If you were not invited during today's invites, don't worry! We will continue to invite more people as Early Game Access continues.

Don't worry, there are still more invites coming today! We will announce when the next wave is sent.

Originally Posted by ImOverPowered
Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
Hey everyone.
Answer:
Hello Stephen Reid!

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
Thank you very much for this bit of information. It assures me that BioWare at least cares about customer relations. I personally do not blame BioWare for this fiasco, as it wreaks of EA tampering. So, let me being this post by saying that I respect BioWare and I love your product. No matter what happens, I will continue to wait and I will play this game for a long time to come. However, you must know how this feels for your customers; and that is the point of this thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
You are absolutely correct in saying that Launch is not about stress testing. Early Access is a launch event as the majority of people who will play this game on December 20th have pre-ordered. As such, I believe that it is important to understand that since this is a launch event, the servers should have been prepared appropriately for a larger number of concurrent users; enough to provide for the demand. The hesitation to open the servers up to more players is a clear indication of lack of confidence, and that makes me nervous as well.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
Again, you are correct Stephen; launch is not about stuffing your servers with as many people as possible. It is about making your product available to ALL of your customers. I have been through 7 different AAA MMORPG releases since 1995. I understand the pains and frustrations associated with launching an MMORPG. However, I can say with confidence that this is by far the most tortuous MMORPG launch I have ever been through.

As of this moment, 40 of my guild mates are in the game. They are leveling up and accomplishing quests. They will take down the world boss in Coruscant tonight, or early tomorrow morning; and I will not be able to join them in this. More than likely, I never will have enough guild members to take down that boss from now until SW:TOR closes its doors to customers. This has cost me a significant amount of potential enjoyment with your product because I won't be able to do it with my friends.

I understand that you may want to reward your players with early access; and I think that this is a great idea. However, the method in which you are doing this is creating the feeling of entitlement - and entitlement based treatment. You are more than welcome to reward us for making a commitment to your game; and all of us have made an equal commitment. However, you want to reward us, reward all of us, or none of us at all. Otherwise, you are going alienate your customer base.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
Stephen, I don't care about other MMORPG launches. I care about SW:TOR's launch, and creating an appropriate opportunity for the game's customers to gain access to the product. You had a metric to base demand off of since July. There is is no excuse for not being ready. As such - this entire paragraph is nothing more than a lame excuse, and your customers see right through that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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'.
Answer:
Stephen, this doesn't reassure your customers in the slightest. Getting invited tomorrow, or Thursday doesn't fix this problem. In fact, that is exactly what the problem is. This entire process has been deplorable to say the least; and holding the carrot on the stick in front of us tortuous to people who have pre-ordered months in advance, including myself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
But wait a second, you said that launch and early access is NOT a stress test. Why is it that you are intentionally stress testing during a Launch event? You have had over five months to prepare, and appropriately develop your servers to accommodate the obvious massive demand for this game. Once again, this reads like a very lame excuse, and you contradict yourself from the second paragraph.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
Two points on this paragraph. This event is not helping you balance your server populations. Over 90% of those who pre-ordered aren't able to access the game, and your server lists read as, "Full." I understand that the population limits on each server are limited to encourage load balancing, but this is doing nothing more than limiting population when all players are able to connect. You can achieve the same results by queuing players who are actively able to play.

This system has created an artificial queue, one that is not based on log in attempt time, but based on pre-order date. Instead of going through the frustration of waiting through a 1 - 2 hour queue, we must go through the frustration of going through a 1 - 3 day freeze on any and all access to the server. We are still in a queue, the largest and most deplorable queuing system ever deployed by any game in history. This isn't an exaggeration, its the truth.

Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenReid
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.
Answer:
Stephen, at what cost is coming from this expense? To be honest, you are hurting your customers more with this scheme than a traditional MMORPG launch could ever hurt them. I believe that more people will quit because of this, than what would have happened if you decided to take a more traditional approach. You have taught your customers to distrust you, and to be nervous about server stability.

Your customers expect some hiccups during a massive launch. Your customers expect queues, and would prefer them to what we have now. With queues we have the hope of playing after waiting for 1 - 2 hours. Now, we have absolutely no hope whatsoever of getting into the game for at least another 16 hours.

This success that you mention may be nice for the players who are in now. But, for the majority of your customers, this success came at too great of a cost. Please reconsider your invitation process and make this right.