When will NA get more shards?

[Doozer]

In other news, the sky is falling. Or at least for another week, anyway.

[Kurando]

You've gotta be joking.

I'm not joking. Sure I'm not denying new players a chance, but most companies value long term customers more than new ones, it's common business practice (unless the business is really going down hill then they would attempt to get every single customer they could get.)

You dont think new players are more important than a random alt?

I think one is more valuable than the other, but a paying customer regardless of them being new or an alt has the same right to make a character, but neither should get special treatment (so new shouldn't get any preference over alts). Legacy players getting a permanent discount on their sub, now that's an example of showing how valuable they are as opposed to new players, (yes it could generate less income than new players paying full price but it still works as an incentive to keep them).

Perhaps Early Access should have just be made available to players who have subscribed for a certain period of time, then there wouldn't be the issue of new players being unable to make new characters during what is expected to be a very busy time. But of course, new players equals more money argument....

[Krotoan]

most companies value long term customers more than new ones, it's common business practice (unless the business is really going down hill then they would attempt to get every single customer they could get.).

Take a look at contractual service company practices in your area. Most will offer new customers discounts and incentives to start and not allow older customers to take advantage of these offers.

I think one is more valuable than the other, but a paying customer regardless of them being new or an alt has the same right to make a character, but neither should get special treatment (so new shouldn't get any preference over alts).

Why would you argue that a older customer already getting value out of the service needs that character slot more than someone who cannot even experience the service or will have a severely limited enjoyment (needing to make a character on a far data center alone away from friends, remember this is a social game for lots of people) and will ultimately ruin and lose that experience for the new customer?

[Iscah]

But "shard" has been used as a synonym for "server" in several other MMOs for many, many years.

I stand corrected then. But I've never seen anyone use the term here before.

[RowanLauron]

New players don't have server population restrictions when they make their first character. Your argument is moot, but ADDITIONAL characters are restricted as they should be.

[Arixtotle]

New players don't have server population restrictions when they make their first character. Your argument is moot, but ADDITIONAL characters are restricted as they should be.

There's many reports from new players saying that isn't the case. They're unable to make characters.

[IttyBitty]

I am struggling to see why people are defending SE over the fact that new players are unable to create characters unless they wake up/stay up until 2 in the frickin' morning. Not everybody has the luxury of no-lifing for a chance to create a character on any server, much less specific ones.

"Oh but it's a new expansion it should be expected!" When the hell do you think is a better time for them to make their game available to new players?

[Eriane_Elis]

I am struggling to see why people are defending SE over the fact that new players are unable to create characters unless they wake up/stay up until 2 in the frickin' morning. Not everybody has the luxury of no-lifing for a chance to create a character on any server, much less specific ones.

"Oh but it's a new expansion it should be expected!" When the hell do you think is a better time for them to make their game available to new players?

SE hosts all their servers in-house. Right now they have a boon of players coming from all over the place. They don't really know what to do and they have to tread carefully. Adding new equipment costs a lot of money. A single rack can costs tens of thousands. If they implement all this new hardware and half of the player base stops playing after they complete the main content of Shadowbringers, then they are left with a lot of spare hardware doing nothing. Additionally they are about to receive a much higher budget now with upcoming content release and so that means that they'll be able to grow the staff, content release, and player base with that. Right now it's all about riding out that sudden growth spurt.

On the business side of things, SE has to tread very carefully but also attempt to cater to as many players as possible without wasting millions in hardware expansion and support. WoW / ESO / GW2 / BDO's failures weren't necessarily unexpected but in such great numbers I imagine it is. Yoshi P has been really good at directing this project and while he's made mistakes here and there, he found ways to redeem himself and his team. They need metrics and I believe this week they will get enough to figure out what to do if they're not doing anything already.

Remember, they're not telling us whether or not they are adding new hardware. Perhaps they are and they are struggling to keep up with how many players there are lol.

[Barraind]

This has nothing to do with queues. It has to do with the fact that there's no reason for NA to have so few shards. JP has a heck of a lot more shards and the same size player base.

Its squeenix. Thats how they do. JP could have half the active playerbase of NA instead of less than half the total playerbase, but 90% of the active playerbase of NA, it wouldnt matter.

[NanaWiloh]

In other news, the sky is falling. Or at least for another week, anyway.

Should we get umbrella's and two by fours, try to protect ourselves while putting in supports