GOA providing the worst service

[Oddorvard]

I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with GOA's poor service. For us English speaking folks who can get the exact same (or better) service elsewhere for less money it's absolutely baffling that they are not trying to improve their service. Below are my biggest gripes, in no particular order:

Server upgrades
The most recent relic raid on Hibernia on Excalibur ended with a magnificent zone crash, probably due to a mix of software and hardware not being able to handle the load. The software is, of course, not GOA's responsibility but the hardware is. In my opinion upgrades are overdue. GOA have in fact admitted that Excalibur will be the next server to be upgraded, but they have given no definite date.

Website
The Camelot-Europe website is awful. It's almost entirely Flash based which makes it slow, harder to update and not everybody has Flash installed. The billing system is terrible as well and does not even work in Mozilla due to a faulty Javascript. We probably heard of or experienced what happened when SI came out and some people had to wait for days before they could activate SI on their account. Being a website programmer myself I can tell you that the SI fiasco could have easily been avoided. Meanwhile, the Italian and Korean counterparts have quite lovely websites.

Billing system
Aside from web-related problems, the billing system is still a terrible one. The interface is confusing and the back end itself seems very unreliable as we have seen days of downtime while the system was being "updated". During this time, closed accounts could not be re-opened while one would have thought that the smart thing to do was not closing accounts while subscribers could not renew. This has more than once led to a great deal of frustration and anger among subscribers. Finally, the billing system does not warn users when their subscription is about to run out. Instead it closes the accounts and then sends a rather hostile sounding email stating that the accounts have been closed due to a lack of payment (instead of simply explaining that the subscription is about to run out).

Herald
The purpose of the Herald is to display information and statistics about characters. GOA's Herald has been down since March 12th. GOA has stated that this is Mythic's fault and will not be fixed until the next patch arrives. However, it seems that our Italian and Korean brethren have managed to keep their Heralds and XML files working just fine even though they should be getting almost identical patches from Mythic. The Italian and Korean heralds are also very user friendly and resemble the Mythic look while GOA chose to come up with their own Herald look which is, as mentioned above, Flash based and non-user friendly.

Patches
For some reason which I do not understand GOA's servers are usually patched with merged patches, that is two or more patches are merged into one before they are applied. The French and German versions of the patches must be translated and while the translation takes place the English servers are not patched. The translation process delays the application of the patches for a period of time. However, merging the patches further increases that delay and the final result is that patches arrive on GOA's servers quite a bit later than on the Italian or Korean servers (one and two weeks later respectively for the 1.60 patch). The Korean servers are patched with individual patches so I suspect that the merging of the patches is a decision made by GOA. Patches usually bring exciting changes and features and should be applied as soon as possible. Therefore I think GOA's patch policy as a bad one.

It is my opinion that the above demonstrates that not only does GOA provide a poor service but it also provides the worst service of the three non-Mythic DAoC providers.

I did not mention support, pricing or events as I have not been able to familiarize myself with how those things are on the Italian and Korean servers.

 

[old.Elrond]

To be honest I think GOA are ok...In fact I would go so far as to say they would probably be better at running the game/making new patches than Mythic based on the recent idiocy and apparant lack of ever listening to the community from the Mythic camp.

Most of the problems GOA has are Mythics fault in my opinion.

 

[Cala-more]

Goa are not at all fault, their slowness is partly due to Mythic. Goa can only go as fast as Mythic allow them to.

But the rp ranking thing is very annoying I must admit

 

[Vell]

Originally posted by old.Elrond


Most of the problems GOA has are Mythics fault in my opinion.

I used to think this too, until I actually thought about it deeply.

You see, all the things that GOA is blaming Mythic for (incorrect translation tools leading to slow patching, incorrect xml files) seem to have been completely avoided by the Korean and Italian companies.

I don't understand how Mythic can be providing GOA with faulty coding, whilst providing the Italians and Koreans with the correct files. It just doesn't make sense.

Can anyone explain?

 

[Vorcyn]

99% of that post was pure whine and although some (if not all) of it may be true, if you actually included something constructive and explained how they might improve their (iyo) dreadful service and sent it to GOA via rightnow or pm to Kemor / Zargar etc you might see something change.

But posting it here is just asking for every little whine and flame that everyone has about GOA to be posted again and again and again. It gets boring after a while, honest.

Tbh, if the service is that poor, why are you still paying for it?
Other than moving to the US servers, which i doubt you want to do because of friends / guild mates here, you dont have many options.

Either form a letter / post / whatever with some of the comments above and include how you think GOA can improve, or well, stop moaning.

 

[tris-]

1. shit happens, its not GOA's fault when Mythics code fails. find a retail program that is 100% reliable and i will buy GOA a server my self

2. the website is fast for me, its not GOA's fault that its slow on your computer if its fine on other peoples.

3. there is nothing wrong with the billing system. i bought SI on the day it came out here and i registerd in 5 minutes. it also gives you a clear invoice, sends you emails etc

4. why do you care so much about comparing your char to someone elses?

5. if GOA start patching English servers before German and French then people are going to be shouting all kinds of things at them. just because we speak a different language, it doesnt mean we should get something first. plus GOA has to test the patches them selves, its probably easier that they are all the right languages before they are tested and servers patched.

:sleeping:

 

[Oddorvard]

You have a good point there Vorcyn, I did not explain how they could improve their service in so many words. I believe however that it is, for the most part, self-explanatory.

As you and others have suggested I will send this post to GOA via RightNow and see if I get a response. If I will, I'll post it here as well.

As for asking for whines, yes - in part I am inviting whines on purpose. I imagine a lot of people feel the same way I do. I do, however, also, think that a lot of people do not realize that we are getting worse service than our Italian and Korean brethern.

I'm fully aware that GOA could in fact provide a much worse service or no service at all for that matter. I will keep using the services they provide because, although worse than their Italian and Koren counterparts, GOA aren't all bad and I still enjoy the game.

Finally, I do not consider this a whine or a moan. I'm trying to demonstrate that GOA are performing worse than the US, Italian and Korean providers in some areas and I have stated a few comparisons to support my claim.

 

[tris-]

do mythic, italian/korian DAOC supply a service for 3 different languages? exactly, so who do you think is going to have more strain and pressure at getting something done?

 

[Apathy]

The "three language translation" thing would be valid if GOA only employs one person/team to do the translations systematically, rather than concurrently.

And if they DO translate the patches to language 1, THEN 2, THEN 3 instead of doing all three at the same time...then we really should start to wonder where all the extra subs money is going. And don't say hardware because I seriously doubt they are spending tens of thousands of pounds on hardware.

a.
*

 

[tris-]

i already posted an official responce ages ago to why the subs were increased.

 

[tris-]

found it

Discussion Thread
Response (CS) 04/11/2003 12:01 PM
Hello,
You have contacted us to have more precisions on the reasons behind the incoming raise of Dark Age of Camelot subscription tariffs.
As you certainly know, a MMORPG such as Dark Age of Camelot has high running costs.
During the year 2003, and more particularly at the beginning of 2003, we have made new investments to better the quality of our services: opening of new servers, replacement of the most frequented ones by last generation servers, or also reinforcement of our team (customer support, animation, localisation…) in order to better come up to your expectations.
Besides, Dark Age of Camelot is an evolving game that still has some nice surprises in store for you. We have thus decided to go through a revaluation of the subscription tariffs, bringing them closer to the market’s prices while remaining the cheapest second generation MMORPG available.
This is why we have decided to revaluate our subscription prices from the 5th of May.

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

 

[old.Hardbein]

Mythic (USA)
GOA (France)

War in Iraq..... (no comment)

The french going fiercely against the coallisions invasion of Iraq.
The Yanks publicaly showed their "we hate france" -attitude coz of their ^^ standing against the war.

I am not saying this is IS the reason....but i wont doubt this is not making the cooperation between Mythic and GOA any better.
U might say that this is a pure professional cooperation between Mythic and GOA, but in the end of the day were all human and we tend to be presumptious.

Just my theory along with the others.....

 

[kallora]

Out of interest, what are the subs for the UK servers?

 

[old.Hardbein]

Originally posted by kallora
Out of interest, what are the subs for the UK servers?

1 month:
8£
12€

3 months:
23£
32€

6 months:
41£
60€

1 year:
75£
110€

 

[tris-]

£8 for 1 month, cba to find the rest

 

[Validus]

'cept for the XML, GOA are good compared to others

 

[osy]

I like France. I like their language, I like their movies, their music...

you could say im French biased, i guess *sigh*...

BUT.
Let me remind all of you GOA lovers about the dreaded waiting time inbetween 1.48 - 1.49.
Let me point out that the Italians and the Koreans have no problems whatsoever with XML.

Thank you.

 

[tris-]

natural variance etc. just because, for example, winXP or 2k works perfect for me with never a single crash in all the years i had it, does it mean it will work perfect for you and every other person in the universe? no because shit happens.

 

[Driwen]

Originally posted by Oddorvard
Patches
However, merging the patches further increases that delay and the final result is that patches arrive on GOA's servers quite a bit later than on the Italian or Korean servers (one and two weeks later respectively for the 1.60 patch). The Korean servers are patched with individual patches so I suspect that the merging of the patches is a decision made by GOA. Patches usually bring exciting changes and features and should be applied as soon as possible. Therefore I think GOA's patch policy as a bad one.

actually that is untrue. The translation part and testing of the patches take the longest time for goa. Translation part cant be helped and wouldnt add any time if done seperatly or together. But for testing it would add time if done seperatly as the same kinda test have to be done three times instead of once. So koreans might be faster, because they spend more money on translators and technicians (for the testing) or they just work harder. So atleast that part of your story is wrong.

 

[Addlcove]

Originally posted by n3wbie
1. shit happens, its not GOA's fault when Mythics code fails. find a retail program that is 100% reliable and i will buy GOA a server my self

as he said, if it´s the code why is it working in italy/korea?

2. the website is fast for me, its not GOA's fault that its slow on your computer if its fine on other peoples.

making a website entirely in flash is always a bad idea, I have a 2mbit line and it still hangs at times

3. there is nothing wrong with the billing system. i bought SI on the day it came out here and i registerd in 5 minutes. it also gives you a clear invoice, sends you emails etc

while you, and I, were able to registrar fast there was thousands of customers that weren´t.

4. why do you care so much about comparing your char to someone elses?

there´s more in the XML than just RP's you know

5. if GOA start patching English servers before German and French then people are going to be shouting all kinds of things at them. just because we speak a different language, it doesnt mean we should get something first. plus GOA has to test the patches them selves, its probably easier that they are all the right languages before they are tested and servers patched.

:sleeping:

he wasn´t talking about patching english servers before others, but about patching us 1 at a time instead of buddnling up the patches, erad before you flame

 

[Addlcove]

Re: Re: GOA providing the worst service

Originally posted by driwen
So koreans might be faster, because they spend more money on translators and technicians (for the testing) or they just work harder. So atleast that part of your story is wrong.

or maybe because they only have to translate to 1 language instead of two

 

[Driwen]

well that would be solved by getting 2 translators and you wouldnt have to pay more for them as you got twice the customer base if you do it right . Which I think they have..

 

[tris-]

notice no one ever accepts the fact that sometimes things wont work just because something else the same is. :sleeping:

 

[kallora]

Your subs are basically the same as the US subs I pay...

I must admit the flash-based website blows goats but then I HATE flash with a vengence.

However, you also get extra storylines and events we don't get on US servers, and sometiems having more than 1 patch at the same time is a "good thing"(tm) in situations where Mythic changed their minds about things once patch went live.

As for xml output, Mythic's Herald crashed out last week as well so its not all perfect on the other side of the Atlantic either...

 

[old.Glendower]

Originally posted by old.Hardbein
Mythic (USA)
GOA (France)

War in Iraq..... (no comment)

The french going fiercely against the coallisions invasion of Iraq.
The Yanks publicaly showed their "we hate france" -attitude coz of their ^^ standing against the war.

I am not saying this is IS the reason....but i wont doubt this is not making the cooperation between Mythic and GOA any better.
U might say that this is a pure professional cooperation between Mythic and GOA, but in the end of the day were all human and we tend to be presumptious.

Just my theory along with the others.....

Bro, I assure you that that idea is total crap.

Most of us here in the US could give a flying fukk about the war. Blame that on our court-appointed dictator/president.

Other than realizing it was all a big pack of lies and a scam for Bush to get control of the third biggest oil reserves in the world, and to reward all his corporate masters, it really has no impact on the common folks interaction with others, and certainly no business would slow its profits from some warped sense of patriotism.

France sucks because it does, and GOA sucks because they do, not from anything anyone else is doing to them.

Great original post, btw, and I really liked the links. One of the best rant posts I have ever seen!

And yes, I saw right away the implied suggestions for improvements, dont see how anyone missed them.

/salute

 

[tris-]

and why does france "suck"? because that is what your taught, unless you give a real reason why you think they "suck" then why go around saying it?

 

[acei]

http://www.legendofmir.net/

You are saying GOA are bad? Try Legend of Mir!

Legend of Mir has had servers rewound 3 times, dozens of hacks everyday, GM's hacked, and not only that but their primary server has been down since Friday and is STILL down.

Yet you think GOA are providing the worst service imho they're providing the best i have seen.

 

[Tobold]

Originally posted by kallora
Your subs are basically the same as the US subs I pay...

I must admit the flash-based website blows goats but then I HATE flash with a vengence.

However, you also get extra storylines and events we don't get on US servers, and sometiems having more than 1 patch at the same time is a "good thing"(tm) in situations where Mythic changed their minds about things once patch went live.

As for xml output, Mythic's Herald crashed out last week as well so its not all perfect on the other side of the Atlantic either...

ok, i agree with all that, but still korea and france have perfect xml.
extra storylines and events?
we get about one piece of backround that has been thrown together in afew minutes, about a dwarf in a pub, or a kobold gathering. Events? it was tried and failed miserably (imo) and i can only remember two days of the 6month+ event

 

[tris-]

Originally posted by Tobold
ok, i agree with all that, but still korea and france have perfect xml.

can you please accept that sometimes, things just dont work? if my PC works does it mean yours should?

 

[kameh]

I was highly critical of GOA when they first started out since I'd moved from the US Servers. I have to admit though that they've really got thier act together, they dont' have the staff to do the amount of in-game support as the yanks do. But it's still very good over all. Patches dont take that long to arrive, christ learn some patience people.