Comments on: Official sites – what do we expect?

By: Guerth

Guerth — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:25:54 +0000

I agree with the others, this is not GOAs fault, Mythic made the wrong decision in handling this issue. It’s vital for an international community to get their information at the same time. If you have a EU-site and an US-site, you want both to have the important announcements, such as the ones in the last days, ready for the community at the same time.

By: Jace

Jace — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:20:27 +0000

Do I have false expectations about what should be on the EU WAR site? Does it not make sense that, as someone based in Europe, I would go to the official EU site for my WAR news instead of going off to Mythics site?

Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a pop at GOA, Mythics decision in this instance was a poor one.

EU players are keen to avoid the problems experienced with DAOC where there was a very strong feeling of being treated like second rate customers behind the US. If people’s first experience of WAR EU is a website that’s a pale imitation of Mythics one in terms of up to date content (and design, but that’s another debate) it does nothing to reassure them.

By: arbitrary

arbitrary — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:25:06 +0000

Ah, that makes more sense from the GOA side at least. But, I think Mythic happened to be wrong to do it this way (esp. as well, MMORPG.com and the Vault and Warhammer Alliance were actually the conduits for the news before they posted the links on the Mythic page).

Thanks for clearing it up though.

By: IainC

IainC — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:32:06 +0000

“This is the problem, us and them, GOA and Mythic. Not a good portent for us in the EU. If they can’t even synch news articles what hope for patches?”

That’s not really fair. Mythic wanted to nail this down and be the sole conduit for news on this topic until the situation had been suitably clarified. We are abiding by their request. This is not even remotely the same as ‘failing to co-ordinate’ anything.

By: Jace

Jace — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:39:46 +0000

“Mythic’s news and they are handling it themselves. It’s their decision to make and we’re letting them get on with it for now.”

This is the problem, us and them, GOA and Mythic. Not a good portent for us in the EU. If they can’t even synch news articles what hope for patches?

By: arbitrary

arbitrary — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:46:50 +0000

I do appreciate that IainC, but to many people that site is the home for European Warhammer Online, and that includes the latest news from the devs. Maybe it could be done fairly easily by incorporating an rss feed from Mythic and signposting it as such.

I do think the website is quite a big job to take on though, especially on top of other responsibilities and especially as the game goes to release and you have more community managing to do!

By: Malakaiser

Malakaiser — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:14:10 +0000

The US site now has the army pages updated with the now defunct classes gone.

EU has an update on the guild system. The first of many I think.

By: IainC

IainC — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:31:22 +0000

The news on the EU site is down to the Community Management team – me and my colleagues basically.

There’s no news on our site about the announcements that Mark Jacobs made last week or the subsequent follow-up comments because for now it’s Mythic’s news and they are handling it themselves. It’s their decision to make and we’re letting them get on with it for now.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:58:31 +0000

@cb I kind of agree with you. I like the idea of ‘let a thousand gardens bloom’ etc for websites but I think it’s going to be so confusing to any new players who just want to keep up with the news. (Even though we know most players don’t use the boards or any kind of web support at all when they play.)

Ideally the official websites could be a bit more helpful. Because not everyone has time to trawl through several different websites. It may be that some will get known as ‘places to go’ but again, that doesn’t help the new guys.

By: cb

cb — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:17:19 +0000

I’d actually quite like there to be official forums. I’d a bit dim and can’t work out which of all the unofficial ones are best. I prefer to have the access to people who know what’s what and find it is a bit tedious to haul around ‘unofficial’ ones .. but I think I am in a minority – at the moment. But when the casuals turn up, I kind of think they might be more of my mindset…