That's the problem there, you start making up statistics, and even let yourself assume that over 90% of the people are pissed off. My guess is that you're just part of an extremely vocal minority. MOST people understand the concept of first come first served. Most people understand that this is what they agreed to when they ordered the game.
Those who are getting in are having a great experience. There were far more people whining about 4 hour server queues in Rift than there are complaining about the staggered launch from TOR, and there are probably 2-3 times as many pre-orders for TOR, so in my opinion, they're handling things rather well.
Im not maing up anything. Its what you should presume when you do sunt like this, and i assure you that in EA-BW corp they know it well.
Yah, now that theres <10% of those who preordered its great. LMK in a week. Game will HAVE to accomodate everyone that preordered eventually. Doesnt matter much on first day or few days later.
Pretty much as they handled it anyway, except I'd be on the forums displaying anything from slight disdain for the heavy whiners to undisguised contempt towards the utterly inane threats of legal action.
I note, OP, that you are interested from a professional CS angle, therefore I urge you to utterly disregard my comments
They are making a habit (good one, in my opinion) of under promising and over delivering. This is quite the opposite of what many companies do, so it's kind of hard to wrap your brain around at first.
Its not a good habit since its very tansparent.
"we let barely anyone on first day and now we let evryone because we are soooo cool and you should worship us now"
And i dont think 2 extra days were "gift to players" but screw up by entities in EA-BW corp ;P
What's worse? Under promising or over promising? You tell me.
I'd rather have someone under promise than over promise and not be able to deliver.
Gaming companies should have one basic thing about the concept of games in mind. They need to create equal circumstances for all of their players. As soon as gameplayers get benefits that are not coming from within the game itself, then it's an imbalance and players have all rights to be angry.
Pay2win is such an example. It allows players to use external things to gain ingame advantages. That's where in my book a game stops being a game.
I think opening the game like SWTOR did in little waves creates the same kind of imbalance. I know for myself, I pre-ordered at a gaming partner of Bioware, but in no way it said that I had upto 5 days of early access. It stated that I would get 5 days of early access. In theory I now bought "early access" for maybe a day, and I'm already five days behind on the first wave.
I think this is the first bad move from Bioware of creating a game without equal chances for all. I'm sure there will be many to follow, as always happen. Those that are now happy being in the first waves of the game, will get hit sooner or later. Their class will get nerfed to the ground, an important skill gets disabled because of a bug, an ingame mail suddenly gets lost, etc. Then you will be angry for the same reason. The game company created an imbalance for you, and there's nothing you can do about it.
They are making a habit (good one, in my opinion) of under promising and over delivering. This is quite the opposite of what many companies do, so it's kind of hard to wrap your brain around at first.
Its not a good habit since its very tansparent.
"we let barely anyone on first day and now we let evryone because we are soooo cool and you should worship us now"
And i dont think 2 extra days were "gift to players" but screw up by entities in EA-BW corp ;P
What's worse? Under promising or over promising? You tell me.
I'd rather have someone under promise than over promise and not be able to deliver.
In a business cicrle underpromising is called out very, very quicly. Try saying your boss youll do 3 units, do 5 and guess what you will have to do next time ;P
Best is to do what you said you will do and do it transparently. Such obvious gimmicks lead to dark side ;P
Originally posted by Kanubis Pretty much as they handled it anyway, except I'd be on the forums displaying anything from slight disdain for the heavy whiners to undisguised contempt towards the utterly inane threats of legal action. I note, OP, that you are interested from a professional CS angle, therefore I urge you to utterly disregard my comments
I will agree that I think they have done an excellent job with how they are rolling out the early access. I know I got in early but honestly I haven't heard of any major issues except one server I believe that was down for a little time.
The only thing I could suggest was maybe a little more information for people bc I am sure their customer service was packed with phone calls from people complaining about when they ordered and why they aren't in, instead of helping other people who had account issues. My friend couldn't get through to CS to try and correct an account issue. This is purely speculation but after reading the swtor forums and the forums here about the whining over how they handled early access I'm sure they were busy trying to explain to people why they haven't gotten their invites instead of answer important questions. A little more information probably would've relieved some of those issues but hey no ones perfect.
I'm not mad or feel entitled. If I had a better clue how to handle the soft launch, knowing everything there is to know happening in the background unbeknownst to the public...I'd be the one getting paid for it instead of just being one more arm-chair warrior.
Since they claim that they are basing the waves on pre-order redeem dates, they should have let one of their programmers create and present the results from an algoritm which let us know exactly what dates are associated with each wave. The results should have been posted on their official site before the 1st wave was allowed to enter.
A such post would have taken max 1 hour of total worktime.
I'm sure it would be simple for someone to come up with this list, but at the same time they would never do it. In fact, you can bet that they have such a "list" internally that they are using. I'm sure of that.
Why won't they show us? The community will take it as a commitment to hit that schedule. If something happens where they can't meet their targets, then they will upset even more people.
I would be willing to bet that they have built some flexibility into their plan. If servers go down, for example, they can't exactly send out email blasts inviting a ton of people in. They have to get the servers up first. In that situation, their times are going to get pushed back a little bit. If the community knows their schedule, then they are going to be outraged. If we don't know the schedule, life goes on and we are none the wiser.
They are making a habit (good one, in my opinion) of under promising and over delivering. This is quite the opposite of what many companies do, so it's kind of hard to wrap your brain around at first.
They did not have to give strict time deadlines for the different waves, but they could have just written which pre-order redeem dates were associated with which wave. That way, even if server goes down, they can just push up the invite date for the waves, but the waves themselves keep the same list of people.
If it were up to me? I wouldn't even come close to telling people anything about the time table. Not even which wave they were in.
That's flawed too. People will figure out the rate at which they release waves, and know when they are next. They will take it as a garuntee of when they would get in. I know this would happen.
Beyond that, what if they have to change the size of the waves? What if, because of the server issues, they had to split up the waves but release them for longer periods of time each day. Same result.
Like I said, if it were my decision to make from a professional standpoint, I would not even go anywhere near telling people when they were getting in.
To avoid the "need to resize waves" issue, then you just make smaller units of waves and then you let a certain amount of these smaller units enter at the invite times. So maybe wave 1, 2, 3, and 4 enters at time X, while wave 5-12 enters at time Y and only 13 enters at time Z. So as you can see, there would not be a need to resize with a little foresight in how they design the waves.
I would have done the first 5 launches as they had done, I'd then wait until the heavy populations started to dip to normal and start adding more waves. If at some point the servers start getting too busy, halt new characters on those servers and add more.
There's no reason to have almost all servers be low population for 10 hours. If they need to start using queus, prioritize them in order of teh wave you were in.
I also would announce the preorder registration end time for each wave and post a tentative schedule that is ultra conservative, meaning that pretty much everyone will get in earlier than that worst case schedule.
Alot of people were arguing that very point. But the grand excuse was people were logging in to save tons of names, then logging off for work. So we were told, that the servers would be packed during Primetime. Well guess what, that did not happen. Infact as the day went on the population of the servers were pretty sad looking.
Nice perception and way to start an MMO. Make it look like it's dead. You know what ever happened about creating hype so more people pre-order the game. You have to be a fool even trying to buy this game now. Thanks to all the BAD word of mouth from ALOT of unhappy players on tons of MMO forums. BW/EA will learn to regret this when their bottom line is staring them at their faces. Which is too bad, because I had alot of hope for this game.
I think this is the first bad move from Bioware of creating a game without equal chances for all. I'm sure there will be many to follow, as always happen. Those that are now happy being in the first waves of the game, will get hit sooner or later. Their class will get nerfed to the ground, an important skill gets disabled because of a bug, an ingame mail suddenly gets lost, etc. Then you will be angry for the same reason. The game company created an imbalance for you, and there's nothing you can do about it.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
On a side note, was great not being able to log in to origin yesterday to play the new BF3 expansion. Don't know if that was partly the reason for the low amount of swtor pre-orderers that could get in, but regardless, it was pretty dumb letting out the BF3 expansion and SWTOR pre-launch the same day.
On a side note, was great not being able to log in to origin yesterday to play the new BF3 expansion. Don't know if that was partly the reason for the low amount of swtor pre-orderers that could get in, but regardless, it was pretty dumb letting out the BF3 expansion and SWTOR pre-launch the same day.
If anything, I would consider that the worst part about this whole thing.
I would have figured out how many people I needed to get into the game by the 15th, then I would have let people in early, a bit at a time so that by the 15th everyone would have their early access.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
Alot of people were arguing that very point. But the grand excuse was people were logging in to save tons of names, then logging off for work. So we were told, that the servers would be packed during Primetime. Well guess what, that did not happen. Infact as the day went on the population of the servers were pretty sad looking.
Nice perception and way to start an MMO. Make it look like it's dead. You know what ever happened about creating hype so more people pre-order the game. You have to be a fool even trying to buy this game now. Thanks to all the BAD word of mouth from ALOT of unhappy players on tons of MMO forums. BW/EA will learn to regret this when their bottom line is staring them at their faces. Which is too bad, because I had alot of hope for this game.
Its too early to tell, they may pull that "underpromise thingy" and let everyone in by fri/sat, but we'll see what happens today/tomorrow.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
I would bet that TOR has 4x the amount of people at launch that Rift had, but yes Trion had a very good launch. On that note, Trion also has some very interesting tech behind their game. I won't go into detail but it is actually very impressive. The way their backend is structured is very complex, and also very advanced.
I don't necissarily disagree with you about the equal chances, but at the same time, I think this is one situation where the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
I would bet that TOR has 4x the amount of people at launch that Rift had, but yes Trion had a very good launch.
I don't necissarily disagree with you about the equal chances, but at the same time, I think this is one situation where the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.
Everyone forgets the 4 hour queues during the Rift launch, and allt he whining and complaining... and then the empty servers a month later...
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
I would bet that TOR has 4x the amount of people at launch that Rift had, but yes Trion had a very good launch. On that note, Trion also has some very interesting tech behind their game. I won't go into detail but it is actually very impressive. The way their backend is structured is very complex, and also very advanced.
I don't necissarily disagree with you about the equal chances, but at the same time, I think this is one situation where the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.
No way SWTOR has 4 million pre-orders, and there is no way now they would ever get that now with the mess the pre-order nightmare as become.
Trion and Rift set the standard for MMO launches. BW/EA is the poster child on NOT how to launch a MMO. Right or wrong that will be set in stone. Perception is half the battle.
All this back and forth crap is old. Who really cares. You know what, yesterday was the 13th. A solid 2 days before the actual EA. That still leaves a solid 2 days to get in, which is still a solid 5 days before the actual launch on the 20th.
Shit, be happy that Bioware was nice enough to care about the community and give a 7 day EA. When you went and put your 5 dollars down on the game, that was not only for the chance to get up to 5 days of EA but depending on which version, the neat stuff that came with it.
Some of you need to quit bitching and moaning about, oh my name is gonna be taken and shit like that. How about be origional and come up with a unique name that nobody would even dream of having. The bitching about having husbands or wives or brothers or grandpa's playing and your not is also annoying. You do know thay can make an alt until you get into the game, so questing can be done togeither from the beginning. One or two days of being in the game before you is not gonna hurt anything.
If you're wondering, no, i'm not in yet either. i entered my code on Sept 25, so i'm waiting just like a lot of you are as well. How about instead of gojng crazy over a video game, go outside and play real life until you get the email to let you into the game.
No way SWTOR has 4 million pre-orders, and there is no way now they would ever get that now with the mess the pre-order nightmare as become.
Trion and Rift set the standard for MMO launches. BW/EA is the poster child on NOT how to launch a MMO. Right or wrong that will be set in stone. Perception is half the battle.
Well, Trion didn't have 1 million pre-orders. They hit the 1 million mark a little after launch.
You may be right about the 4 million thing though, but I have little doubt that they are over 2 million right now at the very least. That's still much bigger than Rift.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
I would bet that TOR has 4x the amount of people at launch that Rift had, but yes Trion had a very good launch. On that note, Trion also has some very interesting tech behind their game. I won't go into detail but it is actually very impressive. The way their backend is structured is very complex, and also very advanced.
I don't necissarily disagree with you about the equal chances, but at the same time, I think this is one situation where the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.
No way SWTOR has 4 million pre-orders, and there is no way now they would ever get that now with the mess the pre-order nightmare as become.
Trion and Rift set the standard for MMO launches. BW/EA is the poster child on NOT how to launch a MMO. Right or wrong that will be set in stone. Perception is half the battle.
Rift did NOT have 1 million pre-orders. Ever. At all.
This is exactly what I mean about people forgetting about the problems of Rifts relatively small launch, and the aftermath of their solution of just opening more servers... It'll be F2P in a few months.
I would have let everyone in at once, and let most of them sit in queues. That would have let the maximum ammount of people in, and when they log off, other people can get on. It all works out.
Everyone forgets the 4 hour queues during the Rift launch, and allt he whining and complaining... and then the empty servers a month later...
BioWare did this for a very good reason.
I want to remind you that this approach will not help with server queues. I have seen an employee talk about queues, and they expect they will come.
Rift had almost empty servers as well when there were queues, but ofcourse people want to play their main characters. Rift gave you a choice, it's not right to complain to them if you didn't want to change server.
If you have not been invited to the SWTOR early access you have no choice.
Everyone forgets the 4 hour queues during the Rift launch, and allt he whining and complaining... and then the empty servers a month later...
BioWare did this for a very good reason.
I want to remind you that this approach will not help with server queues. I have seen an employee talk about queues, and they expect they will come.
Rift had almost empty servers as well when there were queues, but ofcourse people want to play their main characters. Rift gave you a choice, it's not right to complain to them if you didn't want to change server.
If you have not been invited to the SWTOR early access you have no choice.
First of all, you had that choice when you CHOSE not to pre order early.
Second, it really does help with server queues. It will help them to determine the appropriate number of servers to bring online without going overboard. It will also help to let people get out of the starter worlds to that the populations are more spread out. The Hero Engine can literally handle hundreds of thousands of people on the same "server" (which is actually a cluster of servers), as long as those people are spread out.
From a technical standpoint, they're handling this very well. And despite the vocal minority who can't take responsibility for CHOOSING not to pre order early, in the long run this was also the best choice from a PR standpoint. They won't have to deal with the outcry and doomsayers when servers have to be merged.
Comments
Im not maing up anything. Its what you should presume when you do sunt like this, and i assure you that in EA-BW corp they know it well.
Yah, now that theres <10% of those who preordered its great. LMK in a week. Game will HAVE to accomodate everyone that preordered eventually. Doesnt matter much on first day or few days later.
Pretty much as they handled it anyway, except I'd be on the forums displaying anything from slight disdain for the heavy whiners to undisguised contempt towards the utterly inane threats of legal action.
I note, OP, that you are interested from a professional CS angle, therefore I urge you to utterly disregard my comments
What's worse? Under promising or over promising? You tell me.
I'd rather have someone under promise than over promise and not be able to deliver.
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Open recruitment for
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http://www.shadowshand.com
Gaming companies should have one basic thing about the concept of games in mind. They need to create equal circumstances for all of their players. As soon as gameplayers get benefits that are not coming from within the game itself, then it's an imbalance and players have all rights to be angry.
Pay2win is such an example. It allows players to use external things to gain ingame advantages. That's where in my book a game stops being a game.
I think opening the game like SWTOR did in little waves creates the same kind of imbalance. I know for myself, I pre-ordered at a gaming partner of Bioware, but in no way it said that I had upto 5 days of early access. It stated that I would get 5 days of early access. In theory I now bought "early access" for maybe a day, and I'm already five days behind on the first wave.
I think this is the first bad move from Bioware of creating a game without equal chances for all. I'm sure there will be many to follow, as always happen. Those that are now happy being in the first waves of the game, will get hit sooner or later. Their class will get nerfed to the ground, an important skill gets disabled because of a bug, an ingame mail suddenly gets lost, etc. Then you will be angry for the same reason. The game company created an imbalance for you, and there's nothing you can do about it.
In a business cicrle underpromising is called out very, very quicly. Try saying your boss youll do 3 units, do 5 and guess what you will have to do next time ;P
Best is to do what you said you will do and do it transparently. Such obvious gimmicks lead to dark side ;P
I will agree that I think they have done an excellent job with how they are rolling out the early access. I know I got in early but honestly I haven't heard of any major issues except one server I believe that was down for a little time.
The only thing I could suggest was maybe a little more information for people bc I am sure their customer service was packed with phone calls from people complaining about when they ordered and why they aren't in, instead of helping other people who had account issues. My friend couldn't get through to CS to try and correct an account issue. This is purely speculation but after reading the swtor forums and the forums here about the whining over how they handled early access I'm sure they were busy trying to explain to people why they haven't gotten their invites instead of answer important questions. A little more information probably would've relieved some of those issues but hey no ones perfect.
All in all its been a very smooth launch.
If I had a better clue how to handle the soft launch, knowing everything there is to know happening in the background unbeknownst to the public...I'd be the one getting paid for it instead of just being one more arm-chair warrior.
To avoid the "need to resize waves" issue, then you just make smaller units of waves and then you let a certain amount of these smaller units enter at the invite times. So maybe wave 1, 2, 3, and 4 enters at time X, while wave 5-12 enters at time Y and only 13 enters at time Z. So as you can see, there would not be a need to resize with a little foresight in how they design the waves.
Alot of people were arguing that very point. But the grand excuse was people were logging in to save tons of names, then logging off for work. So we were told, that the servers would be packed during Primetime. Well guess what, that did not happen. Infact as the day went on the population of the servers were pretty sad looking.
Nice perception and way to start an MMO. Make it look like it's dead. You know what ever happened about creating hype so more people pre-order the game. You have to be a fool even trying to buy this game now. Thanks to all the BAD word of mouth from ALOT of unhappy players on tons of MMO forums. BW/EA will learn to regret this when their bottom line is staring them at their faces. Which is too bad, because I had alot of hope for this game.
I know this wasn't directed specifically at me, but I was not in the first day. I pre-ordered 8/15, and don't really know when I'll get in.
I am studying IT, and I tend to see things from a technical standpoint. Technically, what they are doing is very smart. They are using practices that the greater IT world has been employing for decades, but MMO companies have always failed to implement properly.
Everything they have done so far has impressed me. I have seen a very high level of competence in this area from Bioware, and that is mainly what this thread was created to discuss. Again, that is from a technical background just looking at the technology behind this launch.
It's easy to criticize something like this when you feel slighted, but I assure you, what's going on behind the scenes is very complicated and delicate. The people that are handling this are very good at what they do.
My opinions on this matter are not because I am already playing the game. They come from a desire to learn about networking and engineering at a deeper level than most gamers ever even consider when playing these games.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
On a side note, was great not being able to log in to origin yesterday to play the new BF3 expansion. Don't know if that was partly the reason for the low amount of swtor pre-orderers that could get in, but regardless, it was pretty dumb letting out the BF3 expansion and SWTOR pre-launch the same day.
If anything, I would consider that the worst part about this whole thing.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
I would have figured out how many people I needed to get into the game by the 15th, then I would have let people in early, a bit at a time so that by the 15th everyone would have their early access.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
i would have scrapped the whole thing and just re-opened the SWG servers........
Sure I understand the technical problems you get when a million people starts hammering on your servers. And choosing a first come first served basis is probably the best way. However, I have one very good example of a company that had an almost flawless launch... it was Rift. They too had a million players hammering their servers, and everyone applauded them with their launch.
It's kinda interesting to see that some people in this thread now even complain about too few people playing
Anyway I come back to the main thing a gaming company should have in mind, and that is create equal chances for all your players.
Its too early to tell, they may pull that "underpromise thingy" and let everyone in by fri/sat, but we'll see what happens today/tomorrow.
I would bet that TOR has 4x the amount of people at launch that Rift had, but yes Trion had a very good launch. On that note, Trion also has some very interesting tech behind their game. I won't go into detail but it is actually very impressive. The way their backend is structured is very complex, and also very advanced.
I don't necissarily disagree with you about the equal chances, but at the same time, I think this is one situation where the pros outweigh the cons in that regard.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
Everyone forgets the 4 hour queues during the Rift launch, and allt he whining and complaining... and then the empty servers a month later...
BioWare did this for a very good reason.
No way SWTOR has 4 million pre-orders, and there is no way now they would ever get that now with the mess the pre-order nightmare as become.
Trion and Rift set the standard for MMO launches. BW/EA is the poster child on NOT how to launch a MMO. Right or wrong that will be set in stone. Perception is half the battle.
All this back and forth crap is old. Who really cares. You know what, yesterday was the 13th. A solid 2 days before the actual EA. That still leaves a solid 2 days to get in, which is still a solid 5 days before the actual launch on the 20th.
Shit, be happy that Bioware was nice enough to care about the community and give a 7 day EA. When you went and put your 5 dollars down on the game, that was not only for the chance to get up to 5 days of EA but depending on which version, the neat stuff that came with it.
Some of you need to quit bitching and moaning about, oh my name is gonna be taken and shit like that. How about be origional and come up with a unique name that nobody would even dream of having. The bitching about having husbands or wives or brothers or grandpa's playing and your not is also annoying. You do know thay can make an alt until you get into the game, so questing can be done togeither from the beginning. One or two days of being in the game before you is not gonna hurt anything.
If you're wondering, no, i'm not in yet either. i entered my code on Sept 25, so i'm waiting just like a lot of you are as well. How about instead of gojng crazy over a video game, go outside and play real life until you get the email to let you into the game.
Well, Trion didn't have 1 million pre-orders. They hit the 1 million mark a little after launch.
You may be right about the 4 million thing though, but I have little doubt that they are over 2 million right now at the very least. That's still much bigger than Rift.
Shadow's Hand Guild
Open recruitment for
The Secret World - Dragons
Planetside 2 - Terran Republic
Tera - Dragonfall Server
http://www.shadowshand.com
Rift did NOT have 1 million pre-orders. Ever. At all.
This is exactly what I mean about people forgetting about the problems of Rifts relatively small launch, and the aftermath of their solution of just opening more servers... It'll be F2P in a few months.
I would have let everyone in at once, and let most of them sit in queues. That would have let the maximum ammount of people in, and when they log off, other people can get on. It all works out.
I want to remind you that this approach will not help with server queues. I have seen an employee talk about queues, and they expect they will come.
Rift had almost empty servers as well when there were queues, but ofcourse people want to play their main characters. Rift gave you a choice, it's not right to complain to them if you didn't want to change server.
If you have not been invited to the SWTOR early access you have no choice.
First of all, you had that choice when you CHOSE not to pre order early.
Second, it really does help with server queues. It will help them to determine the appropriate number of servers to bring online without going overboard. It will also help to let people get out of the starter worlds to that the populations are more spread out. The Hero Engine can literally handle hundreds of thousands of people on the same "server" (which is actually a cluster of servers), as long as those people are spread out.
From a technical standpoint, they're handling this very well. And despite the vocal minority who can't take responsibility for CHOOSING not to pre order early, in the long run this was also the best choice from a PR standpoint. They won't have to deal with the outcry and doomsayers when servers have to be merged.