Official ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of SOE Europe Announcement Feedback Thread [Archive]

Kuroitsuki

01-12-2012, 08:04 PM

<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>Please use the following thread to discuss the official ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of Sony Online Entertainment in Europe announcement, which was posted here: <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=513482">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513482</a>.Please remember to keep all posts CONSTRUCTIVE. Thank you!!</blockquote>Firstly; two words... Live Gamer... we all know how well that turned out.To be honest, it is all very well cutting and pasted a press release into the forums, but what EU gamers want to know WHAT IS THE IMPACTIs it only the EU non English servers? does it include Splitpaw? Billing? What happens to all our grandfathering / subs we paid to SoE, all our SC items, LoN cards etc. As someone else pointed out, Alaplaya recently deleted all ingame items bought in a reboot. A similar fate was to be has when Night Owl Games divorced SoE over Dungeon Maker, world was rebooted and all SC items / progress lost.Veteran status, billing, price, updates, cx service, portability (i.e tfer to US / EU servers)... Is SC still an option, what about SoE GTC?Most EU customers have only just forgiven you for the "ubisoft years" of DoF and KoS where you could not buy the Xpac at all in Europe and you could not get from the US because of "licensing terms". Seriously, I got my copy of DoF the day after release and I was considered "lucky", lucky cos the servers were offline for 18hours after patchday... lolIs it a case of they run the servers and market the game and get a revenue share, but otherwise status quo?Frankly I find it disgusting that this information has been in the public domain for over 24 hours before we even get a courtesy post. PR is not difficult.....Are refunds going to be available to people that paid for years subs if they do not want their data transfered to a 3rd party?the list goes on.... Get the bloody Producer or Smedley on these boards to answer stuff PDQ!

dawy

01-12-2012, 08:14 PM

<cite>Lexicon@Splitpaw wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>Please use the following thread to discuss the official ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of Sony Online Entertainment in Europe announcement, which was posted here: <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=513482">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513482</a>.Please remember to keep all posts CONSTRUCTIVE. Thank you!!</blockquote>Firstly; two words... Live Gamer... we all know how well that turned out.To be honest, it is all very well cutting and pasted a press release into the forums, but what EU gamers want to know WHAT IS THE IMPACTIs it only the EU non English servers? does it include Splitpaw? Billing? What happens to all our grandfathering / subs we paid to SoE, all our SC items, LoN cards etc. As someone else pointed out, Alaplaya recently deleted all ingame items bought in a reboot. A similar fate was to be has when Night Owl Games divorced SoE over Dungeon Maker, world was rebooted and all SC items / progress lost.Veteran status, billing, price, updates, cx service, portability (i.e tfer to US / EU servers)... Is SC still an option, what about SoE GTC?Most EU customers have only just forgiven you for the "ubisoft years" of DoF and KoS where you could not buy the Xpac at all in Europe and you could not get from the US because of "licensing terms". Seriously, I got my copy of DoF the day after release and I was considered "lucky", lucky cos the servers were offline for 18hours after patchday... lolIs it a case of they run the servers and market the game and get a revenue share, but otherwise status quo?Frankly I find it disgusting that this information has been in the public domain for over 24 hours before we even get a courtesy post. PR is not difficult.....Are refunds going to be available to people that paid for years subs if they do not want their data transfered to a 3rd party?the list goes on.... Get the bloody Producer or Smedley on these boards to answer stuff PDQ!</blockquote>Good post we need answers and need them faster than the backslapping nonsense from the promo post.I have no idea who they are and frankly wonder at how secure their systems are if indeed they do take over billing etc(but of course we dont know becuase the post tells us nothing)

rollando

01-12-2012, 08:18 PM

Are we going to be exiled from the US servers?What is going to happen to Splitpaw? Do we have to start again as level 1 characters ?Do we lose the running suscribtions and Station Cash we have ?Are we still going to get updates ?What security regarding our personal data-including bank ones- does it offer ?

Te'ana

01-12-2012, 10:19 PM

i just paid for 11 chracters to be transferred to Splitpaw. If this means exile will I get my money back?

General_Info

01-13-2012, 01:25 AM

<cite>Fred Bear wrote:</cite><blockquote>from alaplaya.net -"ProSiebenSat.1 Games and thus alaplaya will publish and promote the following high-quality games exclusively for Europe"in the world of free-to-play that "exclusively" usually means IP blocks so European players are locked out of US servers and non-Europeans are locked out of the European serversthat would be a disaster, I know many people who play both</blockquote>what's the point of playing an online WORLDWIDE game if the developers want to play a game of contential iron curtain on everyone?They shouldn't even try to force existing european accounts into ProSiebenSat.1's account system.

Zergosch

01-13-2012, 03:08 AM

Well, i might not understand it, perhaps. But for my opinion, the group only handle the distribution, not runing the games? am i that wrong?

Lempo

01-13-2012, 03:18 AM

Obviously what happened here is Live Gamers contract ran out and this was a more lucrative deal for SOE, nothing wrong with them taking a more lucrative deal... depending...What is puzzling and the lack of response in the thread is status quo from SOE.What does the exclusivity clause mean?Why has this not been answered yet? Why come here and post something if not prepared to clarify reasonable questions, these are not trolling questions, these are not negative questions, people are obviously concerned and confused and rightfully so.Maybe the 'Feedback thread' meant just that because technically when you call this a feedback thread you are under no obliation to respond to anything.

Nerferis

01-13-2012, 05:40 AM

<cite>Zergosch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Well, i might not understand it, perhaps. But for my opinion, the group only handle the distribution, not runing the games? am i that wrong?</blockquote>That is one of the points we would like to know. If it were like that, it would be fine. Problem is there has not been made any clarification on the matter after 3 days it was announced. But reading alaplayers announcement in their forums it looks more the other way..."We are pleased to announce that the renowned developer and publisher Sony Online Entertainment and ProSiebenSat.1 Games agreed on a cooperation which means even more fun and diversity for the steadily growing portfolio of games which can be enjoyed with your alaplaya account."They also say you will be able to log with alaplayas account login.<a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...on-t485688.html</a>

Thunderthyze

01-13-2012, 06:05 AM

OK...a german company. Is the german language market really that big? Seriously, most of the Scandanavian market is on Splitpaw for instance. Really would be nice if SOE came on and added a little more detail of the practical effect on its existing playerbase. I think most of the disquiet arises from SOE's last tie in with Ubisoft and the lulz that grew from that. What is the point in making an announcement with no details and then playing dumb when the questions begin flooding in?

Griffildur

01-13-2012, 06:24 AM

So now, that people are discussing this, how about we get something official and an explanation of what's happening ?

Gladiolus

01-13-2012, 07:30 AM

<cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote>So now, that people are discussing this, how about we get something official and an explanation of what's happening ?</blockquote>Whilst I appreciate the fact that they gave us a thread in which to discuss the changes, it can contain nothing but speculation until we get some information.

Valonia

01-13-2012, 07:35 AM

<cite>General_Info wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Fred Bear wrote:</cite><blockquote>from alaplaya.net -"ProSiebenSat.1 Games and thus alaplaya will publish and promote the following high-quality games exclusively for Europe"in the world of free-to-play that "exclusively" usually means IP blocks so European players are locked out of US servers and non-Europeans are locked out of the European serversthat would be a disaster, I know many people who play both</blockquote>what's the point of playing an online WORLDWIDE game if the developers want to play a game of contential iron curtain on everyone?They shouldn't even try to force existing european accounts into ProSiebenSat.1's account system.</blockquote>It makes no sense from a player's perspective. Sadly it seems to make much sense from a publisher's $$$-driven point of view as can be seen by game like MapleStory or many other free to play games. That is why it's important that SoE clarifies what will happen in the future .. and sadly also why they'll probably pull another AoD. If the result will be a region lock I heavily suspect that they wont release any more information until shortly before things go live in fear of losing even more customers in the process. :

Zergosch

01-13-2012, 07:51 AM

well, reading the facts, i hope they seprate SoE and alaplaya oO if so, theres no problem, if not oO what about the servers? will they be still under soe control?if peeps can logon to eq2 and others over alaplaya (whatever it is spelled), there can be a growth in playerbase, somehow oO

General_Info

01-13-2012, 07:53 AM

<cite>Valonia@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>General_Info wrote:</cite><blockquote>what's the point of playing an online WORLDWIDE game if the developers want to play a game of contential iron curtain on everyone?They shouldn't even try to force existing european accounts into ProSiebenSat.1's account system.</blockquote>It makes no sense from a player's perspective. Sadly it seems to make much sense from a publisher's $$$-driven point of view as can be seen by game like MapleStory or many other free to play games. That is why it's important that SoE clarifies what will happen in the future .. and sadly also why they'll probably pull another AoD. If the result will be a region lock I heavily suspect that they wont release any more information until shortly before things go live in fear of losing even more customers in the process. :</blockquote>Well the way i see it is this ProSiebenSat.1 is a TV company with a few browser based games. They want to expand to proper games so they figure partnering with SOE by offering a better deal then livegamer. paving the way for the german company to wedge into the euro market while SOE hopes ProSiebenSat.1 will give them a good market presence in europe.

Tigbugtiger

01-13-2012, 07:59 AM

Having read the replies on this link http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688.html it dosen't bode well. If region locks are implemented and I am forced to play only on European servers, leave established friends, or guild etc then SOE will lose my station access payment.I am hoping this partnership is a bid to attract new players and will have no detrimental affect on the established player base, time will tell.

ranga

01-13-2012, 08:13 AM

With respect, it is difficult to give any feedback over such an information devoid announcement.As every other person has said on this thread, the announcement is useless without any context or information on how the partnership will affect users.For me, I have a growing guild on Splitpaw and a level 90 guild that I wish to maintain on Everfrost. I sincerely hope that this partnership arrangement will not affect that.Please spell out what this means for users as soon as possible. Or at least say you have no idea if that is true?

Fred Bear

01-13-2012, 11:14 AM

from the german alaplaya forum this quote from one of their mods (so we assume official):-Zu den Account Fragen etc: Wir arbeiten mit SOE an einer FAQ. Alles wird easy und unkompliziert gelöst werden. Keine Sorge! Bald mehr Infos. Wir werden sicherlich massiv wachsenMy translation:-With regard to account questions etc. We are working with SOE on an FAQ. Everything will be easy and uncomplicated. Don't Worry! More info soon. We will surely grow massivelyI take that to mean that European players will be transferred to alaplaya (which in my opinion will be neither easy nor uncomplicated) but we need to wait for this FAQ before we will know more.

Lempo

01-13-2012, 11:36 AM

<cite>Fred Bear wrote:</cite><blockquote>I take that to mean that European players will be transferred to alaplaya (which in my opinion will be neither easy nor uncomplicated) but we need to wait for this FAQ before we will know more.</blockquote>No there should be no need to wait for the FAQ this is a yes or no question which there already has been more than enough time to get an answer.

Znurf

01-13-2012, 01:34 PM

So without confirmation or explanation to the contrary, it appears that the German company has bought not only EU/EQ2 publishing rights, but also player accounts as well of any players currently playing on EU Servers?!? If this IS the Case, will non-EU players that play primarily on EU based servers be offered free transfers of their characters back to a US based server prior to the effective date of this transaction?And does this transaction result in US Players not being able to play at all with UK or other EU players?? There are many of us in the US that play primarily on Splitpaw or other EU Servers to play with family/friends there.I would have thought that 48 hours would be more than sufficient time for SJ or Smed to post a more detailed explanation of what this means for EQ2's playerbase on either 'side of the pond' <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" />

Wurm

01-13-2012, 03:53 PM

There is a lot of US Military playing SOE games over here in Europe, what does it mean for us?Feedback thread... once again silence from the red names, what has become the norm since F2P went live.

Wurm

01-13-2012, 03:56 PM

<cite>Znurf@Splitpaw wrote:</cite><blockquote>I would have thought that 48 hours would be more than sufficient time for SJ or Smed to post a more detailed explanation of what this means for EQ2's playerbase on either 'side of the pond' <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Too busy doing this... <img src="http://premisepunchtag.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/scrooge-mcduck.jpg" width="400" height="316" />to bother with us peons that filled the pool.

Raknid

01-13-2012, 04:08 PM

Welcome to the "If it helps the SOE bottom line who cares what the players think" crowd.At least they had information forthcoming about the F2P transition. The silence about the effects this could possibly have are unfortunate.I have searched about a bit, including looking on some of the Alaplaya forums, and really couldn't find anything either.I can only think the silence is leading up to a "no turning back" suprise. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" />

Banedon_Toran

01-13-2012, 04:31 PM

Ahlana

01-13-2012, 04:33 PM

Time to get transferred to an English server and setup a proxy!If they are this quiet with the info.. it can not be good for you all <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Banedon_Toran

01-13-2012, 04:49 PM

It's entirely possible that this is actually a good deal.Possiblities of what ProSiebenSat could be doing include:<ul><li>Offering CS in all European languages (either including or not including English).</li><li>Taking over the running of the EU region servers which I think are housed in a non-SOE, Sony building.</li><li>Marketing SC cards across Europe taking a % cut for themselves</li><li>Marketing their own cards/currency and allowing them to be used in the SC Shop </li><li>Marketing the games in general (lets face it SOE are pretty poor when it comes to non-US marketing)</li><li>Running competitions that don't carry a "US Residents Only" restriction</li></ul>etc..So I'm open minded, if a little worried, at present. If however the plan is to wrench myself and my characters from Freeport/AB servers and force move to Splitpaw... well... that would pretty much be the end of my hot-cold love affair with EQ2 and likely the same for a lot of other players...Oh and to those US Army guys stationed in Europe - Do you think the General/Major would object if you borrowed a tank from one of those US bases in Germany and paid a call to ProSiebenSat?

Hateeternal

01-13-2012, 06:51 PM

OMG wow! Just read this and I think it`s awesome.A bit dangerous though because (my personal opinion) Pro7.Sat1 group is always after the quick buck, no matter what they have to do with a franchise.But anyway, this FINALLY could lead to some serious advertising for EQ2 outside of the USA.Great stuff! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />best regrads

dawy

01-13-2012, 09:26 PM

Days on now and still no word,the cynic in me says this isnt a good thing.

Gladiolus

01-13-2012, 09:41 PM

<cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Days on now and still no word,the cynic in me says this isnt a good thing.</blockquote>What are they hiding?

Endrian

01-13-2012, 10:44 PM

come on ppl when did soe ever care about the player base. all thay care about is money

Endrian

01-13-2012, 10:50 PM

the game is buged to hight hell do thay fix the bugs 50/50 a bug gets fixed .but every week without fail thay put out sc fluff you wont get a red name untill there is a sc cost for it soe= greed no matter what our players thinkif ppl dont get we are paying for the hack that happend your jokeing yourself p.s i dont hate eq2 its a brill game just dont like to see soe killing it like thay do with all there games

Lempo

01-13-2012, 11:07 PM

<cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Days on now and still no word,the cynic in me says this isnt a good thing.</blockquote>That isn't being cynical it is being realistic. Why should you expect anything good if they can not answer the simple question that has been asked repeatedly? The only reason other than they have not saw it would be the upper management has told them to not post any responses here. It is past quitting time, they are down the street at the pub yucking it up. Maybe SJ's vacation will be over and he will be back Monday, of course with the recent tweets Smedley made about the HUGE influx of new players and TREMENDOUS increase in SC spending he was given an extra week or two because as we all know everything else inthe game is hunkey-dorey.

Fred Bear

01-13-2012, 11:23 PM

what is interesting is that community relations are answering questions about this in the DCUO PS3 forum.Pity they don't seem to manage it here, or the PC forum for DCUO for that matter

Te'ana

01-14-2012, 12:18 AM

Please tell us what they are saying.

Wurm

01-14-2012, 01:31 AM

Link please Fred!

Drako

01-14-2012, 05:15 AM

Here are the links to the other discussion threads I could find. Basicly the only ones who have had a community reply are the DCUO threads. The others aren't nearly as active, but linked them anyway as you never know what might happen.DCUO PS3:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuops3/posts/list.m?topic_id=42446" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuo...?topic_id=42446</a>DCUO PC:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuopc/posts/list.m?topic_id=43814" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/dcuo...?topic_id=43814</a>SW CloneWars:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/cw/posts/list.m?topic_id=7427" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/cw/p...m?topic_id=7427</a>FreeRealms:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/freerealms/posts/list.m?topic_id=32511" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/free...?topic_id=32511</a>Magic The Gathering Tactics:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/strategygames/posts/list.m?topic_id=73663" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/stra...?topic_id=73663</a>Pox Nora:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/strategygames/posts/list.m?topic_id=73664" target="_blank">http://forums.station.sony.com/stra...?topic_id=73664</a>Greets

John69Doe

01-14-2012, 07:48 AM

ok, as this is supposed to be constructive i will not repost the massive amount of interesting decisions making me very scared of the results we will have to face. Just a sum - up of my brainstorming questions:- what will happen to my station all access games?- where will my data go?- will i be able to ignore alaplaya and stick to soe?- what is going to be up with my sc?- what is going to be my kind of access to vanguard if (please do not do so) you forcefully migrate accounts and sc to alaplaya?- how about the veteran /claims- what about the bought sc items / classes / charslots?- will i finally get a chance to migrate to a different server? (the sc-store-item is unavailable since the unwanted migration from the "less populated" server)- if we ("the customer") get handed out to alaplaya including data and (or even worse: without the current balance of sc / realmoney equalling sc) who will pay for the attorney to reclaim the moneys value, the data and force alaplaya to wipe their database?My emotional triggered first thoughts on the topic is: Why do i have to pay for all of these highly interesting decisions of folks who are in a gold rush? Why does SOE disregard my "other than gaming content" interests? Is it really just "shuddup and play"?Don't get me wrong, i like many SOE titles but some of these decisions made and make me reconsider if a good piece of software is worth paying a management that repeatedly decides things that make me reconsider coherence of my own values siding such a company by paying them.Just my points of interest - hope you can answer the ones facing facts and consider thinking about the ones reflecting what you do.

Gladiolus

01-14-2012, 09:36 AM

How can there still be no word from SOE? All they've said is "Here's a sealed box. Discuss it's contents, but keep it constructive."

Avirodar

01-14-2012, 10:26 AM

<cite>Gladiolus wrote:</cite><blockquote>How can there still be no word from SOE? All they've said is "Here's a sealed box. Discuss it's contents, but keep it constructive."</blockquote>Do you really expect SOE will tell you anything, until it is already at a point where it does not matter what they tell you? Who knows, they may suprise us, but I am not holding my breath.I am fortunate this will not effect me, but my sympathies go out to all Euro players who are currently in limbo, courtesy of SOE's apathy.

John69Doe

01-14-2012, 12:13 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Gladiolus wrote:</cite><blockquote>How can there still be no word from SOE? All they've said is "Here's a sealed box. Discuss it's contents, but keep it constructive."</blockquote>Do you really expect SOE will tell you anything, until it is already at a point where it does not matter what they tell you? Who knows, they may suprise us, but I am not holding my breath.I am fortunate this will not effect me, but my sympathies go out to all Euro players who are currently in limbo, courtesy of SOE's apathy.</blockquote>As this is not the software side but the contract / management aspect and we are one side of a triangular contract we did NOT sign i in fact DO expect to be informed what i have to deal with in the upcoming times. It's simple as this: We (the players in the concerned countries) have a formal contract with soe - and to be honest and straight i do not wish, like or even tolerate any company "just beeing shoved in between" without proper input. It's like ordering Pizza at your place and having to pay for it at MacDumbnuts while delivering it gets a job by Pimpies.Could be SOE just made it to a new "we d have someone to deliver merchandise and Customer Care" paket. Ok, not nice, not useful but if i don't have to use it i don't care much. CS is externalised anyways - if it's some german, czech, indian or nepalesi delivering support to me is as meaningful as the time of yesterday afternoon when that fly died out on the balcony.On the other hand it could be yet another try to separate us from the "rest of the market" - eu-servers, our own sc-related market, our own "legacy" meaning all veterans with 7 year housing and about 1500$ investment in their hobby (not counting the hardware or potential sc shoppingtours) will go "boom you're a boon" in terms of potions, veteran housing, veteran calls and alike. I need not mention what this in combination with anonymous, matrix, nge, swg shutdown, EQ2 updates 14, 17, 27, 35, 37, 55, 60-65, EQ2 history with Ubisoft really means to "the european market".I can not tell you what other players do think but i can tell you what i fear: Yet another 40000 players less, no option to switch to soe and a stack of useless coin in sc back in the usa where i do not get to play my chars. Guess why I kind of dislike this sealed Box. To me it's Pandora's.None the less these fears do not give a thing to the point - we have been potentially forced into a 3 party contract. If not - why bother - if so: What on earth made you think we would agree?In the later case i would really like my money back - but that would prolly end up in the usual "we compensate losses with playtime" policy. See where the cat hunts the tail?

Banedon_Toran

01-14-2012, 03:37 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am fortunate this will not effect me, but my sympathies go out to all Euro players who are currently in limbo, courtesy of SOE's apathy.</blockquote>Kinda depends, even if every other player you know and care about is in the US there could still be an impact on the economy of your server from any attempt to divert Euro players to separate servers.We just don't know until Sony makes some confirmations.

Kryvak

01-14-2012, 05:24 PM

Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.

Dikatin

01-14-2012, 07:16 PM

<cite>Kryvak@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.</blockquote>I'd doubt so too. The game now seems to be capable to support several different languages without having to keep exclusive copies for each of them (just checked it with the german version and it just patched some UI files rather than the whole game after switching to US english) - it would be insane to undermine such an achievement by binding players to a certain region.Aside that, I'm not a great fan of ProSiebenSat.1 either, but they're for sure a good marketing partner at least due to their financial reach.Hard to explain. While I tremble in fear that this might become a serious beatup due to things like alaplaya (or whatever it is called) or other strategic misbehaviours, I have the feeling that SOE will do it right on the other side this time.

Fred Bear

01-14-2012, 07:48 PM

<cite>Kryvak@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.</blockquote>It may be a terrible idea but Blizzard do it, all European copies of WoW are tied to European servers, PWI and almost all the other big F2P companies do it by using IP Geolocation blocks and regional publishing agreements, and alaplaya do it themselves with LOCO and their other recent acquisition Maestia online (probably also with their other games but I haven't tried them)P.S. thanks to Drako for the links I forgot to include

Kryvak

01-14-2012, 08:04 PM

<cite>Fred Bear wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kryvak@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.</blockquote>It may be a terrible idea but Blizzard do it, all European copies of WoW are tied to European servers, PWI and almost all the other big F2P companies do it by using IP Geolocation blocks and regional publishing agreements, and alaplaya do it themselves with LOCO and their other recent acquisition Maestia online (probably also with their other games but I haven't tried them)P.S. thanks to Drako for the links I forgot to include</blockquote>They may have, but they probably did that from the start. It's beyond ridiculous to close people off from servers they have had access to for 7 years, which is why I don't think that's going to happen.

Lempo

01-14-2012, 08:10 PM

Then why has no one just came out and said "We can not realease any additional details at this time, but you will not be isolated or blocked from playing or creating new toons on your current server or any server of your choice"I do not know what the deal is but I do know one thing, this has been in the pipeline for a LONG time, it wasn't something that was decided AFTER closing the LG service, and they KNOW the answer to really the only question that has been asked ITT, but as standard MO they just let it fester.

Gladiolus

01-14-2012, 11:04 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>I do not know what the deal is but I do know one thing, this has been in the pipeline for a LONG time, it wasn't something that was decided AFTER closing the LG service, and they KNOW the answer to really the only question that has been asked ITT, but as standard MO they just let it fester.</blockquote>Perhaps that's why even after a fortnight's asking, nobody would comment on the status of European accounts with the merger of Freeport onto live, and the many contradictory statements about character numbers.

Lodrelhai

01-14-2012, 11:42 PM

<cite>John69Doe wrote:</cite><blockquote>ok, as this is supposed to be constructive i will not repost the massive amount of interesting decisions making me very scared of the results we will have to face. Just a sum - up of my brainstorming questions:[cut]- will i finally get a chance to migrate to a different server? (the sc-store-item is unavailable since the unwanted migration from the "less populated" server)</blockquote>I've got most of the same questions you do, but this at least I've heard a little on. The SC server transfer token not being visible is an issue with all-access accounts. There's some mixed reports on why we're getting hit like this, but so far that's where the issue seems to be. No ETA on a fix, per the tech support boards.As for the partnership, there's no way in the world Sony or ProSiebenSat signed this agreement without every one of our questions about how it will affect us already figured into the contract. So can we at least get some info about what we're supposed to be giving feedback on? Particularly whether European players will be locked to European servers.

Te'ana

01-15-2012, 12:42 AM

<cite>Kryvak@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.</blockquote>Never underestimate the power of dumb <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Avirodar

01-15-2012, 01:14 AM

<cite>Lateana@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kryvak@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Whatever they do, I really doubt SOE is dumb enough to try and herd European players into the European servers only, that's just a terrible idea.</blockquote>Never underestimate the power of dumb <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Any person playing from Europe should ask themselves these two questions :1) Would ProSiebenSat.1 sign up to a deal where they publish and market EQ2 in the European market, but leave a wide open door for European customers to completely bypass them (Alaplaya/ProSiebenSat.1), by going directly to the USA offerings? Would this not compromise the planned agreement, and profit splits between the two companies (SOE and PSS.1)? It would severely complicate it at the very least... You should investigate ProSiebenSat.1's history with videogame acquisitions for some potential insight at to PSS.1's general business nature.2) Do you think SOE cares more about what they have now (existing Euro playerbase), or what they hope to get as a result of this deal (potentially bigger/new Euro playerbase)?Until SOE decides it is time to tell the peons customers what is happening, the above two questions is something Euro players should give due consideration.

Chaotico

01-15-2012, 07:28 AM

if my characters end up transferred out of my current international guild on a US Server and brought to a german server I kill my characters and any ANY and all ideas of EVER even just reading anything SOE has to offer...seriously, open up as many new EQ2 servers you want ProSieben and get customers as many as you want for them, I even hope that localisation fantatics move there, but please, no scrap that no please, leave those of us who intentionally decided for an international enviroment alone...Ubisoft SHOULD have tought something to SOE. Any accounting over a german subsidary of a bad TV station... bollocks...%$§"!!germans..

dawy

01-15-2012, 08:51 AM

Good to see that SOE treats its euro customers with its usual contempt disgraceful that no sort of FAQ is up,this should have been up along with the annoucement,but no.Sorry but this isnt the way to treat customers.

Griffildur

01-16-2012, 07:38 AM

Enough is enough, SOE post the details of the contract so we know what happens to the European servers and players, both on them and on the US ones.This is beyond ridiculous already. It should have been done as part of the initial announcement.

Gladiolus

01-16-2012, 09:40 AM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Any person playing from Europe should ask themselves these two questions :</blockquote>Asking questions of ourselves and coming up with possible answers only produces more speculation. The sensible thing would be for SOE to instead give information.

Jazzia

01-16-2012, 10:09 AM

If they blocked Euros from playing on US servers, what would happen to PvP ? As some may know, there's only one PvP server left and that is located in the US. And there are LOTS of Euros playing on Naggy ......I usually don't resort to threats, but I'd REALLY have to rethink my membership here if I couldn't play on PvP anymore. It's not my primary server but I don't want to miss it !

Raknid

01-16-2012, 01:07 PM

Going on FOUR days now...ZERO information from SOE. I would "lol," but it is just too sad a situation to make light of it.Pretty sad that our associate producer can take the time to be a "cheerleader" for SC items but can't seem to post here about this significant issue.I was going to use the term that many people refer to SC items as followed by an -er....but thought better of it. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Banedon_Toran

01-16-2012, 01:37 PM

Still 8.30am on a Monday morning is SoE-land, so I'll give them a little longer yet...I would hope they quickly make a statement to quash any rumours about imposing regional lockouts.

Griffildur

01-16-2012, 04:00 PM

Still waiting on the details ...

Te'ana

01-16-2012, 04:10 PM

Today, Monday January 16, is a holiday in the US (Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday). So don't hold your breath just yet.

Gladiolus

01-17-2012, 12:04 AM

<cite>Lateana@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>Today, Monday January 16, is a holiday in the US (Martin Luther King, Jr's Birthday). So don't hold your breath just yet.</blockquote>Presumably they have calendars at SOE too, and knew it was going to be a long weekend. For that matter, presumably they knew why they were going to Germany and what they intended to do when they got there. In any normal business, a document clarifying the position of affected customers would have been prepared before the time and left with an appropriate person to post in the proper place at the right time.Why does it feel like the entire European community has been put on /ignore?

Te'ana

01-17-2012, 02:22 AM

I agree, they know what is what. Their silence says a lot and it is not very positive. As many posters have noted, this effects many people. People who are in the UK and Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the globe. Using this forum for us to let off steam is not a reasonable response to legitimate concerns. We deserve prompt answers to our questions.

Griffildur

01-17-2012, 11:29 AM

I assume we'll find out after there is this big downtime, when servers are moved over, and people region locked.We'll login in one day and everything will be changed and there will be a new thread asking how we like it where no red name will ever post again.

General_Info

01-17-2012, 12:29 PM

<cite>Lateana@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I agree, they know what is what. Their silence says a lot and it is not very positive. As many posters have noted, this effects many people. People who are in the UK and Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the globe. Using this forum for us to let off steam is not a reasonable response to legitimate concerns. We deserve prompt answers to our questions.</blockquote>If i were to hazard a guess i'd say they annouced it ASAP before working out all the details it would certainly explain their silence even looking on the other forums they aren't saying much.

Rijacki

01-17-2012, 12:35 PM

<cite>General_Info wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lateana@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I agree, they know what is what. Their silence says a lot and it is not very positive. As many posters have noted, this effects many people. People who are in the UK and Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the globe. Using this forum for us to let off steam is not a reasonable response to legitimate concerns. We deserve prompt answers to our questions.</blockquote>If i were to hazard a guess i'd say they annouced it ASAP before working out all the details it would certainly explain their silence even looking on the other forums they aren't saying much.</blockquote>My guess is that they were 'forced' to put out the announcements to players since Smed tweeted about it and various gaming news sites were picking it up and someone (wise) thought it would be good to put out an official announcement to players because of that. In other words, my guess is that Smed tweeted before they were ready to announce it with any details and FAQ about what it means to the players.

Avirodar

01-17-2012, 01:23 PM

<cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>General_Info wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lateana@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I agree, they know what is what. Their silence says a lot and it is not very positive. As many posters have noted, this effects many people. People who are in the UK and Europe and the US, as well as other parts of the globe. Using this forum for us to let off steam is not a reasonable response to legitimate concerns. We deserve prompt answers to our questions.</blockquote>If i were to hazard a guess i'd say they annouced it ASAP before working out all the details it would certainly explain their silence even looking on the other forums they aren't saying much.</blockquote>My guess is that they were 'forced' to put out the announcements to players since Smed tweeted about it and various gaming news sites were picking it up and someone (wise) thought it would be good to put out an official announcement to players because of that. In other words, my guess is that Smed tweeted before they were ready to announce it with any details and FAQ about what it means to the players.</blockquote>So you're saying that your "guess" is Smed tweeted it before anyone at SOE knew enough about what was going on, to provide remotely meaningful information to customers of relevant game titles? Nice to see you flaming SOE for being incompetent, and pointing out the typical weakness of communication by SOE.However, someone at SOE does know enough, and could/should have provided relevant information to the playerbase, the day the deal was made. Instead, we were given a knee-jerk post by a clueless or stifled red name, that was nothing more than PSS.1 and SOE patting each others back for being so "awesome".The reality is : SOE does not care about the peons. Never have, never will.

Raknid

01-17-2012, 03:41 PM

WHEEEEEEE.....Our community handlers can post right in this section about the new SC fluff but ignore this thread.

Lindien

01-17-2012, 03:46 PM

Think SoE has show us what is their top priority, and it's not their user-base. First post from a Red after a loooong weekend waiting for a response to this thread, is for their precious SC items.Sad it has come to this. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Kachros

01-17-2012, 08:46 PM

Being an EU player on a US server ..How long will you keep the EU community waiting to hear their fate, I myself have personally played on the Butcherblock server for 5 years + and besides making a guild with a US friend of which I'm joint leader, I have made many friends on the server and have enjoyed my time here.Now faced with a possible region lock I find myself wondering why such news is delivered right after forking out on an expansion with no new content and having to bide my time waiting for new content, only now led to believe I wont be with the people I know to enjoy said content with?I think the lack of news regarding our future is absolutely ridiculous considering your stature and for the 1st time since playing am seriously considering quitting the game altogether.Your player base deserve much more than this, and believe me between the people I talk to online from in and around EU/UK we will not be renewing our subscriptions if a region lock is put in place.For once give us a straight answer, as I see no reason to keep paying a sub or playing a character who may be no longer there any more.

dawy

01-17-2012, 09:23 PM

<cite>Kachros wrote:</cite><blockquote>Being an EU player on a US server ..How long will you keep the EU community waiting to hear their fate, I myself have personally played on the Butcherblock server for 5 years + and besides making a guild with a US friend of which I'm joint leader, I have made many friends on the server and have enjoyed my time here.Now faced with a possible region lock I find myself wondering why such news is delivered right after forking out on an expansion with no new content and having to bide my time waiting for new content, only now led to believe I wont be with the people I know to enjoy said content with?I think the lack of news regarding our future is absolutely ridiculous considering your stature and for the 1st time since playing am seriously considering quitting the game altogether.Your player base deserve much more than this, and believe me between the people I talk to online from in and around EU/UK we will not be renewing our subscriptions if a region lock is put in place.For once give us a straight answer, as I see no reason to keep paying a sub or playing a character who may be no longer there any more.</blockquote>This.

SisterTheresa

01-17-2012, 11:09 PM

I'm not from Europe or play on their servers, but this silence is really ticking me off as well.We have quite a few people in our guild from regions outside the USA, and they are worried and concerned about this. I don't want to lose any of them to some bad, thought out server thing like this.Keeping my fingers crossed (since holding my breath would just make me pass out) that an answer or something comes soon.

Imokles

01-18-2012, 02:41 AM

<cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kachros wrote:</cite><blockquote>Being an EU player on a US server ..How long will you keep the EU community waiting to hear their fate, I myself have personally played on the Butcherblock server for 5 years + and besides making a guild with a US friend of which I'm joint leader, I have made many friends on the server and have enjoyed my time here.Now faced with a possible region lock I find myself wondering why such news is delivered right after forking out on an expansion with no new content and having to bide my time waiting for new content, only now led to believe I wont be with the people I know to enjoy said content with?I think the lack of news regarding our future is absolutely ridiculous considering your stature and for the 1st time since playing am seriously considering quitting the game altogether.Your player base deserve much more than this, and believe me between the people I talk to online from in and around EU/UK we will not be renewing our subscriptions if a region lock is put in place.For once give us a straight answer, as I see no reason to keep paying a sub or playing a character who may be no longer there any more.</blockquote>This.</blockquote>+1I have 5 toons on Valor from old times I don't play anymore and 9 toons on Freeport that I play frequently. I just renewed my gold membership (12 months subscription). I would obviously want a refund for that if I can't play those Freeport toons anymore. Please add the procedure how to get this to your FAQ.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 03:10 AM

<cite>Imokles wrote:</cite><blockquote>+1I have 5 toons on Valor from old times I don't play anymore and 9 toons on Freeport that I play frequently. I just renewed my gold membership (12 months subscription). I would obviously want a refund for that if I can't play those Freeport toons anymore. Please add the procedure how to get this to your FAQ.</blockquote>The procedure here would be to compensate you with game time, subscriptions are non-refundable, that isn't what you want to hear and I don't think it is right but I doubt if this happens like it sounds like it will be happening, (if it were not the intended plan it would have been debunked already imo) I don't think you'll get a refund.

Banedon_Toran

01-18-2012, 06:19 AM

A region lock would kill Elements guild, we have predominantly US players but UK leaders and an East European officer. Assuming a region lock was implemented, does the guild get left with no leaders or do the leaders keep the guild (transferred to Splitpaw) and the members get dropped. I can't see either situation working out well. I'm in the ridiculous situation where will be attending the Faydwer Faire planning meeting and volunteering the assistance of our guild with the caveat that our help is dependent on SoE not locking me and the other leaders from Antonia Bayle server...

Bacci

01-18-2012, 09:48 AM

We cannot give feedback on something we do not have detailed information about.Things i miss info about:What exactly did ProsiebenSat.1 purchase?Does licenses mean distribution of game packages (downloads).Does licenses mean they run the game on new servers with their own account system and service?- If so, what about station access accounts?Does licenses mean our soe subs are transfered and our station cash is dust?I would like to see those informations soon since they are very important.

rollando

01-18-2012, 10:00 AM

Splitting the American and US communities would be a fatal mistake on a 7 years old game such as EQ2.

Warbler

01-18-2012, 11:53 AM

Nearly a week later and still nothing for us to give feedback on.

Kaian

01-18-2012, 12:04 PM

I found this in an article on <a href="http://www.businessweek.com">www.businessweek.com</a> ....“We didn’t feel we had the right reach in Europe,” said Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley at a news conference in Munich. “Our goal is to become the leading free to play publisher in the world and with the help of ProSieben, we feel Europe is covered now.”The companies will share revenue and risk under the terms of the agreement, executives said today.Sharing revenue and risk ... that certainly sounds more than a straightforward publishing deal. My worry-meter just hit the red zone.

Raknid

01-18-2012, 12:15 PM

<cite>Kaian@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote>I found this in an article on <a href="http://www.businessweek.com">www.businessweek.com</a> ....“We didn’t feel we had the right reach in Europe,” said Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley at a news conference in Munich. “Our goal is to become the leading free to play publisher in the world and with the help of ProSieben, we feel Europe is covered now.”The companies will share revenue and risk under the terms of the agreement, executives said today.Sharing revenue and risk ... that certainly sounds more than a straightforward publishing deal. My worry-meter just hit the red zone.</blockquote>Sure sounds like exclusivity (region locks) to me. SOE are letting them use the brand and IP, but other than that it sounds like they are own their own as far as marketting, hosting, etc... and will therefore need region locks in order to be able to offset the "risk."

Buggabug

01-18-2012, 12:39 PM

Normally I would stay out of this kind of discussion, as it's all specualtion...butOut of concern I checked into this Alaplaya service and read through their T&C. It has prompted me to cancel my subscription and REMOVE all credit card info that was on file with my account. I admit I did this as a precaution due to the silence from SOE. Also, skipped buying my usual two SC cards this month can't see spending money with all the uncertainty surrounding this deal. I play on 3 servers and I live in the UK so as much as I want to put over priced virtual wings on my white ratongas.....I can wait.

Raknid

01-18-2012, 12:52 PM

<cite>Buggabug wrote:</cite><blockquote>It has prompted me to cancel my subscription and REMOVE all credit card info that was on file with my account.</blockquote>That is a good question. I wonder if SOE is going to be transferring pertinent financial information to this company, such as credit card data, or whether they will simply provide them with a list of "entitlements" for each account then you will need to create a new account and billing information.If this information is to be transferred, is there a mechanism where people can request that this does not occur, as people have agreed to and accepted SOE's ToS but have not agreed to such with this new entity?Of course there may be a "transferability" clause buried somewhere in SOEs ToS in which we basically gives SOE the right to sell or give our information to a third party.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 12:58 PM

One thing for sure SOE stays true to their words on these 'feedback' threads, that's all they are after is feedback on whatever trial balloon they float, even when it floats as well as the hindenburg, they remain in their stance that it is a feedback thread, not a Q&A in any way.

Wurm

01-18-2012, 01:46 PM

Mr. Smedly was in the Hofbrauhaus (I can't blame him, I go there every time I'm in Munich too) and after a couple of one liter mugs of beer tweeted the news.And since then silence.Come on Smoke, stop pussyfooting around your paying customers and let us know whats going on.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 01:54 PM

Smokejumper was on vacation for >1 week after the new year, the last time he was online (signed into forums) was 12/27. I an guessing that with Smedleys tweet about the huge influx of new players and monumental increase in SC sales he was given (or took himself) additional time off. Maybe he is holed up Somewhere deciding on the next things that "take no effort, only time" in the game to put more stuff into the SC shop.

Fred Bear

01-18-2012, 02:09 PM

OK so, a red name at Alaplaya managed a reply, not much information (more like none) but at least someone there noticed us.<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...485688-s30.html</a>"<div><h2><a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html#p5121068">Re: Announcement: New Cooperation</a></h2> <a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html#p5121068"><img title="Post" src="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/styles/ala/imageset/icon_post_target.gif" width="11" height="9" /></a>by Protagonist » Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:36 am <div>Hello,We know that many players are waiting for the FAQ (especially the Eq2 players). We finalize it asap and as yesterday was a bank holiday we need some more time for it.We will keep you updated and don´t be afraid. It will work out in a good way. General issues:- We are licensing games and not developing it. All our games so far are from different developers. So if a game has a problem (like S4 with the hacks atm which has highest prio anyway for S4) another game has nothing to do with it. It does not take away ressources from our side. - S4 is one of the biggest if not the biggest F2P TPS in Europe and we get the content ahead or very close to the korean version. For some games we even get new content first. As I saw in a thread a rumour that we getting updates so late. Definately not true. Translation needs some time but not endlessWe hired already a lot people and you will realize it quickly as we hired more Community Managers as well."</div></div>

Griffildur

01-18-2012, 02:15 PM

<cite>Fred Bear wrote:</cite><blockquote>OK so, a red name at Alaplaya managed a reply, not much information (more like none) but at least someone there noticed us.<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...485688-s30.html</a>"<div><h2><a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html#p5121068">Re: Announcement: New Cooperation</a></h2> <a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s30.html#p5121068"><img title="Post" src="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/styles/ala/imageset/icon_post_target.gif" width="11" height="9" /></a>by Protagonist » Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:36 am <div>Hello,We know that many players are waiting for the FAQ (especially the Eq2 players). We finalize it asap and as yesterday was a bank holiday we need some more time for it.We will keep you updated and don´t be afraid. It will work out in a good way. General issues:- We are licensing games and not developing it. All our games so far are from different developers. So if a game has a problem (like S4 with the hacks atm which has highest prio anyway for S4) another game has nothing to do with it. It does not take away ressources from our side. - S4 is one of the biggest if not the biggest F2P TPS in Europe and we get the content ahead or very close to the korean version. For some games we even get new content first. As I saw in a thread a rumour that we getting updates so late. Definately not true. Translation needs some time but not endlessWe hired already a lot people and you will realize it quickly as we hired more Community Managers as well."</div></div></blockquote>Thank you for the update Fred.It does not excuse the silence we had here for over a week though. SOE should have been the first to tell us exactly how this change is going to affect us. We're still waiting on the details.

ranga

01-18-2012, 02:17 PM

Given that this is a done deal, I expect if you are EU based, the only information you will get will be from Alaplaya.Clearly, Sony have nothing else to say on the matter.

Banedon_Toran

01-18-2012, 02:17 PM

If this means more CS for players on Euro servers and more in-game GM's etc then it's no bad thing. The critical question is region locking or not... still looks like a possibility at the moment

Delethen

01-18-2012, 02:17 PM

I'd imagine that what will happen is that ze germans will take over the running and maintenance of the EU servers, as well as being responsible for CS to all the european based players and promoting the game in Europe. In return SoE will give them the economic rights to all accounts that are registered in europe / pay in a european currency, and consequently all real money purchases of station cash will go to alaplaya.I really doubt that players would have all their chars forcibly removed to EU servers, it wouldn't be a particularly smart move for either party.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 02:22 PM

May God have mercy on the souls of anyone and everyone that has to use those horrid looking forums after this deal is complete.<cite>Delethen@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really doubt that players would have all their chars forcibly removed to EU servers, it wouldn't be a particularly smart move for either party.</blockquote>Wouldn't be so hard for them to just come out and say so if this were not the case.

Griffildur

01-18-2012, 02:22 PM

Banedon_Toran

01-18-2012, 02:23 PM

<cite>Delethen@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really doubt that players would have all their chars forcibly removed to EU servers, it wouldn't be a particularly smart move for either party.</blockquote> Agreed, but we have seen some arguably un-smart moves in the past. Keeping constructive, I have an open mind about ProSiebenSat taking over billing etc, I understand that some people have concerns about their past record, however I haven't seen anything to suggest they are any worse or better than SoE.

Griffildur

01-18-2012, 02:23 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>May God have mercy on the souls of anyone and everyone that has to use those horrid looking forums after this deal is complete.</blockquote>I don't know what you are talking about. They're gorgeous and full of good things and optimism.Oh look, a new SC shiny !

Banedon_Toran

01-18-2012, 02:25 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>May God have mercy on the souls of anyone and everyone that has to use those horrid looking forums after this deal is complete.</blockquote> I'm hoping that the recent changes to the login system of these forums is part of a move to add the possibility of logging in with a ProSiebenSat account. Would be weird to split the forum community right after closing EQ2X forums.

Lempo

01-18-2012, 02:27 PM

<cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>May God have mercy on the souls of anyone and everyone that has to use those horrid looking forums after this deal is complete.</blockquote>I don't know what you are talking about. They're gorgeous and full of good things and optimism.Oh look, a new SC shiny !</blockquote>That was my first impression! After the 12 second delay before the page loaded, and I'm not on my crappy home connection that AT&T has a monopoly on work has a 30/30.I just love the signatures/awards, at least they appear to be isolated to a scrolling window that is not quite 2 times the size of a sig here.* EDIT TO ADD *I thought I should point out that at the footer of the forum it showed active 0 members and 6 guests, when I refreshed the page it showed 0 members and 3 guests. While I can not say for certain I am pretty sure at least 1 other person from here went to that thread, probbly more. That should not give anyone a realy warm fuzzy feeling about that outfit.

Kaian

01-18-2012, 02:31 PM

<cite>Delethen@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'd imagine that what will happen is that ze germans will take over the running and maintenance of the EU servers, as well as being responsible for CS to all the european based players and promoting the game in Europe. In return SoE will give them the economic rights to all accounts that are registered in europe / pay in a european currency, and consequently all real money purchases of station cash will go to alaplaya.I really doubt that players would have all their chars forcibly removed to EU servers, it wouldn't be a particularly smart move for either party.</blockquote>I'm hoping you're right, since this is an easy way to be able to distinguish location of accounts (or at least the location of the credit card/game card purchase) since payment in regional currency was enforced a couple of years agoI don't know of any UK players (at least, the ones I've spoken directly to) - including myself - who would continue to subscribe if forcibly moved to another server and another administration. After seven and a half years playing EQ2, it's not so much about the game any more, as about the community, the histories, the stories, the guilds, the friends. Pixels can be swapped over to a different server: the rest can't.

Bogdanus

01-18-2012, 02:33 PM

They don't have the right to BAN people via a region lock AFTER 7 years the game has been running. It is true that other companies do it, like Blizzard etc, but they did it FROM THE START, so people started their toons on the servers from level 1.It is mindboggling to ban thousands of people who have played outside their region for YEARS, people that are part of a community, have guilds, friends, etc because of what ?Some german company that want to make more bucks and has some cretin region racist policy.You are from Europe ? You don't have the right to play in the US just because we want to.Are you from the US and play on a EU server for 7 years ? Tough luck, yankee. Go and play in the US. You are not welcome here.This is surreal !They will loose half of their faithfull playerbase and will be happy with their 300 F2P players that will bugger off when a new title comes up.This game IS old, Smed. Wake up. Don't play Gordon Gecko with a handfull of people that are still willing to pay you for a game that is overrun by any MMO in the scene and the only reason why people play it IS because of their friends in the game, friends that they know for years. You separate them and they will go, and you will remain with the cheap beer mug Pro Sieben has given you

Delethen

01-18-2012, 02:39 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>May God have mercy on the souls of anyone and everyone that has to use those horrid looking forums after this deal is complete.<cite>Delethen@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>I really doubt that players would have all their chars forcibly removed to EU servers, it wouldn't be a particularly smart move for either party.</blockquote>Wouldn't be so hard for them to just come out and say so if this were not the case.</blockquote>Communication and SoE have never gone well together though, lets be honest.

Te'ana

01-18-2012, 02:52 PM

I have to agree that Alaplaya has a groovy teenybopper forum. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

SOE-MOD-02

01-18-2012, 02:59 PM

This post has moved: <a href="/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=499962&post_id=5704500" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=49996...post_id=5704500</a> Bypassing the language filter is not permitted per the forum guidelines.

Isulith

01-18-2012, 05:17 PM

Hey everyone! We appreciate all of your candor on this new partnership with ProSiebenSat.1. We understand your concerns and love that you have a lot of feedback to give us. We would like to remind you however to stay constructive and try to avoid speculation. When we have further details, we will certainly post it. We truly want to make this transition as smooth as possible. We appreciate everyone's patience while we compile your questions and prepare for this exciting new road ahead!

Lindien

01-18-2012, 05:33 PM

What CAN we do but speculate... you guys haven't done ANYTHING to ease our worries during this past week. I haven't personally been feeling up to even logging in to the game as i don't know what is going to happen, me being a european player playing on a US server.I think it very bad "customer service" to keep us in the dark like this, you would have done WAY better not announcing this until you actually knew what to do with it. But as i mentioned earlier in this thread, we customers seems to be just a neuance you have to live with, I don not think we are seen as the lot who actually pays your salery and actually makes the game (and your jobs) exist.I personally need answers for the following questions:1. As a European player, can i still play on the US servere which i have done since launch?2. Can new EU players play on US serveres, and US on EU?

Nrgy

01-18-2012, 05:35 PM

Delethen

01-18-2012, 05:45 PM

Kaian

01-18-2012, 06:30 PM

<div><cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hey everyone! We appreciate all of your candor on this new partnership with ProSiebenSat.1. We understand your concerns and love that you have a lot of feedback to give us. We would like to remind you however to stay constructive and try to avoid speculation. When we have further details, we will certainly post it. We truly want to make this transition as smooth as possible. We appreciate everyone's patience while we compile your questions and prepare for this exciting new road ahead!</blockquote>Hi Isulith.Thank you for posting on this thread, even if it's a rather delayed and, can I say, not very helpful response (though I doubt you intended it to have that effect). I was hoping for something more of an answer after leaving us for eight days with no information about what's happening to our accounts ... indeed, I was hoping for any useful answer at all, hopefully incorporating a few actual facts. Instead, I fear that being told to be quiet and wait like good little children might not have the effect that was sought after.We, in the main, do not see SOE's partnership with Pro7 to be 'an exciting new road ahead'. 'Exciting' is one of the last words I would apply to the news. For many of us, the best, the very best we can hope for from this is that nothing will change from how we access and play the game now. That ... is not exciting. And that's the best. The worst? Ah, the worst sees us UK and Euro players lose most of what we've worked to achieve in this game, see our relationships and friendships pulled apart, our guilds broken, our achievements rendered pointless, our stories trampled upon. That's devastating. Not exciting.How can we possibly be constructive when we are presented with a fait accompli and nil information about how that will affect us? When most of us have never heard of this ProSiebenSat, when a quick search to find out what we've been dropped into yields negative information about the quality of their customer service and their administration of other games that they've assumed the licensing of? In the absence of any positive information whatsoever, how can we possibly view this in any sort of a constructive manner?And as for hoping that players won't speculate ... you may as well ask the earth to stop turning. People will always speculate, inquire and wonder about things; it's one of the defining qualities of a human being. Add the factors of a void of actual hard information and a subject that is close to people's hearts, and speculation is inevitable. This game is important to us. We spend hours and hours of our lives and our hard-earned cash upon it. We're going to speculate. We're going to worry and panic and threaten and whine and post on threads like this because there's no other way we can try to cope with this situation at the moment.I don't come on these forums much to whinge and complain and harass the staff. I've been playing this game since beta and, personally, for my playstyle and preferences, there's no game out there that's a patch on EQ2 as far as I'm concerned (and I've tried a LOT of them). I've contributed a lot towards SOE, in terms of subs, expansions, and more fluff from the Marketplace than could ever be termed strictly necessary. I'm not blind to EQ2's faults but despite them, I love the game, and the communities and guilds and stories that make my characters vibrant and my OOC interactions delightful. I appreciate this game and all that has been done to create it and make it the no. 1 game for me. I'm worrying and speculating and panicking because I think all this may be taken from me. Like another poster on here, I find it hard to play at the moment - what's the point in decorating my next house, in working towards that achievement, in completing the next step in the HQ, in levelling my vanity guild, in planning events ... if I might not be on my server in the near future? If my account is moved, then I don't think I could manage to continue playing. The nostalgia and feeling of what I'd lost would be too much.Until we have proper information about what's going on, this partnership with Pro7 is a major issue in affected players' minds. It's not something that can just be shrugged off. It's not something that can be forgotten. It's like someone being told: 'Oh this test shows you might have cancer, but we can't tell you if you do or not yet. You'll have to wait until we give you a scan, but e can't tell you when that will be'.You bet we're speculating. Because we're powerless to do anything else. Other than worry.</div>

Lempo

01-18-2012, 06:45 PM

This is kinda like that "What do you think about the new EQ2 players website?" thread that was made, the site was incomplete, they had (and still have none) no info about when it would be completed at the time of the post, there are no details about this, and apparently they don't know. Sounds like that "We have to pass this healthcare bill so you can find out whats in it" <shudder>.Ah well as requested no more speculation here, the grim aura surrounding it leaves little to the imagination anyway./unsubscribed

NikkiT

01-18-2012, 06:48 PM

Okay, if it is feedback you want...feedback you will get.First of all: I think that cooperating with ProSiebenSat1 may be a good move. They certainly have knowledge of the local market and the resources to make a huge marketing push. I mean...they run lots of TV commercials for games. I don't know if their current games are any good, but they do marketing, something SOE has been unwilling to do for the past years in Europe. Some EQ2 commercials during prime time may do more for the EQ2 population than all the lackluster advertising SOE is doing. Youtube videos are not everything...However...Anything that would separate current Europe players from the current community would be a highly unpopular move. Anything that would split the current community such as "We are giving you the opportunity to play on the US servers by offering you a server move or to play on the Euro servers and migrate your accounts"...also a bad move; this would rip guilds, raidforces and friendships apart as some people would accept the offer to move and others would not.Keeping the current servers as they are and opening new servers for the PSS1-Players...better but still bad, as we would have the EQ2x situation again...new players funneled to new servers, letting the old servers dry out.StationPass and StationCash...we would need to be assured that we will not lose out here either.The best we could hope for would be: nothing changes except that PSS1 run the servers, use their GM staff and maybe forum moderators and get a share of the profits. Then this will really be a win-win situation.There is really nothing more to feed back without more information or speculating so...please...need more input.

dawy

01-18-2012, 07:56 PM

Soresha

01-18-2012, 07:58 PM

So, any other Europeans here who played Horizons (now called Istaria)? Back in the days of the Unity (EU) server? Well I did. I've been through this experience before, and frankly I would never willingly step into this kind of arrangement ever again.Similar deal: The US parent company licensed the game to an EU company to run it in Europe. The EU company took our subs, and ran the servers. We weren't customers of the US parent company.The result? A divided community. Different subscription and payment arrangements. Different levels of customer service and support (next to none on the EU side). Patches that were sent over days late, and/or were applied days late. Any time something went wrong, players were divided in which company they blamed and hence ended up fighting with each other on the forums. "Don't you blame our company, it's yours that's at fault".And that's all before it got reeeally bad. When the income started to fall, the two companies ended up at each other's throats. Literally fighting over us, the customers. Wanting us to play on their side, wanting our subs. And as they fought, the EU players suffered, caught in the middle of the mess.First came the scheme to let people play on both sides, only they took our EU account info and never reciprocated, so it was only ever one-way (EU => US). Then (beause they'd gotten our details) we started receiving emails from the US company trying to tempt us to switch over.The final incident in the conflict between the two companies is so horrific, I don't think I can post the details of what really happened behind the scenes... simply because you'd never believe it could be true. But the consequence was that our EU server was down for OVER A WEEK until the situation was resolved. A situation the US company was responsible for - after all why would they care about us? We weren't their customers.Now here's the really ironic part. I once told these horror stories to a friend who, at the time, worked for SOE. His response (and I'm paraphasing, it was a few years ago) was along the lines of "SOE would never be dumb enough to lose control over the accounts, customers and running of the servers in that kind of arrangement, it's just asking for trouble." Well heh, guess that was the past.This isn't provocative scaremongering. This is an honest account of what happened to a lot of European gamers in another game that was run under this kind of arrangement. And although we don't know the precise details and impact yet, I was horrified to read the press anouncement. Thankfully since I play on Test and AB, I'm 99% sure I'll simply remain a direct customer of SOE and so I'm not personally worried. But I'm glad I never started playing on Splitpaw.Food for thought, SOE. You need to put some serious guarantees and safeguards in place if you want to go down this route, or you'll end up with an unhappy situation in a few years time. You must have good business reasons for doing this, I'll not try to guess what but I can believe they exist and it's not being done on a whim. But you need to ensure that, from the customers perspective, there is NEVER any visible difference in product or service betwen the two sides.

Raknid

01-18-2012, 07:58 PM

<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hey everyone! We appreciate all of your candor on this new partnership with ProSiebenSat.1. We understand your concerns and love that you have a lot of feedback to give us. We would like to remind you however to stay constructive and try to avoid speculation. When we have further details, we will certainly post it. We truly want to make this transition as smooth as possible. We appreciate everyone's patience while we compile your questions and prepare for this exciting new road ahead!</blockquote>Really? SOE has the gall to let this information spill, start a "feedback" thread, then chide players for speculating?How about filling in the gaps, gaps which should never had existed in the first place, and which serve to fertilize the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that your CUSTOMERS are feeling.Here is my feedback. SOE needs to get it's act together, perform as a professional organization, and immediately publish the details you DO know, for certainly SOE isn't completely clueless as to agreement.That may not ease everyones fears, but it will be a start, and orders of magnitude more information than has been presented in the days and days since this announcement was made.

Kuroitsuki

01-18-2012, 09:00 PM

<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hey everyone! We appreciate all of your candor on this new partnership with ProSiebenSat.1. We understand your concerns and love that you have a lot of feedback to give us. We would like to remind you however to stay constructive and try to avoid speculation. When we have further details, we will certainly post it. We truly want to make this transition as smooth as possible. We appreciate everyone's patience while we compile your questions and prepare for this exciting new road ahead!</blockquote>Come on Isulith;Lets be honest here, the announcement was made to make an impression on the quarterly results and before the change of bossman in the Corporation is announced in May after the year end results. Everyone that has a clue is betting on Hirai-san (current Captain Playstation and Smed's Boss) to be the next CEO. Classic Sony tactic, big announcement to impact the Market Cap. in the face of laclustre performance (OLED anyone?)The reality is that, you (SoE), have probably only signed a Memorandum of Understanding / outline agreement with ProSat.1 and are currently thrashing out the day-to-day business details. Lets face it, if you had signed a binding contract, there would be no ambiguity, there would only be the cold, hard facts of contract law. This thread is, in my opinion, a full on fishing expedition into "what is acceptable" for the EU player base and the raw negotiations (with ProSat.1) are still ongoing.Do not presume that we are idiots, do not presume that we will just put up an shut up. We are many, we are Europe ^_^

SisterTheresa

01-18-2012, 09:10 PM

<cite>Soresha wrote:</cite><blockquote>So, any other Europeans here who played Horizons (now called Istaria)? Back in the days of the Unity (EU) server? Well I did. I've been through this experience before, and frankly I would never willingly step into this kind of arrangement ever again.<snip></blockquote>I know exactly what you are talking about .. played the game. And I really pray it doesn't come to this.

Gladiolus

01-18-2012, 11:36 PM

<cite>Fred Bear quoted Protagonist who wrote:</cite><blockquote>Translation needs some time but not endless</blockquote>Translations like this are spewed out by the babelfish. Is this an indication of the level of service and communication we can expect?<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>We understand your concerns and love that you have a lot of feedback to give us.</blockquote>There's no feedback here; feedback would imply that we had been given information and were then expressing our opinion on it. We cannot have opinions on the unknown.<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>We would like to remind you however to stay constructive and try to avoid speculation.</blockquote>We've been trying for days to avoid speculation, and instead asking for information.<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>When we have further details, we will certainly post it.</blockquote>Whilst the undertaking is appreciated, this implies that some details have already been given. Where? What are they?<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>We truly want to make this transition as smooth as possible.</blockquote>Transition? Transition to what? This is the first mention of any transition.<cite>Isulith wrote:</cite><blockquote>We appreciate everyone's patience while we compile your questions and prepare for this exciting new road ahead!</blockquote>Unbelievable that SOE didn't think we'd have any questions. We have apparently surprised them.

Caealan

01-19-2012, 07:55 AM

Ok, you want feedback.Regarding the distribution of games, management of customer service, etc. I couldn't care less. I presume I'd still have to contact SOE customer service for North American servers and I buy digital from the SOE store. It won't affect me providing there is no...Region Lockout.Now, this is an ASTONISHINGLY bad idea. It will not result in ProSiebenSat receiving the euro accounts from US servers, it will result in ProS receiving a huge percentage of cancelled subscriptions. It will also negatively impact sales of future SOE products in Europe. Please don't think you can just say 'Hey guys, we're moving you to euro servers but will give you a WHOLE 1000 SC each!' and have us yell yippee. You have pushed our trust in SOE beyond the limit already this last year. If you do this you will push a lot of us over the edge. Please do not lock us from the US servers. You will gain no business advantage from it, nor will your partners. What you will do is alienate a large group of customers and lose revenue. Now I know you can say a region lockout is pure speculation. I can say it is a logical conclusion from the little information you've posted. All you have to do is post - 'there will be no region lockouts' and you'll find much more constructive posts. If you can't do that one simple thing, then don't blame us for assuming the worst.Oh, and if you weren't ready for this to come out, make Smedley wear mittens so he can't tweet. Or perhaps you've done that already. He's very very quiet at the moment.

Banedon_Toran

01-19-2012, 09:11 AM

Isulith - You've asked us to feedback on a generic press release and subsequent comment by yourself where the phrases "exclusive contract" and "transition" are bounced around with no clear idea on what is being made exclusive and what is being transitioned.This is equivalent to a factory full of workers being told that their factory has been sold to another company they have never heard of and then asked "waddya think".My feedback is that I think we need some meat on the bones, start telling us what this will actually mean and start ruling out the worst possible scenarios before they get out of hand. Your silence simply makes the worst possible scenario seem so much more likely.

Bronnen

01-19-2012, 10:20 AM

I have never made a post on these forums before, I even had to go ahead and register to do so now, but I can't not take the opportunity to add my name to the list of those Euro players worried about this.Over the years I have played EQ2 I have made friends, guilds, taken part in huge storylines and enjoyed nearly every second of it. As a player from the UK, who can look at their friendlists and count every single one of those people as being in the US, being moved (if this indeed turns out to be the case) to a Euro only server will not be a disruption in my enjoyment of the game.It will be the end of it.I cling to the hope that this new arrangement will be a good thing. After all, there is no advertising for the game at all in the UK, and I imagine the rest of Europe is pretty much the same.

Banedon_Toran

01-19-2012, 10:23 AM

<cite>Protagonist@alaplaya wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello,Just one answer to the most important point as we want to have a joint statement.We do not think about a transfer of US server chars from EU costumers in Eq2. That should solve the biggest worries the EQ2 community has at the moment. We do not want to interfere with long build ingame relationships. This is the current way we think about it.We will do a lot marketing for a game like EQ2. We believe it still has huge potential and our company is full of long time EQ players <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> You will realize it when you get to know some people who will work on the SOE games.Really don´t worry too much. We will act very community centric.</blockquote>Nuff said and my thanks to Alaplaya for the clarification.<a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s40.html#p5126643" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...0.html#p5126643</a>

Raknid

01-19-2012, 11:00 AM

Kaian

01-19-2012, 11:01 AM

Banedon_Toran

01-19-2012, 11:10 AM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite></cite>Very courteous of THEM to let SOEs customers know what is going on since SOE seems to be falling on it's face as ususal.Did they (Alaplaya) say would issue any official statements soon?</blockquote>Only in so far as there is a joint statement on the way as per the post I quoted.

Avirodar

01-19-2012, 11:17 AM

<cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Protagonist@alaplaya wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello,Just one answer to the most important point as we want to have a joint statement.We do not think about a transfer of US server chars from EU costumers in Eq2. That should solve the biggest worries the EQ2 community has at the moment. We do not want to interfere with long build ingame relationships. This is the current way we think about it.We will do a lot marketing for a game like EQ2. We believe it still has huge potential and our company is full of long time EQ players <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> You will realize it when you get to know some people who will work on the SOE games.Really don´t worry too much. We will act very community centric.</blockquote>Nuff said and my thanks to Alaplaya for the clarification.<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s40.html#p5126643" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...0.html#p5126643</a></blockquote>Don't celebrate too soon. If these guys like to word posts like SmokeJumper, where you have to read very carefully between the lines to understand what is actually being said, this post still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. While I am not taking a jab at them for not speaking English as their primary language, it makes it harder to be completely certain about what is intended to be said.A point of concern : Even if they do as potentially indicated, and allow EU players with existing accounts to play on US servers, they were specific about long built ingame relationship. Who says what "long"? And this does NOTHING to resolve queries about region blocks taking effect for any account created after the transition, meaning old accounts can remain but new accounts get herded. This would be devastating for EU communities on US servers (due to attrition with no replenishment).In short, a lot of very, very important questions remain unanswered.It's great that the guys over at PSS.1 provided more information than the typical brick wall that SOE provides. I hope PSS.1 implements a system that supports and allows choice, so EU can play on US servers, and US can play on EU servers. But until we get solid information that includes specifics of how players will be affected and what options will be available, I urge people to keep seeking relevant info.

Lempo

01-19-2012, 11:34 AM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't celebrate too soon. If these guys like to word posts like SmokeJumper, where you have to read very carefully between the lines to understand what is actually being said, this post still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. While I am not taking a jab at them for not speaking English as their primary language, it makes it harder to be completely certain about what is intended to be said.Gotta agree with this. Who is this Protagonist guy anyway? So he has a name in red on the forums over there there is no link to a profile and he didn't answer any of the questions that were asked any better than they have been here he just gave a more respectful reply than sit down, shut up and we will tell you what we want you to kno when we want you to know it. He skirted every question as far as I can tell.In short, a lot of very, very important questions remain unanswered.In fact every important question remained completely unaddressed.</blockquote> Just want to add that at this time there are 0 registered users on their forums and 5 guests.

Banedon_Toran

01-19-2012, 11:48 AM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Don't celebrate too soon. If these guys like to word posts like SmokeJumper, where you have to read very carefully between the lines to understand what is actually being said, this post still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. While I am not taking a jab at them for not speaking English as their primary language, it makes it harder to be completely certain about what is intended to be said.Gotta agree with this. Who is this Protagonist guy anyway? So he has a name in red on the forums over there there is no link to a profile and he didn't answer any of the questions that were asked any better than they have been here he just gave a more respectful reply than sit down, shut up and we will tell you what we want you to kno when we want you to know it. He skirted every question as far as I can tell.In short, a lot of very, very important questions remain unanswered.In fact every important question remained completely unaddressed.</blockquote> Just want to add that at this time there are 0 registered users on their forums and 5 guests.</blockquote>I'm logged in over there at the moment and can confirm this is incorrect.alaplaya: <a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/</a>In total there are 416 users online :: 153 registered, 10 hidden and 253 guests (based on users active over the past 15 minutes)Most users ever online was 2050 on Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:07 pm

Lempo

01-19-2012, 11:59 AM

<cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm logged in over there at the moment and can confirm this is incorrect.alaplaya: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/</a>In total there are 416 users online :: 153 registered, 10 hidden and 253 guests (based on users active over the past 15 minutes)Most users ever online was 2050 on Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:07 pm</blockquote>I see the same from your link, viewing the thread provides misleading results.I stand by the rest of the post however, Protagonist answered nothing.

Avirodar

01-19-2012, 12:05 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm logged in over there at the moment and can confirm this is incorrect.alaplaya: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/</a>In total there are 416 users online :: 153 registered, 10 hidden and 253 guests (based on users active over the past 15 minutes)Most users ever online was 2050 on Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:07 pm</blockquote>I see the same from your link, viewing the thread provides misleading results.I stand by the rest of the post however, Protagonist answered nothing.</blockquote>I was going to comment on the user thing, but you covered it already. The number of active people on the primary Alaplaya forums is not of any real relevance to EU customers that play EQ2.I am still waing for the "You can do <this>, and you can NOT do <that>" explanation, that will be of relevance to the consumers who have supported this game since release.

Kachros

01-19-2012, 05:21 PM

<cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Protagonist@alaplaya wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello,Just one answer to the most important point as we want to have a joint statement.We do not think about a transfer of US server chars from EU costumers in Eq2. That should solve the biggest worries the EQ2 community has at the moment. We do not want to interfere with long build ingame relationships. This is the current way we think about it.We will do a lot marketing for a game like EQ2. We believe it still has huge potential and our company is full of long time EQ players <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> You will realize it when you get to know some people who will work on the SOE games.Really don´t worry too much. We will act very community centric.</blockquote>Nuff said and my thanks to Alaplaya for the clarification.<a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s40.html#p5126643" target="_blank">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...0.html#p5126643</a></blockquote>At last a piece of information albeit not from SOE but not entirely unexpected given their track record. Next question to Protagonist .. Who will hold our personal details?And from Alapaya under Protagonist <div>And as some asked in the Eq2 Forum: I am one of the Managing Directors of ProSiebenSat1 Games. I posted in this thread as we understood your interest of clarification. Thanks for your patience and it just needs some time to answer your questions. We are on it and I just wanted to solve your biggest worry a bit.</div>

Lempo

01-19-2012, 05:32 PM

Ok. So the protagonist is aware of this thread and answered who he was.Now I don't know how much time it takes to utter a yes or no answer to a question that is pretty direct, but the first go at it he danced everywhere but on top of it, and if they are not giving an answer and SOE is not giving an answer one has to wonder ho the answer could possibly be "NO", there would be no additional controversy, if it is anything other than "NO" then there is a reason to keep it under wraps as long as possible.Of course SOE has never been great at communicating, even when it is in their best interest and a positive thing so it could go either way. Both sides have a gag order on the details though that is clear, and that is not because the do not already know, this work was done or nearing completion when the LG service was ended, you can be sure of that.

Gladiolus

01-19-2012, 07:23 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Who is this Protagonist guy anyway?</blockquote>There's nothing on their forum or in his avatar to say whether he's a voluntary forum censor or the Chairman of ProSieben, so we don't know how much authority he has to speak on behalf of the company. And that's assuming that the company is one that abides by what its represenatives say.

Kryvak

01-19-2012, 11:36 PM

Avirodar

01-19-2012, 11:48 PM

<cite>Gladiolus wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>Who is this Protagonist guy anyway?</blockquote>There's nothing on their forum or in his avatar to say whether he's a voluntary forum censor or the Chairman of ProSieben, so we don't know how much authority he has to speak on behalf of the company. And that's assuming that the company is one that abides by what its represenatives say.</blockquote>You should have quoted "Lempo" there, not me. Lempo quoted one of my posts, removed sections of the quote, and made their reply within the quoted section as orange text, which is the orange text you quoted above.But, your point is a very valid one none the less. No one here knows who Protagonist is, what authority they have to speak, and how reliable the "indication" given by a poorly worded statement is. Some people just seen a vague post that they think meant something they wanted to hear, when the reality could be far from such...

Lempo

01-20-2012, 02:14 AM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>You should have quoted "Lempo" there, not me.</blockquote>Yes that was me that said that. Sorry Avirodar, easier sometimes to reply like that but maybe these type threads is a bad idea, could inadvertently put words in someones mouth.This seems to have been missed by some it kinda hides a few posts back.<cite>Kachros wrote:</cite><blockquote>At last a piece of information albeit not from SOE but not entirely unexpected given their track record. Next question to Protagonist .. Who will hold our personal details?And from Alapaya under Protagonist <div>And as some asked in the Eq2 Forum: I am one of the Managing Directors of ProSiebenSat1 Games. I posted in this thread as we understood your interest of clarification. Thanks for your patience and it just needs some time to answer your questions. We are on it and I just wanted to solve your biggest worry a bit.</div> </blockquote>

Te'ana

01-20-2012, 02:18 AM

"We do not think about a transfer of US server chars from EU costumers in Eq2."Does this mean they do think about:1) a transfer of EU server characters from US customers?2) a transfer of accounts from EU customers to Alaplaya?3) a transfer of accounts from US customers to Alaplaya?4) locking of new players in from the EU to Alaplaya servers?5) locking of new US players to US servers?6) lots of other stuff that thrills EQ2 players who play on both US and EU servers?A very poor English translation does little to answer anyone's questions or alleviate concerns.

Caealan

01-20-2012, 04:44 AM

Give this Protagonist guy a break. He's the only one out of the whole crew who's done a single thing to set people's minds at rest. We're, at the moment, SOE customers. It's THEIR continuing silence that is infuriating, unprofessional and damaging to the community. I've already lost my guild leader, a fantastic long term player, because of this - because he's had enough of the way SOE deals with their clients. I'm sure he's not the only one.

Avirodar

01-20-2012, 07:42 AM

<cite>Caealan wrote:</cite><blockquote>Give this Protagonist guy a break. He's the only one out of the whole crew who's done a single thing to set people's minds at rest. We're, at the moment, SOE customers. It's THEIR continuing silence that is infuriating, unprofessional and damaging to the community. I've already lost my guild leader, a fantastic long term player, because of this - because he's had enough of the way SOE deals with their clients. I'm sure he's not the only one.</blockquote>I do not see anyone being harsh the person who posts as "Protagonist" on the Alaplaya forums, so I am of the view that your comment to give him "a break" is completely unjustified. Most of (if not all) of us, appreciate the fact that SOMEONE from one of the involved companies, is trying to communicate with us, even more so that Protagonist is trying to communicate in a language they are not fluent in.However, this does not mean customers should nod and smile, and stop asking questions. The post from Protagonist did not give any concrete answers. People can assume something was "intended" to be said, but you know what they say about assumptions. A lot of very important questions are still unanswered, and while I appreciate Protagonist's attempts of giving a response, a lot is still pending.The lack of communication from SOE is par for course. It is disgraceful that a German with poor English (or simply using a language translator) is trying to communicate with us, more than SOE is. Kudos to Protagonist for the effort, but I hope the people that should be giving us detailed explanations (SOE), do exactly that.

Caealan

01-20-2012, 09:06 AM

??? Where in my post does it say to stop asking questions? All I'm saying is that there is no point having a go at him for poor English when he's the only person that's tried to alleviate people's worries. The point of my post is to say target the right people with the questions, the ones we're paying money to. Just give the guy some credit for actually trying to address people's concerns.And as for my comments being 'unjustified', with respect I'll say what the hell I want. You have your opinion, I have mine. I don't need a censor. I don't see any point in giving grief to someone who's at least making an attempt at communication.Let me make myself clear. I want SOE to give us some answers. Even if the answer is 'DOH we didn't think of that.' I want some communication from them other than 'stop speculating it'll all be wonderful'. I am NOT nodding and smiling at the scrap we've got. If you actually read my post you'll see I'm furious. I just want the people I'm paying each month to give us something.

dawy

01-20-2012, 09:13 AM

Kudos has to be given to the chap from alaplaya but as others have said his post says nothing really,this situation is getting out of hand but in typical SOE fashion they just ignore us,what a shambles this has turned out to be.T

Avirodar

01-20-2012, 09:35 AM

<cite>Caealan wrote:</cite><blockquote>??? Where in my post does it say to stop asking questions? All I'm saying is that there is no point having a go at him for poor English when he's the only person that's tried to alleviate people's worries. The point of my post is to say target the right people with the questions, the ones we're paying money to. Just give the guy some credit for actually trying to address people's concerns.And as for my comments being 'unjustified', with respect I'll say what the hell I want. You have your opinion, I have mine. I don't need a censor. I don't see any point in giving grief to someone who's at least making an attempt at communication.Let me make myself clear. I want SOE to give us some answers. Even if the answer is 'DOH we didn't think of that.' I want some communication from them other than 'stop speculating it'll all be wonderful'. I am NOT nodding and smiling at the scrap we've got. If you actually read my post you'll see I'm furious. I just want the people I'm paying each month to give us something.</blockquote>People have been respectful toward Protagonist in this thread, and have been making non-offensive, constructive comments that seek clarifications on an ambiguous comment, which has unfortunately been amplified by a language barrier.Where has a user has made a trolling or insultive comment toward Protagonist, due to native language? I have not seen any "OMG ur english suxxors!" posts in this thread. People have acknowledged the language barrier, and have constructively posed questions and concerns. You're acting as if some injustice has been done, when there is nothing of the sort, which makes you little more than a boy who cried wolf.

Caealan

01-20-2012, 09:58 AM

Avirodar. This is pointless and childish. I refuse to continue this argument. I've made my point. I'm not getting into a slanging competition with you. End of.

Raknid

01-20-2012, 10:25 AM

<cite>I am on a double post run it seems.</cite>

Raknid

01-20-2012, 10:25 AM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Caealan wrote:</cite><blockquote> I've already lost my guild leader, a fantastic long term player, because of this - because he's had enough of the way SOE deals with their clients. I'm sure he's not the only one.</blockquote>He could be taking the correct pre-emptive action for all we know. SOE needs to be the "top notch" "leader" they profess to be, act as a professionally run multi-national, and adress the questions their customers have.Currently seems like they are running this show as a "mom and pop" organization would.I will simply say that all fears are rightly justified until SOE assures otherwise. IMHO the deafening silence actually speaks volumes.We are OVER A WEEK now past this announcement and have yet to hear A SINGLE PIECE of solid information from SOE!</blockquote>

Znurf

01-20-2012, 10:29 AM

What really is NOT understandable is why nobody from SOE had the courtesy, or consideration to actually answer the concerns that it's current customers raised in this thread long before Protaganist gave it a go! Strictly a personal choice but for EQ2 it's strike three & I'm out!!! Account cancelled, all toons soon to be deleted, and will never buy or play anything SOE or Sony again.!Wishing the playerbase Good luck wit these Bubba's on either side of the Pond.

Avirodar

01-20-2012, 10:33 AM

<cite>Caealan wrote:</cite><blockquote>Avirodar. This is pointless and childish. I refuse to continue this argument. I've made my point. I'm not getting into a slanging competition with you. End of.</blockquote>What point did you make? You were not able to provide any evidence to support your statement of "Give this Protagonist guy a break".No one was trolling, victimizing, flaming, harassing or belittling Protagonist due to the language barrier. People expressed gratitude for the effort, and are constructively seeking clarity while expressing legitimate concerns. My evidence of such, is every single post made in relation to the link and copy+paste that Banedon_Toran provided from the Alaplaya forums.As this is the feedback thread, this is the perfect place to engage in such discussion. It's just a shame SOE could not be bothered coming to the party.Have a lovely day.

Gladiolus

01-20-2012, 10:48 AM

<cite>Caealan wrote:</cite><blockquote>Give this Protagonist guy a break. He's the only one out of the whole crew who's done a single thing to set people's minds at rest. We're, at the moment, SOE customers. It's THEIR continuing silence that is infuriating, unprofessional and damaging to the community. I've already lost my guild leader, a fantastic long term player, because of this - because he's had enough of the way SOE deals with their clients. I'm sure he's not the only one.</blockquote>Agreed. However, if my favourite uncle has been rushed to hospital and I'm left in the waiting room not knowing what's happening, I want the "Don't worry, he'll be fine" to come from someone in a white coat, not a candy-striped dress. As you say though, at least he made the effort, unlike those who owe us at least that much.

Night76

01-20-2012, 04:32 PM

I for one have alrdy given up on SOE and moved on to other games. Never again.Too bad for such a great game which has been going down the drain the last years.Been playing the game since the 1st week it came out, bought almost every expansion, played for years and these kind of things like treating us like nothing was the last straw.And "avoid speculation"??? Eehmm what did you expect after such a way of posting things? This is seriously beneath a professional business.

Bacci

01-20-2012, 09:11 PM

I really hope SOE lets us make our own choice and we veterans can stay on US servers ( in my case AB).Also i hope for free character transfer tokens, so i can move my euro chars over to US.I simply refuse to become a customer of ProSiebenSat1 and the preschool browsergame portal Alaplaya.Hopefully we get a detailed and good statement from SOE soon, so that i can either - move all toons over to the US or cancel.

Brighde Menethil

01-21-2012, 07:19 PM

I am playing this game for about seven years now. And I am German. Yet I've always played on a U.S. server and I want to continue doing so!!!I'm a leader in a multi-national guild. We have members from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. If SoE enforces a "region lock" we'd loose half our raid force and more importantly: A lot of people would loose long term friends. Which is the main reason most people still play EQ2!As someone here mentioned before, if SoE really goes through with this, they'll loose a lot of loyal customers and get stuck with F2P players who will move on to another game within weeks. I'm really hoping not even SoE can be THAT stupid!And even if they don't care about the EQ2-community anymore, maybe they should keep in mind what damage such a move would do to the already diminishing trust of their customers. It would definitely be the last game I ever bought from SoE.As for ProSieben... I have no clue what they expect from that deal. That company's "claim to fame" is crappy tv entertainment and lousy browser games and I seriously don't want them to handle my EQ2-account! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2e207fad049d4d292f60607f80f05768.gif" border="0" />The other fear I have is, the following: some people expressed their hope that veterans could stay on the servers they'd chosen. But what happens if there's an EQ3 one day? Am I then locked to a European server as a European customer? Maybe even to a German language one because I happen to live in Germany??? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" />(P.S. What I'm wondering though is, how would they impliment the "region lock". By IP-address? So if someone happens to go on vacation they couldn't play the game anymore because their toons "live" in a different region? By billing address? My partner is a U.S. citizen with a U.S. credit card and billing address, yet he lives in Germany... so???)

Oparis

01-21-2012, 08:22 PM

I hope that Pro7Sat.1 will take care of the german localisation. And maybe there will be a new server for the users of their exclusive gaming platform.

Avirodar

01-22-2012, 01:55 PM

<cite>Isulith wrote on 01/12/12:</cite><blockquote>Please use the following thread to discuss the official ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of Sony Online Entertainment in Europe announcement, which was posted here: <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=513482">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513482</a>.Please remember to keep all posts CONSTRUCTIVE. Thank you!!</blockquote>Still no new info that SOE staff can provide? No answers to many of the significant questions raised?It is impossible for players to constructively discuss something SOE which is providing no information about.

Raknid

01-23-2012, 03:15 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Isulith wrote on 01/12/12:</cite><blockquote>Please use the following thread to discuss the official ProSiebenSat.1 is the Exclusive Partner of Sony Online Entertainment in Europe announcement, which was posted here: <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=513482">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=513482</a>.Please remember to keep all posts CONSTRUCTIVE. Thank you!!</blockquote>Still no new info that SOE staff can provide? No answers to many of the significant questions raised?It is impossible for players to constructively discuss something SOE which is providing no information about.</blockquote>Approaching two weeks now without a SINGLE piece of information from the industry leading SOE. Wonder if they can go a month?

T'Pol

01-23-2012, 04:25 PM

I think most of you inclusing me just before posting havent realized what this is about.We are not supposed to ask any questions and certainly not supposed to question SOE on this.We are supposed to cheer all day and night because of these wonderful news. Just skip everything you do and start celebrating this astounding event. And thats the kind of feedback they want,cheering people.If there are any changes like reduced support for EU servers or different (maybe even more expensive) subscriptions perhaps even a fresh startover with the deletion of all toons on EU servers we are still expected to cheer and celebrate like good little children.How about a small youtube event where we all make a short vid of us cheering and partying about this and post it here?

Te'ana

01-23-2012, 05:59 PM

ROFLOL You made my day <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

msheaf

01-23-2012, 08:53 PM

11 days and no answers.

Jacra

01-24-2012, 01:47 AM

<cite>Bremer wrote:</cite><blockquote>Now that a German publisher sells SOE games in Europe, does that mean that SOE will start fixing localisation bugs? 7 years after launch of the game would be the perfect time <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>LOL.I agree. And for those who don't know, Pro7/Sat1 is a German speaking media group with TV channels and hosting of some online games. So far the games were rather small casual stuff though.Edit: The group signed a three year publishing contract with Electronic Arts in December of 2012 too for F2P games btw (Battlefield Heroes, BattleForge, FIFA Superstars, Lord of Ultima, Need for Speed World and one not announced yet), so looks they wan t to go large scale now. The SOE contract is for DC Universe Online, Everquest 2, Star Wars: Clone Warrs Adventures, Magic: The Gathering – Tactics, Pox Nora, Free Realms the up-coming Planetside 2 ... and the continuation of the Everquest franchise. There is no official statement about the length of the cooperation with SOE yet from what I found but a generic "long term".

Jacra

01-24-2012, 02:04 AM

<cite>Ridolain@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Soresha wrote:</cite><blockquote>So, any other Europeans here who played Horizons (now called Istaria)? Back in the days of the Unity (EU) server? Well I did. I've been through this experience before, and frankly I would never willingly step into this kind of arrangement ever again.</blockquote>I know exactly what you are talking about .. played the game. And I really pray it doesn't come to this.</blockquote>That is exactly what I fear as well. Especially since I've lived in Europe, played on Valor and still do - but now live in US and have chars on both. I have strong ties to Valor but paying twice if it comes to that ... no way.

Daggster

01-24-2012, 04:09 AM

This matter at hand (and the silent treatment we're getting) sums up pretty well what SOE thinks about their customers (EQ2 team at least). There's been a million little things (in game and poor PR/communication to customers) and this one the final straw in a sense to me. Cancelled my sub (though I would've had free play-time until march, but why wait), haven't logged in for a week and removed credit card info off my account.Maybe I'll come back in a few years and see if the new players section is finished, or maybe DF has some crucial functionality implemented and the most glaring bugs fixed. Maybe they've even fixed the pet hate or pet not attacking bugs. Or maybe it's just as likely that the sky wil fall... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" />

Raknid

01-24-2012, 10:42 AM

<cite>Ekum@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>11 days and no answers.</blockquote>Now 12 days and no answers.

dawy

01-24-2012, 10:59 AM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Ekum@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>11 days and no answers.</blockquote>Now 12 days and no answers.</blockquote>Not good enough really is it?

Buggabug

01-24-2012, 11:42 AM

I get more answers from my teenage children than we have from SOE. C'mon I WANT to spend my husbands money if I don't have information I'm sure some other company would love the £££.

Lempo

01-24-2012, 11:56 AM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>The decision was made to delay the marketing spend until January after the Christmas cage fights over banner slots and other advertising have died down a bit.So...January now. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote> <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=491623#5466538">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...=491623#5466538</a>That message was posted in the above thread, I tried to dig a little for a post SJ made about how they felt that TV ads would not be a good thing, but they had this 'great' advertising campaign in the works that would be much more targeted towards the demographic that plays the game. It all makes sense now, just go look at that horrid alaplaya.net site I don't see much beyond a pile of anime fashioned garbage, EQ2 in no way fits in with any of the games in the floating banner on their site. I'm guessing this is the advertising campaign at work.

Dungeon_Lord

01-24-2012, 02:23 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>The decision was made to delay the marketing spend until January after the Christmas cage fights over banner slots and other advertising have died down a bit.So...January now. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote> <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=491623#5466538">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...=491623#5466538</a>That message was posted in the above thread, I tried to dig a little for a post SJ made about how they felt that TV ads would not be a good thing, but they had this 'great' advertising campaign in the works that would be much more targeted towards the demographic that plays the game. It all makes sense now, just go look at that horrid alaplaya.net site I don't see much beyond a pile of anime fashioned garbage, EQ2 in no way fits in with any of the games in the floating banner on their site. I'm guessing this is the advertising campaign at work.</blockquote>You noticed that SJ's Post is from December 2010?That great "Marketing Campaign" is still captured somewhere in his Head and will remain there 'til the end of Days...

Gladiolus

01-24-2012, 03:17 PM

<cite>Jacra@Valor wrote:</cite><blockquote>The group signed a three year publishing contract with Electronic Arts in December of 2012 too for F2P games btw (Battlefield Heroes, BattleForge, FIFA Superstars, Lord of Ultima, Need for Speed World and one not announced yet)</blockquote>A sad day indeed that EQ2 has ended up in the bargain bin with that lot.

msheaf

01-24-2012, 10:34 PM

SOE work day is now over so it's now 12 days with no answers.

Amnerys

01-25-2012, 02:31 PM

Hey everyone! We still don't have any information to share yet. As soon as we do we will be posting it across all of our outlets for contact (Forums, website, Facebook, etc.) Hang tight! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Avirodar

01-25-2012, 03:16 PM

Revman

01-25-2012, 03:54 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote>That, or you have information you are NOT allowed to share.</blockquote>Definitely this.

Lempo

01-25-2012, 05:22 PM

<cite>Amnerys wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hey everyone! We still don't have any information to share yet. As soon as we do we will be posting it across all of our outlets for contact (Forums, website, Facebook, etc.) Hang tight! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>"We must pass this healthcare bill so we can find out what's in it!"Pretty clear that this information that you don't have to share YET is going to be shared 24-48 hrs before throwing the switch, you'll probably post it at around 5 PM PST on a Friday so it doesn't have o be dealt with and Monday everyone will be on this so called "new road" . Still for the life of me I can't figure out why you made this thread to begin with, it did nothing but cause fear and confusion. Have YOU even been to that site and looked at the games they have? EQ2 fits in with that horde of anime garbage like teats on a bull. The Executive Producer is back and while he did <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=0&topic_id=513995#5707366" target="_blank">grace one thread </a>with a poorly executed attempt to shrug off Velious part 2 being delayed until the NEXT GU is due as if it was the way it was planned all along and seemingly scurries off when people bring up that Fan Faire stated Feb, and GU's have been on a 3 month cycle for some time. One would think that this thread would have been a good place for him to pop into, maybe he will, it could be on the list. I'm sure he is no different than anyone else playing catch up when returning from vacation it can be frantic.The saying no news is good news does not apply here, no news=news that is too devastating to drop at the moment.EDIT TO ADD : wrt the post after mine, I know Amnerys can say nothing more than told to say on the matter. I would not doubt a bit if Amnerys said they knew nothing, getting thrown in front of the bus by whoever told them to taunt the user base with that aanouncement.

dawy

01-25-2012, 07:41 PM

Tallisman

01-26-2012, 06:50 AM

I must've had my head in the sand not to have noticed this thread until now...If aregion lockout transpires, I'm gone.Since my account creation in 2004 I've payed SOE enough cash that I would find this an insult, and an unforgivable one.This silence on answering questions makes this move more and more ominous as days go by.EDIT: /Rantmode off. /Calmermode on.

Nerferis

01-26-2012, 08:17 AM

Two weeks after the announcement and they still pretend they don't have more details about how this cooperation will be carried out. Making us that dumb is kind of pathetic.No one signs a cooperation with another company without knowing all the details. All that has to be discussed between the 2 companies, has already been discussed. Some in SOE know for sure how this will affect the already existing servers and their custumers. Most of them paying custumers.At this point I'm starting to wonder, what can the player base do if our worse fears come true?My faith in SOE/Sony is slowly fading for ever...

Griffildur

01-26-2012, 09:00 AM

Well I would say thank you Amnerys for at least coming to post here which others didn't bother to do.It might have something to do with a post I made into one of her threads, asking her to come here and let us know what happens. I was hoping for more details especially since I got the Secret SOE Mod 0x police on me straight away ( aparently i am not allowed to direct people from another thread to this one - go figure &nbsp<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />, but it wasn't quite worth it thus far.I am sure you folks at SOE know everything, no one signs a contract without knowing what's in it ... so yeah give us the details before the move goes through.

kahonen

01-26-2012, 09:45 AM

And so it goes on ...Questions I'd like to ask:<ol><li>What is going to happen with beta and test servers? WIll Euro players now be excluded from them?</li><li>Will bug reports now go through Alaplaya effectively giving us an extra layer between the Euro players and devs where things can be ignored? Is there to be any indication of bug fix progression so that we can at least confirm they are being passed on?</li><li>Will the game be standardised across US and Euro - eg will ALL patches be installed on Euro servers? How will we even know if we are "cut off" from the US side?</li><li>Will costs be standardised (for ExPacks AND SC items) or will Alaplaya be setting their own costs? </li><li>Who is "the supplier of the goods" under the UK Sale of Goods Act? Who is ultimately responsible for the state of goods and service being supplied to the fee paying customer?</li><li>Will Alaplaya themselves perform CS for Euro players or are they only a link into SOE CS?</li></ol>

dawy

01-26-2012, 11:13 AM

<cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>And so it goes on ...Questions I'd like to ask:<ol><li>What is going to happen with beta and test servers? WIll Euro players now be excluded from them?</li><li>Will bug reports now go through Alaplaya effectively giving us an extra layer between the Euro players and devs where things can be ignored? Is there to be any indication of bug fix progression so that we can at least confirm they are being passed on?</li><li>Will the game be standardised across US and Euro - eg will ALL patches be installed on Euro servers? How will we even know if we are "cut off" from the US side?</li><li>Will costs be standardised (for ExPacks AND SC items) or will Alaplaya be setting their own costs? </li><li>Who is "the supplier of the goods" under the UK Sale of Goods Act? Who is ultimately responsible for the state of goods and service being supplied to the fee paying customer?</li><li>Will Alaplaya themselves perform CS for Euro players or are they only a link into SOE CS?</li></ol></blockquote>Good questions one and all,i find it utterly staggering that SOE have all but ignored this thread its a disgrace it really is.

Raknid

01-26-2012, 12:02 PM

FOURTEEN days and counting.ZERO information.Over/under at a month?

SOE-MOD-02

01-26-2012, 12:24 PM

This post has moved: <a href="/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=499962&post_id=5708008" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=49996...post_id=5708008</a> If you disagree with a moderator or employee's actions, do not discuss or challenge the matter in forum posts. Contact <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> (include your forum handle and game name, but NOT your password) and clearly state your concerns.

Tallisman

01-26-2012, 12:30 PM

There are so many questions on this...For me, all I want is one question answered and then I can ponder on the rest:Will I, as UK player on a US server (AB), still be allowed to play on that server?With all my faculties as it were. Surely that's a simple question to answer, isn't it?

Lempo

01-26-2012, 12:32 PM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>FOURTEEN days and counting.ZERO information.Over/under at a month?</blockquote>That depends on what Monday this is going into effect, a mesage will be posted at end of business on the previous Friday.

Raknid

01-26-2012, 12:42 PM

<cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>There are so many questions on this...For me, all I want is one question answered and then I can ponder on the rest:Will I, as UK player on a US server (AB), still be allowed to play on that server?With all my faculties as it were. Surely that's a simple question to answer, isn't it?</blockquote>One would think. Even if all the minutia of the switch have yet to be worked out, this question alone is large enough in scope that it has to have been addressed VERY EARLY in the negotiations of the DEAL THAT IS ALREADY SIGNED. I see absolutely zero reason why they cannot answer this question, UNLESS it is going to be one that upsets players, and they want to wait as late as possible to spring it on them.

Lempo

01-26-2012, 12:50 PM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>One would think. Even if all the minutia of the switch have yet to be worked out, this question alone is large enough in scope that it has to have been addressed VERY EARLY in the negotiations of the DEAL THAT IS ALREADY SIGNED. I see absolutely zero reason why they cannot answer this question, UNLESS it is going to be one that upsets players, and they want to wait as late as possible to spring it on them.</blockquote>You mean something like what they did with the GU that was moved back from Feb to April and while even though they knew at the time AoD was being released they kept it under wraps?

Griffildur

01-26-2012, 12:53 PM

<cite>Lempo@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>You mean something like what they did with the GU that was moved back from Feb to April and while even though they knew at the time AoD was being released they kept it under wraps?</blockquote>It's not quite the same thing, as this move could potentially break a lot of guilds if region locks are put in place.AoD was never that important.

Lempo

01-26-2012, 01:02 PM

<cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote>It's not quite the same thing, as this move could potentially break a lot of guilds if region locks are put in place.AoD was never that important.</blockquote>I agree this is a much more impacting scenario, I was just pointing that out... Do not want to derail this at all though so no more about AoD in here from me.

Bacci

01-26-2012, 03:07 PM

I say multi month subscribtions!Imagine you are an Euro customer and made your last one-year "membership" contract with SOE in early January before this "exciting" news came up. ( worst scenario)You paid one year in advance for EQ2 or All Access ( even more worst ).So this customer and SOE made a contract about SOE service for the game (EQ2) or multi games including EQ2.If SOE comes now and "outsources" this customer they are no longer able to fullfill this contract.SOE getting rid of their loyal Euro playerbase is something i cannot understand.It can't be so hard to advertise/give interviews in Euro gaming sites. (Jeux online in France or onlinewelten.com in Germany for example). - So making SOE games more public in Europe is not a valid reason to me.I already stated this in another post: becoming a customer of ProSiebenSat1/Alaplaya is not an option to me. I know them and i don't want to have business with them or give personal data to them.

Te'ana

01-26-2012, 03:30 PM

I am not sure if its relevant, but according to another post on the forum SOE has suspended account to account character transfers for an unspecified length of time.

Tallisman

01-27-2012, 06:18 AM

Still nothing <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" />Mind you, if this thing is caught up in legal wrangling, it'll be next year before things are finalised.Can I please, please, pretty please SOE, just have my one question answered? I'm from the UK playing on AB. Will I still be able to do this?

Gladiolus

01-27-2012, 06:55 AM

<cite>Nerferis wrote:</cite><blockquote>No one signs a cooperation with another company without knowing all the details. All that has to be discussed between the 2 companies, has already been discussed. Some in SOE know for sure how this will affect the already existing servers and their custumers. Most of them paying custumers.</blockquote>It seems that Smedley got on a plane to Munich for no particular reason, happened to drop in at ProSieben and signed something while he was there. He won't know what it is until it's translated, and a fortnight hasn't been long enough yet for that to happen.

SisterTheresa

01-27-2012, 02:33 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Amnerys wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hey everyone! We still don't have any information to share yet. As soon as we do we will be posting it across all of our outlets for contact (Forums, website, Facebook, etc.) Hang tight! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Wow...Two weeks after the deal is announced, and you guys are completely in the dark?That, or you have information you are NOT allowed to share.Either way, it is a very poor showing from SOE.</blockquote>+1 from me. Bad form SoE ...When you get into a deal, my dad always told me to read the small print. So why don't you do that and let us know?

SmokeJumper

01-27-2012, 03:40 PM

I can't give you the official answer yet. I've been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with ProSiebenSat.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p's and q's are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it's not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.

Ragnaphore

01-27-2012, 03:51 PM

Now, I'm afraid.

Lempo

01-27-2012, 04:26 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I can't give you the official answer yet. I've been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p's and q's are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it's not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.</blockquote>I thought that you said that television ads would not be a good venue for EQII, pretty sure that you did and in the next breath you said that there were already other plans in the works that should reach a larger segment of the type of player for the game. Not in those exact words, but that is not paraphrasing it at all.So TV ads in the UK=good thing, now with this, because they are part of this big media company?The sentence that I highlighted is the worst part about this message and I think you probably just let too much slip.Good for everyone involved over THERE, not everyone in the game, just everyone ivolved over there, the ones I know in game are happy where they are now.Soon, it is getting old hearing that.Maybe we can make a thread in Non-Gameplay discussion to try and guess at what this FAQ is going to lay out.

Bacci

01-27-2012, 04:41 PM

Bremer

01-27-2012, 04:52 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.</blockquote>It's Pro Sieben, not seiben <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />And considering the state of the localisation of EQ2, TV ads won't help you much. 7 years of not fixing bugs, no matter how severe they are, won't go unoticed by potential new customers. Broken strings, wrong texts, not translated texts, not working functions and countless other problems, often broken since the release of the game, will make many people quit pretty soon. There is enough competition out there that rates their non English customers better.

Caealan

01-27-2012, 04:54 PM

Fine, so it's great and wonderful and exciting for everyone in Europe. I'm not excited. I want to know - can I continue to play on my existing US server or not. European servers are of zero interest to me. Your European presence/revenue is of no concern to me. Just that one thing is of interest to me and I suspect a lot of others.If not - just say, but give us an option not just to unsubscribe but to remove our details so they don't get passed over.

dawy

01-27-2012, 05:33 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I can't give you the official answer yet. I've been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p's and q's are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it's not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.</blockquote>Why put this announcement up so early then?More "cool" stuff..yeah i've heard it alot recently and i'm not biting i'm afraid look through the thread its a scandal that we european players have been left swinging by this early announcement,there is simply no way whatsoever i'm trusting this company with my payment details (the one detail i do want answers too sooner rather than later too),SOE,for all its hacking problems last year still have my trust alaplaya most certainly do not,nor will they.If there is to be a region lock are players who are on splitpaw say going to be allowed to move to a US server free of charge or are we being set aside and left swinging in the wind..its been 2 weeks more or less now and no word its utter incomptence we're talking here Smoke,not your fault i know but its not good enough and far from "cool".

Raknid

01-27-2012, 05:38 PM

<cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>there is simply no way whatsoever i'm trusting this company with my payment details (the one detail i do want answers too sooner rather than later too),SOE,for all its hacking problems last year still have my trust alaplaya most certainly do not,nor will they.</blockquote>Agreed. An answer as to whether SOE is selling/giving account billing information to another party should be forthcoming sooner rather than later...escpecially a way, though I doubt they will let you, to opt out of having this information transmitted to another party.

dawy

01-27-2012, 05:57 PM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>dawy wrote:</cite><blockquote>there is simply no way whatsoever i'm trusting this company with my payment details (the one detail i do want answers too sooner rather than later too),SOE,for all its hacking problems last year still have my trust alaplaya most certainly do not,nor will they.</blockquote>Agreed. An answer as to whether SOE is selling/giving account billing information to another party should be forthcoming sooner rather than later...escpecially a way, though I doubt they will let you, to opt out of having this information transmitted to another party.</blockquote>This is the one factor Raff that i feel is utterly vital,SOE are implementing this change on us,ok,give us the details asap so we as PAYING customers can make an informed choice (if indeed theres a choice to be made)about accepting the change (again if alaplaya take over payment details)or choosing to leave the game.For me its simple i've heard my bank have heard of SOE and sony and,god forbid if anything nasty happened i wouldnt have any trouble whatsoever getting monies back would i have the same situation with a company i've never heard of? doubtful to my mind i forsee an awful lot of hassle with it and one i can do without,worst case scenario wise anyways.To me this one issue,the payment one is the clincher as to wether i stay or leave the game,if SOE carries on taking my sub then no problem whatsoever yup i'll have a grumble about things but play on knowing my payment details are safe but if SOE does farm the payment details out to this company then that will end my time here,no if's no buts,no overreation just me keeping my payment details safe.I really hope it doesnt come to that becuase for my gripes about the game i dont think theres a better game on the market.

Tallisman

01-27-2012, 06:09 PM

Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.This is a deciding factor for me. If I'm forced off that server to a European one (and, being a Brit, I'm not European - despite what anyone else may think <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /> ), then I lose everything I've built my character towards; guild status, reputation, roleplay (of which I'm a great fan and can thank god I've actually met people who can RP) etc. And if that happens, I am gone and with it my gold membership and any future cash SOE might have made out of me.It would be much appreciated if this one point could be made clear.Thank you <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Kachros

01-27-2012, 06:51 PM

Wow 15 days on and what a statement, well SJ too little and far far too late..I want to know now specifically how can I make sure my information is erased and not passed over to ProSiebenSat.1 and if it means deleting all my characters I've spent 5+ years working on and enjoying then so be it.And I wouldn’t use the word “cool ” with it all, in fact I really can't think of a good word to use to describe the way all this has been handled since the 1st post, it goes beyond all understanding.You have just lost a very loyal and paying customer and I can't imagine I’m the only one.

SisterTheresa

01-27-2012, 08:08 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>I can't give you the official answer yet. I've been specifically asked to wait until the full FAQ and everything is created for this.However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with Proseiben.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.I need to wait to talk about other details until all the p's and q's are arranged. (When we partner with folks, the discussions always take longer because it's not just us making the decisions, and this is a big arrangement with many details to hash out.)I am sorry this is taking so long, but the answers are coming soon.</blockquote>Forgive me for saying this .. but what the heck were you THINKING by announcing this and NOT having everything laid out?? That is <insert favourite expletive/insult here>.I don't live in Europe, but I know and have many friends and guildmates that do. And thinking that we're going to lose them over this is upsetting alot of people, mainly because of dropping an announcement before anything is written out. You'd be amazed how fast rumors and fear spreads on this.As for tv ads, I have to agree. Not going to help too much in a game with broken stuff (re-itemization comes to mind) that hasn't been fixed (let alone stuff prolly more broken for years). Magazine ads, maybe more of would help.*sigh* This just makes me sad.

msheaf

01-27-2012, 08:17 PM

What a joke this is. Personally I feel who ever approved announcing this without a FAQ in place (or at least real close to ready) isn't qualified for their job and should be demoted. Yes I know it's a rough thing to say but this is not how a profession business works and something like this was announced from the highest levels.

Kaian

01-27-2012, 08:29 PM

<cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.This is a deciding factor for me. If I'm forced off that server to a European one (and, being a Brit, I'm not European - despite what anyone else may think <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /> ), then I lose everything I've built my character towards; guild status, reputation, roleplay (of which I'm a great fan and can thank god I've actually met people who can RP) etc. And if that happens, I am gone and with it my gold membership and any future cash SOE might have made out of me.It would be much appreciated if this one point could be made clear.Thank you <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>Firstly, I utterly agree with and echo every word and sentiment of this post.Also - while I appreciate and realise that Isulith, Amnerys and Smoke will all be having their hands tied over this, and of course a deal that covers all eight SOE games and whatever ProSiebenSat are bringing to the deal other than a few TV ads (I don't personally know anyone who bothers sitting through TV ads in this world of PVRs but ... *shrugs*) is going to have umpteen clauses and points to discuss before a final defining FAQ can be released. Of course ...BUT ...I fail to see what SOE is getting out of continuing to refuse to release any hard information about how it will affect their players in the meantime.It's inconcievable to think that none of the major issues have been decided yet, but even if that's the (unlikely) case - this refusal to update us on a regular basis is achieving nothing but fear and anger amongst the player base. Fear, that our playing experience will be destroyed or our payment details sold out to someone that we have not chosen and do not wish to deal with. Anger, that we are being treated in such a cavalier fashion.Imagine for a moment that what we are worried about is what is in fact going to take place, in every tiny, horrid, worried-about detail. Characters moved from US servers, region locks, SC becoming unusable, account details sold on, all of it. Delaying telling us this is NOT going to make it any more palatable. It's not going to delay account cancellations - most non-US players I know would stick it out till the bitter end on our chosen servers, then cancel the account. It's not going to bring any extra revenue in for SOE - again, the reverse is already happening. We're not spending SC we have - what's the point if our toons might not exist in a couple of months? And we're sure as hell not buying any MORE SC to replace the SC we've spent. At least half the people I know spend more on SC than on their subscriptions. Usually.Delay is achieving nothing but rapidly escalating bad will from the player base and resulting in account cancellations from anger and mistrust.SOE, just let us know what's going on. You can't post a full FAQ? Post what you can. Put any of the worries to rest (if they can be put to rest). If there's no info, yet, tell us there's no info. Regularly. I don't believe for a moment at this stage that you have nothing to tell us. And you're harming goodwill, trust and future revenue by not doing so.

SmokeJumper

01-27-2012, 10:26 PM

<cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.</blockquote>I realize this is what you want to know. I even have an answer. But I can't share it yet until the final details are in cement. I apologize. My hands are tied for the moment.This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.

Arbreth

01-27-2012, 11:05 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.</blockquote>I realize this is what you want to know. I even have an answer. But I can't share it yet until the final details are in cement. I apologize. My hands are tied for the moment.This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.</blockquote>This does not sound very encouraging for my friends here on AB.

Banedon_Toran

01-27-2012, 11:30 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.</blockquote>I realize this is what you want to know. I even have an answer. But I can't share it yet until the final details are in cement. I apologize. My hands are tied for the moment.This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.</blockquote>SJ at this point you should be feeding back to Smedley and his team of lawyers that you have agitated customers who would appreciate being thrown a bone or two. At the same time you should be telling us that you're raising our concerns and want to do right by us.

Avirodar

01-27-2012, 11:37 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>However, this should be really big for EQII in Europe. Partnering with ProSiebenSat.1 gets us access to television ads in Europe, which means we should be able to greatly enlarge our European server populations with new players. That would just be astoundingly cool for everyone involved over there.</blockquote>Given the size of the online FTP game portfolio held by ProSiebenSat.1, EQ2 will be nothing more than a small fish in the ocean. If PSS.1 advertises EQ2, it will be a minor few seconds slipped in between numerous other titles. Alternatively, SOE fund TV adverts in Europe? LOL. I will not hold my breath.This looks more like a deal to benefit DCUO, and the upcoming addition to the EQ franchise (EQ-Next), not something intended to benefit the aging EverQuest2.

Avirodar

01-27-2012, 11:42 PM

<cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote>SJ at this point you should be feeding back to Smedley and his team of lawyers that you have agitated customers who would appreciate being thrown a bone or two. At the same time you should be telling us that you're raising our concerns and want to do right by us.</blockquote>What makes you think he wants to do right by us?Serious question.

Kaian

01-28-2012, 12:03 AM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Banedon_Toran wrote:</cite><blockquote>SJ at this point you should be feeding back to Smedley and his team of lawyers that you have agitated customers who would appreciate being thrown a bone or two. At the same time you should be telling us that you're raising our concerns and want to do right by us.</blockquote>What makes you think he wants to do right by us?Serious question.</blockquote>He said ... "... should be telling us that you're raising our concerns and want to do right by us" (my emphasis)Whether or not he does actually want to ... he should be telling us this. What would be the point? From their point of view, trying to halt the rot, upset, worry, concern and loss of revenue.

Fred Bear

01-28-2012, 01:11 AM

The funny thing is that the alapaya people seem to be allowed to say much more about this than the SOE people, on the 19th Protagonist posted this on their forums:-<a href="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s40.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alapla...485688-s40.html</a>"Hello,Just one answer for the most important point as we want to have a joint statement.We do not think about a transfer of US server chars from EU costumers in Eq2. That should solve the biggest worries the EQ2 community has at the moment. We do not want to interfere with long build ingame relationships. This is the current way we think about it.We will do a lot marketing for a game like EQ2. We believe it still has huge potential and our company is full of long time EQ players <img title="Smile" src="http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif" /> You will realize it when you get to know some people who will work on the SOE games. Really don´t worry too much. We will act very community centric."sounds to me like they want to allow us to continue playing US servers from Europe, still very low on details but much more than we are getting here.

Caealan

01-28-2012, 04:39 AM

Fair enough SJ. You can't give us the answer. I do understand. By the same token I can't renew my subscription with this hanging over us. I wish you luck for the future and truly feel sorry that I won't be able to be part of the everquest story any more. I think you really need to look at the fact that people are leaving, not because of the game, but because of the company.

Whilhelmina

01-28-2012, 09:01 AM

As a faithfull Test server player and a Storms player, I want to know if I will still be able to play with my friends.Making "adds" on TV in Europe will not yeild you any new customers to Storms or Valor if you don't fix localisation nor if we still get delayed patchs and such as it happends every GU.And then, sir, with all due respect... The first thing you're telling us after your vacations is "LOL, sorry, I was on vacation but GU63 is delayed". Worse, not even delayed, the phrasing was more in the lines of "hehehe, sorry folks, we knew your next content push would be in April and not in February since quite some times but we never told you *snickers*. Too bad you'll have to wait... But I promise it will be *cool(SJTM)*". Well, sorry, but I don't want some "cool(SJTM)" stuff, I want working stuff and please with some real QA testing it first. And not station cash junk. In game stuff. Every time you says something is "cool(SJTM)" I just want to flee.

Griffildur

01-28-2012, 11:19 AM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.</blockquote>I realize this is what you want to know. I even have an answer. But I can't share it yet until the final details are in cement. I apologize. My hands are tied for the moment.This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.</blockquote>This is not good enough. I don't understand how can you people post here and ask for feedback but at the same time you are not telling us anything even if you know the answer. I realise that your customers are not high on your list of priorities but you're just taking it too far now.

MurFalad

01-28-2012, 11:22 AM

Starting to get a bit concerned here too as until now I hadn't even considered the possibility that the US and EU servers would be completely split.Personally I don't see why they should, right now SOE pays some other company to maintain their EU servers in a centre in Amsterdam.I would hope this arrangement probably will involve some similar deal with the added incentive of more profit for more european accounts, maybe in a similar way that WoW in China is run. There is no advertising in Europe so things can only get better there, I see no reason that EQ2 should not have a similar level of subs in the EU to US as Blizzard already achieve that.If there are more US players using the EU hardware then EU players using the US hardware they could sort something out at the end of each year (the company I work at does something similar with its various offices and postage costs), but unless its really a big resource drain more players is more likely to be a positive thing keeping healthy server populations and benefits the gameplay.Shutting this down would effectively end BG's for the few who do use them in the EU and affect a lot of guilds negatively, it would also shut out all the players who play EQ2 at odd local times - night workers etc of which I've seen quite a few, with the current arrangement SOE gets a lot of players simply because they can log on to a server in another timezone and get the benefits of playing at normal/peak times in the middle of the night/ or the middle of a weekday.Its going to be interesting to see how things are arranged... The question of what happens to accounts with US and EU characters is the big question for me.Edit : Reading the info on the Alaplaya forums I do get a good feel for things here since it seems like they're not going to change what is already in place, will have to see with the official announcements, as no doubt both sides are held up by lawyers on what they can say.

MurFalad

01-28-2012, 11:23 AM

<cite>Whilhelmina@Storms wrote:</cite><blockquote>Making "adds" on TV in Europe will not yeild you any new customers to Storms or Valor if you don't fix localisation nor if we still get delayed patchs and such as it happends every GU.</blockquote>I'd hope some work was put into an graphics engine upgrade before any major advertisment campaign was launched, things could certainly run and look better.

kahonen

01-28-2012, 11:45 AM

If people stop and think for one moment, it's fairly obvious why SOE are saying nothing about moving Euro players to a Euro server.Looking at this thread alone, how many people would be happy with that decision? Not many!If they announce it now, so many people will be so angry it will could well lead to a mass exodus of Euro players and then what have SOE got to offer Alaplaya. They won't announce it until it's a "fait accompli", a "done deal". We will simply login one day and find our accounts being run by Alaplaya with no notice being given. That way all of the things people want least will already have been done: Alaplaya will have our account details; toons will have already been transferred; you will have already been deguilded. I believe the path they are adopting is to hope that when we are presented with this situation, fewer people will leave.None of this is in any way different to the way Euro players have been handled in the past. How many of you remember the period before DoV was released when they planned a staggered release with USA getting it 7 days before everyone else? How many of you remember the hassle on the forums where paying customers couldn't make people who apparently play the game understand the significance of the USA players getting all the disocveries first, or the importance of being able to login at the same time as guildies and still be able to play together, the importance of progressing raids in progress guilds?SOE have proven time and again that in their opinion the world doesn't exist outside of the good old US of A so this is nothing new. At the end of the day, considering the service SOE provide, how much worse do you think Alaplaya could be?

Bacci

01-28-2012, 11:59 AM

<cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>If people stop and think for one moment, it's fairly obvious why SOE are saying nothing about moving Euro players to a Euro server.Looking at this thread alone, how many people would be happy with that decision? Not many!If they announce it now, so many people will be so angry it will could well lead to a mass exodus of Euro players and then what have SOE got to offer Alaplaya. They won't announce it until it's a "fait accompli", a "done deal". We will simply login one day and find our accounts being run by Alaplaya with no notice being given. That way all of the things people want least will already have been done: Alaplaya will have our account details; toons will have already been transferred; you will have already been deguilded. I believe the path they are adopting is to hope that when we are presented with this situation, fewer people will leave.None of this is in any way different to the way Euro players have been handled in the past. How many of you remember the period before DoV was released when they planned a staggered release with USA getting it 7 days before everyone else? How many of you remember the hassle on the forums where paying customers couldn't make people who apparently play the game understand the significance of the USA players getting all the disocveries first, or the importance of being able to login at the same time as guildies and still be able to play together, the importance of progressing raids in progress guilds?SOE have proven time and again that in their opinion the world doesn't exist outside of the good old US of A so this is nothing new. At the end of the day, considering the service SOE provide, how much worse do you think Alaplaya could be?</blockquote>Well this is against European law.We have one of the best data protect laws worldwide. If SOE would give out account data to Alaplaya/prosiebensat1, both parties would act not legal.They have to ask us if we want this. It is quite this simple.

ranga

01-28-2012, 01:03 PM

<cite>Bacci@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>If people stop and think for one moment, it's fairly obvious why SOE are saying nothing about moving Euro players to a Euro server.Looking at this thread alone, how many people would be happy with that decision? Not many!If they announce it now, so many people will be so angry it will could well lead to a mass exodus of Euro players and then what have SOE got to offer Alaplaya. They won't announce it until it's a "fait accompli", a "done deal". We will simply login one day and find our accounts being run by Alaplaya with no notice being given. That way all of the things people want least will already have been done: Alaplaya will have our account details; toons will have already been transferred; you will have already been deguilded. I believe the path they are adopting is to hope that when we are presented with this situation, fewer people will leave.None of this is in any way different to the way Euro players have been handled in the past. How many of you remember the period before DoV was released when they planned a staggered release with USA getting it 7 days before everyone else? How many of you remember the hassle on the forums where paying customers couldn't make people who apparently play the game understand the significance of the USA players getting all the disocveries first, or the importance of being able to login at the same time as guildies and still be able to play together, the importance of progressing raids in progress guilds?SOE have proven time and again that in their opinion the world doesn't exist outside of the good old US of A so this is nothing new. At the end of the day, considering the service SOE provide, how much worse do you think Alaplaya could be?</blockquote>Well this is against European law.We have one of the best data protect laws worldwide. If SOE would give out account data to Alaplaya/prosiebensat1, both parties would act not legal.They have to ask us if we want this. It is quite this simple.</blockquote>A law which SOE are not bound by but Pro7 are.To be fair to SJ, I think Smed opened his mouth far too early and that gave SJ the mother of all hospital balls to deal with. Smed should have just buttoned it and told 'Alapaya' to do the same until they had all their ducks lined up. Depending on the release of the FAQ, we still are likely to be surprised not necessarily badly - it could all be good news. But it could not have been handled more badly IMO.

Daysy

01-28-2012, 01:10 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.</blockquote>Obviously it's not to do with development of the game. It's SOE that we've been giving our money to all these years and it's by SOE that we're owed some answers. Could we please have some now?

Avirodar

01-28-2012, 01:30 PM

<cite>SmokeJumper wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Tallisman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Smokejumper, I can fully appreciate your not being able to disclose full details yet, but all I want to know (at this point) is whether or not I'll be able to continue playing on AB from the UK.</blockquote>I realize this is what you want to know. I even have an answer. But I can't share it yet until the final details are in cement. I apologize. My hands are tied for the moment.This is *so* not a dev team issue or decision. Sorry.</blockquote>So you're saying the apathy toward customers, and organisational incompetence, goes all the way to the very top?Well, if you say so!

kahonen

01-28-2012, 02:09 PM

<cite>Bacci@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>We will simply login one day and find our accounts being run by Alaplaya with no notice being given. That way all of the things people want least will already have been done: Alaplaya will have our account details; toons will have already been transferred; you will have already been deguilded. </blockquote>Well this is against European law.We have one of the best data protect laws worldwide. If SOE would give out account data to Alaplaya/prosiebensat1, both parties would act not legal.They have to ask us if we want this. It is quite this simple.</blockquote>Sadly, I believe you are mistaken. You need to check European law and also the EULA which you have accepted in principle since you use SOE's service.First, SOE are not a European company and are not bound in the same way that a European company would be. As a European company, it is not illegal for Alaplaya to receive our data, only for them to pass it on. When SOE sell our accounts to Alaplaya, that is exactly what they will be doing.If you want to know how much SOE value the security of our data, how many of you Euro players actually received anything that the US players got after the accounts were compromised last year - you remember the promise of identity theft advice and insurance?

Llenwyn

01-28-2012, 02:27 PM

<cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Bacci@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>kahonen wrote:</cite><blockquote>We will simply login one day and find our accounts being run by Alaplaya with no notice being given. That way all of the things people want least will already have been done: Alaplaya will have our account details; toons will have already been transferred; you will have already been deguilded. </blockquote>Well this is against European law.We have one of the best data protect laws worldwide. If SOE would give out account data to Alaplaya/prosiebensat1, both parties would act not legal.They have to ask us if we want this. It is quite this simple.</blockquote>Sadly, I believe you are mistaken. You need to check European law and also the EULA which you have accepted in principle since you use SOE's service.First, SOE are not a European company and are not bound in the same way that a European company would be. As a European company, it is not illegal for Alaplaya to receive our data, only for them to pass it on. When SOE sell our accounts to Alaplaya, that is exactly what they will be doing.If you want to know how much SOE value the security of our data, how many of you Euro players actually received anything that the US players got after the accounts were compromised last year - you remember the promise of identity theft advice and insurance?</blockquote>Both the EULA and the ToS do no give SOE the explicit possibility to pass on our personal data to a third party publisher. As this is a rather large deal, I do not expect (even) SOE to take their chance with doing it anyway and hope some passages in the ToS (such as those dealing with using third party billing companies) will be sufficient.Originally, I expected that for current subscribers little would change and SOE and PSS.1 would periodically make up the accounts and settle. The silence since the announcement however is a bit ominous. I have to agree with all the posters in this thread that announcing the deal without having answers on what it means for your current subscribers is very amateuristic.

Te'ana

01-28-2012, 02:59 PM

The early announcement of the partnership was not for our consumption, it was for stock markets. We are just caught up in a rather common business strategy to boost share prices. If the FAQ turns out to be well received then shares will go up again, if not, then they may drop, but either way there is a lot of money to be made and bonuses to be bookedt at the top during the interim.

DonnyOddlegs

01-29-2012, 10:51 AM

From section12 of the EULA:"You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer Game and your Account information (including your personally identifiable information and personal data) to the United States or other countries or may share such information with our licensees and agents in connection with the Game."The last time you accepted the EULA you gave SOE all the permission they need to sell your information to whoever they like.

Avirodar

01-29-2012, 12:37 PM

<cite>DonnyOddlegs wrote:</cite><blockquote>From section12 of the EULA:"You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer Game and your Account information (including your personally identifiable information and personal data) to the United States or other countries or may share such information with our licensees and agents in connection with the Game."The last time you accepted the EULA you gave SOE all the permission they need to sell your information to whoever they like.</blockquote>Bad news for EU players. The players don't have a leg to stand on, to stop SOE sending PSS.1 all their personal information.Thanks for posting the relevant info.

dawy

01-29-2012, 10:43 PM

<cite>Avirodar@Oasis wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>DonnyOddlegs wrote:</cite><blockquote>From section12 of the EULA:"You acknowledge and agree that we may transfer Game and your Account information (including your personally identifiable information and personal data) to the United States or other countries or may share such information with our licensees and agents in connection with the Game."The last time you accepted the EULA you gave SOE all the permission they need to sell your information to whoever they like.</blockquote>Bad news for EU players. The players don't have a leg to stand on, to stop SOE sending PSS.1 all their personal information.Thanks for posting the relevant info.</blockquote>Aye its starting to look grim for us euro players sadly

Pixiewrath

01-30-2012, 12:19 AM

If I cannot continue playing on a US server, that's where my subscription ends.F2P was bad enough, lowering the quality of players (lots easier for spammers and unserious people to make accounts just to troll), but if I will now be forced to play on barren european servers... bye bye EQ2! <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Oh, and by the way. Fallen Earth is a great game. Where everyone plays on the same server. Works great.I wouldn't mind if all servers of EQ2 got merged into two. One pvp and one pve.That way, no more separating of the people.

Griffildur

01-30-2012, 08:40 AM

<cite>Pixiewrath@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I wouldn't mind if all servers of EQ2 got merged into two. One pvp and one pve.That way, no more separating of the people.</blockquote>I can see that happening in the not very distant future, but for very different reasons.

Pixiewrath

01-30-2012, 09:58 AM

<cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Pixiewrath@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I wouldn't mind if all servers of EQ2 got merged into two. One pvp and one pve.That way, no more separating of the people.</blockquote>I can see that happening in the not very distant future, but for very different reasons.</blockquote>Hehehe. Don't worry. When there are 100 ppl left playing shop-a-holicing from the game rather than playing they will... eh... then they have probably launched EQNext anyway, so no reason to maintain EQ2 anymore.The fact we still find spelling errors in the game 1 ½ years after we reported them and continue seeing broken features launched with every expansion and GU has made me stopped using the SC shop and been playing some other games recently. The only SC I use is the one I have gotten from webcasts and my sub. Which I am seriously considering atm by the way.Sadly, companies do earn lots of money from micro-transactions but the game quality takes severe hits.If I continue to see spelling errors, non-consistent dialogues etc. when DoV Part II is released, I will scream.Signature and Heritage quests are usually not containing many flaws (aside from the occasional gating bugs), but "normal" quests are a completely different story. Dyslectic people shouldn't work with dialogues (and definitely not programming) but focus on art or something they can actually perform well.

Raknid

01-30-2012, 10:32 AM

<cite>Pixiewrath@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Pixiewrath@The Bazaar wrote:</cite><blockquote>I wouldn't mind if all servers of EQ2 got merged into two. One pvp and one pve.That way, no more separating of the people.</blockquote>I can see that happening in the not very distant future, but for very different reasons.</blockquote>Hehehe. Don't worry. When there are 100 ppl left playing shop-a-holicing from the game rather than playing they will... eh... then they have probably launched EQNext anyway, so no reason to maintain EQ2 anymore.The fact we still find spelling errors in the game 1 ½ years after we reported them and continue seeing broken features launched with every expansion and GU has made me stopped using the SC shop and been playing some other games recently. The only SC I use is the one I have gotten from webcasts and my sub. Which I am seriously considering atm by the way.Sadly, companies do earn lots of money from micro-transactions but the game quality takes severe hits.If I continue to see spelling errors, non-consistent dialogues etc. when DoV Part II is released, I will scream.Signature and Heritage quests are usually not containing many flaws (aside from the occasional gating bugs), but "normal" quests are a completely different story. Dyslectic people shouldn't work with dialogues (and definitely not programming) but focus on art or something they can actually perform well.</blockquote>Heh...but the quest people have time to make daggone sure that the NEW holiday event stuff is done right.This announcement is simply nothing more than a continuation of SOE attitudes towards the game and its players. Out with the old (or the the heck with the old), in with the new. Old content and veteran players suffer while they seek that "miracle" that will make enough to feed the gaming appetites of thousands...yeah...good luck.IF they cared about existing players they would have something more what they gave us when this announcement hit. What are we, 18 days on? And we have ZERO information beyond apologies?

Griffildur

01-30-2012, 10:36 AM

<cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>IF they cared about existing players they would have something more what they gave us when this announcement hit. What are we, 18 days on? And we have ZERO information beyond apologies?</blockquote>Well, we know the decision has already been made but we are not worthy enough to know it. From that we can only imagine it will be something really bad for us, since they want to keep it secret until it's already implemented.That's what it boils down to. If I were you I'd make sure there's no credit card information left on your account ...

Avirodar

01-30-2012, 10:44 AM

<cite>Mrrshan@Runnyeye wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Raknid wrote:</cite><blockquote>IF they cared about existing players they would have something more what they gave us when this announcement hit. What are we, 18 days on? And we have ZERO information beyond apologies?</blockquote>Well, we know the decision has already been made but we are not worthy enough to know it. From that we can only imagine it will be something really bad for us, since they want to keep it secret until it's already implemented.That's what it boils down to. If I were you I'd make sure there's no credit card information left on your account ...</blockquote>If the information was there a few days, even a bit over a week ago, it's probably already too late.

Imokles

01-31-2012, 04:38 AM

For those of you who did not see this: Shirra, the German CR rep for EQ2, posted on the German forums that she will be in Germany until Feb 6th. She explicitly stated this will be a business trip:<a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=514249" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...topic_id=514249</a>

Raknid

01-31-2012, 10:24 AM

Not sure whether this is related to the ProSiebenSat thing or not though. Courtesy of Google translate:Hello dear ones,I fly to Germany tonight and until 6 am February again be in the office. During my business trip I'm limited or no access to the forums have. If something should burn (eg server crash), please contact our customer service or just leave a message on the U.S. forum. You may also like Massiguel a PM (English) writing and he will forward the matter.During my absence, continue to apply to all forum rules.I'm looking forward to the snow!Best regards,

Pipsissiwa

01-31-2012, 08:24 PM

I am in the UK and I have played on a US server since launch by choice, due in part to the hours I play. I run a Guild (the largest on unique accounts on my server, even tho we don't raid), with 2 other Euro players as my fellow Guild Leaders. I have many established customers for my crafters, vast numbers of friends, people who will always group with me cos they respect my ability to play my characters etc etc. I have put over 7 years of considerable time, effort (and obviously money for my sub) establishing myself as a known (and i hope respected) player on my server.I play not just for the game itself but also (and significantly) for the social aspects of the game. I log in to play with my friends, chat and catch up with what everyone is up to both in game and in RL. Relocating in RL is fun if you choose to do it, not if you're forced. Its not just about the characters; their levels, gear etc. Its the person-to-person interactions that are most important. This is an MMO after all, not a single player game. Relationships with other players is largely the point. If I am forced onto a new server, I fail to see any motivation to continue playing the game I adore. Over 7 years of time and effort would be trashed (its not like it takes long to get a char to 90 these days - its the relationships that take time). It's like taking a successful and happy business person, taking them out of their house against their will, dumping them alone in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country without knowing anyone or having any means of income and expecting them to pay to start almost their entire life all over again. Yes, I could start again, but I don't want to. It would also be another example of SOE's apparent disdain for it's long-term players.I can't help but think that any kind of enforced localisation after 7+ years of free choice of server would finish off EQ2. (I'm trying so hard not to be cynical and think thats what SOE wants in prep for EQNext). Successful and established Guilds will be torn apart (what happens to mine if all 3 Leaders vanish off the server?). I know of so, so many non-US (or 'Rest of World' as US-centric companies like to arrogantly call us) players on my server.I also find it interesting that one side of this (SOE) are keeping mum, yet the other side seem to be giving info including reassurance that enforced localisation won't happen. It's very selfish (but sadly only to be expected from such a huge corporate machine) for SOE to treat its players in this way, and I won't be happy until SOE themselves tell me I can keep playing on my chosen server (OK, so a couple of server merges down the line, but at least we all went across together) with my friends.Not even the Sony hacking incident last year made me waver in my steadfast loyalty to EQ2. But if SOE take away 90% of my game experience and make me start again just cos I live in the wrong place, then I think it may be time to call it a day. Time to dust off some accounts on a few other MMOs methinks, sadly. And they don't let me be a rat. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I hope so sincerely that this is all a false alarm/rumour mill panic/non-story./cry

Gladiolus

01-31-2012, 08:26 PM

<cite>Pipsissiwa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I hope so sincerely that this is all a false alarm/rumour mill panic/non-story.</blockquote>None of which would exist if we had information instead of speculation.

Raknid

01-31-2012, 08:32 PM

<cite>Gladiolus wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Pipsissiwa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I hope so sincerely that this is all a false alarm/rumour mill panic/non-story.</blockquote>None of which would exist if we had information instead of speculation.</blockquote>Going on what...19 days now? Holy Moly that is some massive lapse in communication.

Lempo

02-01-2012, 01:40 AM

Te'ana

02-01-2012, 04:43 AM

I was actively playing and developing a guild I have owned on Splitpaw since 2005 up until I read about this announcement. I had even moved 11 level 90 characters from Freeport to Splitpaw at great expense since I much prefer Spitpaw to my forced move from The Bazaar to Freeport. Now I only log onto Splitpaw to do my daily Tradeskill Apprentice quests. I have lost my desire to promote my guild and am now just treading water until this whole mess is resolved. this is just so disheartening.

isest

02-01-2012, 09:49 AM

I have 2 questions for Smokejumper(1) Why does soe need to partner with these guys? Don't give me the bs answer of we get tv add's, you don't advertise the us version of the game on tv, and your part of Sony you got access to the big screen as well as tv adds already and you don't use them as it is.(2) Are you going to sale of the us side to gamersfirst?I don't understand the need to do this it makes no since, especially since we been running the game over there for a good long while.

dawy

02-01-2012, 12:09 PM

3 weeks now and still no answers?Sorry but its past being pathetic and has become a sick joke.

crunn

02-01-2012, 02:16 PM

So many people have already said it very well, but I will add my name to the list.If Euro players are forced off their chosen US server I will no longer play EQ2. I am in the UK. I play on a US sever. I have been on EQ2 since launch day.I chose that server in order to join friends.In the many years since launch I have gained many hundreds of new friends.I am the leader of the largest guild on my server. I very much enjoy the game but with 14 characters, many maxed or close to, I no longer play the game for the games sake. I much prefer to play to hang with friends, to help them.I have way over a thousand guild members, all of whom I would consider friends, and some very close friends.I play EQ2 for the social interaction and not so much for the game itself. If it comes to pass that SOE decide to segregate me from my friends and my guild and put me on a new alien server alone I will no longer have any reason to stay.I will quit. I don’t know if there is any legal pressure that could be brought to bear on SOE if this forced segregation were to happen. Certainly from a moral perspective you will break up millions of friendships.This would be an act of racism, cultural and ethnical segregation and forced relocation.These are phrases usually reserved for the worst of war crimes. This is all sorts of bad publicity waiting to happen. I remember over the years countless accusation against SOE of racism and pro-US anti-restofworld.Odd that, coming from a Japanese owned company.I wonder if SonyHQ would approve? Let us hope that SOE have the good sense to avert this incoming disaster before it is too late and contracts signed. Actually they probably won’t say a word until it’s already too late to change anything. They know it won’t be popular. They are simply taking this time to ready the damage control teams.They only started this thread so they could later say that we were warned in advance. And of course they couldn’t give us many of the details since the contract was a work in progress and not subject to publication. /starts looking for new game/notices TOR/mentions TOR to guild

Banedon_Toran

02-01-2012, 02:22 PM

<cite>isest wrote:</cite><blockquote>I have 2 questions for Smokejumper(2) Are you going to sale of the us side to gamersfirst?</blockquote> Rumour, speculation or do you have info? If such a thing did happen, it might signify that SoE are going to be more strongly aligned to the PS3 instead of PC gaming.

Carthalis

02-01-2012, 03:34 PM

<cite>Pipsissiwa wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am in the UK and I have played on a US server since launch by choice, due in part to the hours I play. I run a Guild (the largest on unique accounts on my server, even tho we don't raid), with 2 other Euro players as my fellow Guild Leaders. I have many established customers for my crafters, vast numbers of friends, people who will always group with me cos they respect my ability to play my characters etc etc. I have put over 7 years of considerable time, effort (and obviously money for my sub) establishing myself as a known (and i hope respected) player on my server.</blockquote>Very much in a similiar position here. I've been playing on the US servers for nearly seven years now and originally came into the game via friends in another game who live in America. They've gone onto other games and I carried on playing because I fell in love with the game and have loved it ever since playing on the AB server. If european players are forced to play on european servers only then this will finally kill my love of all things EQ & SOE related. I'll just step away and never play again. The friends I've made on the server, the guild and everything I have after 7 years of playing just feels like it's not worth anything if this goes ahead.