GOA will host WAR in the EU

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

In order for GOA to be "succesfull" on EU they need to forfill 4 points imo:

1)Guarantee that OT wont fuck up the servers again

instead enjoy the transatlantic lag, plus it being harder to pinpoint, and act upon problems should they arise..

2)Have ingame CRS like on the US servers - fast and active help when needed.

aslong as you'll stay online for a fair few hours..

3)A test server for people to try out new specs ala Pendagron.

ohw christ, asif trying new specs here is that difficult... join a dragonraid and get a bloody stone. It's not _that_ hard...

4)Patches up to date alongside US.

buggy patches and easier cheating??

 

[[GOA]Erivoss]

And what they done was IGNORED mythics advice of a full server wipe and start again

Just to make things clear - Mythic never said that or even suggested it.

 

[Kuhan]

Just to make things clear - Mythic never said that or even suggested it.

so whos been telling lies :kissit:

 

[[GOA]Erivoss]

ever heard of chinese whispers?

 

[Etzel]

Here's a little challenge for GOA/Requiel.

SOE managed to create a shared Euro/US login server for SWG, billing was handled locally based on where you purchased from, servers were hosted in both datacentres, from one central login you could elect to play in whichever timezone suited you.

If this really is the collaboration you are both saying you have over a year to create your own shared login servers. I am one of the many who play with people from all around the world, my US/NZ/Aus friends have in the past played on EU suffering even greater lag than we do, it is only fair that I play US with them on some games especially as my lag to the US is minimnal. Now is the time to make a global community which lets us choose the time zone we prefer.

You are talking the talk, can you walk the walk?

 

[[GOA]Erivoss]

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showpost.php?p=77729&postcount=63

Folks,

It is our intent to ensure that the European players of WAR are not second-class customers in any way, shape or form. That is not optional.

Also, keep something else in mind, Mythic has the time, talent and cash to have done WAR in Europe ourselves. We were prepared to do that for Imperator but we have chosen not to do so with WAR. One of the reasons is that we felt that we could not launch in Europe as successfully with WAR on our own as we can with GOA. We did our homework when we were looking at launching Imperator ourselves in Europe and based on what we learned and a lot of very careful analysis that we made this decision. We truly believe that because of this decision European players will have a better experience (on all levels) with GOA than they would have had with Mythic doing it ourselves. If you look at our very brief faq:

http://www.warhammeronline.com/engli...aq/faq_goa.php

you will see what I mean. We are commited to a simultaneous launch in multiple languages as well as simultaneous patches for the US and European community. What could undescore our committment to our European players than that? Without the support of a strong partner, that sort of thing would be very difficult, if not impossible, for Mythic to pull off. The amount of work that will go into development, testing and localization of content on WAR dwarfs what we did on DAoC. By choosing to work again with GOA, we have signaled our committment to our European players at the cost of revenue which would have flowed in Mythic's coffers if we had done it ourslves. We believe that the cost is worth it because in the end, it will make for a better experience for the European community. If that in turn leads to increased subscribers for WAR, fantastic! However, no game's success can be guaranteed and by following this path we are doing what is necessary to help make this game's launch and lifespan in Europe a long-term, smashing success.

In terms of "one world" servers, I do wish that we could have the European players and American players all together but that is not going to happen this time. Additionally, I'm not even sure it's a great idea for both technical, social reasons (language, grouping issues) and support reasons.

Mark

 

[IainC]

This is far too early to be talking about details such as support models or how certain aspects of the partnership will work. The collaboration was only announced today and the ink on the agreement with Mythic is still wet. Yesterday a bunch of people from Goa flew across to meet Mythic and discuss plans for the future but there's no firm details for now beyond the points in the FAQ and the comments that Mark Jacobs has made.

Further into the development cycle I'd expect to see details of the billing options, support systems and server availability but for now it's too early to announce how things will be come next autumn.

 

[Raven]

yes the catercombs release was a mess but goa took everything on board and since we have had a perfect DR release and pretty fast patch releases, we have nearly caught up with the US, its not GOA's fault that we dont get it the same day as the US.
and as for all the WoW fanboys banging on about how WAR is a rip off...please do you know anything at all about Warhammer?, you know those little plastic and metal figures that have been around for 20ish years, warcraft 1 wasnt even on paper back then. face it WoW is a pve game that suits johny consumer, thats what it is designed for, the pve is boring and the pvp pointless, get over it.

 

[Corran]

Just to make things clear - Mythic never said that or even suggested it.

Well, it was a long time ago. Maybe it was phrased wrong(sure it was requiel that posted something on it). Maybe Mythic merely "advised" that it seems the best option or something along that line and things got a bit skewed when this was reported on back to us. Could be they were just pointing out how much work that would be involved and from a "cost" view that may been best. To lazy to look back, going to bed as not well still

 

[Kraben]

Hmm

instead enjoy the transatlantic lag, plus it being harder to pinpoint, and act upon problems should they arise..

Hey I didnt say US would be better but what could be done here on EU. I know for a fact, like everyone else do, that OT have caused some major problems. Why not try and correct them now to reasure the players that those issues wont accour again?

aslong as you'll stay online for a fair few hours..

Meaning we wont get any ingame support before its been a few hours? Well if thats the worst case scenario then its still better. Also have there been numerous of cases of instant help on US. This is one thing I honestly cant see why we should be left without in the new system"

ohw christ, asif trying new specs here is that difficult... join a dragonraid and get a bloody stone. It's not _that_ hard...

Implenting a test server isnt _that_ hard either and serves a variaty of purposes - not only test of desired weapen specs. Having to go to Dragon raids instead is a pretty weak argument imo. Why not do it on EU when it has been done on US to great success?

buggy patches and easier cheating??

Easier cheating? C'mon man.. I wanna share the same "wow-effects" as the US experience. Not being able to see all the changes coming 2-4 months in advance. I want love-nerf patch immidiately when they occour, new zones etc etc. Aint it just as bad "cheating" that EU have always been able to prepare themselves for incoming patches and their effect on the game and hence building their way around mistakes US have made?

I honestly cant see whats wrong in asking for alot of the goodies that US have enjoyed throughout the years. THIS is the time we should ask and push GOA to make them happen. Its too late in DAOC but this is our big chance of getting a new game without the flaws and lacks DAOC have experienced.

 

[Etzel]

Additionally, I'm not even sure it's a great idea for both technical, social reasons (language, grouping issues) and support reasons.

**Sighs**

That's a financial thing for sure, not your fault ofc. As someone said in that thread another wedge driven between transatlantic friends and all so that they keep their slice of pie and you keep yours.

Technical reason - None whatsoever, if Mythic cant create code equal to Sonys the whole game is doa

Language/grouping reason - OK wow has trouble with non native English speakers, but those are people without a translated version not FR/DE bleed over. In fact thinking about it that will be a huge negative to EU, it seems they want the East European cash but dont want them on US servers. **

Support reason - now that is just THE worst cop out. With SWG the EU/US teams helped each other out, in fact pre-EU release they brought the Euro team online ahead of schedule to cover the US when the support centre went down. Having more staff covering a greater time range is not negative, unless there wont be a Euro team ofc.........

** The more I re-read that the more i'm thinking of going US, I play EU-Shadowmoon and unless you went through it you just cant imagine the pain of a huge CZ/PL/RU community declaring your server as home. (I dont blame them as such because they need a home as much as we do but no-one designated one so they chose their own)

 

[Etzel]

face it WoW is a pve game that suits johny consumer, thats what it is designed for, the pve is boring and the pvp pointless, get over it.

I agree whole heartedly with your comments on WoW pvp but dont get over confident the WO will automatically win out. Blizzard have started a monster rolling there, just look at the patch content/frequency, changes, tweaks, revamps but most of all new dungeons/zones on a reular basis. Those guys will be reading the posts that you and I are writing about pvp and creating new ideas based on them, once the expansion releases I wouldn't be surprised if they turn their targets on something to upsatge the WO release, something like revamped pvp maybe?

 

[Kuhan]

I agree whole heartedly with your comments on WoW pvp but dont get over confident the WO will automatically win out. Blizzard have started a monster rolling there, just look at the patch content/frequency, changes, tweaks, revamps but most of all new dungeons/zones on a reular basis. Those guys will be reading the posts that you and I are writing about pvp and creating new ideas based on them, once the expansion releases I wouldn't be surprised if they turn their targets on something to upsatge the WO release, something like revamped pvp maybe?

ye would be good wow is a strong game with good support

 

[Naffets]

instead enjoy the transatlantic lag, plus it being harder to pinpoint, and act upon problems should they arise..

Played on US daoc servers for months and months, never had lag like OT like over here.

Perhaps I was lucky?

In any case, I'll be playing US servers probably rather than risking having OT problems.

 

[Ballard]

Well I guess im only 7 hours ahead of the US time instead of 12 for the EU. Guess ill play on the US servers then

 

[Pirkel]

Your point being? Its ok to get the 10 sec lagspikes and disconnects every 5 min because there is a clause in the contract saying its an "unexpected technical failure"?

yes meight that's exactly what I meant!

cba discussing this with you after a clueless reply like that.

 

[Jeriraa]

GOA bashers to your battlestations!

We have bandwagons leaving every 3 minutes jump on them while they're fresh!

That made me laugh.

 

[Aeris]

i just hope they ADVERTISE the game in the UK

 

[Shike]

This is far too early to be talking about details such as support models or how certain aspects of the partnership will work. The collaboration was only announced today and the ink on the agreement with Mythic is still wet. Yesterday a bunch of people from Goa flew across to meet Mythic and discuss plans for the future but there's no firm details for now beyond the points in the FAQ and the comments that Mark Jacobs has made.

Further into the development cycle I'd expect to see details of the billing options, support systems and server availability but for now it's too early to announce how things will be come next autumn.

I understand that fully but, let me ask a question related to this.

Do you believe GOA's current supportmodel is as good as Mythics own model with ingamesupport, its a tough question to answer ofc but, its also an important one. Im not fishing after something special here, more than how you guys actually view the quality of your own support you hand out. Ive played under both models and well, GOA arent close here as it is, not in my opinion at least, I know you guys do your best since the model have been chosen a long time ago but, it would be nice to know if GOA actually is happy with how things actually work.

A webbased support is very very limited, and especially in the beginning of a new game especially since we wont be behind US patch/bugfixwise and know about all bugs and weird encounters we might run into, atm EU have it a tad easier than US, since serious issues are beeing fixed quite fast and EU dont suffer from it in same way as US do but a websupportmodel will crash and burn totally if you decide to run it from start, since we have no info to lean towards from US anymore nor do we get fixed patches. This in particular is something very important for GOA to remember when choosing model.

If I run into some problem 2 weeks into the game, and I have to use some sort of webpage to get my problem solved, that may take 24h+ to get a solid answer to via the webform and if its some sort of silly botanswer that make me furios, when I know the USservers run ingamesupport, exact same game, exact same patch, guess what I will do next thing... Can say that after the experiences alot of people had with GOA in the past with OTproblems, prydcrash with endless waiting for replacementitems and such, I dont think people will have much patience with a bad supportsystem, if its a new company, one can always say, oh well, they are new at it (as I have done so many times in the past), in general ppl can be alot more forgiving, but I doubt GOA get a second chanse again if anything turns out to be poorly handeled if you get what I mean. I just hope you dont go for the cheapest possible when it comes to this, since thats exactly what the websupport in the end is about, saving money. Any company that can run livesupport is a healthy company with resources, if they have to cut costs, they cut on support very often and a cheaper model is websupport. Dont do that mistake GOA, please.

 

[Nate]

hey etzel maybe we'll find out some more details about how there gonna handle the support when the goa employees get back from mythic..

 

[Fana]

yes meight that's exactly what I meant!

cba discussing this with you after a clueless reply like that.

Yes, because my contributions so far to this thread have been rude and clueless. Really.

If you are fine with an unplayable game for days and even weeks at a time just because the company blames it on force majeur incidents then thats up to you. As ive said, i have all the faith in the world for GOA as a mmorpg host, but i do not have any faith in Opentransit, and GOA cannot promise anything on OT's account. Its as simple as that.

 

[Syri]

i just hope they ADVERTISE the game in the UK

would be nice to see Games Workshop take up some of the advertising, seeing as they're based in the uk (headquarters are just down the road from my workplace)
As for which server I'll be on, I'm in a good guild on daoc on usa servers at the moment, so i'm going to be sticking with them, at least for the time being.

 

[Svartmetall]

i just hope they ADVERTISE the game in the UK

A-fucking-men.

 

[Svartmetall]

God kills a kitten AND a puppy...

...and a baby seal...

...every time someone says that Warhammer is a copycat of WoW when everyone who spends 3 minutes investigating the matter knows it's the Warcraft universe that's "borrowed"(not to say stole) it's look from the Warhammer universe.

Yup.

 

[Svartmetall]

1) GOA & Mythic could have done a better job in launching and maintaining DAoC in Europe. While GOA & Mythic did a lot of things right in Europe with DAoC (keep in mind that prior to WoW, DAoC had more success in Europe than any other MMORPG), we could have done better.

Well, the one really big thing was the complete and total lack of any promotion for the game, certainly in the UK. That's the single biggest black mark (#2 being their inexcusable failure to provide Euro players with a co-op server and an RP server) on GOA's record now as far as I'm concerned; the advertising of DAOC has been utterly bloody abysmal. This game should be bigger than WoW, since it's a vastly superior game - but, as we can see, no advertising tends to mean no players. If there had been proper advertising I have no doubt there would have been sufficient UK players to justify 3 UK servers from the start; now UK players get the single worst deal of any DAOC players anywhere, with effectively one server only to 'choose' from, and I blame that fairly and squarely on GOA's total failure to promote the game here in the UK.

Now, unlike DAOC, Warhammer has a huge ready-made audience, one that quite possibly rivals or even beats Warcraft's in size (there can't be an RPG-er in the world who hasn't played a GW game at some stage, and most likely a Warhammer one at that); but they should not use that as an excuse to not bother to promote the game. We need to be seeing TV adverts, huge campaigns in the Euro gaming press etc etc, all aimed at tapping into this latent playerbase. I have no doubt GW will be trumpeting the game in their own White Dwarf magazine, but again that should be in addition to, not in place of, a massive publicity blitz from GOA (by the way, whatever did happen to the 'huge marketing campaign' we were promised at the time of Catacombs' release....the one as a result of which nobody saw even one single advert?). Only when I see those things will I be reassured that giving GOA the license for Warhammer was a good idea.

And, obviously, the fact that GOA are shackled to the appalling Opentransit fills all of us with dread.

 

[Awarkle]

THe problem with advertisments is that it can only go so far and everything costs money from producing the advert to getting it published or shown in enough places.

From what i remember it seems that the advertisment / distribution company that goa had inplace for dealing with this didnt do their job. As for the catacombs release that was purley down to the distributers following some daft UK law that meant they could only sell the game on the friday instead of the wednesday like everyone else (or monday was a long time ago)

Either way peeps its only just been announced dont throw the toys out the pram just yet find out how mythics going to implement the game.

 

[napoleon]

*sigh*

I am pretty sure i'll play on the EU servers. Even tho i couldn't join a raid in daoc for a whole year due to either continuous lag, freak LDs or sudden long lagspikes. I think i got about five days in compensation after they "fixed" the problem.
I have to add tho, that daoc has been running really smooth lately, but it was really smooth before that whole year of "un-smoothness" so who is to say it won't happen again?
All i can do is pray

Among the improvements i would like to see from GOA is a propper homepage. One that gets involved with the game and not just reporting what is happining on the outside. And doesnt look like it was made by the danish design school (http://www.dkds.dk/)

 

[Gamah]

I just cant wait to farm all the nubs warhammer will attract :<

 

[AngelHeal]

Well, I will never forget when prydwen was down for ages, and alllllllottt of people ahd to w8 over 3till 6 months to get a character recoverd..

And we got nothing for in return.

Goa has seemed to fixed the lagg etc.

I will play europe, and there's only >1< reason for that: the time difference with US.. i want to play on the main hours.. and not on a allmost empty at night server.

Too bad goa hosts war..
Well I guess if they gooing to fuck this one up to, requil can sell his helicopter aswel

 

[Urgat]

I just cant wait to farm all the nubs warhammer will attract :<

Totally off topic...

But you sound like the kind of player who is going to be very dissapointed with the way W.A.R. plays.

"PvPers" and the "8v8" giulds, are going to HATE W.A.R. tbh

This game... even more so than DAOC, is going to be about RVR,

Not soloing,
Not 8v8

Pure, unadulterated... ARMIES... yep... ZERGS!

<chuckle>

RVR... Bring it on!