Am I being realistic?

[VeriferVenti]

The problem arose because SE did not take a realistic assessment of their server requirements prior to Early Access.

First, early access is only granted to individuals who pre-ordered the game and legacy customers, so SE had a count of the number of people that their servers would have to support for this weekend.
Second, this is an issue that plagued customers during the open beta last weekend, and for it to continue after the beta testing demonstrates that SE did not take the initiative to resolve the issue. Little as I know about servers, I know that it does not take a week to acquire more servers, especially for a company with SE's resources.
Third, SE has not provided adequate communication to users regarding the issues or the steps that are being taken to resolve them. They do not need to release a detailed deployment schedule, but there should be more information available than "We are working on it. Sorry about that.", sent at two hour intervals.
Fourth, the methods through which they have attempted to resolve this by removing the queue results in placing the burden of accessing the game on the user, instead of on the company.
Fifth, the Japanese servers are up and running, and this is creating the impression of discrimination on the part of SE. This was only compounded when one of the Japanese servers, Mandragora, went down, and was restored within an hour. On the other hand, the NA/EU servers have been down for the majority of the day.

As for people complaining, I don't see any reason why people can't vent their frustration at SE in here. To be honest, I doubt anyone from SE is even reading this, so why not let people get this off of their chest?

In the end though, I find myself asking, "Is it realistic for me to expect a company to treat me with respect?" and I just don't want to come to the conclusion that the answer is "no."

[Takusai]

As for people complaining, I don't see any reason why people can't vent their frustration at SE in here. To be honest, I doubt anyone from SE is even reading this, so why not let people get this off of their chest?

I wouldn't discount that so much. They might not read every one post. I am fairly confident they are reading posts whenever they can. Forums are actually a good way to gauge what is going on in the game. Believe it or not, forum posts are usually the first notification before any server alarm goes off. We are just as important as the program codes that are designed to notify engineers of a problem.

[SuperDevin]

The problem arose because SE did not take a realistic assessment of their server requirements prior to Early Access.

First, early access is only granted to individuals who pre-ordered the game and legacy customers, so SE had a count of the number of people that their servers would have to support for this weekend.
Second, this is an issue that plagued customers during the open beta last weekend, and for it to continue after the beta testing demonstrates that SE did not take the initiative to resolve the issue. Little as I know about servers, I know that it does not take a week to acquire more servers, especially for a company with SE's resources.
Third, SE has not provided adequate communication to users regarding the issues or the steps that are being taken to resolve them. They do not need to release a detailed deployment schedule, but there should be more information available than "We are working on it. Sorry about that.", sent at two hour intervals.
Fourth, the methods through which they have attempted to resolve this by removing the queue results in placing the burden of accessing the game on the user, instead of on the company.
Fifth, the Japanese servers are up and running, and this is creating the impression of discrimination on the part of SE. This was only compounded when one of the Japanese servers, Mandragora, went down, and was restored within an hour. On the other hand, the NA/EU servers have been down for the majority of the day.

As for people complaining, I don't see any reason why people can't vent their frustration at SE in here. To be honest, I doubt anyone from SE is even reading this, so why not let people get this off of their chest?

In the end though, I find myself asking, "Is it realistic for me to expect a company to treat me with respect?" and I just don't want to come to the conclusion that the answer is "no."

Its hard to count numbers when they keep changing. I can still preorder the game at Amazon and other places and get a code.

[MJFERN]

Its hard to count numbers when they keep changing. I can still preorder the game at Amazon and other places and get a code.

That the number is likely changing every hour, or even minute is mostly irrelevant. The codes have to be redeemed. SE is the only place to redeem the code. So they know from minute to minute exactly how many people have purchased the game and are entitled to EA.

[SuperDevin]

That the number is likely changing every hour, or even minute is mostly irrelevant. The codes have to be redeemed. SE is the only place to redeem the code. So they know from minute to minute exactly how many people have purchased the game and are entitled to EA.

Yes but an influx in code redemptions does not mean I have more servers. If you tell me that you sent out a a party notification on FB and you thought 50 people were showing up and then 100 people call you saying they are on their way it doesn't make your house bigger instantly. And the code redemption is almost infinite, it can generate as many codes as it need to.

[MJFERN]

Yes but an influx in code redemptions does not mean I have more servers. If you tell me that you sent out a a party notification on FB and you thought 50 people were showing up and then 100 people call you saying they are on their way it doesn't make your house bigger instantly. And the code redemption is almost infinite, it can generate as many codes as it need to.

Actually as has already been pointed out, servers are rarely purely physical these days. They're virtual machines built of myriads of pieces of hardware, and can be allocated as needed. So the house argument is highly invalid. And the simple solution if they were getting that kind of redemption of early access codes is quite simple. Turn off code redemption. Explain why. Extend EA or add some other benefit to preorders to pacify the players getting the shaft.

But SE isn't communicating. The canned responses and obvious lies about fixes aren't communication.

[SuperDevin]

Actually as has already been pointed out, servers are rarely purely physical these days. They're virtual machines built of myriads of pieces of hardware, and can be allocated as needed. So the house argument is highly invalid. And the simple solution if they were getting that kind of redemption of early access codes is quite simple. Turn off code redemption. Explain why. Extend EA or add some other benefit to preorders to pacify the players getting the shaft.

But SE isn't communicating. The canned responses and obvious lies about fixes aren't communication.

So your saying screw other plays so that you don't get screwed?

[MJFERN]

So your saying screw other plays so that you don't get screwed?

Actually, what I'm advocating is they close EA and fix it. Not let a small percentage of the population play while the rest of us get to sit by in frustration.

[CDILLARD12]

He's not saying other players totally. What he is saying is that they should have stopped the early access redemption sooner. I mean according to the site early access ends on the 29th. How is that "early" access when the game releases on the 27th, that doesn't make sense. That should probably allowed EA redemption on the 19th and ended it on the 23rd, trust me most of the people that really wanted to play the game were paying attention and would have made sure to redeem their codes in time. I mean it sucks to have redeemed your code on Thursday expect early access, and then not even get to use it because you didn't log on earlier in the day, while someone who pre-ordered yesterday and just happened to log on before you is playing the game.