I really wanted to play this game, ever since it came out a few years ago. Back then, I did not have the time. When it came out free on Steam and I was on summer break I thought I would finally get to play.

Unfortunately, no.

After downloading and patching, the game would not connect to the game servers. This went on for about 20 minutes and then resolved itself. I actually got logged in, created a character, did the tutorial. The game itself is great so far. Very colorful, vibrant, and a refreshing change of pace. I had to log out, but was eager to start playing again later that day.

Now, I cannot login again. For over an hour, the game pops up a blank taskbar. Sometimes the taskbar fills up and then mysteriously vanishes and nothing else happens. Sometimes it sits there for a few minutes and then gives me an error that the patcher cannot connect to the patch servers.

I check the boards, the NCSoft website, all servers are supposedly up.

This game was not ready for Steam. The front end, patching, and authentication system are mired in the past. Of the 70+ games I have on Steam, this is the first that will not work out of the box. I am not going to spend hours tracking down drivers, firewall settings, modifying my HOSTS file, etc. in a vain attempt to work around issues that should have been fixed 2 years ago.

Dozens of early access multiplayer games show up on Steam all the time and don't have these problems. I figured a game from a large company would be able to handle the front end UX without any problems.

I really wanted to play this game, ever since it came out a few years ago. Back then, I did not have the time. When it came out free on Steam and I was on summer break I thought I would finally get to play. Unfortunately, no. After downloading and patching, the game would not connect to the game servers. This went on for about 20 minutes and then resolved itself. I actually got logged in, created a character, did the tutorial. The game itself is great so far. Very colorful, vibrant, and a refreshing change of pace. I had to log out, but was eager to start playing again later that day. Now, I cannot login again. For over an hour, the game pops up a blank taskbar. Sometimes the taskbar fills up and then mysteriously vanishes and nothing else happens. Sometimes it sits there for a few minutes and then gives me an error that the patcher cannot connect to the patch servers. I check the boards, the NCSoft website, all servers are supposedly up. This game was not ready for Steam. The front end, patching, and authentication system are mired in the past. Of the 70+ games I have on Steam, this is the first that will not work out of the box. I am not going to spend hours tracking down drivers, firewall settings, modifying my HOSTS file, etc. in a vain attempt to work around issues that should have been fixed 2 years ago. Dozens of early access multiplayer games show up on Steam all the time and don't have these problems. I figured a game from a large company would be able to handle the front end UX without any problems.