Hey Tobold.

I'm quite interested in your opinion towards GOA, the european publisher for WAR. I've heared horrible stories about their DaoC-support, endless delays of patches, awful server-performance, ...

Over at rockpapershotgun.com they are talking about EA and GOA haveing serious problems in communicating with each other. The guys at GOA didn't even know about the WAR-preview-weekend.

Legitimate complaints?
 

Over at rockpapershotgun.com they are talking about EA and GOA having serious problems in communicating with each other.
It certainly leads to bad customer relations. Giving US customers a much better deal than European ones may not break any promises, but it's just, well, rude.
 

Agreed. I have no experience in dealing with GOA but what i have read on forums is scary. The european website is severely lacking, amateurish to be honest, my twelve year old nephew could probably make a better one. This also doesnt boost confidence.

For me it is not an option to play on US servers, so i hope GOA can get their act together. Otherwise i expect Mythic to hook up with a better European partner: certainly they wouldnt let GOA virtually destroy their sizeable European market?
 

You have always a problem with the service in most games in Europe.
You can't compare the support quality of europe and usa for example.
 

It`s like the discussion about possible enemies for "Batman 3"...useless. We`ll have to find out if GOA learned from the past or not.
 

IIRC i read somewhere that no. of WAR pre-orders in Europe actually topped those in the US by a significant margin.

It would a sign of pretty poor business sense if Mythic/EA let this opportunity slip because of a apparently underperforming/dubious partner. EA shareholder will not be happy.
 

I've seen that the LOTRO expansion, Mines of Moria is going to be released sometime soon, I've not heard much about lotro on this blog recently....will you be buying the expansion ?

Personally I've been a long time Tolkien fan, but when I played lotro I was so underwhelmed that I played for 10 days (pre-order) and never even used by one month free subscription...

Since then I'm sure the game has improved a lot and I REALLY want to see how they will implement Moria...how much of a time ibvestiment will it be for me to get a character up to a level that I can sensibly go see it ?
 

Amazon.co.uk have a release date up for WoW: WotLK - 4th November!
 

A feeling for the level of "service" European players can expect can be gleaned from the following quotes from Magnus K:

"The information given out in the German newsletter is false. Ultimately, myself and my colleagues are responsible for the accuracy of the newsletter. What happened this month is an unfortunate combination of events and situations, but ultimately, it boil down to human error.

To repeat: SE Pre-Orders will not grant automatic Open Beta access anywhere in Europe, including Germany.

Unfortunately, Sterntaler is currently in Leipzig, so conveying this message to the German communities will not be a trivial task."

"There has - rightfully - been much confusion circulating regarding the offers and promises by the EA Store and direct2drive. I can only say two things on this as of now:


We remain steadfast on our current line: Open Beta access is not planned to be a part of the European SE Pre-Order offer. In fact, we haven't even launched the SE Pre-Order campaign yet. This is due August 28th.
At the end of the day, EA is in charge of distributing WAR in Europe. This is not to say they are to blame - it takes two to tango. They, just as we, are involved in this and we need to find a solution to this mess. GOA seniors have engaged in dialogue with EA and we are all eagerly awaiting the result of this.
This is a very important issue which has a high priority for us for many reasons. Trust me, we are working hard to get an answer to this asap."

"I'm afraid we can't share any server names at this point. On the topic of server types, we can, however. GOA will be offering the same server types as Mythic: Core, Open-RvR and RP-Core. This is still not fully set in stone and we may or may not offer RP-Open RVR as well. Please understand that this may change before Launch."

"Firstly, I assume 'OE' is a typo and you mean 'OB' as in Open Beta. Whereas all characters will be wiped and the Open Beta servers closed before Head Start commence, I believe the OB client can be patched and used when we enter Head Start and Live. This is not 100% certain information and may change. On a related note though, I can confirm that Closed Beta players will be able to patch their way into Open Beta."

"As far as I am informed, there is no such thing as SE pre-order including Open Beta access. Both GOA and Mythic have stated this to be the case with the European market. I believe this is all a misunderstanding. How we will solve it, is another issue. We have engaged in discussion with EA regarding this"

How embarassing; sometimes its not fun being the front man for a company like this.
 

The simple solution is for European customers/players to boycott WAR. Maybe that will get EA's attention.
 

Found this post on the Warhammer Alliance forums.

WAR from the perspective of a self proclaimed "old" gamer. I thought it was a good read. Also it raises some questions about the main target audience of WAR, considering the "slow" combat. Does WAR aim for the more mature player? (and if so, is this a viable business strategy).

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60050
 

Leveling as a protection(tank) spec paladin has made the process fun again. I realize that the paladin has unique healing traits in order to pull this off... But that's how leveling as a tank should be done for any other game or class.

If you have a WoW account, give it a try.