I regret buying your product.

[Issac]

I think the outrage is totally justified. We're 8 days into this game's release (I'm counting EA as well) and I still had to spam the 0 key on my numpad for approximately 4 hours today to be able to finally play. It didn't kill me nor am I super-mad-bro but it wasn't how I exactly envisioned to spend some of my Saturday afternoon.

It also speaks volume about the game industry (and the MMO industry in particular) when an honest and due apology is provided and considered as an act unprecedented in nature or completely unique for an MMO. That's baffling: we shouldn't applaud Yoshida's communication with us as a gift but rather seriously ask why we are still being treated as second-hand customers who are often abused, lied to, ignored, and marginalized (we really take a lot of shit as gamers that consumers of other products would never subject themselves to).

SE bears the majority of the responsibility in this "two-way relationship" with their customers: this is the revival of a dead game that is largely reliant on word-of-mouth marketing to generate continuous sales beyond the introduction of the software to the market. As it currently stands, the relationship has been quite rocky since the end of OB. For one, 7 free days is not much in terms of compensation. How about giving everyone the possibility to modify their character's appearance (the thing you get for signing-up for a month). We can really throw a few more goodwill gestures towards us but 7-free days and paying $9.99 instead of $12.99 isn't exactly going to make ripples in people's memories -- the publicity would have been amazing and well worth the short-term drop in revenue.

Moreover, why are you guys so lenient of SE's accounting, sales, and marketing departments? Maybe you haven't had experience with the dealings and inner-workings of these departments IRL, but it's very clear that one department (or all of them collectively) dropped the ball in terms of accurately forecasting the demand for their product. That means inexperience in dealing with their American/EU counterparts in terms of suppliers; poor communication with the companies they license their games to. I think this is a problem of SE as a whole and not necessiraly focused on the FFXIV team so I might be unfair. One element, however, that I was not very happy to learn was the fact that the surge of interest and purchases in NA/EU came as a surprise to Yoshi & SE.

Last but not least, the consumer's trust in regards to the team that has been out-sourced to maintain and resolve these server-side technical issues is basically non-existent. We were assured and promised that Errors 90000 and 3012 were fixed and done away but they're still here.

SE has a lot to prove right now and I think outbursts of anger and frustration should be met with understanding rather than ridicule, insults, and authoritarian statements advocating people to delete their accounts and quit the game.

No. If it honestly took you four hours, then you were not constantly trying. Every 15-30 minutes SE opens the floodgates from my experience. If you sit there and try and try again, the longest it should possibly take you is 60 minutes if you are EXTREMELY unlucky. But four? You were not genuinely trying, my friend.

And if you were, and if I am wrong, then that is damn unlucky. However, people tend to exaggerate and make the situation sound far worse when they are upset. Said exaggeration is done so to put a more emergent light on the situation so that people understand and empathize.

While I agree that SE is taking a bit too long to get things corrected, they are in fact doing what needs to be done. No amount of spam in bitching and whining will do anything positive towards the resolution of the issue. They know. Be patient.

In all honesty, regarding the people trying to make the "buy a car" analogy, you are way off base. Yes, you bought a product. But you also purchased a product in which you knew was only an initial investment. Your investment will be returned as you enjoy the game for weeks, or years; however finicky you may or may not be, however interested you are. Knowing that the game itself was just the initial purchase before a subscription, why the hell do you bring up this analogy? You know that whether it be 2 weeks or 2 years, you still paid the initial price to install the game and get an account. How about an analogy that makes sense? Here:

If your cable company expects you to own your modem and you purchase it to receive their service (internet connectivity,) and they have a 3-day outage, what do they compensate you for?

When you found the answer to that question, realize that's exactly what SE is doing. Even though they are not the first nor the last MMO launch to have a rocky start. Think in the long term. If this issue goes on for months or happens intermittently so, then I will grant that it's an outrage. However, popularity in the game is higher than their forecasts. You can blame it on whatever incompetence of theirs that you want (Preorder sale ignorance, for example,) but unless you have personal experience in this business and can cite how you avoided all possible traps, stop speaking like you know what caused the problem. It can be any combination of reasons, and regardless of said reasons, SE is doing everything they can to resolve it.

[Revolutions]

SE is doing everything they can to resolve it.

I wished I could believe.

But losing faith rapidly in them.

Closed beta was fine. But OB was a cluster ...., and it's continue into the live game.

I disliked how the beta forums turn into a rant troll forum. But people now have right to be upset, since we all are paying customers now (price buying game, even if no one has paid monthly fee yet).