To our European Friends and Family… and GOA
September 7, 2008 – 4:17 pm
Please read the entire blockquote… It’s quite revealing of the current EU/GOA open beta controversy.
Dealing with anger (Wikipedia)
According to Leland R. Beaumont, each instance of anger demands making a choice:[34]
- Respond with hostile action, including overt violence
- Respond with hostile inaction, such as withdrawing or stonewalling
- Initiate a dominance contest
- Harbor resentment
- Work to better understand and constructively resolve the issue
Views of ancient philosophers
Seneca addresses the question of mastering anger in three parts: 1. how to avoid becoming angry in the first place 2. how to cease being angry and 3. how to deal with anger in others.[9] Seneca suggests:
- In order to avoid becoming angry in the first place, Seneca suggests that the many faults of anger should be repeatedly remembered. One should avoid being too busy or deal with anger-provoking people. Unnecessary hunger or thirst should be avoided and soothing music be listened to.[9]
- In order to cease being angry, Seneca suggests “one to check speech and impulses and be aware of particular sources of personal irritation. In dealing with other people, one should not be too inquisitive: It is not always soothing to hear and see everything. When someone appears to slight you, you should be at first reluctant to believe this, and should wait to hear the full story. You should also put yourself in the place of the other person, trying to understand his motives and any extenuating factors, such as age or illness.”[9] Seneca further advises daily self-inquisition about one’s bad habit.[9]
- In order to deal with anger in others, Seneca suggests that the best reaction is to simply keep calm. A certain kind of deception, Seneca says, is necessary in dealing with angry people.[9]
Galen basically repeats Seneca’s points but adds a new one: finding a guide and teacher can help the person in controlling their passions. Galen also gives some hints for finding a good teacher.[9]
People are definitely making some of Beaumont’s decisions right now, though hopefully we can avoid the first bullet point. Even though we can’t see the people exhibiting hostile inaction on the boards (they wouldn’t be withdrawing if they replied, would they?), I predict this is one of the more popular reactions.
I haven’t fully researched the debacle given that I’m North American and have spent most of the day working on my house and not cruising the forums, but from what I understand, the root cause of today’s anger revolves around the open beta authentication web servers being pooched, even though people who questioned their launch performance given that they weren’t properly tested beforehand, were labeled as doomsayers and conspiracy theorists. Considering today’s events, I guess we can properly call them precognitive whistle-blowers?
The fans are pissed because they feel slighted, betrayed, labeled, and taken for granted. There’s also the anger caused by not being able to play on the weekend when they will have to work all next week (some fans are crazy enough to cancel all plans and miss Sunday mass to play the game they’ve been craving for years you know). There’s also consumer anger resulting from buying a product, getting promised something, and then having that something taken away from you (for however long it may be denied). There’s also the anger built up from a lack of communication. And finally, there are many EU DAOC players who have had bad experiences with GOA in the past and feel as though they just haven’t changed.
Let’s just say there are a LOT of reasons for EU WAR fans to be pissed off right now. All I can say is that I feel for them. Oh, and also this…
They can take it upon themselves to nullify the anger by realizing it isn’t worth it or by removing themselves from the situation (close the browser and go focus on RL to take your mind off it). Do you think that’s what the average person will do? Me neither, even though it’s the best choice.
This puts the ball back in Mythic/GOA’s court. What will they do?
Are they going to give all the answers that will vindicate the foul emotions flying around? They may give EU fans some, but not all, because there’s a good chance some of the anger is directed at a phantom menace.
The first theory I had was that just as much blame may rest on Mythic’s shoulders. Mark has repeatedly said that GOA has a very tough job given that the game is being developed on another continent and there are many rapid, big changes. Are you going to hear GOA bash Mythic right now? Even if it is deserved, you’d be an insane person to think they would. This is business and you need to take a lot of emotion out of business for it to succeed. Chances are, the heads you want to see roll will remain firmly attached.
I’m quite sure there’s an anger clause in the Mythic/GOA agreement that puts all the blame on GOA even if it is undeserved. Then again, maybe Mark Jacobs is screaming into a phone right now…
And maybe he’s already commented, but you’ll notice that one of Galen’s methods for mastering anger is to find a guide or teacher to help control your passions. This immediately makes me think of the big man himself, MBJ. I think if anyone can douse the flames right now, it’s Mark, not some community manager (no offense Magnus).
I’ll leave you with this. Your anger won’t really be worth it in the end. You may feel vindicated if they apologize to the high heavens and defer to your predictive brilliance, but I can think of a dozen other emotions I’d rather be going through on this, one of the last warm Sundays of the year.
Maybe I should read this post every time I fly off the handle and post a raging blog article. Nah, that’d be way too boring! 
UPDATE - Mark speaks:
Folks,
I just got off the phone with senior management at GOA and I know you’ll be getting lots of information shortly. I know it doesn’t make today better but I can assure you that leadership is very aware of the situation and they are doing/going to do something about it. They are not at all happy about the situation either.
I won’t say trust me on this because right now, our European fans have no reason to have any trust. I will say though to see what transpires before launch, during Open Beta and then, if we launch well, I hope we will regain your trust.
Mark
UPDATE -GOA CEO speaks:
Dear all,
I rarely address players directly, but I wanted to write you as too few of you have been able to access the open beta today.
As my team explained in the previous post, although we have opened the servers and corrected numerous issues during the last 24 hours but we have not yet solved the issue of saturated Open Beta key activations that we’re currently experiencing. I am sincerely sorry for this, and I understand all the frustration the situation has spawned.
Today was a dark day. We expected a massive influx of players, but reality was even harsher.
I personally commit that we will communicate to you as clearly as possible on the resolution of these current issues. My goal is to give Warhammer Online the success it deserves. Be ensured that all GOA teams, with Mythic’s support, are working hard to bring you the best possible game experience.Best regards,
Ghislaine Le Rhun
GOA CEO
UPDATE - Mark speaks again.
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Post tags: beta, EA Mythic, Mark Jacobs, opinions, Warhammer Online
21 Responses to “To our European Friends and Family… and GOA”
I am sure it will all work out.
It disappointing that the EU has not had an account centre until 8:30 this morning though, and they GOA open it to 50,000 CE pre-orders 100,000 + open beta key givaways and however many SE preordres they have around 200,000 people on the open beta day.
Why the account centre has not been up before we will never know, why people who have paid were not allowed to register before free beta keys we will never know, that GOA think they are blameless we do know.
Oh well…
Monday, Monday OB starts
By Fiale on Sep 7, 2008
Ya, your not the one trying to moderate all of this lol. When people get upset and angry there is no stopping them.
By Engrey on Sep 7, 2008
Just so annoying that we didn’t get the preview weekend at all and now we don’t get the open beta on time.
Seems GOA is as bad as everyone has said.
By Skatchy on Sep 7, 2008
Well, I’m got my equilibrium back watching UFC 88, but man, was I pissed earlier today. And GOA, I would have gone ‘Gallagher’ on your heads with a sledgehammer at the peak of my anger! Oh… there I go again.
By Bowman on Sep 7, 2008
@Bowman - What would be worse? Going “Gallagher” or going “Rashad a la Chuck” on someone?
By Snafzg on Sep 7, 2008
I understand people’s frustration, but you can tell when some of these people have never BETA tested before… I mean, seriously. You would think that people would already know that BETA never runs smoothly. And neither do launches. (Maybe AoC’s was quite a smooth launch, but look at the state of the game now…) WAR’s EU launch will have it’s issues for sure… I just hope the Headstart won’t… Honestly. Headstarters, like myself, paid more to start ealier.
Anyway, GOA did a poor job with the account manager. We knew it was going to happen right away when they left it till the last minute to complete it. However, and most importantly, despite all of this drama today, the servers were stable and quite fast. The game is smoother than a baby’s bottom, and I haven’t had this much fun since… WoW BETA? I have been in closed BETA for a while, but today proved that Mythic can get their #$%$% together quickly.
Bad account creation day, but great success with server stability so far, smooth gameplay, and so far, a fun community once in-game.
K, I think I made sense… it’s really late.
By Sylar on Sep 7, 2008
Not Euro, but I think I’ll prepare to master my anger and put on my soothing music anyhow. Got a key from Ten Ton Hammer and I’m still waiting for the client to download. Best to start preparing now for the inevitable primal scream if I can’t get in once the dl completes.
By Davryn on Sep 7, 2008
FROM MARK:
Folks,
I just got off the phone with senior management at GOA and I know you’ll be getting lots of information shortly. I know it doesn’t make today better but I can assure you that leadership is very aware of the situation and they are doing/going to do something about it. They are not at all happy about the situation either.
I won’t say trust me on this because right now, our European fans have no reason to have any trust. I will say though to see what transpires before launch, during Open Beta and then, if we launch well, I hope we will regain your trust.
Mark
By Snafzg on Sep 7, 2008
FROM GOA CEO:
Dear all,
I rarely address players directly, but I wanted to write you as too few of you have been able to access the open beta today.
As my team explained in the previous post, although we have opened the servers and corrected numerous issues during the last 24 hours but we have not yet solved the issue of saturated Open Beta key activations that we’re currently experiencing. I am sincerely sorry for this, and I understand all the frustration the situation has spawned.
Today was a dark day. We expected a massive influx of players, but reality was even harsher.
I personally commit that we will communicate to you as clearly as possible on the resolution of these current issues. My goal is to give Warhammer Online the success it deserves. Be ensured that all GOA teams, with Mythic’s support, are working hard to bring you the best possible game experience.
Best regards,
Ghislaine Le Rhun
GOA CEO
By Snafzg on Sep 7, 2008
” Key Expired Issue ” :
Status: we had a possible solution to this on the way, but alas, it failed. We don’t expect the key authentication to be online tonight.
so we’ll NOT be able to enter the Open Beta even today
GG GOA, OB started on 7 and the Humoungus Majority of EU player can’t play ’till 9
Only CB tester could enter the OB phase in EU, cuz they don’t need key activation
By sardar on Sep 8, 2008
What I just cannot figure out is why Mythic would even consider using GOA again after how they more or less f*cked up DAoC.
If I had a business partner that would repeatedly screw up and not deliver what was promised I would break that deal and instead give the job to an organisation that can handle it.
Let me also thank you for bringing up this issue - a lot of us EU players feel completely shafted by Mythic by letting GOA handle the accounts. For instance my clan, consisting of about 140 players, are now instead going to play the US version of the game. We’d rather play with higher ping than have anything to do with GOA and I recommend other EU players to do the same.
By Sebastian on Sep 8, 2008
My parrots enjoyed sunday because i had more time for them
I think that there where too heavy emotions out there in the forums. GOA screwed it up, yes. But i think emotions build up too much in the forums. I wrote my vent-blogentry and got back to making some music and to do some non-warhammer stuff.
By Zizlak on Sep 8, 2008
I’ve played many betas and know first hand how many things can, and usually do, go wrong. But there are a couple of factors which have brought about this response.
First, the beta is incredibly short. This means that people are very aware that in less than a week the headstart will be live. If live date was 2 months off, there’s less concern about whether the problems can be ironed out in time. We’re not dealing with a game bug here - capacity-planning is not something that can be learnt in a week. Remember, GOA knew how many EU OB keys were out there, but they DON’T know how many people will buy the game on launch day. If they can’t handle a one, they almost certainly can’t handle the other.
Secondly, they SOLD beta access. Whichever way you cut it, a lot of people bought the CE and special pre-order for the OB and headstart. I’m afraid the typical lines you hear about it being beta and things go wrong simply don’t work as well when people are paying about as much/more per day of play than they would with the live version. Looking at how things have gone, they’ve kind of taken the piss on this one…
By Jules Morgan on Sep 8, 2008
This is the first time I’ve realised that the EU version wasn’t being done be Mythic. Who are GOA? I cant seem to find anything relevant with a quick google search. Do they have a decent track record?
In relation to your post about anger particularly this point:
* Work to better understand and constructively resolve the issue
it sounds like no one actually had the information to help with this at all. So I would think that at the time that the best they could really do was harbour resentment.
By Skips on Sep 8, 2008
I love this post. One can only hope at least one person who flipped out yesterday will read it, realize they were in error, and chill out.
So, here’s hoping… <3
By thade on Sep 8, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ389ZehxKU
registration ist still not working!!
thank you GOA.
By Slovo on Sep 8, 2008
@ skips - GoA are the game division of French Telecom, deal with anything to with gaming online, it apparently doesn’t mean anything, although I’ve seen a lot of folks with the new sig - ‘Group of Amateurs’ today.
As to the wait, aye its annoying, but like others at Wha, and here, I am now more concerned that Headstart runs smooth.
By Hellebron on Sep 8, 2008
Its now almost 48 hours after they opened the open beta account page, i tried to register bout half an hour after they opened it and the image authentication wasn’t working… i though alright no worries there’s still a couple of hours before they start the servers so i went out bought some soda and some crisps
when i got home an hour later and the page still wouldn’t function properly kept trying for about 5 hours before i could actually get the image to load and i finalized the registration and then the next fuck up followed, the email that i had to get to authenticate the account took about 7 hours to get to me. around 19:00 10 hours after the beta center opened finally i thought clicked the link and the link lead to a 414 error <3
its now 02:00 and i still haven’t been able to get access but thats not whats pissing the community of, its the fact that the GOA CM was on forums saying how the account page was working just fine and everything would be alright. the community said that something would go wrong and leaving 4 hours of fixing if something went haywire was a mistake, a mistake that could easily be avoided if they launched it earlier.
anyhow GOA are back to their old daoc days, bet we’ll have to wait 3-5 months before patches get to EU and servers going offline for hours without any information from GOA
honestly how old were you when you figured out if you had 3 homework assignments duo the same day you had to work on some of em earlier than the day before deadline.
By AdmiralAwesome on Sep 8, 2008
/waves at Engrey
Yeah, moderating the results of GOA’s decisions is decidedly NOT FUN.
I’m not a Euro customer, so I won’t pass judgment on whether the rage against GOA is justified or not.
I do think that how anger is expressed on a VIDEO GAME forum is something the forum members need to think about. This article gets a ‘thumbs up’ from me.
By Roksana on Sep 9, 2008