Am I being realistic?

[SuperDevin]

Before you flame others in a thread about the server issues please think about that question. I don't think most of you realize how servers work and what is going on. Basically SE has WAY more players than they expected for EA and probably launch too. They probably didn't find this out until you did. You can't know how many people are going to log on until they actually LOG ON. Then once you see "oh crap we need way more servers plus their are issues with current ones" you have to get more servers which takes time.

SE wants to make money so they are going to work as fast as possible to fix things so that people actually play. That being said having a large player base is a good thing. The more people that play the more content we will get. So basically just wait it out for a few days and hopefully things will turn around. If they don't then rage on. Till then please stop flaming. It doesn't help. Letting SE know there are issues does help. Whining does not.

[SuperDevin]

No opinions? That's a first.

[Aomee]

I understand how servers work to an extent, I'm not in full understanding however. I do get peoples rage for the issue, however, I also know that the game devs at SE aren't just sitting there twiddling their thumbs hoping for the best. I am frustrated, mad even, but I am hoping for some form of compensation for trying my best to be patient with the mess that's going on. I'm also hoping for the queue to return (and not drop us) so we know how long we have to wait until we can play again. Some progress is better than none when it comes to angry gamers. I don't want to be ragey over pixals yet its happening lol I hope they can finish with the creation of more servers soon, or at least figure out how to balance out the current ones and implement an afk system :c! You make a good point however, this isn't something that can be fixed in a few short hours. :/

[Takusai]

No opinions? That's a first.

It is always hard to determine what the masses would do. It seems that Square-Enix (SE) was caught off guard with the FFXIV: ARR variant. I am pretty sure, SE did not realize how their updated game design was going to bring a surge of players. With other MMOs are heading to a decline in subscriptions, FFXIV: ARR just might have arrived at an unexpected opportune time. It does not mean that FFXIV: ARR will take a good hold in the MMORPG world. It does mean that there are lot of excitement for this game. Excitement comes with an influx of anxious players. With what seems to be greater than expected amount of players, SE failed to recognize this as a potential outcome in their planning stage. I guess SE had to be skeptical with FFXIV:ARR after FFXIV v1.0 was so poorly received in the gaming community. With such pleasant surprise, SE has been trying to put out fires before it spreads out of control. So I agree with SuperDevin insight to what SE might be dealing with. One does hope all the necessary technical and engineering support personal are working feverishly around the clock to get the game ready to be enjoyed by the masses on the 27th. I know, I am totally loving how this game is. Does NOT feel like an MMO. Feels like I am playing a video game. It is such a relaxing feeling to be able to enjoy this game without stress.

[FornaxLacerta]

It is always hard to determine what the masses would do. It seems that Square-Enix (SE) was caught off guard with the FFXIV: ARR variant. I am pretty sure, SE did not realize how their updated game design was going to bring a surge of players.

Which is simply bad project management. There are many professional load testing tools that you can purchase to simulate, in real time, hundreds, thousands and even millions of users performing specific actions on your application. Want to see what it looks like when 50000 users simultaneously try to log into your server? Want to see how your game reacts when 500,000 users try to jump into a queue at the same time? They make tools for testing those very things, like HP Load Runner for instance. Just bad project management here if they're discovering infrastructure issues this late in the game.

[Takusai]

Which is simply bad project management. There are many professional load testing tools that you can purchase to simulate, in real time, hundreds, thousands and even millions of users performing specific actions on your application. Want to see what it looks like when 50000 users simultaneously try to log into your server? Want to see how your game reacts when 500,000 users try to jump into a queue at the same time? They make tools for testing those very things, like HP Load Runner for instance. Just bad project management here if they're discovering infrastructure issues this late in the game.

I concur with the poor project management scenarios. They might have thought about this potential scenario as well. The Project Management team possibly concluded the likelihood of high volume was highly improbable. It is doubtful we would know the decision made. It is for the theorists to deduce and speculate. We are the players just have to deal with the pain.

[WiseWolfHolo]

No just that with post limit no1 can post because no1 can level. But in todays age the is a horrible excuse, they could look at beta applications, pre orders, followers on twitter and facebook and get a general number and multiply that by at least 3 just to get a basic idea, but playing it cheap and going low quality was obviously more important

[SuperDevin]

No just that with post limit no1 can post because no1 can level. But in todays age the is a horrible excuse, they could look at beta applications, pre orders, followers on twitter and facebook and get a general number and multiply that by at least 3 just to get a basic idea, but playing it cheap and going low quality was obviously more important

That might work 5 years ago but in todays world that is not the as accurate. I can preorder the game right this second, instantly, from a bevy of stores. Twitter and FB do not let you know how many people are gunna play. And for beta thats free. Lots of people in the free beta you expect to not buy the game and just get a quick fix. I"m not saying that SE is not to blame at all but people expect any issues to be fixed 10 minutes after it happens. As a technician I know troubleshooting is usually the longest part of fixing something.

[Daku_Naito]

As much as I'd like to agree with you, and as much as I love that FFXIV has a huge number of players, I will have to disagree. SE, although it seems that didn't expect the large number of players, should have. They have the sales figures, they have the number of beta testers signing up, and they know they broke a record during Phase 4 for number of players on at once (exceeding 100k, going onward to 200k). JP has more servers, and half as many players, and seemingly a whole hell of a lot less problems. SE should have had mores servers (not world, servers) and foresaw what was going to happen. I've read a lot of defense on SE part, and I love the company, and defend them whenever I can, but they've made a number of mistakes, and one being communication with the players.

I understand where you are coming from, SE is a company, and it will do what it needs to to make money, so they didn't "mean" to have these problems. The fact is though, they decided, for the sake of money, to lack on number of servers and/or server support. Also, complaining will kick SE butt into gear, there is no need for nonsense trolling, but too many people have had to many problems, especially at launch.

I am a Legacy 1.0 player, and played from the beginning. I was there when it was shaky, I was there with all the announcements of 2.0, and supported them before and after it. I will continue to support them because I love their games and believe they will make things right. That doesn't mean I need to be complacent about how they handled the situation, about how instead of being fair and closing the servers, they prevent many players from just not playing, and allow others to play (given there may be merit to needing players on to test the problem).

[AzakaTonnerre]

SE is a business as you said. With that in mind how could it have been WAY more players than they expected?

Sure SE knows how many legacy accounts qualified for EA, and surely they know how many codes were redeemed to take part in EA. Users/Customers is not a guess for businesses, they had the totals. The servers weren't ready. This is SE's fault not how many people are trying to play. Also, limiting phase 4 open beta to one weekend (with only 5 days until EA) was a horrible decision. No time to correctly address issues from phase 4 (3102, 90000) or to spend time looking for issues secondary to those (duty finder/instance failure, 10102). Are they working as fast as they can to fix this? I have no doubt. Could this have been avoided with a little more phase 4 time? I have no doubt.

SE has my support, I will continue to play the game. And yes, complaining constantly doesn't help. But repeated issues and lack of communication on them has led to it. At the end of the day, as you said SE is a business, and to state they had no idea how many people were going to log in is laughable at best (or scary if they weren't looking at the numbers). Better question, with the number of legacy and EA registrations they knew were coming was SE being realistic with their expectations for the servers? Given the issues and login restrains, I believe you know the answer to that question.