Important Information and Q&A!

[Fafnir]

Well i preordered the normal game at WEBHALLEN.com got a mail last week from them with headstart code, and ingame items. They also said the information they have is that headstart people will have to download the game when it starts, but they might be able to send the games out intime, if they get them delivered. I know from personal experience, if they get the game in on friday before headstart i will have it on monday.

 

[Zoldot]

Uhm so at the moment the information is that the SE orders won't get OB (GOA information)

and from EA / d2d it is that they will, right?


so who's right?

well my first thought is that GOA is prob right since they are running WAR EU(but who knows they seem to be disoriented and not even know themselves whats going on, or maybe its just their web administrator at war-europe thats noob and dont know how to post news:kissit

and that EA are just fucking up trying to dictate over "their" game.


Hopefully we get an answer soon.

And from now on I'd like to get important news to the customers/players on the OFFICIAL WEBSITE Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning thanks!:wub:

(meaning IanC and MagnusK bring this info forward to GOA that the customers are dissappointed in the information on eu site)

 

[IainC]

Uhm so at the moment the information is that the SE orders won't get OB (GOA information)

and from EA / d2d it is that they will, right?


so who's right?

Hopefully we get an answer soon.

I just wanted to clear up a few points of confusion about the open beta program in Europe. When the US pre-order program was announced, it was mentioned that the EU program would not include Open Beta access. At that point we hadn't officially unveiled our program, but as we were getting a lot of enquiries about this, we confirmed that this was the case. Since then, some of you have seen the EA Store in Europe and Direct2Drive advertising the pre-order with Open Beta access.

It's important to note that our official announcement regarding the Standard Edition pre-order is coming on Thursday 28th which is when the program launches. At that time we will provide you with all the details of the pre-order package as well as a list of partners. Some of our partners have preempted that announcement which has led to a bit of confusion.

The situation then is basically as follows:
Pre-ordering a standard edition from most of our partners will not automatically give you Open Beta access as we have said previously. We will however be announcing a list of 'preferred partners' who will be selling the pre-order with Open Beta access. A full list of these partners will be included with the main announcement this week, I can confirm that both the EA Store and D2D are preferred partners and so those of you who have already placed an order need not worry that you won't get what you were offered.

Hopefully this will put some minds at rest and, as I have said, all the remaining details will be unveiled this Thursday.

 

[Faya]

This is good info then for those people, thank you and finally you seem to start overcoming that veil of silence! Keep going!

Faya

 

[Overdriven]

IainC, if HMV is to be one of those said partners. I'll fly to your office and give you a cookie.

I have a question though. If I have the CE-Edition (All the extra titles, in game things) is there a certain time I'd have to activate it by? Since I won't be able to play properly till x-mas, but I'll most probably have the CE edition on release and enter the codes then.;

Would the stuff still be on my account when I start playing in Jan? Or is there a sort of "Use-By" date?

 

[Faya]

[GOA] Clearing a few things up

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

A few things to clear up:

The EU open beta is in crisis
Not true at all. Our preparations for this major event are all proceeding perfectly according to the plan agreed on by us and Mythic. We have been working towards this date for a long time and, as we have continually reassured you, we are ready to open on time with all systems in place to ensure that EU testers don't miss a second of the open beta.

There will be problems with the account centre when it opens
We are fully prepared for the likely levels of traffic and we have a lot of experience with this kind of event. Our account centre will be open and working in plenty of time for everyone to get their account sorted.

There will be problems with the download centre when it launches
There will be multiple download platforms. You will be able to choose from a variety of different providers to get the client.

GOA doesn't communicate
This couldn't be more wrong. We have posted long and detailed answers to many of your most pressing queries. Our website is up to date with all the content and changes announced over the past few weeks and we are committed to making sure the community knows what is happening. We have announced the start of the open beta, the start of the standard edition pre-order program and, of course, the release date. More details on all of these events will be released at the relevant times. All of us here in the CM team are constantly monitoring the community sites 7 days a week and providing updates where necessary. If we don't answer a question immediately this is usually because there is no definitive answer just yet, not because we are avoiding difficult questions.

There is a lot of confusion over the EU open beta, pre-orders and launch
There is only confusion because a lot of people continue to repeat incorrect information from different sources or are making things seem more complex than they are. We have always been consistent and straightforward in our approach, giving clear answers to questions. If you listen to what is said by GOA and take this as the official line, without paying attention to unofficial sources, the situation should be a lot clearer for everyone. When people start throwing rumours and unconfirmed information around, it quickly gets accepted as fact and makes simple things appear difficult to understand.

The war-europe.com website is broken/bugged/incomplete
Our website is tested to work in Opera 9.5, IE7 and FF3. It should also work in IE6 and FF2.5 with no problems. You will need an up-to-date Flashplayer install to make it work but if you have this, then the site should be fully operational. Most of the issues I have seen regarding apparent bugs on the site are the result of browser security settings or ISP caching. The site is up-to-date and complete for this stage of the pre-launch schedule. We will of course keep working on it to continually add new features, content and general improvements.

There will be no support at weekends in the EU
Completely false, we will have 24/7 ingame CS, 24/7 server monitoring and round the clock escalation and communication procedures in place for launch. If a player has a problem they can expect to get an answer ingame within minutes. If there is a widespread issue then we will be able to react to it quickly and, if necessary, post information for the community as soon as the problem becomes apparent. A lot of people continue to believe that we do not work weekends, this is simply not true.
__________________
Iain 'Requiel' Compton - English Community Manager
European Warhammer: Age of Reckoning team
War-Europe

This is all very nice, i just have one big and some smaller problems with it.
As stated before, it is very appriciated that GOA seems to start to lift the veil of confusion. Thank you.
On the other hand, why is it that US can give a better time frame then you, even you keep saying "all will be in time". Without sounding sarcastic, "in time" can be 1 minute before release or a month ahead.
At least speaking for myself, it would rest my mind more to have some dates then the phrase you are using to some extend
And most important, why do i have to fiddle with other web sites to get ALL your answers, instead of you(GOA) putting ALL the info on the webpage which is designed for giving info?

Faya

 

[Xandax]

Sorry - but this announcement IMO looks of being ignorant to the situation to me.

First stating that GOA communicates well, and then claiming "people continue to repeat incorrect information from different sources or are making things seem more complex" when they quote GOA statements seem rather ignorant of the situation.
Claimning the website is "up to date" and content is there, when the vast number of issues brought forth by these posts in unofficial forums aren't mentioned there. Yes - I know you'll wait until the 28th to announce Open Beta plans etc, but a post like that just written SHOULD be placed on the web page so people do not "continue to repeat incorrect information from different sources"

One of the issues is indeed the communication issue from GOA and by that post, I think that issue have just been underlined much more then wiped away or cleared.

 

[Faya]

News: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning goes gold - Strategy Informer

I FOUND this on another community forum. I havent checked the WAR EU site yet, i wonder if i go to WAR EU, will i see the info jumping me?

Faya

 

[pikeh]

I FOUND this on another community forum. I havent checked the WAR EU site yet, i wonder if i go to WAR EU, will i see the info jumping me?

Faya

apparently not

 

[Xandax]

News: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning goes gold - Strategy Informer

I FOUND this on another community forum. I havent checked the WAR EU site yet, i wonder if i go to WAR EU, will i see the info jumping me?

Faya

Yeah - I've seen that "everywhere" - except WAR-EU.
Stands in relief to the
Our website is up to date with all the content and changes announced over the past few weeks
statement just a few posts above.......

 

[Flimgoblin]

mythic's press releases don't appear on warhammeronline.com instantly either.

 

[Faya]

mythic's press releases don't appear on warhammeronline.com instantly either.

Agreed to that
As im at large what times were when, i have no clue when the announcement was made to the time they had for GOA to actually put it on the website.
On the other hand, given the info CAME from a GOA exec, one might think they will hand 1st hand info down to implement in a OFFICIAL site, so it can be updated THAT day.

Faya

 

[Xandax]

Agreed to that
As im at large what times were when, i have no clue when the announcement was made to the time they had for GOA to actually put it on the website.
On the other hand, given the info CAME from a GOA exec, one might think they will hand 1st hand info down to implement in a OFFICIAL site, so it can be updated THAT day.

Faya

Especially considering it doesn't take magic to activate an article at a given time, given any normal CMS mechanism.
However it again goes to show that information appear "(very) late" on the GOA web site compared to everywhere else, yet IainC "commends" themselves on their communication abilities.

One of my problems with GOA is that they do not use their website for information sharing, when they do share information, but force customers (potential as well) to rely on a number of unofficial sites and forums to piece together on occasion contradicting or wrong information, yet claims "it could not be more wrong" that GOA communicates poorly.

The communication is ineffective at best, from any measure of professionalism, regardless of PR spin.

 

[Faya]

Hmh tried to edit my earlyer post but cant so /shrug.
The announcement is actually up on the US site
This in regards to Flims post.

Faya

 

[Xandax]

Hmh tried to edit my earlyer post but cant so /shrug.
The announcement is actually up on the US site
This in regards to Flims post.

Faya

Has been up there for hours

 

[peo]

A reason that could explain why it isn't on the eu site is that it might not have gone gold here yet, localization and all that you know takes its time to implement on the final version from the US so a delay there would be expected.

 

[Xandax]

A reason that could explain why it isn't on the eu site is that it might not have gone gold here yet, localization and all that you know takes its time to implement on the final version from the US so a delay there would be expected.

No - there is a press release with GOA's name on it floating around, which also points to the WAR-EU web site "for more information"

 

[furrygiblets]

Hi there guys, been a lurker for ages but i thought i would give some people who preordered the SE edition from the EAStore website some information about the Open Beta.

After many emails back and forth from EA and Mythic they seem to have finally given me a concrete answer concering the UK/EU Open Beta after them basically dodging the question for about a week. Here is the final email i recieved.

Hello Anthony,

Thank you for writing Electronic Arts Technical Support,

I do apologise for the inconvenience and for the delay. I would like to inform you that the beta codes will be sent out to customers a few days before the start of the beta promotion (3rd of September). We do not have a definite time and date as to when the codes will be released. Nonetheless, if you preordered the game from EA Store, you will receive the beta code for the promotion.

Thank you for your patience understanding.

Paul C.
EA UK Technical Support
Support Centre

Now take from this what you will but i can hopefully now look forward to participating in the Open Beta.

 

[Faya]

Thx furry saw your post on WARAlliance aswell. And as IanC stated, EA and d2d is in the official pre order list for OB starts, some people will be happy now.

Faya

 

[Flimgoblin]

Hmh tried to edit my earlyer post but cant so /shrug.
The announcement is actually up on the US site
This in regards to Flims post.

Faya

yeah, would have expected it up on the GOA site by now.

(Edit: Given how many companies I've worked for where updating press releases comes disproportionately high in the priority of everything I'm surprised it's not updated )

Still, hardly the end of the world if a press release isn't updated on the site.

Xandax:
An official marketing website isn't the place to answer individual people's questions - you'll notice Mark Jacobs posts quite a lot on fansites too but you don't see his list of 9 things they have to fix from Preview Weekend posted on the main news either....

 

[Xandax]

<snip>
Xandax:
An official marketing website isn't the place to answer individual people's questions - you'll notice Mark Jacobs posts quite a lot on fansites too but you don't see his list of 9 things they have to fix from Preview Weekend posted on the main news either....

No, but a lot of other information is available on the US site about the time frames/dates etc - and it is there fast - which gives potential customers and fans a like a place to start gathering their information without having to look through various fan forums.
It is not on GOA's site, which might be for marketing, but you receive poor marketing when your website is out of date constantly by the way.

GOAs communication is very poor at the moment. It is occasionally contradicting as we've seen previously not long ago, or outright wrong as we've just seen now - but they bring this heat on themselves.
When you are that bad at communicating with the customer base, you should utilize the easy and surefire way of communicating - when something is official, post it on the website so customers know what is going on.
(Funny though - the lousy information is always somebody else fault, just like it was in DAoC days)

So instead of IainC claiming that people repeat wrong (GOA provided) information - GOA should communicate real information easy and fast, and a section for that on the web page is the only logical place to do so.
So instead of giving off vague statements etc, post the actually released dates on the site. Dates which have been well known for weeks. Information which has been known for weeks. It would also be a method to stop giving out wrong information and contradicting likewise. It seems all this confusions stems from GOA not actually having a plan for the communication.

Oh, and the "gone gold" press release is still not up (yes, I know it is outside work hours, but it wasn't when I read the press releases the first time) - and while it isn't "important", it is just another example of GOA fails at communicating by any professional measurement.

 

[Legean]

No, but a lot of other information is available on the US site about the time frames/dates etc - and it is there fast.

Only dates I'm aware of are the Open beta, NDA drop and release date, all of which are on both sites. Saying US is so much better just holds no weight, truth is they are slow to announce a lot of things, such as the boom comic invites amougst others, even though they dont need to get the go ahead before they post official information. GOA aren't the developers and so i'm sure they have to get the thumbs up before they release any important information. Mythic are going to want to be the first to release news, such as when the NDA was dropped and so GOA have to wait till after they do, and being 5 hours ahead means its usually out of hours when it happens or even the weekend. The game hasn't released yet so they dont have the full support team that will make things smoother come release.

I'm not trying to say that the GOA service is amazing, or that I love that flash website, but it really isn't that much better on the US.

 

[Torn]

GOAs communication is very poor at the moment. It is occasionally contradicting as we've seen previously not long ago, or outright wrong as we've just seen now - but they bring this heat on themselves.
When you are that bad at communicating with the customer base, you should utilize the easy and surefire way of communicating - when something is official, post it on the website so customers know what is going on.

This, and a thousand times this. The community wouldn't have (rightly) kicked up the fuss if GOA took care of their communications. Maybe the problem lies with GOA's P.R. team (indigopearl), but I suspect it has to do with GOA's website itself.

If your flash leviathan of a website is too unweildy to update regularly or easily by your news staff then GET A NEW ONE? Maybe a standards-based CMS system with a sensible web framework ...

 

[Xandax]

Only dates I'm aware of are the Open beta, NDA drop and release date, all of which are on both sites. Saying US is so much better just holds no weight, truth is they are slow to announce a lot of things, such as the boom comic invites amougst others, even though they dont need to get the go ahead before they post official information. GOA aren't the developers and so i'm sure they have to get the thumbs up before they release any important information. Mythic are going to want to be the first to release news, such as when the NDA was dropped and so GOA have to wait till after they do, and being 5 hours ahead means its usually out of hours when it happens or even the weekend. The game hasn't released yet so they dont have the full support team that will make things smoother come release.

I'm not trying to say that the GOA service is amazing, or that I love that flash website, but it really isn't that much better on the US.

When you release a press-release stating the game has gone live, but it isn't even up on the website the day after, I think further examples are pointless to begin with.

And the "time-difference" issue should be pointless for any normal CMS type system, as the articles can be written up and just be inactive until a specific time, after which it'll display automatically. Stuff like that isn't magic, but just standard web programming behaviour.

As for others examples, we've had no website official information regarding the Closed Beta changes in the US, the preview weekend in the US and all that. This means that when you combine a feature lacking website with little information, then people will go to the US one, see the news announcements and return to the GOA one and see nothing.
Confusion is bound to happen as we've seen it does repeatedly.
Instead they comment again on unofficial forums where potential customers might not roam instead of just doing it on their own website which is the obvious choice to clear up misunderstandings and explain situations.
Yet, IainC just blame it on people continue to repeat wrong information, well - duh.

And I could go on and on with examples where information have been "lax" (to be kind), yet there is no need because I'm sure it'll continue to be ignored as well and it is quite visible if you follow GOA around on their preferred sites of posting and put the pieces together.

And no - the staff which ensures these things should in fact be hired a long time ago, as it isn't the 24/7 server support folk or tech support folk which will bring you news items and similar "administrative" information. So the "not fully staffed" part - I don't buy it.

And yes, I know the game isn't live yet (duh) and that they've promised all will be well come live, however if they can't handle pre launch very well, display similar general "qualities" as they have in the past - then I'll want to *see* and *experience* the promises before I'll cut them slack for that.
They can make all the promises in the world - but until they deliver on them - they are just words.

I do not think I'm being unreasonable here, and I'm not just "whining". I got pretty much all my stuff on the safe side, not being interested in Open Beta cause I was in closed, and I've already bought my pre-order (CE edition) and all that.
I just can't phantom why on earth GOA persists with performing the very same mistakes, time after time, and then blame confusion on the community. Notice, I do not whine about us not getting CE people into Closed Beta, why we missed the Preview Weekend etc. I fully understand and know about the logistic and technical issues. What I do complain about is the horrendous (in my view, and others) communication from the company and their behaviour.

If GOA was a child, I'd told them to grow up and take responsibility .....

 

[Ypnos]

Heh… I got banned (actually I got a warning and immediately banned even though I made no further posts after the warning) off W:AR’s American forum for asking these questions.

It’s so frustrating though, like watching a car-crash in slow motion where this potentially fantastic game is going smoothly in the US (and Australia/NZ) and Europe has drawn the short straw, just because someone else is in charge… Look on Fileplanet. Even there, as a subscriber, you can access the open beta for W:AR, but _only_ if you’re in the US/Aus/NZ…

Anyone looked on GOA.COM lately? It looks like the front page for the Cartoon Network…

 

[Legean]

Mythic dont post information about the EU servers on their website... reason, they're not running the servers here. I'm glad they're not posting about the US servers here, for the people who want the information they know where to get it. For new people to the game they may not understand about there being an EU and US version or misread it and so have a false idea of what it said and so having all that info would lead to more confusion.

They've said that their SE program will be launched on the 28th (tomorrow). They hadn't released it yet and frankly we're lucky IanC has told us anything. In many other companies they wouldn't release the information at all until the date they had set. The confusion started because people were reading what the US got, another reason not having US info on the site is a good idea, and also because other partners released the info early, through the advertising when you order it, which wasn't GOAs fault as they jumped the gun.

Yes theres other things such as the account centre which I wish they had set up months ago too. Fact is they hadn't and it isn't required yet, as long as its ready when it is required I will keep my peace.

Like I said before i'm not trying to say GOA is perfect, infact i think its far from it, but i think they have done an alright job so far in their beta stages. I just think people should see all the good stuff GOA has done already, as far as i'm concerned meeting all their promises, instead on having to wait for some updates on their website. Should it be faster? Yes. Is it that bigger of a deal? No.

 

[Xandax]

<snip>
Yes theres other things such as the account centre which I wish they had set up months ago too. Fact is they hadn't and it isn't required yet, as long as its ready when it is required I will keep my peace.
<snip>

Well - guess we'll see how many problems arise with the keys which can't be validated, forcing people to having to contact their vendor with no time to spare prior to usage - or how many can't enter the keys because it launches too close to when it is needed and thus crashes under the load.

There are more reasons to put such a feature up well before it is needed, then there is doing it close to when it is needed, and it is also a case of why I question GOA's planning.

But the communication issue might not be a big deal for you - but to me it indicates clearly the attitude of the company, especially coupled with all the other factors.

 

[Faya]

Heh… I got banned (actually I got a warning and immediately banned even though I made no further posts after the warning) off W:AR’s American forum for asking these questions.

It’s so frustrating though, like watching a car-crash in slow motion where this potentially fantastic game is going smoothly in the US (and Australia/NZ) and Europe has drawn the short straw, just because someone else is in charge… Look on Fileplanet. Even there, as a subscriber, you can access the open beta for W:AR, but _only_ if you’re in the US/Aus/NZ…

Anyone looked on GOA.COM lately? It looks like the front page for the Cartoon Network…

Well, i wouldnt ban you for that, but it is your call vs the moderators, not our business
As far as your post goes, there is nothing of value in it, it is in fact just flame bait
As you have seen so far, denizen of FH are ignoring it, i would ask myself why, if i was you

p.s.: i dont ignore it, as i think it is polite to answer your question, but it is honestly nothing to discuss much

Faya

 

[Jupitus]

As far as your post goes, there is nothing of value in it, it is in fact just flame bait

... it didn't go totally unnoticed

 

[Flimgoblin]

Ypnos - goa.com is a casual games portal - what do you expect it to look like?

Xandax - they've posted the official information that's confirmed (such as release dates) Why should they put up a news story on their website about what's not in their collectors edition?