Subscription consumption while being unable to play

[Floppyjo]

The wisdom that comes with age. I purposefully resubbed for 30 days prior to the world release date, knowing from other MMO's how releases can sometimes go. I see this was the wise decision. My subscription ends tomorrow. It will have to stay that way until the capacity is increased.

[Cardhwion]

8700 people in Queue last evening. Couldn't play. Day before the same. Yep, I am fairly new to the game and I am getting frustrated with days of not playing. When the long maintenance came, I was still fairly positive, that they would use the time to make sure their launch went smoothly. But since launch I have been unable to play.

[Cardhwion]

The wisdom that comes with age. I purposefully resubbed for 30 days prior to the world release date, knowing from other MMO's how releases can sometimes go. I see this was the wise decision. My subscription ends tomorrow. It will have to stay that way until the capacity is increased.

I have been with a number of MMO launches, WOW, SWTOR, ESO to name some and while many where chaotic and "never play on patch day" is the general wisdom, not being able to play for days on end was rarely the case. Second or Third maintenance slots to address problems yes, but unable to play for days? Nope. Even now, in the early morning there is a queue on the servers. One SWTOR start screwed two servers over, but one could migrate to another and was once again able to play. So to me this is not understandable at all.

[Communion]

I honestly don't think I'll be able to play for weeks. It's a dead game to me right now. Might just have to wait until sometime in mid-January as I cannot just start the MSQ and each subsequent time be greeted with ungodly queues to continue.

[TankYoos]

Been trying to log in for the last 5 hours. For a good 30 min i couldn't even get IN the queue. I'd get 2002 error before i even got to the character screen. Got a 2002 error when i was at 28 in the queue. Didn't save my spot. I was just number 2 in the queue like 10 min ago. Got up to get some water for my play session, came back with a 2002 error. Didn't save my spot. NUMBER 2!

This is almost as bad as the current housing system.

[Fallen_Esper]

One of the things I'm curious about is:

Are Free Trial players part of the log-in queue as all players? While I know subscription players are priority, does anyone know if both Free Trial and Subscription-based players are in the same queue line?

Not that I'm against anyone playing free, but is Square's system able to sort out who has a subscription and who doesn't? Because with the longest line I've found myself in (4,167)- latest to date for me over the past 2 days and if that's the case then Square was seriously unprepared for this congestion and it happened back in July 2021 (source posted below) so much so that the game had to be taken off websites for sale due to congestion issues- meaning they've had at least 6 months of awareness of something that would need to be addressed by Endwalker's release date.

https://www.ign.com/articles/final-f...-sales-stopped

Edited: Nevermind. Answered my own question:

"When a login queue is in place, players on the full version of the game will be prioritized for logging in. Free Trial characters will be able to log in after the login queue has been cleared. This allows us to prioritize our paying customers and will mean longer wait times for Free Trial users, but we would like to ask for your understanding on this matter."

Source: https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...0e73ebb986a6ee

[Floppyjo]

I have been with a number of MMO launches, WOW, SWTOR, ESO to name some and while many where chaotic and "never play on patch day" is the general wisdom, not being able to play for days on end was rarely the case. Second or Third maintenance slots to address problems yes, but unable to play for days? Nope. Even now, in the early morning there is a queue on the servers. One SWTOR start screwed two servers over, but one could migrate to another and was once again able to play. So to me this is not understandable at all.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying that this release has been the same as other MMO's. But the general release outcome is always a lag or capacity related issue, and this time preparatory actions have proven favorable to me instead of lining the pockets of a developer, where I am left unable to play. I am not making excuses for this release result, at all.

I completely agree with you and this release has been a mess. There is no way that you could be unaware of how this is going to turn out when you have a storefront and you are selling access per purchase, they made a choice to take the money under these circumstances and this will probably have a negative impact on the company as a result. Personally I will be back after things have stabilized. They really should have sorted thew oceania datacentre and whatever other changes need to happen there, before they released an expansion.

[Communion]

One of the things I'm curious about is:

Are Free Trial players part of the log-in queue as all players? While I know subscription players are priority, does anyone know if both Free Trial and Subscription-based players are in the same queue line?

Not that I'm against anyone playing free, but is Square's system able to sort out who has a subscription and who doesn't? Because with the longest line I've found myself in (4,167)- latest to date for me over the past 2 days and if that's the case then Square was seriously unprepared for this congestion and it happened back in July 2021 (source posted below) so much so that the game had to be taken off websites for sale due to congestion issues- meaning they've had at least 6 months of awareness of something that would need to be addressed by Endwalker's release date.

https://www.ign.com/articles/final-f...-sales-stopped

LOL... if subscription players are priority... then it's an utter failure as I've been a subber for years and absolutely have been locked out of the game.

[NasaLaughta]

I don't think you understand the scope of one of these servers. These are massive multi-million dollar plus machines that takes weeks to even setup that are likely super custom with huge lead times.

Eh, you aren't wrong I guess. The amount of server blades and hardware and people to run that stuff costs a LOT of money. But this is Square Enix we are talking about and they had months to prepare for this knowing it was going to be a thing.

[NasaLaughta]

At this point if we are being real about it; It's not a good look but the price to buy the server hardware to satisfy a fraction of the player base for a month until the new wears off the Xpac may not be worth the money to them. They know most people will keep their subs, whine for a while then relax when it blows over. This is how the corporate world operates. You have to stop pretending that FFXIV is an outlier and is immune to business decisions based on the bottom line. Square Enix is just as much of a corporate monster as any of them. They had to know this was coming and made the decision to not blow the money to solve it. At least they aren't raping women though. We are just going to have to wait this one out. I'm sure they will get new servers eventually. *shrug*

I feel sorry for the producers of the game, because they probably know exactly why the problem wasn't solved and are probably depressed about it.