Feldon From Brasse on the EQ2 Forums:
Friends,
We promised that all players would be able to play together, to play on the servers of their choice. This was a huge undertaking, technically, but vital to keeping our players together. Accounts will necessarily be handled separately as games transition. We are working very closely together and we are all are fully committed to serving their customers well.
While it will be impossible to address each and every post here, I would like to answer a few.
We are posting this information with our executive’s direction and oversight. They are involved in every aspect of this deal, including the move to ensure that players can continue to play on any server they like. As I have said, I realize that I am much shorter than Smed, but this is truthful, valid communication on behalf of SOE.
You will not be forcibly transferred – starting a ProSiebenSat.1 is a choice, should you wish to continue playing EQII after the transition. If you wish to change your account status prior to that time, please contact CS directly (we cannot do it from here), and while I respect your choice, I do ask you to merely think about it for a time and consider giving this a chance. EQII will not transition for some time yet, so there is no rush.
Your SC will not be transferred. It will be mirrored – in other words, it is a grant, not a transfer. From the FAQ:
“…and the value of any Station Cash in their SOE account granted to the new ProSiebenSat.1 Games account.”
Regarding F2P SOE accounts being run from Europe on the US servers: yes, of course they can. However, in order to play from European IPs, players will need to sign up for a ProSiebenSat.1 account. As with all of our F2P games, you do not have to fund those accounts if you choose to play Free.
You should see a seamless transition, aside from creating a ProSiebenSat.1 account. You can continue to play EQ2 from the UK without the need to transfer your characters. Again, you will need to sign up for a ProSiebenSat.1 account in order to play, because while we automatically transfer those characters, we do not transfer personal data. That is solely at the discretion of the players.
Once EQII transitions, you will need a ProSiebenSat.1 account to access your characters on US servers. We are making it as seamless as possible on the front end, but while we can transfer characters, items, and grant SC to the new account, we cannot transfer personal information, which is why you need to sign up with ProSieben (using your existing SOE account id – new password of course!).
When is the Transition?
When your ProSiebenSat.1 account is created, your SOE account will remain active for any games that have not yet transitioned. For instance, if DCUO transitions first, those players will retain SOE accounts for other games they may play, such as EQ, EQII, FR, CWA, VG, PS, etc. In the case of a game that is not slated for transition, such as EQ for example, those players will have two accounts, one for ProSiebenSat.1 and one for SOE.
A great many details are still being worked out, and we have a significant amount of time left – we haven’t even determined a transition date for EQII yet.
Keep in mind that you have plenty of time yet before the transition occurs, and I hope that you will keep an open mind and watch for more information as the year progresses.
IP Locks and Traveling Abroad?
I am looking into the request for info on folks who travel abroad (as I do), and will post when I have information.
I travel abroad a great deal and have never had issues logging in to games that are generally IP locked (as so many are). Let me follow up on that one for you. Bear with me while I do so. =)
Oceania? Asia? Russia? South America?
Australia is not included in the regions ProSiebenSat.1 administers (nor are New Zealand, Asia, Russia, South America, for instance). The regions covered are listed in the General Questions section of the FAQ.
Gameplay Changing?
Your gameplay will not change, your servers will not change, your friends and guilds will remain the same. It is a matter of creating a new account for exactly the same gameplay experience, because we do not transfer personal data. As for trust, that is indeed a choice every consumer must make on every transaction we make online (or offline, for that matter). Take the time to make a measured decision. EQII’s transition will be some time off yet.
As ever, we ARE listening. We are collecting every bit of your feedback to pass on to our internal groups and to our partners at ProSiebenSat.1. We are all strongly committed to providing you with the best, secure gameplay experience possible.
Yer Loyal Dwarf,
Brasse
Aren’t learning curves supposed to ascend over time?
Sadly now tht they have chosen to listen, it may be too little too late. The damage is done, the majority of players who were truely up in arms about this ragequit over it a month ago. Maybe they shouldn’t have taken so long to announce to the community that they actually did care?
I don’t believe that they have chosen to listen. This is just another smokejob with lots of commentary, but no room for feedback. I can’t feedback at all, on 2 accounts, at the moment. 🙁
They haven’t listened at all.
They simply replaced IP locks on the servers with IP locks on the accounts, totally ignoring the fact that very many players simply will not sign up with ProSieben and are therefore now lost to the game.
They could have got round this so simply by keeping existing players with SOE (unless they chose to go to ProSieben) and passing on the revenues from those players to ProSieben. Instead they’ve chosen to destroy the community on all servers on both sides of the pond. The game won’t be the same again.
Did anyone,if they’re honest expect them to listen? i know i didnt
I – frankly – expected more of them.
Based on years of experience with SOE i expected what we got,next to nothing once they centred on the “region lock” that was that,the fact they’ve account locked instead is besides the point with them in their world.
I’m a US player so my opinion means squat here, but the situation is very simple. The solved the problem they could (region locked servers) and if they lose subs because of the region locking on accounts, well that’s just the way it will go. I’m actually excited, because for once people will follow through with their money and not just their mouth. Sony is suffering gobally, and SOE needs to learn the lessons Sony overall still fails to grasp.
So, if no one wins the lottery tonight and I somehow win it on Tuesday, does anyone know if Sony might be willing to sell SOE and for what amount?
Lol well if folks keep true to what they say nobody is going to be creating a pss1 account. I know I want even if forced to do so. I have friends who travel and are in the armed forces, I would like to know whats going to happen to them/us.
Only one thing left for me to say:
Go watch http://cdn.riftgame.com/rift/video/DevVid5/EN/RIFT_ANNIVERSARY_DEV_V050_EN_720p.mp4 for a different view on how an MMO should be run. TRION actually seems to mean what they say in this video. Shows how far SOE is from serving their customers.
I cancelled my sub a few weeks ago and havent been in game at all to show my protest to SOE. You either do that or you are saying to them you accept their behaviour.
I don’t have much issue with Pro7 as there will be more law to safeguard our details in Germany than the US. Also SoE’s arrogance caused them to receive possibly the worst hack in years on their systems and are still on the hackers radar should they get arrogant and taunt them agian.
I think SOE will be sold off this year or next anyway. It is not viable in Sony’s model, largely in fairness bacuse of the way they run the business which is poor when you compare it to other MMO Studios.
Huge shame, but the communities will never die, the game always had an end point, it is just a shame it is a little premature. Of course there is always the very very good chance that most players will shout loud as they pay Pro7 and continue playing despite their words to the contrary.
Kinda curious why no one has made a US IP proxy for the euro players yet!
@Buffrat: because they already exist. For a larger part of wow players that’s how they get into their game.
You can bet that EQ2Wire will provide a list of recommended Proxies and VPNs as needed.
Will that work for us euro’s Feldon as its the accounts they’re IP locking now isnt it?
If you start using a proxy now, it’ll probably show your most recent IPs listed from places other than europe.
It looks more than a simple IP blocking. They also will check the account information.
This means you need a new account with US address, a Proxy and only pay per SC card.
And for proxies, most are IPSec (slow and lag) and have no direct backbone connection. A better solution would be generic routing encapsulation and having the NAT endpoint of your home network in the US.
Most people feel so strongly about the contempt in which SOE hold their EU customers that rather than find ways round the IP locking of accounts they will simply walk away.
In the face of the usual rhetoric from SoE, I continue to hold on to one simple thought:
Guild Wars 2 preorder April 10.
Clearly not listening at all. I don’t think I saw one single post in any of the mega threads that welcomed partnership with P7S1.
I think Sony doesn’t really care. SOE has been granted the chance to get somehow out of this mess. But it seems a failure is viable option for them (in the worst case get money by licensing the EQ brand to others. SOE turning into a intellectual property only business).
Compare this with the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy, where the vice president of Electronic Arts has to calm down investors and fans. Remember the SCE/SOE data breach, that was dangerous for Sony. But SOE going down in history, not really dangerous for Sony (probably even something that investors like, getting rid of that bastard child)
More interesting for Sony is the next generation console. Having a subscription model there, even for single player games. Cutting out game retailers and killing the used games market. (Microsoft wants to move this way too, Windows 8 app store, and their next generation console).
Developing for heterogeneous hardware like the PC is expensive compared to a console and having a gaming platform where no vendor lock in is possible is a nightmare for them.
The above example (with ME3) shows that the web 2.0 grass root movements are hitting the entertainment and art industries. SOE is too low under the radar, to cause any ripples in the news.
I think they forget that people who are so upset to leave a game they played for 7+ years, will most likely not buy any other SOE title … and probably not any other Sony product. It will most likely not only be them, but their whole household too (since the gamer in the family is usually the one knowing about what new entertainement stuff is needed), add the household of some of their friends, some relatives … and we are talking about numbers that will probably hurt them more than they are aware.
I really wonder if anyone in that company is using any common sense lately.
I posted the following comment in that thread.
“They are going to let this thread spin out of control over the weekend, post a few more “Trust Us” threads on Monday and hope everything will be OK.
I’m still shaking my head over this.”
And was banned for three days for trolling by SOE – MODBOT – 05
lol I give up.
I am just pleased that they do not give my old in active account+information to pro7.
I’ll take my friends wow resurection over eq1 f2p, for no other reason than to flip $oe a mental bird when i log in 🙂
I wonder if people will be allowed to transfer toons between EU accounts and US accounts?
In which case would it be possible to make a US account, transfer toons to it and then use a proxy to access it?
I don’t see any will from P7S1 to succeed with this deal. Sure, they may have been waiting for renegotiation of the contracts.
But look at the alaplaya mess. As they bought that company they just let the forum rot there. This was a nice opportunity to reboot the forum and get rid of all negative posts. And google and youtube is full with hacking stories on alaplaya. They are not reporting offending links to google and youtube to get them blocked or delete. This shows how willed their marketing to bury the past and build a more positive image.
And since alaplaya is red blanket for SOE customers. First PR move would be to disconnect that from P7 games to avoid any more tainting of the gaming division. They had 3 month times create plans. With the release of the new FAQ at SOE they should have showed at the same time a move to gain a bit more trust. But it looks like that coldor and protagonist have no backing from their superiors.
SOE will lock down accounts based on your BILLING ADDRESS, not IP!
they’ll probably do a double check – 1st billing address or CC holder info, 2nd IP address if no billing info is available.
Brasse posted:
….EU accounts will simply be determined by IP….
so you’re wrong, it’s NOT billing address.
@Wurm: Its good to know the censorship is alive and kicking. I got a 3 day vacation a couple of weeks ago. I made a clever fanboi post, glorifying all the recent accomplishments and congratulating the EQ2 staff for all their hard work. In particular, I mentioned SJ a couple of times. What gave me the ban was linking every mention of Smokejumper to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6WHBO_Qc-Q
It was up for a couple of hours, enough to have a few people read it 😀
Its funny. After this long drought of lack of communication and now Brasse shows up and its like she’s on some freaky party drug, babbling a mile a minute. Hmm, what could be the incentive for her to suddenly have a constant presence.
Maybe its because she cares for the community. Hmm, nope. She and the rest of her merry band were more than happy to sell the EQ2 EU community and keep them locked behind an iron curtain in January.
Maybe its because she is (uses Dwarven accent) “our friend”. Nah, I don’t think so. I’m really suspicious of people suddenly wanting to be my friend after kicking me in the teeth for 2 and a half months.
*ponders thoughtfully*
*lightbulb appears over my head*
Ohhh..! Smedley wants damage control so Brasse is brought in to stick her finger in an overflowing dike. Too little, too late. Months of insult and contemptuous behavior and now they want to play nice and chat us up? Yeah..
Such. an. utter. clownshow.
Nyna,
Let’s not state opinion as fact, ok?
>”Regarding F2P SOE accounts being run from Europe on the US servers: yes, of course they can. However, in order to play from European IPs, players will need to sign up for a ProSiebenSat.1 account.”
Great going, you’ve just OUTSOURCED SECURITY!
>”As with all of our F2P games, you do not have to fund those accounts if you choose to play Free.”
Fine, i choose not fund it at all. SoE == failure.
That’s what I already suggested on the EQII boards and I think it isn’t that bad an idea to keep the fallout to a minimum while still having a good chance to entice people into pss1.
At least I know for myself that I might consider doing the move after a while (if such a plan like I draw here would be in place) – although I have strong reservations against that company and the people running it due to past experience. But maybe … maybe they really want to do something good … and if they are THAT convinced that they will be able to make us happy – they have nothing to lose at all following the suggestion.
Suggestion:
Follow our suggestion about having existing customers keep their SOE accounts (and use them for the games!), pay PSS1 for those of us who are accessing the games from their sovereign territory whatever and however much you want, disable new accounts from that territory create with SOE but force them to PSS1 (new accounts! not existing ones!).
Now … offer something unique to those players in that territory to convert their existing accounts into PSS1 accounts. Maybe give them a year’s subscription for 1/3 of the regular price or a 2 year sub for the price of 1 year’s (or less) and a couple of nice and neat items from the marketplace for free. I am sure you would maintain most of your current playerbase and in addition get way more folks willing to convert to PSS1! You would even have the guarantee that players stay for that timeframe! If I paid for 2 years – I would want to stay for that time!
At the same time you could give customers based on all other territory another incentive like also offering them a 2 year sub for the price of a 1 year’s. So your loyal customers not affected by that PSS1 deal don’t feel like they are less valued.
This would create a total win-win situation for everybody involved.
Of course – one part of the playerbase could and most likely would complain: Those of us located in PSS1 territory not willing to move on PSS1. Why? Because we couldn’t get the nifty extras that you offer for your us customers and to those who transition over to PSS1.
But hey – in exchange we would get the option to stick with SOE.
Everybody could then make an educated decision. Stay where you are and got nothing extra. Or take the special offer and move over to PSS1. Or of course – stay where you are (not being affected) and take the special deal on your sub or not.
Just to add:
Having us who play more than just the pss1 related games to pay more than we are used to – is a bad move.
And PSS1 not knowing yet when they will have sort of All Access ready also is not much fun. They are trying to get customers to trust them – and at the same time they expect them to pay more just to play the same games – just because they don’t have an All Access plan in place and have no idea when they will be able to offer such.
Sony will never change, they will just let a great game die.
All I can say is soe wants to get rid of a chunk of players, I don’t think at this point that any more warning we are going to cancel our accounts is going to get their attention. They already decided to get rid of our accounts, so that threat does not work as they already got rid of you and you no longer matter to soe, we are not their problem anymore.
I decided that it is just best to walk away. Over the past month I have been off playing different things. I am almost over my eq2 addiction. It is time to let go.
All the bs in the world that the game is healthy according to the dwarf, lol they are truly in disconnect from the real world. It is a true shame they are willing to sacrifice a certain part of the player base hoping that they get a new player base willing to spend alaplaya points so they can get a cut.