SE is a business that only cares about making money. That doesn't mean they're dumb.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

I hear a lot of people saying "SE only cares about their bottom line". Well, yeah, they're a corporation. Every adult who works a 9 to 5 (and most that don't) knows this. But I think a distinction needs to be made in that there are many different philosophies a company can adopt with the end goal of making money.

The ideal business will deliver a quality product at a reasonable price. This will ensure happy customers, which in turn ensures loyalty and positive marketing. We literally advertise this game for them, because we love it as much as we do. This is called goodwill. I'm not making this up: goodwill is an actual business asset which is sometimes listed on a balance sheet. It is basically the customer base's belief that the business is, in fact, an ideal business, or close to it.

The corrupt business chases after the dollar as its primary objective. It doesn't care about quality or customer happiness, so long as it gets paid. Goodwill is not a factor here. When you hear people talking about how they got cheated by a company, and how they'll never patronize them again, its an example of this. There is no recognized counterpart for goodwill (badwill?) but it is something that companies are aware of, albeit informally.

Now in reality, this is a gross oversimplification of business strategies, and there is no such thing as a fully ideal or corrupt business. Rather, they're a spectrum, and every business falls somewhere between these two ends of it. Blizzard is more towards the corrupt end, but I'm sure they have some employees who love World of Warcraft and pour their heart and soul into making a good player experience. SE is more towards the ideal end, but I'm sure they employ people who just think of their job as a paycheck and don't care about the customer experience.

So what did we see in the past few weeks? SE cashed in some of its goodwill. They flubbed a launch. Not talking about the servers, since they warned us ahead of time that there was absolutely nothing they could do. I'm talking about the 2002 errors. That was entirely their fault, as it was a result of bad code they made, even if it was a decade ago. However, the majority of FFXIV players gritted their teeth and dealt with it, because they trusted SE to find the problem and fix it, which they are in the process of doing.

So yeah, SE only cares about your money. But they're smart enough to earn it in a way that leaves most of their customers feeling satisfied and wanting to spend more.

[Rin_Kuroi]

while some goodwill has been burnt. for me they can earn a good portion of it back if they actually resolve the 2002 error i've encounter every expansion since launch.

[Havenchild]

Considering the game itself has been incredibly stable after you sign in and a heavy majority are in game, I wouldn't even say this was a flubbed launch by any means. In fact, it was incredibly successful, too much you could say. The 2002 errors largely during primetime, required babysitting at worse but you absolutely could sign into the game if you wanted to and had some time.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Considering the game itself has been incredibly stable after you sign in and a heavy majority are in game, I wouldn't even say this was a flubbed launch by any means. In fact, it was incredibly successful, too much you could say. The 2002 errors largely during primetime, required babysitting at worse but you absolutely could sign into the game if you wanted to and had some time.

Relogging wasn't really an option for some people, since it took time, and that time is enough to lose your place. I just got a new computer and was able to run two instances of XIV at the same time, which meant I had one ready to go when my main instance 2002'd. I couldn't do that on my old computer, and I don't believe you can do that on a PlayStation either. It was worse than just having to babysit it for some people.

[Havenchild]

Relogging wasn't really an option for some people, since it took time, and that time is enough to lose your place. I just got a new computer and was able to run two instances of XIV at the same time, which meant I had one ready to go when my main instance 2002'd. I couldn't do that on my old computer, and I don't believe you can do that on a PlayStation either. It was worse than just having to babysit it for some people.

Still doesn't mean you can't play during offpeak. If you put enough energy towards playing the game, you absolutely could play it. Yeah it required dedication, nowhere fair to some, but you COULD sign in. Offpeak had essentially "0" 2002 errors for many players and otherwise instant queues (not withstanding some EU worlds going down on day 1)
Several people I know arranged their schedules to play, myself included. Some adopted remote login means for playstation to babysit the queue at work, it just required dedication which let's be honest there are definintely a group of people that believe that despite all of the circumstances, because they pay for the game, it should require 0 effort on their part.
Understandable notion, but in practice to say the game is impossible to login due to queues, is a lie almost across the board.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Still doesn't mean you can't play during offpeak. If you put enough energy towards playing the game, you absolutely could play it. Yeah it required dedication, nowhere fair to some, but you COULD sign in. Offpeak had allmost "0" 2002 errors for many players and otherwise instant queues (not withstanding some EU worlds going down on day 1)

I get what you're saying, but still, I'm calling this a bad launch. A bad launch that it looks like they're going to successfully salvage, mind you, but a bad launch nonetheless. That is my opinion and anyone is free to disagree with me on it.

[Hysterior]

It will be fine.
People need to stop acting like this launch is Cyberpunk level of bad.

[Sathona]

It will be fine.
People need to stop acting like this launch is Cyberpunk level of bad.

Right? Once you get to play in the game there's barely any issues that could force you out of it.
Its just the queues and 2002's being messy.

[Rin_Kuroi]

i liked cyberpunk. aside from updating some divers i had a smooth and fun experience

can't say the same for ff14 but we all have different experiences.

[Kaurhz]

Great experience personally. Had a few occasions where I've been booted and sat in queue for a couple of hours - Certainly not the best launch. But for better or worse it's only a testament to the nigh on ridiculous growth in players, which frankly given the past 2 years is a curse as much as a blessing when you can't get the hardware you need.