Lord of the.... 'Service Unavailable'

I thought, in a fit of optimism, that I'd give one of the MMOs I received for Christmas a quick go yesterday (before we went off to our New Year's party).

So, having installed 'Lord of the Rings Online' and downloaded and installed the 2gig of stand-alone patches and extra content... and then downloaded the other mass of hot fixes and tweaks (which I'd estimate was probably nearly another gig of data) I proceeded to...

'Service Unavailable'

Sorry... where was I? Oh yes, I proceeded to...

'Service Unavailable'

No, I was definitely about to say that I'd attempted to log on to the Codemaster's account management page to...

'Service Unavailable'

Eh? Sorry... I'm really not sure...

'Service Unavailable'

Arrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Infuriating isn't it? After about a dozen of these unapologetic error messages, void of any real explanation or purpose, I was actually able to get to the log in page. A few more and I was able to log in. About another dozen or so (I can be patient when the need arises) I was actually able to get to the section when I could enter my registration key! Yay... I might actually be able to play the...

'Service Unavailable'



Unfortunately... it would appear that although I was able to register my code (and start the clock ticking on my free 30 days), without actually signing up to a payment plan I was unable to get into the game. And, as you can imagine, no matter how many times I attempted to setup some form of payment plan, their system wouldn't have it...

Complaints about the need to sign up to a payment plan, despite having 30 free days, aside... what kind of company can possibly avoid criticism with service like this? I know that it was New Year's Eve and I am, to a certain extent, sympathetic to this. And, having exchanged emails with Sam 'Satine' Russell (the Senior Community Liaison Manager) during the LotRO stress testing I know there are some people there that really do care about what they are doing... but Codemasters are hardly new to this game, and running DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online), Archlord, RF Online, Fury and LotRO (to name their main online games) you'd have thought they'd have the staff and systems in place to ensure that problem like this are short-lived. In short... there are no excuses.

But... I'm generally a free and easy sort so I'll wait for their answer to my support request and see what happens. It's not like I haven't got other games to play in the meantime... though the desire to play LotRO may have passed by the time they get it fixed and the box will be moved on to my shelf marked 'Almost, but not quite'.

Time will tell...