Nashred wrote:
Thayos wrote:
Quote:
Early access is not a time to discover problems.
But every single MMO discovers problems when everything goes live... that's why early access is such a smart move by developers. If all goes well, then everyone is happy. If things start breaking, then, hopefully, damaged can be minimized by the time the game is released to the masses.
That's just what happens.
Now, all of that said, I'm very clear in my beliefs that launch is launch is launch... tomorrow is launch.
I'm willing to give SE a pass right now, because we're still in the preview.. but tomorrow, a lot of things that are tolerable now will become something entirely different.
But its not preview for me or Tesee because we cant even get on.. We deserve a preview as much as any we ordered months ago. I get a error and Tesee service account is messed up.
There always going to be problems of coarse even through out the games life but these are not a minor little glitch. These are major problems that are affecting allot of players. Just because other mmos have issues doesn't make it ok.
I think the bad part is SE really does not seem to care. The whole service issue and no one getting back to even say yea we got your issue we will get back to you. Just nothing. I call up and I get our regular business hours are blah this to blah that. It wont be fixed by launch. I really want to play this game but I know I wont be able too for a long time because this wont be fixed by the midnight launch tonight. Problem is the only thing I can do to show my displeasure for being treated like I dont matter is complain like other till SE gets the point or not buy the game. My problem is I only have several hours to cancel it. And it is 140.00 (60 + 80) not a cheap game by any means. Iwant to know they will fix this, is Tesee going to get her account back or does she start from zero and how do we do that because now here psn is linked to the wrong service account because they screwed up. she is on a different world than me now because her user id is still on ultros. I dont want to play with out her. Why should she also loose her pre order bonuses how is that fare? Some people are being royal messed over hear and all we get is shut up you have no right to complain... Am i asking for something no special no, I just want to know if they will fix Tesee problems period ever. Before I run out and buy this game and I can get that from SE.
This goes way beyond just the server issues that everyone seems to focus on.
Edited, Aug 26th 2013 12:49pm by Nashred Edited, Aug 26th 2013 12:50pm by Nashred Edited, Aug 26th 2013 12:53pm by Nashred I am not going to argue or debate what you are saying, because it is correct.
The issue is that with any type of live-update capable game, you will have updates, and you will have fixes. As well, when a person has a problem that does not allow them to use something that they have invested in, they want their issue corrected in a timely and efficient manner.
The issue that you are discussing requires that level of understanding. Things go wrong. Not all possibilities are realized, and ultimately customers will suffer. This is not an if. It is an absolute. There are also customers that SE will lose. No matter how "Perfect" the release could have been, and no matter how well they managed their responses, it must happen. It is the nature of software development. You simply can not please everyone. And if you have more than 1 then you will have customers that will not be your #1 priority.
You have to (and I HATE this term in Software Development as it is mis-used regularly) Triage. This ultimately means, you have to choose which customers you have to alienate. This again is not an if. It is a must. Once you have identified what you can fix, what affects the most people, and what you can do the quickest, you begin to resolve your issues.
Sometime Developers begin working on fixes and actually fix things that were pushed into the life-support pile (or worse, the Left for dead pile), but usually, those issues stay that way until time and resources fitting their level of demand can be allocated.
With all of this said, yes the early access was off to a rocky start. But, could this have been foreseen before this? Obviously not, as the problem did not preset itself until the quest floodgates were opened. There are load tests that could be done, and different ways they could have handled the beta. But, ultimately, they wanted to use the beta to defuse the quest load between the three phases, and not allow people to advance too far before they were sure everything was good.
Is the Beta the time to fix issues like this? The simple answer is, "While, yes, it is". The accurate answer is, "Now is always the correct time to fix an issue like this". The issue was discovered in EA, and needs to be fixed in EA.
Will there be a new list of problems tomorrow? You bet there will be. And it will be a nice laundry list of things that either didn't work right for people, or did not meet people's expectations.
The trick to it all (from a sterile software development standpoint) is to try to please the most people you can, while fixing the most painful issues as fast as you can, while providing the most pleasurable experience for your customers.
1.0, while having all possible problems (except people had no issues getting into the game), failed at the most important parts. The first and the last point. There was little in the way of enjoyment, and there was a definite approach of "We know what you want, and you will like it".
ARR is not the same game. But, it is a game. And it involves a lot of resources working together seemlessly. That means things will break, and problems will be had. This doesn't mean you have to like it. It also doesn't mean you have to understand it. It simply is. And as a result, there will always be these kinds of back and forths in the forums discussing how it should be vs how it is.
Either way, as for your friends account. That one seems pretty open and shut, and if it is what it sounds like, and the data is available, and it is something within their power to fix, they will fix it. There would be no reason for them not to. My wife and I have over the years ran into quite a few account problems, and while some have been handled poorly, all have been resolved. If they hadn't we would no longer be customers. And I imagine, you are probably in the same boat.