Sharing my experience with Endwalker early access

[Umitsu]

After a quick glance around the forum - it's pretty obvious that a lot of people are having similar issues. I'm sure that SquareEnix and the developers are already aware of the problem, as they have already released statements about it, and offered compensation. But all the same, I would still like to make them aware of what my experience with this expansion has been.

On Wednesday, I logged into the game as usual. Like most everyone I know, I spent my time that day preparing for the expansion. I leveled all my classes to the next nearest level in preparation for the number crunch. I recovered all materia from my belts and desynthed them in anticipation of them going away. I spent all my irregular tombstones and cleared out as much inventory as I could. I took my fantasia potion and stripped my gear before logging out. This was all normal, expected, and a pretty fun and exciting time.

Then Thursday, was the anticipated server downtime for pre-expansion maintence. I was surprised that the expansion wasn't available for download that morning, but I wasn't bothered by it. I simply began the download when it became available that evening.

As it so happened, on Friday, December 3rd, the first day of early access for the Endwalker expansion, I had prior arrangements that could not be reschedule when the release date was pushed back two weeks. I did not have time to log into the game that morning. I would not be able to log in, until 6pm EDT. At that time, I was on hotel wifi internet, so I wasn't surprised if I had some connection issues on my end. What surprised me, was that my place in que was apparently 193, and didn't change as I waited to log in for several hours. I was not able to modify my character's appearance. If I was able to connect to the data center, I recieved a message that the server was unable to retrieve my character data for the character selection screen. I didn't mind that, and just tried to log in as normal. After about three hours, and staying at the exact same place in que, I gave up and went to play something else.

Yesterday, I spent the morning traveling. I made it home around 1 pm CDT. Tired, and world weary, I attempted to log onto the game, and catch up with all my friends. I frequently got the 2002 error. Once I was able to connect to the data server, I was finally able to modify my character's appearance data. If I received the 2002 error, and I logged in quickly enough, I could sometimes reclaim my place in que, but just as frequently I was pushed back to the end of the line. My internet connection is stable, I even plugged a wired line directly into the router. Five hours later, at 6pm CDT, I gave up, and went to play something else. At 10pm CDT, when I should have been going to bed, I attempted to again, just to see if I could make it online long. Two hours later, and I still couldn't make it online. Begrudingly, I just accepted my fate that I hadn't been able to play either the first or the second day of the expansion.

Today, Sunday, Dec 5th. I began attempting to log in at 10am CDT. The que began at roughly 7,000+ and slowly counted down. I frequently experienced the 2002 error. It is always frustrating everytime I encounter that error, because it shuts the whole game down, and I have to completely relaunch it, including resubmitting my password, every time. I would estimate, that it takes approximately 3-4 attempts to connect to the data center before I can even get to the character selection screen to then wait in que to get to a world server. The option to log into a different world server, has never once worked, instead giving me a message that it is unavailable at this time.

Still, I was finally able to log in! around 2pm CDT, 6 hours and a wasted morning later, I was able to log in. I Re-equipped my gear, and teleported to Ul'dah, where I began the quest to unlock the new reaper class. While I was talking to the quest giver... I was suddenly kicked back to the character selection screen. Then, when I tried to log back in, I was given the 2002 error again, and the entire game shut down. Two game restarts later, I was back in a que of 7,000+. I made it down to 6,000+ before I 2002 errored again, and came to this forum to chronicle my experience.

In short - despite having paid for the game, my subscription, and being in good standing, I have been unable to play your game at all for 3 days. I want to be clear, that the que to play the game, has to be actively monitored - so the wait time has been time I've been unable to do anything else, and still yields no result. I am still just as unable to gain access now as I have been had I not even attempted to log in. I'm not angry or upset or demanding compensation - I just want you to be acutely aware that this is an experience your customers and your subscribers have had.

[AsheNabuddis]

Now THIS is how you show dissatisfaction towards ANYONE or ANY company. Raging and yelling insults and death threats will do absolutely nothing, but this certainly can.
I will bump your post even tho I do not share your issues nor opinions.
I wish you good luck and a resolution that leaves you fulfilled!

[StrictlyUndercover]

Now THIS is how you show dissatisfaction towards ANYONE or ANY company. Raging and yelling insults and death threats will do absolutely nothing, but this certainly can.
I will bump your post even tho I do not share your issues nor opinions.
I wish you good luck and a resolution that leaves you fulfilled!

that guy must be a neurosurgeon

[DJShamrock]

Bumping as well. This is the experience and hours of complete devotion I hope SE sees that we are spending not to even play the game. Forget about just 'waiting' time. Its -wasting- time.

[Cevian]

Adding another bump to this. Full disclosure, Umi is one of my FC mates and I can corroborate their story as one of if not the worst experiences I have personally seen in talking with several people in different groups about their difficulties logging in, perhaps only losing to someone with the terrible audio issues some are having that make the game hard to experience even if you can get in.

[Hauntedd]

My experience had been very similar to the main post. I am not angry, but I think we would all like to see the waiting line fixed so we can at least eventually connect, even if it’s hours later, until things settle down. I could even deal with monitoring a queue if it held your place for a few minutes after booting you out.