Separated Servers, Problem for already organized Legions ?

[huangker]

But how can it be Ip based? What about all the Oceanic and Brazilian players?

[Zanion]

Originally Posted by huangker

But how can it be Ip based? What about all the Oceanic and Brazilian players?

I was thinking of that too....

[knite16]

Is NC just developing the game or will they be distributing also? I thought I read somewhere that distribution would be other companies. If that's the case, if the same company doesn't distribute to NA and EU both, then the servers will very likely be completely separate, though still probably not IP based. You'd need a US version of the game to access the US servers.

if its the same company (or NC itself ) it could be an IP restrictive system, the same system as above, or, best case scenario, allowed like Vanguard and SWG did.

[Kyanos]

Even if we're allowed into other servers that aren't the one we're meant to be in, there's still a problem. Because all the EU people who play on the US servers (and vice versa) will be in a different timezone, which means missing out on peak PvP times, server events, etc, etc. Of course it's (hopefully) down to the individual, but I see a lot of guilds using members this way. Some may say it was silly to organise them so soon... but we're so excited :P

[Calindor]

Originally Posted by Haeretik

I think it's dumb for you to recruit over such a wide area anyway. I've got a guild but its only real-life friends I'll be playing with anyway. Once the game hits, we'll recruit from whatever server we join. Pointless to try and get everyone onto the same server unless NCSoft wants to release the names of servers and their time zones ahead of time so that people can work together to join the same servers. Because -- you know how it goes. People get ready to play and they just join a server that looks good. And when you talk to them, they say "oh im on this server" when you're on a completely different one.

So, the solution here:

NCSoft -- release server names and time zones a few weeks ahead of release. Then 'legions' or whatever you want to call them can select a location for their identity that all their members can be sure to pick after installation.

How can you be so close minded, number 1 your guild is going to have a failed start if you wait until the game launch to recruit. Number 2 some guilds are full of people from all over from OTHER NCSOFT GAMES where servers were not restricted...My last L2 ally had 120 people from about 40 different countries.

What if I work Backshift and I play games from the morning to dinner time?....Then a Euro server would suit my timezone.

And for time zones, im in atlantic in north america...some of Europe is 4 hours away, while the west coast of NA is 5 hours off.

Useless arguments, still no valid reasons posted.

[Rick James]

It's pretty clear from this thread that the average player in aion is going to be as dumb as the ones in L2. Should be fun.

[BogusDude]

I think its fair to say that developers learn from their past experiences. With ncsoft, that being guild wars, the servers were also seperated but you could pick which server you wanted to play on. At the start you could only switch a couple of times before you were stuck on one server. Some people had multiiple accounts so they could play both as access to the underworld and fissure of woe were limited to whichever server held favour from Hall of Heros. The servers were later fully integrated allowing anyone to play on any server at will. I'm sure this will work similarly, you'll be able to pick and they'll mixup later, hopefully they won't take aslong as in GW. Theres no reason why you can't create 2 guilds and have a NA and EU division, or even for each faction. My GW guild has 5 Luxon and 6 kurzick guilds and members from all over the world.

[Calindor]

Keep in mind Arenanet ran Guild Wars, NCSoft only ran Lineage 1 and 2. And YES there is a reason to not have to divisions, because I WANT TO PLAY with my friends whom I have known and played with for years on OTHER NCSOFT GAMES.

God people keep posting the same BS, I've still yet to see any remotely valid argument to server seperation other than ninjaing things when another timezone is sleeping.

[Iceburgh]

Originally Posted by Haeretik

I think it's dumb for you to recruit over such a wide area anyway. I've got a guild but its only real-life friends I'll be playing with anyway. Once the game hits, we'll recruit from whatever server we join. Pointless to try and get everyone onto the same server unless NCSoft wants to release the names of servers and their time zones ahead of time so that people can work together to join the same servers. Because -- you know how it goes. People get ready to play and they just join a server that looks good. And when you talk to them, they say "oh im on this server" when you're on a completely different one.

So, the solution here:

NCSoft -- release server names and time zones a few weeks ahead of release. Then 'legions' or whatever you want to call them can select a location for their identity that all their members can be sure to pick after installation.

Or your guild could be organized and be like. "When the game comes out everyone pick the first/last or X# server." So if your guild decided to pick Server 7 and theres only 6 it defaults to 6. Basically you can go with a number system. theres no way to go wrong. If you say server 5000 anyone with common sense will realize that the last server on the list is closest. And if there was a server 5000 they could select it. No confusion at all. Only unorganized guilds would let something like people picking random servers at the start happen.

[Solaire]

Originally Posted by Calindor

How can you be so close minded, number 1 your guild is going to have a failed start if you wait until the game launch to recruit. Number 2 some guilds are full of people from all over from OTHER NCSOFT GAMES where servers were not restricted...My last L2 ally had 120 people from about 40 different countries.

Just one thing I disagree with here, guilds/clans/legions fail when people don't work together, it has nothing to do with when they're started. You can start recruiting now all you like, have 50+ names and think you're awesome, but if everybody doesn't start talking and getting to know one another, personality conflicts are going to happen. Sometimes it can be over something as small as the person using l337 to type. I know for me, I can overlook chatspeak in pugs (pick up groups) but I don't want to hang out with lazy people who can't take an extra second to type "you" instead of "u" and "I see" instead of "i c," etc.

I haven't joined up with a legion for this game because I think it's silly at this point. I want to level my character a bit, get to know the game, get to make friends, then maybe start a legion myself with some friends, or join one of theirs if they're in an established one. It's all about being with people I'd like to spend my game time with, and since a lot of people may quit the game before it's even released, or not play at the same hours of the day I do, I'd rather just meet folks WHILE playing the game.

Originally Posted by Calindor

What if I work Backshift and I play games from the morning to dinner time?....Then a Euro server would suit my timezone.

And for time zones, im in atlantic in north america...some of Europe is 4 hours away, while the west coast of NA is 5 hours off.

Useless arguments, still no valid reasons posted.

For this bit, I agree with you. I see no reason for IP restrictions, and I enjoy talking with people from all over. I have friends from south america, europe and australia, as well as people just in US/Canada. Sometimes I play in the morning and talk with euro friends, sometimes I play late and talk with aussie friends.

I don't think NCSoft will restrict people. I figure there'll be Oceanic servers, NA servers, and EU servers, but if you want to play on the others, you just buy that version of the game same as in WoW.

[KatzuyAion]

Want a valid response? simple. The devs cannot be arsed to answer 1000 tickets each day relating to latency issues of overseas players. Atleast, if you do it now, buying a copy from the other continent, was your choice, and dont get surprised if you dont get any support in Technical issues. (and believe me MMORPG have alot of those).

I mean, what if your ISP has a awful routing table to american servers? what are you gonna do? complain to NCSOFT? well i think that's the problem, They want to provide a 1st quality server in Aion, and for that, it's much more easy to give assistance to players of their own region. Problably they cant guarantee any type of game quality if you wish to play out of your zone, and before people, start to complain, they cut from root. Makes sense from my perspective.

However if you really must go to another server, its your choice. (i personall i wouldn't do such a thing, Compromising my game quality just to be in a legion).

[Calindor]

Katzuy, they can play on Euro servers if latency is a problem for them, I havent really seen any game other than WoW where playing on a server overseas was a problem (although I have only played on about 2 or 3 Euro MMO servers myself (2 in Germany, 1 in Russia).

You can run a traceroute on the server ISP and see where the laggy hubs are, and ask your ISP to route around it, it maybe even call up NCSoft's server ISP and see if they can...most server providers provide this as a free service, because if you are coming from a large ISP, they will want the best quality.

Solaire, you are right, but being organized and working together from the start with a full clan is still an advantage over a slow start that might take you a month to reach the same point.

I;ve only started WoW and L2 (quite a few times) severs from day 1 launch..and its always the organized clans with full people who get on top first, I think it will especially be the case with aion because it has legion housing and castles, like L2.

[bonflowers24]

As was said before, it's a customer service issue.

If you look at any successful business, customer service is going to be their number one priority. Why? Because they want people to be content in any dealings with them including <b>promptly and effectively handling issues that may arise.</b>

Take a look at rule number one at this link here: 5 Secrets of Good Customer Service

Customer Loyalty

This being said the best way to get not only customer loyalty, but customers that were happy with their service and will likely reccomend the business to other people, family, friends, coworkers etc. The best way to ensure prompt effective service is to obviously have service centres located near the clientele. How ****ed would you be if you lived in EU and had to call the head office in Korea to deal with your issue only to find out they don't have a translator for the language you speak working at that particular time? So if you look at it that way, separate servers makes perfect sense.

It also seems that they're not going to be IP restrictive, and people are content with buying a different regional copy at the expense of losing the customer service, which is their perogative.

If you don't think that's valid...then I don't know what else to tell you. >_>

[Calindor]

Simple, for any technical issues with the game you could contact the Euro tech support, Euro tech support could have access to all servers. It would be treated as 1 client with servers for different languages.

Number 2, seriously, did you even read any of the posts related on international servers in Aion? Just like L2 there will still be Euro servers and NA servers, you can play on either one at the expense of language or customer service, like you said it is your perogative. Why would someone who doesnt speak english choose a NA server? Your post doesnt make sense.