DISCLAIMER: This post is meant as a vent. If you have any kind of condescending criticism about what I'm going to type next, do us both a favour: Keep it to yourself and just go your own merry way.

Very well. I tried to log in to the game as I left work earlier today (I do home office and work at weekends), super eager to play the game. I stood for 2 hours in the queue as I waited for nearly 3k players, until I finally managed to get in.

My character steps into Eorzea, I teleport to her house, check how everything is going... And my connection drops. A brief hiccup. It's been raining cats and dogs all day long after all.

My pupils dilate. I feel my stomach churning. I log back in as quick as I can, only to be sent back to another almost 3k queue.

To call this "frustrating" would be a severe understatement... And it's been far from being an exceptional situation lately.

I pre-ordered this Expansion, and I've barely been able to play it at all. The first time I managed to log in to it — even if (once again) briefly — was some 2 or 3 days after. Ever since, it's been disappointment after disappointment, and trying to avoid the enthusiastic and not at all ill-intended spoilers as my friends progress through the late game while I haven't yet done even my first EW dungeon, adding insult to injury.

I understand some unplanned stuff has been going on and I honestly recognise and applaud the team as they've clearly been doing their best to mitigate the impacts.

So I don't mean to say I feel "scammed" — Yet I can't shake off this feeling that I've pre-ordered an early access for nothing. That my money has gone almost entirely to waste. I can't think of anything that would make up for this in specific, because more than anything else, even if by circumstance, I've been robbed of my time, my high spirits and an experience I was so eager to have I paid extra to get it a bit earlier.

The extra subscription days are welcome, but they can't just take away this bitter feeling — Let alone when it grows bitterer every day.

I sincerely hope something — anything! — will be done to remedy this unwelcome feeling. Meanwhile, I remain a very sad camper.