Warhammer's open beta goes great in US, epic failure in EU

by Michael Zenke Sep 8th 2008 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Warhammer Online

Though for a while it looked like the European Warhammer community was online and in the Beta problems have continued to plague EU WAR players. These are problems persisting from this past weekend, and as a result the EU section of the Warhammer Alliance boards are full of ticked off players spitting invectives. It's easy to see why when when this official status update thread has such dire and worrisome phrases associated with it. Though players had already assumed as much, it looks like the blame for this failure falls at the feet of GOA. The European publisher for Warhammer (as well as DAoC and a number of other games) has a reputation among gamers for frustrations and customer service issues.

Over at Mark Jacobs' blog, it sounds like Mythic made sure to communicate some of those frustrations directly to the French publisher. Says the CEO, "We had a number of conversations with them today about everything that happened. GOA messed up and their CEO has apologized and promised to do better going forward." He also notes his own frustration at some of the harsh words written over the weekend by frustrated players, noting that the game's Beta state means it's not ready for prime-time yet. Hopefully GOA will see this as a learning experience.

Edited to reflect ongoing state of EU Beta.

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Tags: breaking, europe, goa, mythic-entertainment, open-beta, war, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Petter said on 10:42AM 9-08-2008

Threads on Warhammer Alliance today seems to indicate the EU players are now happily in-game; hopefully GOA will see this as a learning experience.

No, we're not. :(

Thurga said on 11:59AM 9-08-2008

i would they mostly closed beta players are now happily in game even if GOA is saying that the key-registration is working now ... no it dont.

Alias said on 12:42PM 9-08-2008

Around 80% of european player are NOT playing. ID server of GOA still unavaible and the large majority of europeans player still waiting. GOA just show an enormous lack of skill thoses days...

Tony said on 10:50AM 9-08-2008

That's a shame. The US one seems to be going well.

Lars Petersson said on 10:59AM 9-08-2008

noting that the game's Beta state means it's not ready for prime-time yet

It's not the game itself we're disappointed with, it's GOA handling of the entire process for the past couple of months.
The lies, deceit and empty promises...

They promised this wouldn't happen, and all of us that predicted they would mess up were proved right...

I'm one of the people who bought the CE versions so I would get a guaranteed spot in Open Beta, but guess what, I can't get in...

If this was a one off or GOA was a new company and this was their first attempt I'd be fine and say that these things happen, but as they have a history of doing this, it's worrying.

Currently I wish I had bought a US copy...

Marty Dodge said on 12:26PM 9-08-2008

Well even if you pre-ordered an American copy with Amazon...codes are not forthcoming. How long does it take to send an email?

Rollins said on 11:43AM 9-08-2008

Did you check your Amazon Media Library?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/locker

That's where they put the codes.

Syl said on 11:14AM 9-08-2008

still can't enter my key...

skalgrim said on 11:41AM 9-08-2008

Happily online? where do you get that because with a few exceptions, WAR EU players are neither of those things.

But, it's to be expected. You don't let the french do things like this.

HappyFunBall said on 12:09PM 9-08-2008

Are you saying the French aren't good at WAR? :)

moomininspain said on 12:01PM 9-08-2008

lol go back to the forums and change ur post please.

it is full with people still having problems activating their game keys or creating their account so they can activate their game keys...

i finally managed to activate my game key but the patcher/login tool doesnt recognise my newly created and accepted login details. If people are playing there will be less than 10000 playing from 250000 players wanting to play. We were supposed to be able to register 0830 am yesterday and play early afternoon and it is now 6 pm CET. looks like the majority off players wont be able to play until tomorrow at best...

Vladdax said on 12:05PM 9-08-2008

"Though it looks like the European Warhammer community is online and in the Beta right now"

Unfortunately not. New account pages have only just opened, very few keys validated let alone people successfully patched.

Perhaps in another few hours...

George said on 12:08PM 9-08-2008

No one is in yet.
Your info are not correct.
Its Monday 8 september 18.00 CET and all the servers are down...let alone key validations not yet complete
GOA are a bunch of amateurs

infact GOA stands for Group Of Amateurs

Tony said on 12:11PM 9-08-2008

I really wish this game had worldwide servers. It sucks to not get to play most MMORPGs with friends I have in Europe. FFXI was the only notable exception.

Ranz III said on 12:12PM 9-08-2008

As stated before, most EU players aren't in yet. Got so far as the accounts being fully activated with beta codes now, but we still can't log in to the patcher till we get a confirmation e-mail. Nearly there though, just not there yet

Mingo said on 12:25PM 9-08-2008

EU players are now in the game. Huh??? Perhaps closed beta players and a lucky few hundred, or thousand across the whole continent who got through the Takeshi's Castle of application.

Riuzasa said on 12:17PM 9-08-2008

EU players cannot ACTUALLY play WAR.
THis is a shame ad a pure GOA crack.

Only PPL of the CLOSED beta can play.
All ppl that prepayed to be part of the Open Beta or that received one of free Open beta keys CANNOT ATM play.

Marty Dodge said on 1:09PM 9-08-2008

Rollins thanks for the tip. Still can't find my codes in there but I will keep looking.

Namebox said on 5:14PM 9-08-2008

You should contact Amazon customer support. My codes also failed to show up in my media library (which is a pity, because it's actually quite a nice system, once you get used to it) but customer support was friendly, prompt, and happy to help me out. And if you REALLY don't trust the media library, they've proven more than willing to look at your media library for you and copy-and-paste the codes into a mail. :)