It's been a strain on work and family, I'm not afraid to admit it. With the release of the highly anticipated Star Wars - The Old Republic, I've been enjoying the work Bioware has done on it's latest and perhaps greatest work.
Why, I've been getting up at 6:30 AM, sometimes earlier just to hear that rousing music - to witness the breathtaking landscapes of far away imaginary worlds, to babble incessantly nay, maybe incoherently to any passerby about the wonderfully voiced and detailed story lines.
That's what I did this morning - I got up for an early pre-work fix. That's when I discovered issues in the EA/Bioware strategy for bringing this MMO to market. I witnessed, nearly precisely, the same issues with the last MMO that attempted to bring a science fiction legacy to life, Star Trek Online.
So far, everything had been nearly perfect with just a few very normal hiccups, bumps in the road if you will. Today however, just two days past 'official launch' the game blocks anyone who hasn't redeemed or registered their product code yet.
Well, okay, that seems reasonable. Except that you can't register it. The website is slammed with requests it cannot handle so it simply disconnects you each and every time.
Frustrating, but not the end of the world right? Simply get ahold of someone or even post a courteous inquiry onto the forums. The fact is, there is relief in simple commiseration, the knowledge that you are not alone in your dilemma somehow makes it better.
Except...now you can't access the forums, because you haven't registered your code, which you can't do because the server won't load the page.
I've been around longer than most - and not as long as some, but what I'm describing here are part of a long list of what I like to call 'MMO game killers'. This one, in particular, is simple lack of planning for scale, and failure to fully test all use case scenarios.
You take 5 years, and you create a gorgeous game bound to bring in people new to MMO's, you are meticulous in your details - but then you create a scenario where a paying customer - can't sign up (to pay mind you), can't get any help - and can't even complain?
Fanbois and veterans to MMO's will tough it out, I know I will - but new folks will not. Soured by these experiences, they will be less apt to deal with the other difficult nuances of the MMO that the rest of us take as second nature, and they will fade.
And that's really too bad. The MMO world can probably only handle so many scenarios like that before it places one foot solidly into the tarpit of software history.
