So is EA/Mythic going to pull a Turbine/Codemasters and segregate EU/US players?

virtuella

Turbine/codemasters recently released some info that Europeans can't play on US servers even if they have bought the US version and vice versa.

This is now splitting up international guilds because they can't play together on the same servers.

There is a lot of american guilds that have some Europeans in their guilds.



Any idea if EA/Mythic has any plans of this or will they do like DAOC where you just have to buy the US version to play on US servers?



Even Blizzard caved in and changed their terms of user agreement and now allows people to play where they want if they just have the correct version.

DuraheLL

Originally posted by virtuella

Turbine/codemasters recently released some info that Europeans can't play on US servers even if they have bought the US version and vice versa.

This is now splitting up international guilds because they can't play together on the same servers.

There is a lot of american guilds that have some Europeans in their guilds.



Any idea if EA/Mythic has any plans of this or will they do like DAOC where you just have to buy the US version to play on US servers?



Even Blizzard caved in and changed their terms of user agreement and now allows people to play where they want if they just have the correct version.

That sounds just crazy. Ofc people should have the possibility to play with whomever they want (well maby an exception from Asian servers)

cupertino

I realy dont see the point in someone in the EU playing on a US server for 1 your going to be about 8 hours out of sync, I get home from work and get online at say 18:00 (my time) if im on a US server by the time my guild mates get home from work and start playing at 18:00 (their time) its going to be midnight or more my time.



Also from a RvR Point of view its better to have players playing at about the same time, Getting a big US guild loggin on at 4am EU time and making a big impact in taking over a city becuase the EU players are not online to stop em is hardly fair.



Also from a GM point of view, no company wants to employee a team of GM's 24/7, so only having EU realms they only need to keep 1 or 2 GM's online at night rather than a team to service the US players playing while EU players are a sleep.

Adythiel

The servers will be up for 24 hours, what's the problem with having EU players on American servers? When I was playing in Midgard on Kay, my guild was frequently hanging out and playing with a guild from Sweden.

gpett

I hate when devs liscence a game to multiple publishers.  Contractual issues always segregate players.  In a perfect world any MMO should offer servers by region but not force anyone to play on any particular server.  I personally prefer international servers.



Offer:



International servers

Pacific Asia server

East Asia server

European server

UK server

North Americas server

South Americas server



If a company offered regional servers AND international servers then everyone could get what they wanted.





Or lets take this one step further.  Currently MMOs just sell the client to players.  What if future MMos also sold the server install?  So players could set up their own versions of the game world and password protect it just so thier friends or community could play in it exclusively.  Anywho, that is unrelated but an interesting idea.

Coldmeat

Most likely it's a contractual deal with GOA, since as far as I can tell, they're the EU distro for the game.

Sucks for the EU folks, unless GOA really has their act this time around. Can't imagine why Mythic would have chosen them again, unless the problems I've heard/read about the EU servers for DAoC are somewhat over exaggerated.

Out of curiosity, is it really that hard for EU people to get a copy of the US version of an MMO? Shipping time notwithstanding.

Kyleran

Originally posted by Adythiel

The servers will be up for 24 hours, what's the problem with having EU players on American servers? When I was playing in Midgard on Kay, my guild was frequently hanging out and playing with a guild from Sweden.

My only issue with Europeans playing on US servers en masse is that right now in DAOC on the Bossiney cluster you have the phenomenon of all the keeps being taken by the Euro players during their prime time...and then the US players take them all back again after the Euro players go to bed. 

Except for weekends, neither side puts up a really credible defense....

Belsameth

Originally posted by Coldmeat


Most likely it's a contractual deal with GOA, since as far as I can tell, they're the EU distro for the game.
Sucks for the EU folks, unless GOA really has their act this time around. Can't imagine why Mythic would have chosen them again, unless the problems I've heard/read about the EU servers for DAoC are somewhat over exaggerated.


Out of curiosity, is it really that hard for EU people to get a copy of the US version of an MMO? Shipping time notwithstanding.

From the WAR faq it seems like Mythic is well aware of the nightmare GOA was for us EU players

They're aiming for synced patching this time (so no delays for EU) It seems to me GOA is on a far tighter leash this time (and good thing too)



I can, however, understand how they want to separate the EU and the US. It's a CS nightmare to have oversea connections, especially if those are the ones acting up.

Horusgirl

Originally posted by cupertino

I realy dont see the point in someone in the EU playing on a US server for 1 your going to be about 8 hours out of sync, I get home from work and get online at say 18:00 (my time) if im on a US server by the time my guild mates get home from work and start playing at 18:00 (their time) its going to be midnight or more my time.



Also from a RvR Point of view its better to have players playing at about the same time, Getting a big US guild loggin on at 4am EU time and making a big impact in taking over a city becuase the EU players are not online to stop em is hardly fair.



Also from a GM point of view, no company wants to employee a team of GM's 24/7, so only having EU realms they only need to keep 1 or 2 GM's online at night rather than a team to service the US players playing while EU players are a sleep.

Actually I'm considering to play on the US Servers.

I think that there will be quite a number of other people from europe to play with, at my time. Especially seeing how many of the former  DAoC players despise GOA. It's quite possible that the EU Servers will be some kind of stepchild servers again and I'm not putting up with that.



Now, if they're taking over your city while you're sleeping(I don't think it will be that easy) everything will be reset when you play again, doesn't affect you that much.



If one is playing on a server out of their timezone, one should accept that the GM staff will be focused on the real primetime, but considering GOA's GM support in DAoC that might be even better.



And by the way I'd rather put up with slower oversea connections than with the routing nightmare that is opentransit.

virtuella

Looks like EA/Mythic/GOA is making the same stupid thing as Turbine/Codemasters

What's is up with all those companies segregating the world.

We gamers try to build bridges across the world and the gamecompanies burn those bridges.

This totally sucks for all the international guilds that has planned to Join Warhammer as one guild.



Q: Will Americans and Europeans be on the same servers?



A: No, our partner GOA is handling all European distribution and all the European servers. They're also handling the translation issues for the German, Italian, Spanish, and French players.

jor8888

Why is it like that?  in daoc u have europe guilds taking relics in the morning while US guids holding relics at night its impossible for other realms to get the relics back.

 

 

 

kraiden

I myself like the idea. Mythic is known for learning from their mistakes. I can totally say that about this team.

One of the biggest problems in daoc was the population imballances. what TIME people where online also worked heavy into what happened in the total war. Let me spell it out for you guys who wherent there 6 years ago.

I played midgard with a large guild mostly filled with people living in the north east. So arounf 8EST we would have a huge army out and get in great battles against out rival guild in albion. these battles would go on until around 11-12 at night then suddenly dwindle as people loged off for work. seems pretty ballanced right? well the problem occured when at 1am when the other guild in our alliance... and aussie guild, loged on. The aussies have no opposistion to fight against to they take over the entire zone while we sleep.



in short,you generaly want to try and have populations on servers spike at the same times. this is why "eastern time zone servers" and such would make good options.
 
-Hasani-

Yaros

I hope they won't do such stupid thing. If they won't allow me play with my guild and try to force me to play on GOA servers I just won't buy WAR

Areel

If the game was mostly PvE, I'd say it wouldn't matter.  But with RvR, you'd see some severe population spikes at different times of the day.  I'm sure that Mythic is willing to annoy a few international guild members, for the greater good of the game.

CaleSentari

Originally posted by cupertino

I realy dont see the point in someone in the EU playing on a US server for 1 your going to be about 8 hours out of sync, I get home from work and get online at say 18:00 (my time) if im on a US server by the time my guild mates get home from work and start playing at 18:00 (their time) its going to be midnight or more my time.



Also from a RvR Point of view its better to have players playing at about the same time, Getting a big US guild loggin on at 4am EU time and making a big impact in taking over a city becuase the EU players are not online to stop em is hardly fair.



Also from a GM point of view, no company wants to employee a team of GM's 24/7, so only having EU realms they only need to keep 1 or 2 GM's online at night rather than a team to service the US players playing while EU players are a sleep.

Hmm I definately see your points Cupertino but let me offer small opposing views.

1.  I have several guildmates who work 2nd or 3rd shift.  Alot of people do in fact and tbh I'm surprised you didn't think of this circumstance.  Not everyone works 9-5, and it's alot easier to be able to log-in @ 3-4 am EST (or whatever, just picked random awkward time) and find someone to hang out with then it is to find someone in RL at around this time, at least if you do happen to work one of those odd shifts. 

2.  I can see the possible issues here.  If that EU guild is strong @ one time they will be weak @ at another.  Fairness due to time constraints shouldn't be the deciding factor imo.   Not everyone plays at EXACTLY the same times, of course the US or EU may have their peaks like any other activity/timeframe, but to me this isn't a deciding argument in the discussion of splitting international playerbases.  I can see why it could be detriment to RvR, but at the same time I think there is more to gain from having an International community than only a chance at slightly better balance in RvR play.

3.  This I can agree with to a certain point too.  Yes it would be a pain to have a GM team on 24/7 to serve US players.  But then again, if the population is not split then more consolidation could be done with the GM team as well.  If the support for U.S. is run by primarily the same people who do support for EU, then this "issue" can be fixed by having a GM team that is diversified in their location.

If it were two seperate GM teams/billing teams/publishers whatver for EU and US marketplaces, then factor #3 becomes more difficult to deal with.  If they can run it all I really don't see an issue.

Tyfreaky

I have been trying to avoid this thread... but....



I have to say I approve of regional segregation.



How is it fair to say: "it will break up international guilds', while then saying " I am OK with with segregating  the Asian servers "



If we are going to segregate then lets do so, it helps lag and ping, it keeps others from other countries from using North American servers as a base of operation for gold farming and power leveling services.



I understand that some people want to play with friends from Europe and Down Under, but I would rather be on segregated servers than have to deal with gold farmers from other countries. There is little enough PvE in WAR in the first place, I don't want to compete with a corporation (IGN and others) that would rather prevent me from playing, and thus need to buy their product, than let me play in a fair and balanced way.

virtuella

Originally posted by Tyfreaky

I have been trying to avoid this thread... but....



I have to say I approve of regional segregation.



How is it fair to say: "it will break up international guilds', while then saying " I am OK with with segregating  the Asian servers "



If we are going to segregate then lets do so, it helps lag and ping, it keeps others from other countries from using North American servers as a base of operation for gold farming and power leveling services.



I understand that some people want to play with friends from Europe and Down Under, but I would rather be on segregated servers than have to deal with gold farmers from other countries. There is little enough PvE in WAR in the first place, I don't want to compete with a corporation (IGN and others) that would rather prevent me from playing, and thus need to buy their product, than let me play in a fair and balanced way.

Enough with those goldfarmers.

It's not like they are taking over the world.

Sheesh.

Goldfarmers comes from all over the world,and if you did a search you would find out that some of the largest online goldsales is done by american based websites.

Stop using the asians as an excuse for segregating players.

Blaim the gamecompanies for creating a game where goldfarming leads to an advantage.

If i should decide every major lootitem should be bind on pickup to avoid players with more gold having an advantage.

That way players had to fight for their own stuff and not just buy it from real life money.



As for the ping and latency.

Where does it hurt you if someone logs in from Europe?

It's the player that comes from Europe that has to deal with latency and higher ping not you.



I played DAOC several years on Merlin server as midgaardplayer and i come from Europe.

It's true that relic raids at some times was done on weird hours when the US players slept in the morning,but overall i think the raids were done in US peaktime.

I played mostly at the night here in Europe when it was peak hours in US because i was in a US guild called Evil Dead on Merlin.



There also is players from Europe that  chooses to play on US servers because their playing schedule fits them better if they only can play at night here in Europe when the EU servers are totally dead.

Then there is the Europeans that want to play on US servers to avoid the languageissues here on EU servers where the server is filled with different languages sometimes and because of that they play on US servers where everyone speaks english.



I can't find any good arguments why to segregate the Europeans from the Americans.

Arath

Originally posted by virtuella



I can't find any good arguments why to segregate the Europeans from the Americans.

Then your not really reading what everybody else has to say are you? Lets look at it objectively shall we? devide the pros and the cons from personal preferance and see which would be better.

Segregation:

Pros:

- You have dedicated servers with support around your own prime time

- Lower lag and ping

- Prime time where most people will be only when you are on

Cons:

- Split up international guilds

- A number of players with strange play times will have to play outside of peak time

No Segregation:

Pros:

- Internation guilds kept together

- World is alive 24 hours a day

Cons:

- Potential lag discrepancies between players (may or may not make a big difference in game)

- Lack of support (it is possible to have support built around 2 prime times however so its a minor con).

Personally the player should be given a choice! I never complained about playing on servers based in Japan when I played Final Fantasy XI and enjoyed experiencing a different type of game depending when I logged into the game world. I had imported however so at times found myself both outside the JP and NA prime times (since the game wasnt launched in Europe yet). People with strange play times and international guilds are a minority so to not please that crowd isnt a mayor problem as personally feelings about the subject aside.

Also this idea of the world being dominated by the NA players during their prime time and then EU players in their prime time lack seeing the greater picture. This will be determined by the player base and will be irrespective of whether the servers are segregated or not. If there is an awesome guild on the Order side which happens to be from NA and dominates during there prime time and then an awesome EU guild on the destruction side that dominates during their prime time it wouldnt matter whether they were on seperate servers or not it wouldnt change the fact that they own. NA will fight each other during their prime time and EU will fight each other during their prime time.

To reiterate many of the problems people are stating would happen irrespective of whether the servers were segregated to specific regions or not with most pros and cons being from the company perspective. Its personal choice and preference that would suffer but nothing mayor so really I dont care either way. Players will complain whatever the outcome.

 

scorchshin

 I wish they would let EU play on US servers. I play in the early morning because I work late. So playing at this time would give me more players to play with. Playing DAoC in non prime time sucked. You would run around and not see anything. Also I hate when people say they would steal our relics in the middle of the night. So you stole them back in the middle of the night from my point of view. I think if EU players are aloud to play with US it will make the game better. More population on all the time makes it so you can log in any time and have a good fight not just prime time.

virtuella

From a financial point of view it's pretty weird that they segregate the players.

The more EU players that play on US servers,the more players fit onto each server because there is this 6-9 hours time difference.

So when some EU players log on the servers there is a low population of americans online.



This means the gamecompany can open fewer servers to support a larger group of players = more profit.

That profit they loose out on now,plus the profit from lost accounts because some international guilds wont buy the game because of this segregation.

LOTRO has allready lost a lot of international guilds because of this.

The largest i saw was a 106 man international guild who said they wouldn't buy it anyway but instead wait for warhammer.

Seems like they are not going to buy this game anyway.



As a European player i couldn't care less about support on US servers.

My ping is under 300 to US servers so that's no problem at all.

I have a 130 ping to UO's servers.

That's lower than some of the east coast US players have to the west coast.





It's totally disrespectful for the international playerbase that helped Mythic to the position where they are today.

A lot of the international DAOC guilds plans to come to warhammer but now they are not able to play together because of this.

If it was not for all these old players Mythic wouldn't be where they were today and now Mythic is pissing on them.

Shame on you Mythic.



I wonder if it's Electronic Arts that is pulling the puppets in Mythic now.

-Ellessar-

I'm a huge Warhammer fan.  I've been at it since '93 and I'm also a huge fan of MMOs in general, but if this segregation is true then I might not play this game after all.  I can understand their (Mythic's) reasoning, but to be frank "the people" are the most important aspect to me when I play any MMO.  No matter how great the game actually is, if I can't play with the people I have been gaming with for years then I simply will not play.  As my group of gamers consists of several European gamers, WAR might be out of the question now.  Not to mention all the US Military service members which our group contains.  As I use to be one myself, I can attest to how little control you have over where you are stationed one minute to the next.  Being transfered and suddenly no longer being able to play on your server would be something that would drive me right out of the game without question.   

Horusgirl

This is not about having or not having European servers. They already confirmed that they would have European servers. And I think that's a good thing(but not that GOA provides them). However the point is they COULD(and I never heard anything indicating this) block european IPs and  forbid european people to play on mythic servers. There's no problem if they don't do that since you'd only have to buy the US or EU version of the game and could play where you want.



Oh and btw there were lot's of ninja raids on the german DAoC servers too, and you know what?  Pretty much the whole german speaking community was located in ONE timezone   You'll not be rid of that by not allowing EU players on mythic servers.