I have been in many a MMO launch day from EQ to now SW:TOR.
I know its not the official launch but it is still the 1st day that people that can play without the Beta tag.
I can see how the wave system has its appeal. The server load is throttled, people (in theory) do not have to wait in a queue to get on the server, and it would help to control starting area crowding some. All good things to strive for and I can not fault you for that but here are a few points I think that could have been done better in no specific order.
1. The time of notification.
People want to take advantage of a head start or just play their shiny new game. So they plan ahead by making arrangements with guildmates and work. As I write this we still have no direct (email not forum searching) answer of what is going on. So some of us sit in stasis waiting for who knows how long.
2. lack of communication.
With no forums or news posts to get centralized information we got the impression that early game access was moved up to the 13th for everyone so by the time we got waves info the word on the street had more momentum and caused a lot more confusion.
There were many outlets to work with for communication and from what I saw each was saying what seemed to be a different thing. From the patcher messages, pre-load email, twitter and others. I finally got some sort of answers today after the forums went back up.
As I write this I find it funny that the weekend betas with their staggered waves gave us the things we wanted. We got notification before hand on when we were starting and usually updated to what was going on.
Here are some things that would be great to see.
1. Someone with access to information posting in a central and prominent place. Such as an announcements section because a lot of people have the habit of checking forums first instead of the box that is buried at the bottom left of the main page.
2. A symbol for official responses and and method to go to the, on the threads so we can track down official answers.
3. Just talk to us we like hearing from you.
In closing, Login queues are not fun but it is better knowing you are not getting in for awhile then not hearing anything and finding out half a day later that your not getting in till tomorrow... maybe...(still clueless on how long the waves are lasting)