Edited and Agree Jimmi

[Castus]

The angry games journalist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello GoA!

I hope you're F****** happy.

Me and some mates were doing ML5 grp steps, got red lagspikes every 1-2 mins, resulting in the wipe of the grp FIVE (5) times. What the fuck is up with you and your lack of service? Why the Tilda don't you inform your customers properly? How the Fruitcake can you demand money for this PIECE OF Poo OF A GAME?

I have never been this mad about a game before. Tbh I think I am really really wasting my time and my life of this laggy piece of crap.

I write for the biggest gaming magazine in Scandinavia. I have reviewed hundreds of games - countless MMORPG's, attended hundreds of press conferences all around the globe. Let me tell you one thing: In all the years I have been in the gaming buisness, I have NEVER, and this cannot be stressed enough, NEVER experienced anything like this before. Ever since you released your crappy "expansion" New Frontiers, the servers have been virtually unplayable. You promise and promise and nothing happens.

Being a journalist, I am supposed to be objective and observe. Not involve myself in something this way. But in this case, I will make an exception. Our magazine is read by hundreds of thousands of scandinavians every month, and I am sure they would wrinkle a brow when they read about Dark Age of Lagalot. I bet they won't be buying it. Funny.

I was thinking about having a word with my editor in chief regarding a brief article on good and bad online games. And guess where I would place DAoC-- and why.

I would never recommend anyone to even remotely touch this game. Sure I'm gonna keep playing DAoC. I'm addicted. But the day WoW is released, guess where 99,9% of the european DAoC subscribers will be going?

Dunno where I'm getting with this. But I demand a answer from a GM. This is not a threat, just a note to you TO GET YOURSELVES TOGETHER AND DELIVER A BETTER SERVICE.

Nicolas Elmøe
Gamereactor.net



Let the world know Jimmi! Power to the People!

 

[Dukat]

power to the people!

 

[Jimmi]

/blush

 

[Adoctor]

i was wondering how long it would take before a games magazine got wind of the shit lag and wrote something about it.

 

[Jimmi]

Funny tho how the lag suddenly disappeared a few mins after my post

 

[[SS]Gamblor]

Funny tho how the lag suddenly disappeared a few mins after my post

Hax0r imo ;P


just on this issue of lagg. I playing on Orc ( french server) last night for 3 hours .. in those 3 hours i got the lag spike twice ... that was it .. also there was at least 1 dev on as well ....

 

[fruitcake]

Sorry to say i have now set both my accounts to not auto renew,one runs out on the first of march the other on the sixth.
Tried again to play today and had 2 LD on trying to log in the second account,not unhead of and not that big a deal.But then big lag spikes in volcanus and 3 LD on both accounts at the same time.

I don't need that,it's not fun, it's not good gaming and it's piss poor service.I will check back now and again and hope the lag clears up,but if not there is no point going on with a subsciption.
I'm going to go and remember why i come home from work and play computer games,in short to relaxe and have fun.
Been playing some warcraft 3 and it's expansion pack to get me in the warcraft mood,some farcry,half-life 2,halo 2 and some gta san andreas.

And tbh really enjoying my time for a change.Don't get me wrong i still love camelot and have been having a great time in NF with my guildies and others,but the lag has killed it for me,i just spend my whole time feeling angry and ripped off

 

[Votan]

Word :worthy:

 

[WiZe^]

:worthy: Aiight! :worthy:

 

[Dorin]

priceless

 

[Brilliance]

/blush

My hero ! ! !

:wub:

 

[kohen]

Sure I'm gonna keep playing DAoC. I'm addicted.

Funny

 

[IainC]

You promise and promise and nothing happens.

Well let's see about that.
The initial problem was one in Opentransit's routing to our servers which affected all long distance customers (i.e. those outside the Parisian region). We acknowledged the problem and pressured OT to fix it. Eventually they did after much wrangling. As the problem was in another company's set up we couldn't fix it directly however we did all that was in our power to sort it out.

Then once NF went live there was an issue with server lag in certain zones. We did what we could to limit this by upgrading our network and our servers prior to 1.70 release. We also worked hard to get 1.71 live as soon as possible as ths patch contained a lot of code optimisatioms which ironed out these problems. As it happened we ran into technical issues which delayed the rollout however everything that we could do to get the patch ready faster was done.

Finally when 1.71 went live we suffered a hardware failure shortly afterwards. This was fixed as soon as possible and there will be more information about this today in the official news.

In every case we have done everything that we could to resolve the issues. We have promised and we have delivered to the best of our ability. Some things like the OT issue are out of our control and we must wait on other companies acting on our requests, others like the hardware failure are impossible to prevent or predict and we can only react after the fact to fix it - which we did.

I do understand how frustrating it is to play under heavy lag, however please bear three things in mind. Firstly we can only take responsibility for problems on our own machines. If the problem is outside our network, we'll try to resolve it but we are the mercy of whichever company is causing the problem. Mostly these companies are very, very large and for a relatively small company like us convincing them that a problem is urgent is not easy. Secondly, if there is a general problem then we will be working on it. We do take the quality of our service seriously and we do our absolute best to overcome problems of this nature. Finally there are a lot of very different sources for lag problems and isolating the cause is not easy without a lot of information. Without this information we are effectively in the dark and it will take us longer to resolve the problem as a result. Complaining doesn't help. Complaining and attaching pingplots, traceroutes and other relevant info does. Problems can occur at any point between your hard drive and our servers, without knowing where in the chain the problem is occurring we can't do anything to help - especially if our server monitors are reporting no problems.

 

[nakkiel]

We have promised and we have delivered to the best of our ability. .

nuff said. logged on for the first time in about a month and still 3 second lag.

shame wow is so shite. Any other decent games coming out soon?

 

[Kalid]

For all these months of waiting for reduced lag we get 2 (two) free days!

3 cheers for GOA!!!

Feels like a slap in the face tbh....

 

[IainC]

For all these months of waiting for reduced lag we get 2 (two) free days!

3 cheers for GOA!!!

Feels like a slap in the face tbh....

You suffered two days of lag as a direct result of a failure at our end. We are giving you two free days as compensation. Conditions on the internet and problems with other company's kit cannot be our responsibility. It's like asking Ford for a refund because the roads are poorly surfaced and your car isn't as comfortable.

nuff said. logged on for the first time in about a month and still 3 second lag.

You would appear to be the only one. Run a pingplot to see where it's coming from. I'd suggest it's either going to be your ISP or graphics lag from your machine.

 

[noaim]

For all these months of waiting for reduced lag we get 2 (two) free days!

3 cheers for GOA!!!

Feels like a slap in the face tbh....

Wtf do you want them to give then? A month?

 

[Firebirth]

Yes but Opentransit isnt just a "other company" now is it Requiel?

Who owns GOA Requiel, Who owns opentransit Requiel?

 

[Skaven]

nuff said. logged on for the first time in about a month and still 3 second lag.

shame wow is so shite. Any other decent games coming out soon?

Sort out your own crappy computer then, the lags gone my end.
2 days is more than I was expecting tbh. Feel sorry for what the gm's have had to put up with this last week in terms of abuse. Camelot aint the life and soul of my world, if it lags it lags - big deal. Go play something else while they fix it or get some fresh air.

 

[Shanaia]

[..]But the day WoW is released, guess where 99,9% of the european DAoC subscribers will be going? [..]

If you're such an established journalist you should know better then this. SWG etc was going to do the same.. pretty soon people realised it was just another mmo with the same kind of problems and the same kind of people whining about it.

If you played so many MMO's you should know they all have their connection problems from time to time.. .they all have their problems with support from time to time ... they all have their class inbalances .. .they all have their nerfs or boosts ... they all have their problems... and I can name a couple of games with support WAY WAY worse then DAOC ... EQ anyone? I played many mmo's I reviewed 100's of games as well ... and I simply know better then to see things as black and white as you.

Sorry but I'm not impressed by your journalistic skills ... no matter how many games your reviewed you still let your emotion get the best of you there... not the kinda quality I want to see in the person I'm gonna base my decision to buy or not buy a game on.

 

[Jimmi]

Hello Shanaia,

I'm not gonna sit here and defend myself against someone who claims to be in the buisness. Atleast state who you write for, and for how long you have been doing so. Besides, my english sucks, so its gonna be kinda hard.

Now about me being carried away. I am a human being just like anyone else. I pay for some of my accounts just like anyone else (yes, my main acc. is a press account and free). I am not professionally obliged to KISS ass on developers or publishers. I say whatever the f*** I want to say.

Nuff said.

GOA fixed the lag for now, but that still doesn't mean it'll be gone forever. We'll just have to see now, won't we? I'm happy for now.

 

[Skaven]

How do GOA justify keeping a press account free for longer than a certain period of time?

 

[Shanaia]

I don't feel any need to proof to you what I said .. you can chose to believe it or not. Thing is you used your 'position' to put weight behind your statements .. and then made a couple of statements I expect to be made by people that know less then you claim to know.

99.9% of the people leaving when wow comes yes right ... still makes me giggle.

But hey I wasn't out to get into a shit flinging contest .. I'm sure you pwn as a journalist etc. I just wanted to make clear that your claim to be a journalist and the tone and content of the message you put up there seemed to contradict each other that's all.

 

[Tinu]

SWG etc was going to do the same.. pretty soon people realised it was just another mmo with the same kind of problems and the same kind of people whining about it.

Problem now is tho atleast for me that mythic fucked up daoc. What I did a little bit after toa was leaving a sinking boat. And afaik nf just made daoc worse.

 

[Lorra]

How do GOA justify keeping a press account free for longer than a certain period of time?

His company might pay for it, not goa or they have a deal with say x number of mentions in a mag per month or something...

 

[Cyviel]

I don't feel any need to proof to you what I said .. you can chose to believe it or not. Thing is you used your 'position' to put weight behind your statements .. and then made a couple of statements I expect to be made by people that know less then you claim to know.

99.9% of the people leaving when wow comes yes right ... still makes me giggle.

But hey I wasn't out to get into a shit flinging contest .. I'm sure you pwn as a journalist etc. I just wanted to make clear that your claim to be a journalist and the tone and content of the message you put up there seemed to contradict each other that's all.

if he worked for a decent publication like PC Gamer or PC Format his arguments might hold sway with GOA, but tbh he works for a part-time rag/online .dk website.. which tbh probably has about as much influence as me farting at a rugby game and hoping the ball veers ofcourse when kicked.

His writing clearly shows he's not seasoned in the art of journalism, since the watchword in such situations is regardless of what you think "Tact" is your saviour... writing such drivel as he does about GOA in any magazine that actually gets put into print would probably end in getting him and his rag sued.

The day a Decent magazine comes out and says what he claims.. ill eat my underpants.

Now about me being carried away. I am a human being just like anyone else. I pay for some of my accounts just like anyone else (yes, my main acc. is a press account and free). I am not professionally obliged to KISS ass on developers or publishers. I say whatever the f*** I want to say.

and that is why no serious games magazine will EVER employ you.. my friend who knows one of the PC Gamer reviewers says he bites his tongue more often than not when dealing with poo games, you how-ever seems incapable of doing that and your "ill say whatever the fuck i want attitude" made him laugh quite heartily.

 

[Eemma]

He did say his English sux tho


and I like journalis that write what he wants
makes me believe more in what he is writing...

 

[Bracken]

and I like journalis that write what he wants
makes me believe more in what he is writing...

Problem is though when what he writes is factually inaccurate, lacks objective analysis and just uses emotive cliches then it is no different from any random rant that you read on any gaming board. A rant that is written by a "journalist" is still just a rant - and lacks any credibility.

 

[Wabbit]

Well let's see about that.
Firstly we can only take responsibility for problems on our own machines. If the problem is outside our network, we'll try to resolve it but we are the mercy of whichever company is causing the problem. Mostly these companies are very, very large and for a relatively small company like us convincing them that a problem is urgent is not easy.

You forget one thing. Normal companies, small, medium or big, that act in this part of the market use SLA's (Service Level Agreements) to make sure the other party does what they pay for. In a SLA for a game like Daoc there would be things like "time it takes to fix things" "performance" and "time it takes to find out and communicate whats wrong" According to your story you bring a big bag of money to OT and then just hope they do something nice with it. 1 I cant believe that and 2. if you guys really managed to get screwed by a company with the same owner then it might be time to stop doing business at all. Using SLA's gives you enough material to demand good service and go to court if they dont give you service over a long (i.e. months like with Daoc) period of time....

And even besides all the SLA-stuff. You "produce" a service, if you cant live up to normal standards (whatever the reason may be, i.e. I dont care if the janitor made a hot carl on the power supply of your server room) you are the one responsible....you are the one that make deals with other companies....if you fail to give normal service you should make up for that to your customers...and not by giving 1 or 2 free days, but by giving something close to a month...

 

[Jardar]

Well let's see about that.
The initial problem was one in Opentransit's routing to our servers which affected all long distance customers (i.e. those outside the Parisian region). We acknowledged the problem and pressured OT to fix it. Eventually they did after much wrangling. As the problem was in another company's set up we couldn't fix it directly however we did all that was in our power to sort it out.

Then once NF went live there was an issue with server lag in certain zones. We did what we could to limit this by upgrading our network and our servers prior to 1.70 release. We also worked hard to get 1.71 live as soon as possible as ths patch contained a lot of code optimisatioms which ironed out these problems. As it happened we ran into technical issues which delayed the rollout however everything that we could do to get the patch ready faster was done.

Finally when 1.71 went live we suffered a hardware failure shortly afterwards. This was fixed as soon as possible and there will be more information about this today in the official news.

In every case we have done everything that we could to resolve the issues. We have promised and we have delivered to the best of our ability. Some things like the OT issue are out of our control and we must wait on other companies acting on our requests, others like the hardware failure are impossible to prevent or predict and we can only react after the fact to fix it - which we did.

I do understand how frustrating it is to play under heavy lag, however please bear three things in mind. Firstly we can only take responsibility for problems on our own machines. If the problem is outside our network, we'll try to resolve it but we are the mercy of whichever company is causing the problem. Mostly these companies are very, very large and for a relatively small company like us convincing them that a problem is urgent is not easy. Secondly, if there is a general problem then we will be working on it. We do take the quality of our service seriously and we do our absolute best to overcome problems of this nature. Finally there are a lot of very different sources for lag problems and isolating the cause is not easy without a lot of information. Without this information we are effectively in the dark and it will take us longer to resolve the problem as a result. Complaining doesn't help. Complaining and attaching pingplots, traceroutes and other relevant info does. Problems can occur at any point between your hard drive and our servers, without knowing where in the chain the problem is occurring we can't do anything to help - especially if our server monitors are reporting no problems.

I agree on most of the stuff you said Requiel.
But lets just use an example:

I work for, oh lets just pick a random company, lets say DELL.
Someone orders a computer from me, they pay for it, i deliver it. But it turns out that the graphic card is not functioning, i would have two options:

1, Troubleshoot it, and replace it.
2, Tell the customer Nvidia/ATI made the card, and that they should call them or send them logs about the card not working as intended.

It's the same thing really, we pay you to deliver us a game so we can play it ONLINE, we dont pay you so you can make excuses that your ISP is bad or that our computers/connections are shitty and for us to send you logs so you can take 3-6 weeks to reply to them (You buy time to solve the real issue).

Anyhow, something has to be done, even i, who dont play that much is getting really annoyed. I play Camlann (The PvP Server), and its allready frustrating with French peopling logging their mains and chaining you, i dont need the lagg on top of that.