Recruit A Friend - Character Creation Restrictions

I managed to recruit a friend today. He used the code and subscribed. Got you some sales S-E, you should thank me.

Except of course he can't play because Sargatanas is closed to new characters. Brilliant.

About a month ago, it took three days before char creation opened and I could make an alt for my daughter to play on. How long will it take now, when you have two active promotions (Recruit and Trial) swelling the population?

Can I suggest that you consider that new players who want to join high population servers (such as Sargatanas) and have a Recruitment Code from a player on that server are given priority over brand new players and trial accounts?

Or perhaps a waiting list that a player can join for a full server, create a character on a low-popn server and then get a free and automatic world transfer as soon as space becomes available.

At the moment, that's one new player at least who's had a crap first night not being able to play the game he's just bought and subscribed to on my recommendation. If he can't get in before tomorrow evening, it'll be really annoying.

And yes, I'm aware the server status is reviewed every few hours; that doesn't really help if you're out at work during the day.

This! Exactly this! What's the point in having a 'Recruit a Friend!' program if I can't recruit them to the server on which I play? This is absolutely stupid and needs to be fixed. Either you let recruitment trump character creation restrictions or you drop character creation restrictions entirely.

I had one friend who lost the entirety of their free month of game time while they tried and tried to catch Sargatanas open for new characters. It's ridiculous.

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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Perfectly valid point. To be honest I needed to vent; that's what these forums are FOR, right? ;)

I just wish there was precedent. For instance a buffer zone of 1% server pop space where the only new characters allowed on were through this recruitment thing.

What a conflict of interest. LOL.

Well done SE !!

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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Pretty sure even in XI a world pass allowed you to bypass the restrictions on overpopulated servers.
When a promotion like recruit a friend comes along, making sure the recruiter and recruited are allowed to play together should take priority.

As of right now, the best way I can think of avoiding the restrictions is to have your friend create his character either late at night or early in the morning - I had to wait until about 11 PM PST to make my alt on Behemoth. Yes, it sucks having to wait those hours when you guys want to play together, but at least it shows the game's still alive and well.

Giving people who register through the Recruit a Friend system priority wouldn't be such a bad idea either.

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Originally Posted by gamesmart

As of right now, the best way I can think of avoiding the restrictions is to have your friend create his character either late at night or early in the morning - I had to wait until about 11 PM PST to make my alt on Behemoth. Yes, it sucks having to wait those hours when you guys want to play together, but at least it shows the game's still alive and well.

Giving people who register through the Recruit a Friend system priority wouldn't be such a bad idea either.

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Pretty much. Almost all US players we play with on Behemoth had issues creating their characters during US prime time. Whereas not a single Oceanic player ran into any issues during our prime time.

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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Pretty sure a new player would prefer a queue to not being able to do anything at all...

Most MMOs don't lock character creation at all and instead offer free transfers away from that server to encourage the population to disperse.

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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Eh honestly they should offer a "world pass" for recruit a friend, it's a bit shortsighted of SE to offer this recruitment option and then fail to guarantee said player from joining same server as their friend, they did the same exact thing with release because only a certain amount of players actually had an opportunity to pick a server to start on where freshly created players had to get lucky or start elsewhere if they wanted to play.

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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But it's not overpopulated. Either that or I'm severely and completely misunderstanding how they determine when to do this. I've seen the server be a ghost town late late late at night, yet character creation is closed.

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Originally Posted by saeedaisspecial

Pretty sure even in XI a world pass allowed you to bypass the restrictions on overpopulated servers.
When a promotion like recruit a friend comes along, making sure the recruiter and recruited are allowed to play together should take priority.

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Now, letting you move to a less busy server with your friend would be much better. As I said a 'free pass' just makes the issue worse on the server.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

Pretty sure a new player would prefer a queue to not being able to do anything at all...

Most MMOs don't lock character creation at all and instead offer free transfers away from that server to encourage the population to disperse.

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Judging by the massive QQ we had during launch I doubt most new players would tolerate any queue. Most new players quit before they finish the starter zone so waiting 30 mins is unlikely. Sad but true.

Sorry to stray off topic a bit. My guess would be no. But does anyone know if we can use the "recruit a friend" to bring someone back to the game? My buddy has an account but quit playing a few months back. It would be cool to recruit him back to the game.

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Originally Posted by Mjollnir

...have a Recruitment Code from a player on that server are given priority over brand new players and trial accounts?...

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+1
And I would like to suggest the player with your code will be added to your friend list automatically upon first logon.

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Originally Posted by Mrfox0707

Sorry to stray off topic a bit. My guess would be no. But does anyone know if we can use the "recruit a friend" to bring someone back to the game? My buddy has an account but quit playing a few months back. It would be cool to recruit him back to the game.

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If they have not bought any time passed their 30 day free trial, then yes they will have the option to use the code. However, if they have bought time passed that, then no. I've already tried that option with both my daughter and husband account and both don't have the option to do it. Others have reported on reddit that with accounts that were only used for the first 30 days could use the code.

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Originally Posted by Cylla

If they have not bought any time passed their 30 day free trial, then yes they will have the option to use the code. However, if they have bought time passed that, then no. I've already tried that option with both my daughter and husband account and both don't have the option to do it. Others have reported on reddit that with accounts that were only used for the first 30 days could use the code.

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I can also personally verify this to be correct. My second service account in my main S-E account (which I bought for my wife to play on AND SHE NEVER DID) only ran for the 30 days you got with the game. My friend was able to send me a code to apply to that service account. Now if I ever reactivate it for 90 days, she'll get her camelbo...

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

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If they're overpopulated, why even run a recruitment program to begin with? Once again SE sees $.$ over logic. I guess they didn't really think this through. But then i wonder, are they noticing a decline in population? First a "free weekend" and now this?

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Originally Posted by DeceptionsWrath

If they're overpopulated, why even run a recruitment program to begin with? Once again SE sees $.$ over logic. I guess they didn't really think this through. But then i wonder, are they noticing a decline in population? First a "free weekend" and now this?

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They've had a free weekend before. Its called marketing.

is there any word on how long this campaign will last? anyone?

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Originally Posted by BLaCKnBLu3B3RRY

is there any word on how long this campaign will last? anyone?

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The Recruit A Friend page says that recruitment codes are valid for 120 days, so I don't see the campaign ending anytime soon.

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Originally Posted by Cylla

If they have not bought any time passed their 30 day free trial, then yes they will have the option to use the code. However, if they have bought time passed that, then no. I've already tried that option with both my daughter and husband account and both don't have the option to do it. Others have reported on reddit that with accounts that were only used for the first 30 days could use the code.

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Cool, thanks so much for you info and you as well Mjollnir.

Its 6:30am I just looked all worlds are open, just choose a better time to join

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Originally Posted by DeceptionsWrath

If they're overpopulated, why even run a recruitment program to begin with? Once again SE sees $.$ over logic. I guess they didn't really think this through. But then i wonder, are they noticing a decline in population? First a "free weekend" and now this?

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Not all servers are locked/full, mainly legacy servers. They need to pry people from legacy servers because if not you'll get empty servers and then everyone clustered in legacy ones causing queues and possibly lag.

It's been almost a year so the population has probably stabilised. MMOs have an amazing amount of churn. People try it, maybe for months and then stop playing for various reasons. Some play for five minutes and never play again. Some come back during a major patch. You have to recruit new players to replace those that leave or have a break. The constant subscriber is unlikely to be the majority of the player base. They've had weekends on every major content release. All these promos are needed to keep a healthy population.

Do you even know how character restriction works? He just needs to try in a better time, when the server has less people logged in.

An option to help with character creation would be to reinstate the auto afk logout again. Personally I did not mind it, but considering how much people complained about it I don't think its likely to come back. I agree that if you a recruit a friend they should get priority for your server. Sadly, I already recruited all my gamer friends when ARR came out. :(

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Originally Posted by ObeiKinstar

Its 6:30am I just looked all worlds are open, just choose a better time to join

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6:30am in what time zone? It's not 6:30am all over the world, you know.

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Originally Posted by Saccharin

Not all servers are locked/full, mainly legacy servers. They need to pry people from legacy servers because if not you'll get empty servers and then everyone clustered in legacy ones causing queues and possibly lag.

It's been almost a year so the population has probably stabilised. MMOs have an amazing amount of churn. People try it, maybe for months and then stop playing for various reasons. Some play for five minutes and never play again. Some come back during a major patch. You have to recruit new players to replace those that leave or have a break. The constant subscriber is unlikely to be the majority of the player base. They've had weekends on every major content release. All these promos are needed to keep a healthy population.

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90% of my FC on Sargatanas gave up and left because of the lack of new player influx. Some 25 people (with all of their characters - some had the full 8) packed up and moved away. I doubt this is unique. It's almost as if they'd prefer it if the Legacy servers went away.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

6:30am in what time zone? It's not 6:30am all over the world, you know.

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CDT (central daylight time) everytime i check the world status in the mornings before work they are always open

Awww, I was hoping to recruit my girlfriend on valentine's day. Even if I did buy her the game early it's unlikely she will be able to get on my server (Balmung) in time. I have a veteran friend who's been trying to start a new toon on Balmung and he's been trying for a month and given up.

It's so frustrating after I got onto Balmung so easily a year ago completely oblivious to population issues that would later prevent me from playing with my friends and I can't transfer without abandoning friends I made on Balmung