The Truth About MMO Launches

September 23, 2009 in Aion, Rants 4 Comments

Hat tip to @starmike for this entry’s title.

I knew after reading his tweet that I’d have to use “The Truth About…” in an upcoming blog entry.  What better one than this.

However before I get into this article, in anticipation of the “it’s just a game, loser” replies, let me say; I know it’s just a game.  Trust me, I’ve been through enough family bullshit in my life, some as recently as a few months ago with one of our children, that I know what is important in life… and it isn’t games.

That being said, I am still passionate about games, and it comes through in my writing.  What can I say, I’m French… passion’s in my blood.

The other important thing to note here is that I am not new to MMO launches.  Far from it.  That being said, the gaming industry has come a very, very long way since Anarchy Online (to randomly toss a name out).  There are lessons that should have been learned by one and all, so as to avoid major pitfalls.

And yet, here we are.

See, there are certain things that I expect when I purchase a service… most notably that said service will be available to me.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to try to use the same analogy throughout this article.

Let’s say I go over to the cable company, and they have a promotion going on; 500 channels, plus they’ll throw in the HD package which contains a PVR, and if you order right away they’ll send someone to perform the installation immediately so that you can begin watching your favorite TV shows as early as the next day!

That, my friends, is one hell of a deal, lemme tell ya.

So I take out my credit card, and sign up.  I mean, wouldn’t you?  Of course you would.  I’d been thinking of getting cable for a while.  I already have a satellite, however the damn thing keeps going down whenever the provider upgrades the programming.  I’m tired of missing out on my shows.

Too subtle?  Here, let me dissect it for you.

Cable = Aion
Channels = Servers
HD Package =  Pre-Order/Collector’s Edition bonus (which includes pre-select and headstart)
Installation Dude = NCSoft
Satellite = if you can’t figure that out by now, stop reading and go away

I, like some 400,000 others, pre-ordered Aion.  In fact, I liked the Collector’s Edition bonuses enough that I decided to pre-order the CE.  I’ve always been a sucker for CEs… they are my weakness.

Besides, I’ve had some very good gaming experiences thanks to NCSoft, and I like supporting them.  I’m not a fanboy by any means, however I don’t really think of myself as a fanboy for any gaming company (even though I joke to that effect occasionally).  Sure, I have favorites, however I hold them to the same high standards as any other company… and if they fail to deliver on their promises, I’ve no qualms about pointing that out (oft-times, using colorful language… the likes of which I tell my children not to use).

I was quite excited at the prospect of playing in the Aion closed beta.  I love those.  I’m quite alright with the less than perfect gameplay, as I get to feel as though I am actually helping the company by testing their product… and it gives me an early look at a game.

The closed betas were fun (albeit short).  I wasn’t crazy about the “weekend” events, as it really did not give us enough time to truly invest in our characters.  However it made for intense gaming sessions, trying to get the most as we could out of a weekend.

When NCSoft announced a week long open beta, I was fairly excited as this would give me more time to a) get invested in my character, and b) mess around with some alts to try other classes.

The open beta was supposed to help them with the last of the bugs and issues so that we’d have a smooth pre-select and play, as well as a successful launch.

But that wasn’t the case.

That most certainly was not the case.

In their infinite wisdom, regardless of the fact that 400,000 copies had been pre-ordered, NCSoft decided to limit the amount of servers on launch.

/cocks left eyebrow

Really?  Now why would you go and do that?

They didn’t want to add servers which they feel would only be used at launch and then become deserted once the initial rush eases up, creating an environment where players would not have enough opportunities based on the ability to group, etc.

In so doing however, they created a situation wherein the few realms which they setup filled to capacity SO quickly that you were left unable to a) create a character where you wanted, b) create the type of character you wanted (Asmodians FTL if that was your preference), and c) actually get to play your characters if you were fortunate enough to create one.

Way to shoot yourself in the foot, NCSoft.

You’re afraid of making a monetary commitment.  Plain and simple.

Please do not insult our intelligence and use double-talk to explain your actions in such a way as to make it seem as though this was all for our benefit.  Because it was not.

Now I understand that gaming is a business, and that such monetary concerns have to be taken into account.  I get that.  However here’s the thing, so do sales promises.  Plain and simple.  Otherwise, it is fraud.

“I’m sorry, but you cannot watch television for the next three hours.  I know that you paid us so that you could start watching as of today, and we told you that you’d be able to watch today, but there are too many other people watching right now.”

Would you put up with that from a television provider?

I am literally LOLing right now as I type this.

Hell no.

You can use all of the roller coaster analogies that you want, the fact is, an MMO is nothing like a roller coaster ride.  We have not paid for a chance to ride a coaster.  We paid for a service.  In this case, the ability to play an online game.

As such, the provider (NCSoft), has an obligation to fulfill their promises.

Going back to that roller coaster analogy and putting it in context of the television example I have been using, here’s what should have been said.

“We’re sorry but you cannot watch television at the moment.  There are too many other people watching, and we want to make certain they don’t experience any issues.  If we allow too many of you to watch, the service will not function properly and you probably won’t be able to finish whatever show you begin watching.  You have been placed in queue, and once we get to you in three or four hours, you will be able to watch.  Please note that yes, it will take some time to get to you, however once you begin watching, you will see that our service is flawless.”

Please also note, that the word flawless is laced with sarcasm… but more on that later.

The thing is, my TV show is playing nao!  And I paid so that I could watch whenever I want.  That’s the deal with the service, right?

I don’t care that I will experience what they deem to be an “ideal game play experience”, as Brian Knox said recently.  That will not impress me one iota while I am fast asleep because it’s two in the fucking AM.

Let’s lay our cards down, shall we?

The average queue times were 3 hours.  Some were as high as 8 and 9 hours!

9 fucking hours!

Seriously!

Because 3 hours is way too much.  3 hours is unreasonable.  There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.  3 hours is unreasonable, and I don’t care if this is the launch.  A sales promise was made to ensure that people who chose to support this company and pre-order their product would be able to play prior to launch.  We’re not talking about beta testing anymore.  We are talking about actual game time, wherein we could push past the rush of launch day clients and not be caught waiting to complete Rae’s Ribbit quest for half an hour.

Now admittedly, some of us actually managed to eventually get ingame and level some characters.  We chose realms so that we could play together, form our legions, work together toward content… all that stuff that NCSoft told us makes Aion such an incredible gaming experience.

However game crashes or AFK drops (regardless of if you have a shop setup) forced us back into the 3 hour long queues.  During one very, truly frustrating night, I was in queue for a half hour, only to have the NCSoft launcher crash on me which then forced me into a 3 hour queue.  To those of you who read about this via my Twitter rage that night, I apologize.

Ol’ Brian Knox suggests choosing lower population servers.  At various times, either one or two such servers existed, however here’s the thing; I want to play MY characters which I have already invested time in.  I want to play with my friends, and lord knows it was already hard enough to try to coordinate all of us getting to play on the same server thanks to the race lockouts.

“We’re sorry that you must wait in queue to watch your television program, however we’ve noticed that no one is presently watching anything on channel 33.  I’ve you’d like, you can watch that channel.”

But there’s nothing on channel 33 that I’d like to watch.  All the shows I want to watch are on channel 47.  Can’t you just let me watch 47?

“No.  Stop being a whiny bitch about it.  Cut us some slack.”

What-

Ok, they didn’t say that, however tons of others did.  The fanboys (and girls) came out en masse to defend NCSoft’s actions and attempt to compare this launch to other failed MMO launches of the past.  This, in my humble opinion, does not hold water.

I really don’t care how badly Warhammer Online launched.  If anything, their failure should have helped NCSoft be better prepared.  Because that’s what this all boils down to.  They were not prepared. At all.

The fact is, this game has been in distribution for a year in Korea.  They should have been prepared.  It’s really that simple.

Some of you will be quick to point out that I don’t work in the gaming industry and so cannot possibly understand what is involved in launching an MMO.

This is true, however I’m no stranger to project management.  I’ve worked on coordinating nation-wide security projects for the federal government.  I’m not a fool when it comes to planning, and if there’s one thing that you learn from project management training is that it does not matter what the project it… it’s how you manage and implement it.

Not being able to use a service that I paid for pre-launch and on launch day is unacceptable.  For the record, I did decide eventually to give up and create a little alt on a low population server just so that I could actually get to play.  And guess what?

It was near impossible to play.  You’ve no doubt heard the rubberbanding analogy as of late (lag so bad that you can snapped back several feet periodically)?  Well, I rubberbanded across half the starting area before getting kicked off the server, which closed the game client, and upon relaunch, guess what, oh look a queue.

This launch was a complete failure.  They could have had a lot more servers available to spread the load, making it possible to experience a pleasant gaming experience without the need to wait forever for quests (a poor gaming design, btw).  Their concerns of deserted servers could have then been resolved by offering players free transfers to other realms at a later date.  This way, the characters we’d invested time in would be able to move to better realms.

However this is not an inexpensive decision… though it is one which demonstrates a commitment to those who supported your company.

Furthermore, the alternative is creating such a terrible launch that people choose not to continue playing and memberships (and money) are lost.

It’s a double-edged sword from a project management perspective.  Though I believe one should honor one’s promises and treat the clients with respect.

From what I’ve seen so far, NCSoft does not feel the same.

I wonder what’s playing on satellite tonight.

Aion, launch, MMO, NCSoft