Early Access 'Waves' - Updating Here

[elelr]

Dear Bioware,

 

I truly must wonder..

 

If you are so unsure what your servers can handle, what, exactly, was the point of the Beta Test Weekend?

 

Wasn't THAT weekend to TEST the servers and see what they could handle? Did you learn absolutely nothing from it? Did you not invite enough people in to test it properly?

 

You had all the numbers. You knew just how many pre-orders you had. You knew how high the demand was.

 

So now, here we are with MANY people very upset with the way this situation is being handled. IMHO, very poorly. Every one of these people have paid the same amount of money as everyone else that is currently playing. Somehow, I, and apparently others, feel a bit "put out". Then to stop sending invites for the day and make the rest wait until tomorrow for a "possible" invite to play? Really? *saddened head shake* Nothing good can come of this, I assure you.

 

We can only hope that you, and perhaps other companies like you, will actually learn something from this.

QFT. Extra characters to meet the 5...

[Bustanoggin]

Whats wrong with Google.

[PandarenBrew]

Things BW could have explained better:

 

1. What the meaning of life is?

2. How I can become rich in a day?

3. Is there a god?

 

Oh, sorry I thought I bought the pre-order to the answers of life. Didn't realize this was simply a game with a clearly defined release date as well as an easy to understand web page informing me of when it would be released and that I might end up getting to start early but there was no guarantee. Guess I'll just have to go cancel this pre-order as I could swear they meant it offered the meaning's of life with the purchase. Oops!

[Legend]

Fact: More tears in this thread then the Atlantic Ocean.

 

See ya all tomorrow for more whining and crying.

 

Oh and we have to break a record for most useless post since the internet started.

[Paracaster]

I know noone will ever see this since the thread is going so fast, but ....

 

 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

 

 

Seriously entertaining stuff guys. Keep it up!

 

Lots of people do, actually.

[SupaReform]

I was okay with the whole he who preorders first gets in first type deal, but since thats not the case we are getting robbed. I say robbed in that in an mmorpg everything is a race. Who every gets the game first gets the best names, sets the prices on the market, and get to levels faster. Since I am a pvper this blows, Every time I step into a match guys will have better abilities than me while they won't hit harder it would just be unfair. I would have rather everyone got in at the same so we could fight for the good names and everything would progress evenly. Even if that same time was 20th. Right now these guys are getting an unfair advantage for no other reason than they were randomly picked. I'm sry Bioware but thats not how MMORPGS work.

[batumshakalaka]

As long as they fulfill their promise for at least 5 days before launch, I'm ok.... a little disappointed that I didn't get access the first day, but ok nonetheless.

 

Up to five days, not at least 5 days.

[SickTag]

Thank You BW for finally saying something more insightful with what is going on. However twice as many people getting invited tomorrow is kind of confusing, as we have no idea what the invite timeline is even guessed to be. You hint at Thursday being the end or rather caught up on inviting people, and the start of the 5 days?

[SpeedyG]

its on page 647

 

lol thanks ;-) Lucky that I found yours ! hehe

[jabantik]

this isn't a troll, but i totally slept with your mom

[Roninpryyst]

I'm going to have to commend BioWare for sticking to their guns and not buckle to the QQ whiners. Their priority is in QUALITY of release, not QUANTITY. Their strategy in reducing server pop fall out, mergers, shutdowns, etc, is logical and sound. They are putting a lot of resources into this game so that you and I, may have the best experience possible. So get back in line and wait like everybody else. And with my end of Nov preorder, I probably won't get more than a day EGA. Guess what? I'll survive.

 

I agree.

[Kakascii]

we all should be patience

 

that is the only force way

 

unless ur sith you can murder everything!!!!!!!

[MePanthros]

It is very frustrating to hear hear my friends are in. I do not know who to be mad at more, EA or Bioware or both! If you have to monitor early access to servers now, how are you supposed to handle launch day on the 20th?

[Kloiman]

psssssssst. not really "originally" by him!

so, first post on forums.

 

thought this might be a good place for it, since everyone is reading this anyway

 

Hai Everyone, chill, we still have a few days before the 20th. If someone has trouble counting from 13-20 i shall help!

 

Let's start at 13 and work our way down to 20. Going to start you of easy.

 

13

Are you thinking 1 and 4? if so, you are halfway there, now put them together and it becomes what? 14. GOOD job Trolls, you are doing excellent. Now i'm not going to help you at all.

15. Good Good

17. No No stupid trolls 16 comes after 15!

16. Good.

17. Very good, now bring it home for me!

20! NONO BAD TROLL BAD!

18? Yes very good, continue

19. Excellent now bring it home!

20. Very good now you can count and don't have to act like a freaking mental illness patient.

Are you going to be nice now and chill?

Good to know.

 

And lastly a saying that has kept me out of trouble all my life "A watched pot never boils!" think it''s fitting in this situation

 

Steal my first post and don't even use quote? that just makes me feel bad bro

 

atleast i used the quote ! Because i am very nice!

[Arakasar]

Why couldn't they have posted an approx. date for us when we are going to get our invites instead of having us sit around with our thumbs up our @#$@#(*? Disappointed.

[NykNayme]

Not to be a jerk, but if you didnt preorder day 1, why are you mad that you didnt get in on day 1? You have no right to be.

 

it's ameriword - i have the right to everythingiwanttohaveandnotworkfor! stop talking to me like your my dad - you're not!

 

i'm in-game voom-vooming your corpse - force choke on ____!!

 

lololol, j/k. seriously. QQ'ing is crazy here

[winderside]

Hah. I can already see it.

 

Hitler: I preordered on July 28th, so I will enter EGA on the first day, and launch our guild.

 

Other Dude: Mein fuhrer, EGA waves for the first day are already complete. They stopped at July 27th.

 

Hitler: If you didn't pre-order the collector's edition, get out!

 

/signed

[Diskoran]

Thanks for the update ... unfortunately it is a little late for me. This has already left a bad taste in my mouth. This should have all been vetted out before you offer EGA. This is a paying service so I have no sympathy for your lack of understanding. Also, knowing how bad EA runs its servers (if you have FIFA 11 on any gaming console, or any other EA game, you know what I mean) I really have no confidence this will be a positive gaming experience for me. After waiting close to three years for the release of this game I can only say shame on you.

 

this, 1000x this...

[Dutchkojo]

*** ... I'm still waiting ??

 

is it possible if u pre-orderd and u have the 7 days early game acces u may have to wait till 20dec ?

[Slowne]

Hey everyone.

 

We absolutely understand you want to get in and play the game early. It's one of the reasons we expanded our Early Game Access from a maximum of five days to a maximum of seven days. However, there are a couple of important points to realize about today's opening salvo of invites, and the procedure in general for Early Game Access and launch.

 

First, Early Game Access and launch is not supposed to be a stress test. In our previous Beta Testing Weekends we got up to very large concurrent number of players and brought invites into the game at a very high rate. That was done to stress test every aspect of our systems and servers, and essentially to see if they broke. In some cases, they did, but that helped us improve for launch.

 

For us, launch isn't just about stuffing our servers with as many people as possible. As anyone who's been through a large MMO launch can tell you, that experience can be painful. Our aim with this launch was to ramp things up gradually, to spread our player population out amongst a variety of servers, to maintain all server types, and to keep queuing to a minimum (although we expect that to happen as we head towards December 20th). So far, all that has been successful for us on Day One.

 

The second thing to realize is scale. We invited more people to play Star Wars: The Old Republic today than many other MMO launches manage in their entire head-start process. As I mentioned earlier today, when we opened pre-orders we had a huge spike in numbers - far more than most MMOs capture at launch. That was the initial rush. After that, our pre-orders settled down.

 

What this means is that tomorrow, you'll effectively start to see the pre-order timeline expand. You'll see people who have pre-ordered later than July getting invites. The day after that, more people will be invited. We're actually planning to invite more tomorrow than today, and invite the same number again on Thursday - at which point we'll be into the original 'five days of Early Game Access'.

 

Last thing. Why aren't we continuing to send waves over time? Two main reasons - one, because we need to see that the servers are maintaining stability over time; adding a lot of players in a short period (in other words, stress testing) can cause stability issues.

 

Two, our plan is to continue to add servers - but carefully, and in response to demand. We need to monitor that demand and role out servers accordingly. A long-term recipe for MMO failure is to add a lot of servers early on, and then when population decreases, have to close those servers and merge them together.

 

Our aim is for Star Wars: The Old Republic to be around for a long time to come. Today's just the first step in that - an early step, too - and we'll be running smoothly, with a stable population, before too long.

 

Well said,

 

I really hope people read this and understand what they are trying to do here.

[Konosbaby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinegos

This isn't a troll, and isn't exactly QQ although there is some of that involved.

 

I just want to put it down for the record that the way this early access program has been implemented is truly one of the most poorly conceived ideas that I've ever personally encountered in over 25 years of playing video games. I've personally participated in launches of 6 other MMO games, and there is nothing in those experiences that compares to how ridiculous this process is.

 

When you are dealing with a pre-launch even that is only for pre-order customers, after an extensive and massive beta testing period that was a huge success according to nearly all sources involved - it begs the huge question as to what is the limiting factor in the way you have chosen to roll out this game. I personally participated in the beta in a very limited way (not by choice, mind you, I just wasn't lucky enough to get a key) and was only online during the big Thanksgiving weekend test. That test was wonderful - there were a huge number of servers, and a huge population of testers. The game performance was amazing.

 

So, EA/BW - what exactly are you afraid of?

 

The ONLY way this should have been done is to have given ALL pre-orders (perhaps separated only by level of game purchased - i.e. CE customers get 7 days, SE get 5, e.g.) access at exactly the same time. Of course it will overload the servers and queues would ensue and all that - but that's what we all expect. Making your customers wait unknowingly with no idea how long it will be or when to expect an email is just adding insult to injury. A poor alternative would have been to send out emails with a set time and day that your access would be available.

 

I read in the top post how you are monitoring the server performance and are rolling waves based on server performance. Are you seriously saying you have to wonder at this point if your servers can perform up to the task - when you probably still have 90% of the launch day players yet to even be able to play? That is not at all a good message to be sending at the beginning of an MMO franchise.

 

At any rate, I love this game. I love BW. But I truly despise and am sickened by the way you chose to put your customers through so much stress for absolutely no good or justifiable reason.

 

I truly hope you improve, because this is a very very poor way to start out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve are you running this SWTOR Live Event SOLO??? Cause that's exactly what it seams like lol. Go tell your boss that you can't stop putting people in 24/7 until EVERYONE is live.

[Anavalache]

The most annoying thing in the world, is not this staggered launch, but the fact that my email icon on my Blackberry is flashing every 10 minutes, my heart jumps a little and I check it to find some kind of Viagra ad to delete and I die a little bit inside.

 

maybe the viagra peeps know you are being screwed today and thought you needed some help..

[Medieval_Jedi]

The simple reality of this entire roll out is that Bio Ware has failed to properly communicate with its customers.

 

If a company, a government or any institution fails to communicate with its stakeholders, it will suffer for it, because it erodes trust and increases cynicism and antagonistic sentiment.

 

Antagonistic customers are more likely to exploit, break, harm and generally misbehave in the context of the game. Likewise, cynicism is increased and the environment of the game becomes one of expected failure, not success.

 

Yes, it is a game, not at all important, but communication is such a simple tool to use to prevent or repair the problem and Bio Ware has completely failed in availing itself of effective use of this tool.

[Holybone]

Could the next waves start at 12:01 EST ...which is tomorrow...hehe

 

guess the dev didnt put out a time >_<

[Mbredde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Byker

Wow all these walls of txt posts just whizzing by without a single person reading them.

 

I read this one, does it count?

 

 

 

I read that one. maybe we can make this into a wall of text too.

 

 

 

Im reading all of them, also that one