20 Things SOE Forgot About in the ProSiebenSat.1/Alaplaya Deal

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary, International

The news that SOE will be dividing the EQ2 community by Region, in order to secure a lucrative distribution deal with ProSiebenSat.1’s Alaplaya gaming division, has gone over like curry-flavoured ice cream. Besides the outrage at splitting up a community whose strength has been players hailing from all over the world, SOE seems to have neglected some of the more mundane technical and historical details. We’ve collected a few:

  • U.S. players who play EQ2 during the daytime have always had the option of grouping with players on Splitpaw (UK) where it’s afternoon/evening.
  • European players paid upwards of 30 Euros for SOE Authenticator keyfobs including shipping to Europe. They will not work with Alaplaya/PSS1
  • French Canadian players have traditionally played on the Storms server. After the cutoff, North American players will no longer be able to connect to EU servers.
  • U.S. Military and Expats residing in Europe won’t be able to start on US servers, and will instead be forced to roll on European servers. When they get orders back to the States, they won’t be able to access their established characters/guilds/alliances/friends.

  • Australia and New Zealand haven’t been mentioned, suggesting that they will be region-locked to U.S. servers. These players have had the choice of servers, such as Splitpaw (UK).
  • It seems there will be no PvP in Europe, as EU players will not have access to the Nagafen server.
  • Splitpaw players will go back to a single-server Battlegrounds environment, which has never had enough players to field 18 or 24 person events.
  • Some of the most dedicated testers are based in Europe. With this change, European players will be cutoff from the EQ2 Test server.
  • EQ2X (Extended) joined the other EQ2 servers in a unified Free-to-Play setup to avoid “dividing the player base“. This change will do just that.
  • SOE already went down the road of region-locked servers in 2003. At the height of its popularity, SOE licensed EverQuest to Ubisoft for a UK-only server named Venril Sathir. It was unsuccessful and this server was brought back into the U.S. fold in 2005.
  • The last time SOE tried segregated servers was LiveGamer. Two servers (Bazaar, Vox) arbitrarily became RMT-enabled and players were locked in and could not transfer off. This move was extremely unpopular and after a few years, SOE cancelled their contract with LiveGamer, merging these players back to standard servers.
  • Although existing EU players on U.S. servers will be “grandfathered” in, support may be limited/unavailable, and new EU players will not be able to join them. And there is no obligation for SOE to preserve this “grandfathering” forever.
  • Players who have characters on both US and EU servers will now have to pay twice, once to SOE, once to Alaplaya.
  • EU players could lose access to SOE forums if they no longer have active Station accounts but instead Alaplaya accounts.
  • What will players with Station Access (nee All Access Pass) accounts do who have a mixture of characters on games that are included and excluded from the ProSiebenSat.1 deal? What about players who took advantage of StationCash deals and bought up to 1 year of subscription in advance?
  • Some European guilds have players from Russia who have chosen not to restrict themselves to Akella-run servers. What happens to them?
  • Alaplaya/PSS1 is known for poorly-supported, security flaw riddled Korean-style browser MMOs. Not only does Alaplaya have a history of hacked accounts due to poor security, but they’ve done little to resolve the matter. More than a few players have expressed concern at the prospect of dealing with this shady company.
  • SOE just went through a lot of trouble to arrange deals to get StationCash cards into GAME, GameStop, and other UK and European vendors. Was all this effort for naught since ProSiebenSat1 games will use Alaplaya’s own cash shop currency?
  • EU players who choose to play both EQ1 and EQ2 will have to accumulate both StationCash and Alaplaya’s cash shop currency.
  • A number of guilds, including leading raid guilds, depend on drawing from a mixture of players from around the world. There is no large guild in EQ2 that does not have members from different continents. There are a substantial number of Euro guilds located on U.S. servers due to population and/or time zones.
  • UPDATE: It’s been pointed out that Legends of Norrath is not mentioned in any of the ProSiebenSat.1 announcements or FAQs. Will this card game be unavailable in Europe?

There is no excuse for a worldwide company like Sony which sells products in Europe, Japan, North America, etc. to rely on a two-bit distributor as well as isolating players from each other who have been forming friendships for 7 years. This change will fracture the EQ2 community and not bode well for EQNext.

Also… I just have to ask. Region Locking in 2012?

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Comments (84)

  • skippydippy

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    Good article but frankly SOE are too busy patting themselves on the back to care

    Reply

  • Panther

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    Would Love to see SOE respond to this post.

    Reply

  • Curix

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    This sounds like one of those business ideas that looked great on paper. More players in europe, great! Then Pro7 comes with their requests to make sure they get the most out of this deal, and from there every single thing just seems like a bad idea.

    Please SOE! Think!

    Reply

  • Xivian

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    The sad thing is this will continue into EQNext. People will still pay for the new service and will continue on. The only way for the European crowd to stop this is with their wallets; boycott ProSiebenSat.1.

    Reply

  • suzita

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    I think this is the end for EQ2 for me. Stupid decision – I won’t be transferring my account.

    Reply

  • Rugrat

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    What about integration to LoN via the game? Doesn’t affect me but it will affect others…

    Reply

  • Yiras

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    Stupid decision from a stupid company, managed by idiots….

    Reply

  • Mateo

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    One of my favorite parts of raiding in EQ2 is playing with people from all over the world….

    Mr Smedley tear down this wall!

    Reply

  • Seliri

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    Wow.

    What in the mother phucking phuck?

    It’s a shame the gaming industry seems to be so damn stifled.

    Reply

  • Nyna

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    you forgot: Legends of Norrath is also not included… so the question is… will Euros get their monthly free cards at all, and will the be able to redeem their Loot cards from LON (SOE) to EQ2 (Alaplaya) ?

    Euros who stay on US-Server… what happens when EQNEXT or Planetfall comes out and they wanna play on a EU server because of lag? They have 2 currencies then as well -SC and this Alaplaya bull.

    ProSiebenSat.1 is UNDERCLASS TV Network – you know Ringtones, social drama talkshows all day long, etc….

    Reply

  • milliebii

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    I wish I could be as confident as you Feldon about Australian players being region locked to the US. But this is by no means clear. No mention of Asia Pacific anywhere and the line on my monthly credit card bill says SOE London. This suggests to me that I am considered part of the UK player base and have been sold, along with all other Australians to ProSiebenSat.

    Reply

  • melpheos

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    one simple solution : NO REGION LOCK !!!
    If money is the issue, i think it’s quite simple for SOE to transfer money to alaplaya when cash and time is spent on US server by euro customer and vice et versa.

    Reply

  • Eschia

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    Just a rumor but I heard in game from a player on splitpaw saying that alaplaya deletes accounts if inactive for over 90 days. Yeah SOE…. Didn’t think much into that did ya Smed?

    Reply

  • MrsBadger

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    I could probably stomach all this customer management transfer stuff, but absolutely NOT the region lock. Not in EQ2 OR EQ Next.

    MMO = MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER Online game.

    I swear they think they are selling vacuum cleaner warranties.

    Reply

  • Fredbear

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    @Eschia – alaplaya delete f2p accounts with no cash balance after 90 days inactivity, which is semi-logical but still worse than most f2p services who do the same after 6 or 12 months inactivity.

    SOE will not change their minds, they very likely sold the Euro players for a fixed licensing fee, they would still get their money even if we all quit, I live in Germany, Pro7 will advertise this heavily on TV, as they are already doing for their existing games and are counting on large numbers of new players joining, they also very likely don’t care what the existing playerbase thinks.

    As for support/customer service – just google Servicewüste Deutschland

    Reply

  • Cartaphilus

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    Is it too early for an April Fool’s joke???

    Reply

  • Trevyn

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    This is hillarious …
    That is the first company ever that I found that posts realnames of people in a public spot if their billings didn’t work out (accessible without registering! imagine a possible employer checking your name via google … ):

    http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/support-f66/open-payments-t12991.html

    And their terms tell me – there is no way for army-guys to leave their accounts with alaplaya points on for a longer extend of time:
    http://en.alaplaya.net/pages/terms

    P7S1 Games is entitled to delete your Account, and with it your personal information, if you go for a period of more than 90 days in a row without using the Services. If you have purchased APs (see Art. IV. [1] below), P7S1 Games will delete your Account and revoke any remaining APs if you have not used the Services for a period of at least one (1) year.

    Reply

  • sompet

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    From their EULA:

    “P7S1 Games is entitled to delete your Account, and with it your personal information, if you go for a period of more than 90 days in a row without using the Services. If you have purchased APs (see Art. IV. [1] below), P7S1 Games will delete your Account and revoke any remaining APs if you have not used the Services for a period of at least one (1) year.”

    “P7S1 Games may delete data and/or refuse to store additional data if the technical limitations are exceeded, in consideration of the specifications according to Art. III 6. This applies in the event you go for a period of more than 90 days without using the Services offered by P7S1 Games. P7S1 Games will notify you prior to deleting important data.”

    Reply

  • Rangero

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    If/When this happens it will DESTROY raiding which will (finally) DESTROY the game. Our guild has been raiding since 2007 and got players from Australia, USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and a couple serving in the US military that constantly gets displaced ALL over the world. This will KILL the game for us as a guild. So f*ck you SOE, most of us are gonna move on to greener pastures (ie non-SOE games). Final. Nail. In. Coffin.

    Reply

  • darktalker

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    SOE is really ruining EQ2 this time, while RIFT of Trion is trying not to split players community by geographic, SOE is just doing the contrary.
    I will never play Europe version even I’m currently in France because of this stupid region lock!!!

    Reply

  • Katzilla

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    What I can’t figure out is when so many folks have left the game due to the stream of ill thought out changes over the last six months, WHY would they do something that would potentially make folks leave the game… in DROVES FFS??
    Not happy with knackering the game itself, now they want to FUBAR the community that plays it as well. I fail to see anything GOOD that can come of this. I wonder now if this is why my transfer off the EU server in Vanguard has not happened. They just keep telling me “its broke.” Guess thats an understatement.. :@( “Ha ha: ever feel you’ve been conned?”

    Reply

  • epitaphe

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    They dont care they just need a game where only US housewife use their husband CC to buy houseitems
    Station cash is the only thing that matter.
    Raider or regular player dont spend enought money on their station shop for the trouble it represent to create content for them.
    By antagonizing them and forcing them out they cut the need to pay dev assigned to content and will only leave cosmetic dev for housewives.

    Reply

  • Mike M

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    The Mayans were right…this IS the end of the world…for norrath that is…

    Reply

  • Lakoda

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    Don’t expect it to change. The deal is already made. Complaining isn’t going to change a damn thing. Time to take my money and go.

    Reply

  • CrimsunBB

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    I think they should add one new item to loot tables of all monsters.
    Extremely Sturdy Coffin of Norrath.
    Type – container. Bag slots 1.

    Reply

  • Deneb

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    In January, Alaplaya went to great lengths to reassure players that their “region lock” policies would not extend to EQ2. My account came up for renewal a week later and based on those reassurances I paid for another YEAR. Now I find that the 14 characters I have on the Splitpaw server will not be allowed there and NOONE has said what will happen to them. A little information would be welcome, but the thirty+ pages of screaming on the official forums hasn’t generated a single response. I hear Smokejumper tweeted that we have provided a lot of “positive feedback”. I knew he couldn’t read.

    Reply

  • Frank

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    Re: the legal concerns. The closer you can get to the Sony swarms of legal teams (and above Smed) with those sorts of concerns the better I would think. Even SCE should be familiar with European regulations.
    That, or start a bot service for the EU servers and cash in.

    Reply

  • camelotcrusade

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    Oh no, I didn’t think of the implications for military folks. A surprising number of reliable players in our guild are in the military. It seems really unfair that these players have to jump through even more hoops when they are deployed outside the US just to play to the game. 🙁

    Reply

  • AlienShine

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    They completely lost it.

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    Originally posted by Deneb:

    In January, Alaplaya went to great lengths to reassure players that their “region lock” policies would not extend to EQ2.

    Where?

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    Fire Smed Now.

    Reply

  • Sigtyr

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    Well SOE have been absolutely worthless in keeping a good support and prompt updates and even decent pricing for their EU servers (the game have not even been obtainable in most of Europe for years) in that light a partnership with a company that hopefully can do a better job is quite understandable.

    BUT the proper way would have been to let things be as it is now with the availability to play wherever (it must be possible to send the station cash one uses on a EU server to ProS) and encourage ProS to attract EU players by being better than SOE (and in europe that can not be to hard) and for the first time ever allow transfers of whole guilds.

    SOE’s inability to serve the EU market (remember all the expansion release SNAFUS) is the reason for the decision, the implementation is however, awful. This is bad and it is impossible to understand how the upper management can have thought this will turn out well.

    Reply

  • TIEUMA

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    That’s so sad.

    I’m a french player who started to play FREEPORT EQ2x Server. I’m now one of the leaders of the very first GUILD made there (The Bronze Age). Gold member, some alts. Most of fellow guildies are americans but also canadians, and from New-Zealand or other European countries.
    That is what I like most : group with players of different continents.

    SOE : to make money you have to satisfy your customers, that s so obvious…

    Reply

  • Mandaline

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    From Alaplaya representative – January 2012

    “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 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.”

    Link : http://en.alaplaya.net/forum/alaplaya-news-f1445/announcement-new-cooperation-t485688-s40.html#p5126643

    Reply

  • Catfish

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    Nazi mods on the forum deleting each of the picture posts,

    Reply

  • Sigtyr

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    Did not dare to post this idea on the official Forums as they are fast on the delete button there:

    Can someone (preferably with some legal skills) write a nice and professional letter about how upset I (as a player) feels about this how it will affect guilds, friends and so on. Post that here and on flames and then everybody can copy – paste /feedback that everytime they log in and also PM it to Smokejumper and Windstalker?

    Sig

    Reply

  • epitaphe

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    SOE MOD 02 is on rampage.

    Reply

  • Daalilama

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    Talk about being completely stuck on stupid

    Reply

  • Kosovos

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    Just another nail in EQ2’s coffin… Smedley just but a Berlin wall up… Well done on killing the community SoE.

    Reply

  • Levatino

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    These points i have posted on the official feedback thread on SOE forums. I wonder when i will get an answer..

    – My one year sub started in january. What will happen to the remaining 11 months when we get transfered to Pro7? Will I get a rebate for the time I can’t use it at SOE? Or will it be transfered over to Pro7?

    – If i want to play at a US server with my toons there, do I have to pay twice? Pro7 and SOE? So we get nothing more for double the price?

    – What will happen to the free LON cards we got? Will Euro players just lose them cause we are not at SOE anymore?

    – What will happen to the free 500 SC we got subbing for a recurring one year sub? Lots of people took this sub just for that reason. Europeans will thus loose this just cause they are european and being sold off to another company.. This smells discrimination.

    – What will happen to our veteran rewards? Will europeans just loose them cause they are now at a different company?

    Reply

  • Seliri

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    @Mike M.’s stereotypical, cliche comment on “the Mayan’s being right about the end of the world”… 😀

    (note dem dere words noting the HYPOTHETICAL):
    __________________________

    Infallible >*Potential*< Parallels of Doom inc May, 2013 +/-:

    1.) there’s only 1 archaeological site on 12-21-2012 — Tortuguero — it mentions Bolon Yokte will descend (he’s a diety associated with war, conflict, the underworld, death, & present at past age renewal periods [13 baktuns supposedly reset, 394.25 yrs x 13])

    alignment2012.com/bolon-yokte.html

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortuguero_(Maya_site)

    1a. Bolon Yokte’s descent could equate to the anti-christ being possessed by Satan when wounded unto death by the sword & healed (Revelation 13:3 & 13:12)
    >>1b. **IF** (key denotion of POTENTIAL, not assurance) this is the case, the anti-christ is said to make a covenant w/ many for one “7”, & in the midst of that “7”, break it (Daniel 9:27)
    1c. he’s said to destroy many through peace (Daniel 8:25), & the 1st 3.5 yrs of his appearance on the world stage could result in him obtaining control…peacefully
    1d. furthermore, the anti-christ is said to reign for 3.5 yrs, or 42 months (Daniel 7:25, Daniel 12:7, Revelation 11:2-3, Revelation 12:6, Revelation 12:14, Revelation 13:5)
    1e. he will be joined by the false prophet, who will be able to call fire from the sky & make the image of the beast (anti-christ) come to life, to cause those who don’t get branded to be put to death (Revelation 13:11-15) – something you must die/flee to avoid & share the gospel against, should immortality appeal to you.
    1f. ALL people will be required to receive his mark, name, or number (666) in order to buy & sell (Revelation 13:16-17)
    >>>>>1g.those who worship the beast aren’t written in the book of life (Revelation 13:8 & 17:8 — AKA, they are MORTALS, not immortals)

    2.) the Mayans’ pagan divination is a potential credible source for repeated testing (empiricism) considering that 11 Ahau (foreigners, population dispersal, end to traditional rule) of their cyclical Chilam Balam prophecies predicted their demise

    onereed.com/articles/katun.html

    2a. the katun starting in early 2013 (20 yrs long), 2 Ahau, mentions for half there being food, for half there being misfortune — that this is the time of uniting for a cause & an an end to “the word of God”
    2b. one of the most, if not the most astronomically advanced cultures ever to exist (their Tzol’kin calendar is more accurate than the modern Gregorian, nearly equal to atomic clocks)

    3.) solar storms of 1859, 1929, & 1989 prove the electric grids’ transformers are susceptible to overload — we haven’t yet had a solar storm with CMEs (coronal mass ejections) similar to 1859 potency

    magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag131.htm

    3a. a global power outage is likely inevitable, but also required for Judeo-Christian Revelation
    3b. modern media/internet would communicate too readily the arrival of the anti-christ, false prophet, & 2 ordained witnesses (prophets)
    3c. a resource shortage triggered by global power outage would promote man’s susceptibility to a deceiver such as the anti-christ (said to rear an army of two hundred thousand thousand, or 200 mil)

    4.) NASA predicts the next solar storm cycle surge (11-14 yr cycles) will be on 5 (May) 2013 — just 5 months after the supposed 13 Baktun reset

    science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2009/29may_noaaprediction/

    4a. we’ve had a 100-year quiet for solar storm potency, possibly denoting a quiet before the storm
    4b. Revelation 18:8 famine shall come in one day

    physorg.com/news204901293.html

    5.) pagan divination holding truth would lend absolute credence to Judeo-Christian philosophy, proving:

    · …destiny exists (fate reviewable through astronomical analysis = divination; Abrahamic destiny is seen via Revelation’s inevitability, Christ’s sheep & Satan’s goats)…

    …as well as…

    · …malevolent supernatural forces (i.e. Satan [the adversary, in Hebrew]) for having trained man, through temptation, with the ability to discern these “dark arts”

    5a. Ezekiel 13:23 seek no more vanity, nor divine divination

    Reply

  • Me

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    SOE setting the internet back 30 years by un-connecting people. Wow….just Wow.

    Reply

  • Onorem

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    @Eschia:
    That’s both sad and hilarious. Reminds me of the thread that was locked as religious discussion because it contained the word Jesus and then the thread that followed that reworded the original and was locked as being a recreation of a locked thread. /eyeroll
    I don’t mind mods that do their jobs. I hate stupid mods that don’t know what their jobs are.

    Reply

  • Shepherd

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    Yup, this is the final nail in the coffin for me.. I’ll stay in game for a while longer so my guild can get a replacement for me in our raidforce but I’m not going to keep playing when I no longer even have the option to transfer to a EU server as my work schedule changes.

    Been in a raiding guild on a US server for years now and I’m somewhat wellknown to some on Oasis and all that.

    I’m not about to switch servers and lose all my old friends and I’m not about to stay and risk losing all gaming capability. Well done, all the messed up content and poorly thought out itemizing couldn’t drive me away so you did it like this. I must admit I didn’t see it coming and as a old FPS player I have to say, damned nice headshot SoE.

    Reply

  • Mastachief

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    As a planetside/planetside2 player i feel sold down the river by SOE. We need to group these game communities up and throw it in SOE’s face.

    Reply

  • Sigtyr

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    I was not banned for this, maybe I am just lucky

    The only constructive feedback you can give on this is. Go Back to planning stage and redo from the start.

    It also boggles my mind that the mods are banning people for expressing problems with this decision.

    Free Feldon in 2012!

    Reply

  • SonyDead

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    For the past few years, Sony as a company has been publishing losses… Major losses through all their departments, wonder if this is an attempt at trying to keep their game department going… Wonder how much ProSiebenSat.1’s Alaplaya gaming division actually payed for this.

    Reply

  • Karofin

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    What is all this free Feldon stuff ? Have you been banned Feldon lol ? yes ban all voices of reason. Shoot the disagreeing peasants.

    I think the reason SOE havent considered the impact of this and recent changes will be because their profits are up. Most people will say they wills top and quit etc etc but will continue feeding their pockets and thats is all that speaks.

    The only thing thast would work here would be to arrange a day when folks who care do not log on or all log on and go to a specific place and just stand there…. that would be effective and they could see the volume of folks who really hate this change.

    That, or quit your sub…. or, the reality is you have signed the agreement petition by paying them for what you are saying you do not like.

    What a shame this is what it is reduced to.

    Reply

  • CheesePirate

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    He was tempbanned from the official forums for 3 days.

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    Just FYI the main ban message says 3 days, but the message I get when I try to post says 24 hours. So we’ll see.

    Reply

  • Necromancer

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    So…are we finally all in agreement now that Sony doesn’t care about the fan base, and will do anything that they want no matter how unpopular it is?

    Reply

  • Brienae

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    Feldon, aren’t you in Europe?

    Reply

  • Feldon

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    Feldon, aren’t you in Europe?

    At the moment, yes. 😉

    Reply

  • Lanai

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    Shared on my facebook. They always say “The Devil is in the details.” Why do I get the feeling they didn’t take on the devil when they made this deal?

    Reply

  • Crescent

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    Feldon, there is one little problem with 20-things-soe-forgot-about. You are dealing with SOE (=SimpleOrganismEntity) 20 things are way too much for them to comprehend, therefore the IP-lock is the one and foremost important thing they forgot about it since every non-EU-based player is loosing access to their accounts on EU-Servers.

    Reply

  • Azufae

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    Hmmm…those points mentioned above are already bad enough…what about cross-server tells? Do we still have them atm? It has been a while since I last used them. If we have them now, will they stay or will they be history as well, removing every possible option to keep in touch with our soon former friends in game?

    Reply

  • reignshield

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    The end of EQ2? Sure looks like it. Love this game but I think it’s time to throw the towel in. Stupid move SOE

    Reply

  • milliebii

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    lol, just had another post “Removed for non-constructive feedback”

    this is the first time I have had a post removed from any forum in 15 years, and now several in 24 hours

    Reply

  • Whilhelmina

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    Hey, I’m impressed Feldon. Banned for trolling, seriously? When I was banned some years ago, at least it was for “excessive negativity” (I wasn’t impressed by the 300ish typos in the spell name changes, when translated in French, wonder why)

    Reply

  • Eschia

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    LOL I just saw that on the alaplaya forums, the mods over there are beating around the bush regarding the region blocking issue. Several folks asked why US residents can’t access their servers, among other questions, and guess which one they keep neglecting to answer? Yea there is some major fishyness about this deal. DO NOT WANT!

    Reply

  • Talathion

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    This is bullshit SOE, all my RP Friends are from Europe.

    Reply

  • Talathion

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    Also, Download an IP changer after this.

    Hacking is the best way to play eq2 after this change.

    Reply

  • badcat

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    Well i signed the change.org petetion. To bad only 13 folks have signed it.

    Reply

  • Wayena

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    Up to 41 people now. Slow start but it will pick up steam as more people learn of it.

    Reply

  • badcat

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    Well I posted the link in the thread, I got one day vacation off from soe forums for that forum post of that poll thread.

    To bad they don’t like folks trying to get their point across.

    Reply

  • DejaVu

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    I lost my EverCrack2 addiction some time ago.. even deleted my account 2 weeks after the first PSS Announcement. But I did cave to my kid in the UK to play the game with her again. Now we’re both down wit EQ2 due to the most recent announcement/FAQ. No US on PSS servers or UK/EU players on US servers come March. Grandfather clause for UK only applies to toons a UK player currently has on a US serve till then. Free, possibly even paid for server moves across Regions – not likely happen in either direction.

    A pretty grim picture tbs, but I’m smiling from ear to ear as my kid, friends, and guild have chosen to migrate to GW2 and never look back!! Would rather wait/put my money on a good MMO designed to unite vice divide it’s players than constantly plodding ahead on the staggering old Nag of MMO’s as EQ2’s beaten to death by Schmed’s whip!!

    And GW2 beta application is open at beta.guildwars2.com for the next 24 hrs for anybody interested in playtesting it. SOE’s idiot Devs/Producers could care less! 😀

    Reply

  • Charn

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    What petition? Anyone have a link to it?

    Reply

  • badcat

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    Well there was a link to it here, are we not suposed to post it here either?

    IO see that post is missing

    Reply

  • Goober

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    You do not want my comments… I will say that SOE has banned me due to my comments about moderation and then they banned my 2nd account due to commenting on the banning of my main account. F*cking amazing…

    You have been banned.
    Your account has been suspended for 1 day for continuing to comment on moderation after being warned not to.

    If you feel this ban is unjustified please review the Forum Guidelines, and if you still feel the ban was enacted in error, contact the administrator via email.Please provide us the forum name and game in your request.
    forum-admin@soe.sony.com

    Reply

  • Goober

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    Oh yeah dont comment on the petition, I was warned that would get me banned too via PM’s from the mods

    Reply

  • Calthine

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    A good bunch of questions, Feldon. One note: as far as I know SOE’s character-keeping policy was always 90 days, too. They just never enforced it. I’m looking for a reference….

    Oh, ZAM’s giving out TERA beta codes, if anyone wants 🙂

    Reply

  • Dazin

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    So….who wants to hold a Death Day party for EQ?

    Reply

  • Ahazul

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    Tottaly agree with it.
    By the way, I cancelled my next subscription to protest about it.

    Reply

  • Convict411

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    We can cry all we want. The deal has been made, contracts have been signed. A couple of corporate suits without a passion for gaming got together and discussed the best way to fill their pockets at the expense of interpersonal relationships. Well done.

    That said i’d like to thank SOE for making this deal. I’m a passionate gamer. I spend way too much time on games. Alltho I never played the EQ series I did play planetside for over 5 years. With planetside 2 on the horizon I was already dreading how this would be my next big timesink since it seemed unimaginable that I would not be playing this game. Hell, I was even gathering all friends from other games, from steam and from MSN to come play planetside 2 with me. However, since there is no chance that I’ll be sharing my credit card info with some second rate German money grabbing, name publishing, account deleting, tv commercial playing, unethical, excuse for a company – that issue is solved.

    PS: most of the people that were coming to planetside 2 with me feel the same.I hope the corporate suits responsible for this (even for SOE standards) unprecedented fiasco, choke on their money. Have a nice day.

    Reply

  • Annoyed

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    This is pure insanity.

    Reply

  • Trueflight

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    at least the Free Feldon campaign got him unbanned. Now if we can get them to let him make a post without it being deleted

    Reply

    • Feldon

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      at least the Free Feldon campaign got him unbanned. Now if we can get them to let him make a post without it being deleted

      I did manage to get a post off, but it’s almost not worth it. I’m frustrated that others get banned for mentioning my name or posting links to my website, since EverQuest2.com featured EQ2Wire just 10 days ago. Funny how fast things change.

      Reply

  • Ray

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    We at SOE value our player base and strive to provide all with the very best in MMORPG.

    Google Translation:
    We at SOE value your cash and strive to get even more cash out of you whilst having a total lack of respect for pile of cash we have already had from you.

    What?

    You say that we are ruining the experience you have come to treasure.

    So what! Have you read our legal conditions for playing.

    You know the one. yes thats the one. The one that says we can do what the hell we like and you just have to suck it up!

    Reply

  • Susan from England

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    I am stunned by the complete lack of customer awareness shown by this arrangement. I play the original EverQuest game on two live servers (one Euro, one USA), plus the Test server, one Progression server and Al’Kabor (EQMac) which I am very happy is still there. I don’t understand the logic of dividing players by continent in the age of the internet. If we could only have some hard facts instead of rumours, reasons for actions instead of being presented with a fait accompli, and discussions with the companies involved instead of a deaf ear.

    Reply

  • emil

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    Well my dcuo account data has been lost in the transfer, so i have lost all my characters, everything, i cant login to the soe dcuo, so yea. This deal was the worst move soe ever did -.-‘

    Reply

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