Well I'm going to post my 2 cents, not like anyone from BW is going to read it or care.
I tried to log on during my lunch break and the queue was at 150. It took one hour for me to get logged on, so I basically got to joke with my guildies for just a min and then had to get back to work.
I was curious since I'll be home in an hour what queue times look like now and the queue is over 300, so if number of queues per minute of queue time remains constant I should be able to play 2 hours after I get home. However it's just now hitting 5pm EST and since I'm on an EST server, my guess is there is preparing to be a huge influx of new queues. I'm guestimating that by the time I get home the queue will be somewhere around 500. Which means (again if number of queues to time spent in queue is constant) I'm looking at almost 3.5 hours of queue time. This means I'll actually be able to log on somewhere around 8:30pm CST +/-
Pretty depressing
@All those that would say go make a toon on a new server. I'm already level 30 and my guild was preformed on this server and this is where all my friends are. I won't be x-fering unless BW offers free x-fers for the entire guild.
Honest comparison to Rift Launch (most recent MMO I've beta'd and launched with).
Server Queue Times: Rift had them as well, but I don't think I had to ever spend more than 30mins waiting in queue, it might have been worse and I've just blocked it from memory but I'm pretty dern sure I didn't have to spend 3+ hours in queue.
Server Stability: WTG BW! The game runs great. I haven't seen the servers crash even once yet. I can only assume ppl that are crashing are having PC issues or Internet issues, but the servers have been very stable. Rift on the other hand was a different story. Even after beta and into the live release I can remember them bringing the servers down 2-3 times a night for at least 30mins at a shot and sometimes more for updates. Then it was a race to get logged back into the game before you ended up in queue again.
Polished: Although up until SWTOR I would have called Rift the most polished MMO I've ever played at launch, I think SWTOR has surpassed it. The story line is outstanding. The video quality is great. Lag is non-existent. Very well designed game so far BW (I'll save my final verdict on this for when I hit end-game, I'm still a little skeptical).
So in closing although the queue times are without a doubt unreasonable and need to be addressed, the release as a whole in my opinion is up to par and better on some counts then some of your competitors.
Sorry to compare to Rift again but as it's the most recent BETA and MMO launch I've participated in, its the most fresh in my memory. If you take into account the server bounces 2-3 a night for a min of 30 minutes and 30minute queue times you were losing out 1.5-3 hours play time (assuming you were fast enough to get back in without hitting the queue again). Possibly worse if you ended up back in queue again after every bounce of the servers (ouch).
I think in comparison total down time nightly is comparable to Rift's launch as long as you don't start bouncing the servers every 2-3 hours. But who knows, it might speed things up in the queue by kicking all those players that macroed up so they don't get DC'd from the game.
Ok /my2cents off
Still having a lot of fun with the game all things considered, I just hope the queue time stuff gets figured out quickly
