Part 2/4

One thing that FFXI had going for it that was done right was when it came to "full" servers, you had buddy passes. If someone on the existing server got to a certain level, you got a buddy pass that would allow you to give to your friends that would give them access to an already full server. In this sense, the server was NEVER at max capacity, but at some cap limit, say 80% for example, and gave room for expansion. What FFXIV has done from what I can tell is reach 100% capacity leading to 1017 woes.

I think what needs to happen is a combination of proper queues that won't kick you off while you wait, have a higher capacity on queue (think of League of Legends in this regard; 20 minute queue is better than having to refresh every 3 seconds to get error 1017) and auto-logout for AFK players, at least for the first month or so. This will help with logging into the servers. I have heard people haven't logged out since EA began to avoid the queue and error 1017!