A FEW FACTS FOR EVERYONE.

[Shadowreeper]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZF0cvJhQgA

[SantiagoDraco]

1. Nobody at SE spends 100% of their time working on FFXIV. People need sleep, bathroom breaks, etc.
2. Even if somebody is on top of the situation, it takes time to do anything.
3. Their silence doesn't mean that the community reps aren't here.
4. The reason the JP servers work and the NA/EU servers don't is that there are simply too many people trying to access the NA/EU servers.
5. NA/EU servers are not played strictly by NA/EU players, and the JP are not played strictly by Japanese people.
6. Paying whatever you payed so far does not entitle you to being overly ignorant and malicious.
7. Unless you are there or have recently been there, you have no idea what is going on at SE.
8. SE is a business - their goal is to make money.

Bonus. The English player-base is vastly the most vocal player-base on the forums.

I know you will all take what you want from this.

Let me sum this up for you.

1. SE could easily calculate the worst case (ie most users) attempting to login over early access since they KNOW how many pre-orders are in. Therefore it is their failing for not adequately preparing.
2. It is OUR time (we are talking 100s of thousands of customers) time being wasted, days of time, attempting to login to the game.
3. Early access is not early access if you can't play.
4. This is not SE's first MMO (although it's turning out to be as bad a launch as v1) and there have been PLENTY of other MMO launches they could have learned from.
5. They vastly over-prepared for Japan and underprepared for NA/EU - translation they really screwed up and much of it can be attributed to cultural pride causing the failure.

Long and short of it is that they have greatly inconvenienced their customer base and have a great measure of making up to do. And the continued failures does not bode well for the future unless they break out of the SE box and hire experts who really know how to build infrastructure.

They failed and the fact that it's their success that made it happen only makes the whole thing worse because it COULD have been planned for.

[Bibimbap]

Ok, this seems very simple to me. If we have X number of servers and Y number of players, and each server can only hold Y number of people, then we should have X number of servers. I don't see what is so difficult about this. Just add more servers, and release the ridiculous restriction on legacy players so we can transfer freely and play with our friends.

I don't think any of us understand what's going on. It does seem that simple, especially since they know at the very least how many people already bought it.

[Vahaxtaru]

I know what's going on... We're all being secretly filmed for a Candid Camera type show, that's what's going on. If that isn't it, then the man is probably trying to hold me down b doing this.

[MrMordio]

I don't think any of us understand what's going on. It does seem that simple, especially since they know at the very least how many people already bought it.

The problem is that Square Enix is full of super geniuses. They can solve super-complex server bugs, but when presented with simple problems like this, they keep getting the answer wrong because they're over thinking it.

[Zeila]

1. Nobody at SE spends 100% of their time working on FFXIV. People need sleep, bathroom breaks, etc.
2. Even if somebody is on top of the situation, it takes time to do anything.
3. Their silence doesn't mean that the community reps aren't here.
4. The reason the JP servers work and the NA/EU servers don't is that there are simply too many people trying to access the NA/EU servers.
5. NA/EU servers are not played strictly by NA/EU players, and the JP are not played strictly by Japanese people.
6. Paying whatever you payed so far does not entitle you to being overly ignorant and malicious.
7. Unless you are there or have recently been there, you have no idea what is going on at SE.
8. SE is a business - their goal is to make money.

Bonus. The English player-base is vastly the most vocal player-base on the forums.

I know you will all take what you want from this.

Fun little list you have.

Still doesn't change the fact that SE hasn't done much to keep people informed on a product they've paid for.

[Design]

Japanese people aren't Koreans, they don't work 24/7 to fix things because they know you bought the game already and accepted their user policy. Smart marketing.

"5. INTERRUPTION TO THE SERVICE

From time to time, in order to provide our customers with the optimal gaming experience, it is necessary for SQUARE ENIX to conduct routine maintenance on the computers and/or servers that support the Game. During these times, access to the Game or support services may be interrupted. Access may also be temporarily suspended in whole or in part, without notice, due to emergency repairs, fire, flood, explosion, war, strike, embargo, governmental action or failure to act, the act of any civil or military authority, act of God, or by any other causes beyond SQUARE ENIX’s control, or any other reasons for which SQUARE ENIX, in its sole discretion, deems that temporary suspension is necessary. You acknowledge that disruptions of service may occur and waive any causes of action against SQUARE ENIX in any way arising from or related to any such disruptions of service."

[Iroukan]

1. Actually this is an MMO launch, they actually are expected to and rightfully so. That's the job they signed up for not some minimum wage job as a cashier. Welcome to salary position were the hours are as demanded.
2. They aren't doing anything to solve it though. No idle kicks, no queue to login, artifically keeping servers populations low.
3. True but there is no reason that when they do update us that it's the same message rehashed over and over to the new error. On top of the fact they said 4 times they found a fix and have made it worse.
4. The reason is because they stupidly put NA/EU servers together and not in either country. On top of the fact that we have twice the player base of Japan yet we have less servers.
6. It entitles us to a solution quickly or appropiate communication and not lies that they "fixed" the problem when once again, 4 times now its just gotten worse.
7. Same goes to you buddy.
8. And they are going to crash and burn a this rate with bad press and lose their NA audience, which is far greater than Japan.

I know you will all take what you want from this.*

OMG shut up

[Deadchef]

When will everyone learn that it isn't a bug. It is over crowded servers. I am glad that is the biggest problem they are having. Simple fix but time consuming. This isn't a day fix this is a 2-3 day fix at best. And for those that are saying why is JP up all the time with no issues. Simple they have more servers. Why do they have more servers very simple because SE is trying to support japan *cough* tsunami *cough*. What thought out of the box how dare I.

[Zalareyn]

I posted indisputable facts; you posted 2 at the most.

That's really funny, because it's really all a matter of perspective here... Now, keep in mind I'm not saying either is right or wrong as the point here is moot.

However, having worked in IT and being a student in software engineering, I can tell you the reality of the market: IF you have a product being rolled out, you want to have the least possible bugs, and nothing that can negatively impact the company. To do so, you're gonna have your employees working 48 hours a day just to make sure that the product gets rolled out; it's a FACT of the job market buddy. And yes, I did say 48 hours because your bosses will be trying to create time for you if they can.

Now, that aside; I'm not saying they're doing nothing. Hell, if anything, I'm guessing the Dev team are doing either of the following: Panicking like theres no tommorow while to fix this or waiting on directives/reports as to what the hell is causing this.

Regardless, they ARE going to extreme lengths to NOT communicate with us beyond Twitter/Those very rare updates and that looks very bad. Now, in marketing, it's not so much as to what you do as it is how you look, the impression you give off. Beyond this simple fact is that these very issues showed up in open beta (a.k.a. phase 4) and they went ahead with the schedule for the EA and launch (or so it seems) without taking time to consider the actual impact this might have. They have proven that they were not able to anticipate the number of users for the EA and have offered a very poor solution: lock out anywhere between 25 to 60% of the NA/EU pop.

/end rant