Jacobs on WAR beta: "GOA messed up"

By Oli Welsh Published 9 September, 2008

Account creation still unavailable.

Mythic Entertainment boss Mark Jacobs has weighed into the row over the European open beta test of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, as problems persist with key authentication and account registration.

Jacobs had stern words for players who had posted abusive and threatening comments about the situation on his blog, but was frank about his own displeasure with the European publisher and operator GOA.

"This is not an excuse for GOA," Jacobs said. "We had a number of conversations with them today about everything that happened.

"GOA messed up and their CEO has apologised and promised to do better going forward... None of the actors in this little play came out of this unscathed... Neither their CEO nor I am defending what happened yesterday. It was an ugly day."

Jacobs noted that the US and Oceanic launches of the open beta had gone well, with few hiccups and close to 50,000 concurrent players.

As of late last night, GOA's account creation system is unavailable, and key authentication is "unstable" according to the European WAR site and the official update thread on Warhammer Alliance.

There's plenty of advice for frustrated players there, but basically it boils down to "if you don't have an account yet, be patient and we'll update you". More news is expected this morning.

We would gloat about having done another couple of levels on the Engineer last night, but frankly, on an underpopulated server where it's hard to get a Public Quest or Scenario going, WAR is less fun than it should be.

Here's hoping GOA can sort these problems out by the official launch on Thursday 18th, next week.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Vandrius #1 4 years ago

    Yup, GOA messed up.

    That said, it *IS* just the open beta. Sure, its a pain in the butt, but its nowhere near as bad as if they had run into this on launch day (hence open BETA)

    WAR is awesome, though. Very awesome.

  • kallenai #2 4 years ago

    Given GOA's 'dogs dinner' handling of EU DAOC a previous Mythic mmo, its a little late in the day for Mythic to stamp their feet in anger and feel for EU WAR open beta pre-order customers over the mess currently unfolding. I'd of thought given GOA's track record it would have made a little more sense to look around for a different european partner with a more responsible track record.

  • Drone #3 4 years ago

    I entered my CE code at about 17.00 UK time yesterday, had a reply at 00.07 to say I'd entered it incorrectly. Brilliant.

    Followed the advice of players on warhammeralliance this morning and spammed the code entry site 5-6 times and had my activation during the 7th attempt.

  • Rizo #4 4 years ago

    The reason Mystic picked goa is is because there cheap!

    The only reason they can run servers so cheaply is cus there shit servers and they have shit poor paid staff.

    Back to WOW people lvl the alts!!

  • Kalinin #5 4 years ago

    Got a 20 minute look this morning before work, my key got passed at around 3:30am last night...

    Looks good, runs better than I expected on my PC and generally looks fun, but very few people. Hopefully by tonight it'll be working closer to intended. GOA's reputation, somewhat vindicated by the last 48 hours sadly, is going to be a dark cloud over the whole thing though.

  • magicpanda #6 4 years ago

    Get on Worlds Edge Mountains Server Oli, it's packed.

  • saku_luk #7 4 years ago

    After 1 day I got an email that my account was created and key validated, but I can't log since authentication is down lawl....They messed up beta, wonder if they will mess up live too lol ;p

  • orakio #8 4 years ago

    The game has improved a lot since closed beta though. A downright lot.

  • FunkyRenegade #9 4 years ago

    All the cool kids are on World's Edge B-)
    GOA really are breaking everything though, I really hope they wont screw up this bad come the headstart...

  • Byzanite #10 4 years ago

    Looks like they might struggle to have a smooth retail launch then :p

  • Drogul #11 4 years ago

    Simple, there is no excuse for this. Im not buying this game until Im sure this is fixed.

  • thebaron #12 4 years ago

    Waited for 16 hours for email - nothing ! Then filled in form again - got the email after 3 mins!!! Finally got into the game and it's awesome - very polished - graphics better than WOW (not as good as LOTR though) - really like the Tomb of Knowledge.
    Think this game will consume alot of my time over the coming months.

  • Hypercube #13 4 years ago

    The official launch is the 14th, when the CE headstart people get in there. That leaves them with 4 days to unfuck themselves. I'll be getting in on the 15th, with a SE pre-order. It won't be the end of the world if I don't, but it could certainly be a very bad starting position for WAR and it would be entirely down to GOA.

    I can't see Mythic being very happy if this continues. I wonder what their contract with GOA is like...