Am I being realistic?

[DerringerSwyft]

Basically SE has WAY more players than they expected for EA and probably launch too.

A company that doesn't know how much of it's own product it sold? That sounds trustworthy.

[Daku_Naito]

I don't care how many issues come up, I understand that will happen. I want regular COMMUNICATION from SE that they are working to address things, that, "here's what's really going on," that, "here is a general time frame for when we should have this fixed" -- the complete lack of (or very tiny "general issue") communication we're getting says, as someone else put, "we don't care, you don't matter" more or less.

Exactly, drivel and PR BS is not what anyone wants. I want up to date communication with the truth. If you found the problem, tell us what it is so we feel better, rather than just wandering. People would take to that and feel better that they have communication, it would make up for so much more than they think.

[Dragonmyst]

As someone who works in IT, I can wholeheartedly say that I do understand how servers and capacity works.

I can also say that any competent IT Department would look at their Peak Concurrent User Numbers during the Phase 4 beta was, and when the problems started, and gear up their server clusters for that many people at a very bare minimum, and in my opinion, at least give themselves 25% of extra capacity for overhead.

While I don't think 1 week between Open Beta/Stress Test, and Early Access Launch is enough time, they certainly should have been installing more hardware into the data centers to increase the capacity to handle the load.

The simple fact that the servers are being limited to stabilize the platform means they definitely do not have enough hardware to handle it, and the software portion is poorly optimized to handle the load as well.

They need to pick up the football and try again... and here we are, less than 48 hours from Official Launch, While I really love the game they crafted, and want it to succeed, the Hardware side of things seems to be managed by a horribly inept team... they need to get some of the JP datacenter guys to help with this... right now.

[Twiggando]

I understand how servers work. Most than likely the issue they're having doesn't have to do with server infrastructure (CPU/memory/NIC), but rather some kind of database tuning or connecting pooling. Most large servers these days are virtual machines to which you can dynamically allocate additional resources. If a server is CPU constrained you can dynamically allocate additional CPUs to that server in realtime. In my professional experience with applications of this nature I'd lay odds on this being some kind of database query tuning issue.

True. If you ever made a "private server" of a game just to experience with it then you'll know just how and why these database issues keep popping up. Due to it be a worldwide/huge database they just can't risk restarting but rather try to make realtime changes.

[Takusai]

No opinions? That's a first.

It is always hard to determine what the masses would do. It seems that Square-Enix (SE) was caught off guard with the FFXIV: ARR variant. I am pretty sure, SE did not realize how their updated game design was going to bring a surge of players. With other MMOs are heading to a decline in subscriptions, FFXIV: ARR just might have arrived at an unexpected opportune time. It does not mean that FFXIV: ARR will take a good hold in the MMORPG world. It does mean that there are lot of excitement for this game. Excitement comes with an influx of anxious players. With what seems to be greater than expected amount of players, SE failed to recognize this as a potential outcome in their planning stage. I guess SE had to be skeptical with FFXIV:ARR after FFXIV v1.0 was so poorly received in the gaming community. With such pleasant surprise, SE has been trying to put out fires before it spreads out of control. So I agree with SuperDevin insight to what SE might be dealing with. One does hope all the necessary technical and engineering support personal are working feverishly around the clock to get the game ready to be enjoyed by the masses on the 27th. I know, I am totally loving how this game is. Does NOT feel like an MMO. Feels like I am playing a video game. It is such a relaxing feeling to be able to enjoy this game without stress.

[Nialle]

23 hours since their last update tweet is not cool, I don't care what the issue is.

[Aomee]

Exactly, drivel and PR BS is not what anyone wants. I want up to date communication with the truth. If you found the problem, tell us what it is so we feel better, rather than just wandering. People would take to that and feel better that they have communication, it would make up for so much more than they think.

I would also like detailed updates! :c This is like sitting in a hospital ER. Theyre "getting to your case" but they don't tell you what your case is. @_@ I need a doctor to explain please!

[FornaxLacerta]

It is always hard to determine what the masses would do. It seems that Square-Enix (SE) was caught off guard with the FFXIV: ARR variant. I am pretty sure, SE did not realize how their updated game design was going to bring a surge of players.

Which is simply bad project management. There are many professional load testing tools that you can purchase to simulate, in real time, hundreds, thousands and even millions of users performing specific actions on your application. Want to see what it looks like when 50000 users simultaneously try to log into your server? Want to see how your game reacts when 500,000 users try to jump into a queue at the same time? They make tools for testing those very things, like HP Load Runner for instance. Just bad project management here if they're discovering infrastructure issues this late in the game.

[MJFERN]

It's not unrealistic to look at a launch and say "Even if they didn't expect this many players for EA, they had to have expected them for full launch, so why can't the servers handle it." If they can't handle EA traffic, we're going to be mightily disappointed at full launch. (And yes, I know quite well how servers and traffic and peak times are handled I work in an environment where we deal with internet traffic every day, retailers call it peak planning. Even though you don't EXPECT peak every day, you have to be prepared for it).

Like I've seen many others posting, I've pretty much given up the hope that I'm going to really get to enjoy EA. I'd like to be able to enjoy the game beyond that, but right now, I have been kicked out of queues where I have been given a number 14 times. The other hundred plus attempts at getting in game have resulted in the simple '1017' error.

Shoddy. Very shoddy.

[banned]

same issues occurred during phase 4. they had a week (maybe not enough time, but thats their own fault) to plan for this. needed more server capacity, should have expected an even heavier influx of players for early access.

it just always amazes me how mmo developers, after nigh 15 years and dozens (hundreds?) of mmo releases, still have these same problems again and again. no one is starting from scratch, look at the problems others have had and learn from it ffs.