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Update on the Warhammer Online transition for European players
If you've been enjoying Warhammer Online over in Europe, it's been impossible to miss all of the information about Mythic Entertainment taking over the game's operation. Much as it did with the Dark Age of Camelot transition earlier this year, Mythic is replacing GOA as the direct operator. The team behind the game has been trying to keep the process of transition as transparent as possible, and the result has been that it appears to be clear sailing for the switched operators, according to the most recent announcement. Although the original timeline called for the transition to run until July 7th, it appears that the change has been completed, with all existing accounts transferred over with the suffix "_EUR." (So "Facemasher" would be "Facemasher_EUR" to log in.) While the team doesn't anticipate any problems, it's continuing to improve French and German customer service bases. As such, the team is asking for players to submit English requests when possible during the transition period. Warhammer Online players should be pleased at the smoothness of the transition, but are still advised to keep their eyes open on the off chance something went strange.
Play.com having WAR pre-order problems
When we last reported on Warhammer Online's pre-order foibles, we knew that the confusion was far from over. There were too many variables going into the distribution of those promotional codes for everything to go strictly according to plan. Predictably, there's some confusion coming in the wake of WAR Europe's announcement that Play.com would soon be distributing the pre-order packs, which include the codes for the Open Beta, the head start, and the exclusive in-game items.The problem is, European customers who ordered through Play have evidently been hearing differently from customer service. Today some European staffers have finally gotten on top of the problem, explaining that their distribution partners (who act as intermediaries between EA Mythic and Play) were the ones who had informed them the pre-order goodness was going out soon. Apparently some wires were crossed, and people are hearing different information. They've promised to get the situation sorted out promptly.
WAR Europe's countdown not what we'd hoped
When an ominous countdown appeared on Warhammer Online's European site last Friday, speculation surged that the Mythic team might be on the verge a major announcement. Are we finally going to see a release date set in stone instead of mud? Are they going to announce the open beta that we've all been waiting for so long? Is the NDA finally going to be lifted? Left to their own devices, WAR fanatics are liable to start expecting all sorts of things.Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is far less exciting. No, as Mark Jacobs indicated in an overtly *hint hint* forum post, players should be able to read the writing on the wall and figure out what the countdown is for. To start, it's only on the European site, so it couldn't be something like a global release date or NDA lift. Second of all, photos of the European Collector's Edition were leaked last week. Third, developers have been talking rather openly about the content of the CE on fan forums. Without explicitly saying it, Jacobs indicated that the announcement would be the details of the Collector's Edition. Not as exciting as a release date, but what can you do?
WAR Europe's Orcaniser teaches players to talk the talk
One of the most difficult aspects of covering the media build-up to Warhammer Online's release is the need to rewrite any post involving Greenskins to include the infamous Orc-speak that fans of the fluff are so fond of. To the casual observer, it might appear like a simple matter of changing verb tense and throwing in a few zeds here and there. Not true! It's an extensive scholarly process that takes years to learn, and decades to master. To put it frankly, it's not as easy as it looks.Well imagine our delight then to find that WAR Europe guys have gone to the trouble of putting together the Orcaniser! It operates like an Orcy version of babelfish, giving fans the ability to translate normal human speech into authentic Orc dialect. And it works in five languages! Obviously, there's always a little bit lost in translation, and it doesn't automatically account for the Orcy need to talk about smashing heads once every couple sentences, but it's good as we're liable to do. See for yourself:To be or not to be, dat is da question;Whetha 'tis nobla in da mind to suffaDa slingz an' arrowz of outrageouz fortune,Or to take armz against a sea of troublez,An' by opposin', end dem.[Via WHA]
