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SWTOR launches in the Asia Pacific region
Jury-rigged methods to create an Oceanic server are needed no longer: Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially launched -- a day early! -- in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. BioWare is offering both the standard and digital deluxe version (the latter through Origin) for sale to interested space jockeys. The prices for both the client and subscriptions are in step with what we've seen from the North American and European product. Asia Pacific players who not only jump on board but either subscribe or use a 60-day game card by the end of April will also receive a Founder's Medal, which grants an in-game title. BioWare is aware that many players in these countries have already begun to play on NA servers, and as such the studio is offering a "limited-time opportunity" to transfer for free to a local server in late April. Entire guild transfers, however, will not be possible. The SWTOR FAQ page has more information about the transfer process and payment methods available.
Players manipulate SWTOR's guild system to create a premature Oceanic server
We find that player ingenuity is always quick to take up the slack left by MMO studios. In the case of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the initial lack of Oceanic and Asian servers prompted players in those regions to come up with a unique solution: to create a server of their own, using BioWare's own system to their advantage. Many MMOs have unofficial servers for regions and rulesets, but pulling them together can take an incredible amount of work and still end up halfway done. However, Oceanic and Asian players wanted to make sure that they all rolled on the same server right on launch day, so guilds began to get in contact with each other and use BioWare's own guild registration system to link Republic and Empire groups together in an Oceanic "daisy chain." Because the system was designed to put as many allied and adversary guilds together on a server, the entire daisy chain was planted on a NA west coast server, Swiftsure. In one smart move, the Oceanic and Asian population had their own place to call home. The story of Swiftsure as a temporary refugee camp for these players is coming to a close, as SWTOR is officially launching overseas on March 1st -- and the population will be offered a free transfer to the new servers. Still, it goes to show you just how inventive players can get.
Aion server update: Nezekan named official Oceanic server
They begged. They pleaded. They sacrificed loads of marsupials all in the name of Aion. And NCsoft listened. Aion will officially launch with an Oceanic server set to GMT+10 and it will be called Nezekan. Neze-can-you-dig-it? Okay, maybe not. This announcement comes after months of beta testing results and community feedback. You won't see the server labeled as 'Oceanic' until a week or two after launch (coming in a patch), so we wanted to make sure you all knew about this before preselect and launch.We also have a status update regarding the official Aion server poll we mentioned yesterday. It appears that NCsoft was experiencing some technical difficulties (e.g., missing languages) and sort of stepped on some unofficial community organizational efforts by releasing this poll altogether. Many Aion roleplay communities had already spent days, weeks, and months designating unofficial role-playing servers, so NCsoft decided to take down their survey to honour all that hard work. Expect to see these community results officially promoted by NCsoft soon.
Breaking: North American Aion servers to be located on east coast
One of our keen-eyed readers tipped us off as to a forum post by Ayase, aka Sebastian Streiffert, Aion's community manager, which confirmed an original email stating that North American servers will be located on the east coast. Forum-goers whipped themselves up into a frenzy quite quickly over this news, especially those residing in the Oceanic region.Gamers from Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore are often faced with crippling latency issues when playing on servers located stateside. This is usually mitigated by having some west coast servers or actual dedicated Oceanic servers. Since Aion has such a focus on PvP(vE) where lightning fast reflexes and speedy server responsiveness matter especially, you can kind of understand their concerns. Ayase's response after the cut confirms this news and tries to assuage their fears.
Oceanic Time Warner Cable adds 4 HD channels in Oahu and Kauai
We can say with a straight face that there's hardly a time in Hawaii where watching HDTV trumps being out and about amidst paradise, but even those who can't spend enough time on pristine beaches need to kick back and catch some high-def entertainment every now and then. Oceanic Time Warner Cable has just announced that customers on the islands of Oahu (pictured) and Kauai will soon (read: this week) be treated to four new HD stations: Hallmark Movie Channel HD (1453), FOX Business HD (1108), Big Ten Network HD (1248) and Travel Channel HD (1325). When the additions are made, Oceanic TWC will offer a full 42 stations in Hawaii, giving you one less reason to resist the urge of buying that one-way ticket to OGG / HNL / KOA / etc.
WAR beta reaches down under
It seems that oftentimes Australia and the Oceanic region gets the shaft when it comes to MMO server allocation. Most of the time, Aussies find themselves choosing between an American or European server, with incompatible peak playing times.Today, Warhammer Online fans in the Oceanic region will be pleased to hear that their own server has not gone ignored, as the WAR Oceanic Beta has officially begun. Players in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore should check their inboxes for a beta invite which will pave the way for the simultaneous launch of Warhammer Online across North America, Europe and the Oceanic region on September 18th. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Oceanic players get their own forum
Bornakk announced yesterday that Blizzard has launched a new forum specifically for players on Oceanic realms. It is intended to be a "friendly and focused environment" for Oceanic players to discuss WoW. Of course, the Oceanic realms still have their individual forums and this has caused some confusion among the forum posters regarding why the forums were established. And it wouldn't be forums without trolls.I, for one, see the value of a forum for Oceanic players to discuss their specific issues and to be able to find players in similar situations without searching the U.S. forums and without being limited to specific servers. If you are an Oceanic player, please take our poll:%Poll-16596%
Oceanic Alliance characters to get free PvE to PvP transfers
If you're a regular reader of our Guildwatch feature, you may remember hearing about the woes of the Oceanic PvP realm Thaurissan on the last Guildwatch. The server is incredibly Horde heavy, with an estimated 14 to 1 imbalance, and the server denizens say it is genuinely near impossible to get 25 people together to do raid content on the Alliance side. Unfortunately , we also know that Blizzard is still firmly against PvE to PvP realm transfers, which may be preventing Thaurissan from getting the influx of new blood they need. However, for the sake of Thaurissan's Alliance, they have suspended this restriction. Starting today, June 12th, and ending no later than June 19th, Alliance characters (and only Alliance characters) from the Oceanic PvE realms Nagrand, Aman'thul, and Khaz'goroth will be eligible for free transfers to the Thaurissan realm. Blizzard reserves the right to close transfers early if they meet their goals, so if you're eligible and you want to go, you'd better get that request in now. This is not the first time they've done this type of thing. Over two years ago, a large cluster of PvE realms were given the opportunity to transfer to the Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr PvP servers. Thus, it seems that they can be convinced to waive their restrictions on transfers, but that a chance to do so may only come up once every 2 years. Good luck to everyone transferring to Thaurissan, and hopefully this gives the Thaurissan Alliance the shot in the arm they need to get their end game going.
Oceanic maintenance moved away from prime time
We've posted about this issue quite a few times, and strangely enough, though Tseric told us way back that things would never change, it just might be fixed. Oceanic players, including Chri who kindly tipped us about this, are reporting that their maintenance has been moved from the usual Tuesday evening prime time (which is early Tuesday morning for us in the US) to early Wednesday morning their time. In other words, they didn't have to suffer their servers going down during playtime this week.Unfortunately, there's no official word on this yet, so we're not sure if it's just this week, or if Blizzard just didn't have to restart this servers this time around, or what it was. But we do know that Oceanic players are cheering loudly that they didn't have to suffer mistimed maintenance this week, so hopefully Blizzard is taking action as promised on this one.So very good news for Oceanic players, especially since the lag and shutdowns have been a huge problem for them in the past. If this really is a official change, hopefully we'll see Blizzard confirm that they've finally responded to all the player problems down there.
New Oceanic PvP realm for transfer
Well, now it seems that you can't say Blizzard's ignoring the Oceanic community any more. Starting next Monday, April 21, at 12 PM PST, free character transfers will be made available from the following Oceanic PvP realms: Barthilas Frostmourne Jubei'Thos Thaurissan The destination will be a brand-new Oceanic PvP realm called Dreadmaul. It will be in the Bloodlust battlegroup. New character creation on Dreadmaul will be disabled until transfers are over, and the realm will have its Ahn'Qiraj gates open automatically. As always, transfer early if you want to, because Blizzard may close the transfers before the deadline if there's a mad rush on them. The transfers are scheduled to run for a week, until April 28, 12 PM PST.
Blizzard tells Oceanic realms they're fixing it
Here's the situation: Many people are experiencing problems with Oceanic realms being offline, having heavy lag, or just general stability issues. These issues have principally appeared after patch 2.4 hit, and are a major pain for those playing over there. Players cannot loot items in a timely manner, they lag out during raids, and playing the new content (or any instance) is sometimes impossible.Players have, for the most part, provided excellent documentation to Blizzard concerning the stability. They have done so in a massive thread over on the Customer Service Forums, and it is actively being monitored and commented on by Syndri, a Blizzard representative. The thread was started on March 31st, with the issues appearing a couple weeks before that, and is still active today. The analysis: There is a lot of Blizzard hate going around about this issue. We've received numerous emails on the subject, and taking a look around the internet and the official forums show the same feelings. This is, in my opinion, unfounded.Blizzard has came out and said that they know the issue is happening, that they're looking into it, isolating it, and attempting to fix it. They're well aware that people are having issues playing the game – and they want to fix that. It's in their best interest as a business, and as good people (the folks working there are good people, remember). However the acknowledgement by Blizzard doesn't seem to stop a horde of people from saying they're being ignored: they're not. Syndri even makes an appeal to the masses: "By all means, vent your concerns and experiences herein; that's what this thread is here for. But don't-and I do ask this sincerely-ignore the attention that this matter has truly received."
PotBS officially launches in Australia and New Zealand -- free cockatoo!
Although it's been possible to purchase Pirates of the Burning Sea online since its release, the official launch for Australia and New Zealand means that the dedicated Oceanic server is up, and Bigpond's free game offer is in effect. There is also still time to apply for an Ambassador position to help new player's on the Oceanic server, and score a year's free playtime in return.But there is one other very important thing to note about this launch -- any character made on the Australia/NZ server within its first month of opening will get a cockatoo to show off on their shoulder. This is certainly pretty neat, but don't expect to be the coolest cat in the Caribbean, because everyone on the server will have one of these squawkers.
Oceanic TWC finally gets CBS affiliate in HD
Now that thousands more Hawaiians are rocking HD DVRs from Oceanic Time Warner Cable (partly owned by Time Warner, parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget), we'd surmise that the cries for more HD offerings is getting nothing but louder. Thankfully, Oceanic TWC and KGMB-9 just finalized an agreement that brought the last local channel to its lineup in HD, just in time for all the NFL playoff action. Furthermore, Oceanic president Nate Smith implied that "as many as 20" more high-definition options could be available to islanders before 2009 dawns.
Oceanic TWC orders up 6000 HD DVRs for Hawaii vs. Georgia bowl game
Sure, the University of Hawaii has a legitimate gripe for not being in the BCS Championship game -- you know, considering its undefeated record and all -- but islanders are apparently just as stoked to have their Warriors in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Oceanic Time Warner Cable (partly owned by Time Warner, parent company of AOL, which owns Engadget) announced that it ordered up (and received) some 6,000 HD DVRs in anticipation of a spike in demand stemming from the upcoming bowl game. Reportedly, over 3,000 subscribers have been on a waiting list since December 1st to get their box in time for the New Year's day matchup, and Oceanic also noted that it would be extending business hours for O'ahu residents to get their hands around a box in time for the tilt. Of course, users not on said waiting list will be helped on a "first come, first served" basis, so we'd get a move on if you're scouting one.
Free character moves for Oceanic realms
In what must be extremely welcome news to players down under, Blizzard is offering free character transfers from overpopulated Oceanic realms starting today, Thursday, December 20th until December 27th or until transfer goals are met.Because they will close the transfers early if necessary, Drysc highly recommends that if you are planning to move your characters that you do so as soon as possible. If you wish to take advantage of the free move, go to this link, where it will ask you for your account info before proceeding.Blizzard has also opened a new PvE realm, specifically for this transfer. New character creation on Caelestrasz will be turned off until the transfers have been completed.The eligible Oceanic realms are listed after the jump.
Should Oceanic realms get their own progression?
MMO Champion's got the tip on the Oceanic first kill of Illidan by a guild called Not Steamboat on Aman'thul. I'd actually call Archimonde the last boss in the game right now, although for the current Burning Crusade storyline, Bou is right-- Illidan is it, at least until the Sunwell.But the kill brings up another interesting point with regards to Oceanic players. While they're often grouped with the US servers (unlike the EU or Asian servers, Oceanic and US servers are in the same place and subject to the same maintenance), are Oceanic servers that different that we should acknowledge a kill like this? This isn't like in China, where Burning Crusade just released. These Oceanic players have had access to Illidan just as long as an EU guild like Nihilum has. Why should we care if they kill Illidan? Sure, it's an accomplishment (just like every boss kill is, no matter how small or big), but is there even such a thing as "Oceanic first"?Sanctus emailed Boubouille to argue just that and say that Oceanic servers should be considered separate, in terms of progression, from US and EU servers. He says that Oceanic players have to deal with the aforementioned maintenance schedule problems, as well as huge lag. So what do you think? If this issue of Oceanic progression as compared to the rest of the world hadn't come up, I wouldn't have mentioned this Illidan kill at all-- in my opinion, there is no such thing as "Oceanic first," because Oceanic players play on, more or less, the same realms that US players do. So should Oceanic realms be considered separately when comparing guild progression? Or should they be held to the same schedule and timeline for "first kills" as the rest of us?
Three month cooldown on US and EU character transfers (and free transfers in EU)
Thundgot, one of the EU CMs, has confirmed that the character transfer cooldown has been reduced for the EU realms (and raised for the US Realms, as here it was previously one month, and three months, and six months before that). Currently, the cooldown for both EU and US transfers is three months. That means that any character you transfer has to stay put for at least three months before it can be moved again, which most players (and Blizzard, obviously) seem to agree is a good period of time.And on the heels of that news, Thundgot has also posted that free character transfers are available on select EU realms, as listed below:From: Frostmane, Grim Batol, Kazzak, OutlandTo: Boulderfist, Burning Blade, DaggerspineFrom: Stonemaul, WarsongTo: Shadowmoon First free character transfers in a while (the last I can find were these Oceanic transfers). Since BC was released, it seems like Blizzard has a pretty good hold on population control (or maybe it's just that the populations aren't changing that much anymore). I remember when free transfers used to come almost every week on US servers, but nowadays they are few and far between.[ via MMO Champion ]
Free character transfers for Oceanic realms
It's been a little while since we had some free character transfers, probably because of the realm population cap increase that came with the BC infrastructure upgrade. Starting tomorrow, residents of two Oceanic realms will be eligible to transfer to some less populated ones: We will be offering free character transfers from the following Oceanic realms to other, lower populated realms to assist in alleviating population growth. These transfers will become available on Thursday, June 21 at 12:01 PM PDT, and run until Thursday, June 28 at 12:01 PM PDT. In the event that a realm meets our transfer goals before the scheduled end date, the transfers to that realm will be disabled. We highly recommend that if you are planning to transfer that you do so at your earliest convenience.Once the transfers open you can begin your transfer by visiting the Character Move page located here: https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/character-move.htmlSource DestinationAman'Thul -> NagrandJubei'thos -> ThaurissanAre you on any of the involved realms? Will you be transferring, and if you're on Nagrand or Thaurissan, would you in fact advise others to transfer to your realms?
Pelagic recalls dive watches due to decompression hazard
Pelagic Pressure Systems is recalling some 2,800 of its Oceanic and AERIS digital dive computer watches, citing a possible decompression hazard for divers relying on them (the exact models affected are listed on the CPSC page linked below). The problem occurs when switching from one gas to another during a dive, which apparently has the dangerous side effect of locking up the watch's display, leaving the diver uncertain of his or her dive time. That could either cause them to enter decompression unknowingly or ascend prematurely, resulting in the serious problem of decompression sickness. While there's been two reports of defective watches, they apparently haven't resulted in any injuries. Those with the watches won't have to do without them for long, however, with a trip to an authorized Oceanic or AERIES dealer for a software upgrade the only fix needed.
New Oceanic realm opening this Thursday
A few weeks ago we wrote about the difficulties encountered by Oceanic players -- maintenance and lag during their prime time hours as well as severe overcrowding on Oceanic flagged servers. Well, this Thursday, Oceanic players can look forward to the opening of a new Oceanic flagged realm (Dath'Remar, PvE), as well as free character transfers from all existing Oceanic realms (Aman'thul, Barthilas, Frostmourne, Jubei'thos, and Khaz'goroth). Will a single additional realm alleviate the issues occurring regularly on the other five realms? Come Thursday, we'll find out.
