What happens when "early access" is "cancelled" by server fail?

[Omedon]

Part of me is actually considering leveling Reaper and wait with the story until it's more stable.
It's a MMO so it's gonna be wonky.

Honestly if there's a way to have a more stable experience by hesitating on the story, I'm trying the new summoner ASAP! I have every non-main job at 71 ready for TRUSTAPOLOOZA with a fully powered armory bonus in the 70's!

[StriderShinryu]

I mean, it is what it is. I'm sure SE is doing everything they can to make sure things work out well but it's an online game with a massive and eager fan base. Even if everything on the game side works perfectly, and there's no guarantee that will be the case, there is going to be severe stress on the technical side of things. It's better to expect things to, at best, not work perfectly.

[Hasrat]

The only thing worth being concerned about is the instance server clogging, depending on when/where they put the first instanced content in the story. Past couple expansion, seems like that's been the only major bottleneck.

[Kuro_Matsu]

It isn't the final days and the end of the world if it didn't include the servers as well.

Yoko Taro's ultimate plan.

[Vahlnir]

The only thing worth being concerned about is the instance server clogging, depending on when/where they put the first instanced content in the story. Past couple expansion, seems like that's been the only major bottleneck.

They largely avoided that with Shadowbringers. There are some instanced battles but they weren't implemented at the very start of the expansion like that one was in Stormblood. That helped alleviate things a ton.

[Breakbeat]

On the subject of downtime replacing early access, I honestly don't care. I bought the expac to have the expac... early access would be kind of cool, I guess, but it doesn't diminish the value of the purchase if I don't get to play a week early. If I have to wait or cannot connect, so be it. My days of living and breathing a video game are long gone. I have other things to do in my life, should my favorite video game not be accessible for some length of time.

if the FFXIV community is anything like the WoW community

There are only people. Not 'these people' and 'those people' and people that play other MMOs and people that do this and that and so forth. Just individual people.

Anything anyone wants you to infer by using the words, "the WoW community..." (or, "the [whatever] community"; pick your favorite #label) and then going on to list some action, demeanor, behavior, likes, dislikes, etc., is nonsense.

All kinds of individual people play both, and all other, games. There literally isn't a single behavior you could list that represents the entire community of this game, that game, or any other group of people. When you get a million people in a group, you have one of every type of human in there, and no two are alike.

(Just like IRL... but we all knew that already, right?)

As an aside, I was an extremely active WoW player for a very long time, and quite active on their forums, therefore if we must, I was quite definitely part of the "WoW community".

Also, I am like the anti-"WoW player" (anti- in the sense of a polar opposite, not anti- in the sense of being opposed to something.) I don't complain if deadlines are missed, never gave a crap about downtime / maintenance whether it was scheduled or unexpected, never ranted about gear or drop rates, could not have cared less how others wanted to play their characters or gear themselves up, never ran nor touted DPS meters, and I never ran into the legendary "toxic WoW community". That's right, never a single person on an ignore list... and the arguments I had with random people over some twelve or thirteen years - I could count those on one hand.

I surrounded myself with good people, family and friends, hundreds of people I met in WoW... and we all behaved nothing like the infamous "WoW community". We couldn't have possibly been the only ones. The "toxic WoW community" label does all of us a disservice, and IMVHO we far outnumber the negative folk who play WoW - it's just that their barks are quite loud, and people like myself having a good time don't really need to bark at all.

People only report on their negative experiences, others pick up on that and then have confirmation bias when they interact with the people around them. Those folks report only their bad experiences, and then it's like mass hysteria, and there you are: The big, bad WoW community. Comprised primarily of neutral or positive people and a small, toxic, vocal minority.

Again, just like in real life.

/shrug

[SilverObi]

Generally every launch period has been rocky due to server issues, either from DDoS or just sheer crowd hype, though ShB was amazingly smooth in comparison to them all at least here on Crystal. Unless something breaks very very badly the devs won't compensate lost time in Early Access or even in the regular launch period.

...but how does Squeenix traditionally handle this from a PR standpoint? I can tell you that if the FFXIV community is anything like the WoW community (and there is a LOT of overlap now), there will be cries for some kind of compensation. Does that traditionally manifest some response from the devs?

Can you not? Seriously. You can easily do a thread search and see the numerous topics involving compensation for lost time due to maintenances or hot-patches and it's not a WoW thing, it's a human thing. If there is downtime due to server problems you can guarantee there will be a thread complaining about it just like there is any other time it happens whether or not it's during an expansion.

[TitusAldin]

Not sure why they're calling Dec 3rd Early Access. Outside of financial reason I don't know anyone saying "I'm just gonna wait to buy EW". If you've made it this far into FFXIV you ain't waiting for reviews lol but I digress. People will adapt like always. Naturally the forums will go up in flames and servers will buckle under the strain of players trying to enter. I expect this Expansion will be the worst one yet with it's new found popularity in the MMO space and the ending to the main plot.

[Floortank]

Not sure why their calling Dec 3rd Early Access. Outside of financial reason I don't know anyone saying "I'm just gonna wait to buy EW". If you've made it this far into FFXIV you ain't waiting for reviews lol but I digress. People will adapt like always. Naturally the forums will go up in flames and servers will buckle under the strain of players trying to enter. I expect this Expansion will be the worst one yet with it's new found popularity in the MMO space and the ending to the main plot.

Because all video games by any company anywhere always get their official release on a Tuesday. But SE want to drop Endwalker on a weekend. That's the only reason early access exists. Yes, it's silly, but it is the actual reason.

You will note that official launch is the following Tuesday.

[Vahlnir]

Because all video games by any company anywhere always get their official release on a Tuesday. But SE want to drop Endwalker on a weekend. That's the only reason early access exists. Yes, it's silly, but it is the actual reason.

You will note that official launch is the following Tuesday.

People also like being able to play a game earlier. Pre-order bonuses help as well. I think it mostly just comes to SE wanting to secure that sweet pre-order cash. Timing EA on a weekend is also a smart business decision since that's when a lot of people get to play the most. Basically, SE likes money. That's why EA exists.