Important Information and Q&A!

[lerusius]

1) What sites do you post regularly on? What sites do you read regularly?

2) Do you post information on sites where you have to pay to get access to them? If so why are you doing it?

3) Do you feel that all sites should have an Developer Post Tracker? If not why? If you do can you force sites to add it?

4) How many will work with informing the community about issues and help with various problems (on forums that is)?

5) How old is your favorite T-Shirt? (both IainC and MagnusK should answer)...

6) Is it possible you will have an poll or something similar before release about what sites the community think should be excluded and/or included from/in your "Community"-> "Fansites" list?

7) Have you played WAR? If so, can you describe your best moment with the game?

[Faya]

Here are the questions I can answer straight away, I'll be back later with answers to more as I get them.

I heard that it was possible to preorder the Standard Edition of Warhammer Online from you on the 28th of August and recieve the headstart. Is this true? If so are there any other benefits or is it just the headstart?
The EU pre-order for the standard edition does indeed begin on the 28th. We'll be announcing the full details officially on the website on that date along with the pre-order partners etc. At the moment the plan is that this pre-order will receive the headstart as well as ingame bonus items.

Will EU get the same amount of time in open beta as the us?
Yes.

Why is the Q&A section of the site, so dated and unclear about the simple basicly things?
The FAQ has just been updated and the new details will be published early this week. It's something that hasn't been a priority for us as we've been busy getting everything else done. Now that we have some definite information to update a lot of the 'to be announced' answers in there, we've taken the opportunity to overhaul it. Most of those answers have only been announced within the past few days.

If you have a pre-order box for the CE (with codes and all) the box says you pre-ordered the CE. Can you confirm that I will get my CE?
This is how we designed the program with our distribution partners (EA Europe). EA Europe briefed all the retailers on how it would work and that is the way they should be treating it - a CE pre-order pack should guarantee you a CE box. I can't guarantee however that an individual store will honour that as we can't be responsible for stores briefing their staff properly. Any queries about how a particular retailer will be dealing with your pre-order should really be directed to the store.
Basically EA Europe explained it as clearly as possible to the retailers but the stores are responsible for making sure that their staff are carrying it out properly. It isn't a complicated system but the more people that are involved, the more possibility there is for misunderstandings or poor communication.

Are there any strings attached to the open beta meaing that i wont get in thought i have a box telling me i will get the beta, the head start and the items ?
No, as long as you have an open beta account and a valid code we won't be filtering the applications at all.

When can we expect a EU Herald?
There won't be one specifically. Our Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning site combines the features of the Herald and the marketing site. All the community news and info will be available on the one EU site.

Will GOA publish a list of trusted partners, like they did with the CE, who will sell the SE with guaranteed live game head start/open beta/other cool stuff?
Yes, as I said above, this will be announced on or just before the 28th when the SE pre-order program opens.


__________________
Iain 'Requiel' Compton - English Community Manager
European Warhammer: Age of Reckoning team
War-Europe

Taken from WARalliance. I hope THIS time its something new i found!

Faya

[Idris]

Kind of, was on Only-WAR forums too :-)

[Faya]

Ah well im happy i found it to be new HERE you a most evil person Sir!

Faya

[Earl]

I've ordered SE from EA so I can download the game, join beta on 7th and play headstart. Will I be able to download the beta client in advance? Bear in mind some of us are on terribly crappy providers. I'd like to be able to play from Server open.

[Faya]

Folks,

I'm going to be posting a lot over the next few days but here's a quick update/explanation of where things stand now:

1) As to the type of Open Beta that we are having, I've said for over three years that our Open Beta is not going to be a "Everybody come into the pool, the water's fine!" type of Open Beta. We have never been interested in just having hundreds of thousands of people beat against our servers just so a few thousand can get in. I'm not familiar with any MMORPG company offering an OB where they can support everyone who wants in to the OB. OBs are usually limited in the number of servers/amount of bandwidth that is available for the OB players. If you offer an OB with an almost unlimited number of keys (or keys that vastly outnumber server capacity), you're either really using to stress test your login process or doing it solely as a PR move. I'd rather have an OB where we know the size of the potential player pool and have enough servers and bandwidth so people can actually get into our OB.

2) As to the length of the OB, we have never said that it was going to be a month nor have we ever hinted at it that. The vast majority of OBs run by MMORPG companies have not lasted a month. Is a week too short? I wish we could have made it longer (maybe 2 weeks) but the timing just didn't work out. OB is the last hurdle before the game goes LIVE and with the added Preview Weekend, we lost a few days that might have been able to go into the OB. So, for those that pre-ordered the game, the added Preview Weekend gives you some extra time before the OB. For those that haven't pre-ordered the game and are upset that the OB isn't long enough of a time to tell if you like the game, then I'll say the same thing I've also said for years, then wait a few days or a week, etc. until after the game launches and decide then. Frankly, once the NDA lifts and with the information storm that will follow its release, I can't imagine that players won't have enough time and information to make an informed buying decision.

3) As to the lifting of the NDA and the start of Open Beta, I've been very clear on the fact that the two things are not related at all.

4) As to the NDA, we expect to lift it tomorrow morning. I was hoping it was going to be today but I wanted to wait till I got the beta reports from the weekend and we just didn't have enough time to get everything coordinated with our partners in order for the press release to go out today. This is not the fault of GOA at all, we just had a lot of data to go through and by the time we did that, it would have been too late to put out the release today. As to the three issues that were holding up the release, I'll be discussing them tomorrow. While I wish that we could have lifted the NDA a couple of weeks ago, I'll explain why tomorrow. Given how many MMOs/games don't lift the NDA until launch (or just before or in some cases, never), our lifting it more than 4 weeks (only slightly but it's still 4+ weeks out), is more than sufficient for all the information about the game to hit the Internet.

5) As to the "Why am I downloading the client weeks in advance" stuff, well, it's because we wanted to avoid the situation where we tell people that OB is starting in a week and then people couldn't get the client in time. If we had done that, there would have been lots and lots of posts saying "Epic Fail Mythic, I couldn't get the client in time for your OB!!!!' if things went wrong. By allowing people to download the client early, everybody will have plenty of time to get the client. While I'm usually quite willing to admit when we make a mistake, letting people get the client early is not a mistake, it is simply another way to make it easier for people to get the client. Given the issues with the Torrent solution we used, anyone who says that we are wrong to let people download the client early is simply looking to bash us for no reason.

6) As to how people are going to get the client, as has been speculated, we have added FilePlanet to our file distribution methods. As promised, you do not have to be a FP subscriber to download the client. By retaining both our current methods and by adding FP, we are once again making it more convenient for players to get our game. Additionally, when the game goes LIVE, we will be using our own Mythic Patcher to download updates to the game just as we did with DAoC in addition to other possible methods.

So, that's the quick update for now.

Mark

More news!
Dont be evil to me this time please?

Faya

[Idris]

hehe, this time you got it bang on, Faya!

[JeevesFan]

Here's a question.

Considering Mark Jacobs, the founder and head guy at Mythic, specifically states this:

"As to the "Why am I downloading the client weeks in advance" stuff, well, it's because we wanted to avoid the situation where we tell people that OB is starting in a week and then people couldn't get the client in time."

How can you rationalize still not having even an account management system, let alone the beta downloads available for European customers considering we're supposed to get equal beta time?

When will these systems be implemented? You must know the answer, so please give us a solid date.

[Aada]

Originally Posted by JeevesFan

Here's a question.

Considering Mark Jacobs, the founder and head guy at Mythic, specifically states this:

"As to the "Why am I downloading the client weeks in advance" stuff, well, it's because we wanted to avoid the situation where we tell people that OB is starting in a week and then people couldn't get the client in time."

How can you rationalize still not having even an account management system, let alone the beta downloads available for European customers considering we're supposed to get equal beta time?

When will these systems be implemented? You must know the answer, so please give us a solid date.

Well knowing GOA they will put the download up the night before the OB starts for Europe

[Xandax]

Outside all the other questions asked which have been blissfully ignored by GOA I have a number of others:

1) When will we see the release of server names, so guilds can plan/coordinate creation?

2) Will we see similar website services as the US does - in lieu of the "Equal treatment/service" clause?

3) When will you announce that EU open beta starts the same date as the US one on your website?

4) When will you answer some of the harder questions in these threads? Here and on WHA? (And I do not mean in "soon(tm)" or "when we can" or "communication isn't prioritized so we'll wait half a year" type answers)

5) The 7th of august IainC said he expected to return within a couple of days with answers to some questions which were relevant at that time. Why did we never hear anything regarding this again?

[MagnusK]

Is GOA not working on weekends? This is preposterous!
This is a fine example of how the 'whisper game' works and unsubstantiated rumours spread. From day one, we have made it crystal clear that WAR will have 24/7 support in Europe. This was actually one of the reason we relocated much of GOA to Dublin, as French legislations made 24/7 support impossible. Me, Iain and the rest of the Community Management team will not work around the clock, however (having two people covering 24 hours is not allowed even in Ireland!).

Why the monthly subscription in EU is more expensive than in NA?
Running a business is more expensive in Europe than it is in America. There are many complex factors involved in this, but suffice to say, this is nothing out of the ordinary.

Now that it's clear that WAR won't have "official" forums per se, how do you think community management will work and do you think that electing one or two community managers for the largest unofficial forums will work smoothly?
This, too, has been clarified by Mark Jacobs many times over. This is equal so for GOA and the EU customers. GOA have long-standing bonds with the administrators of a number of fan driven communities. We greatly respect and trust these key community members in their ability to continue providing and maintaining great quality forums and other services.

The community could justifiably be said to be the one factor which make or break an MMO. WAR is in a unique position in that there already are existing and vibrant communities out there. GOA and Mythic both feel, it is best for everyone involved if we support these communities with our presence, information and treats, rather than competing with them.

As of now, there are no plans to assign Community Manager status to certain members of these forums. Community Managers work in the GOA Dublin office.

How are you going to ensure that the community gets its information on weekends, e.g. is GOA going to alter its policy of working on weekends?
As indicated, there are currently no plans to expand the Community Management team's hours to include weekends, and as far as I am informed, neither will Mythic be working on weekends. However, as I'm sure you've noticed, Iain has done work worthy of legends, being very much active after work. For your information, our official working hours are 9am to 6pm GMT. Anything posted outside of these hours are done on our free time.

What steps are you taking to ensure that the EU community is as informed as the US/North American community?
We are working closer and closer with Mythic's Community Management team. For instance, we had Rob over from Mythic last week. We had a productive meeting where we discussed strategies, shared ideas and visions and built personal trust. Working together in any team is a challenge to be met with passion and openness. Cooperating over the Atlantic and six time zones will not make this less of a challenge, but we are all passionate about what we do and we will do everything within our power to make sure the European communities are just as informed as the North American.


You say you will provide an equal service to Mythic Entertainment - can you guarantee that all patches, upgrades and expansions will go as smoothly as Mythic's?
No-one can guarantee this. I can guarantee, however, that when GOA and Mythic sat down two and a half years ago to discuss the future of WAR, this was something which both parts recognised to be of great importance. Warhammer has been designed from the very foundations to be as smooth as possible to localize and deploy to the European market simultaniously with North America. We have people both in GOA and at Mythic who's sole purpose in (their professional) life is to make sure all the different departments stay on the right track and this requirement is met and I respect them greatly.



I know these few questions leave many vital questions unanswered. We have compiled and distributed a list of the most burning questions and passed these along to the right people. As soon we hear anything, you'll be the first to know.

We've also got some interesting announcements coming up tomorrow, so keep an eye on our website!


Blessings,
Magnus

[JeevesFan]

Are we to interpret the last point to mean that tomorrow we'll hear concrete dates for our account management and beta downloads? Because if so, hooray!

Also, I totally understand that the CM team doesn't work weekends. Who does? But to immediately contradict myself () you will be offering in-game support 24/7, right? And again, my personal thanks to both you and Iain for waving the banner. It's appreciated.

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by MagnusK

[<snip>
Now that it's clear that WAR won't have "official" forums per se, how do you think community management will work and do you think that electing one or two community managers for the largest unofficial forums will work smoothly?
This, too, has been clarified by Mark Jacobs many times over. This is equal so for GOA and the EU customers. GOA have long-standing bonds with the administrators of a number of fan driven communities. We greatly respect and trust these key community members in their ability to continue providing and maintaining great quality forums and other services.
<snip>

Will this mean that forums will (have to) start to weed out GOA critical posts and only "positive" posts must be made?

[Jupitus]

Originally Posted by Xandax

Will this mean that forums will (have to) start to weed out GOA critical posts and only "positive" posts must be made?

I'll collect that one, if I may.

Speaking on behalf of FH, I can state that on no occasion have GOA staff asked us to vet or remove any posts. The GOA staff do have moderation rights in this forum, so could apply them if they chose to, but FH themselves have chosen to adopt a stricter regime in this forum than may previously have been the case for the DAOC areas. This is done in an effort to maintain a higher quality of posting and environment for the benefit of all the users.

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by Jupitus

I'll collect that one, if I may.

Speaking on behalf of FH, I can state that on no occasion have GOA staff asked us to vet or remove any posts. The GOA staff do have moderation rights in this forum, so could apply them if they chose to, but FH themselves have chosen to adopt a stricter regime in this forum than may previously have been the case for the DAOC areas. This is done in an effort to maintain a higher quality of posting and environment for the benefit of all the users.

While it might not belong in the thread, seeing as it has been commented/raise, then - I for one have been "moderated" by GOA folk for being "too critical" or "non-constructive" (when judged by the ones I critiqued).
And that make me wonder whether compromises are being made to keep "high profile" prestigious posters here (looks good to have such people posting on a forum). But I find it worrying that official people can control what happens on un-official forums. If they wanted to do that - they could have made official forums IMO.

As for "higher quality of posting" - well, if striking down on dissents, then it might be perceived as a higher quality, but that perception can be very misleading.
Now I know that FH is a privately owned board and can set its rules as it will, and I'll do my best to follow them while I am permitted to post here by FH owners - however I do start to question whether we're allowed to point out GOAs flaws given the above statements, and combined with the fact that GOA also can moderate.

Given the current situation of the pre-launch situations and information level - I can't hold GOA in any high regard by any standard for a professional company - and thus I can only question such an arrangement given the aforementioned reasons.