Marius Enge, the customer service manager for Funcom, recently posted up a news post on the Anarchy Online community site regarding the problems they are experiencing with the launch. Inside is the entire post, or you can read it here. As you may have read or experienced first hand, the launch of Anarchy Online has not been without its own hardships. Registration difficulties, slow patching, semi frequent game crashes as well as worries regarding the security of the registration connection have all encompassed the first few days of Anarchy Online opening the world of Rubi-Ka to our own. Firstly, on behalf of the entire Anarchy Online team and Funcom, we sincerely apologize for any inconveniences or current dilemmas the launch of Anarchy Online may have caused. The launching of a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG is a monumental task and certainly without question is one that Funcom, with each passing minute, moves closer to triumphantly conquering. Now, that we are well aware of our launch difficulties, what are we doing to resolve them? Currently all of Funcom is working full throttle to fix the registration system troubles. We will very soon open up a system where you will be able to enter your CD-key and then be able to verify that your account is valid and functional. You must then set or confirm the password you have. If it is not functional, you will then be able to create one that is, with the same CD-key, ensuring successful registration of Anarchy Online. On the other end of the above process, the Anarchy Online support team is working extremely hard to answer all of the questions and concerns that we have been receiving throughout the past days. Again, we ask for your steadfast patience, as we want to address each comment and mailing personally to make sure you receive the quality support you deserve and expect from Funcom and that we demand of ourselves. Other concerns, including multiple mail confirmations, a secure registration process and Anarchy Online patching are actively being address and corrected. For those receiving multiple registration confirmations, you will not be billed more than once per each CD-key. We have not charged any accounts, nor will do so, until we are 110% that everything is in order and correct. As for a secure registration process, we have gone to extreme lengths to actively address this issue. The secure registration process for Anarchy Online will be up and ready as soon as humanly possible. We are truly sorry that we have not been able to provide this from the start. Regarding the patching of Anarchy Online, if you are having difficulty we have made the patches into a separate downloadable .exe files, whose links can be found in our patch launcher message. Currently, and throughout the arc of Anarchy Online, we will be continuously addressing and enhancing both the client and server performance, as well as game-play improvements. Again, we are sorry for any problems these things may have caused you, but we are proud that you want to be a part of the Anarchy Online community, and we hope you will continue to be so.

According to AO Stratics, Anarchy online sold approximately 78,000 copies its first day. I guess that may help account for the problems they have been having keeping the servers up.

Anarchy Online is live and despite the fears and prognostication of many beta testers, playable and relatively lag and crash free. Of course, the big crunch will come tonight when the U.S. goes into prime time, but all in all it seems like a good beginning for an excellent game. For those of you who bought the game, we have managed to get our site up in time for launch. Go ahead and check it out at http://ao.allakhazam.com. It's still a little raw, but I think you're going to like it. Now I'm going back in to blast me some leets.

When you go to load in Anarchy Online on Wednesday, give yourself plenty of time to download the huge patch. The beta 4 players are getting it now and it took over 45 minutes on a cable modem. Come on now. You were expecting something like that weren't you? The good news about that is that they seem to have fixed quite a few problems.

Are we ready? Well, not completely. But we've managed to complete a lot of what we are shooting for, and time is running short. So for those of you waiting for the AO launch on Wednesday, expect to see an AO site at Allakhazam's starting tomorrow (knock on wood). We hope that those of you who bought AO and who enjoyed our EQ site will come over and check out the AO site and give us a chance to build a similar site for this cool game.

This message is now up on the AO beta login: We have now stopped to count the release in days and have gone over to hours even though there are still 2 days left. In the works for making the launch day as painless as possible we want to make a general rehearsal with the introduction of a new 11.4 patch also know as the launch patch. A total character wipe has been performad to simulate that a fresh start, as we will have on the 27th. The rehearsal will then escalate into a beta event where all characters are upped to level 75 with millions of credits. All characters created before tuesday 26th at 12 noon (EST) will be upped. All those not with buffed characters at that time, will be unable to participate in the event. Those of use who were in the Everquest beta still remember the war of the gods that ended that beta. Here's hoping Funcom can match it.

Anarchy Lore is reporting that Funcom will be adding an external chat feature which will allow players not in the game to use the internet explorer browser to chat with those who are in the game, or just check to see which of their friends are playing. That sounds like an excellent new feature.

Funcom Producer Tommy Strand has posted up a message where he describes what's going on at Funcom (sounds like lots of caffeine consumption) and also what we can expect for the last two days of AO Beta. The brief is: p-wipe, followed by 11.4 download, followed by buffing to lvl 75 with tons of credits, followed by all-out death match (which Clans will, of course, win). We have now stopped to count the time to release in days and have gone over to hours even though there are still two days left. In the works for making the launch day as painless as possible we want to make a general rehearsal with the introduction of new 11.4 patch also know as the launch patch. A total character wipe has been performed to simulate that a fresh start, as we will have on the 27th. The rehearsal will then escalate into a beta event where all characters are upped to level 75 with millions of credits. All characters created before Tuesday 26th at 12 noon (EST) will be upped. All those not with buffed characters at that time, will be unable to participate in the event. I would like to thank everyone for a wonderful beta period. Some of you have been with us since the start and have bearded with us through thick and thin. We could not have done this without you. We have learned a lot during this beta, knowledge that will help Funcom to run even better beta tests in the future. With only 2 days to launch I know that many of you already have your retail box and that many of you are going to be taking advantage of the online offer. Wish us luck and bear with us when we launch the first ever Science fiction MMORPG on June 27th. - Tommy Strand Producer and Lead Designer

This was posted on Funcom's forums: "Citizens of Rubi-Ka, For those of you who have received your Anarchy Online retail box via Funcom pre-order, please note the following: - You will not be able to log onto Anarchy Online, using the CD key that is packaged with the retail version of AO, until Wednesday,June 27th. - Any character that is created, by using the combination of the retail version software and an Anarchy Online beta 4 CD key or by way of beta acceptance, will be wiped at the conclusion of the Anarchy Online beta phase. - Upon the launch of Anarchy Online on Wednesday, June 27th, there will be a final patch deeming the Anarchy Online client and servers ready for play. - If you have installed Anarchy Online prior to launch on June 27th, you will have to un-install and then re-install AO for it to function correctly. We thank you and certainly hope to see you all in Rubi-Ka shortly. The time for Anarchy is soon at hand!"

For those of you who don't live in North America or the Nordic region, but still want to play Anarchy Online right from the start, Funcom is offering the ability to purchase and download the game for $49.99 US, which includes a free month of game play (basically the same as the retail sales price). If you are interested, check out the details at this link.