Oh, to hell with that localisation crap!

OK, OK... I'll do my best to breathe deep and not use the kind of language that will get me banned off the forum for all times, and just restrict myself to exclaiming: This blows!

Let me explain. I live in Europe, but I've been a subscriber to City of Heroes since before there was an EU version, so I never switched over. As such, I still play the US version of the game, and would very much like to be routed to the US versions of sites pertaining to the game. Now, it's bad enough that the PlayNC store insists on routing me to the EU store every time, constantly trying to trick me into buying EU booster packs that won't work for my game. That I can deal with, since they're labelled as So and So (Europe) and a "US version also available) link in fine print still exists. It's annoying, it's insulting, but at least it's manageable.

But what the HELL happened to the main City of Heroes site? Why the FFF does it forcibly redirect me to the European version of the site? Yes, it has the little flags up top, but they DO NOTHING! I knew it there was something odd about it today, but I didn't think much of it. Well, today, I can't connect to City of Heroes (likely a connection problem) and I go to check server status. I go to News -> Server status and... What the hell?!? Defiant? Zukunft? Vigilance? What the... I don't care about these servers! I CAN'T PLAY on these servers, why the HELL would I care if they're up or down? I want to know whether Victory and Pinnacle are up or down, but I can't! Only then does it dawn on me what site I'm actually looking at: eu.cityofheroes.com. What? No! That's not what I want! So I do the obvious and go to www.cityofheroes.com, but in the back of my head, I know what's going to happen. And it does. As soon as I hit enter, the URL shifts to eu.cityofheroes.com and it loads the EU site again. Luckily, we only have one set of forms now, or it would have probably shunted me over the the EU boards to.

Well go to hell! I HATE HATE HATE localisation of sites! HATE it like you wouldn't believe! I don't CARE about local variants of the services I'm ACTUALLY LOOKING FOR! And I really, REALLY do not enjoy being locked away from sites just because a crappy localised version of it exists, especially when it GOD DAMN DOESN'T HAVE WHAT I WANT!

Argh!!!

Look, at this point, I'm willing to cheat. I'm about ready to flip PlayNC a birdie and just somehow cheat my way into the site for the game I FRIKKIN' OWN! Is there something I can change about my settings, like my location in Regional and Language settings or some such that would make me appear to be in the US? Is there some way I can make an exception for a particular site? I pay real money for this game each month, and I DO NOT APPRECIATE being routed to sites that ARE NOT FOR MY GAME! Is there anything, ANYTHING I can do to fix this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

If everyone would just stop whinging about maintaining their own national identity and all that crap and just give in to the inevitable and become American this problem wouldn't exist...

Simple answer: you'd need to have a US IP address

Spotted this two days ago, because the EU site doesn't have a link to the comics, and I was in the mood to read them again, and I got seriously frustrated by not being able to get to the US version of the site. Please, NC, don't IP-tag the websites, it will only frustrate those of us who have a reason to look at both.

Or, better yet, make both websites exactly the same, except for the EU- or US-only notifications.

Edit: I did get the comics again by going directly to the FTP site.

I'm in the same boat. I'm European, but I play on the US servers.

The worst part is that the European versions just pale when it comes to the content, and there's also the server status page difference that Sam mentioned.

Being redirected once, okay, I can deal with that. What pisses me off, and what Sam also mentioned, is that you're actively prevented from ever hitting the US site anymore. I can only imagine that someone didn't see all the consequences through, because this is just frustratingly idiotic.

you can go directly to the US server status & web pages:

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/ser...er_status.html

above link works for me (UK), and I can also access the comics etc

Have you tried the US url: http://www.cityofheroes.com/en.html ?

Funny thing is that the US site doesn't have the flags to chose the localization (and if you want to read the US site, it's spelled with a 'z' ). So, I went to the NCSoft site (http://us.ncsoft.com/en/), chose the drop down localization menu for English-GB (http://eu.ncsoft.com/en-gb/) then chose City of Heroes (http://eu.ncsoft.com/en-gb/city-of-heroes/), then chose Official CoH Game Site at bottom (http://eu.cityofheroes.com/en/) and saw the EU site with the flags up top.

Clicking on the US flag brought me to the US version (http://www.cityofheroes.com/en.html).

Maybe it's not NCSoft doing that but the EU overlords?

As a temporary work-around until NC comes around to explain/fix things, you could always use one of the many web proxy servers out there to "trick" the site into thinking your request is coming from America.

But yes, I do believe the company has some explaining to do by forcing you to visit one site over another.

I am with Samuel Tow here but less caps

I am not to happy about the whole localisation thing and I hope that NC Soft will stop doing that asap.

I tried as you suggested, but it still took me to the EU side of the site, even when I'd checked the US flag on the PlayNC side. Your forced link to the US side does work, though, and I'll see about bookmarking that.

I don't believe its the EU overlords doing it, but it could be the EU section of PlayNC doing it. For instance, every time I reinstall Windows and try going to google, I get sent to google.bg without being asked or given a choice. even if I specifically type out www.google.com, I still get referred to the Bulgarian version. But, there is that cute little link that says "Google.com in English." When I do that, I get redirected to the standard site for Google and I am never, ever again redirected to my local version unless I go there by hand.

The EU City of Heroes site does not allow me to redirect myself. It has the same "does nothing" flags the old PlayNC site had, that try to send you to another site, but you're forcibly redirected back to where you came from anyway, which makes them completely useless.

And this is a completely *** backwards design that I wish would die a horrible death at the hands of demons with barbed wire on their chainsaw pitch forks. I don't mind having a version of a site that's local to me (even if "European" is not any more local to where I am than "Korean," but what is the ever), but FORCING me into going to my local site and local site only makes me feel like I was forced to sit on the little kids' table because I'm not yet old enough while the adults sit at the adult table and have orgies or something. Damn you, localisation! Stop treating me like I can't decide for myself!

*edit* That "Your forced link" is in reply to Zombie Man.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

A bit of an over reaction, but yes, its slightly annoying. They should either remove the redirection totally (ideally) or at least fix the flags so they work (and remember your preference)

To get round it, just avoid the actual homepage

go to somewhere like http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/news_archive/ and use the menu links to get to where you want to (including the right server status page)

Canada is like the current version of Sparks and America is the Original version.

It tastes a little sweeter without the caffeine but...it has no caffeine.


I miss caffeinated Sparks...

Oooooo well thats new www.cityofheroes.com used to send me directly to US version, used to have to type in the eu.cityofheroes to get to the EU version!

I wanna join Avs team on union in an hour so i cant fight too hard sorry, but if in an hour i dont get in . . . . . i'll let rip for you! [i wont Av honest! please let me in the team!]

Havent been on the main page for a while now, bookmarked the forums instead.

We are the Americans. Existence, as you know it, is over. We will add your characters and your servers to our own. Resistance is futile.

I will start accepting criticism about my country from Americans when they can consistantly find us on a map.

MAKE SYRUP, NOT WAR!

I'd rather NCsoft spend resources so EU and NA can all play together.