It’s no secret: Aion is suffering from severe server queues.  NCSoft has been quick to respond to concerned and angry players that they knew that this would happen all along, and that their players’ concerns were not falling on deaf ears.

So what happened?  If they were so savvy, why didn’t they do anything to prepare?

According to their announcement, it was to avoid “adding new servers too quickly that are then underpopulated and don’t deliver a fun experience for players.” For this, I must applaud them.

Sure, we have to deal with hour-spanning waits to get in and create a new character, which I’m sure must be murder for those of us who have already been waiting for what seems an eternity for this game to come out. But how many times have we seen a game that simply starts pumping out new servers on demand when they first open? How often have we seen those games suffer from a severe lack of population density? Do we really want to deal with server merges in this game, too?

Having worked on some of those games myself, I will admit that there is a bit of difference between Aion and them. Aion has a mountain of hype behind it, and it holds the unique position of being a Korean pay-to-play. If this just another free-to-play game, or if it didn’t have the backing Aion has, denying so many players from immediate access would be murder, since most would have no problem leaving the game never to come back. But here, players are dually-invested, and Aion is in the distinct position of being able to look to the future, and only to the future.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not particularly excited for Aion, myself. Flying aside, I haven’t seen anything in it that’s got me too fired up. But I have to admit that it’s a fine good-looking game, and I have to acknowledge it when the publishers make the right call, no matter how painful.

Here’s to you, NCSoft. Now let me in your damned game.