An apology is nice, but transparency would be better ...

[Sorel]

First, I want to thank SE and Producer/Director Yoshida for his personal apology.

However the case, what we need more than apologies is transparency. We need to know what the specific plans are for the resolution of the problem.

• Is there a plan to implement a better queue system?
• Is there a plan to increase the size/number of lobby servers?
• Is there a plan to transfer players to less populated worlds for free?
• Is there a plan to place new servers in the Japanese data center for the NA/EU players?
• Is there a plant to increase the number/size of duty finder & instance servers?
• Is there a plan to allow everyone who wants to play the game to actually play?

So I implore you, Mr. Yoshida, please tell us ALL you can about how you are going to resolve the problem in the short and long term. Otherwise, I will tell my friends to NOT buy this game right now ... or maybe ever.

[AlexNiculaie]

Wow . . . okay then.

[Blackweaver]

I found the apology to be just fine actually. And quite transparent. If you read between the lines, it would seem whoever set up the NA/EU databases, didn't configure something right like they did in Japan. And he informed us of why they were doing them maintenances. Having come from World of Warcraft, I can say he's said more in the apology than Blizzard would of. Blizzard has a "We are taking the servers down for maintenance, deal with it". And I am pretty sure he gave us more info than any other MMO would give. So folks should try to realize this and cut Yoshi and SE a lot more slack I feel.

[Totallymeh]

Well aren't you just a gem. This is pretty much the reason NA/EU never get anything good.

I'm sure he's swamped with work and he at least finds the time to come here. (a bit late, you might say) He actually apologizes to us as a playerbase and the first thing you do is complain.
He was fairly transparant.

Some people... they get a helping hand and they want MORE and MORE.

[Sorel]

I am seeing on the forums that there is a large amount of discontent with the fact that Producer/Director Yoshida did not lay out a plan on how he intends to solve the problem. This has led to wild speculations such below.

• "SE only wants X number of subscribers. They got more customers than they anticipated. So they are OK with losing all the extra customers that bought the game."
• "SE knew that this was going to happen. That is why they purposely separated the Japanese Worlds from everyone else."
• "SE has no plan. This is actually how they want the game to operate going forward."

... and there are even more outlandish ones floating around the forums (e.g. "SE is racist.")

To curtail this, we should be told what the plan is.

But as many of you have pointed out (and I personally know from dealing with people from Japan), if you do not ask about something specifically, they don't volunteer information about it.

So, I'm asking.

[Alozaps]

Well, I was disappointed that Yoshida never emphasized the fact that the login restrictions are temporary, if this is even the case at all. Roughly how long do they expect to have login restrictions in place? Will they be permanent fixtures? He didn't assure us that everyone would be able to play eventually. Why? Does he feel that there will always have to be login restrictions in place? Why is SE unwilling to add new NA/EU servers, increase their capacities and/or improve their ability to handle congestion?

[Lemon8or]

I too wonder about SE not increasing server's capacities instead of locking everyone out but who knows how long that would take to do. I'm not an IT expert.

[Sorel]

The issues "appear" to be manifold. And as Producer/Director Yoshida said, a few have been solved. But it's this part that we need clarification on ...

Although we have successfully addressed a number of serious issues in the past several days, we have nevertheless decided to implement login restrictions for the time being due to the extremely heavy load being placed upon the servers. In this way, we can ensure that the maximum number of players can play the game without risking a sever crash. I know no one wants to wait to log in, but I hope you all understand why we believe this precaution is necessary.

Then what?? Load will continue to be heavy. The load will actually increase on the 27th. Then what??

[Kuari]

I appreciate the apology, I really do, but I really don't understand the lock out policy rather than having the queue active all the time. Rather wait in line rather than go through the process of pressing start, my character name, than log in repeatedly over and over and over again until I get lucky enough to get a spot, and frankly, everyone pinging the server repeated doesn't exactly strike me as more efficient than a queue. Still, the apologizing is more than most companies do, but it doesn't mean much if some kind of action isn't taken as well. Ultimately, apologies are just words. Apologizing while kicking someone repeatedly doesn't make my kicking them repeatedly any more acceptable. There is absolutely no reason or precedence for this style of purposeful lockout. That's always been what queues in other MMOs have been for, and what they should remain being for. There is no understanding otherwise without explanation because you're doing something beyond what is normally more acceptable. Key words, more acceptable. Queues are hated too, but I imagine people would be happier if they could, you know, actually do other things while waiting to get in rather than try repeatedly if they want a spot.

I know my understanding is stretched thin when I not only have to wait (which I can handle and expected), but have to be constantly trying if I want to play the game (this gets annoying real fast, shouldn't have to babysit it if I want to play the game.) Thankfully the game is great when you actually get in to play and duty finder seems fixed...