26 réponses à ce sujet

[sleepy__head]

I would like to thank EA/Bioware for the frustration over the last 4 hours.  After waiting with bated breath over the past two years, I am glad that my faith in their dedication and professionalism is justified.

Having to deal with an insanely slow website was a major stress reliever.  Seeing the social network, the forum, even the main page repeatedly crashing or taken down was therapeutic.  I speically love the part with the confusion of the redemption codes.  Kudos to whoever programmed the EA connection screen in the game where there isn't even a Cancel button so you can go back to the main menu with.  Very user friendly indeed.

I specially like to thank the people involved for being unprepared for the server load at launch date, as well as the thorough testing AND documention on how to properly redeem our codes.  Finally, last and not least, great way to communicate with us every 30 minutes or so during this special day to make sure that you are on top of things and keeping us all informed as often as possible, on the forum or on your main website.

Thank you sincerely, I will be sure to buy your products and pre-order in the future.

[Corben158]

all popular games have these problems, opening day is a huge flux of people they don't normally have to deal with, and never will have to deal with until a new release, I bet they would rather have a few slow days than spend a ton to hold completely together on opening day.



You own a Christmas shop, you have about 250 people come into the store daily, but when christmas comes around you have 3000+ people coming in daily, Now do you pay to hold 3000+

people daily, or just maybe 500 and grit your teeth through the holidays.

Any business man would say 500

[RK5]

wow if you complained any more, i think your tears would seep through my monitor screen.

[inuksuit]

my experience (360) was completely different: I accessed my Gamestop Pre-Order bonus, the Cerberus bonus, and integrated my past history (from the original Mass Effect) without a hitch.



All set to play.....

[KingDan97]

RK5 wrote...

wow if you complained any more, i think your tears would seep through my monitor screen.

They already are! Damn, I needa get a towel before I have a shorted circuit!

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Heh, yeah, today has been rather "eventful" for a lot of us. But hang in there.

[anotherusedupname]

I don't think the complaining is over the top. BioWare has had major customer service issues for the past month or so due to DA:O bugs, and now this. If they can't work out a better QA process and provide better support when issues do (inevitably) crop up, then how are they going to manage the community surrounding an MMO?

[MatronAdena]

I must say, everything went smooth on my end, Picked up the CE with no hastle, got all the codes, fired up the 360, accessed cerberus network, and went on a Download spree....never had the slightest problems.

[MatronAdena]

damn forums going wonky for a sec

Modifié par MatronAdena, 27 janvier 2010 - 06:27 .

[IHEARTEA]

I had some issues with codes and registration on the launch day of Dragon Age, but Mass Effect 2 has been completely perfect for me.  I pre-ordered both games through Impulse and both had day one DLC, so the only variable was the game itself.

I guess sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.  Hang in there and they'll get it straightened out. 

[RevengeofNewton]

sleepy__head wrote...

I would like to thank EA/Bioware for the frustration over the last 4 hours.  After waiting with bated breath over the past two years, I am glad that my faith in their dedication and professionalism is justified.

Having to deal with an insanely slow website was a major stress reliever.  Seeing the social network, the forum, even the main page repeatedly crashing or taken down was therapeutic.  I speically love the part with the confusion of the redemption codes.  Kudos to whoever programmed the EA connection screen in the game where there isn't even a Cancel button so you can go back to the main menu with.  Very user friendly indeed.

I specially like to thank the people involved for being unprepared for the server load at launch date, as well as the thorough testing AND documention on how to properly redeem our codes.  Finally, last and not least, great way to communicate with us every 30 minutes or so during this special day to make sure that you are on top of things and keeping us all informed as often as possible, on the forum or on your main website.

Thank you sincerely, I will be sure to buy your products and pre-order in the future.

[MeesterJojo]

Corben158 wrote...

all popular games have these problems, opening day is a huge flux of people they don't normally have to deal with, and never will have to deal with until a new release, I bet they would rather have a few slow days than spend a ton to hold completely together on opening day.

You own a Christmas shop, you have about 250 people come into the store daily, but when christmas comes around you have 3000+ people coming in daily, Now do you pay to hold 3000+
people daily, or just maybe 500 and grit your teeth through the holidays.
Any business man would say 500

False. Lies.

Sorry- there are games which do not have these problems, and if the industry standard was more focused on quality than maintaining a large profit margin- the way EA was under Trip's direction in the 80s, things would be different.

Your analogy is silly-  you introduce a new factor into your 2nd string of logic: "holding". You really should learn to atriculate your message better, though after some brain twisting I discerned it's meaning. There is no store owner alive who will turn away business to be hand, and small businesses will sell their doors if they could. Ever run a small business? I have.

Remember gaming in the 80s? I do. Remember all of the 90s? I do. Vast changes brought about- companies trying to make the quick buck at the expense of the customer- deliver the barest minimum, maximize profits.

Getting in bed with EA is getting in bed with the Devil. Origin Systems did it- look what happened. BioWare- going down the same path...only Origin published more games than BioWare ever has prior to selling out, and in all honesty, is probably an inspiration for some BioWare employees who grew up on their games.

Now, OP has a right to be upset. He's justified. You can be a syccophant all day long, and shout the praises of EA and BioWare till your face turns blue, but he's right: it was a mess. Why was there a mess? Because a game company didn't want to spend a little extra to label the bonus DLC content card differently, EA has a really poor website- well below standards for any industry, and yet they charge more for consoles than they do for PCs (playing this on console myself- I'm rather sensitive to it).

Fair price for fair product- if you can't deliver, if you can't maintain, if you can't support then you cannot charge.

Windows 95 did this too. You were probably born around then? It was heralded as the biggest beta known to man, and people were very much mad.

[VanDraegon]

RK5 wrote...

wow if you complained any more, i think your tears would seep through my monitor screen.

lolz

[Eladren]

Just a note. Everyone charges more for consoles. It's because they have to pay licensing fees. It has nothing to do with EA, Bioware, or DLC distribution. This is not new news and it's pretty tiring to see people who still don't understand the situation.

[MeesterJojo]

Eladren wrote...

Just a note. Everyone charges more for consoles. It's because they have to pay licensing fees. It has nothing to do with EA, Bioware, or DLC distribution. This is not new news and it's pretty tiring to see people who still don't understand the situation.

So Licensing fees didn't exist in the 80s and 90s? What happened? It's pretty tiring to have someone mention a situation they're not involved in except as a customer not explain themselves after mentioning how exhausting it is to explain something.

Also- that's it? That's the only point you can bring up? hah. classic.

What's tiring to me are these children running around thinking it's acceptable and apologizing for companies like EA when Adults who remember know exactly how things were.

Modifié par MeesterJojo, 27 janvier 2010 - 05:25 .

[brightblueink]

Remember gaming in the 80s? I do. Remember all of the 90s? I do. Vast changes brought about- companies trying to make the quick buck at the expense of the customer- deliver the barest minimum, maximize profits.

Are you sure you don't have some nostalgia goggles on? I'm pretty sure I remember a game company in the 80's (I want to say Atari) nearly causing the entire gaming industry to collapse because of an extremely poorly done licensed game for E.T. Ah, in fact, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983 there it is.

This isn't to say that companies shouldn't be held responsible for their actions, but things rarely go off without a hitch, and I think it's unfair to say that companies have changed when...well, the same 'ol business practices have been around since very early on in the 80's. In fact, we've NEVER had something nearly as bad as the '83 crash, AFAIK. Gaming is a business as much as it is an art, and sometimes that leads to stupid decisions. It's not exclusive to E.A. (although I'll be the first to tell you that I have a low opinion of the company and I hope the association doesn't hurt Bioware).

As for myself? I haven't had any major problems. I was able to get the Normany wreckage mission downloaded just fine and hooked into Cerebus. I had a small hiccup transfering over my old save, but that was because earlier today I switched my profiles from one harddrive to another. Luckily I had a save right before the last fight, so I beat it again and made the final choices I had before and it worked fine. EA and Bioware can't really be blamed for that, it was my error. Zaeed isn't around yet but I know that's an xBox live thing. I can wait. I didn't buy the game for Zaeed. I bought the game for Shepard.

So is this launch perfect? No. But I definitely don't think it's remarkably bad, either.

[Eladren]

How many consoles existed in the 80s? How many multiplatform games existed in the 90s? How much did a playstation game cost in the 90s? You're comparing apples to oranges. Every new AAA console game costs $60 and if they're multiplatform, the PC version is generally cheaper at $50. And yes, I know MW2 is an exception. Yet somehow you seem to think that this is EA/Bioware's problem.



The reason I don't address anything else is because A) I don't feel like it, and most of it doesn't even make any sense. Your rebuttal of the store analogy has a lot of words, but none of them, except for the last "I've done it so I know" sentence, has any meaning.

[LyonVanguard]

Corben158 wrote...

all popular games have these problems, opening day is a huge flux of people they don't normally have to deal with, and never will have to deal with until a new release, I bet they would rather have a few slow days than spend a ton to hold completely together on opening day.

You own a Christmas shop, you have about 250 people come into the store daily, but when christmas comes around you have 3000+ people coming in daily, Now do you pay to hold 3000+
people daily, or just maybe 500 and grit your teeth through the holidays.
Any business man would say 500

If Bioware wants to make their costumer's happy they would spend the extra money on extra bandwidth. its not like they don't have the money for it.

[brightblueink]

LyonVanguard wrote...

If Bioware wants to make their costumer's happy they would spend the extra money on extra bandwidth. its not like they don't have the money for it.

How do you really know that? Do you have Bioware's budget reports? Do you know how much it costs to make a game and keep a website like this running?

[Brainfreze]

To the OP, that's what happened when i had to wait for the left4dead2 PC launch; so many hangups, so many errors, I even had to wait over an hour before the game was available (not to mention having to reinstall the game 2 times). I was just as aggravated.



On the contrary, the ME2 CE I purchased of the EA site for the XBOX360 worked seamlessly. If you want to endure the least (or lack of) amount of issues, I definitely recommend buying it for the console (next time).

[Burningwolf]

Got Steam version.Downloads opened up at 1pm est.

Everything was flawless.Sorry you had trouble.

[Sebiale]

QQ more...

Seriously though, I'm not surprised.
You can postulate all you want, but in the end, it's all really a guess without beta-testing and stress-tests. However, both of those are pretty much out of the question. BioWare knows better than to trust us to keep our mouths shut, even under NDA's.

Besides, beta-testing is no guarantee, no game launches perfectly, MMO's are a great example of this. Perhaps the smoothest MMO launch was for WAR, and people complained even then.
Expecting any game to launch with few to no issues to a very high expectation, and honestly, not very realistic. Betaers can only do so much, no amount of testing can truly compare a game to the incredible amount of pressure that will be put on it. Four hours of issues seems light in comparison to some other launches I've seen.
I was frustrated, yeah, but not disappointed in any way.

Also, why would they bother purchasing extra bandwith when the Cerberus network will barely be used after the first few weeks? It'd be a loss on their budget charts. They know they aren't going to lose many fans over a few hours delay for DLC.

Modifié par Sebiale, 27 janvier 2010 - 06:44 .

[Gilded Age]

MeesterJojo wrote...
What's tiring to me are these children running around thinking it's acceptable and apologizing for companies like EA when Adults who remember know exactly how things were.

Damn kids, get off my lawn!   LOLZ.

Modifié par Gilded Age, 27 janvier 2010 - 06:46 .

[Vinditater]

Cool story OP. I woke up, installed my pre-loaded, pre-ordered Deluxe Collector's Edition, then played it fresh with no problems whatsoever. Loaded my ME1 Shepard in and am having a blast. Only thing you should take away from this experience is that the universe hates you, and delights in your nerd rage.