PR Nightmare

[Neckrom]

It's been clear since the day pre-orders came out that EGA would be handed out on a first come, first served basis. Had you really wanted the full amount of EGA time, you would have pre ordered day 1 like a lot of us.

 

Pre-ordered on the 7/25. Problem with code and did not get it squared away till September. Now I will not get in till the weekend possibly. Not to mention that Origin charged me full price instead of the pre-order $5 dollars. I am sure I am not the only one in this boat. Now go figure why people are pissed. ****! Can you believe that the Devs had the balls to agree that the early access was going smooth on the BestBuy chat. Maybe on the servers but not in the eyes of the paying customers sitting on the outside while others that ordered WELL after I did will be playing. They did not take 1 question about the early access on the chat. Ya this has me pissed off enough that this is my first post. Oh and Customer Service will do nothing for me.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Neckrom

[JansanRuno]

were complaining that a few people get 7 days, a few people get five days, and it looks like a few will get 1 or 2 days, dont play dumb. The servers are up and its pissing off everyone that didnt get in.

 

We're not playing dumb. They are doing exactly what hey said they were going to do from the very beginning. I don't know who he dumb ones are but I have an idea.

[Savantster]

So why can't they add them now? It's not like BW doesn't know the amount of people expecting EGA on the 13th.

 

Please don't tell me you think they did what did just to uphold their principle of "up to 5 days"

 

Because they are trying to ensure even distribution on servers. They don't want 2/3s over crowded and 1/3 near empty, that makes for a poor gaming experience for everyone.

[McVade]

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Bioware/EA has dropped the ball in a big way and this has resulted in a customer relations/public relations nightmare. Regardless of the debate on who should/shouldn't get in early, it being 7 days instead of 5 the failure of communications to the customer base on progress of early access has been massive.

 

I understand they may not have wanted to release what day has been invited or how many people this constituted. The people number would have been economically sensitive. However some simple metrics such as "x" % of pre-orders have received invites would have gone a long way. Now everyone is bent out of shape comparing pre-order dates and saying thing like "I know someone who bought the game last month and got access..." and "my servers empty why did Bioware go home early..." . The depth of anger of the forums is amazing. I lived through so many EQ1 expansion crashes and sudden patches waiting on the forums but the complaining was never like this.

 

This whole dragged out and uncommunicative process has sensitized people to the point that every in game issue is going to a game breaker/deal breaker. At the end of the day this will impact on their subscriber base. I know my brief experience with customer service was less than stellar. I downloaded the game client and got the error message about not having an active subscription. I sent a polite email to customer service asking if I was supposed to be seeing this and how to subscribe and was actually told to go read the forum.

 

I spent 30 years as an environmental manager in the oil industry. I had the happy job of answering environmental complaints. You don't tell someone to go to the internet and look. That's for troll chat... You answer their question as well as you can and if it's common enough, you have a ready to go answer. I helped write these for our CEO.

 

Hopefully they'll have a debrief tonight and get on their A game tomorrow. Alienating your subscriber base before the public release date (it's semantics... if people are playing and it's not beta, the game has launched...) is not good business sense.

 

[Baastila]

Because they are trying to ensure even distribution on servers. They don't want 2/3s over crowded and 1/3 near empty, that makes for a poor gaming experience for everyone.

 

If they can't handle the 1 million players now, they can't handle the other half that's coming on the 20th.

 

P.S. - I'm doing this out of my love for BW (not EA, sry) and the TOR+KOTOR franchise, I'm not angry because i'm not playing right now, I'm worried about TOR's future.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Baastila

[Clissian]

it's a bad PR move, when you have millions of people who want to use your product but you only allow a special, magical few thousand to actually use it.. then that magical few thousand get a competative and game-based economic advantage with said special access while everyone else does not.

 

as for the arguement that pre launch days are freebie bonus from bioware. that would be true if they invented this on their own as a gesture of good will; as soon as they began marketing pre-release access as a perk of pre-order then it became something people bought and paid for.

 

when you pay for something and then do not get it, you tend to get pissed off.

 

Some might say its good PR. By limiting their product, they could be generating even more demand

[HalcyonSunset]

 

The sky is not on fire.. it is not falling.. this has been WELL thought out by people paid a lot of money to spend a lot of time thinking about this kind of thing. Chillax.

 

I'm not gonna imply this launch is a failure, or even that it will fail.. In fact I think most of this will blow over.. but..

 

I've heard your quote said about every major MMO's launch since the start of UO.. Just because some techs got paid some money doesn't mean it will run smoothly. ALL MMO's have had problems at launch, all of them, I really doubt TOR will be any different.. Que's, lag, crashes and just general issues will be normal on the 20th.. I would bet money on it.. Once the entire costumer base loads onto the servers over one day, just watch the problems start springing up..

 

Not that they couldn't be hammered out quickly, but simply saying "People who were paid money thought about this" means absolutely zilch.. For all you know Bioware's servers might crash for a week.. It's all speculation at this point.

[Rhejak]

Less QQ more pew pew.

[Xarem]

The problem here, is that people think EA adding 2 extra days is them being generous when in fact this was nothing more then their way to attempt to save face because they realized 5 days wasn't enough to get people in in the numbers they wanted.

 

To sum it up EA went "oh ****, at this rate we will have to send out invites to too many people on the 19th, this will make us look bad because we ****ed up."

 

At which point one genius said "I KNOW! lets add TWO extra days to the early access that way we can just say only the people who preorderd in december get screwed instead of people from november/october!"

 

Seriously people, you are extremely naive if you think a sudden last minute 2 day addition to the early access was anything more then them trying to save face. Is it great for all those that orderd early? Sure! But in the end it screws so many others. People wanting to do server firsts... People wanting to actually level with their guild mates instead of having to wait.(KEY ONE HERE)

 

This is just bad, no matter what

[kalexkhan]

Are you not aware they are bringing all servers down right before the official release on the 20th? If their servers can't handle pre-orders all trying to log in now, what do you think they are going to do when all pre-orders + new subs on launch day all try to log in at once?

 

The community will do exactlly what I said they'll do...

 

They're going to rage right here on these forums so hard, what you are seeing right now will pale in comparison.

 

And you know the song they're going to be singing? Its going to be the "Why did you do that BS staggered pre-release if this <Insert whatever unplanned server issue/crash/hiccup/login/2hour queue Issue HERE> was going to happen anyway".

 

Also, please note that I did say UNPLANNED server issue. I wasn't talking about the manditory scheduled downtime.

 

What bioware will do, is apologize, and their live team and marketing team will both be trying to do damage control.

Edited December 14, 2011 by kalexkhan

[Blackwater]

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, Bioware/EA has dropped the ball in a big way and this has resulted in a customer relations/public relations nightmare.

 

 

 

IS IT? Is it really?

 

How do you know what's going on at Bioware? Do you work there?

 

You DON'T know, so quit pretending like you have some inside source

[Blackwater]

Also.

 

 

ONE STAR

Edited December 14, 2011 by Blackwater

[Savantster]

Pre-ordered on the 7/25. Problem with code and did not get it squared away till September. Now I will not get in till the weekend possibly. Not to mention that Origin charged me full price instead of the pre-order $5 dollars. I am sure I am not the only one in this boat. Now go figure why people are pissed. ****! Can you believe that the Devs had the balls to agree that the early access was going smooth on the BestBuy chat. Maybe on the servers but not in the eyes of the paying customers sitting on the outside while others that ordered WELL after I did will be playing. They did not take 1 question about the early access on the chat. Ya this has me pissed off enough that this is my first post. Oh and Customer Service will do nothing for me.

 

CS told me the Origin "order date" is what counts for early access, not the register date. You'll find out tomorrow if that's true (don't think they got to the 25th in today's batches, but should for tomorrow). I'd really like a follow up from you (PM me maybe?) because I didn't put my code in for 2 months after I ordered.. didn't follow the forums to see that it would matter since my SWTOR account showed I already ordered it right away.. :/

 

Based on my own screw up, combined with that CS told me, _I_ should be pissy about this staggering by code date.. but, even if it costs me 2 days, I accept that I'M the one that failed, so I'll suck it up and wait. After all, the game isn't going anywhere.. being a few days behind my friends isn't going to matter in the long run, months out.

[Chnmmr]

my only irritation is how I have no idea when I'll be able to play. If they said pre-orders between xx/xx/xxxx and yy/yy/yyyy will probably have access on the 14th, etc, it would be all good. I would be able to go about my business until that day comes.

 

As it stands, I could be waiting till Friday and be none the wiser.

[Siryoungyoda]

They had 9 months to look how Trion manages its community. If a young starting company can do it. How can Bioware have those flaws...

[Dayln]

Yeah, the actually did what they said they would do, It is a nightmare, no MMO has done that before ( chuckle )

[Savantster]

If they can't handle the 1 million players now, they can't handle the other half that's coming on the 20th.

 

P.S. - I'm doing this out of my love for BW (not EA, sry) and the TOR+KOTOR franchise, I'm not angry because i'm not playing right now, I'm worried about TOR's future.

 

Again, don't worry! they have this covered. They've looked over how other releases go, and they are minimizing many of the failings most other MMOs have at launch. On the 20th, all of us 2 million pre-order people will get on, and the new influx will mostly migrate to the "empty" servers brought up during the down time on the 20th.

 

I'm sure there will be queues on the 20th, but the over all game experience once in will be superior to all other launches to date... namely because us pre-orders will be running our level 15 to 20 to 30 toons while all the noobs are in the starter worlds.

[Mayams]

They're also going to be spread out on a bunch of servers rather than clumping together on a few. People will fill up servers over time, rather than 2 million people logging in all at once and changing the status of those servers in a heart beat. People will be able to decide, based on population, whether or not they want to join a server, rather than getting stuck with your level 20 on a server with eternally long ques. Hopefully they'll shut down character creation for those without characters on servers that near their population limits. Forcing people to choose less populated servers should result in a much smoother population distribution.

 

Uh no, I 'm going into this with a guild. A guild who has been together longer than some of the people waiting to log in have been alive. The server pop means nothing to me. I intend to log in and hook up with them. Dear God, after the whole guild pre-launch stuff don't let it be the case that guild members can't even get onto their guild's servers.

 

Staggered invites, they've more than been upfront with the current state but, as I understood the whole guild prelaunch business, it's that we all went to the same server without worry.

 

Oh what the hell, I preordered too late lemme just hang up my guild tag and find another, nope - HERE we have a game breaker folks.

 

(although I don't believe this to be at all the case)

[DeviuosOne]

We're not playing dumb. They are doing exactly what hey said they were going to do from the very beginning. I don't know who he dumb ones are but I have an idea.

oh really. They said from day one that they are only letting people in who pre-ordered up until July 27 in the first day? I must have missed that part. what about when everyone else gets in? I must have missed that part as well since were the dumb ones and your the smart one can you enlighten us?

[Jrzez]

If you feel this passionately about EA's abuse of our rights for making the choice to 'pay extra' to play the game early, don't pre-order it. We all have a choice as consumers, we did not have to pre-order it if we didn't want to. Five bucks to get the game early... To me that's a fantastic deal.

 

 

May the force be with you.

 

Yeah, no. Not complaining about pre-ordering I have no clue where you got that from. I'm saying that they used EGA as a bullet point, a feature to a product they were selling. Thus, $5 includes EGA which some poster defenders here suggests it does not. They clearly advertised it, thus it's in the money you put down on it, period. And we're entitled to what we paid for.

[x_Boots_x]

I agree 100% with the OP, you can fall on either side of the fence but one thing is clear, this staggered launch was a full blown PR disaster for SWTOR, now that's not to say if a "all at once" launch would have been better or worse, my thoughts are a 2 day launch would have been a lot smarter. If nothing else a lot of the goodwill that Bioware has built up has been spent on simple unnecessary customer relations issues and not even technical ones between a staggered launch and no grace period.

[Savantster]

I'm not gonna imply this launch is a failure, or even that it will fail.. In fact I think most of this will blow over.. but..

 

I've heard your quote said about every major MMO's launch since the start of UO.. Just because some techs got paid some money doesn't mean it will run smoothly. ALL MMO's have had problems at launch, all of them, I really doubt TOR will be any different.. Que's, lag, crashes and just general issues will be normal on the 20th.. I would bet money on it.. Once the entire costumer base loads onto the servers over one day, just watch the problems start springing up..

 

Not that they couldn't be hammered out quickly, but simply saying "People who were paid money thought about this" means absolutely zilch.. For all you know Bioware's servers might crash for a week.. It's all speculation at this point.

 

I hear your concerns.. I agree that you can never really know, and poo happens.. But from everything I'm seeing/reading, and given the thought processes given by BW, I think the only "real" issue on the 20th will be queues.. and only then because the servers will have been down for the day and _everyone_ will want in all at once. Once in, however, this staggering and early access should have most everything else running smooth (combined with new empty servers brought up, installed during the down time).

[saitek]

wait so people are complaining that they get 7 early days instead of 5?that sounds like a bloddy bonus then something to complain about

 

Is this your first time on these fourms today? Or you just trollin..

[Kainos]

Bioware was in a no win situation with the mmo community. They could not have a launch that would please everyone.

 

So please everyone just stop the complaining.

[Savantster]

Uh no, I 'm going into this with a guild. A guild who has been together longer than some of the people waiting to log in have been alive. The server pop means nothing to me. I intend to log in and hook up with them. Dear God, after the whole guild pre-launch stuff don't let it be the case that guild members can't even get onto their guild's servers.

 

Staggered invites, they've more than been upfront with the current state but, as I understood the whole guild prelaunch business, it's that we all went to the same server without worry.

 

Oh what the hell, I preordered too late lemme just hang up my guild tag and find another, nope - HERE we have a game breaker folks.

 

(although I don't believe this to be at all the case)

 

 

I'm sure they spread the guilds out based on registered guild numbers. If you were in the guild pre-launch stuff, they knew your numbers and server caps were most likely adjusted for day 1 to make sure there's enough room for every guild member, plus a lot more as they wave more in (friends hooking up, etc). ... Now, if they failed to make sure early caps weren't low enough to ensure all guild members could group up, then I'd agree with you that they made a huge mistake. I just don't see that happening.. and only time will tell.