10:30 on a Sunday Night

Why after all these years of MMO and video game rollouts, do companies still suffer so many issues when people start logging in for real? New games go through alphas, closed betas, and open betas, and still there are problems when real customers try to get what they've paid for.

Subscription games just work better

I really thought FFXIV might be the one. The one who was different. The one who had taken a step back, reworked their game, and knew what was coming when they rolled out a second time. They had already gone through all the issues before the realm was reborn, so what could really surprise them?

But alas, it was not to be. In a time when subscription based games are trying to show why they deserve your money on a monthly basis, you would expect they want to start out on the right foot. Even if it is the second time around. You would think they would at least allow those who are excited about the game to log in and create characters. Those early access people who jumped at the opportunity to get their character moving and start exploring the world on day one should be treated well, you would think. How about people who took time off work to download and start up their experience in a game they paid for based solely on the promises of the devs.

Not allowed on all servers

Well, 10:30 on Sunday night, I was able to finally get a character created in FFXIV. Up until this point, I had never played a Final Fantasy game, and I was excited to fire it up and get rolling this weekend. 10:30 on Sunday night, and I still had not played a Final Fantasy game, but at least I created a character – right? I suppose it is something.

Was I on the same server as my friends? No. Neither of the two servers that guilds I wanted to play with were available at any point that I attempted to create a character, and I was online for hours. For some reason I kept getting a message that my account did not support creating a character on that server even if I was able to select it from the creation screen. That was the way FFXIV told me the servers were full.

Reborn or Infanticide?

But once I created a character, things went well – right? No. After getting the wonderful feeling of having finally created my character on a server, the anticipation of seeing this world for the first time as a player swelling…the server was full. I could not get into the game.

It is now Monday, and I still have not set virtual foot in the world of Final Fantasy XIV.

It's not as though this is Squre Enix's first rodeo. This IS Final Fantasy XIV – that's 14 if you don't want to do Roman numerals. That means there are at least 13 other games that Squre Enix has rolled out in the past. But of course, these were not all MMOs, that is a completely different thing…but then again, this IS 'A Realm Reborn'. They already rolled this out once…and…failed.

Realistic Hope?

Well, I can only hope that I will finally get a chance to get in-game tonight. With problems like this, I don't really have much hope that this game will show me they deserve my monthly subscription, but I will give them a shot. I hope everyone else is having a better time getting in and creating characters than I am, but I don't have much faith in that.

I guess we'll see what happens Tuesday when the people who did not pre-order get a chance to 'play'.