My recommendation would be to implement a rationing system:

[I'm not sure if the queue already works this way or not (probably not), but it would ensure that people can at least play for a little bit.]

I think, for the most part, when people log in, they stay logged in for quite some time (I was on for like 8 hours straight the other day). This would be fine if no one was waiting to get in, but when you're flooded with so many users, only a select few can enjoy the game.

If there's a queue in effect, the server should disconnect the users that have been logged in the longest (this would also kick the assholes who sit there afk-ing). Those disconnected users can then simply put themselves onto the end of the queue and wait for an available spot (which shouldn't take too, too long).

This would ensure that EVERYONE can at least play the game at some point. No more of this nonsense login blocking that's taking place.

Of course there are some additional parameters to consider:

- Don't DC people that are in transition
- Don't DC people in an instance
- Give someone at least (say) an hour before they're force-DC-ed by the server
- Wait (say) 5 seconds before the server force-DCs someone
- etc

I think this would be much easier to do than the original proposal, which requires some serious server architecture overhauls (sharing accounts across all data centers, sharding, normalization, etc etc) - although this would certainly relieve some of the congestion problems.

Perhaps SE could consolidate servers into smaller "networks" that could share their data - so if there's 25 data centers, put 5 data centers on a "network = 5 "networks". You connect to a "network" and then select a server. The data center with your data on it transfers that data to the server that you selected. Presto! This is how high volume services handle this problem on the back end (facebook, twitter, etc).

With this much congestion already (and it's only going to get worse after a full release), SE needs to seriously consider these "Big Data" concerns.

I think SE has rolled out a fantastic game, but they've done a shoddy job with communication and server management (at least on the non-JP end)

Sorry for rambling and thanks for reading.