Give us your feedback on the Turbine-Jolt deal.

[Ibn]

Use this thread to give us your feedback about the Turbine-Jolt deal. You can read the press release and FAQ here (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=269).

[Astral_Dominae]

Awesome! :D

Any info yet where(i.e. which country) the severs will reside :) ?

*edit*

also, is there any info yet out there if there will be translated versions of AC1 like you did for AC2 ?

[sharpy-sc]

I guess this is gonna be good for the Europeans, but Im gonna miss them on the US servers.

[Yung Kin]

Surely a boon to European players, and something you've obviously considered the pros and cons about...

With numbers dwindling on the servers from unsupportable loads of yesteryear, and the advent of the upcoming Spring rollout for the new Expansion Pack, do you have any numbers guesstimates on what average playerload will be for the US servers vs Jolt's European servers?

Is migration of US customers to Jolt's European servers a possibility? Some clans would like to stay together, and the chance to move en masse would prove useful.

Considering the timing of the European rollout, it looks to coincide with the Expansion Pack release, obviously this would be a great advertising benefit for both sides (Xpack and Jolt server expansion).

Can we expect that the XPack will be content driven (much like Dark Majesty) more than any significant gameplay adjustment? This would be a great opportunity to update an older designed game, and ride it out on the heels of your own server farm and Jolt's server farm.


Thank you.

[Zalliun]

I guess this is gonna be good for the Europeans, but Im gonna miss them on the US servers.


not really could you see yourself leaving your friends for a slightly better ping time, i couldnt.

+ adding devs are in the us so any issues in offhours will be ....fun like AC2 europe going.

[Rigryn]

with europeans moving to europe next year.. how many players will be left at the US-servers?

Merges are imminent

[Mildly amused]

Getting special treatment is always nice, but without a package deal allowing me to use both the 'old' US and the upcoming european servers, Ill stay right where I am.

Will european patches occur roughly around the same date as US patches or will Jolt be several months behind as some of the competitors are with their european MMORPG servers?

Will customer support for Jolts AC customers be handled by Jolt or Turbine?
If handled by Jolt, will there be personal dedicated exclusively to AC? What about billing?

Anyway good luck!

[MaddyFF]

That is great news to hear!

[Eric the Grey]

This is great news for the European players. I fear, however, we may have many players switching from the current live worlds to the new ones. It would be sad to see them go.


:cool: Eric the Grey

[Heideggar]

I think it's good that European players will get the same attention and benefits as the US players, but I feel that the way you guys have it set up there will be fewer people to play with. You guys also don't give much incentive to switch to the European Servers when you aren't sure if you can allow current Europeans on US servers to migrate their characters. People become attached, fond, whatever to their characters. If you guys at Turbine want a smooth transition and want the European servers to be populated by more than a couple dozen people, you'll want to try and get that migration thing working.

Though, I'll miss my European friends if they do decide to move to the other servers. Fewer people != good : /

Xpack and... <something> is suppose to alleviate that!?

I hope so.

I used to see 2k-2800 people online years back, and now at those same times I see 400-500, sometimes 700-800 on patch day, maybe hehe.

[ufhamlet]

I don't see how in the world this is beneficial to the longevity of AC. I DO see how it's beneficial for future Turbine games which, again, seems to put AC on the back-burner.

[Arch Magi]

I'm sure it will be a boon to our EU players, but will be unhappy to see them leave our guild.

But without the ability to "import/export" toons from one set of servers to another, I don't think many will. I could be wrong.

Personally, I think that if Turbine allows people to "import/export" from one server to another, unless you allow it to happen from say the US HG world to the US LC world, there will be a huge outcry.

Again, not sure this will make much of any real difference to the player base aside from further splinter it and have "46 clients currently logged in".

[Korrigan]

If we can transfer chars, this can be very interesting. For many reasons, I would be pleased to play on a server with mostly europeans.

But I started from scratch twice now (once on HG, once on VT), and if we cannot transfer some chars, I don't think I'll make the move and do it a third time (but who knows ! ;)).

[Wolfe]

Personally I'd sooner see the money go towards upgrading the US servers to give us all a better experience without the lag/slowdowns etc.

When you take into account how many European players there are, then take into account how many of those would want to migrate to a new server, then again there will be an even smaller number who would want to start over again if migration wasn't possible. I think it will be a very small number in all honesty, and this game is definately at it's best when there's a high server population on.

I honestly don't see that splitting the game would be beneficial in any way, as things are now the European players can still get together and do things at times that works for them, but still have the option to say stay up later than normal on a weekend to take part in a quest with a lot of US players.

If the language barrier is a factor in this, there's many languages spoken in Europe, the most common being English. I've seen from playing other games, notably Diablo II on both the euro and the US servers, that the US servers are a lot more hospitable because everyone's speaking the same language, regardless of how well they grasp it. ;)

Admittedly that sounds quite selfish, but I don't see that there would be anywhere near enough players to make it much fun on a Europe server.

Speaking as a European player, I'd infinitely prefer to see a bit less lag in the AC we have now than have the option to play on a Euro server.

I'm concerned too that given the smaller European player base, the US server subscriptions might end up subsidising the European ones, and another subscription hike for that would be very unpopular I imagine.

[Dangermouse]

Servers will be UK based - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=8293 or so the AC2 team says

If there`s no transfer of characters then I doubt I`ll move, mainly as my European online friends are unlikely to want to transfer and my North American chums will stay put, irrespective of new worlds.

Is there any particular reason (other than possibly international tax issues and VAT) why all users can`t access both sets of servers for the standard fee (like AC2 was before this announcement)?

It will be good to have the game marketed in Europe with European support - may help attract new players, and envoys live events etc will be geared around European time slots I guess. I`m guessing but part of the move may be around the AC2 Euro servers being in a Microsoft datacentre and the fact that the English Euro servers doesn`t work very well so having some dedicated Euro support will make sense.

I`m interested to see the detail of the new set up before passing judgement.

[sharpy-sc]

See big picture: Have faithful customer base in US with a few UK players.

OK now we need to develop a big customer base in the UK.

Current UK players Im sure is a concern on their mind but not their main focus.

Its selling their new product to new players in UK and developing a customer base there.

[Skinnerc]

This IMO is something that should be in the Turbine-Jolt FAQ and at least something i would like Ibn to answer: how does this differ from Turbine-Microsoft in the US it is obvious the way it stated that there is a more equal level of command from both companies, but still i would like to know your primary differences beyond such

[Dotcher]

I have reservations - are current Euro players going to be orphaned on the US servers, and what about people who play on both AC2 datacentres at current for starters - but we'll have to see how it plays out.

I hope it's slightly better run than the GOA/Mythic deal for DAoC is, though...

[Dangermouse]

Assuming that the Xpac isn`t going to come out until after the Jolt servers are up and running, will the Euro Xpac release let players sign up to their choice of the Euro or USA servers?

Basically if I end up staying on USA servers and convince friends to come and try AC1 am I going to find that they can`t come and join me on Thistledown?

Cheers

[Myk]

Good news for Euro players bad news for folks on the U.S servers. This worries because if most of the Euro players switch we could see less people on the U.S servers and that could lead to servers being combined and I think that would be utter chaos.

People could lose character names and housing at the least

My main is Myk, I dont want him to be toon formerly named Myk, Myk of old leafcull, Myk LC, or anything other than Myk. I am sure others would agree. I also wouldnt want the person with the villa in the same location as mine on another server to lose his or me lose mine.

This has me very very worried and for people who say I shouldnt be worried AC2 servers have been combined so why not ours?

[Dangermouse]

The two main differences on AC1 servers combining from AC2 are

1) Housing - wasn`t an issue for AC2 but is a big issue for AC1. I`ll put my faith in Turbine - don`t think they`ll look to combine servers because of this.

2) Population - AC2 was shrinking at the time and with it being a very heavily group orientated game low populations detracted from the game. AC1 doesn`t have quite the same problem with low populations and given the forthcoming Xpac I think populations will go up.

But some word from Turbine would be nice to confirm or deny plans :rolleyes:

[Nauscicaa]

I applaud your decision to pay more attention to your loyal European customers.

What I am worried about is what this will mean for the Euro players that will remain on US servers (I can think of many reasons why I would not move).

Does this mean Euro time live events are gone on the US servers? Does it mean Euro support for US server players is gone with the argument: "Go to the Euro server if you want support and live events" ?

Or does this only open more possibilities and no change on current servers?

[sharpy-sc]

I applaud your decision to pay more attention to your loyal European customers.

Paying attention to their loyal European customers is not their goal here at all!

Its all about having these servers in place for the launch of the XPACK and attracting NEW UK players.

If their goal had anything to do with the current loyal European customers, you would be presented with the details of HOW this is gonna help the current loyal European customers.

As they stated, they dont have those details right now. Why? Because dealing with the issues this brings up for the current loyal European customers is an afterthought.

This move has nothing and I mean NUTHIN to do with answering current European players prayers.

Sorry Turbine..calling it like I see it.

[Ibn]

Awesome! :D

Any info yet where(i.e. which country) the severs will reside :) ?

*edit*

also, is there any info yet out there if there will be translated versions of AC1 like you did for AC2 ?

Don't have specific answers on either of these yet, sorry.

[Ibn]

do you have any numbers guesstimates on what average playerload will be for the US servers vs Jolt's European servers?

Not at this time, no.

Is migration of US customers to Jolt's European servers a possibility? Some clans would like to stay together, and the chance to move en masse would prove useful.

As we said in the FAQ, this is something we're looking into. I don't expect that this is something that would be offered only to European players, but it's all still up in the air.

Can we expect that the XPack will be content driven (much like Dark Majesty) more than any significant gameplay adjustment?

There'll be both new content and game system updates, such as the level cap increase.

[Ibn]

with europeans moving to europe next year.. how many players will be left at the US-servers?

Merges are imminent

The sky ain't fallin' just yet. :) There are no plans for server merges at this time.

[Ibn]

Will european patches occur roughly around the same date as US patches or will Jolt be several months behind as some of the competitors are with their european MMORPG servers?

I don't believe there are final details on that yet.

Will customer support for Jolts AC customers be handled by Jolt or Turbine?
If handled by Jolt, will there be personal dedicated exclusively to AC? What about billing?

Jolt will be providing all support for their AC customers.

[Ibn]

This IMO is something that should be in the Turbine-Jolt FAQ and at least something i would like Ibn to answer: how does this differ from Turbine-Microsoft in the US it is obvious the way it stated that there is a more equal level of command from both companies, but still i would like to know your primary differences beyond such

Well, the Turbine-Jolt relationship will be somewhat similar to how the Turbine-MS relationship used to be, in that Turbine's partner will handle the non-Development responsibilities for the service. The big difference is that Microsoft used to own Asheron's Call, and now Turbine does.

[MannyCalavera]

This could answer a lot of people's dreams of a new pk server...if they make one...

[Ibn]

Or does this only open more possibilities and no change on current servers?

We certainly won't start ignoring European players on Turbine's servers. We certainly understand that many of you are established here and won't want to move, even if we do end up offering that option.

[Ibn]

Paying attention to their loyal European customers is not their goal here at all!

Its all about having these servers in place for the launch of the XPACK and attracting NEW UK players.

If their goal had anything to do with the current loyal European customers, you would be presented with the details of HOW this is gonna help the current loyal European customers.

As they stated, they dont have those details right now. Why? Because dealing with the issues this brings up for the current loyal European customers is an afterthought.

That's simply not true. At this immediate time, many of the details for European AC1 servers haven't been announced -- and this applies to services and options for both new customers and existing customers. We certainly don't want to lose our existing European customers, that's just not good for the game in general. :)

[Frieze]

Looks very cool, with the exception of this:

Q. Will I be able to transfer my characters to Jolt's European servers?
A. We're currently exploring the possibility of supporting this. At this point we're not even sure it's possible, but if it is we'll let you know.

I don't want to see our current worlds lose more population; rather, I see this as an opportunity to bring in players that wouldn't have otherwise had an opportunity to try AC.

[Jessica]

Well, the Turbine-Jolt relationship will be somewhat similar to how the Turbine-MS relationship used to be, in that Turbine's partner will handle the non-Development responsibilities for the service. The big difference is that Microsoft used to own Asheron's Call, and now Turbine does.
Let me help out Ibn here:

1. The monthly episodes should happen on the day and at roughly the same time as the US updates. We'll push the bits out to Jolt at the same time as push them to our own servers.

2. One reason we decided to go with Jolt is because they can provide customer service locally for any AC1 European servers that are set up. They have their own multi-lingual staff and can provide the customer service during European hours. I count that as a nice plus.

[Myk]

The sky ain't fallin' just yet. :) There are no plans for server merges at this time.

That scares me as well. Anytime I hear it will never happen or not at this time, it seems as it happens anyway.

[Yinchi]

Does this partnership have anything to do with billing? I know that another game (no names mentioned) had a Euro partner because of the difficulity in billing across the continents.

[sharpy-sc]

That's simply not true. At this immediate time, many of the details for European AC1 servers haven't been announced -- and this applies to services and options for both new customers and existing customers. We certainly don't want to lose our existing European customers, that's just not good for the game in general. :)

What Im saying is that I BELIEVE, based upon the way you have presented this announcement, is that this idea was derived from a marketing meeting and not a technical one.

Of course you are concerned about everyone.

But this addition is aimed at increased revenue - not to fix lag for Europeans.

[Davidge]

Can you clarify "Europe" in the context of this deal? Will Jolt be specific to the EU? Or the entire continent, or even the hemisphere?

Is Australia and/or New Zealand included in this? What about the Asian countries like South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, etc .. ( no offense if I left an important one out please )

Thanks. :)

[Jessica]

That scares me as well. Anytime I hear it will never happen or not at this time, it seems as it happens anyway.
OK, let me clarify, then: We haven't discussed server merges here, nor has anyone suggested it should happen; it isn't even on the radar. If it ever DOES come into radar range, we'll discuss the pros and cons thoroughly here on these forums and come to some kind of consensus on whether it should be done and how to make it work.

[Jessica]

What Im saying is that I BELIEVE, based upon the way you have presented this announcement, is that this idea was derived from a marketing meeting and not a technical one.

Of course you are concerned about everyone.

But this addition is aimed at increased revenue - not to fix lag for Europeans.
They don't have to be mutually exclusive. Among other considerations, we thought it would A) open up new markets for both games; B) help clean up some lag issues we're seeing at the Dublin center and C) present an alternative for potential European customers who didn't want to fight traffic across the Atlantic Internet chokepoints.

[bertman]

But this addition is aimed at increased revenue - not to fix lag for Europeans.
OMG! We wouldn't want Turbine to make any money, would we? Perish the thought that they might actually figure out a way to expand a market and make a few bucks at the same time. It's just not right, is it?
I really hate backward thinking. This is the kind of thought that has governments taking over businesses because the business people are making too much money off of the working class.
Turbine must turn a profit. They will not be here long without it. If they do something smart like expanding the accessibility of AC, and can make a few bucks, I'm all for it. Why would financial gain not be a good thing?

[Julian's Touch]

I am European, and i feel the love !! :cool:

Recently i read on vnboards an european looking for an european monarchy in order to have same play time as them. It's a first point.
Also they got success in opening a new server, some old customers and new ones came on it, but mostly US

About Europeans, first Turbine you should make more ads on european sites (and it include French site) or sell the game here, so people can look after it. Most of MMORPG players know AC2, but have no idea about what is AC 1rst of the name.

I hope, really, that you will sell the expansion's pack either online with keys, or export the box in France. I don't wanna see the same problem that we got with DarkMajesty, finding the few sites exporting it or an online friend buying it for us, sending the key by email. But i am confident ;)

Not sure if i will be really concern, but i like that my -fav- game is coming over here, and will get the interest of more players!


I take a reservation in 2006 for European ACPL, ok ? :D

[Ophar Kabitaki]

Umm..Character migration is a lame idea. You are attempting to attract NEW players/subscribers. Let's not make the mistake of sticking them on servers where they are already outmatched by chained and macroed characters immediately. Worst idea ever..I have no idea how you could have even THOUGHT about that. Run them all the same as VT, everyone starts fresh. VT population hasn't suffered from the fact everyone had to start fresh.

Won't even talk about a PK server in Europe..migration to that server for DT characters is beyond idiocy...no newbies would ever log onto that server.

[ElgarL]

An excellent step forward for AC. So long as I can continue to play with the friends I've made over the past four years on the server I play at the moment I have no problems with it.

If I'm forced to move because I'm not in the US then it's a bad move.

[Sprawl]

STOP STEALING PLAYERS FROM OUR SERVERS... they are bare enough :( People join us on FF and are amazed how many players we have, and we do not have many at all, imho. VT was a mistake from this standpoint as well. You are spreading your playerbase too thin, not smart from a player's point of view.

Sprawl

[Zenato]

The sky ain't fallin' just yet. :) There are no plans for server merges at this time.

IBN I don't know what sky you're looking at, but the one on HG has pretty much crashed to Dereth. You are so totally out of touch with reality it is sort of sad. The server population is already at dire levels for all servers but VT. Open your eyes...

Has anyone at Turbine looked at any server other than VT recently?

Its called milking the COW! Turbine is milking the tail end of the AC legacy by licensing away the rights to run AC. This in most respects appears to be a desperate need to gain capital to keep the ship afloat. However, if you completely segment your player base like this it will be the end to AC. The drop in active players and the opening up of new servers has brought the enjoyment level of playing AC to an all time low. If there is no one else playing what is the point of playing a MMORPG?

The Jolt deal might seem great to the executives at Turbine who're just looking for a big check, but to me "a customer" it just another nail in the coffin.

Kudos to the brain trust that is working hard at Turbine making this deals. Man how I wish Microsoft was still in the picture!

[Madgic]

Hiya me again,

OK another silly question from me as always.

There has been alot of expectation from myself with the proposed relaunch of Ac with the Expansion. With these european Servers coming up does this mean we will be splitting the game?

I would love the better conectivity and the European Support but there are alot of Europeans that play, alot more than some think. My Concearn is we are either going to Split the game up or doom alot of new players to Jumping into a now established world of unknowns, that will make any new player with 0 help log off after a few hours.

One of the main Questions asked in European gameing articles and programmes is always "is this pick up and playable?" AC is not it is complex and without the guidence of long term players many new European players will just not last more than a few days. (detailed instructions from the devs will not work as it has been proven time after time they cant play the game either).

OK The main Question.

Is it at all possible to connect to the game using the new servers so us Europeans can have the benefits of the connection and ping, But at the same time still be connected to the US servers so we can carry on playing the game with the people we have spent years getting to know? Some kind of link? as you may have Guessed im no Computer wizz, in just a house wife, But I do take my AC seriously, since the begining i have accepted that my game wil always be slighty slower and lagyer than the US gamers, I would love to use these new servers but Will not leave my friends in the US without being forced.

[Shoey_LC]

I am, to say the least, massively disappointed by this development. I hate it when MMORPG companies forget the fact that the internet world is ONE GLOBAL VILLAGE and start to put arbitrary political boundries around who I can or cannot play with.

Turbine have said that those on US servers (which is all there is now) may continue there so I am OK that at least I can stay with all my friends on LC... BUT where do you think the new players (who hopefully will come with the Expansion Pack) will go to play? Those is the European timezone may not see the same influx of new blood as those in the US just because of this annoucement....our allegiance has many European players and was looking forward to more joining soon - I guess we can forget about that for the forseeable future. Shame on you Turbine Shame! :mad:

[Yinchi]

Zenato, HG is in the lead for numbers online along with FF and LC. Of course, this is no where near the amount of those playing on VT. About half, in fact. Now if you want to see someplace that is empty, trySol, MT or WE. WE has 1428 empty housing (not including mansions). 90+ of those are cottages. :(

[AFWriter]

SC is faring poorly as well. The active population numbers (not counting 'bots) are around 1/5th of what they were when the server first opened.

The sad part is many of our remaining players and clans are heavily Europe-based. This announcement doesn't bode well for our future population numbers.

However, what concerns me is the statements regarding server merges. If Jessica is saying they haven't even discussed them -- this is a serious administrative oversight, IMHO.

As with the ability to move characters, this should be a managment issue that is addressed in the near-term -- not in the realm of unplanned future events.

Read my sig.

Later,

Don!

[sharpy-sc]

Ok Ive thought about it:

FINAL ANSWER: This sucks!

If the two server farms cant work together and put everyone on the same worlds..this plan sucks.

Thanks for asking my opinion.

[wussy_woy]

Servers are so thin as it is, why seperate and lower the population more?

[God Slayer]

eh.. maybe now i can get a better house

i like the idea about servers in europe

but if they don't have the same info on each

then it's just like having a new game in Europe and leave us in america with less poeple

i think as though you should find a way to combine both

i know AC is "strong" but 600 people on a server at peek is weak.

[Zenato]

It has nothing to do with providing service to European customers. This is the Internet. Are european web addresses not able to connect to a server in the US? This is lame.

WOOL
------
EYES

It's all about the mighty buck. They're selling customers down the drain to get bucks up front by licensing the product out. This idea doesn't benefit anyone. This is a MMORPG! We don't need people spread out so thin. Next they'll shift the US servers to a 3rd party company when their new offerings go live. I'd put money on it.

[Croso]

I have been here since open Beta, Would never ever switch to a euro server.

To many friends, to much time invested, oh and Plats :)

Btw iam from Euro :cool:

[Pinpux]

Who will decide of the COC in European Servers ?

[Two of Ten]

Well I usually dont stick my nose in on these types of discussions, but there are many issues that should be contemplated. Not only as to where it applies to European servers and Jolt deals, but with all aspects of this game.

For starters:

I have read many posts on many different topics here recently, and many players feel as I do about the updates and deals.

In general, when bugs are found in updates, instead of removing inappropiately gained items, experience, weapons, armor, etc or penalizing players who exploit bugs and/or oversights in some form, the bug is "fixed". Now the bug will no longer be exploited, BUT honest players feel as if they were not treated fairly or equally in that expoiters keep their exploited rewards and also face no reprocusions after bugs are fixed. Thats the first thing. My suggestion would be to find ways of taking back exploits along with the bug fixes, or to see to it that honest people are recieve equal or higher rewards for being honest. By doing this, you not only buffer the relationship between your honest customers, but also discourage players from exploiting oversights. Simply allowing dishonest players to keep thier exploits will only encourage more to do the same and degrade customer relationships.

Second and more specifically:
Appearantly, Caul has caused some issues to arise due to complaints of grieving, campers, etc. Basically all three of the previous words mean "we are having to compete with many others to get kills and loot". The proposed plan of solving the squabbles will not work. I played since 2000 and witnessed, been accused, and caught in between such inccidents. Every single time its due to the one of a few factors. A soloer or a group of super uber high characters runs to low level areas, there are too many people and not enough critters or not enough separate areas or dungeons in which to find the same critters, or spawns are to slow (as is with BSD). There are a fews things that can be done about this issue besides nerfing what is obviously good for everyone or there would be no fight over it. First add more critters in more areas of the same type, xps values, and loot types. Then to keep uber high level characters from hunting in lower level areas, and thus causing complaints, or lower level characters trying to travel to "Big Boy Area's", add level restrictions to the mix. For example create three more Cauls, as there are 3 or 4 lugian citadels, same critters, xps, and loot. Then give each a level restriction (Caul 1:levels 80-94, Caul 2:levels 95-109, Caul 3:levels 110-126, Caul 4:levels 126+)

with these additions: A) plenty to hunt - campers no longer a problem. B)Higher level characters can no longer hunt and ravage everything in sight leaving low level characters nothing to hunt. C) Noone will complain about xp and critter reductions.

That leaves the developers with virtually no complaints on the subjuct making them happy. The lower level are no longer left with nothing to hunt due to the higher ups killer everything, making the lower levels happy. The higher levels get to keep the current xp settings and for a first not be whipped with the "nerf stick", making them happy.

Everyone is now a happy camper. No pun intended.
Now a few questions on the above before proceeding into the Jolt deal.
A) Higher level players will always swarm to the points of the highest xp gains whether or not lower characters are present or not. Therefore is it wise to nerf each spot every month, with noone happy with it or gaining from it, and also using up your valuable update programming time fighting it continuously, or is is wiser to just add more dungeons, everyone is pleased, your hear no further complaining, the game play environment is once again pleasant is regards to Caul, and to top it off you'll spend less time adding a few more caul like areas then you'll spend fighting the never ending complaint and nerf battle.

B) Is there a problem you forsee with the proposal above, that maybe I and everyone else is missing? Or is the current hardware inefficient to implement such plans?

Jolt deal
Although I live in the US and as I understand the deal with Jolt and turbine, the cross-ocean servers will impact me personally very little. But, I would like to state that I feel I and every other AC1 player have been insulted by the way turbine handled the situation. Instead of making a post asking us of our positions and opionions on the matter, and THEN proceeding with the deal with Jolt, you guys just made the deal and THEN thought to come back and ask us how we might feel about it or discuss how it would impact us. You guys made the deal already. Will it really matter what we think at this point? I dont think it does. No matter how we might feel about it or however the changes might effect us the deal was made and must be honored anyway it has to be. It would be like me going to the grocery store and then returning home to ask my wife what she needed or wanted from the store. Since I already went and spent the grocery money it is a mute point what she may have wanted. I hope you see what I mean and that hopefully in the future we will be a little more included BEFORE you run off and make deals that might affect the characters we have payed to mold and play over the years. I am sure this was an innocent over sight, yet I feel it needed to be mentioned to maybe prevent it from slapping the players in the face again in the future. If it would have been posted before the deal was made I would have said something to the effect of this:

If you need to expand to European countries go for it, I would prefer to see European members currently subscribing from the US to remain so. If they wish to play in European time zones or with local friends go for it. If they move to Euro servers though I will lose friends, US servers will be negatively affected, gameplay environment will be more dismal, gameworld trade will be negatively impacted. Better pings will be what we gain. There are surely many easier, and cheaper ways to better include more of Europe in the gameplay environment. From one post I read in this forum a European citizen had trouble acquiring the game. Something about having to have a US player order it, package it, and mail it to them. If i had to go through all the time effort and expense such as that, I for one would just find another game. That there is most likely the biggest reason Europe is not as included as you would like them to be. Maybe there are landblocks I have no clue about, and if so please make them known to the players and myself. It helps us to understand better when we have more facts and less vague impressions of what is really happening and what the difficulties might be.

Last but not least,
In the future you may consider posting here before they make critical decisions that may affect everyone simply because you are human like everyone else. There is no way possible for a developement team to see everything coming all on their own. You have 5 digit values in brainpower sitting at all these computers. Everyone will see a situation from a different perspective. If you have 10000 different perspectives coming from 10000 players, who play the game everyday, see the flaws everyday, experience the ups and downs everyday; then armed with all that knowledge before making those major decissions you will find yourselves better equipped to handle almost every possible outcome. the good and the bad.

I would like to end this by thanking the developers at Turbine for years of almost perfect gameplay. I am mainly hoping to see a reply from IBN so all players here may benefit from reading this LONG LONG Letter. Sorry about the length. Just tons of ideas and comments I needed to state in detail.

I may be employed once again soon. If so I intend to return to this wonderful game. Even if my ideas are not used I hope by then the problems are fixed in some manner that is pleasing to all players. not just 70 or 80 %. I like to be positive in my thoughts. Thanks for all you time and I will check back for answers to my questions.

Two of Ten of HG

[Cerulia]

As a European player, I'm sorry, but I think this sounds like an absolutely awful idea... I can't see a single good point to the whole thing really...

* For existing EU players, I can't see many people wanting to move and lose all their progress and friends. If we stay on the US servers, I'm guessing you'll be scheduling more towards the US audience, so most likely live events, uninscription events, envoy support and so on will be decreased for us.

* For new EU players and players that transfer, the populations on these servers are going to be pretty tiny I would guess... For existing players that probably means they'll head right back to the US servers, for new players they'll just go to a different game.

* If the populations are low, it'll be even worse because it likely means no new EU players - They'll probably subscribe to the Jolt servers just because they see those are european, and then when they see the low populations they're not likely to buy another subscription and try the US ones...

* For players that do stay on the Jolt servers, they have all the fun of a company running the game that doesn't own the game - I was overjoyed when Turbine bought back AC because that arrangement just doesn't work as well it seems.


Really, this seems like the sort of move that might make sense if AC was a much, much larger game... If we had EU populations similar to the US populations, or if we were expecting a HUGE increase in populations in both the US and the EU, then seperate, new european servers would make sense in a way (Although I still don't see much of an advantage to them). As it is, I can't see how this will work, unless Jolt just has one or two servers.


Hopefully I'm just overreacting, but I can't help but feel this is going to be a huge failure. The only consolation is that since I'm pretty unlucky and usually miss all live events anyway, it probably won't affect me much (I certainly won't be transfering to Jolt) ^_~

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm bashing Turbine or anything, you guys do a great job and as I say I don't think this'll have much of a direct effect on me personally, but I do think it sounds like a bad move for the game. I hope I'm wrong! More information would certainly be nice, since I'm sure you can't just cancel the deal now...

[Frieze]

Uh, I think a lot of people, INCLUDING some European players, are missing a big reason for doing this: Language barrier.

Obviously everything in AC is in English, the Envoys only have to speak English - basically, if you don't speak English you can't play AC as it is currently. I would imagine that this would change on the European servers and that's why I see it as a good thing. Not to mention, getting boxed AC products in Europe isn't exactly a quick thing. (Or it wasn't easy when DM came out).

Sounds like another big reason is "lag" - I mean I have trouble connecting to some games west coast servers from the east coast. This will help.

This never sounded like a forced thing. Why would they force people to move? That's the equivalent of tossing their customers out on the curb. They want what we want! That's why they have this forum. So, why can't we just use it constructively, making suggestions... because that's what they want to listen to... not how the servers are bare and that they're so stupid (and btw... Leafcull seems populated as ever...)

[Hellbound]

Why do I have to choose wich server I want to continue playing on??

I would rather see an option EVERY TIME I log on, wether I want to connect to a US or european server.

There would be some challenges to keep the databases updated (on both servers), but would leave me with an option to go play with old US friends, or go playing with european "only" friends.....

Same option should offcourse be offered to the US players.

And if we get to move our accounts, what if I decide I made a bad decition and want to revert back to my old server?? Would this move be a one time incident, or could it happen infinitealy??

Hellbound

[sharpy-sc]

I cant believe Turbine...this is the stupidest thing I have ever..>EVER (Y2J) seen you do. While we are sitting here thinking the XPACK is gonna be the shot in the arm that AC needs to get their numbers back up...you devide the group?????

But Since you have already SABOTAGED the XPACK IMO...and Im assuming it cant be undone.

I like Hellbounds suggestion...

Merge the accounts database so both US and European customers go through the same front door to the servers...and have access to both sets of servers from one account. Then you have increased your servers for all and they might just choose to join us on the US servers...That would be a much easier plan to emplement that having the two sets of servers run one world...just replicat the customer database..sounds like a great idea if you cant bale from this mess..

[Yinchi]

There was recently a game who did this same thing. Billing was separate, any game issues were handled by the two different companies (US & Euro). There was no cross communication.

Will we see Jolt handling billing for Euro's who subscribed to their servers? Will Turbine still answer questions and solve problems for Jolt customers or will Jolt be in charge of all gaming problems if you are their customer?

[Yinchi]

I just found my own answer to my post above.

"Under the terms of the agreement, Jolt will hold the exclusive right to distribute, operate, and support Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings® online services in Europe."

This leads to another question.. If Jolt owns exclusive European rights, how will Euro's play on US servers that are owned by Turbine????

[Jessica]

I just found my own answer to my post above.

"Under the terms of the agreement, Jolt will hold the exclusive right to distribute, operate, and support Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings® online services in Europe."

This leads to another question.. If Jolt owns exclusive European rights, how will Euro's play on US servers that are owned by Turbine????

Any European player who currently has an AC1 account can keep that account and his/her characters; they'll simply need to keep their billing current with Turbine, same as always.

For any new AC1 worlds that Jolt opens in Europe, you'll need to have an account with Jolt. That still doesn't prevent anyone from choosing to play on the US servers through Turbine, or vice-versa, for that matter. It also doesn't prevent us from opening new worlds here.

So no one is being forcibly split off from their servers or characters. They may choose to start characters on AC1 worlds that Jolt sets up, but they are not forced to do so; nor will anyone be forced to maintain a Jolt account to access their US AC1 characters.

And yes, both Jolt and Turbine will be marketing the game here and in Europe to get new players in the door for both the current US servers and the new AC1 servers in Europe. You'll start to see some of that marketing as we get closer to the expack launch.

[Dangermouse]

Banning UCM was going to kill the game. Changing the allegiance XP passup was the end of AC. Blimey even some people said buying the game back from MS was going to be the final nail in the coffin.

Some people complained, some people threatened to quit, and yes some people did actually cancel some accounts, whilst some others came back.

But seriously.... this isn`t the end of the world.

Other MMORPGs do this. Wanadoo looks after DAOC in Europe, Jolt looks after Eve Online. This seems like its becoming a standard model for (relatively) small companies- get a company in the local environment to host and support the game.

On the plus side, European support for Europeans and hopefully in some of the major languages over here. Perhaps even some live events more aimed at our timings (will this be Jolt or Turbine?)

Marketing in a local market so better communication with magazines etc and locally based servers - more likely to attract new customers.

As for USA servers suffering I seriously doubt many people are going to move. If you can`t migrate characters (and given the hassle over allegiances and housing I think this is unlikely to happen - perhaps Turbine can give us an indication if its something they`d like to be able to happen) people aren`t going to move. Most people like to play these games with their friends and we have formed these friendships already - I for one an very unlikely to break them just to get a lower ping time and some more customer service (friends are more important to me than that).

The Xpac will bring new customers or old ones returning so whatever small leakage will happen will be more than compensated for.

My only real concern is if people buying the game in Europe can only access the jolt servers and the USA version game won`t be sold online to people in Europe, so my friends from other games don`t have the option to join me. Perhaps we Turbine can give us some idea of the options.

What is missing is the detail of the setup (and it still is early days). It was a Bank Holiday in UK yesterday and Jolt are at a games convention so Turbine may not be able to release certain info yet. Hopefully (hint hint) Turbine will get some more info out.

So until the details out the sky isn`t falling on my head and the end is not yet nigh.

On a slightly sad note I get more info from the AC2 boards than the AC1 forums. Ibn, you need some of the pep juice Ramen is drinking :p

[sharpy-sc]

Any European player who currently has an AC1 account can keep that account and his/her characters; they'll simply need to keep their billing current with Turbine, same as always.

For any new AC1 worlds that Jolt opens in Europe, you'll need to have an account with Jolt. That still doesn't prevent anyone from choosing to play on the US servers through Turbine, or vice-versa, for that matter. It also doesn't prevent us from opening new worlds here.

So no one is being forcibly split off from their servers or characters. They may choose to start characters on AC1 worlds that Jolt sets up, but they are not forced to do so; nor will anyone be forced to maintain a Jolt account to access their US AC1 characters.

And yes, both Jolt and Turbine will be marketing the game here and in Europe to get new players in the door for both the current US servers and the new AC1 servers in Europe. You'll start to see some of that marketing as we get closer to the expack launch.

Thats great and all but bottom line this means less people playing on OUR current servers than could be:

Jessica, why would you expect that we would embrace this news with open arms?

Less people in a MMORG means less fun.

[Veest_LC]

Jessica,

If u remember back to ACPL (Q&A session for Expansion for AC1) I asked whether or not we'll have a simultaneous worldwide release for the actual expansion itself. You replied that there was gonna be an announcement within 2-4 weeks, i'm guessing this is it.

However, that still doesn't answer the question that I asked.

I for one WON'T be moving to a Euro based server, (as appealing as less lag sounds). I've put too much time and effort into getting my main character to where he is today.

Others have mentiioned character migration to new servers........ while this sounds a good idea, it could create a logistical nightmare. I'm assuming that people would load up their characters and take as many items with them to the new servers as pack spaces allow. Not to mention that it would play havoc with a lot of allegiance rank structures, having characters pulled out and moved to new servers.

[ApolloAce]

First, from what I have read the opening of the UK servers with coincide with the release of the X-Pac. According to Turbine the X-Pac will be released in the US AND the UK at more or less the same time.

That being the case most older UK folks that do move (as with VT), will most likely move to the new UK servers. New UK players will most likely play on the new UK servers and new US folks will play on the US servers.

Rather then lowering the current numbers, the new influx from folks that buy the game off the shelf after release, will actually raise the numbers across both the UK and US servers.

Remeber when WE opened, the numbers for the other servers did drop off, just like now. For a time WE had the higher numbers, just as VT now. If you look at the numbers now, however, you will notice that WE has the lowest server population at any given time. The same will most likely happen to VT as well.

When you log on for the first time it tells you to click on a world at the top of the list. These are the worlds with the lowest populations. Therefore the lowest population worlds will get most of the new players right off the bat.

Second, I agree that migrating characters from the US servers to the UK servers is a mistake.

The UK servers will have high level charcters rather quickly anyway, as the older players are more experienced. :)

[Jessica]

Thats great and all but bottom line this means less people playing on OUR current servers than could be:

Jessica, why would you expect that we would embrace this news with open arms?

Less people in a MMORG means less fun.
I can see what you're pointing at; I just respectfully disagree.

Why? It is pretty resource intensive to set up a support structure from scratch in a new territory. We'd have had to locate and hire all the right people, set up a subsidiary, buy all the equipment, licenses and software necessary to set up the office, business licenses, hire local legal council to make sure we didn't step in the doo-doo with local labor laws... you get the picture. Without creating a relationship with Jolt or a similar company, which already has all this infrastructure and support organization in place and knows how to run a business in Europe (and that’s important knowledge to have), it is unlikely we’d have been able to make a move into official European support for some time.

So, without a partner like Jolt in the picture, you wouldn’t have seen very many of those potential new European players on the US servers in the first place. We’d have no doubt seen some players in Europe signing up on the expansion pack release (those with a high tolerance for cross-oceanic lag), but the overwhelming number of new players would have come from the US marketing and the retail presence that we plan for the expansion pack.

However, a success for Jolt’s AC1 servers in Europe is good for the game world-wide, because it gives us more resources to put back into the game for all players.

So, yes, I think you should be embracing this with open arms, because it is all to the good. If you still disagree, I respect your opinion, but I disagree with your disagreement, though I find it disagreeable to disagree with a customer. ;)

[Yinchi]

"Jolt will be demonstrating both games at stand G9 in the main hall of Game Stars Live in London from Sept. 1-5."

Since Jolt does not have servers yet, this means that anyone buying the game thru this demonstration would come to our worlds? ;)

[Fel]

Being UK based and having invested 4 years of gametime to developing my characters, playing them, forming ingame friendships with people all over the USA, Canada, Europe and even (insomnia permitting!) Austrailia; do you honestly think I would remotely consider abandoning my characters and/or disregarding friendships and allegiances! :mad:
Then again I guess this is the way the pen pushing accountant managers do business ... take and break!

[God Slayer]

More players even on other worlds means more money.. more money means more devs can be hired. more devs hired means more content more content means happier players

happyier players means we'll get more players.. THE CYCLE!!!



I just have one worry now that i've gotten over the initial reaction.

What happens if Jolt goes belly up? (and isn't jolt a soda company?)

[Cerulia]

If you still disagree, I respect your opinion, but I disagree with your disagreement, though I find it disagreeable to disagree with a customer. ;)

lol, I love that ^_^

The thing is though, I don't think anyone's disagreeing with you licensing out to Jolt for distribution and advertising - Certainly getting more players anywhere is always a great thing, and if that's in a market that wasn't too well tapped before, even better!

It seems like what most people are disagreeing with, or at least what I'm disagreeing with, is opening new European only servers contracted out to Jolt - I honestly can't see how this'll benefit the game. But then, I know absolutely nothing about business either... I think it'd help a lot if you just gave us some of the information that went into making this decision, the FAQ was pretty vague. Obviously you won't have made this deal without making sure it's definitely for the good of the game, so maybe you could explain it to us?

I understand what you mean about native language support, and that's definitely a good thing, but is it really enough to attract a big enough playerbase for these servers? As people have said, it seems likely that most new EU players will join the Jolt servers, and if the populations on them aren't high enough then those players probably won't stay long - What sort of increase in players are you expecting from the expansion (Or, if you prefer, what sort of increase did we get from DM?), how many players do you expect to switch from the US servers to Jolt?

I'm sorry if I'm being too pessimistic about this - I'm sure this has all been thought through very carefully by people who know much more about these things than I do. It's just so far I haven't really seen anything to tell me exactly why this is a good idea, other than the language issue (Which I do agree is a good reason).

As I've said already, I don't think this'll be the 'death of AC', and I don't think it'll have any negative impact on the US server populations at all, it just seems like an odd way of going about a European release that might mean some potential customers will be lost - It'll definitely be better than no EU release at all, but doesn't seem as good as an EU release with just the current US servers.

Oh, and since there's a lot of negativity, I'd like to thank you for at least talking to us about the issues - Of all the MMOG's I've tried or heard of, Turbine definitely has the best communication. I think the fact that people are upset because you didn't mention this earlier actually proves that. I can't think of any other MMOG where people are actually used to the devs informing them of decisions beforehand ^_^

[Solan]

If I recall corretly, there has been a statement by Jessica that the next server opened would be PK.


But, with this announcement, it looks like the next server opened will, technically, be European.

If it's European and NPK, the screaming will be deafening.

If it's European and PK, the screaming will be deafening.

And it's likely to be the same people screaming (but not me).

[Rage_Lao]

However, they will not be opening the 'next' server. Jolt will be opening the server.

The next server Turbine opens will be PK.

[ElgarL]

I see this as a good move, now that I know I can still play exactly as I am now, with the friends I have now.

The reason EQ is as big and as popular as it has become is because of marketing. If people see advertisments and boxes on the shelves it sells.
This new deal means there will be a company thats based in Europe promoting AC. Thats not only a boon for Europe as it will develope it's own player base, but thats also advertising for the game of AC. The US will profit from that. Getting the name seen is what it's all about.

[Two of Ten]

BTW I love El Tank :PPPPPP

Also my new line of employment just came through for me :)))))))))))
Looks like I WILL be returning to AC after all !!! I cant wait !!!

[Ibn]

Who will decide of the COC in European Servers ?

I believe Jolt will.

[Ibn]

Being UK based and having invested 4 years of gametime to developing my characters, playing them, forming ingame friendships with people all over the USA, Canada, Europe and even (insomnia permitting!) Austrailia; do you honestly think I would remotely consider abandoning my characters and/or disregarding friendships and allegiances! :mad:
Then again I guess this is the way the pen pushing accountant managers do business ... take and break!

Clearly not -- and no one's forcing you to move them!

But other people may not have the same feelings that you do -- that's why we like to offer choices. It's completely up to you.

[Kamsky]

Well my second ever post. I feel I must comment on this development.

I presume the reasoning behind this is to attract additional players within Europe to AC, however even if this is the sole reason, (and Im sure it is not), I think it will have a negative impact.

I will not be moving to a Euro server, (I am in England), for the following reasons:-

* Many of my closest friends in game are international players from all over the world.

* The whole reason I play, (and Im certain most people play), online games is the FACT that its an international and worldwide experience. Fragmenting this advantage is foolish in my opinion. The fact that you can bump into a player from New York while talking to an Australian as you hunt with someone from Japan is a huge selling point of the game NOT a disadvantage.

It must be remembered that this plan by its very nature MUST be motivated by profitability. This raises several interresting questions.

At the moment the game is supported 24/7 by Turbine, obviously this is a cost. Players should consider and reflect on what changes could be happening to THEM in the US after this change.

I can envisage myself playing at an unsocial hour on a US server, encountering a problem, asking for help, and maybe receiving an automated message "Support is available 9-5 US time zone only) or some such thing.

Of course if I complain the reply will consist of "Ohh well we provide support for your time zones on European servers so its your choice"

That in my opinion is not a choice but trying to force a migration to save costs.

The important information of course has not been given. I would request that the following questions be answered :-

1) Will the game be supported in US and Europe 24/7 ?
2) Will there be a cost differential in subscriptions ?
3) Will there be any difference in either game mechanics/billing/CoC ?
4) What is Jolt's commercial interest ? ie. % share of subscriptions, % share of new business etc.?
5) Is it planned to offer the playerbase further fragmentation ? eg. Australia/New Zealand partners ?

Your intention to 'offer choices' is contrary to the whole purpose of online gaming in my view. The game should be centralised in terms of development and support and investment should be made in both staff and hardware infrastructure to improve every players experience.

The Ac playerbase is a community, a family. I DO NOT want to emigrate and leave my friends from all over the world. I also dont want potential friends to be in effect on a totally different game. I also DO NOT want to be disadvantaged financially or in terms of service/support for staying where I am.

The phrase "We are offering choice" is a trite and meaningless phrase unless details and consequences are explained.

Regards
Kamsky

[Briael_LC]

I see a lot of mention of lag for European players.

Strangely, as a Brit playing a game that is hosted in America I'm not seeing much lag at all and I *DO* play at US peak times.

I *DON'T* have a fantastically fast connection - I'm on 512k broadband, which is the most that my local BT switch can provide on their current hardware.

I think what I'm suggesting (hoping for?) is that Turbine & Jolt come to some arrangement whereby we pay a single fee and have access to all of the servers that both offer on the server selection screen. A business partnership that allows the combined customer base the choice of how they play the game and who they play it with.

It would be interesting to see the actual percentages of Euro players that are currently subscribed (I'm sure you must have this information) in order to identify why the option of migrating characters is even being considered. Surely, the numbers don't justify the amount of work that would be involved?

My own allegiance is roughly 60/40 American/British and I've yet to see any of my fellow Brits who are even willing to consider moving. Who wants to turn their back on friendships that have lasted 4-5 years just to reduce lag?

While new euro players are offered a potentially great service by Jolt they should be made aware that there are established servers already in existence, rather than being isolated from players who have knowledge, experience and can make the game more interesting by helping them get the most out of the game by welcoming them in to existing monarchy families.

Certainly, as a non-French, non-German, non-Spanish, non-Italian speaking Brit I would much prefer to play with Americans/Canadians who speak the same language rather than bring my schoolgirl linguistic "talents" into action to try and decipher what fellow Europeans are saying when they choose to chat in their own tongue. I'm sure I'm not alone in this as the average Brit is monolingual ;)

I await the marketing campaign with baited breath. How you market it will determine how potential customers view it. Let's hope you get it right and it spells longevity for AC's future :)

[Khael]

So will we get a euro pvp server?

[Sek_the_Wise]

Allowing you to have access to both the US servers and the Euro servers would kill out Jolts profit from this deal.

In essance from whats been posted all Turbine is doing is selling Jolt the right to run Asheron's Call on thier own, under thier own rules coc etc.

More or less like normal people that run thier own shards of what EQ?

So if you are paying Turbine a monthly subscription but have access to Jolt servers tech support etc etc then Turbine would have to pay Jolt for thier help in letting you play there. Which would make the whole deal pointless.

I'm just guessing Jolt has run the numbers and thinks they can make a go of it marketing the game themself there to make its own player base not steal away the Euro player base already playing in AC.

Turbine is just letting you know that if you want to play on a server that is based in your time zones you will have that choice in the near future.


As for my feedback on the deal I think it's great if Jolts paying monthly for the new patches from Turbine from now on depending on how much extra Turbine makes maybe they can hire on one or two more developers to increase what can be done for each months events.

With more money coming in reguardless on where it goes int he long run it will be better for everyone be it better or more content, better service , better servers you name it.

-Sek

[mishop]

I'd rather see an influx of new players on the existing servers.

However, this might be a good idea long-term. I'm betting the new team comes up with a lot of ideas that get shared with the US team and vice-versa.

Any other MMOGs opening Eurpoen teams? Turbine might be ahead of the curve here?

[Delupin]

If there are to be dedicated European servers, is there a concomitant intention to offer the game's text in a variety of European languages? French, Spanish, German and Italian spring to mind as the most immediately necessary; the gamut of Scandinavian and Slavic lexicons could follow, with, perhaps, the languages of our fast developing bretheren -- Russian, Polish, Turkish, etc -- making an appearance before 2007. All Asheron's Call related text would, naturally, have to be included for translation: NPC interactions, LTTPs, teasers, log-in screen notices, item descriptions, etc, etc. For someone in Dereth a lot of brainwork could be saved by:

Вы посылаете аннигилируете к ледистой смерти!

Cooking, too, would have to have its cuisine expanded and internationalised. A little less hamburger, a little more bratwurst. Thinking about it, a steak and kidney pie with mashed potato would go down very well on a Sunday afternoon in Holtburg, particularly if followed by a hearty portion of tiramisu and a slice of Schwarzwaldekirschtorte. Most delicious, if somewhat rich for the American palate.

Please assure us that these important matters are being given the thorough consideration they deserve.

[Fel]

Clearly not -- and no one's forcing you to move them!

But other people may not have the same feelings that you do -- that's why we like to offer choices. It's completely up to you.


I never said I was being forced, though considering you asked player opinions after the fact I wouldn't put it past you in the not to distant future!

Other people may not have the same feelings that I have ... well that's pretty obvious since other people are not me! :rolleyes:
What was then the point of asking for feedback when this is your attitude to that feedback ... :confused:

I was actually planning to buy the expansion pack comes out to upgrade my current gameing account.
This is making me seriously reconsider those plans and this game ... if as I fear (please correct me if I am wrong) that Europe purchased expansion pack will not give the option to join straight to the US environment, but have to go through a third, fourth or is it umpteenth whatever party! -some choice then huh?

Will the European servers have the same patch updates at the same time as the US ones?
Will there be a choice of language other than English on the European servers?
Will you subtly 'coerce' European players on the US servers to quit or move to the European ones as they'll have a 'markedly' improved connectivity, up-time and support response (excluding developer level support) over the US servers?
Will you be charging the same amount regardless of currency exchange differences (this a big reason I suspect for franchising Europe) to play the game (if it costs $XX will it cost exactly the same $ for £ for € etc.)?

All in all I guess I'll have to wait and see how this all works out.

[Fel]

Cooking, too, would have to have its cuisine expanded and internationalised. A little less hamburger, a little more bratwurst. Thinking about it, a steak and kidney pie with mashed potato would go down very well on a Sunday afternoon in Holtburg, particularly if followed by a hearty portion of tiramisu and a slice of Schwarzwaldekirschtorte. Most delicious, if somewhat rich for the American palate.

Please assure us that these important matters are being given the thorough consideration they deserve.


I'm hungry now .... don't forget a serious curry (chicken makhani with peshwari naan please), also dessert wise .. rhubarb and crumble with vanilla ice-cream mmmmm!

[Gorguss]

The idea of having Europe base server sounds a great idea to me, being based in England and having played other Europe base games like DAoC I can see the point of doing this, not only for the language reason but for time zones, nothing worse than being logged at 10:00 a.m. and dieing in tough spot and no one to help you as all you friends are US based
I know there be negative feed back but in the long run I can only see this as a good thing, I am guessing there is going to be a big push for advertising near the realise of TD and there will be a big increase of players on both US and Europe servers.

As for losing 4 years worth of work on my characters that is going to be bad thing but there could be a way out of this. If backup of the current US servers taken as close as possible to opening date of the Europe based and then mirgrated to Euro servers and then an option of chosing to play on US or Euro this would overcome the problem. Not only would allegiance structure would be maintained it would also give the Europe servers high level chars from day one. I saw issues about the chained characters having an advantage but that no different than staying on the US based servers. If database size becomes an issue at a later date, a purge could be run on both US and Europe servers but I doubt this with current server specs.

I am looking forward to this, can only be a good thing in the long run.

Gorguss/Mazellan

[AnotherDude]

One thing I really LOVE about AC1 is that within any given server, I can talk to /chat with /bullsh!t to ppl from all over the world.

Releasing European servers will in time fragment the population according to geographic considerations. This is a not an incentive to me.

That being said, it will undoubtedly reduce ping for European players. On the whole, they will be the people deciding if they want to play on the European servers.

[Rojon]

My feedback is I don't really care about Europe or European players.

I would have thought a new PvP server would be more in demand or more useful to the player base but hey, that's why I don't work for Turbine, eh?

[Two of Ten]

IBN,
Could you answer my questions in my post on page 4 please? thanks

[Two of Ten]

I took the time to do an unofficial poll on the jolt deal. This is the end result...

Some US and Some European (general poll only)

For it :.......................................14%....... ..Upper end 16 %
Somewhat for it :...........................2%
Undecided/more info/Neutral :.........24%
Somewhat Against the deal :..........25%.........Lower end 60 %
Totally against it :........................35%

If (all) of the (undecideds) decided they were for it the numbers would read:

For............40%
Against.......60%

If (all) of the (undecideds) decided they were against it the numbers would read:

For.............16%
Against........84%

The poll, therefore, could end up in these ranges:

For..............16% - 40%..................... 28%
------------------------- the average --------
Against.........60% - 84%..................... 72%

This poll is, at the most, possibly off by 3%

Two of Ten

[Dangermouse]

Please bear in mind that although I`m based in Europe I do not plan to move to the Euro servers as my friends etc are USA based.

The big downside that people seem to be professing is that it`ll draw Euro players away from the USA servers affecting your gameplay.

Set this against the benefits for the Euro players who choose to play in a local server environment with local customer service and hopefully local live events.

Aren`t people being rather selfish to say don`t do this deal because it may adversly affect your game play a bit, and ignoring the benefits to those Euro players who choose to do what they want to do?

As for Turbine asking our opinion before what happened - this is a business - you really don`t reveal your business plans before deals.

Perhaps Jolt will work, perhaps it won`t. Time will tell.

This opinion is brought to you with a 100% margin of error.

[Nihilist]

A) The only advantage I see with a EU server is the ping time. -- There is support I guess, but it's not clear what sort of support there would be.

B) Why EU servers? What is the business case for Turbine if you don't mind me asking. You'll be able to charge more money in the EU, or at least in rip off Britian. It is then, presumably, to widen your market?

C) I didn't like what the opening of VT did to other servers, in made a noticable amount of people leave for VT and in some cases monarchies collapsed on the 'originating' server.

So, well- There doesn't seem to be any real benefits for existing players;there may be for new players ofcourse. The majority of existing players probably won't be that excited about the Jolt thing no matte what country they play from. Which isn't entirely surprising.

[Two of Ten]

Nihilist,
There are some benefits. Please do not discount that, but I just do not believe that the benefits will outway the downsides to this deal. Many others see it as a bad move as well. Truth is that there would be Euro support, lag would be reduced for Europeans, there would be double the server resources, Turbine would have an oppurtunity to expand the market, and Europeans would have a server located in their timezone.
Now, as for the large mountain of possible downsides an attempt at splitting the current member base, years of friendships may soon come to an end, there is a slim possibility of server mergers that in the future may become necessary, having to trust jolt to service and support Euro plus the constant possibilty that jolt may go belly up, there may not be the ammount of new Euro response that turbine expects, game economies could be adversly affected, a logistical nightmare may occur according to one post, numbers of active players may drop some due to the new servers, etc, etc etc. I could go on and on, but to make it short, there are too many risks involved for my tastes. That does not mean that there are not any benefits at all though. The fact is that benefits do exist. I hope you might be able to see the benefits to this not just the faults and then make a sensible judgement to it. Now if only IBN would enlighten us with all the details we need to know about in order to understand the "why and how" of the matter as we already know the who, what, where, and when. Why and how are some very important things for us to know before we can really be expected to make a sensible oppinion on the matter. If it's just for the reasons listed in my first paragraph, I believe this could very well be a crippling blow to the game period. Not, that Turbine could not make a come back from the worst case scenario, but is there enough cause to take this risk? Many existing European players have already stated they will not be using these new servers. So that means its now solely dependant on getting New European Customers to join the new servers. If they do not Turbine will wind up with new servers over seas and few players populating them. Depending on how much resource is being applied to try this deal out, Turbine could lose their --- on the deal. They just might get their players though and succeed. Its a risk that is being taken, and i just dont like the odds, nor do many other players. With the information that is currently available I believe this will depreciate heavily from the game. Too many players just dont care for this at all. As I stated before in a previous post there are many problems that coincide with this one. I just believe everything should be well thought through. One more thing. A divided house cannot stand. So whatever Turbine comes up with we the players must support it no matter how much we dislike it. It does not mean we cannot hope for different and make our concerns known.

Two of Ten - HG

[Darkavenger]

Well I live in UK and my immediate reaction to this announcement was Jolt.co.uk :confused: ummmmmm never heard of em I then send mate /tell he has no clue either, then ring mate who's an all round online gaming junkie his answer was pass next question.....
What Turbine needs to do in Europe is Actually advertise the game swamp the PC gaming mags with info. Dark Majesty was not really advertised in Europe/england and coming from a major UK city I only actually found 2 stores out of 12 PC stores that sold DM all others had no clue what I was talking about when approached.

One thing I do want to see with the new Xpan pack is a worldwide launch date which is all the same not be launched in europe 1-2 months after US launch. :D

[Two of Ten]

I have heard of jolt. Drank some the other day. Did not care for it. Hope the (game company) Jolt is better than the drink lol.

[cliser]

I live in the UK and irrespective of the location of the servers I wont be moving (even if they did character migrations) for very simple reasons.

1) 75% of the people I play with are not from Europe.
2) Of the 25% that are from Europe most wont be moving because of (1) and Clan loyalties.
3) Even with the influx (hopefully) of people lured by the expansion I dont see Europe supporting more than two servers and I have no interest in playing on a server with a population of 100s.
4) If character migrations don't happen then I have no interest in starting again. If I wanted to re-roll from scratch I would be playing Verdantine right now. (And see reason 1 because if I was on VT then I would have a bunch of friends who moved with me).

Bottom line, if AC had European servers four years ago then I would have played them. Now ? no thanks.

[Ibn]

Just as an FYI, I've started a new thread introducing three of the Jolt executive producers over on the AC Discussions forum.

Click here (http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=14100) for the thread.