Server full -- FFXIV Released way too early?

[Ninjistix]

you bought an mmo, you should have expected the servers will be full at times

that's the dumbest thing I've read on the forums so far... have you played any other mmo's where people couldn't log into the game because the servers were "full"... no and I'm pretty sure your lying if you said anything otherwise...even non popular mmo's still build and design servers to accommodate any number of players that they hope would join their world or "just in case shit hits the fan"

[Ljonesj]

that's the dumbest thing I've read on the forums so far... have you played any other mmo's where people couldn't log into the game because the servers were "full"... no and I'm pretty sure your lying if you said anything otherwise...even non popular mmo's still build and design servers to accommodate any number of players that they hope would join their world or "just in case shit hits the fan"

Then you never played world of Warcraft i remember during the last of burning crusade right before wrath the ques and disconnects. the patches would cause problems and you would not be able to play for days on end and that still happens. then the release of an expansion the down times or issues and the amount of people in starting areas this the problem right now to many people trying to do things in the starter areas

[Zet_]

that's the dumbest thing I've read on the forums so far... have you played any other mmo's where people couldn't log into the game because the servers were "full"... no and I'm pretty sure your lying if you said anything otherwise...even non popular mmo's still build and design servers to accommodate any number of players that they hope would join their world or "just in case shit hits the fan"

I've spent $160 on this game because of SE's archaic system. Non-popular MMOs rarely experience full servers because of well, you guessed it: hardly any players!

[TooSlick]

that's the dumbest thing I've read on the forums so far... have you played any other mmo's where people couldn't log into the game because the servers were "full"... no and I'm pretty sure your lying if you said anything otherwise...even non popular mmo's still build and design servers to accommodate any number of players that they hope would join their world or "just in case shit hits the fan"

I'm sorry to say that this simply isn't true. Servers aren't designed with "any number of players" in mind. That would be terrible business. They design their servers to handle players based on expected average populations. This is how they all do it. Why? Because the goal is to have decently populated worlds.

If they make too many servers at the start, populations get spread around initially during launch and then, as players drop off or slow down their play time (which happens after launch) you get stuck with servers that feel barren. And then the complaints about empty servers start rolling in with things like "Way to screw up SE. You made too many servers and now mine is empty!".

From a practical standpoint, it's a better move to underestimate your populations than it is to overestimate because it's significantly easier to add new servers than it is to decommission existing ones.

So yes, while I agree that this launch has had it's share of headaches and annoyances for large portions of the player base, I can't fault SE for the direction they've chosen to go. They are actively trying to add additional servers and take care of the issues as they arise. Anyone who has participated in just about any other MMO launch should not be surprised that things haven't gone exactly as expected.

This doesn't make me an SE apologist. It makes me a realist who understands the both the Technical and Business nature of MMO games.