Okay, Bioware. Time to open a few new servers and offer some character transfers for free to your playerbase. At this point you have to have a pretty good idea what servers are overcrowded. Trying to log into my character only to see I am # 900 with a 1.5 hour wait is not acceptable. I will excuse this for Early Access, but come live...when you are on MY dime...yup, this won't fly. You'll lose this girls subscription before the first 30 are up. This isn't a threat. Why would I pay to play a game I can't actually play? Short lines, fine...but people shouldn't be waiting more than 5 or 10 minutes to get in and play. They are paying people, not freeloaders. So, like I said. Come launch, when it's my time and not yours, I may be the only one who cares, but I won't sit in a line for nearly 2 hours to play your game. If I have to find something else to do waiting to play, I might as well find something else to do altogether. I know it's still early, and I want to be fair but this can't continue after launch. It will kill OUR game, you said it was OURS right? Get some server transfers open, something. Soon. Please. Thanks.

I'd go to Origin, look at your order and make sure it's still pending. There could have been an issue with you payment method. If the order is there, you'll get it. It was supposed to ship today.

You realize you can close the chat window...yes? If you are feeling tortured, then it's self-inflicted. Cheers.

If the flashing is only occuring in combat, it's from a skill you are using. You can figure out which one by watching what you are using when it happens, or if you have a companion it's possible they are using skills on you. You might try lowering your settings and see if things improve. Indoors is nothing, even the weakest PC's can do that without issue. If you are having issues outdoors where the world drawn is much larger, lower your settings down and see if it helps. Then raise one setting at a time, test and continue until you figure out where you should be set. Everyone's system is different, and just because your specs may or may not meet the minimum or receommended, sometimes your system won't run as you think it should. I have seen plenty of systems that shouldn't run a game, run it and vice versa. Systems that should eat it up have to set to medium. Every system is different, even with the same hardware. Cheers.

Each and every server has to be checked. How many servers are there? Yeah...I guess they should just open em up and let people in without testing. Wouldn't you rather it take 4 hours to do a maintenance right than 1 hour with numerous new bugs and crashes? Surely you would.

Funny you link the article but don't read it To quote it: This maintenance is expected to take no more than two hours, but could be extended. Extended means that it could be longer. Any other questions...perhaps reading would answer them. Cheers.

Those numbers can't be right. My brother and best friend BOTH are OCT 15, they both got in already.

Actually, some of those aren't misinformation. Worst launch ever is opinion. Why haven't I been told when I'm getting in is information? I would think they were looking for information. They gave me a serial key, I didn't realize it was my product code. Unless you know for a fact they are lying, this isn't misinformation. It's silly and slightly stupid, but if it's true it's not misinformation. So, I'd say by this account that a good portion of your post is misinformation.

It funny that somoene mentioned Launch day, because that is the part of this whole thing that is not clicking with me. According to my boss, EA expects to see at least 500k players coming in on the 20th. Are they going to stagger them as well? If I paid 60 bucks, minimum, and had to wait two days to play I'd get my money back.... Oh wait...i did that already. Worst part is, for me at least, I entered my Pre-order code on the 29 July. But I am not in yet due to the fact that the automated code system gave that same code to about 12 people. So, since I wasnt't the first to enter it, I was given a new code...but not until December 1st when they caught the error. Sure, i get 30 extra days free game time for my "trouble", but it's bogus that I am not yet...

So their 5 bucks is better than mine? I understand what you are saying, but I have to disagree. What if they play the early Access and cancel the order and never enter a code to play. Many of these day one players will eb 50 tomorrow, if they aren't now. They have "beaten" the game before it even comes out. They paid 5 bucks for it. Now they can move on to something else. I know many won't do that, but just because they got their 5 bucks in first doesn't mean they are more devoted or important to the game.

Many are bluffing, yes. They have this misconception that saying "I quit" will get them what they want. However, the general points is spot on. You don't want to start off the game with the majority of your players ticked off. Let them get into the game and find a bug that sets them back. Or maybe they crash every ten minutes. Where they might have worked through it before, they are too mad to even think about it. They pack up and walk. 5 bucks on a pre-order is nothing, and if they cancel teh order that is all they are out. That word of mouth can be supported by people looking at the forums, and seeing massive amounts of angry folks. Now, many of these people are just impatient and out of line...but some have valid and well thought out posts. One thing MMO players DO expect is fairness, and the majority of those not in the game right now don't feel things are fair. I am not saying I agree, just that they do feel that way. In some ways, I agree...but overall I am fine with the staggering of Early Access. More Communications from BioWare is a must though. They have to learn to talk to us, or this will spell doom in the future. Especially when changes are made, and they always are at some point.

The Servers aren't crashing. It's the player. And that has nothing to do with the Server or the Population of that server. Not a single server has crashed since Early Access started. I know this for a fact. If people are crashing, it is NOT related to the servers.

If the card is empty, it MAY NOT go through. The system will ping your card, to verify it. If they check to see that you have 14.99 available (or whatever amount you choose to purchase at the end of the 30 days), the card MIGHT be rejected. There have been tons of questions on this since they said no grace period, and one person made a good point. He has no CC and would have to buy a GameTime card to continue his sub. However, he wants to use his first 30 days as a "trial" to make sure he wants to pay to play the game. Since he already bought the game, now he has to buy a GameTime card for 20 bucks to even play it, and he shouldn't have to since he gets 30 days free. I can agree with this. I don't understand BioWare's thinking on this matter. But the bottom line is this: When you enter your product code, you will HAVE to enter either a valid CC or a GameTime card to play starting at 12:01 am December 20th. Your 30 days won't matter until you enter one of those. You WILL get yoru 30 days, but you still MUST enter one of the other to even begin playing. Unless they change this in the next couple days, this is the rule right now.

You'd be wrong. You could pre-order from a retailer and never touch this website. I am not defending the OP, just saying, people COULD order and not ever see those disclaimers...depending on where you order. In fact, the Origin website is misleading. I say this and I work for EA support. http://store.origin.com/store/ea/html/pbPage.SWTOR_NA?easid=Origin-SWTOR_Web_Hero_PreOrderNow Read the banner. It clearly reads: Early Access has now started. Pre-order to play. Now, the first line is 100% true, and the seocond is 100% true. But would you assume you had to wait if you read that and clicked through? No. In fact, there is not even an * added leading you to the bottom of the page where it says "YOU MAY GET UP TO 7 DAYS", and that your entry is based upon your code redemption order. There is nothing that leads you down there unless you just decide to scroll down. That is misleading. Sure, the text is there. It clearly explains it, or it should for anyone who hasn't gone full ******. But the fact is still that the banner misleads you into thinking that all you have to do is pre-order now and you are in.

I usually don't get my food first at McDonalds...or back a few years ago when I ate there on occasion. Apparently Chicken takes longer. Anyway, that would be a decent comparison but it's a bit different because McDonalds only takes one order at a time. BioWare took hundreds of thousands of orders. All at once. There was no line to place the order, only a line to recieve. I'm not against staggering the entry. It has probably helped a lot of launch day issues. I am against the lack of communication though. BioWare knew exactly how many pre-orders they had. Exactly how many they were letting in, and the dates of those. Instead of saying something, sooner, they are silent. Leaving people hanging is bad, always. Even if they couldn't say when a group would get into the game, they could have said who HAD been let into the game. This would give people a better idea of when they could expect to get in. Instead, they anger the mob...the forums have been pretty useless so far because the threads are all the same.

Um...taxes?

The only people who are going to complain in the long run are those on a PvP server. They will have to try and level up with people much higher than them already. Since it's launch, this shouldn't really happen. There are some people, I happen to know a few personally, who had already said if they didn't get in by the 14th they would roll a PvE server, because they didn't want to deal with it. They are also the same people who said if they getin by the 14th, they would make sure to "break in the newcomers". They did both get in by the 14th, by the way. And one is already lvl 35 and intending to gank everyone he sees tomorrow when they start coming in. People are jerks like that, sadly. That is my concern for a lot of people who aren't in yet. I know many don't want to roll PvP becuase they don't want to be punished by other players for getting in late. This could be bad for the PvP server Population, honestly. It's in this regard I do see issues with staggering the entrance...but I also understand and know the importance of not just opening the gates. Guess we'll see what kind of impact this has over the coming days.

40k and 4k is not about 50k. It's 44k, in fact it's mathematically closer to 40k. =) Hey, someone had to play math police.

I can guarantee you that every single person who pre-ordered will be allowed to play the game BEFORE the 20th. No one can promise you, however, that it will be tomorrow. Or even Saturday. Even if you get in on the 19th, you still got early Access. Personally, I'd be so miffed that I'd never log in again, but that's just me. Honestly, the majority of the pre-order player prior to December 12th should get in tomorrow. That is the attitude coming from BioWare. It may be that it doesn't happen that way, but that is what they are shooting for. They really want everyone to get 5 days Early Access, which means getting in no later than tomorrow. But those who didn't pre-order until the 12th won't be part of that 5 day group. Why? Because they tallied and planned based on the December 12th numbers. So if you didn't pre-order before the 12th, you are not in the plan. That DOES NOT mean that you aren't getting in, you will, but it won't be tomorrow. Well, it could be, but the odds are greatly against it.

Really? You don't know why WoW? Most successful, in terms of subscriptions, in history. WHen you can pull 12 million people in and get them to pay a monthly fee for a game, you have to want a piece of that. When you compare things you want to compare yours to the most popular, or the best, to see how it stands up. Many won't say WoW is the best...but when you look at the numbers...you have to compare your game to it. Why? Because if they can pull 12 million subs, and keep most of them for a long period of time...you want to know how well you can do in the same market.

In the Warzones...with a team that works together, or at least understands what they are doing..sure, it can be important. But from what I saw, the majority that entered PvP were DPS based. Even with a healer on you full time, DPS can king. Hopefully they are gonna watch this and continue to balance things, becuase I watched a Bounty Hunter Merc go full heal on a Sith Assassin and it was like throwing band-aids at a severed limb. I was used to seeing people got for the healer first, but in this case he just burned the assassin down and nearly got the Merc too. It was very close. That was when I had a huge ? about PvP....

We can start with EA products. Earth and Beyond Motor City Online The Sims Online Others: The Matrix Online Auto Assault Star Wars Galaxies (sure it had a good run, but it IS shut down now) APB (although the did get bought and started up again) Hellsgate London Vampires Brood Online Dungeons and Dragons (also picked up and reopened) Concerto Gate Cross Gate DUngeon Runners Asheron's Call 2 BOTS!! Dark and Light Earth Eternal Fury The Legend of Ares Rubies of Eventide Shadowbane Tabula Rasa The Chronicles of Spellborn All but two of those I played. And most were not Free to Play at Launch, and many not F2P at all.

My opinion is yes. PvP isn't an afterthought, but it wasn't a main thought. From my time in beta...I never found PvP enjoyable. I was on a PvP server, and open world PvP can add a level of excitement sometimes but overall I felt like it was lacking. PvP warzones....didn't find them much fun. However, in the defense of that let me say that many people who PvP'd weren't really working together, and that is not the game's fault. My beef is mainly that your class doesn't have a place in PvP, in my experience. It's going to come down to who can deal teh damage the fastest. That isn't to say that healing and CC don't have a place...but in the overall scheme of things, expect to see PvP filled with DPS classes that are build for maximum damage in the shortest time. That might be your cup of tea, but for me I like to see a variety in PvP. Why even have the force if I can't use it?

BioWare did mimic WoW. They said it in many interviews. You can argue it all you want, but they built this game to be like WoW. That said, I like the game. The storytelling is what makes this game worth playing. The storytelling, or better the method it's done in, is very important to this game. First, it makes you feel more in touch with your character from a roleplaying aspect. Second, you actually know WHY you are out killing 5 slugs for meat. Unlike most games where we just click and go, this game gives you many reasons to know why you are doing things. Third, the cinematic nature of the storytelling helps to break the feeling of grinding. Sure, you are spending hours running around killing aliens to collect certain items, and you are grinding like in most other MMO's, but because you have to take that time out for dialog and story you don't feel that mindless grind like you do in most games. That storytelling is SWTOR's saving grace, but it's also the achilles heel. If you don't like getting wrapped up in the story, you will find little else to appeal to you. The only truly innovative thing beyond the story telling here is the crew skills system. Being able to craft and such without having to stop your adventuring to do so is great. Something other games should look to copy. Beyond these things, most of SWTOR is just like every other MMO out there. Your missions are the same kinds of things, not like anyone expected anything really new there. Although I would like to have had a bounty terminal so my BH could go collect bounties since that is what she is... I think SWTOR is too old school in some ways. Mimicking WoW is okay, overall, but it's an old game. Many other games have done many improvements snice WoW was new...and SWTOR seems to back up a few years in many regards. Not being able to get off your taxi when you want...sorry, lotro spoiled me on that one. Factional classes that are practially identical. Lack of Costume options, where you can have an appearance that doesn't require you to find matching gear all the time. Lack of character customization, overall. These are minor things, though, in the grand scheme of things. But to see a game launch in 2011 without them, seems strange. I am not knocking the game. Every game has PROS and CONS. If you disagree, fine. But that doesn't make my opinion any less valid. Cheers.

What I have to laugh at is the fact that "some queing is to be expected" but they won't just go ahead and let the rest in? Make no sense. If you are going to have Q"s anyway, why hold out? Kind of goes against the whole idea of staggered entry in my opinion. Personally, I am starting to think they are trying to reward those who pre-ordred on day one. Also, those numbers in the waves aren't very close. I have talked to a Bioware employee, and he has said that close to 80% of the pre-order people are invited already, from the world-wide combine.