Product Offer

[pikeh]

And anyone with half a brain would have seen that the point I was talking about was new players coming to the game AFTER clustering, which means by definition that they can't create the characters now.

Sorry Pikeh, I don't mean to be insulting but the point of this thread was NOT about current players, but about new players and how it can be marketed to them in the future.

Unless the game can bring in new blood and new players, over a period of time it will die because eventually people stop playing and move on to new pastures. Just look at how many people have recently said that after X years of playing they are giving up to do other things. Unless they are replaced by new blood the population will fall, and new blood has to be recruited from somewhere. To recruit new people the product offer has to be attractive and THAT is the point of my question. Will the product offer be attractive to new players and what do GOA need to do to make it so?

didnt think you were insulting mate, just its a good point that its very limiting, just trying to look on the brightside of things. clustering will either be
very good or very bab.

[Childofkhain]

went into game today .... found 5 copies of the cats expansion for £19.99 in a dark corner at the back of the shop where the 3 for £5 games where 0o wasnt amused tbh - where is the nice big camelot sign i see when i go to france - they have a huage carboard holding thing for the damn games as well like doom3 did when it first came out and most of the other great games but not in the uk, it gets put on a dusty shelf with the crap games no one wants - i did ask if it was 3 for £5 but sadly not tbh if camelot is to succed in the uk america needs to go :take: us all across the atlantic

[Briannon]

didnt think you were insulting mate, just its a good point that its very limiting, just trying to look on the brightside of things. clustering will either be
very good or very bab.

Thnx Pikeh, didn't want to be insulting so glad you didn't take it that way.

[Adianna]

If you are skilled enough to converse in two of the three languages mentioned, and were coming to the game for the first time, which version would you choose?

If the only language of the above three that you could converse in is English would you really be interested in this product offer, and what would you want to receive in order to get the same value for your subscription?

Would you, for example, expect to see the fees for an english version account be cut by 66% to compensate for the differential levels of choice?

Well not from the games point of view I'd advise anyone within Europe to learn at least one more European language than English, preferably French, Spanish or German.

Especially French is interesting as almost the whole southern Europe speaks languages originating from Latin and the French are the second biggest people in Europe and are still spread over the whole world. Spanish is spread quite far as well is Portugese.

[Ankh Morpork]

[quote="Adianna"]Well not from the games point of view I'd advise anyone within Europe to learn at least one more European language than English, preferably French, Spanish or German. ]

Imo its more useful to talk that african language with clicking noises or ancient greek.

/Ankh

[Cuchuluhain]

already posted this in other threads, and on FH

basically, 'english' server players are paying the same amount for less service

that could constitute a violation of contract...

anyhow, the best thing Goa could do is .... merge Pryd/Excal into the US server base

[VidX]

The problem isn't with GOA, it's with the UK market and retailers.

There has been more than enough advertising done for Catacombs, PC Gamer had a full page for it, done a review as well.

I also know for a fact that the retailers were sent posters to put up, but they just didn't bother. GAME had copies of the expansion and the full box set when I was in a store last weekend, but it was stuck at the bottom shelf of the PC section, and that section has been shrinking steadily over the past year.

Seems that the UK retailers are pushing the consoles more, and only making an effort for PC games if they are big name games. Even the latest big name PC games only get 3-4 sections to themselves, stuck at the back of the stores (sections being 1 box wide that is).

Don't blame GOA, blame the UK retailers. Remember how they acted with the Catacombs release (delayed it cause they were offered money to clear their release schedules for one game only)?

[Lairiodd]

One thing they could do is implement a translator program into the existing game so that you could say what ever you wanted to say but it will auto translate to the native language of the person you are talking to and vice versa.

Tbh, it would probably work pretty well. Even Babbelfish grade translation would be a big boost. In FFXI, all servers are Japanese and American. They have an auto translator tool. It isn't that uber, you have only selected words, but it was still useful.

Anyway, point is that you don't need perfect French, you just need to be able to make yourself understood. You would see text as it is typed as long as you are flagged as the same language as the speaker, otherwise it does a translation.

The dictionary would need to have some game specific words added. For example,

"There's a relic raid happening !!!"

would become

"There is an incursion of relic occurring! ! !"

So you are playing on a French server and you see the above ... you will know what is happening. ALso, alot of the game required stuff would be trivial. "Does your group have space for a hero?" goes to "Votre groupe a-t-il l'espace pour un héros ?" and back exactly.

An alternative would be for GOA to allow people write 3rd party tools that can intercept the chat system. I am sure there are a few people who could write pretty effective translation software that would be pretty daoc specific (is there an open source version of Babel Fish floating around ?)

All they would need to do is include with chat an ability to send hidden tags. This would allow the tools to talk to each other.

[Grymligast]

French ppl normally ignore ppl if they dont speak near perfect french. Atleast when you are in France

Usually I just drive trough the entire country without stopping omw to Spain.

[Ankh Morpork]

(is there an open source version of Babel Fish floating around ?)

I'd rather have a proper babel fish

/Ankh