A Q&A on why your servers might or might not be up right now

[Oveur]

Q: I just noticed that the [insert territory] servers for [insert platform] are up now, can this be true?
A: Yes, this can very much be true. As we approach our real launch, servers may be up for extended times for testing and troubleshooting. Right now, we are working on unforeseen issues for EU PC and US PS3. So it’s working as intended, we are finding issues before launch, just as planned.

Q: Why is my server not up right now?
A: Simply because we focus different type of our people on different servers at any given time. They may or may not require them to be open. Often we want to see how it is under considerable (100s or 1000s) but not full load (100,000).

Q: Will you leave servers open when you are finished?
A: Yes as that’s very likely close to our launch time and we would like to spread the load of new players in the first hours.

Q: This is just a soft launch and you guys are screwing Europeans again
A: No, of course we’re not. As an Icelander I can faithfully say that we are not intentionally screwing anyone in Europe intentionally. You can look at our volcanoes and economic collapses as evidence of that. We are simply on long work hours in the last week and use every opportunity we have till launch to make it a better experience for you.

Q: But everyone is getting ahead of me!
A: I’m sure you’re skills are mad and your aim is true and that you will have no problems gaining a couple of hours on the couple of thousand that went in early, at risk of losing all their progress. They will also eventually need sleep so you will be able to catch them in their dreams. That statement was not intended to be creepy at all.

Q: F#$% amateurs not preloading or waiting for retail boxes to arrive
A: I have yet to master the skill of Omnipotence. Will be there shortly. In the meantime, we were not able to allow preload, pre-patching, pre-download on all platforms, in all territories through all retailers. We’re incredibly sorry for that. We’re doing everything we can still to make this happen.

Q: So is this a “soft launch”?
A: No, we do everything hard.

I may or may not add to this Q&A based on questions below my beloved but I'm pretty sure I'll be a bit busy still with this launch stuff.

Thank you for your patience!

[Xtheoneandonly]

Roger, Captain Oveur!

[watsbeef]

Ah good ol official clarification

thanks for trying to clear things up for us.

[Newsin]

I appreciate the post answering some of the questions people had. But in the end, I still dont get why people who ordered Physical Copies of the game got kicked in the junk. Sorry, there is more to this then just EGO levels. It's Principle, many of us feel a little punished because we like to collect collectors edition items. We also paid the same amount. Some of us ordered MONTHS ago to support the game, Prior to the announcement of Steam.

I paid my full amount upfront ( I hate owing money ). This is exactly why they do Grace Periods in "most" newer game launches. Last 4 MMO's I have played actually. Either way. Appreciate some of the clarification on whats going on.

[SteveMND]

Executive Producer, technoviking, spandex-lover and conqueror of worlds

This signature both intrigues and scares me. I have a suspicion that is its intent.

[Xtheoneandonly]

I appreciate the post answering some of the questions people had. But in the end, I still dont get why people who ordered Physical Copies of the game got kicked in the junk. Sorry, there is more to this then just EGO levels. It's Principle, many of us feel a little punished because we like to collect collectors edition items. We also paid the same amount. Some of us ordered MONTHS ago to support the game, Prior to the announcement of Steam.

I paid my full amount upfront ( I hate owing money ). This is exactly why they do Grace Periods in "most" newer game launches. Last 4 MMO's I have played actually. Either way. Appreciate some of the clarification on whats going on.

Well as you say, we kind of got a raw deal, but that's for two reasons. One, Trion can not control the third party retailers to the extent of making them release cd keys for everyone who preordered. Two, the CD keys are needed to flag your account as having actually bought the game and thus letting you install it. Unfortunately us physical copy buyers have our cd keys locked inside our collector's boxes. So unless you wanted someone opening all the boxes and rifling through stuff just to send you your cd key, then we get "left behind"

[Night Hawke]

Well as you say, we kind of got a raw deal, but that's for two reasons. One, Trion can not control the third party retailers to the extent of making them release cd keys for everyone who preordered. Two, the CD keys are needed to flag your account as having actually bought the game and thus letting you install it. Unfortunately us physical copy buyers have our cd keys locked inside our collector's boxes. So unless you wanted someone opening all the boxes and rifling through stuff just to send you your cd key, then we get "left behind"

trion gives all the codes to retailers. They could have attached a grace period in their code system to each of the codes. this would have solved all of these problems. the point of a grace period is to get you into the game then you validate your access later with your cd key. it was within trions ability, every mmo in several years has done it. TRION added a grace period to rift right before launch themselves.

[watsbeef]

Well as you say, we kind of got a raw deal, but that's for two reasons. One, Trion can not control the third party retailers to the extent of making them release cd keys for everyone who preordered. Two, the CD keys are needed to flag your account as having actually bought the game and thus letting you install it. Unfortunately us physical copy buyers have our cd keys locked inside our collector's boxes. So unless you wanted someone opening all the boxes and rifling through stuff just to send you your cd key, then we get "left behind"

Always has to be balance. Digital copy buyers (some) get early access, in that servers need last minute tweaks and such, and physical copy buyers just wait. until whenever the retailer opens shop.

[Valethar]

I have yet to master the skill of Omnipotence.

Nathan, I may steal this for a tagline some day! LOL

[Fitz]

Greatest dev post ever..