Nice post OP. I'm one of the few who thing that rolling early access is a good idea for a smooth launch. Yeah, some people are ahead and have "an advantage" according to other pre-orders, but ALL of us pre-orders have the advantage of those that did NOT pre-order for early game access. Anyway, on to my point! While I'm ok with the rolling access, the lack of information about who is getting in and when is pretty frustrating. And while I also understand that information like that is generally kept internal, it's not too much to ask to get an estimation of when our accounts will be flagged for play. In the dev tracker, there is a post that says they'll be inviting more on Wednesday than they did on Tuesday, so they do know how many they are inviting... is it too much to ask for an estimation so that we are a bit more in the loop?

Hey everyone.

We absolutely understand you want to get in and play the game early. It's one of the reasons we expanded our Early Game Access from a maximum of five days to a maximum of seven days. However, there are a couple of important points to realize about today's opening salvo of invites, and the procedure in general for Early Game Access and launch.

First, Early Game Access and launch is not supposed to be a stress test. In our previous Beta Testing Weekends we got up to very large concurrent number of players and brought invites into the game at a very high rate. That was done to stress test every aspect of our systems and servers, and essentially to see if they broke. In some cases, they did, but that helped us improve for launch.

For us, launch isn't just about stuffing our servers with as many people as possible. As anyone who's been through a large MMO launch can tell you, that experience can be painful. Our aim with this launch was to ramp things up gradually, to spread our player population out amongst a variety of servers, to maintain all server types, and to keep queuing to a minimum (although we expect that to happen as we head towards December 20th). So far, all that has been successful for us on Day One.

The second thing to realize is scale. We invited more people to play Star Wars: The Old Republic today than many other MMO launches manage in their entire head-start process. As I mentioned earlier today, when we opened pre-orders we had a huge spike in numbers - far more than most MMOs capture at launch. That was the initial rush. After that, our pre-orders settled down.

What this means is that tomorrow, you'll effectively start to see the pre-order timeline expand. You'll see people who have pre-ordered later than July getting invites. The day after that, more people will be invited. We're actually planning to invite more tomorrow than today, and invite the same number again on Thursday - at which point we'll be into the original 'five days of Early Game Access'.

Last thing. Why aren't we continuing to send waves over time? Two main reasons - one, because we need to see that the servers are maintaining stability over time; adding a lot of players in a short period (in other words, stress testing) can cause stability issues.

Two, our plan is to continue to add servers - but carefully, and in response to demand. We need to monitor that demand and roll out servers accordingly. A long-term recipe for MMO failure is to add a lot of servers early on, and then when population decreases, have to close those servers and merge them together.

Our aim is for Star Wars: The Old Republic to be around for a long time to come. Today's just the first step in that - an early step, too - and we'll be running smoothly, with a stable population, before too long.

Early Game Access at Barnes & Noble

 

Two hours before release of the last Harry Potter book, I looked through the locked doors of Barnes & Noble at the crowd outside. There were three or four hundred people already. We expected 150.

 

One of them bumped against the door, pressed by the mob behind him. A fellow employee looked at me and asked, 'Did you see Lord of the Rings?'

 

'Yeah,' I said.

 

'Remember when the orcs arrive at Helm's Deep?'

 

'Yeah,' I sighed.

 

He went back to his register. We had five. Management decided to open two.

 

The doors opened a few minutes later and the orcs massed around the registers to purchase red raffle-style tickets to be used to get their books at midnight. The lines were slow and people streamed into the store, past our one manager on duty, who stood on a chair.

 

I brought out the first box of books. People stared. Our manager called out numbers, which no one could hear, and the crowd moved in. Miraculously, they did not grab or push, but I handed out books to any outstretched hand without regard to purchase order. Other employees did the same at two other stations, but we had to pause to get each new box. By the time we locked up, it was after 3am.

 

 

The next day, I talked with an employee at another Barnes & Noble, 40 minutes away. They had six registers open - they converted the cafe into a distribution point - and had organized their lines before the doors opened, so everyone knew which of the six places to go for their books They hired a magician for entertainment and had black plastic glasses for kids. They had more customers than we did, and they were done in an hour.

 

 

Lessons

• 1) The experience of getting a product matters as much as the product itself.

Big events are a chance to gain a lot of customer goodwill. Or lose it.

• 2) Communication goes a long way.

Waiting is easier when you know what to expect.

• 3) Invest in your best customers.

The other store had more employees for the shift, but they finished faster and processed fewer complaints (they did have one, from a guy who wanted the cafe to be open). They even got a nice spot on the local news - good PR, lots of satisfied customers

 

Launch and Early Game Access at Bioware

It's a little late to worry about lesson 1). My heart goes out the product managers for SWTOR (my wife was a product manager for Sierra/Vivendi), but there's nothing so inherently challenging about launch that can't be a time to gain goodwill from players. Rely on lessons 2 and 3.

 

Lesson 2: communicate, even about delays. That doesn't mean Tweeting/Posting that you just sent more invites, since that doesn't help anyone know when to take off time from work or arrange to meet a friend in-game.

Announce the days for the next blocks of early game access. We'll wait, without wondering how much more we have to wait.

 

And how about Lesson 3, treating your customers well? That one is as simple as ever: reinstate the grace period.

While it's no grand tragedy to wait out a week, those waiting for physical delivery of the game, including all Collector's Edition players, naturally want to play with others they know who can.

The problem is so easy to avoid. Don't require game codes until Dec 30th.

 

 

Show your customers you respect not only their purchases but their time. We're not orcs - tell us exactly when we can play, and we'll be there.

Very well written. While I have not been very vocal about early access, I must say I would at least be less antsy if I knew I would get the game, say, Thursday. Even if I knew I would get it one day before, at least I would know ahead of time. The worst part of this whole early access thing is that I have no idea when I'll be able to play.

First off, great post because you were respectful and I think that's a refreshing change from most posters who approached this topic

I think its important to note. however, that you're comparing two similar but very distinct things. Book releases are similar to the game in the fact that they are both commodities that have high anticipation; but the similarities end there.

You're not talking about the game release, you're talking about a build up to release. There is a difference, as one product is released and the other is not quite available yet, but a select few will be allowed a sneak peek. You also don't need to worry about books breaking down on you if too many people try to read them.

Again, I like the politeness of the post; but apples and oranges.

I appreciate the point the OP is making. I guess I'm failing to understand why everyone is so upset in the first place. There's other games to play in the meantime, you know? But I'm not the type to get myself that hyped up about most things in general.

Go pick up Howard Zinn's a "A People's History of the United States" or something from Ishmael Reed or Affinity Konar or Joe Amator or Kass Fleisher. Play Terraria or some other game. **********. Grade papers (if you're me).

I understand disappoint, but ya gotta roll with the punches. Just put it out of your mind and get better at playing KoF13.

Great post.

I'm not as concerned about getting in as much as how I feel and am treated throughout the waiting process. The waiting process can be easy and relatively pain-free.

However at this point, every time I enter swtor.com for more information, I get more frustrated at the lack of information about when I can enter, which is then emphasized. i.e. server status showing light/standard status for most servers.

Simply put, treat us, the people who put faith in your game and invested in it even before it is released, as your valued customers.

The Developer Chat is the first of many things that could keep us distracted, so keep such things coming!

this is what the smart people did...

 

they went to Walmart and stood around the book bens READING harry potter until they got rung up at midnight... surrounded by the other 20 people that were there ready to pick up the book.

 

for TOR, I'm living vicariously through Sake and his live stream

Yeah I always go to walmart for midnight releases. I bought wrath and cata there. I got there at 11:55 and left around 12:05 with no issue and I didn't even need to wait in the cold like all those suckers across the street at gamestop.

While I am being patient about this and know I will be playing eventually the anticipation and lack of knowing when it happens is a bit unnerving. I definitely would feel at ease if they just told me what day I should be expected an invite instead of reading speculation posts and just hoping that they work ahead of schedule and aim to get us in for the weekend at the very least. But to be honest I would be fine if they just told me I wasn't playing until the 19th instead of all this jazz.

Early Game Access at Barnes & Noble

 

Two hours before release of the last Harry Potter book, I looked through the locked doors of Barnes & Noble at the crowd outside. There were three or four hundred people already. We expected 150.

 

One of them bumped against the door, pressed by the mob behind him. A fellow employee looked at me and asked, 'Did you see Lord of the Rings?'

 

'Yeah,' I said.

 

'Remember when the orcs arrive at Helm's Deep?'

 

'Yeah,' I sighed.

 

He went back to his register. We had five. Management decided to open two.

 

The doors opened a few minutes later and the orcs massed around the registers to purchase red raffle-style tickets to be used to get their books at midnight. The lines were slow and people streamed into the store, past our one manager on duty, who stood on a chair.

 

I brought out the first box of books. People stared. Our manager called out numbers, which no one could hear, and the crowd moved in. Miraculously, they did not grab or push, but I handed out books to any outstretched hand without regard to purchase order. Other employees did the same at two other stations, but we had to pause to get each new box. By the time we locked up, it was after 3am.

 

 

The next day, I talked with an employee at another Barnes & Noble, 40 minutes away. They had six registers open - they converted the cafe into a distribution point - and had organized their lines before the doors opened, so everyone knew which of the six places to go for their books They hired a magician for entertainment and had black plastic glasses for kids. They had more customers than we did, and they were done in an hour.

 

 

Lessons

• 1) The experience of getting a product matters as much as the product itself.

Big events are a chance to gain a lot of customer goodwill. Or lose it.

• 2) Communication goes a long way.

Waiting is easier when you know what to expect.

• 3) Invest in your best customers.

The other store had more employees for the shift, but they finished faster and processed fewer complaints (they did have one, from a guy who wanted the cafe to be open). They even got a nice spot on the local news - good PR, lots of satisfied customers

 

Launch and Early Game Access at Bioware

It's a little late to worry about lesson 1). My heart goes out the product managers for SWTOR (my wife was a product manager for Sierra/Vivendi), but there's nothing so inherently challenging about launch that can't be a time to gain goodwill from players. Rely on lessons 2 and 3.

 

Lesson 2: communicate, even about delays. That doesn't mean Tweeting/Posting that you just sent more invites, since that doesn't help anyone know when to take off time from work or arrange to meet a friend in-game.

Announce the days for the next blocks of early game access. We'll wait, without wondering how much more we have to wait.

 

And how about Lesson 3, treating your customers well? That one is as simple as ever: reinstate the grace period.

While it's no grand tragedy to wait out a week, those waiting for physical delivery of the game, including all Collector's Edition players, naturally want to play with others they know who can.

The problem is so easy to avoid. Don't require game codes until Dec 30th.

 

 

Show your customers you respect not only their purchases but their time. We're not orcs - tell us exactly when we can play, and we'll be there.

You know, I've been pretty consistent in blasting some of the whiners. But I have to admit, this is a well thought out post. I'm not sure the fact that BioWare could have done it better means that the whiners are entitled to whine. But your post does give me something to think about.

Honestly, I'm not sure that they know right now what dates they're going to admit when. The more the servers can handle, and the better they've been run in, the more they can admit the next wave. They're like as not being ambiguous so they don't get the whining of 'You suck, you activated me a day early and I missed some of my playtime!' They'd rather have the incessant questions of 'When am I going to get' rather than the threats whining that accompanies earliness.

They got a lesson with the 2-day expansion of the EGA. If I was them, I'd shut up too. In the Beta forums, there was some guy that had taken the 15th to the 20th+ off from work so he could play, and threw a fit when he found out it might be seven days rather than five. So much so, that at one point, he threatened to sue.

Therefore, two working scenarios: One, they're going to zip people along (Bonus wave yesterday), and people will get in sooner than they expect. Once given a date, people get hacked if they get to start early.

The other is that they start getting people in, the servers destabilize, and they need longer to work out. If they present even a tentative schedule in those cases, they get slammed in the Forums and other places even worse when people don't get in when even a tentative schedule says they should.

You think it's bad now, imagine what it would be then.

After that, ask yourself why they might want to exercise their right to remain silent.

As for the 'grace' period, they're working with everyone to get them all out ahead of time, so there are minimal interruptions. They got it sorted with Amazon, they'll get it sorted with everyone else, too. More than 99% likelihood there is that the lawyers are still billing for their cut of the contract modifications.

There is no such thing as to much communication. Clearly state what you are doing and why and repeat, ad in new information as it becomes available. Grease those wheals and everything goes smother. Some people will always complain, and when you decide to launch in this way ofc there will be tensions. I think they chose a good launch strategy, if not the best way to communicate it. But then again it's always easy to point fingers when you don't have all the facts.

However if you like some posters here think it's a good idea to be silent, your'e only inviting wild speculations and for seeds of mistrust to be sown. That's what politicians whit something to hide do.

What a wonderful read. Thank you OP that was refreshing considering the rage fest that is going on right now.

+ over 9000

Thanks for all the thoughtful posts here so far.

In the future, don't take time off from work because you "might" get to play early access of a GAME!

That's exactly what the Bioware Customer Service Rep said.

Or maybe it was

anyone who takes time off work to play a game they don't own yet is an idiot.

So hard to remember. All those calls blend together.

I didn't take a day off (or call Bioware, for that matter. I expect they're, well, busy). But I was suggesting that waiting is easier when you know how long you'll wait. Advance notice worked out well in last beta weekend, even for those (like me) who didn't start on the first day.

And though this has been a very constructive thread, I want to reassure the dissenters that I'm not whining about access. I know whining. I have twin toddlers, I taught junior-high for seven years and coached high school for five. You, dear gamer, are but a tadpole in the cycle of whining-recognition, and I wish you many more heady, carefree years ahead.

What I am doing is suggesting three things to ease current troubles. Not troubles like gastric cancer or the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852, but gaming troubles which, yes, will pass. Here again are ways to make it easier:

1. Release the hold on game distribution so all of us are ready at launch.
    
   
2. Announce the days of Early Access for each date range of pre-order entry.
    
   
3. Failing #1, reinstate a ten-day grace period for Product Registration.
   

It's getting late on #1, but not too late. Amazon is making some progress on the issue (see this thread), and I hope EA opens up with others, too.

No need to play '[My enlightened retailing choice] beats the snot out of your [philistine retailing choice].' EA picked their retailers and should supply them all to deliver by launch.

#2 can still be done for remaining access and it fits perfectly with their stated goals:

First, Early Game Access and launch is not supposed to be a stress test. In our previous Beta Testing Weekends we got up to very large concurrent number of players and brought invites into the game at a very high rate...

Our aim with this launch was to ramp things up gradually, to spread our player population out amongst a variety of servers, to maintain all server types, and to keep queuing to a minimum.

#3 affects primarily CE buyers - a few hundred thousand of them, yes? - many expecting to be locked out from launch until a delivery date of Dec 29.

No, I'm not asking for special treatment of CE purchasers, on the contrary. EA has finally allowed release of other editions of the game but is still withholding CE copies until launch.

Exactly why is a point to be debated by scholars for decades, but even so, there is an easy solution: reinstate a ten-day grace period.

The functionality is already built into the launcher. Just change the date by which anyone with a pre-order must enter a Product Code.

"Lesson" 3- While I can't say why the grace period was pulled, the only logical assumption is that there was a reason for it. They certainly didn't do it to piss off their customers and get some laughs.

Of course, you could use that reasoning to justify any corporate choice, and they aren't all good. Netflix's pricing plan, New Coke, and Facebook's Beacon feature all come to mind.

Companies make mistakes. They're run by people.

While this post is very well-written and respectful, it is still woefully full of ignorance. You're basically telling Bioware what they should do while having absolutely no knowledge of how their company is run.

I claim no special insight into Bioware. But I do know that in companies, sometimes the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, and that likelihood increases with size.

The CE problem results from three decisions: not to ship the games before launch, to withhold the CE edition longer, and to rescind the grace period. It's the combination that's a problem, not any one policy.

Because I'm fond of Bioware, I tell myself that the weak link must be some bean-counter at EA whose calculator tells him how much money is lost from 10 days of free play. That real cost is lower, of course, and there's a higher cost in customer satisfaction, unless they change course this week. Amazon offers a hint of hope.

Great post brother, but by next year this will be a thing of the past.

And a good thing, too!

I just find my access/launch enthusiasm ebbing, trying as am to keep it high. I don't think I'm alone, and I know there are reasonable ways to set things right, even now.

Early Game Access at Barnes & Noble

 

 

 

Show your customers you respect not only their purchases but their time. We're not orcs - tell us exactly when we can play, and we'll be there.

I only quote this for a one reason. It's sooooo true, you could say "your invite will be at 2:39a.m. and I would be there 15 minutes early happily waiting patiently.

I also feel bad for this man with a Harry Potter book release, I had Halo 2 ><. Stupid Target got me good, yes they did. But..... we had more around 10,000 people waiting outside in L.A. it was a horrid night.