XIV:ARR Halts Sales to Help Fix Server Issues

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Aye, just want to repeat what has been said earlier: You have paid nothing for early access. It is a free bonus for buying something else. You can argue the case however you like to, but it was a free bonus.

I guess the thing here is that when when you give people a bonus, and then not give them the means to access it, they get pretty pissed. It's like giving someone a present (in this scenario, let's imagine it's a birthday) with a giant huge lock on it.

I'm sort of with both sides here, though, to be honest.

Don't get me wrong - I have no complaint about frustration and I'm complaining as much as anyone about the whole thing. Yet I'm not complaining about how "I paid for this!", I'm complaining that "I want to play the game but I can't!" - I don't care if the game were free, I just wanna plaaaaaay xD

Actually the way it was advertised it wasn't a "free bonus", it was part of the features you get for pre-ordering. I paid in excess of £40 for my pre-order to get the additional items, early access and first months subs (plus the narly art book), as this is what was advertised. If I'd have chosen to wait until release to purchase I'd have just paid the £10 monthly subs. So I have paid for early access, just like anyone else who purchases the full retail game.

As I have said though, it's the communication that's been really getting me, they've planned maintenance and instead of warning most of the time, they've just booted us, made us wait a good while (upto an hour in some cases) before letting us know what's going on. It's improving slowly, but then they come out with vague, "wait until it's quieter" demands without giving us any easy

Originally Posted by Baloki

Actually the way it was advertised it wasn't a "free bonus", it was part of the features you get for pre-ordering. I paid in excess of £40 for my pre-order to get the additional items, early access and first months subs (plus the narly art book), as this is what was advertised. If I'd have chosen to wait until release to purchase I'd have just paid the £10 monthly subs. So I have paid for early access, just like anyone else who purchases the full retail game.

As I have said though, it's the communication that's been really getting me, they've planned maintenance and instead of warning most of the time, they've just booted us, made us wait a good while (upto an hour in some cases) before letting us know what's going on. It's improving slowly, but then they come out with vague, "wait until it's quieter" demands without giving us any easy

No, you haven't.

You paid £40? Then you must have got the Collector's Edition. You can get early access with the standard edition of the game, so you didn't pay £40 for the early access, you paid £40 for the goodies. And you got the game you paid for and the goodies you paid for. The pre-order bonuses are bonuses for people who pre-order, and they are free. The standard edition of the game cost me somewhere between £13 and £18 to pre-order, which is probably about the same price as it will be at launch. As for "but I could have got the CE version cheaper if I'd waited" - I'd be surprised. Last I heard it was selling for a handsome fee on eBay since it sold out at various stores.

Early access was quite clearly advertised seperately to the Collector's Edition. On the product page thrown around on their site, the pre-order bonuses were even listed on a seperate page.

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Originally Posted by Baloki

Actually the way it was advertised it wasn't a "free bonus", it was part of the features you get for pre-ordering. I paid in excess of £40 for my pre-order to get the additional items, early access and first months subs (plus the narly art book), as this is what was advertised. If I'd have chosen to wait until release to purchase I'd have just paid the £10 monthly subs. So I have paid for early access, just like anyone else who purchases the full retail game.

As I have said though, it's the communication that's been really getting me, they've planned maintenance and instead of warning most of the time, they've just booted us, made us wait a good while (upto an hour in some cases) before letting us know what's going on. It's improving slowly, but then they come out with vague, "wait until it's quieter" demands without giving us any easy

No, you haven't.

You paid £40? Then you must have got the Collector's Edition. You can get early access with the standard edition of the game, so you didn't pay £40 for the early access, you paid £40 for the goodies. And you got the game you paid for and the goodies you paid for. The pre-order bonuses are bonuses for people who pre-order, and they are free. The standard edition of the game cost me somewhere between £13 and £18 to pre-order, which is probably about the same price as it will be at launch. As for "but I could have got the CE version cheaper if I'd waited" - I'd be surprised. Last I heard it was selling for a handsome fee on eBay since it sold out at various stores.

Early access was quite clearly advertised seperately to the Collector's Edition. On the product page thrown around on their site, the pre-order bonuses were even listed on a seperate page.

Actually on Game it was listed as one of the included features, not a bonus.

Then rage at GAME for inaccurately listing it as an included feature when it's actually a pre-order bonus, I guess?

Although to be honest you have had early access, just not as much as you'd have liked (I'm in the same boat there). To my knowledge the game has still been up more often than down.

Just for accuracy sake:

Using the SE store's prices, PC version, boxed
ARR collector: 59.99€ (you can get it for 49.90 on amazon fr though)
ARR standard retail: 24.99€ (can be found at 19.59)
-> price of the CE extras: 35€ (30 euros if you used Amazon).

But wait, there's more.

ARR most expensive sub for a month : 12.99€
-> real price of box + pre-order bonus + activation (I guess? not even sure for phase4/legacy/people-who-preordered-then-cancelled-after-code-was-used, I'll find out in a few days or next month as phase4 if it ever asks me for a code that's physically in the box): 12€ (7.40 if amazon)
-> Same if you go for digital retail, except you don't get the box (and you don't get cheaper prices, too).

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

Then rage at GAME for inaccurately listing it as an included feature when it's actually a pre-order bonus, I guess?

Although to be honest you have had early access, just not as much as you'd have liked (I'm in the same boat there). To my knowledge the game has still been up more often than down.

You chose to pick up on the point I didn't care much about so you be the one raging man!

I just assume Candlejack got you in that post because when you were making your second

Square Enix apologizes for Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn's early access launch | Polygon

The comments on that article are generally great - most people are in agreement that the game itself is great, and for me this is one of the most important things. What's worse than an MMO launching with horrible connection/login issues but great gameplay? An MMO launching with no connection/login issues but bad gameplay.

Once the initial connection/login issues are sorted out - and they will be - we'll all be logging into a fantastic game. Also, most people seem to be having less trouble today. Here's hoping that the fact it's a weekday launch works in it's favour, they'll have until Saturday before the crowds really pack in. >_>;

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

I just assume Candlejack got you in that post because when you were making your second

:clap:

Originally Posted by Loony BoB

The comments on that article are generally great - most people are in agreement that the game itself is great, and for me this is one of the most important things.

Polygon is generally a really nice place, I guess because it's not old enough to have a bunch of diehard fanboys in there complaining about everything. They often have articles regarding feminism and sexism, even, and the comments are usually pretty positive, while it'd be the most miserable, bitter flame war on any other gaming site I can think of.

So I'm not sure the comments on Polygon are representative of the whole community. Most people are probably enraged.

What's funny to me is, I'm kind of glad I canceled my preorder before the early access so that I didn't have to put up with this nonsense. I might buy the game in a couple months.

On the upside, I logged out today and logged back in immediately afterwards without any trouble. Launch day is today, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes this evening, but I won't be around for much of it because my Mum's coming over for dinner.

Apart from the crazy high wait time for duty finder, I haven't had any problems all day.

It'll all come down to American prime time, but honestly I think the majority of people pre-ordered.

You guys that are playing are lucky! I tried a few times to login since Monday, but I keep getting error 1017. I wish there was a queue for waiting. After I try a few times I just give up and play some LoL, or go do something else. My poor PUG is still only level 17!

You're still getting the problems even now? Bummer. I suppose it was always going to get worse as the day wore on, though...

Couple of my friends can't do trout thanks to PS3 codes not working... that's kind of a big problem.

I can't redeem my bonus code for my CE items. Keeps saying "Invalid Code". The help service says it's because of the stress on the servers and I just have to try again later. Never mind that I've been trying all day so far. They can't even get the servers for their websites working right?! Has SE totally lost all touch with reality? You'd think this is the first time they launched an MMO, but they've come off years of experience with XI. How can they mess it up this bad with their servers, especially when they knew how many people they were going to get, given how there's no way they didn't know the number of pre-orders. I'm utterly baffled by the incompetence, I must admit.