GOA Official Statement (Non GOA Staff)

[machiavelli-npv]

This is an Official GOA Statement, I am however not I member of GOA staff (just thought I'd make that clear).

Issue :

Whether only 2 RvR servers in English language is a services of the like quality as for French and German speakers who have access to all 3 RvR experiences (without having to delete characters).

GOA Official Response :

Discussion Thread
Response (CS) 12/19/2003 04:25 PM
Greetings,

I would like to remind you that English Customers have three english servers available, including one allowing to enjoy and explore all realms in the game. While Prydwen and Camlann are English servers using the "normal ruleset" of Dark Age of Camelot, Camlann is also an English server and is using a "PvP ruleset".

Yours sincerely,
---------------------------------------------
European Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support



DISCUSS.

 

[Yussef]

Not enough English speaking players to spread them over 4 servers, 3 being RvR servers, it would need more advertising to boost the player population to be considered.

 

[machiavelli-npv]

Issue :

Whether only 2 RvR servers in English language is a services of the like quality as for French and German speakers who have access to all 3 RvR experiences (without having to delete characters).



Can we try and keep the discussion to whether it is "LIKE QUALITY" please, this is not another discussion about server pops and whether you think it's a good idea.

 

[frogster]

As much as i would like to see a 3rd English language server using the "normal" ruleset i cant honestly see it happening.
The fact is there are more French and German players playing the game than there are English speaking players and therefore they produce the most revenue. Ultimately, servers and bandwidth cost money, and without enough revenue from the English language playerbase they are not going to to stump up for a new server.
-On a side note- When was the last time you saw a copy of the game in a highstreet retailer? Not one shop out of the 10+ i went to in York and Darlington had a copy.

Basically, we aint getting a new server till we get more players, and with problems getting hold of the game, we aint likely to get those..

EDIT - The service GOA offer is to provide you with a server to play DAoC on. Looking at it like that, we have precisely the like quality of service the French and Germans have.

 

[-Nxs-]

Since when was Camlan an english server ?? ok so the game text is all english but you have go far and wide to find someone that talks a language you can understand

 

[-yoda-]

virtually everytime i check the server figures when i login prydwyn has a higher amount of people online than 2 of each german servers and french.

imo Goa are just biased towards english servers how could the possibly say no to a new server cos we have PVP server,. they are two TOTTALY different servers ... if there wasnt any grief killing on there im sure there would be MANY playing it,,, but its all the exp killers etc etc that keep people away.,

but there again the crap service that goa are giving the whole community i think it best that they DONT start another server . cos its just one more thing for them to fuck up and make a mess off

 

[tildson]

Crappiest excuse ive ever heard, get a fucking grip GOA

 

[machiavelli-npv]

Would be useful if you could give some feedback on the following questions in your posts too:

1) Have you (English speaking customer) ever had to delete a character to be able to play another realm RvR? Yes/No

2) If yes, what was that character’s level (approx) and an indication of real life hours lost as a result i.e. how much /play on the character(s).

Thanks

Machi

 

[Tesla Monkor]

Well, to be honest, with the amount of English players we have right now I don't want a 3rd server. Yes, it sucks that you can't play all realms.

Too bad.

But killing off the first two by adding a third (the first two are already underpopulated to begin with), is not a good idea. If, by some miracle, Excal and Pryd ever get full, I'll welcome a third one as much as anyone else.

 

[ssera]

When Excalibur is marked as [FULL] on the server list, then we may get a 3rd server. In order to do this, people in the UK need to know that this game exists. Anyone here happen to work for an advertising company or a pc gamer magazine? Could be useful... maybe try and contact goa and sort out some advertising plan... I don't think they'd say no as it means more customers and more money for them....?

 

[Driwen]

Originally posted by -yoda-
virtually everytime i check the server figures when i login prydwyn has a higher amount of people online than 2 of each german servers and french.

there arent enough people to make a 3rd RvR English server fun? Or do you want a server like Carnac, where there are only 580 people on? Also atm english have 1460 people on average per server atm, germans 1800 and french 1500. To get a 3rd server it the english average numbers have to be so high that with if there was a 3rd server we would have reasonable numbers. Atm english servers average is usually lower than both french and germans.
Having a 3rd server will make some people happy, but after 2 months the people who are on that server will most likely complain that there are to few people on it.

 

[[Oo]Escape]

Don't forget... english servers are not used by UK residents only.

French servers > France
German servers > Germany
English servers > the rest of Europe... and then some!


This says alot about the French and German gaming culture...
UK is pretty far behind the rest of western europe. On Prydwen I'd guess there're more swedish players, than english... specially in Midgard.

If you want to raise the 'English' servers population, don't target the UK alone, but the rest of europe/scandanavia who share them.

 

[Shike]

hmm what I find a bit odd is , why is it only the UKservers goin bad?

Are most englishspeakers in US?

 

[Twaize]

Originally posted by Shike
hmm what I find a bit odd is , why is it only the UKservers goin bad?

Are most englishspeakers in US?

Yeah since more then 200.000.000 people live in USA and speak a kind of english

 

[ning]

Originally posted by Shike
hmm what I find a bit odd is , why is it only the UKservers goin bad?

Are most englishspeakers in US?

There are also french and german players on US servers (players who don't want to wait for patches). (check in camelothearld, you'll find guilds or chars with german or french names)

 

[ning]

Originally posted by Twaize
Yeah since more then 200.000.000 people live in USA and speak a kind of english

Hum they are 300.000.000 now + Canada (- french speaking Canada who play on french servers ) + Austalia + NZ + ... the rest of the world execept europe

 

[ning]

Originally posted by [Oo]Escape
Don't forget... english servers are not used by UK residents only.

French servers > France
German servers > Germany
English servers > the rest of Europe... and then some!

French servers > France, Belgium (only southern part), Switzerland, Canada (Quebec (there are more or less the same population in Quebec than in Sweden or Finland and they have 100Mbits connection there too)), North Africa
German servers > Germany, Austria (German is the most spoken language in Europe)
Italian servers (not GOA) > Italy, Switzerland

English servers > UK, Irland, Scandinavia, Spain (I've never seen ppl from Spain in DAOC though)

 

[ning]

Originally posted by Driwen
there arent enough people to make a 3rd RvR English server fun? Or do you want a server like Carnac, where there are only 580 people on?

According to the official web-site there are 800 people at prime time of Carnac. Without Carnac, 2 other french servers (Brocéliande and YS) would be full at prime time (3500 players) because Brocéliande reaches 3400 players and YS 3200 players at the same time. Brocéliande and YS were full just after SI release and Foundation release. When Orcanie was launched in April 2002 there were only 500 players at peak time for 8 months. Now there are 2000 players at peak time.

 

[vesania]

I would say that a significant proportion of English speakers would find Camlann not to be viable as a playing option, for the same reason that I do. I simply don't enjoy the playstyle of being ganked to hell and back the minute I try to log in just to train...and end up unable to earn enough money to buy back lost constitution before being ganked AGAIN...never mind useful equipment. Some people love Camlann and good luck to them, but it isn't for everyone.

It is therefore not equitable in terms of service for English speakers to be forced either to adopt a playstyle that they may have serious issues with or to have access to two realms only.

The problem with the lower numbers is and always has been lack of appropriate marketing in the target countries (UK, Scandinavia and Holland principally). It isn't the fault of the companies in those countries who fail to stock the game - they have a business to run and are not going to muck about with giving shelf space to a game which nobody knows about or asks for. The take-up by opportunist buyers of MMORPGS is not as high as that of FPS games, for example. Marketing is what has to happen, so that the niche market becomes aware of the product's existence.

If only GOA would acknowledge this and provide some information on the steps that they are going to take to resolve the marketing issue, I'd be a lot happier about Euro-DAoC's playable lifespan.

 

[Grayon]

Originally posted by ning
(I've never seen ppl from Spain in DAOC though)

Are you kidding me?

Excal has shedloads of Spaniards on it, all I ever see is "nas nas nas nas!"

 

[NetNifty]

imo the main reasons for the english servers being underpopulated compared to others are:

- USA servers get better support, newer stuff faster etc and is in English anyway.

- Low amounts of advertising in the UK - only publicity ive seen was EU DAoC beta on DVD of PC Gamer in December 2001 (which got me interested) and the free trail a few months ago on PC zone magazine. Also from the free trial they didn't open the server in time, told people who signed up for an account that they'd email them when it was up and then didn't even do that :/ No wonder there was at most 20 people on Lothian that I saw.

- Nowhere to buy it - even the buy link on camelot-europe.com is out of stock most of the time and Game havent had stock for months, and no high street stores stock it afaik.

Until GOA sort these issues we aren't getting 3rd normal english server anytime soon.

 

[cHodAX]

Originally posted by machiavelli-npv
Would be useful if you could give some feedback on the following questions in your posts too:

1) Have you (English speaking customer) ever had to delete a character to be able to play another realm RvR? Yes/No

2) If yes, what was that character’s level (approx) and an indication of real life hours lost as a result i.e. how much /play on the character(s).

Thanks

Machi

1) Yes

2) level 42 chanter - no idea on hours

Quite a few people I know from Prydwen have played on Excal and deleted chars on Hib/Mid just to try the other realm.

 

[SilverHood]

Originally posted by Grayon
Are you kidding me?

Excal has shedloads of Spaniards on it, all I ever see is "nas nas nas nas!"

Anyone with a cabeleros in their guild name are spanish (usually)

met some top class spaniards, but the "jejejeje xD xD nas nas nas" does get a bit painful after a while

 

[allnewdave]

Its a conspiracy, always has been and here is why.

GOA charge £8 a month.

2 (3?) servers worth of english speaking people are paying for the US english game to be translated into french and german and waiting several months for the privilage.

If they ported the game over from the US there would be 5 US english servers and 2 or 3 french and german servers each.

This is simply because people want to play the same game as the americans at the same time. Having a game, tested by hundreds, reported on, tested by thousands, then reported, catagorised and published on the web in full intricate detail leaves NO FUN in exploring a new game or new components.

But why do GOA do this?, you ask.

GOA charge £8 a month.

Incidentally, I firmly believe its up to Mythic to sort this out, coz GOA are simply useless.

 

[Danya]

Originally posted by cHodAX
1) Yes

2) level 42 chanter - no idea on hours

Quite a few people I know from Prydwen have played on Excal and deleted chars on Hib/Mid just to try the other realm.

1. Yes
2. 43 minstrel, 23 days; 31 eldritch, dunno /played (over 10 days iirc), a few other alts.

 

[old.Kerosene]

Originally posted by machiavelli-npv
While Prydwen and Camlann are English servers using the "normal ruleset" of Dark Age of Camelot, Camlann is also an English server and is using a "PvP ruleset".

Blah...

Typo by GOA or typo by the troll?

 

[hangianix]

Originally posted by ning
English servers > UK, Irland, Scandinavia, Spain (I've never seen ppl from Spain in DAOC though)

+ CE/EE ppl like Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Russian etc

 

[Twaize]

Originally posted by ning
English servers > UK, Irland, Scandinavia, Spain (I've never seen ppl from Spain in DAOC though)

+ CE/EE ppl like Polish, Romanian, Hungarian, Russian etc

Finland as well and Lithuania and the 2 other o****ry's over there (have meet some fom there)

 

[Driwen]

Originally posted by Twaize
Finland as well and Lithuania and the 2 other o****ry's over there (have meet some fom there)

finland is scandinavia
anyway there is also netherlands and belgium.

I guess the step for people who want to play on an english server to go to mythic isn't so big compared to people on the french/german servers. Besides that the UK might be a different reacting market. As you apparently have to advertise your game well in the UK and maybe you dont have to in Germany and France? Besides UK having less people who want to play a mmorpg.

 

[vesania]

Originally posted by Driwen
Besides that the UK might be a different reacting market. As you apparently have to advertise your game well in the UK and maybe you dont have to in Germany and France? Besides UK having less people who want to play a mmorpg.

You would think, though, that any self-respecting company would do some homework concerning the markets in their projected target areas in advance of actual product release, if only from the viewpoint of anticipated sales volume and break even analysis. You would also think that, having gone to the trouble to provide any servers in a language at all, that they would be interested in promoting those servers. You would also think that they would make the game available to buy, even if only in one place centrally.

It's a catch-22 situation now though. Unless they introduce more marketing, any additional stocks of the game might not sell sufficiently well to justify the expense of their provision. Unless they increase stocks of the game, any resources apportioned to marketing will ultimately be a waste of time.