The server is full, try again later (1017)

[Sobius]

It's not a nerd rage to be disappointed and upset that we paid for a product and service that is now not being delivered. It's like me ordering a pizza, paying for it by credit card in advance and the pizza never shows up.. Lots of calls to the restaurant assure me it's on its way, but the fact is, they are failing to deliver the product they advertised that I have paid for.

And while I know in 2005 WoW had technical difficulties and other games following, this is not a valid excuse in 2013. MMO's are nearly 20 years old if you count the old MUD's. Saying "everyone has a bad release" is like expecting there will be a few fatalities every time a new model of car is released as if no one understands the basics of how frames or brakes are manufactured. New games should be based on years of experience established by previous titles. Server loads and architechture are tested in beta. catastrophes are expected in beta.. That's what beta is for. This is no longer beta.

What's even worse is that this the second release of this game. They already had a trainwreck in 1.0, we gave them a chance to fix it, and we got this instead.

I'm not saying people should be rage quitting and destroying things IRL, but I think people grieving their anger in these forums (run by SE) is completely justified.

[Sobius]

Oh and as an aside, I lol'd when I noticed that if you added up all the threads in every other forum and doubled the total it would still be less than all the posts in the tech support thread.

[Amasai]

Still cant get in. Ragnarok. I just want to be put on a queue at the very least.

[Puggy]

Shiva is pretty full too, been trying every now and then with little success, as you can imagine.

And for people who bring up other games, that is called making excuses. Sure they had problems, but that does not justify every other game to have similar or even the same problems.
It's like saying: "Oh, you got mugged? Well, that other person got mugged too, so stop complaining."

[Amasai]

You know whats worse than 1017? Getting a queue of 12 THEN getting 1017!

[Ran1880]

I just want to play ARR when I start my ps3 , but instead 1017 plays with me. This is pretty annoying.I never know if it's gonna work this time or not. That's also why people are afraid to log off from the game.
I really do love this game. But how long will this continue? Will new servers for NA/EU finally solve this problem or will 1017 last for eternity?

[Danieros]

The night is coming again, and along with it more frustration as there still there isn't a functional queue so we can have a life instead of playing the Start and Character Select Fantasy XIV hardcore game.

[FraterOrmus]

It happens. The point is...every major publisher or game has had issues.

When will this fallacy ever die? In the history of MMOs, you are correct that there have been plenty of bad launches with buggy content that should have never made it past final Beta, or platform compatibility issues, or even unfinished content. However, since the launch of the very first MMO, Meridian 59, in 1995 there have been only 4 (count 'em 4!) MMOs prior to the Final Fantasy XIV:ARR Launch that have been inaccessible or unplayable to the majority of their players at launch time.

1. Anarchy Online (Funcom) 2001
2. Star Wars Galaxies (SOE) 2003
3. World of Warcraft (Blizzard) 2004
4. Aion (NCSoft) 2009

There certainly have been numerous MMOs that have launched flawlessly, without any major problems, many of which still number in the Top 10 MMOs. For example, EVE Online (CCP) 2003, City of Heroes (NCSoft) 2004, Everquest II (SOE) 2004, Guild Wars (NCSoft) 2005, Dungeons and Dragons Online (Turbine) 2006, and The Lord of the Rings Online (Turbine) 2007, just to name a few. It is especially important to note that this list of flawless MMO launches is by no means complete. Almost all MMOs launch with no significant game-stoppers. Perhaps the problem might be that you don't hear about the good launches, you only hear about the epic bad ones.

The reason why the vast majority of MMOs launch with no game-stoppers is because the MMO market is so overly saturated with fierce competition there no longer remains room for Amateur-hour sloppiness as there once was in the mid to late 1990's. In the second decade of the 21st century an MMO is expected to have worked out all of these game-stoppers prior to the end of Closed Beta, and Open Beta is for final Stress Testing of your Hardware Infrastructure to ensure that it will be able to handle the increased load of "Land-Rush" at Official Launch. If there is a problem you delay your Launch (which can be financially disastrous to a game publisher, but not as disastrous if you go ahead with release with game-stopping issues). The professionals plan ahead of time and do what is called Capacity Planning (taking anticipated Subscribers based upon projections, Open Beta participation, and actual pre-order sales to determine Peak Load, and then plan your infrastructure to handle capacity for 2-3x that Peak).

There should never be surprises or major game-stoppers at Launch, such as the inability to login to the game, because it is bad for customer satisfaction, loyalty, and publicity (all of which are critical as those first 90 days is paramount to the financial success or failure of an MMO...especially when you consider that the average lifespan of a MMO subscription is only six months). That is how the professional Top-Tier AAA MMOs do business, knowing that in this day you have one shot with your MMO to make it, and there are dozens upon dozens of alternatives players can flock to if you fail.

In every MMO I have been involved with over the past 18 years when there has been *ANY* problem that prevents a significant number of players from actually playing the game it is given top priority (as in all departments drop what they are doing and "All hands on deck") and is fixed within 24 hours, whereas the "little things" such as bugs with a particular quest, or an item, or an animation will be prioritized in a Triage manner, according to severity vs how easily fixed, and are scheduled to be quashed in the next Bug Release or Content Update (sometimes a week or a month, or even a quarter of a year later, depending on Dev availability). If the standard has been 24 hours to resolve a game-stopper affecting a significant number of players, then where does that leave SE which is going on how many days since these problems first started showing in P4 Open Beta (or to be nice, you can count just since Early Access)? This is both unacceptable for an MMO to not remedy this problem within a day, let alone 5+ days, and easily puts FFXIV:ARR towards the top of the list of the Top 5 (now) Worst MMO Launches of all time.

(Granted, to be fair, Blizzard took almost two months after WoW's launch to fix their Login Capacity problems, but WoW is an industry fluke that defies the standard rules and who's irrational success has never been duplicated in the industry since. However, SE would be beyond foolish to think that they can still remain successful while handling FFXIV:ARR's launch woes the same inept way Blizzard handled WoW's launch woes.)

[Sadebreth]

That brought back a lot of memories FraterOrmus. I played Meridian 59 back then. It was the first mmo I ever played. Very well written post.

[Suffur]

From the first day of early start to today I have been unable to log in after work. I am forced to log in late at night or keep my character on before I go to work. This launch is just horrible.