Well, after seeing the server go open, clicking on it, entering her name ASAP, clicking create character, and getting the "Server closed" message, all within the space of a minute, my friend is convinced there's some issue with the servers and has gone to bed for the night.

Given that there's a "recruit a friend" campaign going on right now, the absolute chaos that seems to be what servers are open to character creation at a given time is entirely unacceptable. Even something as simple as "Open status will change every half hour" would at least let us know that if we check at xx:05 or xx:35, we can be confident we'd be able to make the character. Its a complete crapshoot right now that's preventing my friend from making a character to play with me, and if we cant resolve this soon it may end up being a lost subscriber for the game. This NEEDS to be resolved somehow.