SE - Please do something about your service

[Oceanz]

Dear SE,
Please invest some time into better planning and customer support.
We really shouldn't have to wait 6+ hours to start the download process for something we are paying for.

Considering that there are Free to play games out there with much better service support, this is something you really need to look into.

You knew the date you were releasing this update. You could have taken many actions to avoid the inconvenience currently being experienced by your player base, your fans, your paying customers.

You either chose not to, which says you don't care.
Did not foresee these problems, despite 10 years of experience with the very same title, the same player base, and the same repetitive problems.

Either way, I don't think there's an excuse in 2013 for such service.

[Illusion]

I agree, its absolutely shameful it hasn't improved one bit in so many years.

[Krashport]

Kinda like letting their customers Register the Windows® PC (Digital Download) for $29.99 that only works with the base game installed. Why even give an option to install it to a new account is beyond me!, a new account wouldn't have the base game installed in the 1st place... One thing I foresee they want members to have to buy it twice for those that didn't read the fine print!

[Genoxd]

Dear SE,
Please invest some time into better planning and customer support.
We really shouldn't have to wait 6+ hours to start the download process for something we are paying for.

Considering that there are Free to play games out there with much better service support, this is something you really need to look into.

You knew the date you were releasing this update. You could have taken many actions to avoid the inconvenience currently being experienced by your player base, your fans, your paying customers.

You either chose not to, which says you don't care.
Did not foresee these problems, despite 10 years of experience with the very same title, the same player base, and the same repetitive problems.

Either way, I don't think there's an excuse in 2013 for such service.


I agree, its absolutely shameful it hasn't improved one bit in so many years.

I love how you both decided this should be your first post.

[Oceanz]

I love how you both decided this should be your first post.

They forced my hand. I usually don't care and am pretty passive. My expectations of SE were/are never high. But this is a new low, and I couldn't bite my tongue any longer.

[Rie]

I understand that there's major congestion, but taking 30 mins just to sign onto playonline is just dumb. 4hrs later, I've downloaded 300 files and been dc'd/interrupted about 30 times.

[Jaall]

I've only got to the checking stage, had to go through that 3 times just to get disconnected and back to hitting retry over and over for another hour just to get the same thing

[Oceanz]

I've only got to the checking stage, had to go through that 3 times just to get disconnected and back to hitting retry over and over for another hour just to get the same thing

sounds like SE is conducting a cruel experiment and we are the test subjects, or they just really don't care.

By the way, their forum terms of use state clearly that they can ban us for expressing these kind of views.
So take care everyone. I wouldn't put it past them.

[Obysuca]

Been at it since around 8am. Furthest I've got was downloading update, but it doesn't even get to 1% before booting me >< Only got that far twice, the rest of the time, it doesn't even get to preparing update before it boots me

[fernando]

7 1/2 hours at 77% downloaded so far.

[OnimaruShiva2003]

Unfortunately i took the day and 2morrow off in hopes of SE having their stuff together...and im coming back from a 5yr break ; ; ive been playing for the last 8 weeks but didnt think we would encounter "this" on a major Update/Expansion after 10 years

[wildsprite]

I'm finding it utter ridiculous that I cant even connect to POL viewer....

[Drakox]

Thank you SE for 10 years of failaga

[Bahamut]

Dont feel bad, I'm on steam and have to wait longer then 8 hours, maybe weeks to play SoA. Just come back in a day or two and then download it, patience is a virtue they say, just hard on expansion day.

[bigdave]

man i been to the sign in and check updates 3 times and still at 0 % and been trying since update came up so i guess its wait tell thursday and be bored as hell maybe see gi joe 2 instead

[Manux]

Well the killing thing is that they still haven't made a side program to download while playing the game they knew the updates will hit on 27/03/13.

[Sircurtis]

Look... its about time we just realize that SE only cares about RMT actions as they spend all their waking moments thinking how to combat them. Why would they care about the players.

Example:


Gathering activities in the Seekers of Adoulin expansion areas are governed by a new rule.
Continuing to gather resources in the same area will build a character's fatigue, much like fishing, but will also gradually increase the likelihood of gathering better materials.
* Moving to a new area will reset both effects.
* Fatigue recovers over time.

Its totally understood that SE is taking all our customer support reps and managment and moving them to RMT actions.
I bet thats all the staff is now. One person on the internet answering customer support and 50,000 RMT action developers.

P.S. SE just lost anouther 6 players for the expantion. We are not planning on buying it till the deep six the NEGITIVE RMT ACTIONS AGAINST THE PLAYERS!!!! Good Job SE.

[Rie]

Look... its about time we just realize that SE only cares about RMT actions as they spend all their waking moments thinking how to combat them. Why would they care about the players.

Example:


Its totally understood that SE is taking all our customer support reps and managment and moving them to RMT actions.
I bet thats all the staff is now. One person on the internet answering customer support and 50,000 RMT action developers.

P.S. SE just lost anouther 6 players for the expantion. We are not planning on buying it till the deep six the NEGITIVE RMT ACTIONS AGAINST THE PLAYERS!!!! Good Job SE.


I have no idea what you just said.

[Sircurtis]

SE needs to sell to WoW at least they got a clue!

[Phafi]

.........?

[Oceanz]

SE Problem Solving Process:

Input: Problem -> Reported? YES! -> Have to check it out? YES -> Effecting game play? YES -> Needs Technical review? YES-> Confirmed by tech team? YES ->Confirmed by Dev team? YES-> Costs Money to fix? YES -> Forward to community reps "LOL, GL"


Input: Problem -> Reported? YES! -> Have to check it out? YES -> Effecting game play? YES -> Needs Technical review? YES-> Confirmed by tech team? YES ->Confirmed by Dev team? YES-> Costs Money to fix? NO -> Forward to community reps "Tell them we will look into it and do your ninja vanishing act"

[Illusion]

I love how you both decided this should be your first post.

Back in the day when I started they didn't even have a forum so hey yeah they did improve somewhat, apologies for me being so negative on my "first" post.

[Bahamut]

We are the Steam Engine of MMO's, chugga lugga lugga, Choooo choooo!

I think I can, I know I can, I think I can, I know we can! CHOOOO CHOOOOO!

(as your download hits 99%)

I think I can, I know I can, I know I can, I know I can! WOOOOO WOOOOO!

100%

<forums become silent again>

[wildsprite]

We are the Steam Engine of MMO's, chugga lugga lugga, Choooo choooo!

I think I can, I know I can, I think I can, I know we can! CHOOOO CHOOOOO!

(as your download hits 99%)

I think I can, I know I can, I know I can, I know I can! WOOOOO WOOOOO!

100%

<forums become silent again>

okay now I cant stop giggling, thanks XD

[Plasticleg]

Account has been "under investigation" for an account rollback in January...status was updated at the end of February and was updated again last Friday. All I can get from SE is, "it's under investigation in Japan."

Bullocks with this customer service.

TBH, this shit happens with every MMO during any major expansion or patch.

[Horadrim]

I understand that there's major congestion, but taking 30 mins just to sign onto playonline is just dumb. 4hrs later, I've downloaded 300 files and been dc'd/interrupted about 30 times.

I gave up, personally. I'm expecting to not be able to get on until the weekend...

It amazes me that I game that likely barely has half of its peak-years population still has these kinds of problems. There's no way in hell THAT many people came back because of Seekers.



TBH, this shit happens with every MMO during any major expansion or patch.

It does, but I remember a least being able to update Wings of the Goddess -- I got it the day it came out. Now, years later, after the game has purportedly lost a huge chunk of players you're telling me I'm dealing with congestion thats so much worse that I can't even stay connected for longer than 5 minutes? That's crazy to me. I've been playing this game for 10 years and this seems like one of the worst congestion issues.

Maybe back in my younger days I was better as picking times to update?

[Volkai]

Remember to reach deeeep back into your memories (unless you started after 2008) and remember how it was when WotG came out. Or ToAU. Or CoP. Or when the game originally came out.


This shit is normal when half of everyone that plays is 1) patching a new version update; plus 2) installing a new Expansion, plus 3) patching their freshly installed expansion.


If you started after WotG came out... welcome to the Old Normal. It's like a New Normal, except in reverse.

[Kincard]

Yes, it's always been like this, that doesn't make it any less annoying and I can't think of a single MMO that makes the client interface as horrible as XI makes theirs. XIV's was pretty terrible too but at least I could just turn it on and let it run.

If they can't fix the way the POL patcher works, they should at least make the downloader re-attempt without someone need to check the damn window every 15 minutes and clicking retry. Some of us have things to do. If congestion is the concern then just put a cooldown on retries like 5 minutes or something. I want to be able to turn on the patcher and go to sleep or go to work/school without me coming back and having it getting 0% done because they think having every single file checked before its sent is somehow is good idea. This isn't that complicated and it shouldn't be this much of a hassle to patch the game.

[katiekat]

how much gil you want to bet the game is down by tomoro for e maint?

[Horadrim]

how much gil you want to bet the game is down by tomoro for e maint?

I don't think it'll be *that* bad, but meh.

[Nezha]

Best of all when you get past 5 hrs of download, game registration, and installation, Adoulin server still isn't live.... Obviously there was no point in payin the extra money to have the expansion arrive on the 26th since it looks like it won't be up until the 28th... More waiting...

[katiekat]

28th is for gmt wich is in like in like just under 3hrs from now

[Vold]

We will continue to investigate and conduct all necessary operations to fully resolve this matter.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.They have been saying this for ten years. They've had ten years to investigate and conduct all necessary operations to fully resolve this matter....that happens every single version update. At some point that PR line becomes a Goliath slap in the face to customers. That line was just reached on this day, March 27 of the year 2013.

We all know what the problem is and you're not going to spend money to fix it. Don't treat us like 5 year olds by giving us false hope. It's bad enough that it's false hope. It's even worse when we know enough about the situation and have to hear from you about your valiant efforts to solve the problem like we're little children who don't know any better. We just roll our eyes at you treating us like we don't know what the problem is :rolleyes:

You won't improve the FFXI version update experience for us because it would cost you a few dozen thousand more dollars every year in bandwidth and server costs. Admit it, and let there be understanding and bliss between business and customer... at least if you don't count alot of feedback calling you cheap when other MMOs spend the money to ensure customers can play the service they pay for on update day.

[Jaall]

But if they upgrade the servers they wont be able to pour FFXI money into other games! We're in the wrong for expecting SE to just use FFXI money on FFXI.... It's only fair for them to abandon people who play FFXI because SE have other games to make so that they can make more money. Massive sarcasm in case anyone missed it....

[Alhanelem]

You would kind of think that given the game isn't as big as it was several years ago that the congestion would never get quite this severe anymore. I guess this is good news in a way as it means a lot of people may have reactivated. Still it does demonstrate what a piece of crap Playonline was, is, and will apparently continue to be.

Thankfully its only a temporary issue, but it doesn't make it less frustrating.

[Yrusama]

I understand that there's major congestion, but taking 30 mins just to sign onto playonline is just dumb. 4hrs later, I've downloaded 300 files and been dc'd/interrupted about 30 times.

Spent about 30 minutes on this. I managed to get through the file check twice, but haven't downloaded a single file. As much as I love the game, I have to admit SE is not putting forth enough effort to make the download clients work.

[kallika]

I'm guessing there was no need to pre-order the digital download weeks in advance...

[shintorist]

When i logged in at 1:15 pm pdt my server only had 197 people listed for all areas.... Kind of sad.

[Oakrest]

They should at least have incremental downloading working so that if you do d/c while updating you don't have to start all over again. I actually thought they did, but I've now downloaded patch.txt and 26.dat over a hundred times... let's check the files again I guess :(

[Horadrim]

You would kind of think that given the game isn't as big as it was several years ago that the congestion would never get quite this severe anymore. I guess this is good news in a way as it means a lot of people may have reactivated. Still it does demonstrate what a piece of crap Playonline was, is, and will apparently continue to be.

Thankfully its only a temporary issue, but it doesn't make it less frustrating.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Anyway. Two words for people. Manual Update.

I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'...

[Prrsha]

This is nothing compared to the congestion that happened when ToAU came out. Took a week for them to get everything right. A single day is nothing new when it comes to an expansion.

Still... it is annoying.

There is no need for a petition or anything like that. Give it a day and it will pass. You will look back at this and hardly remember it. I hardly do with the other expansions. If you want something to complain about, there are more pressing matters like balance and gameplay that need addressing or are more petition worthy.

[Alhanelem]

Exactly what I was thinking.

Anyway. Two words for people. Manual Update.

I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'...

If you're one of those people struggling just to get it to check the version, it doesn't help much.

[Red_Mage]

Dear SE,
Please invest some time into better planning and customer support.
We really shouldn't have to wait 6+ hours to start the download process for something we are paying for.

Considering that there are Free to play games out there with much better service support, this is something you really need to look into.

You knew the date you were releasing this update. You could have taken many actions to avoid the inconvenience currently being experienced by your player base, your fans, your paying customers.

You either chose not to, which says you don't care.
Did not foresee these problems, despite 10 years of experience with the very same title, the same player base, and the same repetitive problems.

Either way, I don't think there's an excuse in 2013 for such service.

You have to understand the congestion and the fact that XI getting a new expansion and this will be bringing back a lot of old players to come try the game again. With that said you also have the servers in Japan and all the people around the world who bought the game is trying to download it at the same time. Way more leechers and only their servers are seeding. As you have said it has always been slow don't expect to even be able to play the game on the first day maybe even second while their is so much stress on the servers etc.

[Malphius]

They can have anyone mirror the patch for a day. SE's full of it. Like others have said, they have been giving us the same lines and excuses for 10 years. Have Amazon host the patch for a day. It took me about 1 minute to download the expansion. That's service.

[kallika]

so why pre-preorder a digital download if you have to wait just as long as everyone else to play the content or download it?

[RatixFarrence]

This happens on most game servers during an expansion update. I'm not surprised about this at all. Keep trying everyone.

[Oakrest]

Loophole / Exploit =/= Fix.

A fix would remedy the problem for everyone instantaneously,.

Sounds like you've never changed a tire before. It's not gonna come served on a silver plate - or be "instantaneous" - but it's still a fix. Being 'instantaneous and for everyone' is not implied with any sort of fix. Whatever gets you down the road in my books!

I understand what you're saying, but the alternative is to wait 7 hours of constant hand holding in the download screen - it's ridiculous.

[thinktank909]

Please change the update system in the game to the FF14 or even World of Warcraft styled updater. Be efficient on network resources and keep customers happy.

[Prrsha]

It's the old PlayOnline viewer that holds everything back... it is over 10 years old. It has worked the same way it has always worked. I don't see anything changing until they do away with PlayOnline, which they are gradually doing but at a very slow rate. Keep in mind, this game was meant to run on PS2, Xbox and PCs. World of Warcraft runs on the PC and FFXIV on the PS3/PC.

I don't know if PlayOnline is needed for the game to work on PS2s or not. If this is the case, then this would be their reasoning in being slow to update their interface.

Also this game was meant to run on a 56k modem... and update on one too.

10 years is a long time and I can't even imagine what the source code for FFXI looks. Maybe like some sort of spaghetti dinner held together by duct tape. At least the servers have been updated over time.

I think the problem is less with SE's service (at least this time) and more with the merger of old technology with new. To SE's credit, they have kept it running for this long, which is more then I can say for software that is 10 years past its prime. They amaze me by still doing so much with so little.

[Vaudrabaud]

Ok is anyone else on xbox hell waiting?? I started like 8:30 AM EST, now its 7:00 PM and it says files remaining 335/3388 time remaining 01:14 and up and down on the seconds.. DO i hit cancel? because it hasn't moved since my last marriage. This is freaking crazy that we have to put up with this nonsense, and why do you give ffxiv a new update at the same time?? anyone else on xbox waiting this long or what??

[Kirito_Wind]

Ok is anyone else on xbox hell waiting?? I started like 8:30 AM EST, now its 7:00 PM and it says files remaining 335/3388 time remaining 01:14 and up and down on the seconds.. DO i hit cancel? because it hasn't moved since my last marriage. This is freaking crazy that we have to put up with this nonsense, and why do you give ffxiv a new update at the same time?? anyone else on xbox waiting this long or what??

ffxiv didn't get a new update...

[Crusader81]

You guys actually got it to work? mine still won't start.

Anyone else remember the 10hr download of 2005?

I finally went to bed and the next day it finished in a few mins

[Kirito_Wind]

You guys actually got it to work? mine still won't start.

Anyone else remember the 10hr download of 2005?

I finally went to bed and the next day it finished in a few mins

Try that, that is how I got it to work
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/31478-So-how-s-everyone-s-update-status?p=411933&viewfull=1#post411933

[Crusader81]

I've retried it about 100 times and it started once but then ended.

I'm VERY familiar with this problem on XI, it happens every single popular update and it's simply because they can't handle the amount of people.

[Crusader81]

It has nothing to do with the size of the patch.

You can log off the game, come back tomorrow night, and it'll finish downloading in about 5 mins or less.

[Harle]

It has nothing to do with the size of the patch.

You can log off the game, come back tomorrow night, and it'll finish downloading in about 5 mins or less.

Yep, it took me less time to download, install and update the entirety of FFXI: UCAE, than it did to do this one update.

I'm sure playonline has a cap on how many users can concurrently connect to the update server, and it's probably no where near as high as it should be.

[gregan]

you ppl are even lucky u get to start the download at all.. the stupid 3rd party thing www.findmyorder.com wont let me begin the seekers.exe says i have tried too many times. ive sent about 10 emails since 6am this morning and i cannot even begin the process of getting into seekers. i give up

[Anasuke]

I cannot even get online on Playonline lol! :P

[Olor]

I have to agree. Sitting here waiting still for the game to be patched right now. It's unacceptable. Yes, I had to work till 5 pm PST but... it is now 8:30 pm. There is what, 1 GB of new data to download? This could be a lot better. I knew it would be bad but still, I am very disappointed. Some of my friends are in Adoulin already and I am stuck waiting for this ultra slow download.

[Olor]

I don't understand why you didn't let players download the patch over the last few days. All of the stuff added has already been dat mined at this point, so all delaying did was increase congestion for the update.

[Areayea]

well just feel glad it's not like it used to be X.X, esp when CoP was released, and every update after... EVERY SINGLE TIME we got this damn error message for like 12~36 hours, it's primarily because they cut down on servers... and this expansion pack brought back a lot of players... soooooo welcome to the world of waiting, go into the PoL chat function if you get bored XD that's what I used to do

[Prrsha]

Just be glad they haven't unlocked the new content yet. People that are updating and logging in, are just logging on to an "expansionless" world. My guess SE won't cut the ribbon to the expansion area until the servers are stable again to be fair to the rest of the playerbase who can't log in yet.

[Areayea]

Just be glad they haven't unlocked the new content yet. People that are updating and logging in, are just logging on to an "expansionless" world. My guess SE won't cut the ribbon to the expansion area until the servers are stable again to be fair to the rest of the playerbase who can't log in yet.

:O Prrsha You're back O.O WB I MISSSEDDDD YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

[Prrsha]

Servers are up and fine now. 2 hr download time. That is normal considering how many files it contains.

[Prrsha]

:O Prrsha You're back O.O WB I MISSSEDDDD YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep. :3 Hellkat is back as well. Stragglers from MithraPride and Emerald Arcanum are forming a new retro shell. Should be fun.

[Anasuke]

OI, SE, I still cannot get to log on playonline properly, your job is not over yet, come on, move your brains and fix that shit, I don't plan on paying a long time without being able to play FFXI, now hurry up. WE make YOU live, without US you SE are nothing so make it sound like you at least care for us by making things REALLY better cause got news, they're NOT.

[Yinnyth]

well just feel glad it's not like it used to be X.X, esp when CoP was released, and every update after... EVERY SINGLE TIME we got this damn error message for like 12~36 hours, it's primarily because they cut down on servers... and this expansion pack brought back a lot of players... soooooo welcome to the world of waiting, go into the PoL chat function if you get bored XD that's what I used to do

The worst was during the FFXI DDOS attacks.

[katiekat]

idk the string of 10-20 hr e maints after aby were pretty bad to lol

[Volkai]

You know, that massive DDOS attack by Cyberbunker against Spamhaus that was (is?) threatening to destabilize the internet and has been causing slowdowns across the web ( http://blog.cloudflare.com/the-ddos-that-almost-broke-the-internet ) probably hasn't been helping this any.

[bigdave]

its pretty sad Oceanz got a warning for putting this thread up