Bliz EU skimping on the servers?

[Fana]

"Server languages
Ryann 30/12/2004
Starting with the European Final Beta Test in early January 2005, all European servers will be assigned a preferred language. English, French and German will each be the preferred language on at least two PvP and two PvE servers at the beginning of Final Beta. Additional servers will be added throughout the Final Beta period to accommodate the increasing number of players. The type and language of added servers will be based on the demand we see from server populations.

While you are able to use any language client on any server, we strongly encourage you to use a client of the server's preferred language. When playing on a European server all public chat and contact with customer service is required to be in the server's preferred language".

So, probably 4 english servers at the start since we are likely the smallest playerbase in EU (as in daoc). Am i the only one thinking the FB will be completely unplayable for the english speaking community the first few days since there have been over 330k betakey preorders? As they say, they will add more servers as the FB progresses, but something in this message just gives me a bad feeling :/ It kinda sets the tone for Bliz EU, i.e. im afraid they will try to get away with as little as possible.
Ah well, i hope im wrong

[k9awya]

who cares what they do in the beta? as long as they get it working fine for the release

and i'm sure the 330k were mostly german and french anyway

[SilverHood]

I expect it will be like DAOC beta, waiting for ages to get a spot because someone disconected or went link dead.

For the french servers, you'll just have french players.
For the german servers, you'll have germans and austrians.
For the English servers, you'll have UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and everyone else in europe who doesn't speak french or german.

I think the English servers will be just as busy, if not more busy, than the French and German ones.

But yeah, 12 servers for final beta.... that's gonna cause some overcrowding problems.

[Driwen]

Originally Posted by SilverHood

I expect it will be like DAOC beta, waiting for ages to get a spot because someone disconected or went link dead.

For the french servers, you'll just have french players.
For the german servers, you'll have germans and austrians.
For the English servers, you'll have UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and everyone else in europe who doesn't speak french or german.

I think the English servers will be just as busy, if not more busy, than the French and German ones.

But yeah, 12 servers for final beta.... that's gonna cause some overcrowding problems.

thing is there wont be many dutch and belgians as there was no beta key thing for those countries and probably for other countries you named aswell. And that Blizzard should know which countries they gave the keys to (and so mostly know how many people will go to each server).

[Ning]

Originally Posted by SilverHood

For the french servers, you'll just have french players.

+ 45% of Belgium, + Luxembourg + Quebec (same population as one of the scandinavian country alone) + 30% of Switzerland + some people from latin countries (Spain, Italy and especially Portugual if it's like on the french DAOC servers)

For the german servers, you'll have germans and austrians.

+ 60% of Switzerland + some people from eastern Europe (like on the german DAOC servers)

For the English servers, you'll have UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and everyone else in europe who doesn't speak french or german.

Denmark + Sweden + Norway + Finland + Holland + half of Belgium = long list of countries but not many people...
Latin countries don't play much MMORPG (they have got a good weather ), don't speak very well foreign languages (Spain and Italy are large countries where everything is dubbed just like in Germany or France) and some people (not all) from these countries play on the french servers because it's easiest for them (languages are close).

I think the English servers will be just as busy, if not more busy, than the French and German ones.

I think it will be like DAOC servers with a strong majority of German players ( hardcore gamers).

[Escape]

Kinda off-topic, but I guess the translations in WoW are done on the client side only... where as DAoC is translated on the server?

Makes more sense this way, specially if all NPC text is already on the client PC. So far as I can tell, DAoC takes takes it from the server, everytime you interact with an NPC.


With over 80 servers for the US, I'd expect a similar number for EU. There will probably be around 30 servers by the end of testing, most likely Blizzard want to start with 12 to overload the servers and crash them. Gradually tweaking and opening more as they go.

[Fana]

Yes, but if i remember correct there was over 30 servers in US open beta from day 1. Just afraid that when they open only 12 here (if that is indeed the number, im guessing more like 16 or so since germans and french will likely get more than 2rvr/2pvp) on day 1 they kinda set the standard for how much resources they are prepared to spend on the EU. Half the starting servers of US seems kinda low even when taking into account they want to crash them (as they surely do).

[SilverHood]

Originally Posted by Ning

Denmark + Sweden + Norway + Finland + Holland + half of Belgium = long list of countries but not many people...

I think it will be like DAOC servers with a strong majority of German players ( hardcore gamers).

Not many people, but a lot of gamers for their respective population, and whereas DAOC wasn't "big", I expect WoW to be.... Scandinavia will probably be able to fill up a server of their own if they got it.

Also, DAOC in the UK is small... most people have not even heard of it... there was never any real marketing done, there was no hype. I'm seeing adverts for the game (WoW) all over the place, it's getting 90%+ in most magazines (94% in PC Gamer, I think), and generally being regarded as "the next big thing".

Escape, from what I gather, everything is done client side... so if you have a french client, and log on to an English language server, everything you see will be in French. (unlike DAoC, which is part client, part server)

[Nightchill]

Not sure about the client/server side issue though makes sense.

A little tidbit, a major reason WoW is so easy to translate (compared to DAoC) is that it's not using articles. Whereas in DAoC they have to be specified for each item (or the game crashes) in WoW they don't so... they're being left out

Example:
English: You hit the zombie with your sword for 30 damage.
goes to -->
French: You hit zombie with sword for 30 damage.

[Nirawen]

Originally Posted by Driwen

thing is there wont be many dutch and belgians as there was no beta key thing for those countries and probably for other countries you named aswell. And that Blizzard should know which countries they gave the keys to (and so mostly know how many people will go to each server).

but but but, Lots of them ordered pre-order kits from European based online stores ( As in not just UK, French or German stores ), and, oh noes, eBay

[Whisperess]

So they start with 4, and increase as the populace requires it, with the servers that need it the most; instead of putting up servers through guessing and ending up with a few barren ones.

Oh no.

['Shy]

Originally Posted by Driwen

thing is there wont be many dutch and belgians as there was no beta key thing for those countries ...

Unless you have a nice friend in England who buys you a key and posts it to you