Archeage, the Queue Simulator.

Yep, if you are into long wait times to get in, this is the game for you!  Every single server is in Queue status at 4pm EST with often over 1000 players deep.  On average the wait time is approximately 45 minutes per 500 in the queue.  Of course the deeper you get into the middle of prime time, 4-12pm EST, the numbers reach and exceed the 2k level.  Yep, that’s about a 3 hour wait…

But hey, you decided to pay for Patron to play a queue simulator right?!?!?!?  Gotta hand it to Trion, they have the gameplay down pat.  Having only released two new servers when Archeage opened to the general public, don’t look for a nerf anytime soon as they seem intent on keeping the servers to a bare minimum.  The only thing that will harm their simulator is when players get burnt out and don’t feel like paying to play and believe me, it’s coming.

But hey, weren’t the queues moving faster in Head Start?  Yep they were but not by the fault of the players themselves.  The game crashes often.  I personally have had it crash 1-3 times per gaming session.  During that time, you had to relog in and get in the back of the line thus making the queues move faster.

Thankfully, they finally responded to the outrage of having to wait in line all over again, they finally implemented a window where you could log back in and not have to wait in the queue.  While its four days late, it’s nice to see them put a basic feature in most modern MMOs into the game.  The unfortunate side effect was making the queue take longer than what was happening with essential game systems missing.  For 500 players to get through the queue, it now takes on the order of 45 minutes from 20-25 minutes.

What about those pesky F2P folks?!?!?  Don’t Patrons get bumped ahead of F2Pers in the Queue?  Yep they do but with the addition of the F2Pers and too few servers, the impact is not that large.

F2Pers can log in when there is not a queue and occupy server population.  As time goes on and a queue exists, Patrons now must wait for the F2Pers to log out.  This also makes the queue go longer or start earlier as the server pop will remain closer to max.  To make it worse, some of the F2P accounts will be your run of the mill bot or gold farmer that never sleeps…

Even if we get rid of all the F2Pers, there is a glut of Patrons.  Queues of over 2800 existed during Headstart…  2800+…  Now in fairness, Trion opened new servers.  Only two…  Queues are still hitting over the 2k levels and for the reasons mentioned above, the new servers have not reduced the queue time one iota.

Trion, there is only one solution to this if you want to keep your Patrons keeping you flush with cash, you must open more servers. 

I get that you don’t want to go through the boom and sometimes bust MMOs go through when the initial rush falls flat within three months of launch.  You don’t want to have to deal with the consolidation of servers.  You don’t want to deal with the screams and gnashing of teeth when occupants of those servers are deprived of the land they held.  It makes sense.

You also can’t expect paying customers to keep paying to play a Queue simulator.  Most MMO players by now are used to opening rushes and the issues that come with it.  Damn near all of the time, the company does something to fix the issue and honor the client’s purchase.  Now in case you don’t get it by now, many Patrons are pretty upset about the extreme waits to play a product they paid for.

Kill the Queue simulator and let us play Archeage.