Aerial photo of GOA's authentication servers

Yesterday, Warhammer Online finally entered the "open" beta (limited to preorder customers and those lucky enough to get a key through a number of fansite promotions). First the good news - US servers held up nicely, and Mythic's VP Mark Jacobs reports over 50000 concurrent users online without any major issues on his blog.

Then the bad news - on the European side of the Atlantic where GOA is taking care of things, the only players who got online yesterday were the existing closed beta players. Both the account sign-up and the beta key registration site kept spouting all kinds of errors all day, and they are still quite borked. Thousands of enthusiastic players expecting to give Warhammer Online a try had an exciting Sunday of hammering "continue" on the shiny flash-based web form while getting "Error 414", "Error 300", "Authentication service momentarily unavailable" or, as of this morning, a whole new fail, "Error 1103". On the upside, those new to GOA got a taste of the expected level of service for the EU Warhammer Online. They were not amused.

Unexpectedly, CEO of GOA actually stepped up and apologized for the failure:

For those who haven't been a customer of GOA before, a small recap: GOA has a long history of similar failures, both with Dark Age of Camelot and earlier phases of Warhammer Online beta, and in a way most veterans of MMO games were absolutely expecting this to happen. Sure, they all had their fingers crossed, hoping everything would go fine, but deep down they knew this would happen. The apology, however, is an unexpected move. Nothing soothes the raging MMO nerd like a company CEO eating some humble pie in public.

Mythic, the guys actually developing the game, are probably getting tired of it all, and I'm sure they are really trying to push GOA to mend everything before the game goes live. Personally I expect that we'll get another spectacular technical failure somewhere when early access starts on the EU servers. Let us pray that I'm wrong.

Comments

	Dea 2008-09-08 #1 hear hear!
	admiralFlameberg 2008-09-08 #2 Now they just need to give me a beta account, even tho I signed up for the beta like last year when they started to take signups for the first time. And i betting If i do get one it be like a week before the beta is over. Like it always is.
	Jarnis 2008-09-08 #3 It's an "open" beta. The invitations they dished out based on signups were for the closed one that's long gone. The only way to get to this week-long "open beta" is to either preorder the game (I hear EB Games is passing out preorder boxes with keys, and some online retailers also email you one) or get a key from one of the fansite promotions. Yeah, very "open" beta - and it's just a few days long anyway (more like "last stress test"). If you are interested in the game, just buy it and go for the head start. Of course if you are in the EU, odds are GOA will mess something up. I'm surprised if everything works fine on the actual "launch day".
	Copperhead 2008-09-08 #4 I'm made it in and i only got to play only Monday morning, the only server up was a french one, i was kind of put off by everything being written in Voltaire's language....
	Hexus_Tech 2008-09-08 #5 Quote: Originally Posted by Copperhead I'm made it in and i only got to play only Monday morning, the only server up was a french one, i was kind of put off by everything being written in Voltaire's language.... I heard several thousand Germans joined and now the French are requesting the British servers be brought up ASAP for support.
	Unregistered 2008-09-08 #6 srry , anyone of here know's if in some web give beta keys alredy?
	IeatNvidiots 2008-09-08 #7 Yeah Open beta, only for native english country's whats up with that So it won't be release in other europe country's or later?
	admiralFlameberg 2008-09-08 #8 Quote: Originally Posted by Jarnis It's an "open" beta. The invitations they dished out based on signups were for the closed one that's long gone. The only way to get to this week-long "open beta" is to either preorder the game (I hear EB Games is passing out preorder boxes with keys, and some online retailers also email you one) or get a key from one of the fansite promotions. Yeah, very "open" beta - and it's just a few days long anyway (more like "last stress test"). If you are interested in the game, just buy it and go for the head start. Of course if you are in the EU, odds are GOA will mess something up. I'm surprised if everything works fine on the actual "launch day". I not buying a game or pre-ordering to beta test it, That be like throwing money away just to see how the game is and to test it.I not paying them to let me test it. Even tho there bugs in the beta, I usually use the beta to get a look of how the game may be like and then make up my mind doing a trial after the game goes retail.
	Unregistered 2008-09-09 #9 I have allready bought a US version of the game and advising everybody else to drop this goa BS and do the same
	Copperhead 2008-09-09 #10 Quote: Originally Posted by Unregistered I have allready bought a US version of the game and advising everybody else to drop this goa BS and do the same Good luck with PvP then !
	Unregistered 2008-09-11 #11 Wow, I would think you gamers in Europe would have avoided GAO like the plague given their horrendous reputation and past history of multitudinous ****-stepping and the "if-it-wasn't-so-pathetic it would be funny" PR debacles afterward (like last Sunday's). Just buy the NA-O game and play on the NA-O servers. Trust me, your Euro buddies, the smart ones, will be there too.
	Unregistered 2008-09-11 #12 im getting more and more sick of this. ive got a beta key, im still trying, the website says its all working, but still absolutely nothing, no emails of confirmation or activation, the patcher tells me its wrong... im gonna go play wow.
	Hexus_Tech 2008-09-11 #13 Quote: Originally Posted by Unregistered im getting more and more sick of this. ive got a beta key, im still trying, the website says its all working, but still absolutely nothing, no emails of confirmation or activation, the patcher tells me its wrong... im gonna go play wow. Webform appears to be broken for new accounts again. The Flash for the character recognition validation seems to be stuck (several of my friends said they had problems, so I checked myself this morning) I've yet to recieve a single confirmation e-mail regards my beta key or even the new account I setup. Frustrating as I really wanted to try before I went and bought it.