I would love to exalt the neat and new things that FF14 has brought out in their most recent expansion. How the new zones flow, the MSQ is better, and the music somehow continues to improve. And then how much fun it is to play the Sage and Reaper.
I would, truly.
But there are 6,977 people in the queue ahead of me. And it drops by about 100 every 2 minutes. That’s around 2.5 hours in the queue. I’ve tried just letting it stand, but error 2002 abounds. I do not have the time (or frankly the patience) to just let a queue sit and eventually work itself out.
Network Architecture
I know enough about this field but not enough about how SquareEnix has designed their authentication to provide much insight. Given the consistent queue issues since the summer, it would be foolish to assume that they have not gone to great lengths to try to change their scaling and design. Given that they have mentioned supply chain issues would infer that cloud offloading would not be a full relief valve on this problem.
I would be quite surprised if this issue gets solved anytime soon, aside from people just stopping from playing. If anything, this is likely to get worse as there aren’t many other games vying for eyeballs (SWTOR does have an expansion mind you, and there’s certainly some overlap) and we’re about to hit the holiday break.
Was this foreseeable? No question. Was this preventable? There’s no way for anyone but the devs to answer that.
In the Meantime
Time to fill with other bits. I coached a hockey tourney this weekend, so there was 3 days completely absorbed.
I gave Outriders another pass yesterday. A few recent balancing patches were applied, and I figured I’d give it another run. At the time, I was running T12 (of 15) runs, making gold time. With the exact same loadout, T12 feels as hard as prior, and the rewards don’t appear to have been improved. I guess I’d need more time to get a better idea of what the changes actually are. And get into a decent spot for the upcoming DLC. Still consider it one of the better looter/shooters, what with the complete lack of PvP.
I also finally picked up Disco Elysium on sale. I’m an hour or so in. I like the format and the story, but have a general dislike for the controls. The game part isn’t too much fun, but the actually content certainly is. Probably be giving this burst over time.
I figure I’ve got a few weeks, if not until January until FF14 is sorted out. Should be ample time to clear out some other bits in my library.
Leo's Life 
I’m not sure there is any “game part” to Disco Elysium. There’s a certain amount of puzzle-solving I guess. It’s more of an art piece than a game, I’d say. It’s closer to the kind of thing people were talking about in the ’90s, when there was a naive belief that new narrative forms would start to appear as people began to come to grips with the technology. That DE has attracted so much attention tells us all we need to know about how optimistic those beliefs were.
It is good, though. I enjoyed it.
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Game in the context of inventory, managing time mechanics, movement, and the odd contextual interface.
I’m comparing to something like Obra Dinn where those mechanics are part of the story.
Its not a complaint as much as a quirk. It is very enjoyable. Wonder if it would be more so if I role-played it with a few pints!!
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