Recruit A Friend - Character Creation Restrictions

[Mjollnir]

I managed to recruit a friend today. He used the code and subscribed. Got you some sales S-E, you should thank me.

Except of course he can't play because Sargatanas is closed to new characters. Brilliant.

About a month ago, it took three days before char creation opened and I could make an alt for my daughter to play on. How long will it take now, when you have two active promotions (Recruit and Trial) swelling the population?

Can I suggest that you consider that new players who want to join high population servers (such as Sargatanas) and have a Recruitment Code from a player on that server are given priority over brand new players and trial accounts?

Or perhaps a waiting list that a player can join for a full server, create a character on a low-popn server and then get a free and automatic world transfer as soon as space becomes available.

At the moment, that's one new player at least who's had a crap first night not being able to play the game he's just bought and subscribed to on my recommendation. If he can't get in before tomorrow evening, it'll be really annoying.

And yes, I'm aware the server status is reviewed every few hours; that doesn't really help if you're out at work during the day.

[TheRogueX]

This! Exactly this! What's the point in having a 'Recruit a Friend!' program if I can't recruit them to the server on which I play? This is absolutely stupid and needs to be fixed. Either you let recruitment trump character creation restrictions or you drop character creation restrictions entirely.

I had one friend who lost the entirety of their free month of game time while they tried and tried to catch Sargatanas open for new characters. It's ridiculous.

[Saccharin]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

[Mjollnir]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

Perfectly valid point. To be honest I needed to vent; that's what these forums are FOR, right?

I just wish there was precedent. For instance a buffer zone of 1% server pop space where the only new characters allowed on were through this recruitment thing.

[saeedaisspecial]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

Pretty sure even in XI a world pass allowed you to bypass the restrictions on overpopulated servers.
When a promotion like recruit a friend comes along, making sure the recruiter and recruited are allowed to play together should take priority.

[Alberel]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

Pretty sure a new player would prefer a queue to not being able to do anything at all...

Most MMOs don't lock character creation at all and instead offer free transfers away from that server to encourage the population to disperse.

[Airget]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

Eh honestly they should offer a "world pass" for recruit a friend, it's a bit shortsighted of SE to offer this recruitment option and then fail to guarantee said player from joining same server as their friend, they did the same exact thing with release because only a certain amount of players actually had an opportunity to pick a server to start on where freshly created players had to get lucky or start elsewhere if they wanted to play.

[Saccharin]

Pretty sure even in XI a world pass allowed you to bypass the restrictions on overpopulated servers.
When a promotion like recruit a friend comes along, making sure the recruiter and recruited are allowed to play together should take priority.

Now, letting you move to a less busy server with your friend would be much better. As I said a 'free pass' just makes the issue worse on the server.

Pretty sure a new player would prefer a queue to not being able to do anything at all...

Most MMOs don't lock character creation at all and instead offer free transfers away from that server to encourage the population to disperse.

Judging by the massive QQ we had during launch I doubt most new players would tolerate any queue. Most new players quit before they finish the starter zone so waiting 30 mins is unlikely. Sad but true.

[TheRogueX]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

But it's not overpopulated. Either that or I'm severely and completely misunderstanding how they determine when to do this. I've seen the server be a ghost town late late late at night, yet character creation is closed.

[DeceptionsWrath]

There are restrictions for a reason - it's overpopulated. Allowing anyone to bypass this just creates more issues. Do you want a new player to experience a queue as that's what would happen if they allowed it to swell like that. I remember the queue rage threads on release last year.

If they're overpopulated, why even run a recruitment program to begin with? Once again SE sees $.$ over logic. I guess they didn't really think this through. But then i wonder, are they noticing a decline in population? First a "free weekend" and now this?