Last night, as expected, I wasn’t able to play due to the long queues. Actually, that’s not entirely correct, as I was able to log in at about 10:30-11:00 last night, but I was too tired by then to do anything. I expect the entire week to be like this, and I am so not happy.
The general impression of disintrest from NCSoft regarding the queue issue, and the recent interview with Brian Knox where he basically told gamers “tough titty” about the queue times, has been irritating me.
“With [Sunday]’s launch, we saw a massive influx into the game when we opened the servers for Head Start. It’s important to remember that this initial rush is due to everyone trying to get into the game at the same time – this isn’t a scenario that’s likely to be repeated regularly since it’s really just about that initial rush of players trying to gain access to the game.”
Ummn, Brian? The queues are still there – they aren’t getting better. Maybe I missed how the added influx of people who had to wait to get their boxes was going to fix the queues, but perhaps I’m not understanding something. I know that NCSoft doesn’t want a repeat of the Warhammer fiasco, and fair enough – I was one of those who stopped playing once the server populations went down, when you couldn’t finish public quests and it stopped being so fun. But they are in the process of driving away so many people, and I think many of the people they will lose are the type that an MMO company would want to keep…people like me, not to put too fine a point on it. the servers start filling up between 2:30 and 4:00, when the queues start – this is when the kids get home from school. The 9-to-5 types, like myself, will come online after work, when there is already a 3 hour queue.
The problem with losing these players is that they have jobs and disposable income. I always be collector’s editions for games that I like, I keep subscriptions running for several games at a time. In this household, which consists of two adults, we had four Warcraft subscriptions, and it stayed that way for a very long time. I have a mortgage, but I don’t have kids at home, and being a techy professional type I do have cash to spend on gaming – which for me replaces clothes shopping or drinking at the pub or whatever other people spend it on. I’m a reader and a gamer, so I spend time and money on books and game subscriptions – money generally isn’t an issue for me. I will pay for those character transfers and name changes and Runes of Magic horses and so on…because this is my hobby. And you want me to go away?
I’m also not one of the people causing problems in game and one the forums, I’m not nasty to others and I generally try to make the game experience good for everyone I come in contact with. Call it carebear or whatever, but I think there should be more of that. Don’t count people like that as people that you can afford to lose, either. Yes, there’s a place for the hardcore obnoxious types, and there are a lot of them – but any game also needs the people who will jump in and heal you when you’re in trouble, or tell you where Tutty is. We post reasonably literate, semi-intelligent things on the forums.
Yeah, I’m having a major QQ here – but really? I don’t care. When there are 2,000+ more people who want to play your game every single night than can actually do so, you want to roll out another server. Don’t push us away just because we have jobs, or families.