Aion Producer Brian Knox answers a few of our questions about the queue issues that surrounded the game's Head Start launch on Sunday in this short Q&A.

MMORPG.com

Players experienced what were described by some of extremely long queue times to take part in Aion's head start on Sunday. Can you speak to this?

Brian Knox:

With [Sunday]'s launch, we saw a massive influx into the game when we opened the servers for Head Start. It's important to remember that this initial rush is due to everyone trying to get into the game at the same time - this isn't a scenario that's likely to be repeated regularly since it's really just about that initial rush of players trying to gain access to the game. That being said, we are actively monitoring and tracking the stats to ensure optimal experiences for players. As you well know, it's a delicate balance between keep our servers healthy and maintaining a optimal experience for players.

Read the Head Start Issues Interview

Originally posted by Stradden

Brian Knox:

With [Sunday]'s launch, we saw a massive influx into the game when we opened the servers for Head Start. It's important to remember that this initial rush is due to everyone trying to get into the game at the same time - this isn't a scenario that's likely to be repeated regularly since it's really just about that initial rush of players trying to gain access to the game.

 

aka we expect ppl to get frustrated, quit, we keep the money.  We don't expect a high number of regular players at all after launch cuz we already got paid, a few ppl can stay and log in whenever they want but we have the money so kthxbye :P

Basically what I figured... they were trying to spread people out. I just wish they had posted about this on their website sooner.

No question/comment on the afk-shops though... it'd be nice to know if they plan on doing anything about them or will wait to see if the problems persist.

Never had a queue, oh wait, thats because I intentionally rolled on a low pop server...  like an intelligent person would do..

...you know, instead of intentionally rolling on a high pop server then spending the rest of the evening whining about the queue times on forums...

Wow just WoW.  It reads like a plan to have a terrible launch to avoid server merges later.  If ever there was a reason to not buy on launch that might be it.  Wait until new servers are brought up... then sub.  At least thats my impression... they have servers in house ready to go but not until servers are capped and balanced by faction pop.

Queues and competition for spawns, yay!  See you in a few weeks ;)

Originally posted by streea

Basically what I figured... they were trying to spread people out. I just wish they had posted about this on their website sooner.

No question/comment on the afk-shops though... it'd be nice to know if they plan on doing anything about them or will wait to see if the problems persist.

 

Get used to it, there's nothing they can do. There's no practical way to tell the difference between a legit shop and an AFK shop. Even if they scanned the shop all the player would have to do is make sure they have a few legit items to sell.

This is the kind of BS marketing type answer I would have expected. I never expected them to admit that they miscalculated demand, which they clearly did. I expect a rough couple weeks then they will throw a bone out like a few free days or some in game item to calm the masses.

When I first tried to log in, every server on the east had a queue.

3 hours? Lol I'm in a queue from 8 hours now and it isn't dropping.

I wouldn't mind being compensated somehow. I spent most of Sunday in a queue or disconnected from the servers - all servers.

3 hour queues is a joke. Unfortunately (for me, and no fault of NCSoft's), I have been part of a large guild for a long time. Any server we choose will be a high-population server.

So I have yet to actually play. I dutifully logged in on Friday with my account and my two sons' accounts and created characters on the server where dozens of my friends will be playing. Sunday, the queue time was nearly 5 hours... throughout the day.

Monday, same story. Ridiculously long queue times.

Basically the queue times are so long that even if I log in to play on the server with my friends (granted, I wouldn't really play until after bedtime, so this *could* work), I would miss all opportunity to play with my kids.

So regardless of whatever excuse they use, there are two kids here who saved up their allowance to play with our very large group of friends and are disappointed beyond understanding. The youngest near tears.

Paint it however you want, this is putting a very foul taste in our mouths. I really had high hopes for this game. I truly hope they fix it quickly, because if our pre-order pre-subbed free month runs out and we still haven't gotten a decent taste of the game, they'll never see another dime.  I just wish we had purchased retail boxes so we could resell the keys without using them.

Either that or we play the game without any of the friends we've made over the years.

Caveat Emptor

I had to wait sunday, but have not had to wait again yet. I'm not as upset as I see alot of people are about this either, I mean it kind of makes sense to me, for example if the servers usually hold 15k people ( dont know what the number actually is) those 15k people will never all be in the same place, but when everyone is rolling at lvl one and there is only one starting zone, thats why they are putting people in line until some can move on to the city, its pissing some people off and everyone is yelling "failed launch"  and I understand your point, but its obvious you guys really like this game or it would not upset you that much to not be able to get to do exactly what you want when you want.  I dont know maybe i'm too mellow about situation, but since this is more/less a theme park mmo, I compare it to a theme park, no matter how much money and how great the planning/design of the park, there are still lines on busy days.

It's simple: if you preorder a game online , they have the numbers of players they will join on startup, but if you sell all arround the world , preorderboxes for the preorder startup you lose controll on the casual buyers of that box. So you dont know about the players, which will join on startup for the preorderheadstart. Additionally all this preorderboxbuyers (what a word :)  ) maybe want to download the game online, all that rises traffic on the servers , for downloads patching, loggging into the game , and so on.

so, they fumbled the ball :) , erm startup i want say :))

Anyway i like Aion the graphics, the gameplay, all in all its a good Idea and Game, no doubt.

But I expect from a company like NCsoft , which has launched a game like Lineage2 and Guild Wars, and lot other Games, that they can handle the demand of players to use their preorder keys and log into the game and download the client, etc.

Thats why people preorder to have a little advantage or whatever, otherwise there is no reason to preorder the game, if can't log into it.

Ok complained enough :))

I wish the best for the game , cause i canceled on sunday 20.09.2009 my account maybe jump into the game after a year or so...

hope it will not walk the same way down as Tabula Rasa did :)

best regards

Originally posted by dj-wedge

3 hour queues is a joke. Unfortunately (for me, and no fault of NCSoft's), I have been part of a large guild for a long time. Any server we choose will be a high-population server.

So I have yet to actually play. I dutifully logged in on Friday with my account and my two sons' accounts and created characters on the server where dozens of my friends will be playing. Sunday, the queue time was nearly 5 hours... throughout the day.

Monday, same story. Ridiculously long queue times.

Basically the queue times are so long that even if I log in to play on the server with my friends (granted, I wouldn't really play until after bedtime, so this *could* work), I would miss all opportunity to play with my kids.

So regardless of whatever excuse they use, there are two kids here who saved up their allowance to play with our very large group of friends and are disappointed beyond understanding. The youngest near tears.

Paint it however you want, this is putting a very foul taste in our mouths. I really had high hopes for this game. I truly hope they fix it quickly, because if our pre-order pre-subbed free month runs out and we still haven't gotten a decent taste of the game, they'll never see another dime.  I just wish we had purchased retail boxes so we could resell the keys without using them.

Either that or we play the game without any of the friends we've made over the years.

Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor, indeed. It seems it's a tradition now for most MMOs to have a rocky start, which we've all come acustom to, but this is just pushing it!

I applaud the interviewer for very direct questions,NCSOFT is not giving the truth,but at least someone is calling them out on it.

The truth is they are not going to meet the demand of the player need no matter what,because down the road they would just have to close servers,as the initial storm wears off.So the truth is they are looking at the long term cost and effectiveness,they do not care one bit about the pre orders or the initial wave,they know exactly what to expect,but like i said to cater to the players ,would cost them down the road.

I can't really say i blame NCSOFT,you can't meet the PROPER demand then start closing servers afterward,it looks bad for the game.However,there is something to remember,a good marketing team,would expect the game to grow,therefore as the initial wave wears off,they are still going to be adding more,new players to fill the void,so this is just a lame approach by NCSOFT.

Furthermore,as the interviewer pointed out,they will need a heck of a lot more server space on the ACTUAL launch than they would just for the pre orders.Of course the usual backtracking PR,kept pointing out,they are monitoring it and looking to make the best possible playing experience...lmao,ya right.

If this was the actual launch,then i guess you could cut them slack,but this was only pre orders,so that server space should have been there 100% guaranteed,especially since they claim they are rewarding the people that pre ordered.Even still i am sure the people that did not pre order are going to EXPECT to play,when they log in,this is not SILKROAD online,or a F2P game we are talking about here,with Que ues.Albeit WOW used que ues as well,kind of lame to expect players to WAIT to play lol.A months subscription is not for time slots ,it is for a month of playtime.

What will further this into a worse scenario,is the majority are working class people,they will ALL be trying to login at the same time after work,so this won't clear up anytime soon.What will set this right,is for the players to get after them with complaints and for sites like MMORPG to call them out on it,just like the mass displeasure for GG got it removed.If you carry a fanbois attitude with you at all times,then expect to get slapped in the face by the developer,otherwise get after their sorry ass,for being so lame.

MMO design 101, Lesson 1:  You need to create enough day 1 starting zones to accommodate your entire server population.  Instance starting areas if you need to, but make sure that there will be enough real estate, quests, and mobs in n00b areas for the entire expected server population.  Anything less is instant fail on launch day.

Hehe, I find it surprising that any one is surprised this happened.  Lineage 2, Seighardt server.  I was number 10 on all servers in the levelling competition and was gaining ground rapidly.  Server takes a dump for a week and I end up in the 1000's.  I am sure all our lineage 2 ob/launch veterans remember the login game :D  

lol making VG's launch look good, this is sad and I'm not even playing this game.

Even though I understand what NCSoft was saying in this interview, I have admit that they really disappointed me on this one. I had always thought of NCSoft as being one of the better gaming companies out there, based on their handling of Guild Wars... but the release of Aion has made me rethink my position. One of the benefits to pre-ordering was to get online a few days early to get a jump on those who did not pre-order... a kind of additional reward for pre-ordering besides getting into the Beta. However, in the 'very fine print' there must have been the qualification of 'if you are able to logon, that is'.

After reading the response by one NCSoft Community Service Rep to the queues and disconnects involving the Servers, I was totally disappointed again. They said that the early release was a total success (of which I immediately thought 'for whom?'). They went on to say that all this was totally expected; and that in time, all these problems will somehow just go away. So we as pre-order customers are to ignore the fact that some of us will not be given the two days of pre-release time as advertized, and that NCSoft just shruges this off as 'oh well... ignore the man behind the curtain and please enjoy the Emporer's new clothes!!!'.

When I logged on Sunday Night, ALL the Servers were marked as 'High' and trying to connect to a Server was more than likely to cause a time-out disconnect. From a customer experience perspective, I do not consider this a success. I was not about ready to wait 3 hours to login to any game. That is a flatout waste of my time... of which I value. I just feel sorry for those that took time off from work and such to level, and ended up wasting most of their time just waiting to get in.

Again, I am just totally disappointed in how the release of Aion has been implemented and have lost faith in NCSoft as a customer oriented company as they had shown with GW... sorry. I just hope GW2 is better managed and implemented. At least for me, this was just a total 'dis' to a loyal Aion customer base by NCSoft. What was advertized was not delivered... period.

but it WAS a success, it will be until those fed up contact thier cc companies and claw back the pre-order payment on the grounds of false advertising regarding the head start.  They KNOW how many preorders they sold.  Did they expect most of the preorder players to not want the head start in a heavily pvp based game???  Nah, nobody wants the edge over Skippy McCrackpipe who subs a week after launch so he can pick flowers in peace right??  This was planned for and ignored.  Only way they'll care is if more people get their money back.

Currently EU ENG servers are running queues as high as 10 hours. How can you get into the game with 10 hour queu?

The reason for the long queues seems to be game function called "Private Shop". You can setup your own "shop" anywhere and sell your stuff. This would be fine except it also prevents AFK auto-logout.

So now we have half of the server's online population selling crap for 1000000000000 Kinah and staying online for ever.

Suberb!

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Originally posted by blackthornn
but it WAS a success, it will be until those fed up contact thier cc companies and claw back the pre-order payment on the grounds of false advertising regarding the head start.  They KNOW how many preorders they sold.  Did they expect most of the preorder players to not want the head start in a heavily pvp based game???  Nah, nobody wants the edge over Skippy McCrackpipe who subs a week after launch so he can pick flowers in peace right??  This was planned for and ignored.  Only way they'll care is if more people get their money back.

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THIS! A thousand times this!

The ONLY way for us to vote is with our money. You can only tell companies what will and will not fly with money. If it is not evident to everyone by now, let me say one thing.

All the companies care about is money. They have no concern for your gameplay or your feelings. The people that invest in the companies only care about money. They have no concern for the players or even the game itself. They only want a return on an investment. None of the money here understands gaming on even a basic level. Most successful businessmen have never picked up a controller in their lives. I know we are talking about PC games, but allow the conceit. The ONLY way to show them what you want is by using your money to force them to make a quality product that has staying power. Even if you like Aion for some reason, it has no staying power, nothing new.

This is the thing people need to understand about all things. Microsoft is the same way. They will continue to produce shit and laugh at you until you stop paying money for it. And no I am not saying buy Apple. That is worse, because they are arrogant douchebags that think they are hot shit because if the iPod, which is a bucket of shit in and of itself compared to other MP3 players.

Ah...sorry. I got up on a box. In any case...vote with your money, that is only thing that will ever make a statement to large companies. Ever.

I'm pretty sure they could have reduced the queues. But really, when people log on the first day and gigantic queues, they get the feeling of participating in something immensly important, and can talk about it to the "newbs" that join the game later on. If everything would have run smoothly, like you just log on and see an average server population and can quest peacefully for yourself, you'd get the feeling that nothing special would happen.

Umm, sunday was the heavy first influx day and it should be going down? And a 3 hours waiting time on average?

I'm not sure what stats they're looking at, but none of the EU servers are included in it, that's for certain.

All English EU servers have queues right now - and have had so, every evening. Currently the lowest queue is around 3 hours. When looking at [ENG]Perento (the server me and some friends decided to play on) I just joined the queue and got a 9 hour 10 minutes waiting time. That means I get to play at 3AM... tomorrow.

Thus far I've not been able to play the game, at all.

Every night it's the same deal, except worse. On Sunday a 4 hour queue, yesterday 5-6 hours, today 9+ hours. It's not getting better, it's only getting worse.

And to think it's not even prime time yet....

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Originally posted by Droniac
Umm, sunday was the heavy first influx day and it should be going down? And a 3 hours waiting time on average?
I'm not sure what stats they're looking at, but none of the EU servers are included in it, that's for certain.
All English EU servers have queues right now - and have had so, every evening. Currently the lowest queue is around 3 hours. When looking at [ENG]Perento (the server me and some friends decided to play on) I just joined the queue and got a 9 hour 10 minutes waiting time. That means I get to play at 3AM... tomorrow.
Thus far I've not been able to play the game, at all.
Every night it's the same deal, except worse. On Sunday a 4 hour queue, yesterday 5-6 hours, today 9+ hours. It's not getting better, it's only getting worse.
And to think it's not even prime time yet....

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Not even the end of the workday. I think it is just the shiny newness. If you really like the game, wait a few weeks. I am sure some people will get bored and go back to whatever they were playing before. I think there are more...how to say...less than truly interested...people trying Aion because it is so gorgeous. I think it will not last more than a month.

This, from a company that understands the MMO market and clearly knows the hype based around the game. I MEAN THE FIGURE OF SALES ALONE ON PRE-ORDER SHOULD HAVE RANG SOME BELLS............................ whoever is the project leader for this release needs his yearly bonus doubled. 

This kind of act from a company of this level of this knowledge and worldwide success... is planned. They sold alot of copies, they dont give a monkeys about those - thats just slush fund for the golf tournament later. Like someone said before, got the cash... if people stay they stay, if not and they dont want to wait 5-9 hours to play our game... nuts to them we got £44.99

Im in the same boat as most - want to play on a server of my nationalitity and also it just makes the game more fun when you can understand questions/chat... Want to play with friends and clans you have known online for a while... Even persuaded tons of real life friends to come "save some cash in the winter, play this to kill a few hours".... They are certainly killing hours when NON of them have been able to login,...

People who have kids, work or responsibilities outside of sitting at a screen for 5 hours waiting for numbers to tick down has ANY TIME FOR THIS KIND OF BS. I personally had to come home from work on my lunch break to start the que... which was 5 hours... What kind of game is this, where your punished for paying your hard earned money but making you wait... and wait some more.... then wait again.

NCSOFT has the money already, upgrade the servers populations... get rid of the stupid GER AND FR servers and make them EURO..... make some of the ENG servers EURO.... keep 2 ENG for everyone that wants a more internationaly understandable chat. ADD IN A FUNCTION FOR IN A MONTHS TIME FOR PEOPLE TO MOVE SERVERS>>>. SO ALL THE PEOPLE CAN GET THIS SO CALLED "HEAD START" UNDERWAY THEN THEY CAN TRANSFER LATER ON TO JOIN THEIR FRIENDS...

NCsoft right now are going out of their way to piss off their customers... So much more could be done, so much more could have been planned i mean christ the game has been out a year in another country... So much to do... with all that money already in your bank aswell... will you do it?

*added* I dont think its fair to kick/punish the AFK shops, i am not one of them and wont be added to my elec bill just so i can play something ive paid for anyway. These people have a right to be on the server, in afk form or whatever.. they have paid also - it is a shame that it hogs up server space, but thats that. Cant really fix this issue as it shouldn't be there in the first place... Its pretty clear what needs to happen - more servers #1 that are more diverse in language areas. Increased server populations for the English based servers, since these seem to be the most wanted places to get your grind on.