That information has been on the Pre-order page since day one. It is under the "Game Overview" section of that page where it says: Additionally, it has been in the Pre-Order FAQ since the beginning where it says: It has also been discussed on the forums since pre-orders started. Unfortunately, the forums were wiped just before EGA, but believe me, it was discussed ad nauseum.

By your own admission, you decided that it was worth more to you to wait and see if you wanted to play the game rather than spend the $5 you obviously eventually decided to spend to reserve your place in line. I fail to see how this is Bioware's fault. You did not want to risk that massive amount of $5 until you knew you wanted to play the game. We decided that we were willing to risk the $5 and got in line. I am glad you decided you are interested in the game enough to buy it like the rest of us sheep, but you are just going to have to wait at the back of the flock for your turn at the feed trough. Sorry, but that was your choice. Don't blame Bioware for keeping their word to those of us who played by the rules.

Bogus analogy. Bioware is not taking your money and telling you to come back. They sold you a preorder. The terms of that preorder were that you would get into a staggered entry into Early Access based on the order you registered your preorder code. The appropriate analogy is that if I arrive at your campground having prepaid my camping fee, and there is a line of people who got there ahead of me who also paid their camping fee, I am just going to have to wait my turn for you to assign me my camping spot. I don't get to push ahead in the line to make you wait on me first.

Try again. They have been saying that release would be staggered from the very first moment pre-ordering was opened. That line has been on the preorder page from the very start. I saw it no less than three times when I went through the pre-order process the first day. The information was in the pre-order FAQ, and, if I am not mistaken, that same line was even in the email they sent out announcing pre-ordering. Add to the fact that this has been discussed ad nauseum on these forums since pre-ordering started, and you are simply re-writing history by suggesting this was something only announced in October. Either way, only 100k over the first two days? Yet another re-write of history. At that pace, it would take them approximately 18 days to get the estimated 900,000+ pre-orders from retail stores alone into the game. And given that estimate only includes retail shop pre-orders, not digital or online orders, and even that number is low. Are there now queues showing up? Sure. What MMO doesn't occassionally have them, especially during a release? Did they warn that there would be some queues especially as they near the end of the staggered release? Yes they did. Bt you know what? I able to play since around 7 AM on the 13th, getting in and out of the game a number of times when I have been on, and I have not once had to wait in a queue. The only "fail sauce" is your failure to stick to the facts.

Yeah. He is right. I went to McBurger today, and they had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to make me wait in a line just to place my order. Then once I placed my order, they actually made me wait while they finished cooking people's orders who ordered before me. I may never go to McBurger again.

I am so sick of hearing this "treating people unfairly" fabrication. They have done exactly what they said they would do. They have staggered access to ensure a smooth launch, and they have done that, and they have achieved exactly what they said they would as a result. On the other hand, those whining that they did not get in on day one are the ones demanding special treatment. Those of us who pre-ordered early bought the pre-order with the promise that they were going to stagger entry and ensure a smooth launch. However, those who couldn't be bothered to spend $5 back in July or decided to wait until Beta was over and more information was available are now demanding that Bioware treat us unfairly by allowing them to push to the front of the line. Even worse, they are even saying that they would be happy to put up with server crashes and long queues, inflicting that on the rest of us as well, just so that they can get in the game earlier than they deserve to be based on the conditions of the sale, that entry would be staggered. Rather than feeling angry over some mythical "unfair" treatment for making people wait their turn, you should be feeling disgusted with yourself and with your fellow gamers demanding that they should get special treatment.

I used to think that, but there seems to be a vocal minority of people who have found some ancient codex indicating that "up to" means "at least and probabably more." Go figure.

You didn't do anything for him. Oh ... wait ... you are right. He's welcome.

$14.99 for an average 30 day month works out to 50 cents a day for play time. Two days at 50 cents per day makes $1 of grace time. Are you seriously going to tell me you are whining that you aren't being treated "equally" because someone entering their code at the end of the 2 day grace period is getting $1 of free play time when you did not? Give me a break!

You don't speak for me, so please do not tell them what I, or others, do not mind.

The DDE emails going out have absolutely nothing to do with EGA. Your pre-order code is what gets you into EGA. The codes they are emailing are the Retail keys, which will allow you to continue playing after the game launches (and once you setup a subscription). I ordered the DDE, and I registered my pre-order key on 7/22. I got into the game around 7:00 AM PST yesterday. Obviously, I still do not have the key they are emailing on the 16th yet. They have nothing to do with EGA.

Your pre-order code entitles you to get into Early Access and gives you the color stone once you get in. It does not actually authorize you to get in. See the following: 11.02.2011Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Early Game Access: Ready to patch 07.22.2011Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Digital Deluxe Edition Pre-Order These are two of the keys in my "Code Redemption" section of my account. The bottom line indicates that I registered my pre-order key on July 22nd. The top line is a key that Bioware automatically added when they added the client download. It, I assume, authorizes me to download and patch the client prior to my entry into EGA. Neither of these codes authorize you to actually get into the game. This is an important factor to understand given the rest of your comments. If you have pre-ordered and registered your code, you should have two lines under Code Redemption similar to the above (the dates and editions, of course, would be dependent on what and when you pre-ordered.) You cannot purchase a subscription at this time because you can only purchase a subscription if you have a Retail game key. Without the code from the retail game, you cannot start a subscription. Either way, Early Game Access is part of the pre-order perks, so even if you had your retail key and could start a subscription, your retail key and subcription would not get you into Early Access. See the next point. As indicated above, the keys you have in your account right now qualify you for EGA and to download and patch the client. Neither of them actually authorize you to get into the game. When you get your EGA invite, Bioware will automatically add a code similar to the following: 12.13.2011Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Early Game Access: Ready to play Once that key is in your account, you will be authorized to actually enter the game. Until that key is present, you can install and start the client, but it will just tell you that you do not have an active account/subscription (whatever the actual text is). Once that code is present in your account, that message will go away, and you can enter the game. (Note: If the client is running when they send you the email and add the code, you may have to restart the client and log back in before it recognizes the change.) By the way, the only fiasco about this launch is the way people are making assumptions and setting themselves up for disappointment.

When the length of EGA was announced, they stated it would be 5 days long. When asked, they clarified that people would get a minimum of 1 day. Thus, even before they extened the EGA for two days, there was an indication that the stages of release would take as long as 4 days to complete. Add to that the fact that there are at least 900,000 and possibly 2 million or more pre-orders and that pre-ordering has been going on for almost 5 months. The fact that you only registered your codes 13 days ago means that the vast, vast majority of pre-orders were registered before you. Given all that, why are you even bothering to "hover over your email" during the first two days of EGA? The chances of you getting in before the last wave or two is almost nil, and they have already given indications that it may take as long as 4 days to get every one in. The problem here is your extraordinarily unrealistic expectations, not the way Bioware is handling this.

If "up to" even remotely suggested "a minimum of," you would be correct. However, "up to" says that 5 days is the maximum time available. Thus, "up to," by definition says that some people will get less than the maximum of 5 days. Since they also told you that entry would be staggered based on when you entered your pre-order code and since they warned you to enter you code as soon as possible because of that, believing that you "could possibly get 5 days," especially months after pre-ordering started, is beyond naive. Case in point, my pre-order registration date was the second day after pre-orders opened. Given the massive build up for this game over the last 3 or so years, I assumed that I may not get in until the second day of EGA even before they announced the length of EGA, which was not announced for quite some time after pre-orders opened. So, no, it is not the "definition of misleading." Assuming you would get 5 days when they only said "up to" is dishonest.

I disagree. Contrary to the idea the "customer is always right," the customer is often wrong. When a customer is wrong, will not admit it, and interferes with your ability to solve the problems of other customers no matter how politely you have told them they are wrong and there is nothing that can be done about it, there comes a point at which you must tell them to shove it. It is better to lose that customer than two with a genuine problems.

Ooooh, Oooooh, and after launch, they should do this once a week because, after all, people buying the game after lauch will be at a disadvantage, too. As a bonus, this solves the perpetual problem in MMOs what to do at end game: Relevel your character from the start. Plus, think of all the server space you can save with Alt-o-holics. Their main is their Alt.

Uh ... it is their ball. You can threaten to go home, but you can't take the ball with you. Just sayin'. 12) Once a day, your smuggler should be able to go into any Cantina and shoot Greedo first. 13) In the process of doing 10), you should have the option to be able to right click on Greedo to change him to Jar Jar. If you do, the once a day limit is removed, and everyone in the Cantina can shoot him, too. 14) 12) and 13) are only possible with the /screwthetimeline emote active.

Enforcing rules of conduct equally for everyone is not "censorship."

That is an absolute fabrication. They have always said entry would be staggered, and they have said since they announced how long EGA would be that it would be "Up to 5 days." Since they have said it would be staggered from the start, then, yes, this is exactly what you paid for. This "ruling" has been known since the start of pre-order, and it has been discussed over and over and over again on the forums. They have done nothing against the law.

I think you are only assuming that, because they added 2 days to the beginning, this meant that they were adding 2 days to everyone's play time. It could be that they added 2 days because they decided that, to get all the pre-orders in with a 1 day minimum, they were going to need to start two days earlier. I would hope that adding 2 days would mean that someone who was only going to get 1 day would get more days of EGA, but I don't think that they have every phrased it that way.

I would question your premise. They have always said that entry into Early Game Access (EGA) would be staggered, and they have never stated how long they would take to stagger people into EGA. For quite some time after pre-orders began, they did not even state the length of EGA itself. It was only fairly recently that they announced it would be 5 days, and even then advertised it as "Up to 5 days" clearly indicating that some would not get 5 days of EGA. After the Beta period, they added two more days, and changed the statement to "Up to 7 days." Thus, I question your premise that "The 5 day EGA is still going to happen for everyone." They have never once said that everyone would get 5 days EGA, not once. There is no reason to believe, just because they added two days to the EGA, that this means that they did so to make sure everyone gets 5 days Early Access. If that had been their plan, they would not have needed to change it to "Up to 7 days" Early Access. They could have said "a minimum of 5 days," which they did not. Is it possible that they added 2 days to make sure everyone got at least 5 days? Sure. But it is just as possible that they took stock of how much load the servers could take, calculated the final tally of pre-orders just before EGA and decided they would need 2 more days to stagger everyone in and still get them in so the last people in still had a couple of days (or how many minimum days they intended) of EGA as they originally planned. Thus, it is a bad idea to make the assumption that they are planning on getting everyone in by day 3 so that everyone has 5 days of play in EGA. It might be their plan, but the whole reason they have not given people estimated times of entry was to prevent people from assuming they would get in and then have to deny them entry if things did not go as planned. And as you can tell from the reaction today, assuming is not the best plan.

They stated from the very start of pre-orders that they would be staggering entry into Early Access based on the order in which pre-order codes are registered. Every time they said that, they included a warning to make sure you register early because of that. It was stated on the pre-order pages. It was stated in the pre-order FAQ. It has been discussed over and over and over again on the forums. This is not information that has been kept secret. When they announced the length of the Early Access period, they stated that the whole pre-order period would be 5 days. It does not take a quad core system with 36Gb of Ram and an Excel Spreadsheet to put together that, if they are staggering access and they only have 5 days to do it in, that some people are not going to get in on the first day if they have enough pre-orders. Therefore, it is a given that people pre-ordering later in the process will not get 5 days of Early Access and if that is not enough of a clue, then saying up to cements it. They said what they were going to do, and they are doing it. The thing they are not doing is "meeting" the "expectations" of a bunch of wannabe lawyers who assumed that their pre-order meant they would get in on every minute of Early Access despite the fact that Bioware/EA went out of their way to tell you you might not. Either way, I don't want them to "stick to" their original 5 days. I got in on Early Access this morning despite my assumption that I would probably not get in until tomorrow. If they stick to their "deal" of "up to 5 days," then I am going to miss out on the 7 days of Early Access I will now have. The only unethical behavior going on here is coming from people like you who want to "alter the deal further" because they cannot stand the fact that they did not get in line early enough and would rather have everyone suffer from long server queues and server crashes and instability than to wait their turn and ensure a smooth launch.

Isn't a "monthly" subscription fee, by definition, "in waves"? Just sayin'

Heretic!

If you have not yet received your invite, then there is nothing left to do but wait. If you have received your invite, try closing down the launcher and restart it. If you started your launcher before you got your invite, it read your account codes when you logged in. Before your invite, you are eligible for Early Access, but not authorized to get into it yet. Once you receive your invite, they will automatically apply another code to your account which authorizes you to get into the game (i.e., activates your account). If you logged in before that code was applied, your launcher needs to restart to log you back in and reread your codes. If you have your invite, that is likely all you need to do.