Unsustainable level

[scorge]

Came across this old post...

14th March 2007, 05:43 PM 9 months ago... and the have been working on the population for some time,so thats in my estimation about 12 months now that GOA have been working on it...

To use your analogy the supply will continue, we've already assured you of that. We aren't ready to comment on the long-term solutions that we're working on yet as there's a lot of things that need to be ironed out between multiple parties first. As soon as we can announce that it will be, as always, in the Friday news first and not on Freddyshouse.

We aren't hiding anything, we aren't trying to cover anything up, it just isn't particularly helpful to start discussing things that may or may not happen. I've made our position clear already: we aren't going to stop supporting an English DAoC server and we aren't going to let it drop to an unsustainable population level. Currently the population is viable but dropping, we recognise that we need to act soon to prevent it becoming unsustainable which is why we've been working on solutions to the issue for some time now. I'm not entirely sure what else I can say to reassure people. If I have nothing new to say it doesn't mean I'm being secretive, just that nothing firm has been resolved yet and we can't tell you what is going to happen.

I like the point Req madr on GOA making sure the population is sustainable.

I still cant work out if Requiel deceived us on purpose about what was happening, certainly he cant defend himself on this one.

Still am tempted to make a post on the War alliance forums letting people know what GOA are really like, and that US servers would probably be better for them in the long term.

 

[rampant]

decieved on purpose - until he got his WH job then just didnt give a flying fook anymore....

and if you look further back over 2 years - you will see people clamoring then for something to be done - only to be told that there wasnt a problem.

I think their ultimate solution was to do nothing and hang on until WHO came out - but that has backfired on them now - and there no longer is a viable english cluster and there is no WHO...

what happens now is anyone's guess, but with WHO delayed until at least april 2008, then GOA have got a lot of months to worry about the amount of revenue they are generating, and if they dont balance their books or make a profit, then i cant see france telecom wanting to pour money into the organisation.

i would love to get hold of a copy of their financial accounts

 

[DeathsBows]

if ya gonna put it on the FH War site prob be deleted in hours or mins
cause IainC is a mod and loves throwing his scissors around cutting out anything bad about goa on their site

 

[Imgormiel]

I don't agree, Iain can take constructive criticism where it is warranted tbh

 

[GReaper]

Can GOA start considering plan C? Or plan D? Any plan please!

I can't see GOA putting in any plan of action until the entire EU population falls so low then they'll drop the entire thing. They've kept Cumbria for ages even though the population has been shockingly low.

The fact that so many people have rerolled on US servers and some have switched to German servers shows that people still want to play the game, but not on a dead server. Any form of resurrecting the characters that played Dyvet would be appreciated.

 

[Everz]

resurrect em so i can sell my accs :wub:

 

[Aiteal]

I don't agree, Iain can take constructive criticism where it is warranted tbh

hehe

I've made our position clear already: we aren't going to stop supporting an English DAoC server and we aren't going to let it drop to an unsustainable population level. Currently the population is viable but dropping, we recognise that we need to act soon to prevent it becoming unsustainable which is why we've been working on solutions to the issue for some time now.

and the solution was?
fack off to be the GM of a game that isn't even released yet

he lied through his teeth
not "constructive" criticism
but sadly, it's the truth

 

[Bugz]

He was a nice bloke ingame but unfortunately, he had the wool pulled over our eyes.

I hope GOA go bankrupt tbh :d

 

[Raven]

what happens now is anyone's guess, but with WHO delayed until at least april 2008, then GOA have got a lot of months to worry about the amount of revenue they are generating, and if they dont balance their books or make a profit, then i cant see france telecom wanting to pour money into the organisation.

i would love to get hold of a copy of their financial accounts

Please nobody mention anything about taking money from people after their accounts are closed, as this could be considered libel in the event it was proved wrong!

 

[Fafnir]

They should just scrap Daoc and put all their efforts to sort their shit out for WAR.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

They should just scrap Daoc and put all their efforts to sort their shit out for WAR.

Oh thanks for your useful input there, now f**k off!

Theres a huge majority that still enjoy this game and dont want it to go down the swanny. Im not just talking about EU either, but about the game in general! WAR is something totally different.

 

[Genedril]

Not sure exactly what 'shit' GOA have to sort out for WAR. Basically they're going to be doing the same for WAR as they are (or aren't) for DAoC.

What they need to do is sort out their support model & DAoC is the perfect test bed for this. So really what they should be doing is sorting their 'shit' out for DAoC to prove they can actually do it.

To be fair the US & German servers are fairly healthy from a population point of view (not what they were in their heyday but still good) so it's just the English servers that have the population of 4 day old party where someone has already drunk all the booze.

 

[Everz]

Delete Daoc and bin WAR.. problem solved

 

[Dreamor]

The only way they will increase the players, is to make the game free-to-play and even then, they would be competing against MMOs like WAR (US) / LOTRO / WoW expansion and a massive amount of other games coming next year.

 

[Bahumat]

Requiel said the population was viable, but they are aware its dropping and they are working on solutions.

This was probably true, he may have been ordered to be a little vague, but this was to avoid future issues which they could not predict....namely this!

I actually think Requiel is a nice enough guy who does care about the games. If he didn't he'd never bloody reply to these threads...which appear every day!

Daoc's population on EU has fallen massively, either due to not wanting to sort out the clusters, or they actually cant due to old technology (kinda doubt this from all the posts). Requiel is well aware of what's happening, however i'm pretty sure his bosses dont want him to reveal facts, or promises because with thousands of people waiting for any source of info, it'll come back and sting the company.

If you dont make 100% facts or promises, you cant fail them.

Times change, what he said then was possibly true, however the things they worked on may not have worked, thus causing them to re-think their plans.

 

[Jupiter]

I'd be interested to know how many people actually left the game. Sure people migrated to another GOA server but that doesnt affect their bottom line. Whoever does the forecasting and Marketing for GOA should be shot because its no way to run a business.

 

[Aiteal]

Times change, what he said then was possibly true, however the things they worked on may not have worked, thus causing them to re-think their plans.

They had plans?????
hehe

It's not rocket science.
Migrating data from one database to another is part and parcel of everyday IT.
It's so easy (even between different database products with completely different structures) that it was my first job in IT.

GoA just can't be arsed doing it for their customers, and they lied to us.

 

[Rubric]

DAOC europe is dead. It's beyond fixing. Let it go, move on. All this bitterness, its just not good for your health.

It was a great game back in it's heyday, it's sad that it's come to this but instead of whining about it, do something positive like find another game you enjoy now, not enjoyed in the past.

*edit* Runs for cover.

 

[Bluesky]

DAOC english cluster is dead. It's beyond fixing. Let it go, move on. All this bitterness, its just not good for your health.

Corrected that for you as tbh the german clusters are still very VERY much active.

OT: If GOA still think Dyvet is "sustainable" then they have their heads lodged so far up their own asses they will be licking their own tonsils - its pathetic imo how they have handled the english cluster in recent times tbh. Their inability to actually do ANYTHING positive is way beyond ridiculous now

 

[Sparx]

They had plans?????
hehe

It's not rocket science.
Migrating data from one database to another is part and parcel of everyday IT.
It's so easy (even between different database products with completely different structures) that it was my first job in IT.

GoA just can't be arsed doing it for their customers, and they lied to us.

its not just one char remember you have to deal with other chars on that account on the same server and other servers, then you have to deal with duplicate names, special items and things like rps could be saved somewhere else

Its not as easy as it looks front end

 

[Aiteal]

its not just one char remember you have to deal with other chars on that account on the same server and other servers, then you have to deal with duplicate names, special items and things like rps could be saved somewhere else

Its not as easy as it looks front end

I'm sorry
But you have fallen for the whole "it's not as easy as it looks" line.
It is as easy as it looks
It requires a little thought, but it's easy.

Migrating data from one database to another that both use essentially the same client to access it, is very easy.

They may require little tweaks here and there, but we are not talking about migrating data from WoW to DaoC.

We are talking about migrating data from DaoC to DaoC.

I'e only been working as a programmer for 10 years now having done hundreds of data migrations between vastly disparate systems, so don't take my word for it

Honestly, I'm not trying to come across as a condescending arsehole, and if I am I'm sorry.

But it's actually a relatively straightforward process, done every day up and down this country and every other contry where legacy data neeeds to be moved from one system to another.

They just can't be arsed doing it.

 

[Rubric]

But it's actually a relatively straightforward process, done every day up and down this country and every other contry where legacy data neeeds to be moved from one system to another.

I've gone through 2 system changes at 2 major companies and they both managed to fuck it up. How on earth do you think GOA would cope?

 

[scorge]

It just occurred to me one bluesky pointed out that the German servers are still very active.

the case is then have GOA discriminated against English speaking players. Have the provided the same level of service as compared to the french and german speaking players. Am going to have to brush up on my EU law but i think there is something in there...

would most likely scupper GOAs chances of hosting WAR, just from the bad publicity. I wonder if any one has taken an MMORPG to court over discrimination. I know that WOW had a close one a while ago by banning a gay/lesbian friendly guild, they had to make a public apology...


Watch out GOA, best you start shredding those emails...

 

[Rubric]

It just occurred to me one bluesky pointed out that the German servers are still very active.

the case is then have GOA discriminated against English speaking players. Have the provided the same level of service as compared to the french and german speaking players. Am going to have to brush up on my EU law but i think there is something in there...

would most likely scupper GOAs chances of hosting WAR, just from the bad publicity. I wonder if any one has taken an MMORPG to court over discrimination. I know that WOW had a close one a while ago by banning a gay/lesbian friendly guild, they had to make a public apology...


Watch out GOA, best you start shredding those emails...

Let me see...............


Nope nothing to worry about. Dream on.

 

[Aiteal]

I've gone through 2 system changes at 2 major companies and they both managed to fuck it up. How on earth do you think GOA would cope?

You were going from System A
To System B

GoA is going from System A
To System A (albiet with a few minor differences)

I've done dozens and they all went well
Sure there are a few bugs to iron out, but thats part and parcel of an computer system.

Put it this way

A bunch of bored computer freaks with a little spare time have managed to come up with a server/database system that duplicates the daoc servers, allowing people with a daoc client (who's source code they have never seen) to play on their servers subscription free without having ever seen what the daoc servers code base and database schemas look like.

Should we really believe that a company with 100% access to the server engine, database schemas and client code cannot manage a database migration?

Or are we left with the impression that they just can't be arsed?

Honestly, which one do you think it is?

 

[Rubric]

Should we really believe that a company with 100% access to the server engine, database schemas and client code cannot manage a database migration?

Or are we left with the impression that they just can't be arsed?

Honestly, which one do you think it is?

It's GOA.

It's the first option and you know it.

 

[pjuppe]

what we all want to know is: when are they going to fix the XML?!!?!

 

[Rubric]

what we all want to know is: when are they going to fix the XML?!!?!

Yeah i mean ffs that will make all the difference.

 

[scorge]

what we all want to know is: when are they going to fix the XML?!!?!

the xml is fixed, fixed at 38 population, suppose its better than showing 7.

 

[Bluesky]

Should we really believe that a company with 100% access to the server engine, database schemas and client code cannot manage a database migration?

Or are we left with the impression that they just can't be arsed?

Honestly, which one do you think it is?

Most ppl would probably say the first option but i tend to think its more a case of GOA dont see any future in it so basically fuck the customers over by keeping them in the dark while still getting cash from subscriptions and cross their fingers WAR will keep their profits coming in in the longer term.

I 100% agree its ofc possible to merge clusters AND char transfer - its incredibly arrogant for GOA to presume their customers will believe the BS they are currently (and have been for years) spouting to us. Anyone who believes GOA always tells us the truth is imo, extremely naive.

Lets face it, to us, the paying public we like and enjoy this game and see it as a great source of entertainment but to GOA/EAthic its purely a business and businesses need to make money. Soon (if not now) DAOC will not be making them any money and they are no doubt expecting WAR being their bread and butter for several years to come. Sadly tho IF GOA had done their work properly I see no reason why DAOC couldn't have been a great money earner for many more years and GOA may just possibly have had some respect from the people who pay their wages.