The latest early access ever

[Heinken]

DISCLAIMER: This post is meant as a vent. If you have any kind of condescending criticism about what I'm going to type next, do us both a favour: Keep it to yourself and just go your own merry way.

Very well. I tried to log in to the game as I left work earlier today (I do home office and work at weekends), super eager to play the game. I stood for 2 hours in the queue as I waited for nearly 3k players, until I finally managed to get in.

My character steps into Eorzea, I teleport to her house, check how everything is going... And my connection drops. A brief hiccup. It's been raining cats and dogs all day long after all.

My pupils dilate. I feel my stomach churning. I log back in as quick as I can, only to be sent back to another almost 3k queue.

To call this "frustrating" would be a severe understatement... And it's been far from being an exceptional situation lately.

I pre-ordered this Expansion, and I've barely been able to play it at all. The first time I managed to log in to it — even if (once again) briefly — was some 2 or 3 days after. Ever since, it's been disappointment after disappointment, and trying to avoid the enthusiastic and not at all ill-intended spoilers as my friends progress through the late game while I haven't yet done even my first EW dungeon, adding insult to injury.

I understand some unplanned stuff has been going on and I honestly recognise and applaud the team as they've clearly been doing their best to mitigate the impacts.

So I don't mean to say I feel "scammed" — Yet I can't shake off this feeling that I've pre-ordered an early access for nothing. That my money has gone almost entirely to waste. I can't think of anything that would make up for this in specific, because more than anything else, even if by circumstance, I've been robbed of my time, my high spirits and an experience I was so eager to have I paid extra to get it a bit earlier.

The extra subscription days are welcome, but they can't just take away this bitter feeling — Let alone when it grows bitterer every day.

I sincerely hope something — anything! — will be done to remedy this unwelcome feeling. Meanwhile, I remain a very sad camper.

[PredatoryCatgirl]

Honestly, I feel bad for you, and anyone who flames you didn't read the post. You're not throwing a fit or blaming people who had no control over it, you're just upset that you can't play. I hope that changes for you soon. Please come back to it when you can, because Endwalker is a great story and you should experience it. Even if parts have been spoiled, there's nothing like experiencing it for yourself.

[Aelin_Ashryver]

Sucks about you DCing but also, you actually didn't pay anything extra at all for early access or the pre order.. So your money is not wasted for not having gotten in during EA.
I do hope your luck in queue is better but you didn't pay for EA you paid for the expansion which you had and still have access to.

[MilkieTea]

Aelin is correct in that you didn't pay anything extra to get access early - you simply paid ahead of time. The expansion will always be here, you've not missed out on anything other than doing the story while everyone else is doing the story (which, to be fair, is... not a pleasant experience.)

I'd like to add, however, that due to the unexpected queues, they are giving 21 days of free playtime and have even halted sales of the game entirely.

[midnitdragoon]

First world problems. Amirite or amirite?

[Xrystofer]

Technically the problem is that your free hours are during peak time, which is when everyone wants to play. You would be able to get in easily if you could play any other time of the day or night.

Honestly, I do think they need to implement a system that grants you a priority queue if you disconnect for whatever reason, and they haven't said a word whatever it is possible or not.

There's kind of a solution to your problem but it's not a good solution. You could technically sleep till Midnight and wake up to play until morning. Most people wouldn't want to do that since it would mess their sleeping Schedule.

[Exosapien]

Could have just posted this in one of the hundreds of other threads, or like a diary or something.

Why do people claim they bought an entire expansion just for early access? That's an added bonus with a clear stipulation when you make the purchase that this is an MMO, with more players than it's ever had, and it's based on server availability.

If you're feeling any sort of way, that's literally on you and maybe you should look to professional help if it's truly affecting you so direly.

And perhaps, if you don't want people to respond negatively to what you say, don't post it on a public forum and then go out of your way to tell people how to react while at the same time being condescending to anyone who doesn't agree with you.

[Kes13a]

My character steps into Eorzea, I teleport to her house, check how everything is going... And my connection drops. A brief hiccup. It's been raining cats and dogs all day long after all.

My pupils dilate. I feel my stomach churning. I log back in as quick as I can, only to be sent back to another almost 3k queue.

To call this "frustrating" would be a severe understatement... And it's been far from being an exceptional situation lately.

queues are frustrating, and unfortunately expected in most launches of any major game. few server setup (except another game I can think of that has too many servers for their current population)
and I hope the upcoming maintenance does fix a majority of the 2002 error as well as being tossed in the back of the queue.

however... that aside, you say "And my connection drops. A brief hiccup. It's been raining cats and dogs all day long after all." talk to your ISP , soon. look, if this happens regularily when it rain, its water getting into a connection. not harmful to you personally, but plays heck with the connection to anything. degrades the quality of your connection greatly. if its windy and your connection also drops a lot, also a problem. thats going to be the responsibility of your ISP since its their lines and they should fix them.

basically, unless the line is missing, most weather event unless VERY extreme should not cause line fluctuations. the fact you mention it even says to me that you have noticed it happening during heavy rain. give yourself some peace of mind and call them to fix it. it will not miraculously improve over time.

[TwizzlyTwist]

oh no! the devs warned you about this and you still preordered? It's obviously their fault!