Hmm. If guilds were already assigned to servers, wouldn't this mean that these new servers being brought online would have no advance guilds on them?

How many games do you think are actually going to copy features like fully (and quality) voice-acted and cinematic quest NPCs and deep companion stories? Probably none except Bioware. These are NOT features that are advancing the genre. They will likely stay mostly unique to one publisher. Dynamic world events? Alternate leveling systems? Rescaling content to make it more accessible to solo/duo players? Fast-paced, dynamic, multiplayer questing on demand with no queues? Rapid content updates? These are the kinds of features that can help drag the genre past it's current deep WoW entrenchment.

Rift is doing more to progress the genre than SWTOR is. Look at their latest feature: the Instant Adventures. Very good thinking, and adds a nice new wrinkle to the MMO genre. Trion is doing a very good job, which I admit has been a pleasant surprise.

It's an MMO. Things that other people do affect you.

Yes, July had heavy pre-orders. But they didn't even make it through July, which means a bunch of those will have to go tomorrow. That's why I don't think they'll reach the end of August unless the number of invites goes up a significant amount. But you know what? If Bioware would actually deign to give us some scraps of info we wouldn't have to make such wild speculation at all. Yes, I realize they won't give actual numbers because they are saving it for a big press splash. But they could tell us "20% were in July, 15% in August, 12% in Sept" etc and then we can make reasonable estimates from there.

Number of pre-orders/players is actually a pretty weak argument. Bioware/EA knew approximately how many pre-orders they would have, so you'd think they would put in the infrastructure to be able to reasonably handle it. People don't let GM off the hook for making shoddy cars because they have to make 10 times as many as a smaller car maker and thus their facilities can't handle the volume. They simply expect GM to add facilities to handle the volume. But the early access method is not even the big problem. The big problem is the lack of communication and setting realistic expectations for the community. I mean, if you did a poll yesterday about what the cut-off date for today would be, how many do you think would say July 27th and earlier? 5% at most? That's mishandled expectations resulting in predictable blowback.

Unless Bioware ratchets up the rate to combat the criticism, I doubt August will even be completed tomorrow.

People being angry means they care. I'll take that over shrugging of shoulders.

Personally, I'm guessing the 14th gets us to near the end of August. The 15th gets us to the end of September. 16th gets us into November. 17th the rest get in.

I don't think they extended early access to do us any favors. I think they extended it because they realized that they needed/wanted more days to get everyone in. 5 days wasn't enough without leaving people truly ticked off at getting in at the eleventh hour as their "early access". I'm guessing now they can take 6 days to get people in instead of 4.

I'm pretty disappointed too. Not just because I have to wait--and I did not expect to get in the first day--but because it seems like they are capable of getting so many more players in than they have. To end the invites by about 2:00 PM EST is just mind-boggling for a genre like this where people are hyper competitive at achieving time-sensitive things and with an IP like this where the anticipation has been built up sky high.

PvPers have a legit gripe, IMO. The race for the "good" character and legacy names is also going to really tick people off when they have to wait a day or two longer than they thought they would.

I have to agree--BW/EA's communication has been subpar for a while now. Not just for the launch, but throughout much of this pre-order/beta period where confusion has seemed to reign supreme about who was getting in, when, what date things were supposed to be delivered, what you actually had to sign up for, etc. I don't think the problem is lack of effort, but lack of coordination, clarity of message, and an understanding of what the playerbase thinks is important.

Actually, the point of the staggered start was not overcrowding (they have shards to take care of that) but to make sure the login and game servers did not have a cardiac arrest as millions of people hit them at the same time.

It's actually because of those sorts of laws that the game isn't launching in NZ (and other places) yet. International compliance is a mighty big headache.

If I wasn't so busy working I'd be playing Skyrim. Still not done the main questline...I keep getting sidetracked. Lvl 48 and I haven't even started the Mage College stuff yet lol.

Did you check your account status? If it looks wrong perhaps call support.

Would you prefer that solution even if it meant getting in a day or two later than you would have otherwise?

Reserving names is one issue. The other is that gamers are often very competitive, and others getting a lot of headstart before them is sure to make their blood boil. The complaining also shows that people are passionate about wanting to play this game. So while annoying, it is a healthy sign. I would be much more concerned if the reaction was "No biggie. I'll get in next week or some day eventually, I guess."

Ensure my kitten gets adequate playing time.

Personally, I can't really think of a reasonable, fairer system than "first come, first served". If you invite at random there you KNOW there will be a bunch poor people who ordered on day 1 but are forced to wait until the final wave, while some fence sitter who pre-ordered last week gets in days ahead of them. That doesn't seem fair to me at all.

Only 4 waves? That can't be right. Why go so long between waves? I know they want to monitor their servers for load, etc, but stopping their invites halfway through the first day seems ridiculously conservative.

Sept 13th here. Wish I paid more attention and pre-ordered as soon as I heard, but I didn't realize that it was first-come first-serve for early access

If it's THAT important to you then watch like a hawk for new server openings and jump ship and get your name.

Not really. On WoW launch many people could barely play the first week.