GhostRaptor_EU

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Never said how many there is, might actually be none/bot!

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There is a dedicated support team still with us.

With regards your specific complaint about always being asked to go through the same process, there is a very good reason for this. All professionally run support teams will have extensive records of past support queries, and the eventual resolution of those queries. From that data you can build a system that results in the majority of queries being resolved on the first response, and the majority of those remaining on the second response. This is why you get formula responses, and why those formula responses are the same each time you submit a new query on the same topic area.

Further, our support and tech teams need as much information as possible to help them ascertain the root causes and severity of an issue. If an entire team of 8 is all experiencing the problem, but only one person reports it, we are missing 87.5% of the possible information. We can't just take your word for it: unless all 8 players file a report (or a significant number of them, say 6+) we do not have verified information for the support and tech teams to follow up on.

With the above said, this thread is closed:

* The specific issue raised in the opening post is already covered in a pre-existing thread, and thus a duplicate.
* The original post is effectively just a rant post.
* The quality of discussion and language being used is quite low.

For future reference, if you wish to discuss the quality of service please take the time to address your comments constructively and without use of questionable language.

Last day for many, but not for all of us just yet. You'll have to put up with me for a little while longer yet .

Indeed...

For those who won, please be patient - we'll get to you with your rewards ASAP.

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Even letting Avateas take over is an almighty risk because if you make someone redundant, you are not allowed to fil that post for 3 months.

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Avatea's role will be different from mine (although what you all will see will be similar), and she'll be based in the NCNC office. I had the option of making that move or taking voluntary redundancy, and I've chosen the latter.

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you convinced supports going to be ok with a skeleton staff?

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Pretty sure I've said it already in this thread, but seems it bears mentioning again: there have been no redundancies in the CS team this time around. They are continuing with the same number of staff they had at the end of last year.

As for an explanation from NCsoft West: they've given one to the press, and it's been reproduced in a few places. Copy'n'Paste from a Massively article:

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"In order to solidify and streamline company operations across all NCsoft West territories, we are implementing some structural changes this week which will impact 70 to 90 employees. We are working with these employees to determine the best fit for approximately 80 alternate positions within the company.
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The European office is transitioning to have a stronger focus in marketing and sales, with many of the existing disciplines being consolidated in our studios on the US West Coast and our headquarters in Seattle. Additionally, we are transitioning to an embedded quality assurance (QA) model in which the QA staff works in our studios directly with the development teams, providing support throughout the entire development process.
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This finalizes the NCsoft West reorganization plan which began last September, and the resulting structure will better support the company's direction." - NCsoft PR

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Comes direct from NCNC, I spoke with them on the phone last night.

All I can really say here is that they want to do the best they can for the EU community under the new NCsoft West structure. They're good people over there, and they have big plans. I'm just sad I won't be here to see them come to fruition.

NCNC deserves no blame for this situation.

Hi everyone -


In regards to the recent restructuring changes, it is obvious that there is a lot of speculation going on regarding a potential message board merge. The details involved in doing this are being investigated. Unfortunately, no course of action can be committed to at this time. Rest assured, however, that all possibilities will be considered and as soon as things have been determined, you will of course be made aware.

One thing we can assure you of right now, though, is that the game for our European players isn’t going anywhere and community support for you will continue. I’m happy to be able to inform you that to ensure that this happens, Avatea will be moving to the United States and going to work in the NCsoft Northern California office to work side-by-side with the City of Heroes/Villains developers. She will become your main advocate and is very pleased to have the opportunity to do so.

So please know that the European contingency will remain alive and well and will continue to have quality representation!

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december 2008, from 26,669 active worldwide accounts to 13,823

[/ QUOTE ]So I guess someone fed GhostRaptor false inforation to post then, since he wouldn't have lied deliberately to us I hope

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Issue 13 numbers are not really reflected in the Q4 report from last year. I13 was released less than a month to go in that quarter, and that being a month in which there's major holidays happening. You guys get to see numbers for a quarterly block. I get to see daily and weekly numbers (well, did). Issue 13 was (and still is) a positive influence on CoH numbers.

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Out of curiosity (inspired by the lovely person above me) should we all create Marvel/DC inspired characters just to see if we can get away with it or would that just be a mean a spiteful act?

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I'd personally call it mean and spiteful, but it DOES raise one question. Do we actually HAVE any GM's at the moment? Are petitions being ignored if so, or passed automatically to the US GM's already?

Are we alone in the dark?

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The CS team (GM's) remain, and they're working through their tickets as normal.

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All the best for you and your colleagues. May your future be brighter.

On a personal note, I'm getting sick of having to say goodbye to people I like: first was Bridger, then Kerensky and Rockjaw and now Ghostraptor. Either NCNC stops swinging their axe or I stop caring...

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To be fair, Bridger went because of choice.

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To be even fairer, NCNC had nothing to do with this.

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the truth of the matter is u wont see the full nature of i13's demise until the q1 fy 2009 is realease as i13 was only realeased on the 2nd of dec

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The truth of the matter is that Issue 13 had a sustained positive effect on server populations and subs.

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... Would that be a fair assumption?, or maybe I've just read that into the wording of your phrasing and seen political intrigue where there is none?.

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All my post means is that yesterday there was a marketing, localisation and community structure in place here in Brighton. We all came to work expecting that structure to remain long term. As of yesterday lunchtime that all changed, and there is going to be an inevitable period of transition and adjustment.

In particular, it's going to take a few days at least until the various studios (NCNC included) know who will be taking up offers in the US and who will be taking the voluntary redundancy.

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Any word what's gonna happen to us?

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Afraid you'll all need to be patient to find out what happens with regards CoH in Europe. A whole helluva lot changed yesterday, and it's going to take some time for the folks at NCNC to formulate their plans going forward.

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone.

My position is 'potentially redundant' within the Brighton office, and at the current time I intend to accept voluntary redundancy. I'm not interested in living in the US.

You posted here on the 31st Jan.

The build that went on live today was published to the training room on the 3rd Feb. Add in internal QA time and cut out the weekend ... the build that went to live was completed before the bug report was seen.

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wasnt the /sync command released to resolve the "ghost town" glitch in the first place?

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It was indeed.

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Wouldn't it be possible to make the game automatically force a /sync each time you load a new area?

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It does, however for some people it doesn't appear to work properly.

Existing threads for CO and DC, please use these.

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Realistically, how many subscribers will we really lose due to not updating the Valentines event who would have stayed if the event had been given a couple of new bits?


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I was talking about a scenario (and my greatest fear for the game) of any potential Dev complacency (in updating the 'Big Three' yearly events) driving away Veterans of 2 years of more through apathy, not singling out the Valentines event against the greater development gameplan.

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In that case , Halloween '08 had new elements and Winter '08/'09 had some new bits; I don't see a pattern of complacency setting in just yet . What I do see is that in terms of gaps between events, the largest gap is between Spring Fling and Halloween, with the gaps between Halloween and Winter, and Winter and Spring both being quite a lot shorter (and the Winter -> Spring gap including a significant holiday period).

Keep it civil and non-personal please, folks.

Just to keep hopes in check: there are still a LOT of pieces that need to fall in place first, and anything that does happen is unlikely to be a CoH-specific event. It's far from certain that we'll be able to reach our ambitions.

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I wonder when i14 will come out. Apparently i15 is due late in April (on the 5th anniversary) so that leaves very little time to knock out i14.

Maybe 15 will be postponed from the anniversary date itself?

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that would be a major embarrassment for NC

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Not really, since there's never been a release date of any sort officially announced for Issue 15. It's an assumption that's been made by extrapolating a long, long way from a teaser Positron made in an interview.

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It is a bug, and that's why they put in the /sync command, but EU side they're completely refusing to admit that.

The bug IS related to lag though and that MIGHT be your ISP, but usually it happens to a lot of players at the same time, no matter what ISP they have.

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We did not refuse to admit anything. The sync issue is quite clearly not an ISP specific issue (which we have admitted in the past), as it affects customers on a variety of ISP's and both here and in North America.

What was said, at one point, is that based on evidence we had available a specific ISP within the UK accounted for the vast majority of UK customers affected, and that the severity for those customers might be related to something that ISP was doing. Further, we also had evidence that for some customers, configuration changes within their home network helped stabilise the issue for them.

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I had some serious arguments with the tech's and even GR about it about a year ago (methink) edning up in discussions about the ISPs using cheap/free services themselves even though it was confirmed my ISP most definitely didn't fall into that category making me wonder if it's actually NC using a cheap ISP that's using cheap services themselves.

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This was, I believe, about lag in general that was being experienced at the time. What I explained on the forums at the time had nothing to do with ISPs using cheap/free services (???). I explained that the response received from the CS team was being misinterpreted due to the way it was phrased. Further, I explained what the message was meant to say: that the problem was outside our network and beyond our direct control, but that if you spoke to your ISP they may be able to assist. Whether they do or not, and how they handle your request, is up to them.

Remember here that between you and your ISP, and our servers, there will generally be a few other ISPs through which your traffic will pass. Should any one of those have a problem (eg faulty hardware, a software mis-configuration) that could cause you to receive lag or rubberbanding due to packet loss. The closer the problem ISP is to our servers, the more people who will have their data pass through that ISP and thus be affected.

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First post after GR

Well...is it so hard putting something on the updater or the website? I mean, you don't HAVE to say "nothing new this year, folks."

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It *is* on the updater and website . Just took me a little while to get them on as I had a lot of post-weekend stuff to get through.

It's an on-schedule release

We've not hyped it up this year, as the dev team was unable to find room in their schedule to make any changes from previous events.