Complaints regarding EGA: The truth

[Jaqaliah]

In all fairness, it could say casn or even will , the key words are UP TO ano YOU WILL GET 5 DAYS EARLY ACCESS was never used,

The problem is this wording does not distinguish between who gets to choose. When I am told I can pick up my dry-cleaning up to 5 days before X date, then it will be thrown out - I know that I can walk in on my own schedule within that 5 days. It is My Choice. Early Game Access was not properly defined. They should not have said,"may get up to 5 days early access;" Instead, they should have said,"We intend to start making access available through limited group invitations during the 5 days prior to launch." Then in any invitations sent out earlier than that stated, "We are running ahead of schedule and passing on the good fortune to our favored customers on a first come first serve basis according to when we received registration of your pre-order. Congratulations and please enjoy the game."

 

But then I have a degree in Public Relations. It is easier for me to see when my kind of work has been poorly crafted.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Jaqaliah

[Baulson]

I woke today, thinking maybe I'll get a chance of getting invited to early game access. I am a December pre-order person by the way. Reading forums and saw all the arguments. This is great entertainment while waiting.

[Gobrot]

What's funny as well - The game time is free, but some people are so stupid they believe they paid a 'fee' for it, rather than a deposit .

 

A deposit you get back

[Gobrot]

it was as productive as saying a deposit requires money, what you don't seem to understand is that irregardless of you paying the deposit or not you would still have to pay that £5 later on at release without a preorder as it is deducted off the final price. The reason I didn't explain this in my first post is that I found your original one so completely useless that I decided to offer you something similar back in hope of making you realise you initial error.

 

 

Then it's not a deposit it's a downpayment 2 totally diferent things.

[jebusab]

The problem is this wording does not distinguish between who gets to choose. When I am told I can pick up my dry-cleaning up to 5 days before X date, then it will be thrown out - I know that I can walk in on my own schedule within that 5 days. It is My Choice. Early Game Access was not properly defined. They should not have said,"may get up to 5 days early access;" Instead, they should have said,"We intend to start making access available through limited group invitations during the 5 days prior to launch." Then in any invitations sent out earlier than that stated, "We are running ahead of schedule and passing on the good fortune to our favored customers on a first come first serve basis according to when we received registration of your pre-order. Congratulations and please enjoy the game."

 

But then I have a degree in Public Relations. It is easier for me to see when my kind of work has been poorly crafted.

 

If you read late on the post I did state that bioware said for preorders would be detremined by a first come first serve basis, and the 5 days early acces was to let all the people wanting know how long they would get was told close to last beta weekend, they were clear from the beginning.

 

 

 

You know what I find strange I have been on and off the forums the past year and more so when pre order announced and I cannot remmebr many if any posts complaing about the first come first serve method of early acces everyone was just excited and happy to pre order the game were happily awaiting announcements of the actual release date and then it was when does early acces start/ how long do we get. Now they may have used UP TO 5 DAYS, but I redirect to the earlier comment from pre order announce day when you eneter your code determines when we let you access the game early.

Edited December 15, 2011 by jebusab

[Murdersauce]

listen..its a mmo, its launch time , people QQ, its the nature of the beast but look at it this way...as a veteran of mmo launches i think i can say with some element of truth that if all people are QQ-ing about is when they get in game and the small print on the EA, then bioware have done themselves proud with this mmo...any remember star trek online launch?...now that was QQ fest...lol.

 

i think the majority of QQ trolls come from San Diego. people complain about everything there, and when it rains, it makes 120 car pile-ups.. can you say dumbie?

[Dasffion]

Im sorry if a majority of your customers are upset then there is obviously some truth to hteir claims. I see more people "complaining" than people supporting them.

 

The complainers are ALWAYS more vocal than the supporters.

[HangmanBones]

The complainers are ALWAYS more vocal than the supporters.

 

yes, how dare people have a legitimate gripe with a confusing business practice that many know is not for legitimate server reasons without proper communication of a timeline. we should sit in our corner and have no voice. the game is instanced and will need to be taken off the training wheels at launch, having 3 days of training wheels time doesn't let servers fill properly. several people have called playing the game a ghost town and it "feels like a dead game". If bioware wants this to be some peoples first impressions of the game they have succeeded.

[Dasffion]

Here is where you fan boys and your HORRID logic fails:

 

If I pre ordered, and paid money, I paid for the incentives LISTED on the Pre Order deal.

 

The INCENTIVES being:

 

EARLY ACCESS

MY COLOR STONE

AND EVERYTHING ELSE LISTED ON THAT LIST THAT YOU CAN ONLY GET FOR PRE ORDERING.

 

If this wasn't the case, WHY would I even have bothered to pre order to begin with?

 

You are correct but show me where it guarantees you'll get x number of days.

 

And they said there will be ques today SHOWING you that STAGGERED RELEASE is NOTHING more than a GIMMICK that was NEVER going to work anyways.

 

Come the 20th, this will be SHEER proof of that.

Did you read the entire post about the queues? It's to make sure that each server has a healthy population. If you can't understand that this is a good thing I don't know what to say to you.

[ElSpaniard]

If this has already been said then I'm just resaying it. Haven't read it anywhere but I just couldn't keep reading all of these posts and replies. Oh and I didn't write this with a *****y or a self-righteous tone or anything like that.

 

People... The wording wasn't made to fool you. It was to provide some information without going into full detail of what the plan was. If you didn't understand it before you pre-ordered, well then sorry but now for the future you will do differently right?

 

Now what would be the alternative to what they are doing right now. Let everyone in on day one as soon as it is available right? What would happen then? A frenzy of people joining servers. Some would be filled to the max with huge wait times and people complaining about having to wait to join a server and how Bio wasn't ready, while some servers would be left almost empty.

 

What they are doing now is letting some in and checking the servers, then letting more in and checking servers, then opening new servers so the next people can get in without huge wait times. So in both scenarios people would be complaining.

 

Which of these two though would be a better organization of server capacity for a business trying to have a smooth launch (dec. 20th) for a mmorpg? I think we can all agree what they are doing now is better.

 

And please dont try to say, "thats what the beta was for." That was not what the beta was for. Because if it was they wouldn't of wiped the servers clean.

 

I understand that most of you are upset that you aren't getting to play right now. But you gotta believe that if they did not do the EGA this way you would probably be here complaining that your wait times are way too long and that you want your money back.

 

I am not saying any of this to upset people. Just to maybe help some understand what is going on. But I understand that some people will be upset and make some remark about it.

 

Laters.

[ExiledOne]

Yeah...healthy population, this is only being done so they will be sure their servers stay up as they have admitted they have done no high population vs longevity testing.

 

Also from how they do invites and the EGA waves, they've done no mass entrance at once testing, on release/retail day something's going to break.

[csebal]

Alrighty then lemme start off by saying those of you complaining, do you really even intend on using your brain? You're literally complaining about not being able to play the game 1-7 Days earlier, but do you even know that there is MANY years to come where you can play the game? You should be glad they are even offering EGA to you.

No.

I could be complaining because I'm not able to play the game at the same time other have, despite having paid the same amount of money.

 

I could be complaining because I'm not able to play with my friends.

 

I could be complaining because I was not being able to be there when the first quests were done or the first enemies were killed. Even though I have had an active preorder at that time.

 

I could be complaining because I'm put days behind certain people effectively robbing me of opportunities that come from reaching certain points first.

 

I could be complaining about them offering the already false probability of me getting up to 5 days of headstart at the time of my preorder, when for me it was never a real chance to happen.

 

I could be complaining about you and people like you ignoring the obvious and talking down to frustrated people who are rightfully pissed off for being treated in an outrageous way that you might have never seen from the industry in the past.

 

I could be complaining, but quite frankly, I just see no point in it. I'm merely supporting the points others make about things not being right the way they are.

 

Read the message itself correctly and it CLEARLY says ''You >>>MAY<<<(As in MAYBE) get up to 5 days'' It does not say you will most certainly be granted 5 days. Thus rendering all of your complaints a waste of time really.

The up to 5 days statement might mean a lot. Nobody would have complained, if they say were to decide to postpone headstart until saturday and then everyone only gets 3 days of headstart. This is not the case however. In fact, the headstart was started ahead of schedule, at least for some.

 

What surprised many (and no matter how you keep pointing at the fine print, if it managed to surprise that many, it only means that they were successful at hiding it) was the way the headstart was staggered. People do not like to be second (or third, fourth, or last even). It was not made obvious enough, that the date you preorder will beinfluencing the length of your headstart and as such many people were feeling cheated (and rightfully so) when they realized that they get about half the headstart others were getting.

 

Also people were upset, because this stupidity managed to rip apart and split up the community into segments depending on what wave they were in. I will get into the game friday evening. My friends are playing since tuesday. What do you think are the chances of me catching up with them?

 

Should I blame them for urging me to preorder so that we can play together, or should I blame the company for proving their technical incompetence by choosing the easy way out of a situation that other players manage to solve properly.

 

I personally choose to blame noone, as that will not help me in any way, but it would be interesting to see a valid answer to that question.

 

Note: I am not complaining about the complainers, just felt i needed to see if anyone could break through and make them think a little bit.

It is a little funny how you are talking down to people like that. It is you who should lean back and think a little before talking nonsense.

 

Again you have YEARS to come where you can play SW:TOR so 7 days aint gonna end your life.

The early day in an MMO might be just what you need to ensure a dominant position. Do not underestimate the advantage of being ahead of the bulk of players in terms of quests and stuff. I would easily have been in the top 5% of the playerbase, allowing me rather easy progression throughout the game. Instead I will now have to wade waves and waves of players and even though I draw ahead of my own wave, i will have 4 days worth of players ahead of me to catch up to, ensuring that I will always end up being in crowded areas. :/

 

No.. no matter how you spin it, when we sign up for a headstart, we usually do it to be ahead of the others, or at least to get a chance to be ahead of the others.

[DangerBoyce]

I must agree, wouldn't testing a few mass waves be beneficial? The game is going to go live soon and .... what happens then? That is a part of what this is all about, surely? Can it cope without totally crashing?

 

And as some people have said we all paid the extra 5 coins for the early release, I would have liked to have got the same deal as everyone else. I'm not crying about it but it wasn't made clear to me when I ordered that there would be waves and essentially I would be in the last one. I would probably still have pre ordered, but at least I wouldn't have had hopes of being among the first players into the live game...

 

Still. Good things come to those who wait, right?

[Dasffion]

The problem is this wording does not distinguish between who gets to choose. When I am told I can pick up my dry-cleaning up to 5 days before X date, then it will be thrown out - I know that I can walk in on my own schedule within that 5 days. It is My Choice. Early Game Access was not properly defined. They should not have said,"may get up to 5 days early access;" Instead, they should have said,"We intend to start making access available through limited group invitations during the 5 days prior to launch." Then in any invitations sent out earlier than that stated, "We are running ahead of schedule and passing on the good fortune to our favored customers on a first come first serve basis according to when we received registration of your pre-order. Congratulations and please enjoy the game."

 

But then I have a degree in Public Relations. It is easier for me to see when my kind of work has been poorly crafted.

 

Since pre-orders have been available we've known that EGA will be based on the order in which we redeemed our pre-orders. It was properly defined. They're doing exactly what you said they should.

[Dasffion]

yes, how dare people have a legitimate gripe with a confusing business practice that many know is not for legitimate server reasons without proper communication of a timeline. we should sit in our corner and have no voice. the game is instanced and will need to be taken off the training wheels at launch, having 3 days of training wheels time doesn't let servers fill properly. several people have called playing the game a ghost town and it "feels like a dead game". If bioware wants this to be some peoples first impressions of the game they have succeeded.

 

What does this have to do with what I said?

[Dasffion]

I must agree, wouldn't testing a few mass waves be beneficial? The game is going to go live soon and .... what happens then? That is a part of what this is all about, surely? Can it cope without totally crashing?

 

And as some people have said we all paid the extra 5 coins for the early release, I would have liked to have got the same deal as everyone else. I'm not crying about it but it wasn't made clear to me when I ordered that there would be waves and essentially I would be in the last one. I would probably still have pre ordered, but at least I wouldn't have had hopes of being among the first players into the live game...

 

Still. Good things come to those who wait, right?

 

You seem to have a good attitude about this so pardon for using your post but...

 

You paid the extra 5 coins for early release and you will get it. It was clear if you read everything that it HAD to be staggered. Why else would they put "The order in which you purchase and redeem your Pre-Order Code is the order in which you will gain early access to the game, prior to official launch day."? It's just common sense.

[ElSpaniard]

No.

I could be complaining because I'm not able to play the game at the same time other have, despite having paid the same amount of money.

 

I could be complaining because I'm not able to play with my friends.

 

I could be complaining because I was not being able to be there when the first quests were done or the first enemies were killed. Even though I have had an active preorder at that time.

 

I could be complaining because I'm put days behind certain people effectively robbing me of opportunities that come from reaching certain points first.

 

I could be complaining about them offering the already false probability of me getting up to 5 days of headstart at the time of my preorder, when for me it was never a real chance to happen.

 

I could be complaining about you and people like you ignoring the obvious and talking down to frustrated people who are rightfully pissed off for being treated in an outrageous way that you might have never seen from the industry in the past.

 

I could be complaining, but quite frankly, I just see no point in it. I'm merely supporting the points others make about things not being right the way they are.

 

 

The up to 5 days statement might mean a lot. Nobody would have complained, if they say were to decide to postpone headstart until saturday and then everyone only gets 3 days of headstart. This is not the case however. In fact, the headstart was started ahead of schedule, at least for some.

 

What surprised many (and no matter how you keep pointing at the fine print, if it managed to surprise that many, it only means that they were successful at hiding it) was the way the headstart was staggered. People do not like to be second (or third, fourth, or last even). It was not made obvious enough, that the date you preorder will beinfluencing the length of your headstart and as such many people were feeling cheated (and rightfully so) when they realized that they get about half the headstart others were getting.

 

Also people were upset, because this stupidity managed to rip apart and split up the community into segments depending on what wave they were in. I will get into the game friday evening. My friends are playing since tuesday. What do you think are the chances of me catching up with them?

 

Should I blame them for urging me to preorder so that we can play together, or should I blame the company for proving their technical incompetence by choosing the easy way out of a situation that other players manage to solve properly.

 

I personally choose to blame noone, as that will not help me in any way, but it would be interesting to see a valid answer to that question.

 

 

It is a little funny how you are talking down to people like that. It is you who should lean back and think a little before talking nonsense.

 

 

The early day in an MMO might be just what you need to ensure a dominant position. Do not underestimate the advantage of being ahead of the bulk of players in terms of quests and stuff. I would easily have been in the top 5% of the playerbase, allowing me rather easy progression throughout the game. Instead I will now have to wade waves and waves of players and even though I draw ahead of my own wave, i will have 4 days worth of players ahead of me to catch up to, ensuring that I will always end up being in crowded areas. :/

 

No.. no matter how you spin it, when we sign up for a headstart, we usually do it to be ahead of the others, or at least to get a chance to be ahead of the others.

 

I think maybe you need to relax a bit? Sounds like you are quite the mmo person so I am quite confident you can get up to the top 5% within the week bud. But come on...arguing what is fair just gets tiring. Such is life my friend. That's why you always gotta think about what is better in the long run eh? "Fair" for everyone and causeing a **** storm of people trying to get in and rush out to the lead, or just take it step by step.

 

This is all over being able to play a mmo first, could you guys imagine if it was over something actually important? Jeez...I'd hate to think how heated that could be.

[DangerBoyce]

Well I see it now, but you have to look for the information, I didn't realise it until coming onto the forums. To be honest buying it on Origin baffled me at first, because I was looking on Origin to download the game... Turns out there's a link to the client elsewhere. It was an eventful hour or so

 

It just felt a bit like some information that should have been displayed outright and clearly when you add the game to your basket or something. I guess I didn't spend the time to click every single tiny question mark on the screen.

[TotalProBear]

The clarity is the problem. SWTOR has been marketed heavily over the last few weeks/months. And there is very little explaining how the EGA will work @ any point during the pre-order process, via swtor.com.

 

I believe this is the reason many of the people who pre-orded the game later, are annoyed. The Pre-order itself was advertised, marketed, and sold suggesting that you would get 5 days of EGA. It did not explain that 2million pre-orders had been made before you and that they would stagger the EGA over 7 days allowing 300k people in each day. Had they done this a lot less people might have pre-ordered, and paid more of a digital copy of the game + fees than they would have buying a physical retail copy.

[Vialator]

Alrighty then lemme start off by saying those of you complaining, do you really even intend on using your brain? You're literally complaining about not being able to play the game 1-7 Days earlier, but do you even know that there is MANY years to come where you can play the game? You should be glad they are even offering EGA to you.

 

Read the message itself correctly and it CLEARLY says ''You >>>MAY<<<(As in MAYBE) get up to 5 days'' It does not say you will most certainly be granted 5 days. Thus rendering all of your complaints a waste of time really.

 

Note: I am not complaining about the complainers, just felt i needed to see if anyone could break through and make them think a little bit.

 

Again you have YEARS to come where you can play SW:TOR so 7 days aint gonna end your life.

 

If you feel like bashing/trolling/hating/insulting me go ahead, i can take it.

 

Merry christmas my fellow players

 

People like you rubbing it in do not help- this is exactly the thing I am talking about between a division in the community with elitist jerks like you rubbing it in- I wish bad karma upon you!

[Cromica]

I don't have years to play ( I hope ) I only have until GW2 comes out.

 

But I really don't mind waiting, not in a hurry to hit 50 since I will only be playing one character and I am not going to raid in this game.

[Zhit]

Folks are mad at themselves for failing to order the game in the beginning. But rather than be upset with themselves, they simply redirect their failure to BW.

[ElSpaniard]

Well I see it now, but you have to look for the information, I didn't realise it until coming onto the forums. To be honest buying it on Origin baffled me at first, because I was looking on Origin to download the game... Turns out there's a link to the client elsewhere. It was an eventful hour or so

 

It just felt a bit like some information that should have been displayed outright and clearly when you add the game to your basket or something. I guess I didn't spend the time to click every single tiny question mark on the screen.

 

This is true dude. But that's how life works eh. With everything pretty much. Always gotta read for more info since it's usually not right in front of our faces. At least you learned that with a game and not with say a rented car or something way more expensive like that.

[Dasffion]

The clarity is the problem. SWTOR has been marketed heavily over the last few weeks/months. And there is very little explaining how the EGA will work @ any point during the pre-order process, via swtor.com.

 

I believe this is the reason many of the people who pre-orded the game later, are annoyed. The Pre-order itself was advertised, marketed, and sold suggesting that you would get 5 days of EGA. It did not explain that 2million pre-orders had been made before you and that they would stagger the EGA over 7 days allowing 300k people in each day. Had they done this a lot less people might have pre-ordered, and paid more of a digital copy of the game + fees than they would have buying a physical retail copy.

 

At the bottom of the pre-order page on Swtor.com

 

*Customers who redeem their Pre-Order Code at the Code Redemption Center prior to launch will be able to pre-load the Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ Game Client before the official Game launch. Pre-loading the Game does not grant you access to the Game. Pre-Ordering the Game only allows you access to the Early Game Access period and your Color Crystal. Early Game Access may be up to 7 days. The length of your Early Game Access depends on the date and order in which you redeemed your Pre-Order Code. In order to continue playing the Game after the Early Game Access period, you must redeem your official Game Product Registration Code at the Code Redemption Center.

 

It says pretty much everything you said it does not. They do not give specifics but once again rely on common sense. Perhaps that's their problem.

[runback]

Being fair or not fair has nothing to do with this. When I first was made aware of pre orders and that the early you ordered, the better your chances were to play first, I instantly pre ordered. I didnt wait a day, a week, or a month. I pre ordered very early on 7/21 and I was in the first wave.

 

It was always made aware that the early you preordered, the earlier you would play. So because some people cant comprehend, its biowares fault or its somehow unfair?