Day 2 of early access and server go down for maintenance...not a big deal to most, problem is the generation of kids that play MMOs get so whiny and frustrated because they have no clue what else to do with their day....
I mean its not that big of a deal...every major MMO has had issues on launch or EA periods...its nothing new...you think these ADD kids would have figured it out by now but they all just want to rage, talk crap about how they feel so ripped off, how the company...dropped the ball etc.
Quite pathetic that these kids are the future of our world...parents should be ashamed of themselves for raising such sorry ass human beings .
^ this.
It really really is sad however incredibly apparent in today's society.
Maybe go to the gym, hike, run, find something productive to do since maybe just maybe you anticipated this NICHE reboot of a game that has gained massive popularity in recent months to take some time for servers to become stable?
Again the common excuse, it's 2013 wahhhhhhhhhh things should be better!
SWTOR, WoW, pretty much any big named AAA MMO that had 500k+ individuals trying to access the game initially at the same time has resulted in the same process, which takes a few days to flatten out.
Um this is one of the worst launches I have been apart of.
WoW/FFXI(NA)/FFXIV(1.0)GW2/Aion/Rift/Etc
I'm sorry if you are defending SE on this you are a FANBOY plain and simple, this is so bad someone deserves to be fired. You can't treat customers this way and most certainly not if you are on a fucking REDO of the game....
Not their fault they had a 3 day open beta stress test that did not allow the full number of people to log in to stress the servers? Really? Who here did not know that was a recipe for disaster?
Not their fault they allowed too many characters to be created on a server so that when all of them tried to login they had to tell people try again later? They did limit character creation, but apparently miscalculated badly on when to implement it.
Not their fault they did not design in a auto-kick for people that leave their character logged in afk for hours - preventing people that want to actually play from logging in? This has been standard in mmo's for over 10 years.
I give them credit for creating a decent mmo with a lot of potential and Im willing to give them some time to fix stuff - but saying its not their fault is really too much.
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
Robrose89 your exactly the type of customer an mmo company wants someone living in the past and willing to accept the fact the developer screwed up with your money (pre-order they have our money). People have no right to complain during beta but this is early-access a big difference, all of us who have bought into early access were promised something SE is not delivering.
In 2013 with mmos being around for nearly 20 years, we should expect these huge mega million/billion dollar companies to get it right at release (early-access is release not beta). Consumers cut gaming companies way to much slack when it comes to unfinished buggy product. SE is no little indie company, they employ some of the top talent in the game world. I go back to 1996 with Meridian 59 however, 17 years later I do expect these big AAA companies to have their shit wired tight. They should be ready to hear the noise when they screw the pooch! Stop cutting them so much slack. I have been through very smooth launches, Rift and Lotro to name two. A smooth launch can be achieved and should be expected.
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
Robrose89 your exactly the type of customer an mmo company wants someone living in the past and willing to accept the fact the developer screwed up with your money (pre-order they have our money). People have no right to complain during beta but this is early-access a big difference, all of use who have bought into early access were promised something SE is not delivering.
In 2013 with mmos being around for nearly 20 years, we should expect these huge mega million/billion dollar companies to get it right at release (early-access is release not beta). Consumers cut gaming companies way to much slack when it comes to unfinished buggy product. SE is no little indie company, they employ some of the top talent in the game world. I go back to 1996 with Meridian 59 however, 17 years later I do expect these big AAA companies to have their shit wired tight. They should be ready to hear the noise when they screw the pooch! Stop cutting them so much slack. I have been through very smooth launches, Rift and Lotro to name two. A smooth launch can be achieved and should be expected.
You're right but it doesn't matter. People blindly follow brands and that is what final fantasy is. Even 1.0 which was one of the worst AAA MMOs i've played had people defending it on forums. In fact it wasn't much different than this forum is today.
I played 1.0, I do not remember all these login issues. I do remember a really crappy game but not all the server issues they are having now. It sure was a crappy game though wasn't it?
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
Robrose89 your exactly the type of customer an mmo company wants someone living in the past and willing to accept the fact the developer screwed up with your money (pre-order they have our money). People have no right to complain during beta but this is early-access a big difference, all of us who have bought into early access were promised something SE is not delivering.
In 2013 with mmos being around for nearly 20 years, we should expect these huge mega million/billion dollar companies to get it right at release (early-access is release not beta). Consumers cut gaming companies way to much slack when it comes to unfinished buggy product. SE is no little indie company, they employ some of the top talent in the game world. I go back to 1996 with Meridian 59 however, 17 years later I do expect these big AAA companies to have their shit wired tight. They should be ready to hear the noise when they screw the pooch! Stop cutting them so much slack. I have been through very smooth launches, Rift and Lotro to name two. A smooth launch can be achieved and should be expected.
You are wrong sir.
We did NOT "buy into" early access. We purchased the game. And that's what we have. The early-access is a bonus. And the primary reason that early access exists is to ensure that the actual game launch goes smoothly, which still could happen. SE has the rest of today and tommorrow to get their sh!t together.
When you talk about these triple A companies like you are. You are assuming that they have infinite resources. Which they really don't. And sure a smooth launch can happen, and we don't even know if it will yet, the game isn't even launched yet. It's still in early access, they are still stress testing everything, seems like it's working too.
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
Robrose89 your exactly the type of customer an mmo company wants someone living in the past and willing to accept the fact the developer screwed up with your money (pre-order they have our money). People have no right to complain during beta but this is early-access a big difference, all of us who have bought into early access were promised something SE is not delivering.
In 2013 with mmos being around for nearly 20 years, we should expect these huge mega million/billion dollar companies to get it right at release (early-access is release not beta). Consumers cut gaming companies way to much slack when it comes to unfinished buggy product. SE is no little indie company, they employ some of the top talent in the game world. I go back to 1996 with Meridian 59 however, 17 years later I do expect these big AAA companies to have their shit wired tight. They should be ready to hear the noise when they screw the pooch! Stop cutting them so much slack. I have been through very smooth launches, Rift and Lotro to name two. A smooth launch can be achieved and should be expected.
You are wrong sir.
We did NOT "buy into" early access. We purchased the game. And that's what we have. The early-access is a bonus. And the primary reason that early access exists is to ensure that the actual game launch goes smoothly, which still could happen. SE has the rest of today and tommorrow to get their sh!t together.
When you talk about these triple A companies like you are. You are assuming that they have infinite resources. Which they really don't. And sure a smooth launch can happen, and we don't even know if it will yet, the game isn't even launched yet. It's still in early access, they are still stress testing everything, seems like it's working too.
Wrong sir? We most certainly bought the early access it was not a gift and SE knows it. Early access was part of SE marketing to get people to buy the game months ago. It is no bonus. The primary reason early access exists is to get money in the bank (and SE really needs it!), beta tests are to ensure the game launches smoothly. These triple A companies deal in millions and billions of dollars sometimes they win sometimes they lose that is their problem not ours, we are the customers. This is a business not a charity event! Get out of fantasyland and demand your rights as a customer that has paid money. Have you even been in the game"s beta tests and are you a pre-order legacy player? Sounds like you are not or you would not pat SE on the head with a "job well done".
Yashiro Fukushima, one of the founders of Enix, and currently the largest shareholder in Square Enix. His net worth is estimated at $660 million. Now SE had an early year loss of about 130 million dollars but they project a year end profit of $34.4 million to $59 million. Yes SE has had it rough and likes to blame the western market as being exclusionary. Their sale for Tomb Raider we not to good. They have a lot riding on FFXIV and they are getting off to a bad start.
I wanted to show you the numbers so your realize your comment about AAA companies not having money is silly. They may screw it up and lose a lot but they know what they are getting into. With great risk comes great rewards. I base my comments on my experience in the game industry. I have friends who are in the game industry with Blizzard, Epic, and Ubisoft as well as friends in the game reporting business. I attend E3, Tokyo Game Show, Pax I say this to simply show that I am not just a gamer or a hobbyist. I follow the game industry and have for over 30 years. I am not some noob who is just pissed I can not get the early access I paid for.
I think they had no idea that this many people would come back, let alone pre order!! i new from the start when they said over 1.1 million peeps Preordered and it would be on PS3 plus all the people who had 1.0 that didnt throw it away, they would try again, i knew it would be hell for them over there
so this is to be expected, and lets not talk about time zones . its noon here so u know what time it is over there.
Are you kidding ? It's not SE's fault ?
How is mistaking the number of people you would have play your game..not their fault ? Their are specific people who's entire job is to make decisions on market futures..
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
But this game was already released long time ago. That was the time, when they could misscalculate about the servers, but now, when the game is released second time it is ridiculous for them to have more problems, than games have first time around. Especially with all those beta phases that aren't done in such high frequency in other productions.
Of course! It's our own fault for actually buying the game knowing that this all would happen! Every body says we should have expected this so why did anyone even preorder the game? Will we never learn!
I love the game but lets face it SE dropped the ball big time for NA/EU players, we have had poopy communication from them and hardly any interaction compared to our JP counterparts. HEH, if not for the people in these forums here I would never have known how to get around the error 3 problem when entering my 18 digit code.
The JP servers have not had our issues mainly because they got ball right with how many would be playing over there but again they failed with NA/EU in both getting codes out properly and in estimating how many would be playing during EA, which makes me think the same will happen when it goes live compounding the problem.
Seriously I am starting to feel like they think NA/EU are "third rate citizens" , heh I live 1 hour and 20 mins away from the servers here in Canada and can't log in, funny!
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
The point is that it just is not a fail, a drop the ball it is a down right rip off. We pay for the early access, as someone stated it's part of a package deal of the pre-order. So servers going down, lots of fixes, codes not going out, can not get a hold of anyone at SE about getting one. WTH! DigitalRiver has been down most of the day, their site goes down, I've been waiting for my registration and early access. Every game has some bumps, this is not a bump, a few cracks in the plaster if you will.
Of course it's not their fault. They're only failing to manage the 2nd installment of their own game. Who wouldn't guessed people would actually be playing it this time around. And really, how could we expect a group of professionals who've been making games for decades to actually plan anything out, or code their server infrastructure in an intelligent manner. It's just unheard of!
So many haters... I can't help but laugh when I see people complain about beta/early access/launch issues when an MMO releases... I have never played or heard of an MMO releasing with a PERFECT launch. Near-perfect, maybe, but not flawless. To put it bluntly, some people need to just STFU and let the bugs and issues be worked now, because they are always bound to happen. SMH
And I can't help but rage when I see people defending game developers for NOT fixing beta issues during BETA.
Early access is RELEASE.
These are not garage indie developers, these are mega corporations with hundreds if not thousand of developers and multi-millions of dollar budgets.
For them to have pre-order numbers and not to be able to do something as simple and critical as providing enough hardware to support those pre-order numbers is ludicrous.
What happens in 1d 10hours when the players who already own the game start trying to log on?
I wouldn't go so far as to say it isn't their fault, because it is. SE obviously underestimated the amount of people playing or didn't fully stress test their server hardware.
The real question is if a little bit of downtime / overcrowding merits the reaction some people have been having. As long as SE is working to remedy the problem, I can wait.
Rift also had to merge tons of servers together shortly after launch. It's a double edged sword. I think SE is trying to avoid server merges down the road as much as possible.
When you try to pour a gallon of water into a straw, you either have to let it trickle in or expect a lot of it will wash over the sides. The straw is a network. The biggest mistake I can see is not giving enough time after the fix during OB to fully stress-test the servers. Until they had tested them with primetime North America -- which, since it ended at noon EST, they didn't -- it was still a largely unknown quality.
Also, doing hourly login increases time zone by time zone might have helped early on, but I can't really say. What I -can- say is that none of this surprises me in the slightest, Yoshi and team are working hard on fixing it, and patience really is a virtue.
When they said OB would start on the 17th I thought it was a joke. Now everyone is seeing why that was so damn crazy. You had game-breaking bugs pop up in OB that hadn't in phase 3...and you gave yourself 5 days to fix it.
Now the same problems are still in EA, and they're being compounded. Release should have been pushed to September and this should be extended Open Beta right now.
SWTOR and Rift showed what lengthy OBs can do to fix major problems with server stress. FFXIV is showing what happens when you rush your product out just because the hype train is good.
Originally posted by Alberel The whole purpose of pre-orders is for them to gauge exactly how many people intend to play... the retailers provide them with the numbers. So yeah, unless everyone suddenly pre-ordered in the last week they had a very good idea of how many would be joining for early access.
My take on things...
The typical turn around time from order - delivery - install and final deployment for servers is about 6-8 weeks. So that means that the Game worlds / capacity today was spec'ed with the information Square Enix had back in mid June...
Notice that Japan has around 25 Game worlds as many as all the USA & EU combined. I bet the numbers back in June showed limited UAS/EQ appeal.
Also back in June they saw HUGE preorders in Japan but they were still in closed Beta 3 here in the USA/EU with a limited number of players to stress test.
The Open Beta / Beta 4 was just last week and it crushed the servers and caused a ton of problem, but there was no time to drastically expand you infrastructure.
I bet when the USA/EU preorder numbers come out you will see a HUGE spike in purchases in late July and especially last week after open Beta. They were caught by surprise and victim of their own success even in the face of all the talk about subscription MMOs being dead and tradition MMOs going extinct.
Considering they ran out of preorder codes on Friday I bet there are more people trying to play than their marketing department ever dreamed of.
So now SE has a problem, you know that you don't have enough hardware and you have to make the call if you delay launch or hope things will hold together long enough until you can deploy more horsepower. So...It looks like SE kept the launch on track and it could be a bumpy ride for the next couple weeks.
I hear you on the 6 week turnaround, but honestly in this age where virtualization and hybrid cloud data centers are king there is no reason to get caught in the situation you described. Compute and storage is so cheap these days that it is hard to fathom a company with as much riding on the success of one game as SE does they would short sheet it on hardware. That said, it looks like that's what happened here.
I completely agree on the spike in pre-orders. Everyone in my guild pre-ordered in the last 7 days, 75% (26) in the past 72 hours.
I am not sure who to blame,i am not so sure Yoshi is actually in charge,just the guy that has to face the public.
I ,mentioned it last week,no developer should announce a release date until AFTER Beta and if everything is working properly.
The problem is not Yoshi he is not the server /networking expert,he has to rely on those people.However he and Square in general knew of the problems and only addressed the problem after Beta.This should have had another week of testing before releasing the game.
Now they will have to wait until the offices are open Monday Afternoon my time "EST"to ask the big shots for more servers.I believe 100% Yoshi does not and did not have the power to stop the release,i believe he is merely a puppet.I would fire all the big shots,they have been ruining this company for several years now,i have seen it with open eyes.
None the less,they like Yoshi and respect his ability ,so i believe it will get worked out.Probably will take until Wednesday before everyone is happy.I am just glad i decided to wait and continue playing FFXI,this sort of stuff would really piss me off and with closed offices,i wouldn't be able to talk to anyone except swear at the screen .
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I am not sure who to blame,i am not so sure Yoshi is actually in charge,just the guy that has to face the public.
I ,mentioned it last week,no developer should announce a release date until AFTER Beta and if everything is working properly.
The problem is not Yoshi he is not the server /networking expert,he has to rely on those people.However he and Square in general knew of the problems and only addressed the problem after Beta.This should have had another week of testing before releasing the game.
Now they will have to wait until the offices are open Monday Afternoon my time "EST"to ask the big shots for more servers.I believe 100% Yoshi does not and did not have the power to stop the release,i believe he is merely a puppet.I would fire all the big shots,they have been ruining this company for several years now,i have seen it with open eyes.
None the less,they like Yoshi and respect his ability ,so i believe it will get worked out.Probably will take until Wednesday before everyone is happy.I am just glad i decided to wait and continue playing FFXI,this sort of stuff would really piss me off and with closed offices,i wouldn't be able to talk to anyone except swear at the screen .
Of course its not SE fault. I mean such a small company, this is the first time they've released an MMO . Who would expect them to have enough server power for all the pre orders.
Of course one sure way to make room on your servers is to frustrate your customers right from the start, not that I will rage quit over this. but its bad business and lots of people will probably just move on.
Comments
^ this.
It really really is sad however incredibly apparent in today's society.
Maybe go to the gym, hike, run, find something productive to do since maybe just maybe you anticipated this NICHE reboot of a game that has gained massive popularity in recent months to take some time for servers to become stable?
Again the common excuse, it's 2013 wahhhhhhhhhh things should be better!
SWTOR, WoW, pretty much any big named AAA MMO that had 500k+ individuals trying to access the game initially at the same time has resulted in the same process, which takes a few days to flatten out.
Um this is one of the worst launches I have been apart of.
WoW/FFXI(NA)/FFXIV(1.0)GW2/Aion/Rift/Etc
I'm sorry if you are defending SE on this you are a FANBOY plain and simple, this is so bad someone deserves to be fired. You can't treat customers this way and most certainly not if you are on a fucking REDO of the game....
Not their fault they had a 3 day open beta stress test that did not allow the full number of people to log in to stress the servers? Really? Who here did not know that was a recipe for disaster?
Not their fault they allowed too many characters to be created on a server so that when all of them tried to login they had to tell people try again later? They did limit character creation, but apparently miscalculated badly on when to implement it.
Not their fault they did not design in a auto-kick for people that leave their character logged in afk for hours - preventing people that want to actually play from logging in? This has been standard in mmo's for over 10 years.
I give them credit for creating a decent mmo with a lot of potential and Im willing to give them some time to fix stuff - but saying its not their fault is really too much.
Robrose89 your exactly the type of customer an mmo company wants someone living in the past and willing to accept the fact the developer screwed up with your money (pre-order they have our money). People have no right to complain during beta but this is early-access a big difference, all of us who have bought into early access were promised something SE is not delivering.
In 2013 with mmos being around for nearly 20 years, we should expect these huge mega million/billion dollar companies to get it right at release (early-access is release not beta). Consumers cut gaming companies way to much slack when it comes to unfinished buggy product. SE is no little indie company, they employ some of the top talent in the game world. I go back to 1996 with Meridian 59 however, 17 years later I do expect these big AAA companies to have their shit wired tight. They should be ready to hear the noise when they screw the pooch! Stop cutting them so much slack. I have been through very smooth launches, Rift and Lotro to name two. A smooth launch can be achieved and should be expected.
I played 1.0, I do not remember all these login issues. I do remember a really crappy game but not all the server issues they are having now. It sure was a crappy game though wasn't it?
You are wrong sir.
We did NOT "buy into" early access. We purchased the game. And that's what we have. The early-access is a bonus. And the primary reason that early access exists is to ensure that the actual game launch goes smoothly, which still could happen. SE has the rest of today and tommorrow to get their sh!t together.
When you talk about these triple A companies like you are. You are assuming that they have infinite resources. Which they really don't. And sure a smooth launch can happen, and we don't even know if it will yet, the game isn't even launched yet. It's still in early access, they are still stress testing everything, seems like it's working too.
Wrong sir? We most certainly bought the early access it was not a gift and SE knows it. Early access was part of SE marketing to get people to buy the game months ago. It is no bonus. The primary reason early access exists is to get money in the bank (and SE really needs it!), beta tests are to ensure the game launches smoothly. These triple A companies deal in millions and billions of dollars sometimes they win sometimes they lose that is their problem not ours, we are the customers. This is a business not a charity event! Get out of fantasyland and demand your rights as a customer that has paid money. Have you even been in the game"s beta tests and are you a pre-order legacy player? Sounds like you are not or you would not pat SE on the head with a "job well done".
Yashiro Fukushima, one of the founders of Enix, and currently the largest shareholder in Square Enix. His net worth is estimated at $660 million. Now SE had an early year loss of about 130 million dollars but they project a year end profit of $34.4 million to $59 million. Yes SE has had it rough and likes to blame the western market as being exclusionary. Their sale for Tomb Raider we not to good. They have a lot riding on FFXIV and they are getting off to a bad start.
I wanted to show you the numbers so your realize your comment about AAA companies not having money is silly. They may screw it up and lose a lot but they know what they are getting into. With great risk comes great rewards. I base my comments on my experience in the game industry. I have friends who are in the game industry with Blizzard, Epic, and Ubisoft as well as friends in the game reporting business. I attend E3, Tokyo Game Show, Pax I say this to simply show that I am not just a gamer or a hobbyist. I follow the game industry and have for over 30 years. I am not some noob who is just pissed I can not get the early access I paid for.
Are you kidding ? It's not SE's fault ?
How is mistaking the number of people you would have play your game..not their fault ? Their are specific people who's entire job is to make decisions on market futures..
arr is an all new game nothing is the same really
I love the game but lets face it SE dropped the ball big time for NA/EU players, we have had poopy communication from them and hardly any interaction compared to our JP counterparts. HEH, if not for the people in these forums here I would never have known how to get around the error 3 problem when entering my 18 digit code.
The JP servers have not had our issues mainly because they got ball right with how many would be playing over there but again they failed with NA/EU in both getting codes out properly and in estimating how many would be playing during EA, which makes me think the same will happen when it goes live compounding the problem.
Seriously I am starting to feel like they think NA/EU are "third rate citizens" , heh I live 1 hour and 20 mins away from the servers here in Canada and can't log in, funny!
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
And I can't help but rage when I see people defending game developers for NOT fixing beta issues during BETA.
Early access is RELEASE.
These are not garage indie developers, these are mega corporations with hundreds if not thousand of developers and multi-millions of dollar budgets.
For them to have pre-order numbers and not to be able to do something as simple and critical as providing enough hardware to support those pre-order numbers is ludicrous.
What happens in 1d 10hours when the players who already own the game start trying to log on?
I wouldn't go so far as to say it isn't their fault, because it is. SE obviously underestimated the amount of people playing or didn't fully stress test their server hardware.
The real question is if a little bit of downtime / overcrowding merits the reaction some people have been having. As long as SE is working to remedy the problem, I can wait.
When you try to pour a gallon of water into a straw, you either have to let it trickle in or expect a lot of it will wash over the sides. The straw is a network. The biggest mistake I can see is not giving enough time after the fix during OB to fully stress-test the servers. Until they had tested them with primetime North America -- which, since it ended at noon EST, they didn't -- it was still a largely unknown quality.
Also, doing hourly login increases time zone by time zone might have helped early on, but I can't really say. What I -can- say is that none of this surprises me in the slightest, Yoshi and team are working hard on fixing it, and patience really is a virtue.
When they said OB would start on the 17th I thought it was a joke. Now everyone is seeing why that was so damn crazy. You had game-breaking bugs pop up in OB that hadn't in phase 3...and you gave yourself 5 days to fix it.
Now the same problems are still in EA, and they're being compounded. Release should have been pushed to September and this should be extended Open Beta right now.
SWTOR and Rift showed what lengthy OBs can do to fix major problems with server stress. FFXIV is showing what happens when you rush your product out just because the hype train is good.
I hear you on the 6 week turnaround, but honestly in this age where virtualization and hybrid cloud data centers are king there is no reason to get caught in the situation you described. Compute and storage is so cheap these days that it is hard to fathom a company with as much riding on the success of one game as SE does they would short sheet it on hardware. That said, it looks like that's what happened here.
I completely agree on the spike in pre-orders. Everyone in my guild pre-ordered in the last 7 days, 75% (26) in the past 72 hours.
I am not sure who to blame,i am not so sure Yoshi is actually in charge,just the guy that has to face the public.
I ,mentioned it last week,no developer should announce a release date until AFTER Beta and if everything is working properly.
The problem is not Yoshi he is not the server /networking expert,he has to rely on those people.However he and Square in general knew of the problems and only addressed the problem after Beta.This should have had another week of testing before releasing the game.
Now they will have to wait until the offices are open Monday Afternoon my time "EST"to ask the big shots for more servers.I believe 100% Yoshi does not and did not have the power to stop the release,i believe he is merely a puppet.I would fire all the big shots,they have been ruining this company for several years now,i have seen it with open eyes.
None the less,they like Yoshi and respect his ability ,so i believe it will get worked out.Probably will take until Wednesday before everyone is happy.I am just glad i decided to wait and continue playing FFXI,this sort of stuff would really piss me off and with closed offices,i wouldn't be able to talk to anyone except swear at the screen
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Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
It's about 9.40 am monday in Japan now, just fyi!
Of course its not SE fault. I mean such a small company, this is the first time they've released an MMO . Who would expect them to have enough server power for all the pre orders.
Of course one sure way to make room on your servers is to frustrate your customers right from the start, not that I will rage quit over this. but its bad business and lots of people will probably just move on.