Letter from the Game Director – June 2008

[TheMekon]

0_o Sounds fraudulent. I'd E-mail billing.

Its not fraudulent, I double checked all the links etc, just doesn't work the way I expected it to.. I was expecting.. click the link, log into account site, click the 'anniversary link' and get 30 days to be impressed... not as I got.. "click here to enter billing information and subscription info", then get taken to payments..

just doesn't seem in the spirit of things

[Luziciona]

Thank you for update info, Sil. Lots to look forward to, thanks.

Just make contest for europeans and other people who can't get in current one with as prices:
1. Life time AO account with all expansions and pre-order gifts
2. and 3. 30-day playtime and free pre-order gifts.

Just fair for us outside corporate controlled capitalism driven area... And it is almost free for FC too...

Also Global means GLOBAL, meaning the whole big round thingy not just small plot of land at it...

Good idea.

[Ruffixx]

Its not fraudulent, I double checked all the links etc, just doesn't work the way I expected it to.. I was expecting.. click the link, log into account site, click the 'anniversary link' and get 30 days to be impressed... not as I got.. "click here to enter billing information and subscription info", then get taken to payments..

just doesn't seem in the spirit of things

Um.. you don't have to pay for the 30 days, but you do need to enter payment info.

I did this on my old 2003 account just earlier. My account was frozen and I hit the free 30 day deal. It asked for a payment choice since when I stop playing AO I make sure to clear payment details just in case anything happens (one month I forgot to and got billed...). Enter your CC. It WILL NOT BILL YOU. I repeat, WILL NOT BILL YOU. It will re-open your account with the free 30 days. Then remove payment info immediately if you do not want to get billed 30 days from now.

Note: I did not have any previous failed transactions. If you do, that may be a different situation, but I'm not sure. If you do not, then you should have nothing to fear. And if you do get billed, you could probably then have good reason to whine at FC or deny charges to your bank

[Uaintseenme]

Makes sense, but.. not everything lies in the hands of a sponsor ( Like the AO Lifetime Membership.. )

Big bump for that
Did you guys ask a certain american president for the definition of "global" before starting this "Non-global, global sweepstakes"

[Anlryu_]

Nice letter, thanks for all Sil & the following team

But as "Thethe" said on first page, we'd like to see graphic update effort (and actual overall bug fixes? ) before releasing new content, but it must be a really huge job, so it's understandable.

[Alamica]

Isnt there rules about false advertising...... GLOBLE comp should mean anyone in the world should be able to enter. Please change the name of the comp to.... "We dont realy care about the rest of our player base so only the yanks can enter our comp"

Or atleast to american sweepstakes.

[Tiralee]

Isnt there rules about false advertising...... GLOBLE comp should mean anyone in the world should be able to enter.

The name is Anarchy Online Global Supremacy Sweepstakes.

The description, from the Sweepstakes page, is: The power that engulf us all take us into the heat of battle on Rubi-Ka. Beyond the simple and meek comes a brave warrior that will defeat all others in a quest for Global Supremacy. From Notum Wars, to Shadowlands and Alien Invasion—you have fought bravely. Now is the time for those of greater valor, now is the time for the mightiest of all in battle to take home the ultimate prize... now is... YOUR TIME!.

As far as I can see:

- The word "Global" doesn't stand alone. It goes along with the word "Supremacy".

- The phrase relates to the game, and is not meant as a description of who can enter the Sweepstakes.

[Colrain]

I spoke with the Party Planner in Newland City ...

She gave me a mission and rewarded me instantly without me doing anything. She gave me xp according to the text, and this part seems to work.

She also gave me this item reward that I could only see in inventory after zoning ...

NoName
Insurance cost: 0 credits
Charges: 1 (Splitable)

I assume this is a bug ...

Please fix

Colrain

edit: My toon that first tried was a neutral toon in Newland City on Rimor dimension. Have tried with a few other toons including a clan and an omni toon as well as visiting Party Planner in Borealis ... all with the same result

edit #2: I petitioned this problem ... Vista is apparently the issue ...
Anyways I went thru all the suggestions the GM/ARK gave me and none of them worked. Logged one toon with a friend's XP machine and it works fine, I click on present and get the 4 items ... log back on my Vista machine and now I have 4 Blue cubes. Please fix this!!

[Cynic092]

Um.. you don't have to pay for the 30 days, but you do need to enter payment info.

I did this on my old 2003 account just earlier. My account was frozen and I hit the free 30 day deal. It asked for a payment choice since when I stop playing AO I make sure to clear payment details just in case anything happens (one month I forgot to and got billed...). Enter your CC. It WILL NOT BILL YOU. I repeat, WILL NOT BILL YOU. It will re-open your account with the free 30 days. Then remove payment info immediately if you do not want to get billed 30 days from now.

Note: I did not have any previous failed transactions. If you do, that may be a different situation, but I'm not sure. If you do not, then you should have nothing to fear. And if you do get billed, you could probably then have good reason to whine at FC or deny charges to your bank

Does this count for a buddy opening a totally new account with the 30days free play key? Because when you go to create account with it, you actually have to pay 7(insert currency of choice) for 7days expansion play and THEN you get 30days on top for a total of 37.

I've told people not to put their CC details in yet until someone can answer if this actually how it's meant to be? $7 for 37 days instead of nada for 30?

[Lucrezia]

Happy Birthday AO

[Zeephonz]

Sil, I have a question about the 18.0 graphics update....

Will the new engine allow you to remove the artificial boundaries between some zones, so that in some areas we don't have to fly around those invisible walls and travel across 2 different zones to get to the one we want?

e.g fly from Belial Forest > Eastern Foul Plains, instead of going BF > SAV > Stret EB > MW > EFP

[macattack]

Yes I find the invisible boundry issue (false walls between zones) very frustrting. I can see the other side, just can't get there Now rock formation outcroppings I can understand.

Also Global means GLOBAL, meaning the whole big round thingy not just small plot of land at it...

Related to the game itself... unless the local EARTH GOVTs start working together... we may never see any truely "global" efforts of anykind... EVER. Imagine trying to make a contest that followed every nations laws...

[Nyadach]

Well anyhow, have a good party Silirrion, the rest of FC and the brillient ARK's. Know what you mean about the changes over the years...some better than others but it still holds a unique feeling like no where else.

Ahh, the good ol' days. The fun of having fifty odd people trapped in a backyard in the later parts of beta. And on release when zoning would take 45mins, and everyone ran around with a pair of 3927a's as they were by far the best weapons The hugely sad disaster of 12.6
Heck even the day when the zoning goofed up so badly from a mission someone *looks innocent* ended up on Parnassus (sp?)...scared the pants off the first ARK who noticed me as I wondered around lost hehe.

But such good times, the peace meetings, being assasinated at by Dusters while missioning, poked prodded and harrassed by Pol on so many occassions I can't count hehe. The ARKs make the game come alive and takes it from that same old gankfest it would be otherwise.

Even if we are outside the original storyline by a huge margin now, keep up the good work and heres to the next seven years.

[Falkvinge]

Well anyhow, have a good party Silirrion, the rest of FC and the brillient ARK's. Know what you mean about the changes over the years...some better than others but it still holds a unique feeling like no where else.

Ahh, the good ol' days. The fun of having fifty odd people trapped in a backyard in the later parts of beta. And on release when zoning would take 45mins, and everyone ran around with a pair of 3927a's as they were by far the best weapons The hugely sad disaster of 12.6
Heck even the day when the zoning goofed up so badly from a mission someone *looks innocent* ended up on Parnassus (sp?)...scared the pants off the first ARK who noticed me as I wondered around lost hehe.

But such good times, the peace meetings, being assasinated at by Dusters while missioning, poked prodded and harrassed by Pol on so many occassions I can't count hehe. The ARKs make the game come alive and takes it from that same old gankfest it would be otherwise.

Even if we are outside the original storyline by a huge margin now, keep up the good work and heres to the next seven years.

*sigh* Memories

[-Ruken-]

Sil, I have a question about the 18.0 graphics update....

Will the new engine allow you to remove the artificial boundaries between some zones, so that in some areas we don't have to fly around those invisible walls and travel across 2 different zones to get to the one we want?

e.g fly from Belial Forest > Eastern Foul Plains, instead of going BF > SAV > Stret EB > MW > EFP

Most likely it will not. Once again... this is an engine update. The ENGINE doesn't effect anything with gameplay aside from the client'a speed and performance. Removing boundries and false zone borders have nothing to do with client speed or performance.

[macattack]

Most likely it will not. Once again... this is an engine update. The ENGINE doesn't effect anything with gameplay aside from the client'a speed and performance. Removing boundries and false zone borders have nothing to do with client speed or performance.

I want to agree with you on this... but I am hoping that some of the zone boundries were technically not feasible and this new engine will fix that.... unless the invisible barrier (I want that nano) was intentional... (look at some of the zone oddities: place shift from east vs west bank; newland vs. newland desert)

[erozc]

Just make contest for europeans and other people who can't get in current one with as prices:
1. Life time AO account with all expansions and pre-order gifts
2. and 3. 30-day playtime and free pre-order gifts.

Just fair for us outside corporate controlled capitalism driven area... And it is almost free for FC too...

Also Global means GLOBAL, meaning the whole big round thingy not just small plot of land at it...

Yes! I am frustrated, perkele! Insult to injury is adding this while also having same dollar and euro rates on subscription. Add some in-game concerts and some contests for everyone except the citizens of the 50 states and Canada excluding those in Quebec, oh but for all the under 13 year olds too.

[Ekarona]

Yes I find the invisible boundry issue (false walls between zones) very frustrting. I can see the other side, just can't get there Now rock formation outcroppings I can understand.



Related to the game itself... unless the local EARTH GOVTs start working together... we may never see any truely "global" efforts of anykind... EVER. Imagine trying to make a contest that followed every nations laws...

Hmm, doesn't make sense in game either, area in game is actualy very limited, as you may think from newest DB quest...

[trousers]

I want to agree with you on this... but I am hoping that some of the zone boundries were technically not feasible and this new engine will fix that.... unless the invisible barrier (I want that nano) was intentional... (look at some of the zone oddities: place shift from east vs west bank; newland vs. newland desert)

And there are arbitrary boarders also. Clon**** is a perfect example. If you bypass the Red Wall there is a another 50% of that playfield that exists but they chose to make off limits for whatever reason.

I'd like to see full playfields opened up, and the combination of smaller playfield (Newland with Newland Desert or even adding in Newland City) would be very nice.

[porter]

edit #2: I petitioned this problem ... Vista is apparently the issue ...
Anyways I went thru all the suggestions the GM/ARK gave me and none of them worked. Logged one toon with a friend's XP machine and it works fine, I click on present and get the 4 items ... log back on my Vista machine and now I have 4 Blue cubes. Please fix this!!

Vista (alone) can not be the cause of your bug. I have Vista and I got a birthday present from the NPC at Tir Fair Trade and the items spawned nicely into my inventory.