wraggster
December 21st, 2011, 22:46
Players of The Old Republic (http://www.next-gen.biz/filter/all/tags/584), which launched yesterday, are being forced to queue for hours at a time before getting to play BioWare (http://www.next-gen.biz/filter/all/tags/32)'s Star Wars MMOG.
In a lengthy post on the game's official forums, senior online community manager Stephen Reid warns that the situation will continue "for the foreseeable future," and asks for users' patience.
"We're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers," he writes. "This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time."
Reid explains that, while server population caps are being raised, BioWare does not want to do so too quickly. "Raising them too fast will create an influx of new players and perpetuate the problem," he says. "We do not expect the queues to alleviate on these servers for the foreseeable future.
"If you do not want to queue, you should consider playing on another server, many of which have very low or no queues."
Which is fine, but characters are locked to a specific server; joining a new server means creating an entirely new character. With no World Of Warcraft-style character transfer tool - Reid says it is "being worked on, but there is no ETA" - players are left with a choice: roll new characters on different servers, or sit and wait.
Neither solution appears acceptable for a game whose launch was so carefully managed in a bid to ensure it went smoothly; EA (http://www.next-gen.biz/filter/all/tags/69) wasunable to guarantee pre-orders (http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-unable-guarantee-old-republic-pre-orders) for the game, saying it was limiting launch supply "in order to ensure a great user experience." That appears to still be some way off.
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/users-facing-long-queues-old-republic
In a lengthy post on the game's official forums, senior online community manager Stephen Reid warns that the situation will continue "for the foreseeable future," and asks for users' patience.
"We're experiencing high load and corresponding queues on some servers," he writes. "This is to be expected during launch, as a high number of people want to play the game, and for long stretches at a time."
Reid explains that, while server population caps are being raised, BioWare does not want to do so too quickly. "Raising them too fast will create an influx of new players and perpetuate the problem," he says. "We do not expect the queues to alleviate on these servers for the foreseeable future.
"If you do not want to queue, you should consider playing on another server, many of which have very low or no queues."
Which is fine, but characters are locked to a specific server; joining a new server means creating an entirely new character. With no World Of Warcraft-style character transfer tool - Reid says it is "being worked on, but there is no ETA" - players are left with a choice: roll new characters on different servers, or sit and wait.
Neither solution appears acceptable for a game whose launch was so carefully managed in a bid to ensure it went smoothly; EA (http://www.next-gen.biz/filter/all/tags/69) wasunable to guarantee pre-orders (http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ea-unable-guarantee-old-republic-pre-orders) for the game, saying it was limiting launch supply "in order to ensure a great user experience." That appears to still be some way off.
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/users-facing-long-queues-old-republic