UPDATE
Square Enix released a new statement in regards to the issue:
If you have submitted your World/Character Name on the Error 3102 thread we created, please check to see if you can log in.
To compensate everyone for the downtime and the issues the game received this weekend, Square Enix is extending the beta for six more hours. Instead of the beta ending at 2AM PDT, it has been moved to 8AM PDT.
See you in-game!
Original Story
This weekend is the time every Final Fantasy XIV fan has been waiting for as Square Enix launched the final beta test for A Realm Reborn. Instead of leaving those that tried out the beta impressed due to the promised improvements, the game received mixed reaction and hate as error 3102 plagued the community over the weekend.
Those who have been playing the beta may have encountered a disconnection several times. Sure, we are all expecting this issue to come up since this is the stress test session for the server, but instead of getting everyone back up to speed so that players can all play again, the next time everyone logged on they were met with the infamous error 3102:
“You are still logged into the game. Please allow a few moments for the logout process to complete. If you continue experiencing this problems, please contact the customer support.”
As soon as everyone encountered that error message, they thought it would easily be fixed by waiting for several minutes. Unfortunately, more than sixteen hours have passed and the error is still there. From thousands of people crying for Square Enix to fix the problem, none of their developer or community teams are doing anything to fix this issue. With the beta ending in several hours, those who are hoping to get back in and play again are getting fairly antsy and displeased with the support Square Enix has provided thus far.
Yes, the beta session is set for the weekend, but why is Square Enix not doing anything when almost all of the people playing the beta last night have encountered this problem? With no fix in sight and no clear communication as to when a fix is coming, this is a bad sign for Square Enix. After all, they launched a beta for the weekend, broke it and not being able to fix it in time does not sit well with their community.
Desfunk
August 18, 2013 at 8:16 PMYep, i fell victim to this horrendous error as well. Which really sucks, considering Sunday is my ONLY day off of the week u_u
As long as they don’t wipe my character data, i’ll survive missing out on the final day of the beta. But if users who have had this happen get screwed over, that’ll really suck. Mostly if the dreaded rumor of anybody with this problem getting ‘data wiped’ is true. If that’s the case, then they’d be better off just wiping everyone. but i doubt they’d go that far.
A shame, cause this is technically the second mmo i’ve ever played, and i’m really loving it. But this is definitely leaving a sour taste in my mouth
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 8:25 PMI hope they will not wipe it! I’m close to level 20 and spend pretty much a whole day :(
What server are you playing on?
Zero
August 18, 2013 at 9:10 PM” none of their developer or community teams are doing anything to fix this issue. “why is Square “Enix not doing anything when almost 80% of the people playing the beta have encountered this problem?”
Where is your proof of those claims? Do you have actual statistics or did you just make that up because you felt like it? Do you have inside ties to Square Enix to know what the dev team is doing or did you just make that up too?
Maximus
August 18, 2013 at 9:13 PMThey aren’t simply “doing nothing”. They have to access the NA/EU servers through remote access in Montreal, Canada. They’re preparing the fix to the release, this is just phase 4. Early access is the 24th. They know damn well that if this happens then, its over for them. They’re working on the fix. Do not worry. I’ve personally been locked out for about 19 hours, but being a legacy member, its not a huge deal. Leveling is quick, you’ll get those 10-20 levels next Saturday, don’t worry.
NA
August 18, 2013 at 9:14 PMReally, 80%?
You really should try to not just make up statistics without any sort of basis.
Cardboard
August 18, 2013 at 9:16 PMI’ve been dealing with the 3102 since yesterday, and it’s irritating to no end. I could always go to the jp servers, but I’d rather not in the long run. It had so much promise back in July, and now I just sit there as my character floats in a .Hack// like situation waiting for that solution.
I don’t mind re-rolling, it doesn’t take long to get to 20, it’s the being unable to play that’s infuriating… And the fact I wasn’t in a sanctuary.
CJ
August 18, 2013 at 9:18 PMUnfortunately, this game is not ready for release. There are serious infrastructure issues that need to be addressed. The last 48 hours of the open beta have been a total train wreck. Many thousands of players unable to log on because of the ‘90000’ and ‘3102’ errors. The ‘3102’ is especially bad, because once you get it, it prevents you from using ANY of the characters on that account. Including newly made ones. Additionally, the congestion is preventing those lucky enough to avoid those errors from logging on. I have a few friends who play, and they were all prevented from participating because of the ‘3102’ error. I was the “lucky” one, because I didn’t get the error, however I am not able to play because of the congestion.
These kinds of things are certainly to be expected in a beta, but not on this scale, and not for this long. Also, they knew well in advance the number of people enrolled in open beta, and had ample time to prepare for the server loads. The game now holds the record for concurrent users in an open beta, over 160,000. They knew that was going to happen also, yet did not take the steps necessary to handle that volume.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a hardcore FF fan, and this will not deter me. I plan on playing this game for a long time. I also have full faith in Yoshida, he has done an incredible job bringing this game back from the brink. Unfortunately, my faith in SE is not nearly as high, and the lack of response to this mini-crisis from the SE support staff has only lowered that faith even more.
Last I checked, over 18,000 users reported experiencing the ‘3102’ lockout bug on the beta forums. And I’m pretty sure that is only a fraction, since many players do not use the forums at all. All those player’s characters are in a sort of limbo, remaining on the servers, but unable to be accessed. Which is keeping those who did not get the error from logging on.
All in all, a very bad situation. Early access is scheduled to start in 3 days, and the official launch is set 3 days after that. So, SE has less than one week to get this all sorted out for a successful launch. My hopes and prayers are with them.
Jonathan Leack
August 18, 2013 at 9:19 PMJonny Bigboss, the legendary summoner, was here.
Dei Jin
August 18, 2013 at 9:21 PMMost of us were just hoping to log in before beta ends so we can put our characters in a rest area. Not only will that 20% who can log in be leveled higher at launch, they will also be fully rested and gaining xp faster than the rest of us. I don’t mean random people, I mean friends we expected to level alongside.
I should also mention that many of us paid money already (most paid for the realm first born) and can’t play now while a bunch of people who won’t be buying the game get to play for free.
The debate is fierce, some saying this is atrocious and others (who think “beta” still means what it used to) who say “stop whining”, but at the very least, our collective expectations were horribly managed. Before the glitch, we expected to hit 20 before beta ends, and after the glitch, we were told nothing.
Jade Denox
August 18, 2013 at 9:56 PMSo, here’s the thing about this. Phase 4 beta was planned to be the stress tester for the Servers, seeing how much they could handle. Now this problem has occured, and seems to be connected with the stress test due to the small ‘hiccups’ that occured last night, 3102’ing many people. The aftershock of it is continuous, disconnecting and locking players by the minute.
Since the beta test, in the first place, was to check for bugs like this, SE should be on this pronto to nullify any more customer dissatisfaction, however, as we have seen, are not caring to this problem ASAP. Of course, now they are claiming that they are getting to it on Twitter, they will probably wait until the beta is over to fix it. Saying that they are still searching for the problem almost garuntees us that they will not fix it for some time. This is causing the fan-base to dissipate from the game, making their income decrease further by the minute.
I can claim to know the problem. Almost every player that got this 90000 error say that they were zoning, or teleporting, to a different city or in a loading screen of some kind. Then, they get disconnected in the middle of the transfer proccess. To be vague, the legendary Ifrit grabbed us mid-teleport and threw us into limbo.
I expected something like this to happen (which has happened before). But this time, the servers screwed up and kept us in this limbo, saying that we were still logged in while clearly my allies in game say that my character is offline. The computers can’t process this, For we were in mid-transport, and it doesn’t know how or where to place my character along with the fact that it thinks your in game and also sees your logging in.
What they need to do:
1. Realize the problem by looking at how each player was disconnected (stated above is the main answer they’ll get.)
2. Shut down all servers to be sure this problem won’t come up again in a different server.
3. Reset the characters they find in limbo to their original cities they started at, being able to still be able to have all their profile data.
4. Check every other cjharacter so this won’t come up on a different account.
5. Turn the servers on for one final test, extending the phase 4 beta by a couple of days (Til wednesday is good).
6. Turn them off and do a final sweep of the servers for those three other days, then open early access, knowing bugs like this won’t pop up again.
Please Square Enix! Look at this!
Zeno
August 18, 2013 at 9:57 PM“none of their developer or community teams are doing anything to fix this issue”
Seriously? This is horrible journalism. Their Twitter clearly states they are aware and have been working on it.
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 10:01 PM@Zeno
The problem occurred almost twenty-four hours ago. Up until now, we still haven’t seen any fix coming. Sure, they will say they are working on it but it looks like they will just wait out for the beta to be over to fix this issue.
It took them over twelve hours to acknowledge the issue… That’s not good in my book.
I love the game, and I can’t wait for it. However, them not reacting to the issue pronto is worrying me.
Zeno
August 18, 2013 at 10:38 PM@Mark
They acknowledged the issue almost immediately after it started: http://forum.square-enix.com/ARR-Test/threads/102818-Regarding-Error-3102-Issue/
Darren
August 18, 2013 at 10:46 PM“but why is Square Enix not doing anything when almost all of the people playing the beta last night have encountered this problem?”
This is not even close to being true. I have had no such issue and seen many many people on my server. It is only affecting approximately 5% of the population. Which is still a terrible thing, but to say nothing is being done is also not true. Plus the devs are working around the clock fixing in game area issues and posting to let us know in the forums. Please stop writing such one sided articles and making things out to be worse then they really are.
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 10:52 PM@Zeno
well, I hope they fix it soon as but as I said earlier, it looks like they will just fix this once the beta is over in about six hours.
I like your avatar btw… I miss Suikoden <3
@Darren
If you played last night during the server disconnection, the character you were playing were most likely locked out. That doesn't mean you aren't able to re-roll a character. If they are doing something, this could've been fixed hours after it happened, but it looks like it will not happen.
Zeno
August 18, 2013 at 10:57 PM@Mark They are posting about multiple fixes that have just been put in within the last hour (see “The beta test server status for Aug. 16” thread), they’re working on it (regardless if beta is ending soon or not). SE has been and still is working hard on everything.
As for what Darren mentioned, I was on all last night and I’m still able to play. Playing right now in fact.
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 10:58 PMDon’t get me wrong guys. I love the game and I’m in no way bashing the game. When it comes to betas like this one, it’s very important for those developers to to get these kinds of things fixed very quickly… True, we are in beta but this is a wake up call for Square Enix to fix game breaking bugs/glitches in a timely manner.
Not to mention this is the “FINAL” beta… and we’re like five days before the early access… so I’m really hoping… that the game will have a smooth launch :)
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 11:00 PM@Zeno
The disconnection happened around 10-11PM PST. Were you able to play the toon that you used during that time you got disconnected?
Yes, we can re-roll to a new character but I’m pretty much frustrated on the toon I’ve spent leveling over the past two days.
Mark Fajardo
August 18, 2013 at 11:09 PMSquare Enix released a new statement to those who were affected. Read up on the update section of the article!
Jolfer
August 19, 2013 at 12:38 AM” From thousands of people crying for Square Enix to fix the problem, none of their developer or community teams are doing anything to fix this issue”
Where’s the proof of this? A bad article with no proof of certain statements other than opinion and speculation. One thing for certain is that they have managed the communication very poorly, to say the least. With an issue of this magnitude, players (customers and potential customers) should have been informed of everything going on; answering question like: Why do I have this error on my screen? is the development team working on it? what’s the ETA of the fix if any? in the worst case will you have to wipe? and so on…
“After all, they launched a beta for the weekend, broke it and not being able to fix it does not sit well with their community.”
First of all, they didn’t “break” it, in the BETA test, an error popped up to a large amount of players denying access back to the game, but the vast majority is still playing in the beta. I doubt that counts as the development team breaking the game as if it were their fault. We are in beta, an error appeared, they should address it.
Secondly, you don’t know if they are able to fix it, as I said before, you don’t know the magnitude of said error and what it takes to be fixed, and with poor to none information they are giving, how can you come to such conclusions in your “Article”? More than an article this seems like an opinion, and for such there’s a great place called Reddit.
Mark Fajardo
August 19, 2013 at 12:59 AM@Jolfer
Where’s the proof of this? re: ” From thousands of people crying for Square Enix to fix the problem, none of their developer or community teams are doing anything to fix this issue”
Look at the forum, that’s the proof. Almost 2000+ pages of people crying for Square Enix to fix the problem. The article is mixed FACT and OPINION. It took them almost twenty four hours to finally fix the issue. So, yes they did fixed it in the end, though it took them almost twenty four hours to fix it – in a beta where time is limited, that’s a long time.
First of all, they didn’t “break” it, in the BETA test, re: “After all, they launched a beta for the weekend, broke it and not being able to fix it does not sit well with their community.”
Regardless if it’s a beta test or not, if something breaks down, they have to fix it pronto because it will most likely reflect on how they handle issues when it goes to live servers. They are hosting a beta test on weekends, therefore there should be people working around the clock to get these kind of things fixed quickly before it escalates. If they fixed the problem very quickly, there will be no article like this popping up on the internet.
Secondly, you don’t know if they are able to fix it,
An article can be two things; fact and opinion. Most of the time, it’s both where we put facts first then opinion at the end most of the time.
Zero
August 19, 2013 at 1:59 AM@Mark
Your article is mostly opinion and accusation. You accuse the dev team of breaking the functionality of the game, then proceed to have the audacity to accuse them of doing nothing to fix it. So what if it took 24 hours for them to finally fix it? I’m willing to bet you have absolutely no experience in game development and do not know how things break and how to fix them on a lower level because if you did, your article would be vastly different.
Paladin81
August 19, 2013 at 2:10 AMNot sure if the “not doing anything” should be taken as fact. When this first started happening, they ran a little maintenance while people were still logged on, although you would have been unable to create a new character during this maintenance. Then as I type this, they are running another maintenance, and adding another server. Now it would be pretty screwed up if yes, people got wiped, and or if they don’t extend the beta for another day or two, to see if their fix, actually works- so this does not happen during launch.
Mark Fajardo
August 19, 2013 at 2:14 AM@Paladin81
I’m hoping this game will have a successful launch :) I hope it’s early access already, that way I can continue playing. Yes, they’re doing another maintenance today which is kinda sad but at least they extended it for six more hours. Which is good!
Paladin81
August 19, 2013 at 2:16 AMAnd now as I type this, I just heard directly from Square Enix, that the beta is extended- with the server status coming back at 5am
Paladin81
August 19, 2013 at 2:19 AM@ Mark Fajardo
Ah I think it will, because Yoshi P is the director now. The first version the director had no idea what he was doing lol. The game would have probably been a bit better than ARR had Yoshi P been on it day 1 lol.
He even said the game will be delayed if it has to be, because they aren’t making the same mistake as 1.0 lol- and I am cool with that.
Paladin81
August 19, 2013 at 2:25 AMAlthough the extention should have been a bit longer than just a few more hours lol, but next Monday is early access, and with the extra server things should be better, and it doesn’t look like any delays need to happen.
desfunk
August 19, 2013 at 2:00 PMA quick update. The beta was extended to 11am today. And those who suffered the 3102 error DID have their characters fixed. I’m not sure how i did it, but i’m super happy that i was able to quickly finish off the few quests i was in the middle of doing.
Sucks that i’ll be away this upcoming weekend, so i’ll miss out on early access :(