If the people in charge of the servers / networking / whatever had even a single clue what they were doing, can you imagine how wildly popular this game might have been? Clearly the demand was there, since this MMO released with 0 competition in a huge time window and the game itself is quite good.
How many tens of thousands of sales, refunds, and subscribers do you think they have lost already to Error 1017 and lack of even the most basic features from 15 years ago like a working queue system and afk timers?
I feel very sorry for the people who put their effort into making this a great game, only for it to be ruined by a few people who have no idea what they are doing and so poorly planned this mess of a launch and server fiasco. Unfortunately many people who haven't been able to play for over a week now with absolutely no improvement won't ever give this game another try, even if all the problems are fixed next week. And anyone curious about the game right now is seeing nothing but hundreds of posts and thousands of people complaining that they can't play because the servers don't work, and haven't worked since phase 4.
Can You Imagine How Successful This Could Have Been?
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09-02-2013, 11:23 AMStarBrightCan You Imagine How Successful This Could Have Been?
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09-02-2013, 11:25 AMPancake_Hero
What I don't understand is how did they not see this coming?
I mean, CE edition games sold out virtually instantly and they should have been able to track pre-sales / pre-orders for the game.
If you sell 400k boxes and your servers can only handle 175k players... you're going to have a bad time. -
09-02-2013, 11:29 AMAcrimoniaIf it wasn't for the fact that I didn't want to be grossly out-leveled by friends, I wouldn't be in this boat. I would have waited until it stabilized. Granted, I'm also like to be grossly out leveled anyway because I'm not on the proper server... Eh? What can you do? Whine, rant and complain!Quote:
And anyone curious about the game right now is seeing nothing but hundreds of posts and thousands of people complaining that they can't play because the servers don't work, and haven't worked since phase 4.
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09-02-2013, 11:29 AMArminus
They could probably entice some of those losses into changing their mind if they offered a less insulting form of compensation for this whole mess. They're basically offering NO compensation whatsoever and that's gonna cause those who have given up to not change their minds. Look at it this way. When they give their 7 day "compensation" on the 4th, that will bring everyone who started on the 27th of August their 1 month of trial time that comes with this game for EVERYONE who purchases it. That means that anyone purchasing the game after the servers are fixed will receive the same 1 month of trial time that all of us will have gotten at that point, except they won't have had to go through the frustration and irritation that the past week has brought about. In other words, those of us trying to play now, will have received NO compensation for that frustration, because we'll simply have what we would have already had if the servers were working from launch. 1 month of trial time. But we'll have all the frustration added onto it, without any compensation for that.
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09-02-2013, 11:30 AMvampiresupremacy
They still have that chance of being widely successful. They just have a bigger hole to climb up from now. But yeah, this launch has been a disaster.
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09-02-2013, 11:32 AMEkahalBarely any it seems, else we wouldn't have these problems. The servers are still full because the people are still there trying to play. I'm not even going to pretend like I want a refund. I just want a time machine so I can speed forward to when the congestion stops. Seriously though, I can imagine most of the complaints and threats to refund are done by kids under the age of 18.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarBright
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09-02-2013, 11:33 AMKamina33
I get what you're saying, but the game is far from dead.
Most ppl that were serious about playing this game from the onset are still hanging in there. If by the time server upgrades announced and implemented do not solve the problems, then I would lean towards a sizable chip off potential customers. Still not a complete fail though. Highly doubtful.
For every person that makes a complaint thread on here, there are many more patiently waiting until the day things are fixed. Why? Because the game is amazing. All you need is a few minutes roaming Eorzea to know it, and the fact that there are still complaint threads day after day further proves this.
Btw, this is for technical support. Your post doesn't fit this category by a long shot. Save the devs time reading actual problems instead of the same stuff that has been posted a million times over. -
09-02-2013, 11:39 AMZeblade
Like in any mmo most players never visit the forums and they been there done that. Most understand this happens. They already said they will what add more free days so who cares. For something that is so bad.. its not stopping people from playing. There are TONS of people on 24/7.
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09-02-2013, 11:41 AMKort
This was a critical time for SE. I can only imagine the amount of people who stopped in at the local game store to pick up a game for this holiday weekend and saw the big displays for this game and bought it. Only to get home and not be able to use it. All of those players were potential long term customers and because of all this hassle will never pick it up to try it again. I was one of those people for FFXIV 1.0. I bought the CE and never made it past the trial period even after they sent me about a million e-mails trying to entice me back.
I said it in another post but this effects everyone, because less players means less people to buy content later. -
09-02-2013, 11:46 AMEkahal
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09-02-2013, 11:47 AMHibashiraI'm a developer by background. It isn't really fair to just blame it on servers/networking because the entire stack works together. Software builds on top of shared services, on top of operating system, on top of servers, on top of network, on top of the entire physical infrastructure. Bad design at the software architecture level can just be easily the problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarBright
I always tell my own team, before blaming hardware, server, networking, always be sure the code actually runs well in its intended environment. Just because it compiles doesn't mean it runs. Just because it runs doesn't mean it works. Just because it works on your computer doesn't mean it runs on the server. Just because it runs on the server doesn't mean it runs well. Just because it runs well on the server when you are the only one running it doesn't mean it runs well under load. All these can easily be software problems.
None of us really have a clue what's going on. Our only hope is that Square/Sony actually does. The worst case scenario is that they still don't know, and are guessing and blaming each others. -
09-02-2013, 11:59 AMMatrinka
I honestly don't want this game to fail, I want to to succeed, as when I was able to play it, I had a ton of fun. My main issue with the game is that all the external bits and pieces away from gameplay seem obtuse and convoluted. I trust that they'll get the servers up and running smoothly in the next moth. Customer service, on the other hand, seems like its being run by two monkeys manically pushing buttons while a talented child-artist with no understanding of English writes all the text for their website. Seriously, customers who had issues registering their copies of the game seem like they're ignored. Staffers are putting in standard hours instead of working during the most critical time - launch week. As a customer, I feel frustrated by how many hoops I have to jump through to fix something that shouldn't have happened in the first place - a second service account being made. I am not an MMO player, this is the first one I've tried since back in the mid-90's. Nothing seemed clear and trying to get answers feels even less clear. Its a shame that all the programmers efforts at making a FUN game are being tossed aside by tech and support issues. Hopefully, SE will pull their heads out of their asses and fix what is broken sooner rather than later. Sure, there is the offer of 7 free days, but reading in between the lines shows that anyone with the 2-service accounts will be hosed, as our main characters are deemed inactive and therefore, ineligible for the time.
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09-02-2013, 12:12 PMKortThis has always been SE's biggest problem. They have never cared what anyone outside of the JP base wanted or needed. That is why Yoshi did all the live letter stuff. He was trying to show that SE cared what we thought. They just don't understand that saying sorry or pretending to care don't work. the old adage is correct " action speaks louder than words" and they are saying a lot of things but we don't see much action.Quote:
Customer service, on the other hand, seems like its being run by two monkeys manically pushing buttons while a talented child-artist with no understanding of English writes all the text for their website.
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09-02-2013, 12:33 PMNuseream
I would suggest free initial server transfers so that friends can play with friends as intended. Charging them after their infrastructure and planning caused this to be the case for so many would be tacky and in poor taste.
I think the above should be the minimum that Enix offers its customers that it poorly provided product for. If the do give them for free they will still likely gain comparable money due to people playing together for longer and being able to get into the game more effectively with less poor experience had on average. -
09-02-2013, 12:35 PMseebsMaybe if the devs hadn't locked forum access by character level, and locked character level by 1017, people would post in the other forums? The level restrictions are something of a disaster for the utility of the forums; they can hardly smack people for posting in the only forum they can post in, and they can't tell people to "just go level" when people can spend 12+ hours trying to log in...Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamina33
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09-02-2013, 01:16 PMKamina33So this is reason enough to post the same pointless, duplicate complaints that we've already seen countless time over?Quote:
Originally Posted by seebs
Again, this has nothing to do with technical support.