Let's Hope - GOA Deliver on Promises Today

[Bonafide]

Originally Posted by Gurgeh

No. They are still there. It has been stated that SE will not get into OB. Check Magnus's posts in the dev tracker for confirmation.

Well thanks for that information. I almost pre ordered the EU SE from EA online for the sole purpose of the OB pass. I will go out and get a hard copy of the game instead.

[pzykozis]

Originally Posted by Bonafide

Well thanks for that information. I almost pre ordered the EU SE from EA online for the sole purpose of the OB pass. I will go out and get a hard copy of the game instead.

That's what I'd advise anyone, though there is still a chance that the EA SE preorders will get OB access but that all depends on the talks I keep mentioning.

[Laretor]

How often must people, both forum users and GOA officials, say it:

EU SE pre-order program only starts august 28th. If you find a site stating this and that about the SE pre-order. It's either to be assumed false untill stated otherwise by officials or for NA SE pre-order.

[Purrplekat]

Originally Posted by MagnusK

Will EU SE pre-order customers get into WAR Open Beta?
No. This was a solution well suited for the American market, but less so Europe. With more diverse demographics, we have opted for a solution where we will be giving away 55 000 Open Beta keys through the EA Store and other community sites. This allow for a more focused approach, better suited the five-language market we operate in.

This sounds like they know exactly what is going on with the keys. Of course it is vague with no actual details, so of course at a later date anything can be made of it, which is GOAs style.

I have seen it before many times, both here, and on various DAOC forums over many years, ans I have no doubt a whole new cohort of people will come to know it over the years to come.

I have my CE pre ordered, I have my keys, I am in closed beta, I have not lost anything, But I do so hate this vagueness that leads to more questions than answers.

[Gurgeh]

Originally Posted by Bonafide

Well thanks for that information. I almost pre ordered the EU SE from EA online for the sole purpose of the OB pass. I will go out and get a hard copy of the game instead.

I was going to type more but Pzykosis and Laretor have done it nicely for me. Sit tight til the 28th August would be the best bet with the SE.

[Bonafide]

you mean wait until the 28th to preorder from EA?

[pzykozis]

Originally Posted by Bonafide

you mean wait until the 28th to preorder from EA?

That probably would be the best idea the whole thing will be announced completely on the 28th so there will be no vagueness or possible problems.

[Magnus_GOA]

Rumours about UK price cut
This is a big one, naturally. As far as I know, these rumours origin from a blogger (forgot which) who called EA to ask about the UK prices, only to be told that they were lower than those announced in our Press Release last week.

As of now, the information we have at hand is those stated in named PR document. If there are any changes to the UK pricing, we will announce this. I've made enquiries about the truth behind these rumours, but I'm afraid I have nothing solid to go on so far.

Originally Posted by Sanguin

Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions and keeping a dialogue open with the community Magnus, I appreciate it a lot.

I was wondering if you could confirm whether GOA will be providing the same "Herald" and "Realm War" service that the Mythic site is providing with the same or a better level of detail. The Herald site was something I loved about the US DAoC and the fact that the European one was worse at launch was my main reason for quitting the game.

Many thanks!

Thank you, and you're quite welcome!

To answer your question, I'll echo what Iain said earlier. there will not be an EU Herald as such, but its features is in one way or another to be found at war-europe. We will certainly have some sort of Realm War feature, I just don't have any details on this.

Naturally, all of this will be in full Flash glory!


Peace,
Magnus

[Reaver330]

Originally Posted by MagnusK

Rumours about UK price cut
This is a big one, naturally. As far as I know, these rumours origin from a blogger (forgot which) who called EA to ask about the UK prices, only to be told that they were lower than those announced in our Press Release last week.

As of now, the information we have at hand is those stated in named PR document. If there are any changes to the UK pricing, we will announce this. I've made enquiries about the truth behind these rumours, but I'm afraid I have nothing solid to go on so far.




Thank you, and you're quite welcome!

To answer your question, I'll echo what Iain said earlier. there will not be an EU Herald as such, but its features is in one way or another to be found at war-europe. We will certainly have some sort of Realm War feature, I just don't have any details on this.

Naturally, all of this will be in full Flash glory!


Peace,
Magnus

Thanks Magnus, so as it stands the price cut isn't true but it IS possible it could occur?

Edit: Just noticed the "Naturally, all of this will be in full Flash glory!" you know as much as us that isn't what a lot of people want, but I'll let you off for that little jab at the EU.

[Aridious]

In an effort to bring some Order the the Chaos right now I've decided to compile a list of Q and A regarding what we have been told. I'm getting pretty sick of all the hatred pouring out from various posters, who are posting so fast that answers are not being seen, and new people coming to the thread are not prepared to sit through 40+ pages of flames to get the answers they want. Frustration is the key to this, and although people are trying to point things out, it's like pouring petrol on a bonfire to put it out.
All the Q are by various forum posters, and all the A are by Goa. Please note, that I'm just converging everything we know into the one answer.

So here goes.

Q. Teh website is teh sux0rs! Change it!
A. We know, however we are going to keep using it for the time being for account management and other updates. We might look into a redesign later.
Goa Quote:

Originally Posted by MagnusK

Whereas we have many improvements and new features coming up for our website, we will not be exchanging it for a HTML-based website for now.

Q. Will SE pre-orders get into open beta?
A. No, and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that.
Goa Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnusk

No. This was a solution well suited for the American market, but less so Europe.

Q. What about sites that are giving away beta access for SE pre-orders?
A. No site should be offering any SE pre-orders for European customers yet, as the SE Pre-order program doesn't start until the 28th August. We are in talks with EA at the moment to determine exactly why certain sites, such as D2D are offering this package.
Goa Quote:

Originally Posted by MagnusK

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Q. What about Preview Weekend and all the other goodies that NA people are getting?
A. Unfortunately, we cannot offer the same benefits as NA, as we were unprepared for the announcement by Mythic. However, we will be giving out an extra 50k open beta codes through various partners in order to try and compensate for this.

Originally Posted by Magnusk

With more diverse demographics, we have opted for a solution where we will be giving away 55 000 Open Beta keys through the EA Store and other community sites. This allow for a more focused approach, better suited the five-language market we operate in.

These are all the questions that have been answered so far that I have been able to find. Please let me know if I missed any. Now for submitted questions. These are questions that I've seen as been replied to as "awaiting more information." where they still remain unanswered.

Q. What different types of payment options are there available?

Again, if I've missed any let me know, just remember a lot of the questions are repeats and fall into the answered section above.

Outstanding issues.
I'm not saying GoA are complete saints. I don't think they suck either. There's definate room for improvement. One of my outstanding issues is in regards to the length of time we have to download the beta client and if we have to all put our codes in on the same day that beta starts, which would just be chaos in my opinion, so confirmation on how long we have to download would be great.

Also, I had to go through 40 pages of posts to find those few answers. It's pretty poor really, communication needs to improve but I thank MagnusK for the information he has provided.

As for the lack of a forum on the website and news updates, I'll just say this. There will never be an official forum. Ever. News updates on the other hand need to be put on the site MUCH more often. If you look at the press release pages (ignoring the front page bulletins) the most recent one is concerning the release date, which was posted August the 6th, 2008. The next one down was posted December 13th, 2007. Makes me think even the press prefer to get information from the US site.

As a final note, I'd just like to say I'm trying to make MagnusK and IainC's job easier, and this was not intended in anyway to be viewed as me putting words in their mouths. Hope it helps!

[Tadzio]

Originally Posted by MagnusK

Naturally, all of this will be in full Flash glory!


Peace,
Magnus

I loled

[Merope]

*edited for content*

[Stuntybasher]

Originally Posted by Laretor

EU SE pre-order program only starts august 28th. If you find a site stating this and that about the SE pre-order. It's either to be assumed false untill stated otherwise by officials or for NA SE pre-order.

Here's something you might not have heard: there are laws in the EU against false advertising. In other words, it's illegal to advertise a good or service you won't deliver. In this case said good or service would be the open beta access many sites are promising to SE purchasers.

The end result is that if someone were to buy a copy of the standard edition expecting to get into the open beta and didn't, he would at the very minimum be entitled to a full refund.

I would say it's very much in their best interest to sort this out ASAP.

[duffz]

Originally Posted by MagnusK

Naturally, all of this will be in full Flash glory!

I hope this was sarcasm... Because I can fool myself!

[Magnus_GOA]

Originally Posted by Gurgeh

I was going to type more but Pzykosis and Laretor have done it nicely for me. Sit tight til the 28th August would be the best bet with the SE.

I agree wholeheartedly. There is no reason to rush into buying the SE Pre-Order especially as the Standard Edition - unlike the Collectors Edition - is not subject to limited supplies. August 28th is one week away from now and there will be plenty of SE Pre-Order boxes to go about. Also, by then, the confusion surrounding the offers provided by the EA Store and direct2buy will surely have evaporated.

SE Pre-Order customers will have plenty of time between August 28th and the Head Start to insert codes and download the client and once you receive the actual box at launch, you'll also gain access to the in-game bonuses associated with this offer.


-Magnus