Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn seems like it’s an alright MMORPG. I say “seems like” because I can successfully log in on, oh, every one attempt in 25, so I haven’t really been playing it as much as I’d like. Hell, I know a few people who are staying permanently logged in so that they don’t have to deal with the random number generator that decides whether you can log in or not. (Which, naturally, means that they’re occupying space on the server even when they’re not playing. It’s a no-win situation, really.)
Square Enix have accepted that these issues exist, and – in a gesture of goodwill, or at least a gesture of “please keep playing our game” – have offered all current players seven free days of playtime to make up for the past week. Even if you haven’t registered your code yet, you’ll get the seven free days so long as you sign up before the end of 9 September.
In a post on the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Lodestone, Squenix have apologised for the problems, stating that “the number of users attempting to access the game has significantly exceeded our initial estimates.” To which the internet responds, “No shit?”
The post goes on to say that servers have been pushed beyond maximum capacity, and Squenix temporarily resolved this issue by restricting both character creation and logins. Which, unfortunately, has led to lots of people being unable to play. Which isn’t really what you want with your super-popular new game, particularly one that relies on customers continuing to pay for it every month.
With a bit of luck, though, the next bit of server maintenance – due to start at 5pm PDT tonight, and to finish at 3am PDT tomorrow – will fix these problems. Squenix say the maintenance will be “increasing the number of available Worlds, reducing stress on the Duty Finder servers, and increasing the number of concurrent logins allowed for each server.” Which hopefully means I won’t see GO AWAY THE WORLD IS FULL popping up 24 out of every 25 times I try to log into my character.
I’ll report in tomorrow when maintenance is done and let you know if I’m still having login issues, so you’ll hopefully have some idea of whether it’s solved or not. For now, though, expect the problems to continue until tomorrow.