Posted on September 8, 2008 by Mark Jacobs Well, today was an interesting day. Brett Favre starts for the J-E-T-S and Chad Pennington (who I still think is a great leader I just wish he could throw a football further than me) almost leads the Fins to a come-from-behind (no jokes please) victory. Oh yea, on a minor side-note, we launched Open Beta for WAR today in the US and Oceania and we had a semi-launch in Europe. Semi-launch is a good phrase because at times it felt like I was being run over by a gaggle of semis. The US/O launch was fantastic, nary a hiccup and almost 50K (about what Freddy Mac is worth today) concurrent players. Not too shabby for an Open Beta’s first day. Unfortunately, Europe had more than its share of problems. So, I spent about 10 hours today dealing with the situation and reading some of the type of stuff that gives humanity a black eye. Why do some people feel it is okay to threaten, curse, abuse and be downright hostile to other people over a game, especially in this case when it is only over access to a game that is still in testing (Open Beta Test = Not Yet Ready For Prime Time Players)? While I’ve become quite cynical over the decades, I still find myself amazed at times at certain people’s reactions to stuff like this. I don’t mind when people get upset but to treat other people in such a callous, mean and immature manner is really a bit much. Again, it’s not the complaints I mind and nor am I excusing GOA or Mythic when we mess up but to apparently take things like this so personally is just hard for me to understand even though I know that most of the very hateful things are being said just for effect. However, I’ve worked with online communities for a long time and I do know that some of what was being said around the ‘Net was really coming from people’s hearts. I won’t quote any of it here, since doing so would simply encourage more of it, but I would ask anyone who said those kinds of things and who reads this blog to look at yourself in the mirror and ask how you would like it if you were treated this way in the real world? Are you really the kind of person who thinks it’s socially acceptable to threaten people just because you are having problems with a game? Are you and your life so perfect that you don’t have your own issues or make your own mistakes? Like I said earlier, this is not an excuse for GOA. We had a number of conversations with them today about everything that happened. GOA messed up and their CEO has apologized and promised to do better going forward. While this isn’t enough to mollify everyone it’s still a good start. It’s just a shame that we had to wade through hours and hours of anger, frustration and bile to get where we are now. None of the actors in this little play came out of this unscathed and only those people who took these problems for what they were or who were able to register their disappointment/unhappiness/complaints without resorting to foul language, threats, etc. can hold their heads up high. Oh what a night… Mark
Mark, the thruth of the matter is that the European Open Beta was a compete failure and a disaster. I'm not being emotional here just stating a fact. Your current (preorder) and future (open beta) customers were not even able to open an account on the site, not to mention patch and play the actual game. In terms of future prospects this does NOT bide well at all for the actual launch.
GOA is fully to blame here especially because they were so bold in stating they handle it and then messed up big time.
If I ask my developers to provide a Proof of Concept for one of my business requirements, they will go away and create it and I will not interfere, especially after they've told me they're fully confident it can be easily done! But then they present the PoC to me and if I think it's good enough it will pass and development will start. If however I have any doubts or think it's plain rubbish, they will get a slap and a kick in the a** to send them flying back to the drawing board because they messed up and wasted my time money.
This is exactly what should have happened with GOA and Mythic. I wouldnt focus as much on people's foul language because it IS the Internet but also because many people who came from certain game have had enough of:
It's getting sooo old...... some people argue and say that they "payed" for beta and the others say that they bought the game not the beta.
Many many people look upon the beta access as a big "feature" or demo if you like. Cant you kinda just preorder the game, play the beta and if you dont like it you can just cancel the order before it goes retail?
I myself only actually bought a CE preorder kit and didnt actually use it to get my hands on the CE because when price was announced it cost more than twice as much as standard edition here in Norway, so I practicaly "bought" beta, early acces, and one or two ingame items for about 15$ or so. It does suck that the beta is still down, but I can outlive it
get your facts staright before talking, i paid full price for open beta, head start and full game, in one package
No, you didn't. You paid for the game itself. The head start, open beta and the items are a bonus for your willingness to reserve a copy of the game when it releases on the 18th of September.
I paid for everything. Open Beta and Headstart were part of the deal, otherwise i would have bought it elsewhere.
as I said earlier, there were kits containing 1.Open beta key 2.Early access key 3.Ingame item. You could buy this really really cheap here in norway, and if you did you got a priority on getting your hands on the CE boxes.
How much was the price for the boxed version (including early start and any other bonuses?)
How much is the price of the boxed version with no plusses?
If those two boxes worth the same, then the person above is right and you did not pay for the bonuses. If it's not, then you are right and you did pay for them.
Posted on September 8, 2008 by Mark Jacobs Well, today was an interesting day. Brett Favre starts for the J-E-T-S and Chad Pennington (who I still think is a great leader I just wish he could throw a football further than me) almost leads the Fins to a come-from-behind (no jokes please) victory. Oh yea, on a minor side-note, we launched Open Beta for WAR today in the US and Oceania and we had a semi-launch in Europe. Semi-launch is a good phrase because at times it felt like I was being run over by a gaggle of semis. The US/O launch was fantastic, nary a hiccup and almost 50K (about what Freddy Mac is worth today) concurrent players. Not too shabby for an Open Beta’s first day. Unfortunately, Europe had more than its share of problems. So, I spent about 10 hours today dealing with the situation and reading some of the type of stuff that gives humanity a black eye. Why do some people feel it is okay to threaten, curse, abuse and be downright hostile to other people over a game, especially in this case when it is only over access to a game that is still in testing (Open Beta Test = Not Yet Ready For Prime Time Players)? While I’ve become quite cynical over the decades, I still find myself amazed at times at certain people’s reactions to stuff like this. I don’t mind when people get upset but to treat other people in such a callous, mean and immature manner is really a bit much. Again, it’s not the complaints I mind and nor am I excusing GOA or Mythic when we mess up but to apparently take things like this so personally is just hard for me to understand even though I know that most of the very hateful things are being said just for effect. However, I’ve worked with online communities for a long time and I do know that some of what was being said around the ‘Net was really coming from people’s hearts. I won’t quote any of it here, since doing so would simply encourage more of it, but I would ask anyone who said those kinds of things and who reads this blog to look at yourself in the mirror and ask how you would like it if you were treated this way in the real world? Are you really the kind of person who thinks it’s socially acceptable to threaten people just because you are having problems with a game? Are you and your life so perfect that you don’t have your own issues or make your own mistakes? Like I said earlier, this is not an excuse for GOA. We had a number of conversations with them today about everything that happened. GOA messed up and their CEO has apologized and promised to do better going forward. While this isn’t enough to mollify everyone it’s still a good start. It’s just a shame that we had to wade through hours and hours of anger, frustration and bile to get where we are now. None of the actors in this little play came out of this unscathed and only those people who took these problems for what they were or who were able to register their disappointment/unhappiness/complaints without resorting to foul language, threats, etc. can hold their heads up high. Oh what a night… Mark
Mark, the thruth of the matter is that the European Open Beta was a compete failure and a disaster. I'm not being emotional here just stating a fact. Your current (preorder) and future (open beta) customers were not even able to open an account on the site, not to mention patch and play the actual game. In terms of future prospects this does NOT bide well at all for the actual launch.
GOA is fully to blame here especially because they were so bold in stating they handle it and then messed up big time.
If I ask my developers to provide a Proof of Concept for one of my business requirements, they will go away and create it and I will not interfere, especially after they've told me they're fully confident it can be easily done! But then they present the PoC to me and if I think it's good enough it will pass and development will start. If however I have any doubts or think it's plain rubbish, they will get a slap and a kick in the a** to send them flying back to the drawing board because they messed up and wasted my time money.
This is exactly what should have happened with GOA and Mythic. I wouldnt focus as much on people's foul language because it IS the Internet but also because many people who came from certain game have had enough of:
- lying
- no communcation
- condescending treatment
- eyes and ears shut to all good suggestions
- overall failure
THanks
I agree with you. This letter would have been an appropiate response if all of this were a humble mistake or if GOA would had showed repentance. But no, GOA was cocky and disdainful even thru his miserable failure even in his CEO "apology".
How much was the price for the boxed version (including early start and any other bonuses?) How much is the price of the boxed version with no plusses?
If those two boxes worth the same, then the person above is right and you did not pay for the bonuses. If it's not, then you are right and you did pay for them.
£29.99 from play.com (box version and no open beta)
£29.95 from direct2drive (electronic version and open beta)
Ingame bonuses for both are the same, both also give you headstart access (not to be confused with open beta).
total dodge..focus on a small minority of peeps who go overboard to keep the majority from being angry at still not being able to get what you promised them.
it's a company...they failed to deliver goods..someone should get fired.why is this okay in gaming and not in any other part of the business world?
and stop with the useless..i paid or didn't pay for it debate.
it's business!!!! you got a free sample..and that sample should be great,or you shouldn't go into business with them.
Personally I think Mr Hickmans comments should have been kept to himself rather than spouting stuff about his customer base.
Right or wrong, there will be a massive uproar about this blog - the only valid point he has made is regarding death threats - being angry and venting is part of any customers right, otherwise change would be something of the past.
it's a company...they failed to deliver goods..someone should get fired.why is this okay in gaming and not in any other part of the business world?
I think you would find that most companies don't sack people just because angry mob demands them to do so, neither they disclose internal disciplinary procedures - even if someone gets sacked, I doubt you'll hear about it unless from the person themselves (or someone who witnessed it).
There is somebody preaching about maturity and bad behaviour to his future customers but he does not take the responsibility for the real problem. Is this a poor try to lead our eyes into another direction?
Sorry Mr Jacobs but immaturity and bad behaviour in the internet is a very old and constant problem, that should not be used to be mixed up with the problems that GOA constructed.
He talks about a minority of ppl (such things do not apply to the majority of the customers) and even has the impertinence to say stuff like this:
"Are you really the kind of person who thinks it’s socially acceptable to threaten people just because you are having problems with a game?"
-pardon?!?
None of the users had problems WITH the game -nono.
It is more a BIG list of things that are inacceptable:
1. The website is not safe (even if it would work - who wants to register his/her personal data on a non secure site?) US uses https - why is this impossible for GOA?
2. The website does not work proper. It looks not very professional if you offer a hobby coder site for such a big game.
3. There ARE ppl who PAID for OB via pre-order, - so GOA: you took the money, you have to deliver it!
4. There was no section to fill in codes until yesterday and it does not work - US had this for a long while, good working of course.
5. Communication. Unbelievable bad. Short answers to nearly all questions that even dont touch the matter that is asked for - ppl get phrases like "all will be good" etc - how old does GOA think are their customers?
and so and so on
Mr Jacobs we do not need a preacher for good manners, we need a professional team that takes its customers and its tasks serious.
get your facts staright before talking, i paid full price for open beta, head start and full game, in one package
No, you didn't. You paid for the game itself. The head start, open beta and the items are a bonus for your willingness to reserve a copy of the game when it releases on the 18th of September.
This could only come from a US player ... for the 1000000 time , UNDER EUROPEAN LAW EVERY SINGLE GIFT INCLUDED ON THE PACKAGE ITS PART OF THE PRODUCT AND PAID BY THE PRICE ASKED .
So yes , everyone who preorerdered a CE or a SE from a premium actually paid for OB access . Just let it rest , we are tired of beating this dead horse .
Im starting to think that a sizeable proportion of online gamers are actually not interested in being reasonable at all. I am genuinely starting to believe that a great proportion of them are sad, pathetic, pedantic, negative imbeciles without even a modicum of empathy or reason in their bones. Seems that moaning and whinging has become a hobby onto itself.
Ill be the first to hold my hands up and say that I whined a fair bit at AOC and Funcom. However, a proportion of that was and is justified. WAR is a game in BETA phase for heaven's sake, and people are whining like a group of hyenas when something goes wrong!
Newsflash for small minded ignoramuses: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO WRONG IN BETA! THATS THE POINT!
Can some of the sorry souls who are so upset by things going wrong in the BETA phase tell me what they actually expected? Did they want it all to be perfect at this point? If so, then why would this phase still be classified as a BETA phase? Im actually astonished that EA/Mythic/GOA have actually elected to apologise at all given the knuckle-dragging buffoonery that is the general make-up of the vast majority of the 'complaints'. I get the impression that they are so eager to avoid the mistakes made by Funcom on the communications front that they will actually readily apologise for absolutely anything, whether it is justified or not.
I hope all of you cretinous neanderthals who are already whining realise that the upshot of what you are doing is that future games companies will not let anyone, who hasn't been carefully vetted for BETA, near their games until they are in the shops. I suppose on the other hand, this does prepare the WAR developers for the inevitable avalanche if idiocy that will come their way on general release if there is like one bug, or HEAVEN FORBID, a server crash or something!
Im starting to think that a sizeable proportion of online gamers are actually not interested in being reasonable at all. I am genuinely starting to believe that a great proportion of them are sad, pathetic, pedantic, negative imbeciles without even a modicum of empathy or reason in their bones. Seems that moaning and whinging has become a hobby onto itself. Ill be the first to hold my hands up and say that I whined a fair bit at AOC and Funcom. However, a proportion of that was and is justified. WAR is a game in BETA phase for heaven's sake, and people are whining like a group of hyenas when something goes wrong! Newsflash for small minded ignoramuses: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO WRONG IN BETA! THATS THE POINT! Can some of the sorry souls who are so upset by things going wrong in the BETA phase tell me what they actually expected? Did they want it all to be perfect at this point? If so, then why would this phase still be classified as a BETA phase? Im actually astonished that EA/Mythic/GOA have actually elected to apologise at all given the knuckle-dragging buffoonery that is the general make-up of the vast majority of the 'complaints'. I get the impression that they are so eager to avoid the mistakes made by Funcom on the communications front that they will actually readily apologise for absolutely anything, whether it is justified or not. I hope all of you cretinous neanderthals who are already whining realise that the upshot of what you are doing is that future games companies will not let anyone, who hasn't been carefully vetted for BETA, near their games until they are in the shops. I suppose on the other hand, this does prepare the WAR developers for the inevitable avalanche if idiocy that will come their way on general release if there is like one bug, or HEAVEN FORBID, a server crash or something!
A rant about ranting , nice .
First , WE didnt expected a perfect launch , WE expected to be testing the game , you known , thats what a beta its for , to test the logon servers , game servers and the game itself . NOT to test the account registration system that they boldly told us that would be working flawlessly .
This could only come from a US player ... for the 1000000 time , UNDER EUROPEAN LAW EVERY SINGLE GIFT INCLUDED ON THE PACKAGE ITS PART OF THE PRODUCT AND PAID BY THE PRICE ASKED . So yes , everyone who preorerdered a CE or a SE from a premium actually paid for OB access . Just let it rest , we are tired of beating this dead horse .
This is what is called a "legal loophole". The price of a Warhammer Online boxed game is the same price as a Warhammer Online boxed game with the goodies included. Due to local laws, the bonuses are labeled as being included in the purchase price of the game; which coincidentally as was earlier mentioned is the same price as the game without the bonuses.
This is the exact same thing as Canadians being asked a question whenever they win a contest. It is a loophole that allows companies to give away products and still be in compliance with local laws. This is nothing more than a legal loophole. While it appears to European authorities that you did in fact pay for said bonuses to be in compliance, you really did get them for free. A box without said goodies costs the same amount of money.
Simple fact is , if it happened in the US then heads would have rolled but cos it s in Europe the dont care ..
Yes a socalledlame apology by a CEO of GOA but tbh its still made no difference . still no connecetion or validation of emails and accounts ..i think GOA need to evolve from the Spectrum48k coding and get their shit together.
As for hostilities , yes people vented hate , anger at EA,Mythic and mostly the incompetence of GOA but i didnt read nothing that was way over the top,. As for the blog with the "taking the Piss" atitude of the way its put together, turning around their major problems , to blame people complaining.
Like i said on a different topic, if this happened in US it would have been fixed ASAP as they woulda shit their pants out of fear of false advertising of a product.
Either way its STILL not working in WAR-Eroupe.com , validation still not working , Like WTF are you people doing , Having your coffee and rolls and having a chit chat and a then think about fixing it .
Im starting to think that a sizeable proportion of online gamers are actually not interested in being reasonable at all. I am genuinely starting to believe that a great proportion of them are sad, pathetic, pedantic, negative imbeciles without even a modicum of empathy or reason in their bones. Seems that moaning and whinging has become a hobby onto itself. Ill be the first to hold my hands up and say that I whined a fair bit at AOC and Funcom. However, a proportion of that was and is justified. WAR is a game in BETA phase for heaven's sake, and people are whining like a group of hyenas when something goes wrong! Newsflash for small minded ignoramuses: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO WRONG IN BETA! THATS THE POINT! Can some of the sorry souls who are so upset by things going wrong in the BETA phase tell me what they actually expected? Did they want it all to be perfect at this point? If so, then why would this phase still be classified as a BETA phase? Im actually astonished that EA/Mythic/GOA have actually elected to apologise at all given the knuckle-dragging buffoonery that is the general make-up of the vast majority of the 'complaints'. I get the impression that they are so eager to avoid the mistakes made by Funcom on the communications front that they will actually readily apologise for absolutely anything, whether it is justified or not. I hope all of you cretinous neanderthals who are already whining realise that the upshot of what you are doing is that future games companies will not let anyone, who hasn't been carefully vetted for BETA, near their games until they are in the shops. I suppose on the other hand, this does prepare the WAR developers for the inevitable avalanche if idiocy that will come their way on general release if there is like one bug, or HEAVEN FORBID, a server crash or something!
If this was one month before release I'd agree with your comments, but the week before doesn't sit well with me, especially since our US counter parts are having so much fun!
Im starting to think that a sizeable proportion of online gamers are actually not interested in being reasonable at all. I am genuinely starting to believe that a great proportion of them are sad, pathetic, pedantic, negative imbeciles without even a modicum of empathy or reason in their bones. Seems that moaning and whinging has become a hobby onto itself. Ill be the first to hold my hands up and say that I whined a fair bit at AOC and Funcom. However, a proportion of that was and is justified. WAR is a game in BETA phase for heaven's sake, and people are whining like a group of hyenas when something goes wrong! Newsflash for small minded ignoramuses: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO WRONG IN BETA! THATS THE POINT! Can some of the sorry souls who are so upset by things going wrong in the BETA phase tell me what they actually expected? Did they want it all to be perfect at this point? If so, then why would this phase still be classified as a BETA phase? Im actually astonished that EA/Mythic/GOA have actually elected to apologise at all given the knuckle-dragging buffoonery that is the general make-up of the vast majority of the 'complaints'. I get the impression that they are so eager to avoid the mistakes made by Funcom on the communications front that they will actually readily apologise for absolutely anything, whether it is justified or not. I hope all of you cretinous neanderthals who are already whining realise that the upshot of what you are doing is that future games companies will not let anyone, who hasn't been carefully vetted for BETA, near their games until they are in the shops. I suppose on the other hand, this does prepare the WAR developers for the inevitable avalanche if idiocy that will come their way on general release if there is like one bug, or HEAVEN FORBID, a server crash or something!
Dude! seriously....
The "Its Beta so we can release a pile of crap" Excuse is so old its in a retirement home.
--------------------------------------- Opinions are like assholes - everyone has one and they all stink
Simple fact is , if it happened in the US then heads would have rolled but cos it s in Europe the dont care .. Yes a socalledlame apology by a CEO of GOA but tbh its still made no difference . still no connecetion or validation of emails and accounts ..i think GOA need to evolve from the Spectrum48k coding and get their shit together. As for hostilities , yes people vented hate , anger at EA,Mythic and mostly the incompetence of GOA but i didnt read nothing that was way over the top,. As for the blog with the "taking the Piss" atitude of the way its put together, turning around their major problems , to blame people complaining. Like i said on a different topic, if this happened in US it would have been fixed ASAP as they woulda shit their pants out of fear of false advertising of a product. Either way its STILL not working in WAR-Eroupe.com , validation still not working , Like WTF are you people doing , Having your coffee and rolls and having a chit chat and a then think about fixing it . Figner out of arse please.
"Tractor beam comes on tuesday."
Really I dont expect ANYTHING working before tuesday. I hope they all loose their jobs. A delay of a few hours, fine. But days? Come on.
GOA totally messed up the acount system and thus open beta. Even now theres only 1 server [ full with 1k players lol ?! its true ] online.. so even if people manage to luckly go over the account system they wont be able to do nada eheh
WAR in Europe had the worst start i have seen in an mmo ever.
Luckly for them, the game is good and fun.. but the fact of beeing a good game is beeing shadowed and will be hurt by how bad GOA is performing making fun of many hundreds of thousand players in Europe who were waiting for this past Sunday and had already warnned GOA there would be issues with their laziness.. wich unfortunaly was confirmed.
This is what is called a "legal loophole". The price of a Warhammer Online boxed game is the same price as a Warhammer Online boxed game with the goodies included. Due to local laws, the bonuses are labeled as being included in the purchase price of the game; which coincidentally as was early mentioned is the same price as the game without the bonuses.
This is the exact same thing as Canadians being asked a question whenever they win a contest. It is a loophole that allows companies to give away products and still be in compliance with local laws. This is nothing more than a legal loophole. While it appears to European authorities that you did in fact pay for said bonuses to be in compliance, you really did get them for free. A box without said goodies costs the same amount of money.
QFT
The open beta was just a bonus. Consider it a "thank you for having faith in our product and pre-ordering, now here's something from us, a chance to give it a test earlier than the rest".
The sad sad conclusion for me is that I pre-ordered this game (since I like collecting MMOs and I should really give it at least a try) and followed its OB launch only to see a dissapointing sample of the future WAR community to be...
Seriously, I do not look forward to meet these kind of people in-game...
The one thing that plaques today's MMORPGs are elitist, know-it all and annoying people encountered while playing them.
People who will swear/harass everyone with the most minor excuse.
*sigh*
However I will play WAR and hope for the best
Good luck in the waiting game folks, we all need it
Comments
You cant sell a car to someone and when its delivered remove the wheels can you?
Mark, the thruth of the matter is that the European Open Beta was a compete failure and a disaster. I'm not being emotional here just stating a fact. Your current (preorder) and future (open beta) customers were not even able to open an account on the site, not to mention patch and play the actual game. In terms of future prospects this does NOT bide well at all for the actual launch.
GOA is fully to blame here especially because they were so bold in stating they handle it and then messed up big time.
If I ask my developers to provide a Proof of Concept for one of my business requirements, they will go away and create it and I will not interfere, especially after they've told me they're fully confident it can be easily done! But then they present the PoC to me and if I think it's good enough it will pass and development will start. If however I have any doubts or think it's plain rubbish, they will get a slap and a kick in the a** to send them flying back to the drawing board because they messed up and wasted my time money.
This is exactly what should have happened with GOA and Mythic. I wouldnt focus as much on people's foul language because it IS the Internet but also because many people who came from certain game have had enough of:
- lying
- no communcation
- condescending treatment
- eyes and ears shut to all good suggestions
- overall failure
THanks
Strawman logic, come back and try again
It's getting sooo old...... some people argue and say that they "payed" for beta and the others say that they bought the game not the beta.
Many many people look upon the beta access as a big "feature" or demo if you like. Cant you kinda just preorder the game, play the beta and if you dont like it you can just cancel the order before it goes retail?
I myself only actually bought a CE preorder kit and didnt actually use it to get my hands on the CE because when price was announced it cost more than twice as much as standard edition here in Norway, so I practicaly "bought" beta, early acces, and one or two ingame items for about 15$ or so. It does suck that the beta is still down, but I can outlive it
No, you didn't. You paid for the game itself. The head start, open beta and the items are a bonus for your willingness to reserve a copy of the game when it releases on the 18th of September.
I paid for everything. Open Beta and Headstart were part of the deal, otherwise i would have bought it elsewhere.
*in Darth Vader voice*
I WANT RESULTS NOT APOLOGIES!
as I said earlier, there were kits containing 1.Open beta key 2.Early access key 3.Ingame item. You could buy this really really cheap here in norway, and if you did you got a priority on getting your hands on the CE boxes.
Open beta or not, part of the lure for buying CE/SE was to get access to Open beta and hence this is something we have paid for.
Business is business Jeff, you fail to deliver, you will indeed get every nasty asshat on the net singing your praises ............. not
BUT and I say BUT
This doesn't excuse death threats of any kind - this is a game after all
How much was the price for the boxed version (including early start and any other bonuses?)
How much is the price of the boxed version with no plusses?
If those two boxes worth the same, then the person above is right and you did not pay for the bonuses. If it's not, then you are right and you did pay for them.
Mark, the thruth of the matter is that the European Open Beta was a compete failure and a disaster. I'm not being emotional here just stating a fact. Your current (preorder) and future (open beta) customers were not even able to open an account on the site, not to mention patch and play the actual game. In terms of future prospects this does NOT bide well at all for the actual launch.
GOA is fully to blame here especially because they were so bold in stating they handle it and then messed up big time.
If I ask my developers to provide a Proof of Concept for one of my business requirements, they will go away and create it and I will not interfere, especially after they've told me they're fully confident it can be easily done! But then they present the PoC to me and if I think it's good enough it will pass and development will start. If however I have any doubts or think it's plain rubbish, they will get a slap and a kick in the a** to send them flying back to the drawing board because they messed up and wasted my time money.
This is exactly what should have happened with GOA and Mythic. I wouldnt focus as much on people's foul language because it IS the Internet but also because many people who came from certain game have had enough of:
- lying
- no communcation
- condescending treatment
- eyes and ears shut to all good suggestions
- overall failure
THanks
I agree with you. This letter would have been an appropiate response if all of this were a humble mistake or if GOA would had showed repentance. But no, GOA was cocky and disdainful even thru his miserable failure even in his CEO "apology".
£29.99 from play.com (box version and no open beta)
£29.95 from direct2drive (electronic version and open beta)
Ingame bonuses for both are the same, both also give you headstart access (not to be confused with open beta).
i'd have to side with the bullshit peeps
total dodge..focus on a small minority of peeps who go overboard to keep the majority from being angry at still not being able to get what you promised them.
it's a company...they failed to deliver goods..someone should get fired.why is this okay in gaming and not in any other part of the business world?
and stop with the useless..i paid or didn't pay for it debate.
it's business!!!! you got a free sample..and that sample should be great,or you shouldn't go into business with them.
Personally I think Mr Hickmans comments should have been kept to himself rather than spouting stuff about his customer base.
Right or wrong, there will be a massive uproar about this blog - the only valid point he has made is regarding death threats - being angry and venting is part of any customers right, otherwise change would be something of the past.
I think you would find that most companies don't sack people just because angry mob demands them to do so, neither they disclose internal disciplinary procedures - even if someone gets sacked, I doubt you'll hear about it unless from the person themselves (or someone who witnessed it).
LOL
There is somebody preaching about maturity and bad behaviour to his future customers but he does not take the responsibility for the real problem. Is this a poor try to lead our eyes into another direction?
Sorry Mr Jacobs but immaturity and bad behaviour in the internet is a very old and constant problem, that should not be used to be mixed up with the problems that GOA constructed.
He talks about a minority of ppl (such things do not apply to the majority of the customers) and even has the impertinence to say stuff like this:
"Are you really the kind of person who thinks it’s socially acceptable to threaten people just because you are having problems with a game?"
-pardon?!?
None of the users had problems WITH the game -nono.
It is more a BIG list of things that are inacceptable:
1. The website is not safe (even if it would work - who wants to register his/her personal data on a non secure site?) US uses https - why is this impossible for GOA?
2. The website does not work proper. It looks not very professional if you offer a hobby coder site for such a big game.
3. There ARE ppl who PAID for OB via pre-order, - so GOA: you took the money, you have to deliver it!
4. There was no section to fill in codes until yesterday and it does not work - US had this for a long while, good working of course.
5. Communication. Unbelievable bad. Short answers to nearly all questions that even dont touch the matter that is asked for - ppl get phrases like "all will be good" etc - how old does GOA think are their customers?
and so and so on
Mr Jacobs we do not need a preacher for good manners, we need a professional team that takes its customers and its tasks serious.
No, you didn't. You paid for the game itself. The head start, open beta and the items are a bonus for your willingness to reserve a copy of the game when it releases on the 18th of September.
This could only come from a US player ... for the 1000000 time , UNDER EUROPEAN LAW EVERY SINGLE GIFT INCLUDED ON THE PACKAGE ITS PART OF THE PRODUCT AND PAID BY THE PRICE ASKED .
So yes , everyone who preorerdered a CE or a SE from a premium actually paid for OB access . Just let it rest , we are tired of beating this dead horse .
Im starting to think that a sizeable proportion of online gamers are actually not interested in being reasonable at all. I am genuinely starting to believe that a great proportion of them are sad, pathetic, pedantic, negative imbeciles without even a modicum of empathy or reason in their bones. Seems that moaning and whinging has become a hobby onto itself.
Ill be the first to hold my hands up and say that I whined a fair bit at AOC and Funcom. However, a proportion of that was and is justified. WAR is a game in BETA phase for heaven's sake, and people are whining like a group of hyenas when something goes wrong!
Newsflash for small minded ignoramuses: THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO WRONG IN BETA! THATS THE POINT!
Can some of the sorry souls who are so upset by things going wrong in the BETA phase tell me what they actually expected? Did they want it all to be perfect at this point? If so, then why would this phase still be classified as a BETA phase? Im actually astonished that EA/Mythic/GOA have actually elected to apologise at all given the knuckle-dragging buffoonery that is the general make-up of the vast majority of the 'complaints'. I get the impression that they are so eager to avoid the mistakes made by Funcom on the communications front that they will actually readily apologise for absolutely anything, whether it is justified or not.
I hope all of you cretinous neanderthals who are already whining realise that the upshot of what you are doing is that future games companies will not let anyone, who hasn't been carefully vetted for BETA, near their games until they are in the shops. I suppose on the other hand, this does prepare the WAR developers for the inevitable avalanche if idiocy that will come their way on general release if there is like one bug, or HEAVEN FORBID, a server crash or something!
A rant about ranting , nice .
First , WE didnt expected a perfect launch , WE expected to be testing the game , you known , thats what a beta its for , to test the logon servers , game servers and the game itself . NOT to test the account registration system that they boldly told us that would be working flawlessly .
This is what is called a "legal loophole". The price of a Warhammer Online boxed game is the same price as a Warhammer Online boxed game with the goodies included. Due to local laws, the bonuses are labeled as being included in the purchase price of the game; which coincidentally as was earlier mentioned is the same price as the game without the bonuses.
This is the exact same thing as Canadians being asked a question whenever they win a contest. It is a loophole that allows companies to give away products and still be in compliance with local laws. This is nothing more than a legal loophole. While it appears to European authorities that you did in fact pay for said bonuses to be in compliance, you really did get them for free. A box without said goodies costs the same amount of money.
Simple fact is , if it happened in the US then heads would have rolled but cos it s in Europe the dont care ..
Yes a socalledlame apology by a CEO of GOA but tbh its still made no difference . still no connecetion or validation of emails and accounts ..i think GOA need to evolve from the Spectrum48k coding and get their shit together.
As for hostilities , yes people vented hate , anger at EA,Mythic and mostly the incompetence of GOA but i didnt read nothing that was way over the top,. As for the blog with the "taking the Piss" atitude of the way its put together, turning around their major problems , to blame people complaining.
Like i said on a different topic, if this happened in US it would have been fixed ASAP as they woulda shit their pants out of fear of false advertising of a product.
Either way its STILL not working in WAR-Eroupe.com , validation still not working , Like WTF are you people doing , Having your coffee and rolls and having a chit chat and a then think about fixing it .
Figner out of arse please.
If this was one month before release I'd agree with your comments, but the week before doesn't sit well with me, especially since our US counter parts are having so much fun!
Dude! seriously....
The "Its Beta so we can release a pile of crap" Excuse is so old its in a retirement home.
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Opinions are like assholes - everyone has one and they all stink
"Tractor beam comes on tuesday."
Really I dont expect ANYTHING working before tuesday. I hope they all loose their jobs. A delay of a few hours, fine. But days? Come on.
exactly.
GOA totally messed up the acount system and thus open beta. Even now theres only 1 server [ full with 1k players lol ?! its true ] online.. so even if people manage to luckly go over the account system they wont be able to do nada eheh
WAR in Europe had the worst start i have seen in an mmo ever.
Luckly for them, the game is good and fun.. but the fact of beeing a good game is beeing shadowed and will be hurt by how bad GOA is performing making fun of many hundreds of thousand players in Europe who were waiting for this past Sunday and had already warnned GOA there would be issues with their laziness.. wich unfortunaly was confirmed.
QFT
The open beta was just a bonus. Consider it a "thank you for having faith in our product and pre-ordering, now here's something from us, a chance to give it a test earlier than the rest".
The sad sad conclusion for me is that I pre-ordered this game (since I like collecting MMOs and I should really give it at least a try) and followed its OB launch only to see a dissapointing sample of the future WAR community to be...
Seriously, I do not look forward to meet these kind of people in-game...
The one thing that plaques today's MMORPGs are elitist, know-it all and annoying people encountered while playing them.
People who will swear/harass everyone with the most minor excuse.
*sigh*
However I will play WAR and hope for the best
Good luck in the waiting game folks, we all need it