What grade would you give Bioware today?

[TyrantLeader]

F... INCOMPLETE... can't decide which is more appropriate.

 

1) if you stress tested servers in beta you know what they are capable of. Then you go out and buy enough servers for all the preorders and a healthy amount of buffer for new orders. then you keep adding more servers as you stress them.

2) you don't delete the only thread where people were directed all morning and afternoon for feedback (complaints) regarding your screwed up system of stopping invites at wave 5 and testing for the rest of the night?... how much testing is going on at night? Did you atleast invite same number of people from europe as us so that servers get used 24/7 instead of 8-10 hrs of peak time.

3) you are 6 days now from "Launch" even though today is launch... you don't know how to configure your servers before preordering...

4) bah... its useless you probably will delete this thread or warn me for complaining...

[Nuanil]

F- if only for the sudden lobotomy of customer support/

[Thulian]

I'd have to say a D.

Poor, very poor customer service.

Early Game Access issues where people who have preordered and activated cant play before others who did so more than a month later.

Game did look good and ran very smooth for me in Beta so...D

[Diablo_the_lord]

I liked reading the first couple of pages of posts. The fanboys are hilarious.

 

I give them a C-. Not an F because people are actually playing, but not a C or higher because they let in such a small amount of people and arn't communicating.

[DarthGir]

Easy . . A.

 

I was in 3 betas, the game launches next week, and I might get to play this week as a bonus.

 

On top of all of that, the pre-launch forum entertainment has not disappointed. Carry on.

[IAmYourGod]

F for treating us who pre-ordered late like we're just trash.

[Falfour]

All the people saying "F-" "F+" "F - Incomplete" are all just mad that they didn't get in today. Been following the game for months now, and I believe Bioware has done an outstanding job. Stress test beta, they gave everyone an extra day due to the "Gray Play button issue", they gave us 2 Extra days for Early Access, (For the true fans who decided to pre-order right away, and yes, they do deserve it.), and overall, I'd give them a B+. Sure they have some glitches (exploits), problems, and bugs and whatnot, but that's probably why they extended early access 2 days - they want this to take the form of a Beta, to make sure the game is exploit free day of launch. Not every bug will always be found, and new ones will arise. to all the haters, shut the hell up, deal with it, you'll get your earlyl access and you will receive UP TO 5 DAYS, like they previously promised.

[BrianDavion]

they'd get a N/A from me, I checked my email this morning, saw well.. nothing, so I went and did something else.

[Jaku]

F for treating us who pre-ordered late like we're just trash.

 

They did state pretty clearly that getting into early access depended on when you put the pre-order code in.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Jaku

[Warminded]

I would not be so quick to put all the blame on Bioware. I think the decision to release both SWTOR Early access and Battlefield 3 Expansion on the same day caused some major overlooked issues. The servers that were failing today were Origin's Authentication servers or the servers used to accept your username and password.

 

I preordered at the end of July so was playing Battlefield 3 expansion this morning to kill the time. Jump over to play a little starcraft because i'm getting antsy and have to play a game which i can't just alt+tab to email every time i die. Then when I go back to play BF3 i cant log into origin to boot the game...

 

Was freaking out quite a bit because people had authentication issues which were posted all over the EA forums not relating to origin crashing, after trying all resolutions posted (including restoring my Windows to a previous point), i then found out speaking with an EA customer rep (who called me surprisingly ~3 mins after I asked for help online) that because the SWTOR launch today Origin was receiving extremely high traffic and was failing. I asked him about the SWTOR launcher being not a part of origin since you don't use origin to boot the game but he explained that origin still deals with authentication.

 

So this caused a authentication server crash and if you couldnt boot the origin executable, you cant play BF3. So both games on one day having big personal priority between two vastly different, but very massive communities and I think this led Bioware/EA to have to limit some of it's traffic today and might be why they called it quits early.

 

P.S. It was so funny to see both communities rage on their respective forums. The BF3 threat was of course to go out and buy MW3 LOL.

 

P.S.S i'm not in yet either. But as far as grades go, more communication/order would have been nice. But they set priorities for what their launch experience was supposed to be like for the player in game. And they are meeting those goals. So A-.

[Painson]

Let me get this rolling with a solid F.

 

Poor peformance. People on these forums dont seem to like Bioware at the moment, that is going to hurt you on your peer eval. Lack of Effort, put in a minority of the population today then decided to go home. Really ... you have some "team" working 24/7 and they are "busy" "working" right now? Come on, show some respect to people they have brains. You dont chill for 18 hours and say you are hard at work.

 

I hope Bioware tries harder in the future.

 

Everybody that is complaining has had all the information that they're saying they haven't had for at least five months now. It is YOUR own fault that you're not privy to all the information that nearly everybody is taking for granted. I hope you don't play, I don't think I could take reading your whinny posts for the rest of the time I'm playing this game.

 

Bioware gets an A for delivering a quality product, before its due date and for following through with their promises. YOU COMPLAINERS get an F for life because you can't read.

[Loniki]

F for several reasons.

 

1) It was fine for the less than 10% who got to play but the other 90% plus have no clue how long this waiting cue will last. It is also my guess many feel somehow BW will mess it up as they have not really instilled a lot of confidence out here...

 

2) Dispite pre-ordering months in advanced, the only ones assured absolutely of being able to play on the 20th are either in Europe or ordered digitally. Dispite how this staggered launch goes, we could have hundreds of thousands locked out next tuesday regardless of when they ordered or pre-launched.

 

3) Total lack of reliable communications and flip flops on important matters like grace periods and pre-orders. Now less than a week from "official" launch and all these questions remain unanswered.

 

4) The only ones responding to questions on this board seem to be self appointed BW defenders whose comments mean nothing. Their response to everything is just to insult everyone who does not agree everything is just peachy.

[kjarahz]

No grade to give as I can't do much as of yet.

 

From the beta I give it a pretty solid B+ however.

 

Some appear to be upset regarding the early access. I understand the complaints but it's just not going to help. I played the beta to sway my opinion of the Star Wars IP. I'm looking for something new and didn't know it would be SWTOR until the beta.

 

I'm quite behind on the pre-order front. I don't think I'll get in any time soon to be honest. I'm upset but not going to fill the forum with useless 'Aww I paid etc etc.' Won't help. It's a wait and try to be productive time.

 

Also those that have played beta or live take the time to realize MMO's do not grow up and become fully fleshed out for a long time. WoW has had 7 years to get as streamlined and polished as it is.

 

The Dev team seems to be looking to implement really good features. Just understand you can't have everything at launch. Core things need to be fixed/finished. Polish and other features that were pushed back come with time.

 

MMO's can't be graded for many month's in my opinion for this reason.

 

Seems like I can't even enjoy reading about things I like on forums these days. Forums are apparently for people that just want to voice their hate not have a decent chat about things they are passionate about. Obviously the community isn't upset as a whole generally the forums attracts the loudest and the most opinionated. Wish we could switch it around a bit...

[Dennace]

A+

 

I've been in 15-20 major game launches and all of them have been a massive server crashing rush; that includes non-MMO games where login servers effectively got DDoS'd by people trying to log in.

The next day or 2 were spent restarting servers, disconnecting and fighting over monsters in starter zones.

 

Bioware cured this issue with the steady release.

 

Plus all these kids whining on the forums about not getting in early is extremely amusing for me and my friends who are laughing our asses off on IRC.

I don't even need early access; the forums are entertaining enough.

[Darinford]

I'm a little sad that I might not get to level with some of my guildmates. A little frustrated that I don't know what day I'm getting in.

 

I'd give them a C- for not telling me at least what wave I'm scheduled for. At least then I could co-ordinate with my guildmates a little better.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Darinford

[Slvc]

This is ridiculous. I'd give them a B- because of their enthusiasm, effort and support. I'm not in the early access, and I understand why they're doing it.

 

1) Incentive to preorder

2) Discover bugs before the official official launch

3) To ease the servers into the huge amount of customers

4) Stuff I don't know

 

This is probably the most active development team I've seen in a while. They're actually explaining what they do, they respond directly to questions, and they're trying new things while keeping what works in other MMOs. The reason they're not an A is because their web site is hard to navigate on certain occasions.

[HooblaDan]

A+.

 

Let me explain the bias that I'm coming from before going into further detail.

 

I have had no technical issues today beyond a brief error window that had no discernible cause or effect. I have had no queues. My server pop seems just right. I got into early access first day. Obviously today has been good for me. I do not mean to discount others' complaints, but I'm going to speak from my perspective.

 

This is the smoothest early game launch experience I have had, and I have participated in countless beta tests and launches. So far this runs better, is less buggy, and has a higher level of polish than any mmo at release that I have seen. Money and time invested seem to have had great results.

 

The game so far seems like WoW in the Star Wars universe but with more polish, wonderful voice acting, and a compelling, personal narrative to drive the experience forward. It's beautiful. That storytelling is plenty enough innovation for me.

[CodeFire]

I have to give this a solid A. I think they have done a pretty good job with making this a smooth launch. They fixed up the Amazon issue, and other issues with other retailers. Not all of the retailers are cooperating yet, but nothing is perfect.

 

However, I still say they should have done a grace period. At least a small one.

 

This has been the best, and smoothest, launch I have ever seen.

Edited December 14, 2011 by CodeFire

[Painson]

F for several reasons.

 

1) It was fine for the less than 10% who got to play but the other 90% plus have no clue how long this waiting cue will last. It is also my guess many feel somehow BW will mess it up as they have not really instilled a lot of confidence out here...

 

2) Dispite pre-ordering months in advanced, the only ones assured absolutely of being able to play on the 20th are either in Europe or ordered digitally. Dispite how this staggered launch goes, we could have hundreds of thousands locked out next tuesday regardless of when they ordered or pre-launched.

 

3) Total lack of reliable communications and flip flops on important matters like grace periods and pre-orders. Now less than a week from "official" launch and all these questions remain unanswered.

 

4) The only ones responding to questions on this board seem to be self appointed BW defenders whose comments mean nothing. Their response to everything is just to insult everyone who does not agree everything is just peachy.

 

you guys don't get it at all do you?

[DjJazz]

A

 

Reason: Because I'm so used to the beta wave handout for the Firefall beta that this isn't new (even though I got into the first beta wave, but thats not the point.)

 

Obviously Bioware was thinking about their online buyers (and by online buyers I mean those who choose to download their game from the site rather than wasting $70 extra dollars on a box with a statue included. So I have no pity for those who chose a hard copy over a digital.)

 

You guys wanted to play, this is what they gave you. Be happy they even considered an early launch.

[Hanselmugatu]

A-

 

When I get that access email though, some time in the next week it will go to an A.

 

I enjoyed what I saw during the weekend tests.

[grinningsabre]

A

 

My thoughts:

 

If you plan to play this game at all long term, what are a few days?

 

I can hear it now years from now: "I missed that one day of early access and it destroyed my entire ability to play!"

Edited December 14, 2011 by grinningsabre

[darth-everwind]

A+ Great launch; I only had one problem so far. Also, I never thought I'd ever be happy to get a cold, until I called in sick unexpectantly today and found out--about midday--I could play.

[Loniki]

Everybody that is complaining has had all the information that they're saying they haven't had for at least five months now. It is YOUR own fault that you're not privy to all the information that nearly everybody is taking for granted. I hope you don't play, I don't think I could take reading your whinny posts for the rest of the time I'm playing this game.

 

Bioware gets an A for delivering a quality product, before its due date and for following through with their promises. YOU COMPLAINERS get an F for life because you can't read.

 

You are the problem. See people have the right to ask questions or complain about things, but they are not talking to you, they are looking for an "official" response. People like you take it upon yourselves to answer for bioware as their spoke person and quite frankly make BW look like jerks who don't care what their customers have to say. But your not alone... like that makes anything better...

[milktheinfamous]

F

 

I knew they were going to stagger EA but not on a HOURLY timescale. Also I kinda hoped they looked at early access more as a time in which the game can have issues but people complaining have no grounds because its a gift just for them to be online at all, not as a way to pussyfoot around so that your precious servers don't crash once (seriously this is what your paying engineers for, or maybe you let them go home and play the game since your gonna make sure theres NO POSSIBLE NEED for them to come to work that day) and you can get a shinny ribbon for being the smoothest launch ever. So scared of things messing up they screwed the customer instead.

 

I'll be 30 levels behind my old buddies by the time they let me in. Not that I would have had much chance of playing with them anyways, what with the weirdass staggered release.

 

How can you forget the most important part of an MMO, playing it with your guildies and friends.

 

Furthermore all that really matters is that everyone suffers the same pain at the same time... so the server goes down, you go and do something else and when you come back there's that wonderful chance that you'll get in a few solid hours of gaming in when they come back up... its to be expected that things wont work that great the first day. But everyones dealing with it at the same time and its an even playing field.

 

And seriously everyone that got into the game today gives them an A, big surprise there. Dont think that makes for alot of bias when the majority of other people didnt get to play do you?

Edited December 14, 2011 by milktheinfamous