Sad reality of this whole fiasco is they know how many pre orders they have, they know the market anticipation and they're still going with the "well what we want matters, they don't know what they want, WE know what they want" ideology. Vague terminology and such don't hold up under scrutiny, it also doesn't inspire customers to buy your product, stay with your product, or give you a second chance. First impressions are the KEY in any mmorpg. They dropped the ball. I'm still trying to figure out how these new mmorpg teams that come out don't learn anything from the past mistakes of previous ones, or they do learn and yet somehow make the past mistake seem far less worse in comparison.

Federal Income Tax State Income Tax Social Security Everyone who works already hands over more than 10% of their check every month.

Yet people wonder why developers have open betas for their games. Precisely to test situations LIKE "gold release day mass log in" to adjust their software to expect and compensate for it. Limited number inviting in a highly anticipated mmorpg is not very forward thinking, at least not total big picture, they even admitted they have no idea how the severs will act with large population over a week. Well maybe if you had an open beta for a month you'd have gathered that metric data now wouldn't you? I was upset, I don't really care anymore, I just find the logic in doing things differently versus things that have worked in the past to be a bit foolhardy. The whole point of testing is to break the product in every way conceivable, and some you would never think of that testers come up with, so that when you get to this point (pre-release to launch) you don't HAVE to stagger anything. Why buck the system when it works?

I'd care less if they didn't stop at 2pm central time while not even finishing July pre orders. That sets a depressing precedent. Had they not stopped until 5pm I imagine they'd be at November at least. Also makes me a bit worried about their stance on "customer equality", because those who feel special they got in earlier than everyone else are going to rage when game goes live and EA goes "Hah nope, you're just a paying customer, not special at all, go back to paying us money you faceless internet drone". I'm a believer of "All or none", nobody's special, we're all humans, either you work to get everyone in, or you let nobody in. Though I love how Reid said they finished stress testing, at at the bottom he admitted they were still using us to stress test, perhaps an open beta would have given them better metrics.

I lol'd Except in my case it would be "oh, honey, i'm going out for a girls night out, i'll probably won't be home for several days, most probably i'll be very tired when i do come back.." Jedi husband: *stops reading, mulls over words, peers over the edge of the holo-paper* "off to save the galaxy again and show you're a force of good?" Me: "Yes dear, we're going to Tattooine to help free slavers and take down a slave ring" Jedi husband: "well alright, bring me back a color crystal, and something for the kids, they like souvenirs, don't get hurt!" Me: "Always bring back awesome presents, and I won't, you worry to much, it's not like I don't have backup blaster pistols" *kisses on cheek, heads for ship bay*

I can, how about you ASK FIRST, you know there is another person (or are three other people) in that flashpoint besides you, people who pay monthly, and are not virtual bits when the game is closed (They EXIST offline, not in their image in game, but they exist). Common courtesy and manners are far better than just Loot Jawaing on things. Example: Heavy armor with decent tank stats drops, nobody in group is a tank. You: Anyone mind if I roll need for this for my companion? Player C: I don't mind Player D: I want it for mine so we'll need battle Player A: Count me in for the need battle, want it for mine too. And thus three out of four roll need, and bam, whoever gets it gets it. Let's see the other way, the one where you decide to loot jawa. Example: Heavy armor with decent tank stats drops, one player is a tank. You: oooh! *rolls need, tank also rolled need, other two do not* *you get the item* Tank: What the hell, you're a consular! You: But I wanted it for my companion *Group leader kicks you from group* Thus they go on to finish and get better loot, and you get nothing but that piece you selfishly decided to roll on for a companion that was not contributing to that four man flashpoint. Bottom line: Manners, Decency, Courtesy, all these things will probably net you more in the end than "MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!". They're also good things to use in everyday life.

I truly love the people quoting the "you may play up to five days early", who apparently never have seen a company get into hot water (legal or otherwise) when they change the statement, (In this case it's they added two days), which invalidates their previous declaration. If I tell you that I may come pick you up at 2pm, and I show up at 5, the unspoken implication is that I will arrive at 2pm, or at least by 2:30pm, not at 5pm. Also the people who say that once someone gets in they'll be happy, yes they will but they will also RECALL this when they get bored, or an expansion comes out, or anything that makes them pause and think for a few minutes. First impressions are the bread and butter of industry, (as well as social interactions), and once you make that first impression it STICKS no matter how much you try to change it later.

When it became clear to BioWare that they needed to add two days so everyone got at least five, (and I suspect some people still won't get at least five), then it should have become abundantly clear that their staggering plan was going to blow up in their faces. They, which is almost typical of BW from what I've experienced during beta, will probably adapt a bit far too late. Starting two days early and not even getting to August 1st pre-orders isn't exactly a great success, and cutting off staggering on day one of the "extra two days" at 2pm central time, when you pointedly just told all of facebook, and twitter you'd do it "Throughout the day" isn't something that is going to inspire trust in future customers. Except rabid fans, and we know how often they get disappointed when the company fails to meet their expectations. I'm a December key, I lacked the funds to pre order due to having to fight city hall for a trumped up ticket, add in surgery for a family member, my daughters taking sick, and a myriad of other things to happen during the economic pit we're falling into (like my city downsizing a lot of I.T. jobs) and the situation just wasn't there for me to throw money at a gaming company. This does paint a picture of favoritism, sure they can say they advertised it, but we're all equal in we all pre-ordered, shouldn't matter when, just that we did. It also raises the question of "will they do something like this to the playerbase in the future". Nothing is stronger than the anger of an individual who feels slighted at a real or perceived injustice, and an angry customer is one who will probably not only leave, thus negating monthly fees, but badmouth the game as well, resulting in bad publicity and a possible loss of future sales/fees. I can honestly say nobody here would give a Bantha's furry butt if it was the login queue making us all wait, then we'd have an estimated time, and probably go "Well I have to wait in line, like everyone else, but hey, at least it's with everybody else". Psychology at it's finest.

Not quite, DCUO F2P launch was a dev admitted disaster. Then there was APB when RTW had it.. name a wow expansion and you have that Aion's open beta had so many people log in the servers crapped themselves. I can see where they're coming from, except they tested for stress and logins, purposely throttling people and causing up to 3 hour wait times to get into a server during the weekend betas because "we're doing this so we know what to expect for Early Game Access and Launch", did they lose all their metrics?

So exactly WHAT was all that stress testing and PURPOSELY THROTTLING SERVER LOG IN TO TEST QUEUES for then? An experiment into how much they can make people rage? Word of mouth is a POWERFUL advertising tool, and they haven't even finished July. Imagine what that percentage of those who didn't get in (I didn't, I don't care, I registered late and have other games to play) are now tweeting, facebooking, blogging, texting and calling their friends to express their anger at what is arguably the most inane access plan ever conceived? Couple that with BW's vague statements and not telling people BEFOREHAND even a rough estimate, I mean if you can tell us when we would get in and what time during the weekend betas and final beta a week beforehand you could tell us now. They just fear any negative opinion this close to launch, it's a "playing the cards close to the vest" tactic that is actually doing the reverse if they want positive opinion. Gamers are prone to rage, well most of them, one only has to look at the DCUO F2P week distaster, or Aion's open beta disaster, or any of the wow after big expansions disasters to see how fast negative opinion can spread before they can spin it.

I'll let you believe that. Despite having paid $20 to get into "massives", hell the prices still range between $5 and $25, sometimes $180 if you're going to South Florida events. Not to mention paying for movies, etc. $5 these days is a pack of smokes, or a 1.78 gallons of gas where I live, it's money, doesn't matter how much, it was still paid. I'm not mad about waiting, I'm just mad they quit after six hours, and didn't even get through July, which sets a very sombre prediction for tomorrow and Thursday. I don't even want to imagine the 20th, I mean ideally NOW would be the best time to test "Everyone log in at once and see if the login server can handle it" instead of the day the game goes LIVE, since they didn't even do that with their stress test. Ah well, they'll learn, and hemorrhage capital gain in the process.

Y'know their facebook said "Throughout the day", call me crazy but 8am-2pm is not "The day" in fact "The Day" doesn't end for most working people until around 5pm their time zone. Hell it's noon in California, it's only 2pm here and you decide to stop? Well, we'll see how fast they get people in once the negative reviews start, hell they've already started, this is now approaching "DCUO f2p Day" levels of idiotic ideas.

I hate to inform you, Comrade, but right now it is school time for the "Kids" and they aren't off for Christmas break yet. So it's adults that are complaining. Adults who paid, and who some were not told about a staggered entrance policy. Which I have to honestly wonder, if they're staggering now because they don't think their servers can take 2 million logging in at once, what the hell is going to happen when the 20th hits and we get people who couldn't afford to pre-order ON TOP of those who did, all logging in?

Ah I love hurry up and wait! I still boggle at the "Army of One' campaign my branch decided to run, really, did nobody think to look up what the definition of an "Army" is? Think I'll go find a box of grid squares while I wait.

Allow me to poke a few holes in that bet. I'm a CoH player, I played Most of nc korea's developed games, I was there for Aion's launch server DOOM, I'm still impatient. First time I've heard of staggered "Waves" for a early game access. Closed beta, sure, Open beta, eh..sometimes, but after someone's already put down a deposit on your product, ...not cool, not cool at all. That said I can go play through ME 2 again, or finish Sonic Generations, maybe get in some more Blacklight Retribution gaming in. The negative publicity from this alone is going to bite BW in the *** once it's all over, I don't know who helped push the decision but when you have thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of customers frothing at the mouth on early access day, the worst thing you can tell them is "Hey, we let some people in, But not you, and we're not going to tell you when you can get in, so don't make any plans, put that life of yours on hold and refresh your email, after all WE'RE more important".