Warhammer went live on September 18th, and for GoA subscribers one problem has occurred after another, and it seems things aren’t improving. For many years, DAoC subscribers complained to GoA that the Flash Website used for account management was unusable in many browsers and that navigation on the flash site was poor. GoA for reasons best known to them took the decision to launch WAR, using a similar site and similar accounts system. On Many forums, older subscribers have questioned this decision, but have yet to receive an answer as to why this has happened.
Another issue was that people who ordered the Collectors Edition of Warhammer, where promised access to the open beta before launch, due to miscommunication, this didn’t take place. It seems that communication between GoA and its retailers was a problem too. Some people didn’t get their Collectors Editions until well after launch. Yet another unfortunate incident occurred during this period, when discussions on forums got quite heated, and a Senior Customer Service Rep from GoA, lost his temper and referred to subscribers as having “Something Wrong with them”, and as having “Psychotic Tendencies”.
GoA have also chosen to use the notoriously laggy and unreliable “OpenTransit” network to handle server traffic, which seems somewhat odd as they have spent years blaming OpenTransit for lag problems on DAoC.
Possibly the most worrying mistake so far, occurred recently when many accounts where changed, apparently by mistake, to have their subscriptions automatically renewed, raising the possibility that people who have cancelled their accounts, may still be charged. This problem has been ongoing for three days and GoA has yet to send an email out to warn their subscribers. Strangely, exactly the same mistake was made by GoA three years ago, with DAoC subscribers, leading to many people being charged erroneously.
As long as Warhammer in Europe remains in GoA’s hands, it is difficult to see how it can possibly become the success it should be. It is a truly outstanding game, but is let down by GoA treating their subscribers as a second class, in a system where US subscribers are obviously more important. Sad really.
Related sites:
http://www.warhammeralliance.com