I have been playing TES games for over 10 years now, with each release getting better and better. With the news of being able to play online, I was *thrilled*.
I waited patiently for two years to play this game, and now I feel like an idiot for investing so much in this franchise.
I pre-ordered my Collector's Edition back in January from GameStop, a total of $118 with One Day shipping. I played all through beta, and when I received my early access code to begin playing, I did so!
I was a bit miffed that so much of the early access time was unplayable due to server maintenance, but, whatever, that was to be expected. And the "bonus" EA time was a nice little band-aid.
Now, the time has come to enter our game codes to continue playing and set up our 30 day subscription. Ummm, what? I thought our early access codes were proof that we had paid for our games. So I moved on to GameStop to see where my CE was, and when it was scheduled to arrive, and I saw that it hadn't even been marked for shipping yet. I scoured the forums, enraged, like everyone else, that I had been prepared for such a long time coming, and couldn't play.
After contacting GameStop, they told me that my payment had been declined and my order hadn't been filled because I hadn't paid for it. This just made me furious. I never got an email from GameStop informing me of that, nor from PayPal (who I used to checkout with). There is NO reason why my payment would be declined, as I am a responsible adult making a decent salary. I even paid with PayPal's own credit line, so how could it possibly be declined?
I asked GameStop if they had any Collector's Editions left in their inventory, if I could attempt to make the transaction a second time. Their response? "We have 4,000 units left. We will cancel this open order and you can go online and try to purchase it again."
Silly me, thinking anyone would be helpful...
So I allowed them to cancel my pre-order from January, and was prepared to make my second purchase of a Collector's Edition, only to find that you cannot purchase them anymore!
So now I have nothing. No pre-ordered game, no awesome collector's edition, just an account I can't use.
I have to settle for the digital edition, and, quite frankly, I don't feel like I should get shanked by all these companies, and then have to sheepishly pay $80 to keep my account and Imperial character.
tldr; This entire experience, including the brief gameplay I had access to during early access, has been extremely disappointing. This game is going to be the ruin of TES franchise. Thumbs down.