A Player Calls ProSiebenSat.1 — Gets Answers?
A player named Trevynoae with an account going back to 2004 posted about a phone call he had with ProSiebenSat.1 on the subject of this SOE deal. Normally we do not run with single-source news, but with the dearth of information coming from SOE, we’re going to post this:
– There will be no Alaplaya-accounts – but there will be a region lock. We will log in via our SOE account on the alaplaya-page. (*looks confused*)
– EU Players will be able to create new SOE accounts and will be able to play on the US-servers there.
– EU accounts will get flagged. If you are currently located in the EU, Pro7 will get your money – otherwise it will go to SOE. More a segregation of people than servers. It doesn’t matter what server you play on. (See update below)
– EU customers will regret being considered US customers*
– [ProSiebenSat.1] have so much planned for EQII
– Alaplaya isn’t allowed to post here on the EQII boards because SOE doesn’t allow them to. That is why they opened a temporary board (link) on their own boards.
– SOE will do business as usual on all non-EU servers
– ProSiebenSat.1 of course will want to run their business on the EU servers. That’s why they will have special events and also changes on the EU servers (my comment: generate money off the servers – of course. everybody can make up their mind what this might mean looking at the alaplaya-business-model)
– one could say: EU servers have different rules based on what ProSiebenSat.1 want whereas US servers are SOE’s business
– there will be no character transfers between EU and US servers (comment: that is a big nono for me – because i have many friends in the us and maybe i want to decide to play with them using my main chars?!)
– US players (or US-flagged accounts) of course will not be allowed on the EU-servers anymore because they can’t be billed for marketplace stuff that they aren’t supposed to have access to.
—————–
This is a summary of a phonecall we had with the guy in charge of the SOE deal here in Germany at p7s1.
think about it. that’s what we could find out here in germany.
So either this guy lies terribly or the posted FAQ here and there is just wrong.
And a followup from Trevynoae to the statement that “EU customers will regret being considered US customers”…
according to the phonecall: ProSiebenSat.1 has EVERY right to change as much as they wish on THEIR servers because they want to do MUCH and MORE. That also is why US-flagged accounts won’t be allowed there – because whatever ProSiebenSat.1 does on the EU servers they won’t get any additional money from you because you are flagged US and not EU.
UPDATE: More clarifications:
– region lock: not fully decided yet
– some kind of soe-equivalent login – not the “old” soe login
– account-flagging is in discussion
– servertransfers: not decided yet
– us players possibly get access to eu servers. just how to make this possible is not decided (technical).
– and because of “us players may regret not being eu” … that’s more a metaphoric saying because of course p7s1 has every intention to make the experience for their share of the players special!
– oh and posting on the boards: they don’t do it because it’s the soe boards
The best possible interpretation of that last paragraph being that ProSiebenSat.1 wants to do special events and create special Marketplace items just for EU customers, and they do not want US players to get their extra work for free.
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Comments (18)
melpheos
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just read this on eq2forum, though it was worth pointing out too 🙂
Clearly, if they want to sell really power item to their player they can (like HM 3 adornment gear for just born level 90 players, or even full geared level 90 players)
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Hak
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EU customers will regret being considered US customers*
Noticed the * at the end of that. I think you are right on the money with that comment.
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Trevyn
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Greetings! The one in question was me 🙂 My account history in fact reaches back way longer than 2004 … I have other accounts dating back to 1999 and I am totally embarassed what is currently happening on the soe boards.
We (that is a couple of other trustworthy friends here and me) currently try to get as much information out of that as possible.
Of course – I just could give kind of a summary out of the phonecall because transcripts are neither fair to the other person nor are they allowed without consent.
I tried to put stuff together with as much professionality as possible – but of course I can not guarantee everything was interpreted right (you know those marketing guys … they happen to talk talk talk talk talk …).
I already found this guy from Pro7 on Valor yesterday – using his private account to offer players a chance to ask questions and send him email. When he got comments that everybody could say that he told us that he just doesn’t have an gm-flagged account yet but would like to offer players a chance to talk.
Of course – my summary could be totally wrong – or the answers were sugarcoated in such a way that we couldn’t interpret them right. But it is more than what we get from SOE so far.
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Karamonde
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Yeah i see it Well : Raiding potion HM :2500Pen : allow you to enter Kraytok Hardmode for 24H
….
….
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Feldon
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Hak,
I added the * and included Trevyn’s clarification below.
Trevyn,
I think you did a good job summarizing and trying to get some answers without painting SOE or PSS1 as either positive or negative.
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Trevyn
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If one asked me – I would suggest to use their boards to ask questions. They seem to have any interest to clear up that situation as fast as possible.
Although the “region-lock” thing – may still change and we just went over our notes again and it more reads like “not the old soe login” but a new type of login and flagging seems to be still “in discussion” *sigh*
sometimes we hear what we want to hear most *lol*
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MrsBadger
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I feel sick to the bottom of my stomach.
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skippydippy
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Gut instinct says they will sell weapons from the off in the marketplace i cant see any other reason for differing cash shops,maybe wrong but thats the way i see it to be honest
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Trevyn
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clarifications!
– region lock: not fully decided yet
– some kind of soe-equivalent login – not the “old” soe login
– account-flagging is in discussion
– servertransfers: not decided yet
– us players possibly get access to eu servers. just how to make this possible is not decided (technical).
– and because of “us players may regret not being eu” … that’s more a metaphoric saying because of course p7s1 has every intention to make the experience for their share of the players special!
– oh and posting on the boards: they don’t do it because it’s the soe boards 😉
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mixxit
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PSS1 IRC channel: irc.euirc.net #alaplaya.en
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Rugrat
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One thing is for sure from this: Once the line is crossed and the switches thrown, PSS1 will do exactly what they want with the game outside the environment and mechanics.
I really DO hope they dont get control over the loot tables lol that would be a nightmare! But the sad thing is, it’s not beyone the bounds of possibility.
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badcat
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Do I understand this correctly. The ps1 side of things they will be doing things different, as far as programming? So that means the us side vs the euro side will be totaly different and diverging games with the same name?
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Lakoda
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If any of this is remotely true, it sounds like SOE posted answers to the FAQ that they wanted to be true. If negotiations are still on going this could be a tactics to try and force ProSiebenSat.1’s hand and agree to want sony wants.
All of this does tell me that SOE finds the EU market lacking and not worth further investment. And given that they had to go to ProSiebenSat.1 I am betting no legitimate company does either. This means sony want the regular check from Germany without having to do a damn thing.
I am confused about one this though. If ProSiebenSat.1’s customer service is so notoriously bad, why would they be doing things like linking to the official game forums or using personal accounts to try and talk to players. Those two items do not reconcile well against one another.
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Murfalad
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Special marketplace items, why do I see power being sold for money? (especially since their only experience of a MMO is a pure RMT one, no doubt they look at EQ2 and see it lacks such items).
Or am I wrong and they actually have a large team of artists, 3D modelers and programmers able to produce quality content?
Since Sony are going to still run the servers I very much doubt the above, so what they can add would be alterations in stats of items that already exist. As they cannot be put inside the game then they have to be in the cash shop, yup, just not able to put a positive spin on anything here.
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Frank
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Looking at their corporate planning: “In addition, we are expanding our position further in our growth area of games: The acquisition of burda:ic and browsergames.de brings us a good deal closer to our goal of becoming one of the top three providers in Europe.”
At least they have ambitions and I’ll bet the catalog SOE was shopping around would put them into the rank they want. It sounds like they got bitchslapped just as much as everyone else by SOE’s standard operating procedure of dropping news and ducking for cover to wait for it to blow over.
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Kwill
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I second the “sick to my stomach” comment, MrsBadger — not only does SOE sell the Euro market, but to a company that wants to do “much more” with the Euro servers. It’s not just regionalization, it’s changing the entire game. Just, wow.
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Agee
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extra stuff needing clarification:
Status of Aussie and New Zealanders? we not EU – but many play on Splitpaw
Status of Guilds – If we’re moved to US server – do we take our guild with us (took wife and I ages to level our guild to L90)
– we’ve started emptying our guild hall and storing items in one of our little used alts (saved layout 1st though)
– same with shared bank and guild bank – they now all but empty – coin now all held in one of our alts also
– unsure of what happens with items on broker – but may have to clear out expensive “for sale” ites in case they get “lost” too 🙁
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Karial
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I have been playing EQ since Kunark and then EQ2 since release. I am so utterly disgusted. I just con’t see the reasoning for ti at all.
I am glad to hear that we will assumabley be able to create US accounts for the US servers (can I flag my current account to NOT be auto converted to Euro? Its a legacy account!) but i’m so utterly disgusted at SOE I may not.
As for the Euro progermansat game I can see it now.
Level potions! Drink this to gain one level
Item potions! Drink this to be able to find legendary items for one hour
Uber potions! Drink this for double damage for 30 minutes
Kill wand! Auto kill anything, 10 charges.
etc etc
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