play - 1 hour down, repeated by 7. The 7th time this ended with what Trion called we're being DDOSed. So the first saturday I was able to play about an hour, despite refreshing the game and looking forum posts like a boss.
My sunday was relatively relaxed.
Monday morning I made the best decision I could and restarted on the new Aier server. Queues for patrons on that server are non existant due to all patrons stuck on the overcrowded servers (because of time investment, guild dedication, and money investment that doesn't transfer to new characters, oh yeah and deleting characters cost 24 hours).
What I find worrying, is that I think a lot of the problems could have been avoided:
1. Prior to launch people already found it odd that no new servers were going to be added to the beta pool. After all people were playing on beta servers AND alpha servers. At headstart the beta servers were renamed headstart servers, and the alpha servers were simply gone.
2. Immediately at headstart people were facing long queues on ALL servers. Yet during the course of friday, saturday, and sunday morning, the only response from Trion was we are monitoring server capacity. What does that even mean at that point? People are in queues and they are expecting more people to enter the game on tuesday? Headstart people have at least a month of patron time, and so one can not assume the queues to simply disappear before that first month. Unless people leave because of frustration.
3. Sunday morning, Scott Hartsman, twittered they will look at server capacity monday morning. Does this actually mean that the previous mentions of Trion watching capacity were false? Well monday morning they did actually add one server for NA and one for europe. But at that point too little, too late. Although the people who moved to the new servers had a good experience.
4. Tuesday at launch they added a few more servers, but what exactly happened between monday and tuesday for them to decide to add more servers? Between monday and tuesday no extra players entered the game, minus a couple. So why the need to add more servers, unless it was the plan all along to add the servers at launch?
Lots of strange decisions from the company I defended for having had the best MMO launch in history with Rift. Is the difficulty with this Archeage launch due to the difficulty of cooperating with the Koreans? We don't know at this point, perhaps time will tell.
So many little things. Even when a game flops for me I've almost never regretted my purchase. Except for AA.
If I had known they were going to offer post launch packages worth more to me than what I actually got in an earlier package, I would have much rather wait.
Paying € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) and getting some crummy item in-game that I'll quickly replace and in no way, shape or form looks "exclusive".
TWO character slots for all the servers and I have to use my Market Place credits to expand my character slots.
The first six characters I ever make are the only ones that will get the benefits from my € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) package. So for those who didn't know and deleted characters without knowing? Tough luck.
Also, the first character ever made on your entire account is the only one that gets the one-time six chest bonus that comes with the € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) package.
They claim to have fixed patron status so today we'll see how many suc...err I mean paying customers will be able to log in rather quickly after waiting in queues.
There are still so many technical issues that others are having. Aside from sometimes having my client crashing, I can't complain. That isn't TW's fault.
The delivery and the way the whole thing's been presented is their fault. It's amateurish and they've lost any good name they've built with Rift (slightly dented by later releases).
I can only hope they are hit where it counts -- in the wallet, over this.
So nasty.
In any case how exactly is this different from World of Warcraft's launch?
Because it's 2014 not 2004. Been around this block too many times to still be giving it a pass.
Or, you can make the leap (or is that expecting too much?) and realize that a LOT of players is a LOT of players.
In any game.
And you know what? while players are crying and wailing there are huge lines of people who just queue up and wait their turn.
doesn't matter the year, if a game can only accommodate so many players then that's what it can accommodate.
Just wait your turn like any adult.
OK, but I was responding to your question as to why WoW gets a pass and AA doesn't.
Yes, I know.
Your moniker is "geezer gamer". I'm assuming (and I haven't looked at your age to see if you really are a "geezer") that you have been around the block a time or two.
And if you have you've seen quite a bit and one tends to "get" that there are certain things that are what they are.
Game has only "x" amount of slots. Doesn't matter the year. You buy a houes and want storage (oh no it's 2014) but you are only going to have so many closets.
There are x amount of slots on these servers and if they open them up too much then it's just going to crash and then we will get more crying.
So people have to wait their turn. this has been going on for a long time. Longer than you or I have been around.
wait ... your ... turn.
It sucks but it's doable.
Well, again, This is a different topic, but OK, I'll go there with you.
Yes, I agree to a point. However, both sides have to participate in "mature" behavior. Although for TW, I wouldn't say they are acting immature, but they need to have systems to accommodate players better.
I was half joking (But ONLY half) in another thread when I said Trion needs to learn from public parks and rec depts.
/whistle blow........."Everyone out of the pool"
Adult Swim - No kids/patrons only
Free Swim - Everyone in
And several times a day, all players online have to log off for "server maintenance" but all it does is move the queues along.
Because it's 2014 not 2004. Been around this block too many times to still be giving it a pass.
Or, you can make the leap (or is that expecting too much?) and...
Same'ol excuses, different MMO.
How about we stop making them, demand quality, and perhaps we may actually see an MMORPG do well for more than a year or two for a change.
Crazy idea huh? Holding a company up to a standard and telling them they better do it or lose them as a customer.
There's only so much water that can be put in a bucket.
Look at what other games have done.
queues, Guild wars 2 has their overflow server or neither of those.
So sure, maybe an overflow server where people can play. But you aren't going to be able to plant things or trade which is a huge part of this game for some.
So we are back to the "there is only so much that can be put into a bucket".
Demand all you want, sometimes there are actual, real, limitations and "you have to wait your turn".
You go to an amusement park you have to wait your turn, you go to the grocery store you have to wait your turn.
That's life.
I have that same problem. I have two large grocery stores where I live. One is always understaffed with long lines, the other very staffed with many short (if any) lines. Guess which one gets more customers? Guess which one looks like it might be closing down?
I don't know, man. For this title to even have any semblance of realism, you'd have to have these problems persist for at least a month. Even WoW was nearly unplayable for its first month of release. As others have stated, Anarchy Online may have been the worst -- I think that one took upwards of six months before it was stable enough to play.
Now before you attack me - as i'm sure some of you will.
Understand that i have been presented for the following launches of MMOs.
Everquest - Lineage 2 - Star Wars Galaxies - World of Warcraft - Tabula Rasa - FF11 - FF14 - FF14ARR - Aion - Rappelz - Star Trek Online - Star Wars Old Republic - The Secret World - All Points Bulletin - Dragon Nest - TERA - Warframe -Firefall -Perfect World - Forsaken World -
* I've played more; just those are launches i was present for - so i can safely say i've experienced a few MMO launches.
Now; it is true that pretty much every MMO experiences launch problems - However; what is also true is they are all mostly predictable, and AVOIDABLE - Yet they rarely are avoided - but they are contained; and resolved in timely manners.
Today's markets day 7 of my Archeage disaster of an experience - i shall outline it day by day.
Purchased my 150 dollar founder pack in April the day they went on sale due to what i was told would be a "limited supply, highly exclusive". -- As of the morning of head-start day 1; they were still on sale - First big lie.
Day 1 - Headstart 1 - I log into the game to my first que - Expected; 2 hour wait - i'm in the game - Woohoo; i'm cheesing a nice smile - Then i notice no founder items i paid for - oh well no biggie; get into the game 20 minutes; another crash --- Okay okay; this happens; i'll just continue playing the next day.
Day 2 - Greeted by the infinite cinematic bug where it just loops the cinematic after telling you; it can't authenticate your credentials. - That's fine went to the gym - came back 3 hours later; problem still exists - 2 hours later i can finally log in; but now experience constant D/Cs when i have no networking issues putting me right back into the 1H que.
Day 3 - First day i actually got any real play time; at this point headstart is about over; i'm kinda annoyed by the whole experience - but i'm trying to deal with it - I make it to level 20 start looking for some land -- Oh look; there is none - i start checking the forums; people were reporting -hours- after launch that all available land was pretty much claimed by elistist guilds who exploited game mechanics to monoplize the land -- At this point' i'm kinda pissed - This was the whole point to being in the head start - to get a chance at prime real-estate. Now NOTHING is left; and my headstart is pretty much over - still no founder items - so i decided to voice my opinion on it -- I was rather well worded; no vulgarity; nor did i attack anyone directly over it -- i simply stated it was "not what i had expected from an MMO i had long looked forward too" -- The page got a few hundred replies - i did not reply to anyone; only my OPost remained - i was banned for 2 days for "attacking TW staff" -- A false charge; but it's whatever.
Day 4 - Last day of headstart - The ques were generally shorter on this day 10-15 minutes; however the game would not launch from the selection screen - the game launched; but the screen was blacked out - after 2-3 restarts of the game it would work; which requires 2-3 times waiting in the que to play. But i could sorta play - Til of course the crashes; and D/Cs started. Still no founder items - TW Community Manager makes claims about all the problems being fix'ed - yet forum is full of thousands of reports that it is NOT fixed - oh; and of course the self-defeating claim of a DDOS attacks.
- I say it's false because i work IT for a company of 600 employees -- our infrastructure in our 2 local data rooms combined with our data-center colocation would be nearlly untouchable to any script kiddy running a multiple pronged LOIC - type DDOS attack -- Due to modern backend structuring like VLAN SUBNETTING - DNS Bypass; TCP Pulse drops; it's easy to throttle incoming data bursts - and we are a mom; and pop shop - TW is running infra that must hold tens of thousands of users - So either A.) Its a giant lie to cover their failings - B.) They have infrastructure; and incompentant Net Admins working their most vital aspect of play - Either way; they lose.
Day 5 - "Launch Day" - Game patches to recent build - totally broke. Broke. - Won't even start -- "Failed to Find Game Data" -- Check their forums; and again their "Community Manager" (who is reminding me of Badgdad Bob) - Claims the fault is because you are running the game off a drive that is not the native OS drive - again as an IT person; i face palm -- The first person under him replies that he is lying - the game's patcher is curropting it's own build - and replacing the bin32 file fixes the issue - Sure enough; he provides a link to download the file; and bam it works -- Some random guy does the job for TW; and TWs community point of contact is caught as a fat lier. -- Oh; and i log into 3 hours ques; and still no founder items.
Day 6 - Still no founder items; and same issues as above; none are fixed - nothing is different - I go to the forums again; since i'm no longer banned - and state again i'm incredibly displeased - and want some form of reparation in 5 minutes i was permanantly banned from the forums of what was stated as "Ban Evasion" - Huh? I go to make out an support ticket and disput the ban - and i get "Admin has disabled this feature for your account" -- I can't even e-mail them?
Day 7 - I'm currently waiting in what will easly be the longest que of the week - I'm in position 3,400 as a patron with wait time at >1hr - and i typed this paragraph; i do not expect to see my found items.
No matter how bad the launch problems -- I never seen a company out right lie; and mislead their customers -- i never seen a company not only continue to push their product even when they can not currently deal with the current active load -- but punish their founders by providing a same price but better reward "starter" pack with superior items that are actually delivered when founder items are not -- Every day the old problems persist; new problems arise - and they give little communication outside of lies -- when you voice your displease you are suppressed; and banned.
Archage is the best MMO to have hit the industry in atleast 5 years --- TW has provided the worst launch of the best MMO - in the history of MMOs.
I can only hope they are hit where it counts -- in the wallet, over this.
You basically summed up my Archeage week. Its so similar lol. Except my shortest queue was 2h30m and my longest was 6h while my average was 4h30m. I also got banned from the forums initially for stating my concern. I was then perma banned for calling the devs gimps.. fair enough, but perma, never lifted over the word gimp? lol. Luckily I opened a ticket before I was banned (almost 120 hours ago now) so hopefully I get a reply on my refund. Otherwise off to paypal or my bank (both seem pretty good in instances where I haven't received what I've paid for) Goodluck Archeage, hopefully all these f2p players they've taken priority in keep your game around cause your original patrons won't be around for long!
Originally posted by grimal
Originally posted by Sovrath
Originally posted by JJ82
Originally posted by Sovrath
Originally posted by GeezerGamer
Because it's 2014 not 2004. Been around this block too many times to still be giving it a pass.
Or, you can make the leap (or is that expecting too much?) and...
Same'ol excuses, different MMO.
How about we stop making them, demand quality, and perhaps we may actually see an MMORPG do well for more than a year or two for a change.
Crazy idea huh? Holding a company up to a standard and telling them they better do it or lose them as a customer.
There's only so much water that can be put in a bucket.
Look at what other games have done.
queues, Guild wars 2 has their overflow server or neither of those.
So sure, maybe an overflow server where people can play. But you aren't going to be able to plant things or trade which is a huge part of this game for some.
So we are back to the "there is only so much that can be put into a bucket".
Demand all you want, sometimes there are actual, real, limitations and "you have to wait your turn".
You go to an amusement park you have to wait your turn, you go to the grocery store you have to wait your turn.
That's life.
The limitations was their own fault. The entire mistake of giving free patron status out to F2P players ruined the queue times for paying members. When they took it away from the F2P players, guess who suddenly bought patron (or packs) and kept the queues at 4500 people. There were only about 1000 in queue during headstart to be fair. But my headstart was ruined since it went up (thats another story) They knew very well how many patrons were ready before headstart started. Yet the servers couldnt even handle their patron members. How was the limitations going to get any better after the game launched? With 0 new servers in place for the new influx of players. I could understand if they miscalculated by a thousand or so player slots. But every server to be in the thousands? And for it to still be the same after 7 days? They've done nothing to fix the limitations lol. Sure adding servers a week later might do something for the people who can't play at all. But the people who have spent some time in servers are not going to leave and the queues won't change by much (as probably most people have noticed)
The limitations was their own fault. The entire mistake of giving free patron status out to F2P players ruined the queue times for paying members. When they took it away from the F2P players, guess who suddenly bought founders and kept the queues at 4500 people. They knew very well how many patrons were ready before headstart started. Yet the servers couldnt even handle their patron members. How was the limitations going to get any better after the game launched?
Well, that was probably a business move.
I'm on the fence regarding your point because on one hand companies want to entice customers to pay for "1 better". All companies do this.
On the other hand they should have known that there was going to be a greater influx of players who decided to "get one better".
But what do they do? I mean, if they just keep throwing servers at the problem then in a month some of those servers are going to be ghost towns.
Then what? Take away plots that players devoted time to get and developed.
I see all of this as "damned if they do, damned if they don't".
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I have that same problem. I have two large grocery stores where I live. One is always understaffed with long lines, the other very staffed with many short (if any) lines. Guess which one gets more customers? Guess which one looks like it might be closing down?
But again, Trion can only staff (more servers) "so much" before they bite themselves in the butt.
So sure, the supermarket that is well staffed is going to be the "no brainer" choice.
But if in a month patrons stop going then all that super market will do is lay people off (which sucks of course) and they can still balance their budget for labor.
But if Trion throws more servers at the problem then as I mentioned, they will be ghost towns.
If they increase the populations on those servers then that is going to make a horrible experience for all involved.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
queue times suck but that's to be expected for the first few weeks before everyone moves on to the next game.
Anarchy Online was the all time worst ever! I doubt it will ever get outdone.
All the issues you are having but also, you couldnt walk 5 feet before being disconnected or every time you hit a server zone line or zoned, game crashed...
There was a time i was excited for this game, until it became a cash shop game....Ill pass on that business model every time.
Comments
I dunno, I had zero significant issues with WoW launch. I think it was people who insisted on playing on high pop servers that ran into most of the issues during WoW launch.
Form my experience FFXIV 1.0 was the worst AAA launch in the last 10 years.
To be fair all the OPs issues (aside from all the land being gone in like the first 3 days.) would be fairly insignificant if he hadn't been suckered into paying $150 before the game even launched. This post seems far more of a "I spent $150 and got almost nothing to show for it." rage thread rather than real launch issues.
Yup. It was pretty bad. But my heart goes out to the OP as a fellow gamer (although I think it's silly to spend 150 dollars to get ahead of others.
I'm not sure how he knows so many exploited either even though I'm sure it's possible. If it were me and money was no object I'd wipe the servers and start over with another headstart just to spite the cheaters as long as they could stop anyone from having an unfair start (other than paying 150 dollars).
Now I wonder if they had set the price at 600.00 if they would of had the same problem.
That was a nightmare I tried to forget. Ruined a good game.
This thread did teach me something. I got the black screen after selection (and a 30minute que) and assumed it was just my old laptop that couldn't run the game. It happens a lot and since I was playing for free I wasn't that concerned (very laggy too during the char selection process) but now I might try again before I uninstall.
OK, but I was responding to your question as to why WoW gets a pass and AA doesn't.
You were present for ALL those launches and you STILL dropped 150 on a CE preorder?!?! Of a F2P game!?!? Game publishers lick their chops over people like you.
I'm not saying it's ok for companies to rip people off, but jeez, sometimes it's a little bit the consumers' fault too ya know?
The fact that all real estate is gone and elitist guilds run the game is something I would not be interested in playing.
they didn't develop their game to consider non elitist players. The best way to do this is by making the game about server resets resulting from total take over in a weeks time for example. So even in one person can do a lot by themselves but will lose a lot as well. But they make a lot of gold while they play and the more money they have and invest into their conquered lands the better chance they have of keeping this land. So the dynamic becomes more about when to place their bets and keep as much as possible for their continued expansion. Also allow phone apps.
unless they do something like this I doubt any sand box will limited real estate wil be more inclusive to all players and not just elitists.
edit- to add to the idea imagine that people spawn in random locations for resets. So guilds don't have it so easy. Also terrain changes.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
my sentiments as well
There's only so much water that can be put in a bucket.
Look at what other games have done.
queues, Guild wars 2 has their overflow server or neither of those.
So sure, maybe an overflow server where people can play. But you aren't going to be able to plant things or trade which is a huge part of this game for some.
So we are back to the "there is only so much that can be put into a bucket".
Demand all you want, sometimes there are actual, real, limitations and "you have to wait your turn".
You go to an amusement park you have to wait your turn, you go to the grocery store you have to wait your turn.
That's life.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Yes, I know.
Your moniker is "geezer gamer". I'm assuming (and I haven't looked at your age to see if you really are a "geezer") that you have been around the block a time or two.
And if you have you've seen quite a bit and one tends to "get" that there are certain things that are what they are.
Game has only "x" amount of slots. Doesn't matter the year. You buy a houes and want storage (oh no it's 2014) but you are only going to have so many closets.
There are x amount of slots on these servers and if they open them up too much then it's just going to crash and then we will get more crying.
So people have to wait their turn. this has been going on for a long time. Longer than you or I have been around.
wait ... your ... turn.
It sucks but it's doable.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Saturday night shortly after a games launch is busier than primetime. You should probably just out to the bar or bowling and come back later.
Just to question the philosophy. Army of Socrates.
Not even close at all. You are just upset with queue times sorry that sucks and a lot of us dont like it but not even close to worst.
I have exactly the same opinion as you!
I have same experience as OP. Except I started on server Eanna. A server that was plagued by many interruptions of service on the first saturday, 10 minutes play - 1 hour down, repeated by 7. The 7th time this ended with what Trion called we're being DDOSed. So the first saturday I was able to play about an hour, despite refreshing the game and looking forum posts like a boss.
My sunday was relatively relaxed.
Monday morning I made the best decision I could and restarted on the new Aier server. Queues for patrons on that server are non existant due to all patrons stuck on the overcrowded servers (because of time investment, guild dedication, and money investment that doesn't transfer to new characters, oh yeah and deleting characters cost 24 hours).
What I find worrying, is that I think a lot of the problems could have been avoided:
1. Prior to launch people already found it odd that no new servers were going to be added to the beta pool. After all people were playing on beta servers AND alpha servers. At headstart the beta servers were renamed headstart servers, and the alpha servers were simply gone.
2. Immediately at headstart people were facing long queues on ALL servers. Yet during the course of friday, saturday, and sunday morning, the only response from Trion was we are monitoring server capacity. What does that even mean at that point? People are in queues and they are expecting more people to enter the game on tuesday? Headstart people have at least a month of patron time, and so one can not assume the queues to simply disappear before that first month. Unless people leave because of frustration.
3. Sunday morning, Scott Hartsman, twittered they will look at server capacity monday morning. Does this actually mean that the previous mentions of Trion watching capacity were false? Well monday morning they did actually add one server for NA and one for europe. But at that point too little, too late. Although the people who moved to the new servers had a good experience.
4. Tuesday at launch they added a few more servers, but what exactly happened between monday and tuesday for them to decide to add more servers? Between monday and tuesday no extra players entered the game, minus a couple. So why the need to add more servers, unless it was the plan all along to add the servers at launch?
Lots of strange decisions from the company I defended for having had the best MMO launch in history with Rift. Is the difficulty with this Archeage launch due to the difficulty of cooperating with the Koreans? We don't know at this point, perhaps time will tell.
So many little things. Even when a game flops for me I've almost never regretted my purchase. Except for AA.
If I had known they were going to offer post launch packages worth more to me than what I actually got in an earlier package, I would have much rather wait.
Paying € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) and getting some crummy item in-game that I'll quickly replace and in no way, shape or form looks "exclusive".
TWO character slots for all the servers and I have to use my Market Place credits to expand my character slots.
The first six characters I ever make are the only ones that will get the benefits from my € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) package. So for those who didn't know and deleted characters without knowing? Tough luck.
Also, the first character ever made on your entire account is the only one that gets the one-time six chest bonus that comes with the € 135 ($ 150 / £ 110) package.
They claim to have fixed patron status so today we'll see how many suc...err I mean paying customers will be able to log in rather quickly after waiting in queues.
There are still so many technical issues that others are having. Aside from sometimes having my client crashing, I can't complain. That isn't TW's fault.
The delivery and the way the whole thing's been presented is their fault. It's amateurish and they've lost any good name they've built with Rift (slightly dented by later releases).
Well, again, This is a different topic, but OK, I'll go there with you.
Yes, I agree to a point. However, both sides have to participate in "mature" behavior. Although for TW, I wouldn't say they are acting immature, but they need to have systems to accommodate players better.
I was half joking (But ONLY half) in another thread when I said Trion needs to learn from public parks and rec depts.
/whistle blow........."Everyone out of the pool"
Adult Swim - No kids/patrons only
Free Swim - Everyone in
And several times a day, all players online have to log off for "server maintenance" but all it does is move the queues along.
That sucks but it's fair.
I have that same problem. I have two large grocery stores where I live. One is always understaffed with long lines, the other very staffed with many short (if any) lines. Guess which one gets more customers? Guess which one looks like it might be closing down?
You basically summed up my Archeage week. Its so similar lol. Except my shortest queue was 2h30m and my longest was 6h while my average was 4h30m. I also got banned from the forums initially for stating my concern. I was then perma banned for calling the devs gimps.. fair enough, but perma, never lifted over the word gimp? lol. Luckily I opened a ticket before I was banned (almost 120 hours ago now) so hopefully I get a reply on my refund. Otherwise off to paypal or my bank (both seem pretty good in instances where I haven't received what I've paid for) Goodluck Archeage, hopefully all these f2p players they've taken priority in keep your game around cause your original patrons won't be around for long!
The limitations was their own fault. The entire mistake of giving free patron status out to F2P players ruined the queue times for paying members. When they took it away from the F2P players, guess who suddenly bought patron (or packs) and kept the queues at 4500 people. There were only about 1000 in queue during headstart to be fair. But my headstart was ruined since it went up (thats another story) They knew very well how many patrons were ready before headstart started. Yet the servers couldnt even handle their patron members. How was the limitations going to get any better after the game launched? With 0 new servers in place for the new influx of players. I could understand if they miscalculated by a thousand or so player slots. But every server to be in the thousands? And for it to still be the same after 7 days? They've done nothing to fix the limitations lol. Sure adding servers a week later might do something for the people who can't play at all. But the people who have spent some time in servers are not going to leave and the queues won't change by much (as probably most people have noticed)
Well, that was probably a business move.
I'm on the fence regarding your point because on one hand companies want to entice customers to pay for "1 better". All companies do this.
On the other hand they should have known that there was going to be a greater influx of players who decided to "get one better".
But what do they do? I mean, if they just keep throwing servers at the problem then in a month some of those servers are going to be ghost towns.
Then what? Take away plots that players devoted time to get and developed.
I see all of this as "damned if they do, damned if they don't".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
But again, Trion can only staff (more servers) "so much" before they bite themselves in the butt.
So sure, the supermarket that is well staffed is going to be the "no brainer" choice.
But if in a month patrons stop going then all that super market will do is lay people off (which sucks of course) and they can still balance their budget for labor.
But if Trion throws more servers at the problem then as I mentioned, they will be ghost towns.
If they increase the populations on those servers then that is going to make a horrible experience for all involved.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Anarchy Online was the all time worst ever! I doubt it will ever get outdone.
All the issues you are having but also, you couldnt walk 5 feet before being disconnected or every time you hit a server zone line or zoned, game crashed...
There was a time i was excited for this game, until it became a cash shop game....Ill pass on that business model every time.