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SE.NA Botching Relaunch
neonaka
Member UncommonPosts: 779
I feel this needs to be said. Everyone can have their own opinion about this. Looking back at how Beta 4 was handled and how the pre-order early access is being handled now.
SE North America vs SE Japan, you can see a HUGE difference in how they both operate.
Beta 4 SE Japan and the Japanese server had no issues, Japanese servers didn't really ever go down and no player on the Japanese side got trampled with account issues.
Skip Forward to today.
SE Japan has zero problems with their Pre-order early access code launch but SE North America can't even get that running smooth.
I don't really care I am still going to play the game, I like it a lot, and it is worth the frustration however I should thought I would point out the differences here.
Not sure if the Japanese are just better at problem solving and technical issues than Americans or what but it would seem to be the case to me.
EDIT: thought I should add, the reason for the title was because I feel that SE had an opportunity here to really regain lost momentum from 1.0 launch. The game may have been completely transformed into something spectacular, which it was but all of these issues that seem to plague SE.NA has to be impacting the mindset of the potential players who aren't 1.0 players looking to come into the world. I mean I am a former 1.0 player, and even I am looking at this shaking my head wondering when they are going to pull their heads from their asses and get something right.
Comments
This point can't be emphasized enough! Beta is just that...a TEST! It boggles my mind how much people feel entitled to have a bug-free and perfect gaming experience during beta. There was also a thread where people were saying how mad they would be if there was a character wipe between Open Beta and Early launch. Now I get it, they said they will not wipe, but guess what, if they do that's still okay and standard operating procedures in most MMO launches.
We still have 3 days until early access begins. When/if the 24th arrives and you cannot log into the game then you can complain. Right now they still have time to fix any issues. People are getting all worked up for nothing at this point.
I think you are correct, they are trying to revive the game yet people are getting massive game-breaking issues.
I was lucky enough to not get any errors, but if I had there is a good chance I would have cancelled my pre-order out of frustration. The account system is a complete mess and they can't even get a webpage to accept codes working properly.
This game needs a smooth launch more than most since they already burned their fans once. A lot of people are going to give SE some slack because they have that 'brand new shiny MMO' glint in their eyes.
Pre-ordering has zero impact until 2am PDT August 24, 2013. When that time comes and if you are unable to play then you have EVERY right to complain. Pre-ordering has nothing to do with anything until that date. Really the only people that can be held accountable to something going wrong is Greenmangaming linking only the EU site causing NA's to accidentally register there.
Everything the OP said has been true...just don't call the relaunch a botch until it has ACTUALLY relaunched.
It was smooth for me. Pre-ordered through Amazon, got a code within a minute, entered the code, got the bonus code, entered that.
Whole thing took 5 minutes.
I heard about the contrast between the Japanese servers and forums, and the English ones.
Kind of makes you go, hmmm ...
Got to admit, the clunky account management system, complete lack of communication, and errors right and left have made me wonder if it's wise to play this game. I've never played a Final Fantasy game and know nothing about Square Enix, but my first impression isn't good so far. The game looks good though, so I guess I'll wait and see how launch goes. I had planned to pre-purchase game time for the veteran rewards. That plan is on hold.
I think the crux of everyone's concern over P4 Beta isn't that there were problems.
It's that there were large magnitude problems, ~just~ 7 days before early release.
That, coupled with the significant problems the early access codes are having. I think anyone could overlook a few web hiccups and high traffic. But it's ~just~ 4 days before early access actually starts.
It's not the fact that there were problems. It's the fact that everything is pushed right on top of the release date, and problems haven't really been seen to be fixed, that has everyone worried. If the release weren't scheduled for another month, or if they had started P4 Open Beta 4 weeks ago (along with accepting early access codes) - we'd all be saying "Yeah there are problems but they have a few weeks to get it fixed".
Instead, they just have a few hours.
A major factor in some of these issues is that when the game went to open beta, they fell victim to their own success. There was such a huge surge of people that they're server guys have been scrambling to get new servers up and everything stable, while the dev team were trying to handle the 9000 and 3100 errors. Then after the beta there was such a big surge of new consumers interested and signing up for accounts that the SE registration page isn't working so people can't create accounts so the web dev team is busy trying to fix that along with the early-access page. I can only imagine the hysteria in that office right now with every team scrambling to get everything done by the 24th.
It's no wonder then that there hasn't been much communication with the public. They're simply busy as all hell trying to get everything fixed and ready guys. So give them some space so they can work and when it comes time for early access to start, then please rage to your hearts content.
The only thing i will say needs to happen immediately is the SE registration page being fixed. I have a few friends that won't pre-order the game simply because they can't even create an account right now.
I agree with this, I do not think they fully anticipated they could be as successful during a beta as they were. This caused them to be under prepared in servers and login servers needed to sustain the weight.
I also completely understand that this was in part what they needed/wanted to find out with this test and those issues were to be expected. I do not feel we were entitled to anything special other than what we got. They seen the numbers, they now know what needs to be done server wise.
I do believe the 3012 errors or whatever was a hiccup they couldn't really afford, and I think this may have turned away a lot of potential customers due to frustration which is always a bad thing. Now if this was preventable or not I do not know. Only those working for SE know for sure, but do I think they handled it in a professional and timely manner. I do not. I feel for the sheer number of users this affected SE.NA should have been trying to move mountains to get it working. I personally know several players who didn't even get to play in the open beta due to these issues. For the entire span of the beta. That is pretty significant if you ask me when you are trying to relaunch the game after an already failed version 1.0 was behind you.
Like I said beta issues aside, we all know beta is beta. That left a sour taste in a lot of players mouths. Here we are 4 days from pre-launch, and those who are still willing to play the game were told they could enter their keys today. We are several hours now into this phase, and the website is still screwed up.
The point to my original post, is SE really can't afford these kinds of slip ups. The Japanese counterpart (I say counterpart but SE Japan is the parent) Did not and does not have these issues.
SE.NA needs to get a handle on this product and start showing it can handle and manage this project. Right now I feel as though they are about to Botch possibly the greatest comeback of an MMO in history to date.
I had no problems with pre-order, early access, beta 3 or 4. Never got a single error.
I did have a problem trying to remember my old account info from 1.0 though...but that's totally on me XD
Edit: You can tell when you're getting to be an old gamer, you forget your account information lol.
except them issue are fixed now or should be according to twitter. and the issue from open beta where a data center issue not an na square enix issue
I find the NA SQEN website to be slow and overall poorly designed. It feels archaic and wonky. All the hops between different domains is wonky.
Just creating an account with them is a pain in the backside.
The whole preorder process from them was a pain in the backside. I do a lot of online purchasing and even mom & pop e-shops have cleaner purchasing mechanisms and dramatically better communication and clarity in wtf is going on with your purchase (and money).
On top of that the issues with codes and things are just compounding the problem.
This is by far the poorest performance overall purchase experience I've ever had with MMORPGs or online purchasing in general. Very poor showing from a major company. I find myself concerned that I will get my code (at all) and applied to the correct account and that these stooges won't screw everything up in a variety of ways.
As a side note, although it sucked for those afflicted, I don't consider the login/account problems during open beta to be a really big deal. It was open beta. Stuff happens. That's why you have testing. They say they've fixed it. If the issue persists or recurs during paid playing time, that's a whole different issue. I see zero point in making a big deal about the issues during the beta period.
The only reason not being able to play in beta is a factor is because of no character wipe, and I have never liked the idea of keeping character thru any kind of beta phases simply because stuff is usually going to happen when you're testing, and in this case, a lot of people somewhat got screwed out of their chance to make some progress (yeah, we knew it might not be perfect, but since many DID get the opportunity to advance, it's kind of lame). Screwing over the majority of players who didn't have errors would be an even bigger deal - so they have to go with the path of least carnage and not wipe. If they had done the sensible thing and wipe after beta, period, there could never have been any potential for carnage.
The problems with preorder codes and the inability for their websites to handle any traffic at all from a big company that should know better and have far cleaner systems - those are real issues.
The seemingly disregard or mediocre treatment for NA/EU/western/whatever you want to call it players who are going to probably end up numbering in the 1-2m range is kind of irritating.
The game itself may be the easiest of easy mode but actually GETTING the game and getting it setup for launch day are is some hardcore hard mode - so much so that it might weed some people out before the game even begins!
Premium MMORPGs do not feature built-in cheating via cash for gold pay 2 win. PLAY to win or don't play.