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[eaze]

All European countries will be able to play at launch.

The eventual choice of which server you play on will be down to changing your payment method – not importing a box from another country. Essentially I got the impression it would mean somehow switching payment method to Euros / dollars depending what server you wish to switch to.

The release date for the US is not confirmed, however the Producer mentioned the Euro launch would be out likely before Christmas, and that the US release would be a couple of months before that…

A little bit of info was missed, I assume Georg read the forums instead of the actual article. From what is said, Euros can play by pre-ordering the US version (the box will actually be the same, except for language versions).

You can also play cross server, Blizzard has confirmed that this will either be by billing adress or by currency paid. Now, paying with a creditcard only needs number and expiration date. Not even the Cardholder name has to be real, so putting in a fake billing adress is not much of a problem.

Anyway, just wanted to shed my 2 cents. Same server playing will not be a problem, if you want to, that's kinda the essence :)

[ramp]

I doubt that ball is going to roll :)

I've noticed numerous times when I didn't fill in my proper adress the transaction got denied. If they want to lock the euros out this way providing a fake american adress with your european credit card sadly isn't going to work. heh, If it would its kinda a sad you have to fraud to be able to give a company money.

All European countries will be able to play at launch.

At the european launch that is , which is 3 months after the USA/Asia one sadly. (the article contradicts itself on a few occasions..) The locking system which prevents people from crossing realms would be "disabled" at some point after the EURO release ;/

So far the only Blizzard reply has been this:

I’ve been bringing your concerns to the staff, and I do have a clarification regarding one the concerns brought up. Players located in North America will be able to choose between the USWest and USEast servers, though we’ll recommend you choose the location closest to you.

Also, I just want to make sure it’s clear that while we believe European players will have a significantly better experience playing on local European servers, we understand that some European players will still want to play on US servers. For these individuals, we will provide a specific solution following the European release.

I know that there are still some open questions from this thread, but I’m afraid that that’s all the information I have at this time. However, I will continue to pursue this subject internally and will let you know as soon as I have more information. Thanks in advance for your patience while I look into this further.

----
- Caydiem -
Assistant Community Manager, WoW

Either way, it's going to be quite a hassle, what we could use now is more info from Blizzard to clarify the situation.

Alot of people already have wow preordered from american shops (imports) hoping they can play at the USA release. If they have to provide an american cc/adress it's sadly going to cause alot of problems.

A definate guildbreaker, which , true, with alot of effort can be fixed somewhat, however you might want to wonder if it's worth it and choose for a mmorpg which doesn't apply these restrictions instead. Sad to say it but Eq2 comes to mind here.

[Icewolf]

from what i've read about eq2 it really sounds nice - except the missing PvP... And i really like PvP in MMORPG, even if i am not a hardcore PvP Gamer - but if Legion picks EQ2, i will follow :)

cu starside
Ice

[razor]

Mmm - first looking forward to the beta b4 worrying about going live. If its true that i cant play when i import a version out of the US like i did with SWG, it really sux and they could get a lot of hate mail from ppl who bought an imported US version and have to wait till after Euro release.

On a sidenote, wot is Eq2 ? (n00bie look on face)

[ramp]

Originally posted by Icewolf
from what i've read about eq2 it really sounds nice - except the missing PvP... And i really like PvP in MMORPG, even if i am not a hardcore PvP Gamer - but if Legion picks EQ2, i will follow :)

cu starside
Ice

I hardly know anything about eq2 heh, still under NDA as well.

Pvp is a thing I would -really- miss as well ;/

[eaze]

I'm in the EQ2 beta, and I find it hard to believe that would be a game suited for the people I know in AO legion at least. I don't find it interessting at all.

Ramp, you're probably right about the stuff you're saying, but at the same time, there has to be limits to how much effort they will put into this, and I firmly believe this is more a matter of policy/formality than the fact that they're actually going to put work into segregating the markets.

If you import the US version, pay with a Game Card and use a fake adress, I can't really see what they can do about it. They expect ~1million customers at launch, so there's pretty obvious limits to what they can do. They could ofcourse use an IP checker on the login, but considering the amount of accounts they will have, that seems like a horrible waste of resources.

[Icewolf]

[i]They could ofcourse use an IP checker on the login, but considering the amount of accounts they will have, that seems like a horrible waste of resources. [/B]

waste of ressources for a few lines of script? checking IP is easy, and tbh i don't want all the hassle with proxy, fake adress, import etc. - i rather wait for the EU version...

A friend of mine is playing the EQ2 beta and it sounds quite good, except the missing PvP, but i must admit i haven't read much about it yet, because i focus(ed) on wow :)

cu starside
Ice

[Zak]

Originally posted by eaze
If you import the US version, pay with a Game Card and use a fake adress,

aren't game cards usually available a few months after release?

At least thats how it worked with Lineage 2

[eaze]

Well, GameStop has dated them at approx the same as the game, but considering Blizzard hasn't commented on any dates yet, I guess its too early to say. 1 month included with the game anyway tho

[Leviathan]

The whole "Play on your own areas servers" thing is fucking gay - living in australia seems to get me screwed outta so much in online games.... ;(

[steam]

Originally posted by Leviathan
The whole "Play on your own areas servers" thing is fucking gay - living in australia seems to get me screwed outta so much in online games.... ;(

I dont really understand why we have to be divided either .

It works like a charm for alot of games already, i cannot imagine why it should not work for wow aswell.

[eaze]

Just take notice that alot of the Customer Relations people at Blizzard are driving pretty hard campaigns to get these limitations removed. Be positive!;)

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by steam
I dont really understand why we have to be divided either .

It works like a charm for alot of games already, i cannot imagine why it should not work for wow aswell.

same question realy, anyone got any idea why these restrictions has been put into the game in the first place ?

[eaze]

I know what -they- say.

Latency, GM/Staff schedules, downtime, and stuff like that. "The reason is to provide the best service possible".

Imo, they could rather just give us a disclaimer explaining this instead of forcing it, so they probably have their own personal reasons.

However, they have confirmed that billing method upon account registration is what will decide what servers you get access to.

Also remember - first month gametime is free. This means, if you can get a person with US adress and creditcard to sign up for you, you can later (Before the free month expires) change to your own card, and keep playing on US servers. Your friend will only have to enter his creditcard, he won't actually ever get billed.