Should the launch have been delayed? What else could be done?

[Tyssyn]

How would renting servers, then returning them work. I am not exactly sure how it all works but doesn't a server = a world? So say they rented 5 servers per data center, ... how would you convince players to transfer to those new worlds? Players want to play with their friends, with their fcs, and those who have houses sure wouldn't want to move to a new server, especially one that was going to be returned after a few months?

[Moonlite]

How would renting servers, then returning them work. I am not exactly sure how it all works but doesn't a server = a world? So say they rented 5 servers per data center, ... how would you convince players to transfer to those new worlds? Players want to play with their friends, with their fcs, and those who have houses sure wouldn't want to move to a new server, especially one that was going to be returned after a few months?

The worlds are mostly stable as they have been since the split in SB. The problem is login server caps at 17k logins. I don't know if they could rent and get them into the system and running in any decent time frame anyways. This ship has sailed probably, players suffer, people will cry some will get sympathy and some will get blamed.

[DPZ2]

How would renting servers, then returning them work. I am not exactly sure how it all works but doesn't a server = a world? So say they rented 5 servers per data center, ... how would you convince players to transfer to those new worlds? Players want to play with their friends, with their fcs, and those who have houses sure wouldn't want to move to a new server, especially one that was going to be returned after a few months?

Given my understanding of how such servers typically work, it isn't 5 servers per data center. It might be closer to 25, or 50. Think "how many instances have been spun up for leveling areas at the moment". Each of those instances may have their own servers. There's a reason there's a black screen every time you enter a dungeon, for example. You're actually moving to a different server (virtual or not).

[Velnora]

Hmmmmm. Might have something to do with the fact that they built, oh, an entire data center in Europe with the funds, including 12 worlds (at 17,000 population per that's 204,000 additional players who don't have to use the North American data center), and they're opening up a new Oceania data center that will be closer to non-Japanese players in the Western Pacific with the same funds? That particular project was well underway almost a year before WoW turned into a barbeque pit.

Which was well underway before Covid was even a thing. They have had time to upgrade infrastructure.

Here's the part nobody talks about. Historically, Corporate SE is absolute shit. Why do you think it took a cash shop to *allegedly* afford a new data center. The money is there. They just don't wanna allocate funds. They have underfunded the game for quite some time, so it comes as no surprise this all happened.

It's not the Dev teams fault. It's the suits.

[Lunafreya]

Launch was already delayed. The situation does suck but let's stop acting like the game is super unplayable because it is not. Once you are in game it is smooth and there are zero errors. The only issue right now is the error code kicking you from the Q and sometimes losing your place. Other than that this launch is completely fine and it will stabilize in a week or so. I'm not sure why people are threatening to cancel their sub over this but this was to be expected. I'm annoyed too but i'm not gonna act like the game doesnt work once I get in.

[JTWrenn]

Launch was already delayed. The situation does suck but let's stop acting like the game is super unplayable because it is not. Once you are in game it is smooth and there are zero errors. The only issue right now is the error code kicking you from the Q and sometimes losing your place. Other than that this launch is completely fine and it will stabilize in a week or so. I'm not sure why people are threatening to cancel their sub over this but this was to be expected. I'm annoyed too but i'm not gonna act like the game doesnt work once I get in.

Uhm...I have not been able to log in for the past 12 hours. Period. No queue, nothing. That counts as "super unplayable" to me

[Mythos12]

Launch was already delayed. The situation does suck but let's stop acting like the game is super unplayable because it is not. Once you are in game it is smooth and there are zero errors. The only issue right now is the error code kicking you from the Q and sometimes losing your place. Other than that this launch is completely fine and it will stabilize in a week or so. I'm not sure why people are threatening to cancel their sub over this but this was to be expected. I'm annoyed too but i'm not gonna act like the game doesnt work once I get in.

The game is unplayable Luna. I have tried every hour the last two days to get in and the closest i had was que 37 and then i got an 4004 error message and it made me start all over again. After that it has been all 2002 error. There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of PAYING customers who can not access a product that the company is gladly charging monthly. I just cancelled my subscription for now because i refuse to pay for a game that i can not access. I will join again when SE gets its crap together and i see this log in issue addressed.

[Aspirin4Breakfast]

Except it actually is unplayable. I have a job where i work long hours as i am sure most people do, so after paying for the collectors edition to it around in a queue in early access, only to get down 4k in said queue and then get dropped randomly every day and not even get a chance to get in and see the new stuff is absurd. Also, this is just early access....like, there is going to be more people on the 7th when full access is a thing....I think personally refunds are due, as everyone payed for the expansion but only people that can sit there all day and keep requeueing get to play.

[Tatiana]

I think most people knew this was gonna happen. The global supply chain shortage for semiconductors is impacting every industry pretty badly, I do agree they should have upgraded their infrastructure in preparation for the future of the game, that should always be something that's done regardless. Being too reliant on China to supply the world with these has been a hard lesson learned for these industries, and new semiconductor fabrication plants are being built in Europe and the US, but they take a long time to build and are really expensive so there's no easy solution for this at the moment. Hopefully once supply is back to normal they will invest heavily in expanding their servers. They could have delayed the expansion until the summer, when the shortage is estimated to be over, but there would be a massive content drought.

[Feron]

They didn't care about my ability to give them $75 USD, right? I couldn't piss and moan about how even though I promised to pay them, I can't just now. COVID you know? Microchips or semiconductors or whatever. Maybe on Monday, right? You'll still keep my account in good standing, right? You'll still let me use the product?

Yeah. Right. Somehow when the shoe is on the other foot, it's immediately absurd. I am held to a higher standard than they are. Their business is using our money as an interest-free short-term loan. They oversold and are currently STILL advertising (its on the launcher for god's sake) something they can't deliver. And this is not a surprise, an emergency, an act of god, a disaster, whatever. They knew ahead of time that this would be the case. They knew exactly how many preorders they had sold, and they just kept selling them with the advertising lure of Early Access, knowing full well they would not be able to meet their obligations.

That's...pretty dang close to the definition of fraud. The only reasonable reaction to fraud is to call it for exactly what it is.