If you're working in the industry, things get even more complicated. You see, not only did they ban certain countries from entering the game at launch, they've even managed to screw the ban itself up.
I work for Croatia's only licensed dealer and official distributor of EA titles. We work with plenty of videogame publishers and EA is one of our most trusted partners. Or was. When we got their official announcement that Croatia won't be getting the game on day one, we were prepared to go along with it.
We got a poorly worded e-mail saying that Croatia's been redzoned, we won't get the game, our journalists won't get keys or any kind of access to the game, they don't know when will the game be available in Croatia and so forth. Okay. It's their decision. It's company politics.
Only they messed it up. They can't really enforce it. The only thing this redzoning is doing really efficiently is screwing over the official distributors in the redzoned countries. We get our games through legal channels, through EA Greece, who in turn works for the EA UK. We have no other means of getting the game to our thirteen stores throughout Croatia. They pulled the plug on that. We try to play it by the numbers, and we don't get any kind of protection from our business partners.
But a number of smaller, under-the-radar Croatian stores jumped at the opportunity. Since they're not bound with any kind of EA contract, through god knows which channels they acquired the games, and they'll sell them on day one for a very steep price. We would sell the game for some 40€, they'll be selling it for at least 55-60€.
Bottom line is, the holy trinity of EA / Bioware / Lucas Arts stopped nothing. People will be playing the game even in the redzoned countries. But they were forced to pay more, get their games from stores that don't have customer support in the case something goes wrong, and the publishers antagonised the gaming community worldwide and their licensed partners in the process.
When you add it all up, the reduction of the strain on their servers will be negligible. If they wanted good PR and positive fan base attitude, they really could've done without this half-assed redzoning. And by doing it half-way, they pissed the players off without really doing what they set out to do.
There are still quite a few problems, such as will they ip ban the servers eventually? And that buying it is possible but really really difficult for some of us, I already had difficulty saving up money for the game itself, and I don't have friends that are able to help me. Also the beta had me downloading the game itself the whole period, I cannot get into the game itself. I know it's my fault and not theirs but a weekend is not really enough for the most of us. And the game itself seems interesting....*sigh*
Lolz just play rift , you can choose which side of the atlantic you wanna play on , there are no restrictions, a grown up comunity and the best netcode ever. I hate pressing an ability and waiting half a sec b4 it hapnz anywyz, and i did play the tor beta, was like epic lag. Play rift till orgin finally wakez up then but and play the game for the story. when youre done with that come and play rift for real pvp!
A few more thought on retailing in the EU. In theory, you could bring the issue ot the European Commission, either to the Consumer Protection DG or to the Competition one. If I remember correctly, Amazon had problems with its delivery policies, as for quite a long time it had limited certain types of goods to only a part of the EU, but the EC ultimately forced it to offer equal options to each EU state.
The thing is that I don't think many people will bother in this case, certainly not me. The main point is that the policy of regional restrictions in general is harming free markets, making them anything but free. The real goal, in my view, is that publishers can make more money through fixing prices for certain regions. For example, it has been an unspoken rule that for the purpose of pricing hi-tech products (including software), the exchange rate between the US dollar and the euro is always 1:1, and in recent years this has hurt European consumers, who always pay more (even if the US is supposed to have higher living standards than most EU countries).
However, it becomes extremely difficult to justify this with digital distribution, as you no longer have delivery costs, and it doesn't matter where you download the product from. Yet, instead of embracing the opportunity to have the entire planet as your customer base, you decide to keep on the centuries-old game of fixing prices and reaping the profits (which become even bigger). Anyways, a lot can be written whether it's fair or not, and I don't want to delve into that; I only would like to reiterate that in my view, what EA is currently doing is simply bad business.
To my fellow redzoners. I Bought my copy from Amazon and am playing the Early Access currently.
Well, what finally made me give up and give them the finger is that Amazon has region blocked delivery of the product to my country AS WELL. So honestly, short of flying to a country that sells them in stores, I am not going to be able to play the game.
As such, in the future, I will take serious consideration before purchasing any other EA/Lucasarts games. They obviously do not want my money, and I have no guarantees that a product I buy will be continued to be supported in the future by them.
never understood this regional restrictions, I think it hurts the community.
The best thing with MMOs is that you learn to know people from all over the world instead of just the people you would otherwise meet.
Sure, I might get worse ping on a US server (but I actually had a lot better in EQ2 for some reason) but that is my choice.
As for customer support, most people handle that by mail or in game, it does not matter where the player are for that. It is as easy to reach a neighbor as a guy working in the McMurdoch polar base in Antarctica.
SOE, ANET and many others let you choose this when you log on, others like Turbine at least allow you to download a different client if you want to.The net and our love for games should bring us closer together, not be separated.
Using WoW for example, Blizzard loves money. But they don't even run WoW in china. Another company does. Many of you forget that. Remember what happen to WoTlk being banned in china. That takes extra money for legal matters.
I'm quite used to the fact that I live in a non-country Iceland, still it pisses me off, I hope to move away from this festering shit hole one day.
Hey CityHam
I live in Australia one of the most gorgeous and liveable countries in the world, guess what, we are also in the red zone. We have no dodgy govt rerstrictions, or a people renowned for gold selling or internet scams. So dont be too harsh on your country, be harsh on EA. I dont believe for one second bioware had a hand in this.
EA in the recent past has had some serious issues with Server hosting in Australia. I know Ultima Online's one Australian Server was down for over a week due to lack of ability to get the server there supported. They might have made the call to lay off that region until they can be assured of a reliable host, and quite frankly I understand that. Sure you might be fine with the idea of 200+ms ping times, but the Brass at EA might find that unacceptable.
Other countries that have been brought up for being in the red-zone...
Germany: All the other MMO's I can think of and all of those listed by other people here do not have the "Romance" options that SWTOR does, not to mention the plans to allow homosexual romances in game between characters and their companions.
Iceland: Honestly I have no clue I don't know enough about that countries views and restrictions on Media to make a judgement.
China: You know it might not just be the concept of Gold Sellers, it might also be that China is a country known for a low respect for intellectual property rights. Look at the knock off goods market, all the phoney iPads, iPhones, and even business' like McDonalds getting "Cloned". For a title that has the hype that SW:TOR does laying off a while and letting the edge wear off makes some sense. After all they eventually let Warhammer Online go to China.
Meh, I would have bought two copies and played two accounts, but EA don't want my australian dollars and I'm not stupid enough to throw fists of dollars at a company that could not give a shit about me as a customer.
I'll just give some other company my money and enjoy their products instead, it's not my loss.
Good article, and some good comments. But I think no one touched one of the problems, the way they handled it.
FIrst, let me just say that I used to follow this game since 2008, always reading the news, forums and listening to several podcasts. So I'm not creating information from thin air.
Let's say they did everything with the right reason and that this is the right choice. Very well. Still I think they did a very poor job at marketing and communicating with their customers. You see, the main problem in my opinion is the way they handled it. Let me elaborate:
- They never announced that they would region lock this game.
- They always used say how they wanted to build a "global community".
- They inivted to the "Fan Summit" events, fansites that are now on the Red Zone.
So, one day, they announce the pre-orders. People like me, waiting the game for several years receive the e-mail with the big "Pre-Order Now" button, and only then, after clicking it excitedly, they are informed that their countries are region locked. No post on the forums, no warning e-mails, nothing. Only hours later they responded on the forums, with no information at all.
The Origin website in many "Red Zone" countries, had the huge pre-order announcement. False advertising the product, since only after clicking it, they informed you it was a lie.
After all the initial ruckus, I think about a month later. They issue another e-mail, also to Red Zone users, saying to "Pre-Order Now!". And then, they even send an e-mail announcing something like "The Old Republic Global Launch!", that was in reality launching on the chosen EU countries 2 days earlier, on the same date as the US release. And you could only know that after clicking happilly on the "Global Launch" announcement and only then reading on the small letters bellow the announcement on the site that "by Global we mean the initial announced release countries"
So, you see, for so much "quality of service" they brag about, I can't see how so many follies can be called "quality of service". They should have communicated with the player base. Hell, they should at the minimum have the answers at hand when all this happened. And not make the already startled fans waiting for answers, some which never were given until now! I can't believe they never had knowledge that there would be a region lock. And if they didn't know, what can i expect from them? It's not good either way.
So, my question to you guys is, putting all the merits of "region locking" aside, do you really think this was well handled? I see many people talking about how the region lock can make sense, and creating several theories of why they did it, and why it can be good (even not knowing either, as the article says at the beginning, they never explained what "quality of service" means! Not even why it makes region locking the only choice). But its very rare to see anyone touch the "how it was handled" topic.
In my opinion, much if not all of the problems and hurt feelings caused could be avoided if they handled it properly. Like, announcing earlier that the game would not launch on all countries. Most of all, they should not lie about this release being Global, it is a lie. Even so they still use "Global" and "Worldwide" release, which just offends people in the Red Zone. It's like saying they are not part of the world, don't you agree? I will not even touch the problem of Stephen Reid saying multiple times that there would be a grace period, then going back on their word and saying that there wasn't going to be a grace period. And only after thousands of players feeling wronged, they now go back to having a meekly 2 days grace period. Another folly!
Get my meaning? I'm not totally against region blocking, maybe they even have a good reason, ok... I'm in the Red Zone, but frankly, I lost interest in the game by watching folly upon folly. That's what really bothers me! For all their talk of "High Quality of Service", all these things do not bold well... =/
Don't you agree? What do you think?
Well, I really hope those who can play it can have fun. I will not buy this game on principle though, it goes against my "honor" some might say. ;P
I am an american in china... I pre-ordered.. was invited to the pre launch... tried to download.. NOTHING... USED A VPN... NOTHING....
so I sit here waiting patiently. IF the game launches... and I cant get on... I will NOT buy the game ever. I will be too pissed off. And like SOE, I will refuse to play any game made by EA. I will start supporting small time companies who will actually enjoy a customers money.
- They never announced that they would region lock this game.
<...>
In my opinion, much if not all of the problems and hurt feelings caused could be avoided if they handled it properly. Like, announcing earlier that the game would not launch on all countries. Most of all, they should not lie about this release being Global, it is a lie.
Exactly my point. Hiding this fact, about limited country launch, from community was a big mistake.
They wanted look glorious anouncing about launching "worldwide". And that turned out to be most pathetic.
So sad to see smart people do stupid things.
And even now i can't find any ETA or firm anouncements about unblocking the game.
Comments
If you're working in the industry, things get even more complicated. You see, not only did they ban certain countries from entering the game at launch, they've even managed to screw the ban itself up.
I work for Croatia's only licensed dealer and official distributor of EA titles. We work with plenty of videogame publishers and EA is one of our most trusted partners. Or was. When we got their official announcement that Croatia won't be getting the game on day one, we were prepared to go along with it.
We got a poorly worded e-mail saying that Croatia's been redzoned, we won't get the game, our journalists won't get keys or any kind of access to the game, they don't know when will the game be available in Croatia and so forth. Okay. It's their decision. It's company politics.
Only they messed it up. They can't really enforce it. The only thing this redzoning is doing really efficiently is screwing over the official distributors in the redzoned countries. We get our games through legal channels, through EA Greece, who in turn works for the EA UK. We have no other means of getting the game to our thirteen stores throughout Croatia. They pulled the plug on that. We try to play it by the numbers, and we don't get any kind of protection from our business partners.
But a number of smaller, under-the-radar Croatian stores jumped at the opportunity. Since they're not bound with any kind of EA contract, through god knows which channels they acquired the games, and they'll sell them on day one for a very steep price. We would sell the game for some 40€, they'll be selling it for at least 55-60€.
Bottom line is, the holy trinity of EA / Bioware / Lucas Arts stopped nothing. People will be playing the game even in the redzoned countries. But they were forced to pay more, get their games from stores that don't have customer support in the case something goes wrong, and the publishers antagonised the gaming community worldwide and their licensed partners in the process.
When you add it all up, the reduction of the strain on their servers will be negligible. If they wanted good PR and positive fan base attitude, they really could've done without this half-assed redzoning. And by doing it half-way, they pissed the players off without really doing what they set out to do.
There are still quite a few problems, such as will they ip ban the servers eventually? And that buying it is possible but really really difficult for some of us, I already had difficulty saving up money for the game itself, and I don't have friends that are able to help me. Also the beta had me downloading the game itself the whole period, I cannot get into the game itself. I know it's my fault and not theirs but a weekend is not really enough for the most of us. And the game itself seems interesting....*sigh*
Lolz just play rift , you can choose which side of the atlantic you wanna play on , there are no restrictions, a grown up comunity and the best netcode ever. I hate pressing an ability and waiting half a sec b4 it hapnz anywyz, and i did play the tor beta, was like epic lag. Play rift till orgin finally wakez up then but and play the game for the story. when youre done with that come and play rift for real pvp!
It's been an interesting experience. As in 'we live in interesting times.'
A few more thought on retailing in the EU. In theory, you could bring the issue ot the European Commission, either to the Consumer Protection DG or to the Competition one. If I remember correctly, Amazon had problems with its delivery policies, as for quite a long time it had limited certain types of goods to only a part of the EU, but the EC ultimately forced it to offer equal options to each EU state.
The thing is that I don't think many people will bother in this case, certainly not me. The main point is that the policy of regional restrictions in general is harming free markets, making them anything but free. The real goal, in my view, is that publishers can make more money through fixing prices for certain regions. For example, it has been an unspoken rule that for the purpose of pricing hi-tech products (including software), the exchange rate between the US dollar and the euro is always 1:1, and in recent years this has hurt European consumers, who always pay more (even if the US is supposed to have higher living standards than most EU countries).
However, it becomes extremely difficult to justify this with digital distribution, as you no longer have delivery costs, and it doesn't matter where you download the product from. Yet, instead of embracing the opportunity to have the entire planet as your customer base, you decide to keep on the centuries-old game of fixing prices and reaping the profits (which become even bigger). Anyways, a lot can be written whether it's fair or not, and I don't want to delve into that; I only would like to reiterate that in my view, what EA is currently doing is simply bad business.
Well, what finally made me give up and give them the finger is that Amazon has region blocked delivery of the product to my country AS WELL. So honestly, short of flying to a country that sells them in stores, I am not going to be able to play the game.
As such, in the future, I will take serious consideration before purchasing any other EA/Lucasarts games. They obviously do not want my money, and I have no guarantees that a product I buy will be continued to be supported in the future by them.
never understood this regional restrictions, I think it hurts the community.
The best thing with MMOs is that you learn to know people from all over the world instead of just the people you would otherwise meet.
Sure, I might get worse ping on a US server (but I actually had a lot better in EQ2 for some reason) but that is my choice.
As for customer support, most people handle that by mail or in game, it does not matter where the player are for that. It is as easy to reach a neighbor as a guy working in the McMurdoch polar base in Antarctica.
SOE, ANET and many others let you choose this when you log on, others like Turbine at least allow you to download a different client if you want to.The net and our love for games should bring us closer together, not be separated.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
EA in the recent past has had some serious issues with Server hosting in Australia. I know Ultima Online's one Australian Server was down for over a week due to lack of ability to get the server there supported. They might have made the call to lay off that region until they can be assured of a reliable host, and quite frankly I understand that. Sure you might be fine with the idea of 200+ms ping times, but the Brass at EA might find that unacceptable.
Other countries that have been brought up for being in the red-zone...
Germany: All the other MMO's I can think of and all of those listed by other people here do not have the "Romance" options that SWTOR does, not to mention the plans to allow homosexual romances in game between characters and their companions.
Iceland: Honestly I have no clue I don't know enough about that countries views and restrictions on Media to make a judgement.
China: You know it might not just be the concept of Gold Sellers, it might also be that China is a country known for a low respect for intellectual property rights. Look at the knock off goods market, all the phoney iPads, iPhones, and even business' like McDonalds getting "Cloned". For a title that has the hype that SW:TOR does laying off a while and letting the edge wear off makes some sense. After all they eventually let Warhammer Online go to China.
Meh, I would have bought two copies and played two accounts, but EA don't want my australian dollars and I'm not stupid enough to throw fists of dollars at a company that could not give a shit about me as a customer.
I'll just give some other company my money and enjoy their products instead, it's not my loss.
Good article, and some good comments. But I think no one touched one of the problems, the way they handled it.
FIrst, let me just say that I used to follow this game since 2008, always reading the news, forums and listening to several podcasts. So I'm not creating information from thin air.
Let's say they did everything with the right reason and that this is the right choice. Very well. Still I think they did a very poor job at marketing and communicating with their customers. You see, the main problem in my opinion is the way they handled it. Let me elaborate:
- They never announced that they would region lock this game.
- They always used say how they wanted to build a "global community".
- They inivted to the "Fan Summit" events, fansites that are now on the Red Zone.
So, one day, they announce the pre-orders. People like me, waiting the game for several years receive the e-mail with the big "Pre-Order Now" button, and only then, after clicking it excitedly, they are informed that their countries are region locked. No post on the forums, no warning e-mails, nothing. Only hours later they responded on the forums, with no information at all.
The Origin website in many "Red Zone" countries, had the huge pre-order announcement. False advertising the product, since only after clicking it, they informed you it was a lie.
After all the initial ruckus, I think about a month later. They issue another e-mail, also to Red Zone users, saying to "Pre-Order Now!". And then, they even send an e-mail announcing something like "The Old Republic Global Launch!", that was in reality launching on the chosen EU countries 2 days earlier, on the same date as the US release. And you could only know that after clicking happilly on the "Global Launch" announcement and only then reading on the small letters bellow the announcement on the site that "by Global we mean the initial announced release countries"
So, you see, for so much "quality of service" they brag about, I can't see how so many follies can be called "quality of service". They should have communicated with the player base. Hell, they should at the minimum have the answers at hand when all this happened. And not make the already startled fans waiting for answers, some which never were given until now! I can't believe they never had knowledge that there would be a region lock. And if they didn't know, what can i expect from them? It's not good either way.
So, my question to you guys is, putting all the merits of "region locking" aside, do you really think this was well handled? I see many people talking about how the region lock can make sense, and creating several theories of why they did it, and why it can be good (even not knowing either, as the article says at the beginning, they never explained what "quality of service" means! Not even why it makes region locking the only choice). But its very rare to see anyone touch the "how it was handled" topic.
In my opinion, much if not all of the problems and hurt feelings caused could be avoided if they handled it properly. Like, announcing earlier that the game would not launch on all countries. Most of all, they should not lie about this release being Global, it is a lie. Even so they still use "Global" and "Worldwide" release, which just offends people in the Red Zone. It's like saying they are not part of the world, don't you agree? I will not even touch the problem of Stephen Reid saying multiple times that there would be a grace period, then going back on their word and saying that there wasn't going to be a grace period. And only after thousands of players feeling wronged, they now go back to having a meekly 2 days grace period. Another folly!
Get my meaning? I'm not totally against region blocking, maybe they even have a good reason, ok... I'm in the Red Zone, but frankly, I lost interest in the game by watching folly upon folly. That's what really bothers me! For all their talk of "High Quality of Service", all these things do not bold well... =/
Don't you agree? What do you think?
Well, I really hope those who can play it can have fun. I will not buy this game on principle though, it goes against my "honor" some might say. ;P
Anyway, safe travels to you all.
I am an american in china... I pre-ordered.. was invited to the pre launch... tried to download.. NOTHING... USED A VPN... NOTHING....
so I sit here waiting patiently. IF the game launches... and I cant get on... I will NOT buy the game ever. I will be too pissed off. And like SOE, I will refuse to play any game made by EA. I will start supporting small time companies who will actually enjoy a customers money.
Exactly my point. Hiding this fact, about limited country launch, from community was a big mistake.
They wanted look glorious anouncing about launching "worldwide". And that turned out to be most pathetic.
So sad to see smart people do stupid things.
And even now i can't find any ETA or firm anouncements about unblocking the game.