A couple things to keep in mind. One, we were not playing on the same patch as the PTS. As a whole, the game is not running at full capacity for a closed beta. They have confirmed on the 14th that we were all playing from a centralized datacenter, and that additional hubs and agreements with content delivery networks were in place, though inactive prior to launch.

The project directors and their army of project managers are all trained the same way for a project launch. If the cost benefit anolysis of launching full resources prior to launch does not generate a revenue or value (be it marketing, sales, etc.), the it is not worth the many thousands of dollars it costs for 2 weeks of operation on a dead platform (considering the platform would be generating no value or usable information). Because of what the 'Megaserver' is, the implementation of such is one that additional servers will only add to the overall computing power/instancing/connections of the framework when they are added, and ZoS/Bethesda can get a pretty accurate gauge of what they will need to support launch.

They had over 5 million different beta applications/keys for beta. That is more than the bulk of all GW2 copies that have ever been sold...and that is just beta keys. They are promising a 'lag free' experience at launch, and have confirmed that they have agreements in place for swarms of additional server nodes to come online should they need it.

And lastly, every project director and manager is desperately trying to do one thing right now: Manage expectations in the most notoriously angry and loud demographic. If everything was smooth, then every project manager would be sweating the minor inconvenience at launch that would cost them their reputation/jobs or whatever. As a result, they are all trying to walk a fine line between bugs and smooth gameplay, knowing that they will get FAR more value from showing improvement in many areas than they would by proving their competency with a smooth game in closed beta. They can go smooth launch and let the detractors complain about the "little things" they haven't fixed, or they can show dramatic improvement and have the supporters encourage their 'progress'.

Can you please remove this white background text?

WTB new eyes

100% agree, it has been obvious to me all the way through my BETA experiance that they are listening, they are doing what is required and they are doing it with passion.

Please remove the white background behind the text. I feel like I've just opened an Elder Scroll.

_{Having played many MMO's from launch EVE, SWToR, STO to name but a few I can honestly say that bugs are to be expected but if ZOS are listening which they seem to be I'm sure they will patch them quickly.}

_{Everybody will not be satisfied all of the time but things change and i'm sure features of this game will alter in one form or another over its lifetime.}

_{On the whole I have enjoyed my last 2 betas even with the bugs I encountered and are looking forward to early access.}

I disagree with pretty much everything the OP said. And, to be frank, I get the strong feeling (as I often do) that he's trying to sound smarter, and better informed, than his truly is.

To wit: I still have never seen an official comment from Zenimax regarding this whole "PTS bulid is newer than the beta build foolishness" And even if it's true, it calls their management philosophy into question.

I don't want to nay say, I think we should expect some problems at launch how bad and widespread is the million dollar question

Feb's Beta we ran something like Build .71, folks here on the forums said it's old, PTS was running build .18 (or .181) and that it was awesome and perfect, no problems, etc etc. This last beta the build on my client showed .941. So at a minimum all the problems I encountered during the Feb beta should have been fixed. But pretty much the opposite happened. The green lady still disappeared for most people, Frog race still bugged out for many, I had even more trouble in the Fighters and Mages guild quests.

As others have noted, the problem seems to be less with the builds and more with the instancing that goes on and that the stress of it all caused most of the problems. Will the staggered release help with that ? I'm hoping so. Will the game be pretty smooth for anyone who starts playing in May or June? Very likely.

Two things I would have liked to have seen, is ZOS come on the boards or release a more detailed statement speaking less about 5 million keys "applied for", since that doesn't tell me much, And more about the peak of people they saw on-line during the stress test, where they felt the problems where and how they are addressing it. They could also throw out how many pre-orders they have gotten, but I suspect no one wants to drop that number. I'm sure had it been 10 million pre-orders they probably would have announced it already.

For me, It's not gloom and doom. I'll log in for launch, if it plays like the beta, I'll most likely just wait until May and try again. I don't get all frothy at the mouth demanding heads roll when a game launches poorly. More than likely, I'll giggle and say "told ya so"

^ +1 of what Dale said.

I just want my character name, and when the launch is atrocious, I'm going to call and demand to be compensated for a month of gameplay so I can enjoy it when it's actually done.

You may want to fully read the ToU before you click "Accept," because I guarantee they include a clause that prevents you from getting that (free) month back.

No MMO has launched bug-free. I have no doubt that ZO will have things running as smoothly as possible, because they've shown nothing but willingness to respond to player issues (even when the players are being idiots, i.e. starting islands).

Don't expect a smooth release AT ALL. like Dale said above, it will take some time for the game to run smoothly.

Its clear at this point that ZOS is overwhelmed by all the bug and they cant handle it. They even had to push the launch of the Adventure Zones back because of all of the bugs. They game is just not ready. The released version would basically still be Beta.

And then there's this line of thinking.

Maybe we should save the doom-and-gloom speeches for after launch, instead of scaring everyone who doesn't know better away?

You'll note I didn't say anything about what is written anywhere. I said I'd call and demand. And I assure you nothing written in policy actually stops anyone from doing anything, anymore than laws do.

But how do you know? For all we know that stress test last weekend was really an excuse for them to break everything.. so they would know what they need to compensate for.

The game already runs smoothly, it just needs a little polish, and the quest bugs need to be fixed.. But I think we can assume the quest bugs are from phasing issues caused by the server stress test.

I would rather say we should wait before we start accusing Zenimax of not being ready or competent.. They have listened to the player base in the past.. And I doubt they are going to stop listening just before launch.. Just my .02

I don't care about a bug free launch. I just care about know-it-all wanna-be's on the boards, lol

This is not my first Rodeo. I have Beta Tested pretty much every MMORPG out there. I can pretty much guarantee you that the game is not ready for primetime. I dont think the launch is going to be as bad as FFXIV: ARR, but it dont think it will as smooth as Rift was either. I have the strong impression it will be just a little bit worse that the SWTOR launch.

I will still play the game, but i am not going to take days off work to play it (like i originally planned) because i expect lots of crashes and bugs). I suggest that other people dont take days off work or school just for launch. Maybe wait for a month or two.

Brilliant, good to have the opinion of an expert. Cheers.

I can basically taste the sarcasm. If you want to take days off work or school for launch, be my guest. Don't come back crying to the forums that you took days off and can play the game because of game-breaking bugs and crashes.

According to the op the notion and added cost of bringing more resources to the stress tests was to costly and the benefits would not compensate for the costs is a bit far fetched in my opinion and time will tell if its accurate at all. He used the figure of 5 million Beta keys given away.

First I challenge this number. I received a new key each Beat making it a total of 4 or 5 keys. So if they dished out 5 million keys but in that number includes multiple keys to individuals it brings down their potential client list and therefore might prove his statement about cost vs reward true.

But if it was 5 million keys to different individuals then they are missing out on a huge possibility in clients as I am sure the badly situated stress test which saw multiple issues due to the stress on the system deterred a large portion of people from pre-ordering or even being interested in the game.

The complete lack of updates from the development team regarding the major issue seen in the mass stress test is concerning as well, and offers up the notion that there will be limited communication between the devs and the players which in turn scares off a ton of players as a lot of players just want to know the devs hear them via feedback.

Now for some, the intelligent few, fixes in patches and in game, the silent non-public fixes, are evidence enough that the devs are listening, but for most they want visual confirmation via posts, something they can go back to and say hey look they do listen. So this is another failed PR stance from the company and most likely deterring a decent number of players from pre-ordering.

Seeing as they have yet to sell out of their premium edition, as they are constantly spamming the offer despite already owning it, there is a short fall regarding what the company expected and what is really happening.

So the final point is that the OP's notion of cost vs, reward has obviously failed as they have not sold out their premium offer, the stress test was a failure in many of the players eyes and has lowered the stock in the game, and their PR philosophy and lack of feedback to the masses in the stress test has probably turned more players away then has captured.

I will play the game, as I have pre-ordered, I am concerned that the early access will be useless and bug ridden and almost unplayable, as well as the first few weeks. I hope I am wrong, and I will play despite the frustration, But the company did not do themselves any favors by not fixing issues in the Stress test Betas as the issues were consistent in each stress test. And not posting about why it was the way it was was not intelligent from a marketing stand point and hurts their pocketbook and the game overall.

This is all typical of gaming companies that fail to see the importance of player to company interaction, and marketing in general.

you people crack me up...

I'm sorry, I have preordered, will play at launch but won't take any days off as it's just a game. Didn't see any game-breaking bugs during the last beta and nobody will come back crying - honestly don't understand your hostile attitude. Was my comment offensive in some manner? I was just acknowledging that it is good to have the opinion of an expert in order to make up our ideas.

considering non of the bugs in any of the 3 beta's were game breaking way to make crap up...and from what i have seen in this thread so far you are one of the few people complaining about it...claiming you have this insight based off your self proclaimed "knowledge" from beta testing other companies games....when if you actually had beta tested these other games you wouldnt make a statement like that. because you would know that every individual games beta is different. meaning AoC release was a botched up crap mess almost worse then swtor , and before swtor there were games that had crap launches...to say this game will be worse than swtor's launch atleast we can get on the servers...swtor you couldnt even get onto the servers at certain points because it was such a crap launch...which zenimax has already proven that their hardware can handle it..the code is the problem , having to do with phasing. instead of using you sueto knowledge to troll..you could use it to do something constructive.

Ok, lets see. Tons of quests that are bugged and you cant proceed. Severe lag for many people in Cyrodill making PvP unplayable. Tons of people having problems with the Launcher, including not downloading or ridiculously slow download speed (I have been trying to Download the game on my laptop for a week now). And thats not a full launch yet. These problems typically get 100 times worse at launch when everyone is either trying to log in or is playing at the same time.

A good read for those that may not have seen it, http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2014/03/14/eso-road-ahead

Yes I know it it kinda old news but reading some of the posts here, I don't think some folks have read it..

My arm chair dev, view on launch... It will have some bumps in the road, there will be some problems, as much as we tried to have a lag free launch, there will still be some lag, but over all it will be an ok launch.. /dev hat off..LOL

Yep. and something most of these naysayers dont' think of is most of the issues in the last Stress Tes were in fact due to them overstress and overloading the server tech to find where the breaking points are and how much they can handle. I also think they made it so more people then usual occupied the same space in that test, so at live the populations will be more controlled.

Bottom line is don't fall into the trap of think that the state of a Beta test or stress test is how it will be at launch. The launch won't be smooth and perfect but it also won't be a disaster like some think.