This is not meant to be a sob story! But it sounds like one.
Earlier on Saturday I had no trouble connecting to the game.
Saturday night (10-11:50 PM CST) I could not get pass "CONNECTING TO SERVER..." but on one occasion and then my character would not upload. This message without error code is what appeared - "ERROR Could not connect to Wizard 101. Please try again later." I tried both of my paid accounts on numerous occasions and was not allowed to play the game.
Prior to the most recent update to the game - the training of advanced pets - I had never seen "CONNECTING TO SERVER..." Now, there has been a delay in connecting to the server for the last week.
Please understand the problem is not with my computer. Video drivers are up-to-date. Firewall is setup properly. I have plenty of space on my hard drives and as large a page file as possible on both hard drives. I have very few programs running on this computer. I even monitor what is running on the computer and do performance checks. ;)
I found that I had the same difficulties on two of my other computers which have different configurations.
I learned quickly to not leave my wizards anywhere near the common areas where many wizards gather like the pet pavilion. That has helped in the past, but not tonight.
My way of thinking is that this game is so popular that many people enter the game to just hang out with online friends. That's okay! The problem is that paid customers may not be able to get into the game. That would be a problem.
The questions are -
What can be done to be fair to all?
Would it be possible to limit the number of unpaid players that can enter the game at certain times?
Would it be possible to have servers set aside for paid customers only?
Should unpaid players be bumped from the servers? (I have had experience with this one at work - when the licenses are full - the bumping begins - except for the chosen few. -)
Is the most recent update to the game putting too much strain on the servers - now with the tracking of food and the training of pets added to treasure cards, houses, clothing, weapons, and furniture?
But it sounds like one.