I have played many games over my years of Gaming (12 MMO's) and I have never seen a game where random wasnt a factor with its customers. yes it was a nice idea for first come first serve, but didnt take into acount of EB Games and others game retailers of sending emails late with codes and such.
As a whole, the customer base does run games and content and should have been voted on with its customer base in how to enter the game with waves in mind. We all paid for the game, with that mind, 1 game does equal basicly 1 vote (or 1 Opinion)
It was nice to see waves going in at certain times of the game to get players moved out of the way for others to come in, but lets face it here, its a 24/7 game. The Waves should keep going. NOT stop at 2 in the afternoon. What are you thinking!!!! To make 50% of its customer base mad cant be good for any Business owner when he/she unlocks it door for its first day of business.
Dont think it was handle well and to have no CSR's talking to its customers in the forums about the issues just makes things worse also. Dont do WHAT SONY did to Star Wars Galaxies!!!!! After they purchased the game.
Learn from what they did, customers pay for you to keep your job... Classic eco 101
All in all, randomizing should have been the way to go.