Spanish servers, the end of Excal & Pryd?
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Tesla Monkor
Fledgling Freddie
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Tbh, I don't think that the English servers can handle the leaving of Spanish people for the Spanish servers. We're underpopulated as is.. anything that can drain players away is a Bad Thing, regardless of what the reason for doing it.
Less players = bad, mmmkay?
Less players = bad, mmmkay?
semanon
Fledgling Freddie
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There is without doubt a slow decline in DAOC and the think GOA are watching the profits. I believe they are keeping the purse strings very tight by not going for a huge Ad campaign or pressing more English versions of DAOC (any update). They will sit tight and wait to see what happens after NF is released. The popular MMO's are going to be released soon and i know of many, many people who are just waiting for them to be released ( EQ", WoW etc). The majority of these people have two accounts and them leaving DAOC will have more of an impact on the game than a Spanish server.
GOA have got a lot to answer for. If, from day one, they had spent more time on customer releations rather than pure profits mabey, just mabey they wouldnt be facing this situation now. I have experience of a few MMO's and GOA have by far the worse customer support I have ever come across.
Just another thought about a Spanish server -- how long do we wait now for the translation team to do their work on the new patches? Its going to get even worse now with another team making sure the patch is transalted into Spanish
. Hell 1.71 could be released Dec 2005.
GOA have got a lot to answer for. If, from day one, they had spent more time on customer releations rather than pure profits mabey, just mabey they wouldnt be facing this situation now. I have experience of a few MMO's and GOA have by far the worse customer support I have ever come across.
Just another thought about a Spanish server -- how long do we wait now for the translation team to do their work on the new patches? Its going to get even worse now with another team making sure the patch is transalted into Spanish
. Hell 1.71 could be released Dec 2005.
Why did GOA started the game in multi language anyway? English is the universal language and the problem of not be abled to play all three realms was solved from the beginning, besides that the server population was more balanced to i think. What will be next?, A Dutch or Belgium server with 100 ppl online at prime time?
xxManiacxx
Can't get enough of FH
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actually english is the most SPOKEN language in the world.
After that come chinese
Then french and after that spanish
Although largest native language is chinese
Taken from "Illustrerad Vetenskap Juli numret om jag kommer ihåg rätt" for you swedes
After that come chinese
Then french and after that spanish
Although largest native language is chinese
Taken from "Illustrerad Vetenskap Juli numret om jag kommer ihåg rätt" for you swedes
xxManiacxx said:actually english is the most SPOKEN language in the world.
After that come chinese
Then french and after that spanish
Although largest native language is chinese
LOL
This is the real table:
1. Mandarin
Number of speakers: 1 billion+
2. English
Number of speakers: 508 million
3. Hindustani
Number of speakers: 497 million
4. Spanish
Number of speakers: 392 million
5. Russian
Number of speakers: 277 million
6. Arabic
Number of speakers: 246 million
7. Bengali
Number of speakers: 211 million
8. Portuguese
Number of speakers: 191 million
9. Malay-Indonesian
Number of speakers: 159 million
10. French
Number of speakers: 129 million
PD: Hindustani is the primary language of India's crowded population, and it encompasses a huge number of dialects (of which the most commonly spoken is Hindi)
To get back on topic:
GoA - or someone - is spending money on putting the game out in Spanish. Marketing decision belief being that they can make enough money to cover the cost of the translation + servers + distribution + advertising. NB: Spanish = Spain and potentially other places where Spanish is spoken which includes parts of the US (yes there are 'subtle' differences between the Spanish spoken in Mexico say but .....)
Any GoA money going into this project will mean less money for English / French / German.
Will it result in a population drop on existing servers. I seriously doubt it unless there is a character copy option. Huge decision to get to 50, SI, ToA, spell craft, RvR etc. And on a new and potentially low population server ....
Distribution in the UK.
Said more than once above - the game isn't shifting. The initial 'launch campaign' is relatively recent in marketing terms and SI and then ToA essentially 'relaunched' the game. Take up of any product is always higher if the product is new etc thereafter you are into diminishing returns. Every new customer costs more and more to bring in. A classic marketing model is to spend your money developing and launching the product, grow it until it becomes a cash cow, then sit back and milk it dry until it dies. Looks like we are in the latter phase. With hopes that the Spanish market is in the launch phase.
I will also say that from a publicity point of view ToA was a disaster. Distribution companies read reviews. Bad reviews = lower sales so they stock less. And ToA had bugs etc etc.
Next campaign will be Catacombs.
Final comment on /level - his was supposed to balance populations between realms.
Now I am off to find the post I made some time ago which charted the population numbers pre-ToA.
GoA - or someone - is spending money on putting the game out in Spanish. Marketing decision belief being that they can make enough money to cover the cost of the translation + servers + distribution + advertising. NB: Spanish = Spain and potentially other places where Spanish is spoken which includes parts of the US (yes there are 'subtle' differences between the Spanish spoken in Mexico say but .....)
Any GoA money going into this project will mean less money for English / French / German.
Will it result in a population drop on existing servers. I seriously doubt it unless there is a character copy option. Huge decision to get to 50, SI, ToA, spell craft, RvR etc. And on a new and potentially low population server ....
Distribution in the UK.
Said more than once above - the game isn't shifting. The initial 'launch campaign' is relatively recent in marketing terms and SI and then ToA essentially 'relaunched' the game. Take up of any product is always higher if the product is new etc thereafter you are into diminishing returns. Every new customer costs more and more to bring in. A classic marketing model is to spend your money developing and launching the product, grow it until it becomes a cash cow, then sit back and milk it dry until it dies. Looks like we are in the latter phase. With hopes that the Spanish market is in the launch phase.
I will also say that from a publicity point of view ToA was a disaster. Distribution companies read reviews. Bad reviews = lower sales so they stock less. And ToA had bugs etc etc.
Next campaign will be Catacombs.
Final comment on /level - his was supposed to balance populations between realms.
Now I am off to find the post I made some time ago which charted the population numbers pre-ToA.
Flimgoblin
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Oldleaf said:
yeah I mean it's obvious that noone wants to play the game translated into German or French look at those german servers they're always empty, what a waste.
Flimgoblin
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gervaise said:
Presumably they think a spanish server will give them more money
therefore this wouldn't be the case.That said I doubt they'll be embarking on any massive increase in the number of english/french/german servers whilst they're setting up the spanish version,
Icebreaker
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Grimmen said:Its pretty common sense to know that English is the most commonly used language in the world. Only ones refusing to realise that is the French and Germans
Hmm, maybe ppl like to play Games in their own language. Germany and France got the market for such translations. And this Way Goa can attract more Players.Not possible with English only Servers.
scorge
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Driwen said:
English is the language of business, and business equals money, so most people speak english as it will help improve there chance of earning money.
Also all international pilots regardless of there nationality have to speak english (just thought i would add that)
Its nice that there are and were french/german servers at launch and no doubt that seems to be where the money is made as they do have I think 4/5 servers a piece, UK only 2.
Did GOA launch the italian servers or was it another 3rd party company? Im sure similar research was undertaken whether to launch them and look what happened. Its a different market dynamic agreed but the same principal applies, Italian folk who want to play DAoC were already on the UK servers.
If they were going to launch any other language server type it should have been done at launch. Its too late in the day, most spanish people I know speak english. And the majority of the spanish population have some basic understanding of english combined with a spanish guild, voila no problems. Hence why we had/have the spanish contigent on the UK servers.
Fair enough launch the spanish servers but the profits involved I believe at inital glance may not even cover costs of operation. New fresh MMOs are on the way and those people who wanted to play the game already are or have.
Good luck tho! In 6 months time when DAoC is hiked to 10 pounds a month remember that you'll be funding the failure of the new servers and not new and improved services.
Did GOA launch the italian servers or was it another 3rd party company? Im sure similar research was undertaken whether to launch them and look what happened. Its a different market dynamic agreed but the same principal applies, Italian folk who want to play DAoC were already on the UK servers.
If they were going to launch any other language server type it should have been done at launch. Its too late in the day, most spanish people I know speak english. And the majority of the spanish population have some basic understanding of english combined with a spanish guild, voila no problems. Hence why we had/have the spanish contigent on the UK servers.
Fair enough launch the spanish servers but the profits involved I believe at inital glance may not even cover costs of operation. New fresh MMOs are on the way and those people who wanted to play the game already are or have.
Good luck tho! In 6 months time when DAoC is hiked to 10 pounds a month remember that you'll be funding the failure of the new servers and not new and improved services.
old.Whoodoo
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Im shocked at this move by GOA, and cant beleive its sanctioned by Mythic at all. The outlay for new equipment and bandwidth alone I would have thought would push this idea strait off any conference table into the bin.
Take a lesson from Italy, it didnt work. Add to the fact that most Spaniards are already established in guilds, with freinds and foes all around them, speaking all the european languages. So even if charcopy was added, they would loose their community spirit quickly and more likely return to their old servers.
And as Esoteric says, whos gonna pay for it? You guessed right, the rest of us. Be prepared for a price hike (/em pays his 6 months now!) followed by a week or so in population drop, then a server with less interest than a Liberal party conference.
For two years players have cried for a coop server too, it seems that idea is not going to be entertained at all now, and despite looking at this from every conceivable angle, I fail to see any form of logic in this step.
Advertise in the UK better if you want to increase the player base. This is going to be the start of DAoCs demise in my opinion.
Take a lesson from Italy, it didnt work. Add to the fact that most Spaniards are already established in guilds, with freinds and foes all around them, speaking all the european languages. So even if charcopy was added, they would loose their community spirit quickly and more likely return to their old servers.
And as Esoteric says, whos gonna pay for it? You guessed right, the rest of us. Be prepared for a price hike (/em pays his 6 months now!) followed by a week or so in population drop, then a server with less interest than a Liberal party conference.
For two years players have cried for a coop server too, it seems that idea is not going to be entertained at all now, and despite looking at this from every conceivable angle, I fail to see any form of logic in this step.
Advertise in the UK better if you want to increase the player base. This is going to be the start of DAoCs demise in my opinion.
Flimgoblin
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do you think the german server populations would be anywhere near the same level if they were english language servers?
The Italian DAOC I believe was doing fine till the company running it went titsup, though I could be wrong (any ex-italian players reading that could fill in the story?)
The Italian DAOC I believe was doing fine till the company running it went titsup, though I could be wrong (any ex-italian players reading that could fill in the story?)
Svartmetall
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They can make a Spanish server, they can give the French players Carnac (which generally has a very low population) but they still obstinately refuse to provide a co-op server for the entire Euro playerbase (even after many, many petitions) and they still can't be bothered to advertise or otherwise promote the game in the UK or ensure it gets decent distribution, or give UK players a proper 3rd. server (Camlann is not a 3rd. UK server, it is the Euro PvP server)?
/boggle
I think you ought to get your priorities sorted out, GOA.
...
/boggle
I think you ought to get your priorities sorted out, GOA.
...
Flimgoblin
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unlike a spanish language server a co-op server _would_ have a direct and negative impact on the pryd/excal populations. I don't see it attracting many new players.
Not that I'd mind a co-op server but I'm guessing they see that the US one isn't massively populated and don't think it's worth doing.
I do agree more needs to be done with advertising/distribution in the UK - fire that useless contractor and get someone decent
Not that I'd mind a co-op server but I'm guessing they see that the US one isn't massively populated and don't think it's worth doing.
I do agree more needs to be done with advertising/distribution in the UK - fire that useless contractor and get someone decent
scorge
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spanish servers will not be the end of Excal and Pry, they will definetly take a proportion of the player base with them. Unfortunetly GOA are doing very little
(or it seems they are doing very little) in recruiting new players to excalibur.
Mythic are not helping either, i cant remember seeing Matt Firor at a UK DAOC gathering like the french "le Monde du Jeu"? why is that? is it because Mythic is not bothered about the English servers, maybe because we are not the cash cow french and German servers are?
(or it seems they are doing very little) in recruiting new players to excalibur.
Mythic are not helping either, i cant remember seeing Matt Firor at a UK DAOC gathering like the french "le Monde du Jeu"? why is that? is it because Mythic is not bothered about the English servers, maybe because we are not the cash cow french and German servers are?
