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How would you have handled this launch?

dubyahitedubyahite Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

 

I have a question for everyone that is upset about this staggered early game access.  

Many people lately have criticized Bioware for how they have handled htis launch. I can understand some of the concerns people have had, but I don't share them. Even so, part of any business providing a service is customer service. Sometimes you may not agree with them, and they may even be totally wrong (the customer is not always right), but it doesn't matter. Sometimes a company has to suck it up, and do something they don't want to do, to make their customers happy. 

 

That being said, I don't think now is one of those times. This launch is set in motion and there is no stopping it now. They have a plan and they are going to execute that plan, regardless of what you or I think. 

 

So, since so many people seem to think they are doing it wrong, I would ask how you would do it better?

 

The only plan I have is to call in sick to work when I get the email. Could you imagine trying to prepare an MMO launch for the amount of players that are going to be hitting this game on launch day? For all we can tell, they are probably trying to cram 3-4 million people into this game within 1 week, and then throwing all the day of sales after launch on top of that! I can't think of too many companies that have done that with an mmo. Blizzard does with expansions, I guess, but this is an entire game.

 

If you want to answer this question, I want details. What are the the reasons why your ideas and plans would work? I want to know how much it's going to cost, how this is going to affect each and every aspect of this game your technical plans for hardware and networking, and your projections for how it's all going to hold up under that kind of stress. 

 

Don't forget, Bioware has had to gather appropriate data samples to demonstrate exactly what the capacity of their network and servers is. Their goal is to never exceed that point.  They acquired this data in the form of the giant weekend tests. In a controlled setting they tested the capacity of their technology thouroughly. They know exactly what that capacity is. How would you go about doing that? How would you implement that solution?

 

People seem to forget that this is, in all likeliehood, the biggest storm of people rushing an mmo on launch day we have ever seen. Seriously. How can we fault them for not wanting to let 4 million people hammer the crap out of them at the same exact minute. It's insane.  

Look at how some other mmo launches have gone with way less people. They are terrible. Imagine what 4 million people are gonna do to your carefully laid plans. If you are going to give an answer to the question of how would you do it better, you have to account for the millions of players that are storming the gates.

 

If you read this post in it's entirety, I doubt that you can answer these questions. Most MMO developers and publishers have never had to account for that kind of rush. I absolutely do not see the reason why we shouldn't give them a little slack for this.

Otherwise this consumer base will never be happy with anything. If this launch goes smoothly with minimal lag/crashes/queuing, then it would be hard to argue that this wasn't the most successful launch in an mmo ever.

Some people keep telling those of us who appreciate the elegence and simplicity of their solution technically, that we're apologists or fanboys.  

If you ask me, expecting and getting the most successful mmo launch ever, from a technical standpoint, is not being an apologist or a fanboy with blinders on. To me, that is supporting a company that is doing a damn fine job. 

How would you do better then the best?

 

 

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Comments

  • DignaDigna Member UncommonPosts: 1,994

    I would have let me in first..I'm nice. I SHOULD be in...

  • Cod_EyeCod_Eye Member UncommonPosts: 1,016

    I think the way they have done it is fine, They have set themselves up for a smooth launch day. what we got to look at now is how many people who didnt pre-order will actually be buying the game on the 20th and trying to login?

    I think those that are whining are those who are worried about their character name getting taken and people getting to level cap before them.  The only criticism I have is that they could of had more waves in than the 5 they did yesterday, but maybe they wanted to do this as a reward for those that actually pre-ordered in July, who knows?

    We also got another group of people that will possibly be joining the game, those who will be getting SWOR for Xmas, a lot of minors will be putting this on their xmas list I would imagine and will be joining the forces on the 25th.

    Bioware as a company hasnt launched an MMO before but would of had an idea through Preorder of how many would be joining the game and would also have employees who have had past experiences with other MMO's from other companies and believe that this was their best approach despite how some people on these forums feel.

    Would I have done it any different - Probably not.

    Do I have the experience and knowledge to do it different - no

    Do i have the numbers, data and forsight to plan a better launch - no

    and neither do the majority of people on these forums.

     

  • VuongqPhamVuongqPham Member Posts: 3

    To be honest.. im not impressed of this early game access one bit, 5 waves are covering 21-22-23-24 and maybe some from 25.. so about 5 days of pre-orders? thats absurd, they had +2 mil killing the servers, and most of it went smooth.. Now they are going into safety first mode and runs the game with tons of untouched servers, its a waste and its not fair to those who are eager to get in. They should have covered stuff like this from the beginning, I know a lot of MMO's has run early game acces in the same manners, but BW should learn from it, we r only looking forward, take it to the next step...

     

    For starter send more waves out if you notice that the servers are far from populated.. keep creating more servers, maintain it and stop send invitations if the servers get populated faster than you can create them

  • DarkPonyDarkPony Member Posts: 5,566

    For starters:

    Pre-permaban everyone complaining about not being in the head-start of the head-start of the prelaunch yet.

    ^_^

  • oubersoubers Member UncommonPosts: 855

    i am not a gamedev......how should i know?

     

    image
  • KidonKidon Member UncommonPosts: 399

    Same way

     

  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    For starters:

    Pre-permaban everyone complaining about not being in the head-start of the head-start of the prelaunch yet.

    ^_^

    Haha. That's a great way to guarantee the opposite effect. :P

     

    I think the queuing system is a better way to do this, but even so there isn't any good way to launch a game as massive as MMO's are.

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • JimmacJimmac Member UncommonPosts: 1,660

    I would have let people pick their own start date, but the earlier date you pick, the more penalties you must suffer. If you pick the earliest date, then you can only log in for 3 hours that day, and can't play for another week. If you pick the 2nd earliest day, you can only log in for 6 hours, but can't play for another 5 days. If you pick the 3rd earliest day, you can only log in for 9 hours, and you can't play for another 3 days.

    Or something like that. This way, people can pick their own fate. Play earlier if they want, but suffer steeper consequences. Be patient and play later, and suffer less consequences. Show these fucking homeboys that it's time to grow up and quit bitching so much.

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898

    I would have done the first 5 launches as they had done, I'd then wait until the heavy populations started to dip to normal and start adding more waves.  If at some point the servers start getting too busy, halt new characters on those servers and add more.

     

    There's no reason to have almost all servers be low population for 10 hours.  If they need to start using queus, prioritize them in order of teh wave you were in.

     

    I also would announce the preorder registration end time for each wave and post a tentative schedule that is ultra conservative, meaning that pretty much everyone will get in earlier than that worst case schedule.

     

     

  • DarkPonyDarkPony Member Posts: 5,566

    Originally posted by Benthon

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    For starters:

    Pre-permaban everyone complaining about not being in the head-start of the head-start of the prelaunch yet.

    ^_^

    Haha. That's a great way to guarantee the opposite effect. :P

    Yes but I would have also put a carrot in each and every CE-box and change the "Support Forum" into "First world problems" and general forums into "Self-entitled discussion".

     

  • DexterMMODexterMMO Member Posts: 484

    1. Accounts that have spammed the forums with negativity get in last

    2. Do waves through out the day... have people with multiple shifts... taking off at 2pm and leaving the servers with light load is stupid.

    2a. Pretend I know what its like to be a MMO gamer and know that those in can now make unlimited ults soaking up so many character names limiting already paying customers the chance to even get their name.

    2b. Suspend and delete all characters who knowingly exploited and benefited from the light server load xp grind. Cheating is Cheating.

    Everything I say is my opinion or personal preference. You may or may not find it useful to your cause but regardless I am entitled to it.

  • dubyahitedubyahite Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    Originally posted by Benthon


    Originally posted by DarkPony

    For starters:

    Pre-permaban everyone complaining about not being in the head-start of the head-start of the prelaunch yet.

    ^_^

    Haha. That's a great way to guarantee the opposite effect. :P

    Yes but I would have also put a carrot in each and every CE-box and change the "Support Forum" into "First world problems" and general forums into "Self-entitled discussion".

     

    You forgot Rage-a-holics anonymous. 

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  • BenthonBenthon Member Posts: 2,069

    Originally posted by DarkPony

    Originally posted by Benthon


    Originally posted by DarkPony

    For starters:

    Pre-permaban everyone complaining about not being in the head-start of the head-start of the prelaunch yet.

    ^_^

    Haha. That's a great way to guarantee the opposite effect. :P

    Yes but I would have also put a carrot in each and every CE-box and change the "Support Forum" into "First world problems" and general forums into "Self-entitled discussion".

     

    I lol'd

    He who keeps his cool best wins.

  • Arathir86Arathir86 Member UncommonPosts: 442

    I would have allowed Australia to pre-order the game and not given some crap excuse about customer service.

    "The problem with quotes from the Internet is that it's almost impossible to validate their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln

  • DevalonDevalon Member UncommonPosts: 496

    How would you do it different?

    It should be why did they do it differently.

    Blizzard didn't need to stagger cataclysm launch or patch days. If they can handle million of people bashing servers and same areas. It no excuse for them to stagger in the launch.

    Im not upset. I havn't even bought the game yet. I would of been upset if I did bought it.

     

    --
    "Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow

  • SuperXero89SuperXero89 Member UncommonPosts: 2,551

    They way they handled launch is largely fine; however, they should be letting more people in per day.  At prime time, most every server on the list wasn't even full.  At late night, it was scarily quiet.

  • DalaimocDalaimoc Member UncommonPosts: 29

    Launch is on the 20th. Every argument, claim, complaining, bitching, yelling, moaning, FAPing before that date is null and void.

    Having early access is a courtesy and doesn't entitle anyone to anything.

     

    To answer the question : No pre-launch. 

    On the other hand, pre-launch is only the final stage of beta-test and thus is a good forum stress-test for the whining that will be ensured in the pvp-forums ...so whatever.

    image
  • dubyahitedubyahite Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    Originally posted by DexterMMO

    1. Accounts that have spammed the forums with negativity get in last

    2. Do waves through out the day... have people with multiple shifts... taking off at 2pm and leaving the servers with light load is stupid.

    2a. Pretend I know what its like to be a MMO gamer and know that those in can now make unlimited ults soaking up so many character names limiting already paying customers the chance to even get their name.

    2b. Suspend and delete all characters who knowingly exploited and benefited from the light server load xp grind. Cheating is Cheating.

    I'm responding to your post not to be argumentative, but because it is the most detailed, serious response I have seen yet, and I agree with at least 1.5 of your points. 

     

    1. No way would I do that. That's asking for a crapstorm. Think about how badly those people would continue to flip out if they found out they got pushed to the back for voicing their opinion. No way, that's a terrible idea. Try stirring up a hornets nest with your face and tell me how that goes for you. 

    2. I think they probably could have done more today, but I imagine they are just ramping up slowly. They've done this before. In fact they always do this. Remember the Thanksgiving weekend beta? That was a demonstration of exactly how they were going to do this, only on a shorter time-table.

    2a. I agree totally with the alt name soaking up thing. They aren't really unlimited per server though, a person can only make 8 per server. I think it would have been a very smart move to limit people to less alts during head start, maybe 2 - 4 characters, then 8 at launch. At the same time, with the amount of people playing this game at launch, everything is gonna be gone soon. The thing you should actually be worrying about is the Legacy name at level 30 ish. Those are gonna get chewed up fast too, and that goes for ALL your characters. 

    2b. I don't know enough about this to say one way or the other. I couldn't tell you the details behind the exploit and how severe it is. I hate to say it, but I almost don't know if you can do anything about this. There are going to be many players getting banned that were simply trying to get a pvp match. If it were me, I would sit there and try to queue up repeatedly, not to exploit but because I want to pvp damnit. 

    If it's such a big exploit, then it wouldn't even work. The exploit relies on people not having enough people to start a warzone right? Well a warzone maxes out at 16 people (8 on each side), and it doesn't need that many to start up. If there are all these people trying to do the exploit, then it wouldn't even work, because other people will be queuing up for warzones.

    Unless I'm missing something, I don't understand how the warzone exploit is even possible at this point. Maybe early on before everyone had a chance to get on, but there have to be at least 16 people queuing up for warzones. At that point you're just leveling through warzones. So what's the big deal?

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  • GrahorGrahor Member Posts: 828

    I would add more instancing for newbie zones. Each server's load is (mostly) limited by a number of people in one zone, so if a zone is split, say, into 6, you can allow 6 times more people playing in that zone in one server.

  • dubyahitedubyahite Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    Originally posted by Grahor

    I would add more instancing for newbie zones. Each server's load is (mostly) limited by a number of people in one zone, so if a zone is split, say, into 6, you can allow 6 times more people playing in that zone in one server.

    That's easy to say, but at the same time, I have to believe that they have a solidly researched reason for what they are doing. This launch didn't happen by accident, and if this is how they feel they need to do it, then that is what is going to happen.

     

    I want everyone to stop and think about this for a second. They are seriously trying to get 4 million people into this thing within a week. They are not going to be able to do that at the pace they set today. I just don't think that would be possible. This thing is going to ramp up very quickly, and my guess would be Dec 15th for that.

     

    Tomorrow may not be the day they ramp it up, but just wait and see what they do on Thurs. 

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  • GaborikGaborik Member Posts: 251
    The truth is it doesnt matter what they would have done, the people whining and crying now would be the same ones whining and crying because there is a 25min que because they let everyone in. If you wanted to get in yesterday you should have pre-ordered on July 21st like some of us did. Its called first come first serve seems pretty fair to me.
  • GrahorGrahor Member Posts: 828

    Originally posted by dubyahite

    Originally posted by Grahor

    I would add more instancing for newbie zones. Each server's load is (mostly) limited by a number of people in one zone, so if a zone is split, say, into 6, you can allow 6 times more people playing in that zone in one server.

    That's easy to say, but at the same time, I have to believe that they have a solidly researched reason for what they are doing. This launch didn't happen by accident, and if this is how they feel they need to do it, then that is what is going to happen.

    Oh, I have no doubt that they've worked on the way they do instancing. And they do instancing, but to the limit, say, 3. I'm not trying to second-guess them, especially since I'm not pre-ordering and in fact not planning to play till the middle of January (my wife has explained to me that I have different plans and desires for December), so I don't have any emotional involvement in this.

  • dubyahitedubyahite Member UncommonPosts: 2,483

    Originally posted by Grahor

    Originally posted by dubyahite


    Originally posted by Grahor

    I would add more instancing for newbie zones. Each server's load is (mostly) limited by a number of people in one zone, so if a zone is split, say, into 6, you can allow 6 times more people playing in that zone in one server.

    That's easy to say, but at the same time, I have to believe that they have a solidly researched reason for what they are doing. This launch didn't happen by accident, and if this is how they feel they need to do it, then that is what is going to happen.

    Oh, I have no doubt that they've worked on the way they do instancing. And they do instancing, but to the limit, say, 3. I'm not trying to second-guess them, especially because since I'm not pre-ordering and in fact not planning to play till the middle of January (my wife has explained to me that I have different planes and desires for December), so I don't have any emotional involvement in this.

    Think about this, one of the biggest criticisms early on (and still sometimes continuing to this day) was that it was heavily instanced. That's not a good impression to put accross in this industry. People have frequently compared it to a lobby based game, even though it really isn't one. The more instancing they do, the more that view is enforced and the more true it becomes.  They do not want to give that impression off at all.

    When they stress tested, they may have seen how much they can max out the zones, but they may not want this game to be in that situation ever. 

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  • GrahorGrahor Member Posts: 828

    Originally posted by dubyahite

    Think about this, one of the biggest criticisms early on (and still sometimes continuing to this day) was that it was heavily instanced. That's not a good impression to put accross in this industry. People have frequently compared it to a lobby based game, even though it really isn't one. The more instancing they do, the more that view is enforced and the more true it becomes.  They do not want to give that impression off at all.

    I actually don't care all that much about instancing as long as zones are full of people and not empty. What's the difference for me? I don't see it at all.

     

    But people complain of the strangest things.

  • DexterMMODexterMMO Member Posts: 484

    Originally posted by dubyahite

    Originally posted by DexterMMO

    1. Accounts that have spammed the forums with negativity get in last

    2. Do waves through out the day... have people with multiple shifts... taking off at 2pm and leaving the servers with light load is stupid.

    2a. Pretend I know what its like to be a MMO gamer and know that those in can now make unlimited ults soaking up so many character names limiting already paying customers the chance to even get their name.

    2b. Suspend and delete all characters who knowingly exploited and benefited from the light server load xp grind. Cheating is Cheating.

    I'm responding to your post not to be argumentative, but because it is the most detailed, serious response I have seen yet, and I agree with at least 1.5 of your points. 

     

    1. No way would I do that. That's asking for a crapstorm. Think about how badly those people would continue to flip out if they found out they got pushed to the back for voicing their opinion. No way, that's a terrible idea. Try stirring up a hornets nest with your face and tell me how that goes for you. 

    Well this was under the magical notion that I was behind the launch... If they "spam" or act like douche bag children on my forums for months I would slip their accounts to the back of the list and announce the test invites as "random" they'd never know but I in no way would ever let some troll douche bag in before a solid community member.

    2. I think they probably could have done more today, but I imagine they are just ramping up slowly. They've done this before. In fact they always do this. Remember the Thanksgiving weekend beta? That was a demonstration of exactly how they were going to do this, only on a shorter time-table.

    Because of the success they had that weekend... I'm surprised they did it this way.

    2a. I agree totally with the alt name soaking up thing. They aren't really unlimited per server though, a person can only make 8 per server. I think it would have been a very smart move to limit people to less alts during head start, maybe 2 - 4 characters, then 8 at launch. At the same time, with the amount of people playing this game at launch, everything is gonna be gone soon. The thing you should actually be worrying about is the Legacy name at level 30 ish. Those are gonna get chewed up fast too, and that goes for ALL your characters. 

    I wouldn't give them more than 2 total characters until others can get it... it's not about punishing it's about being curteous to other paying customers.

    2b. I don't know enough about this to say one way or the other. I couldn't tell you the details behind the exploit and how severe it is. I hate to say it, but I almost don't know if you can do anything about this. There are going to be many players getting banned that were simply trying to get a pvp match. If it were me, I would sit there and try to queue up repeatedly, not to exploit but because I want to pvp damnit. 

    Servers were so empty people were complaining on the forums about not being able to find groups for flash points. That means those who wanted to exploit this had from 4PM CST yesterday after noon all the way through some time today when people catch up... if they catch up.

    I will most likely now wait for a fresh server launch because cheating and cheaters ruin games to me... I would never want to be guilded or unknowingly associated with people who exploited that crap.

    If it's such a big exploit, then it wouldn't even work. The exploit relies on people not having enough people to start a warzone right? Well a warzone maxes out at 16 people (8 on each side), and it doesn't need that many to start up. If there are all these people trying to do the exploit, then it wouldn't even work, because other people will be queuing up for warzones.

    Unless I'm missing something, I don't understand how the warzone exploit is even possible at this point. Maybe early on before everyone had a chance to get on, but there have to be at least 16 people queuing up for warzones. At that point you're just leveling through warzones. So what's the big deal?

    Servers are "DEAD" people are crying for people to group with. Theres maybe 500 people per server all at different points in leveling and those who levelled faster got to ride the wave of exploit even further ahead of everyone. 500 is of course a guestimate.

     

    Everything I say is my opinion or personal preference. You may or may not find it useful to your cause but regardless I am entitled to it.

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