Response to Congestion (as of Dec. 15)

[thereal_aliceanders]

All I'm going to say is around this time it would normally take me 2-3 hours to log in. Today 15 min. It's amazing how things change once you don't have a bunch of free to play folks dragging down the servers just standing around in the major cities.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

All I'm going to say is around this time it would normally take me 2-3 hours to log in. Today 15 min. It's amazing how things change once you don't have a bunch of free to play folks dragging down the servers just standing around in the major cities.

And just like that things are getting better.

My FC mates said as much tonight too, regarding the queue times. I don't think any of us really realized HOW many free users were taking up the queue spaces.

Without a surge in Christmas buyers as well, the queues should continue to slowly decrease.

[Hasrat]

All I'm going to say is around this time it would normally take me 2-3 hours to log in. Today 15 min. It's amazing how things change once you don't have a bunch of free to play folks dragging down the servers just standing around in the major cities.

...Free trial users have already been at the back of the line since launch. They're also not completely locked out from these changes, they simply said new free trials would be postponed. Players currently already registered with the free trial are still allowed to play (assuming there is no queue of subscribed players ahead of them).

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

...Free trial users have already been at the back of the line since launch. They're also not completely locked out from these changes, they simply said new free trials would be postponed. Players currently already registered with the free trial are still allowed to play (assuming there is no queue of subscribed players ahead of them).

However it was specifically mentioned in the Lodestone article about new registrations and possible authentication fraud abuse. It's a good chance that these things might have been related. RMT companies could have been bot spamming new accounts under the free trial to distribute their shady wares in game, and thus bloated the queue more than anyone thought they were.

Honestly there could be any number of reasons, but the queues are lower today on a vast majority of servers. So let's count our blessings at least.