Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
That doesn't mean you can't attempt to change Intrepids mind. All you need to do is convince Intrepid that there are enough interested players to make it worth it. Oceania - the smallest region Intrepid is currently planning a server for - has a population of around 40 million people, MENA has a population of 578 million people.
What other popular online games have figured out works best for them is of no value to this conversation, because Intrepid have already said what they want to do in these situations. One major reason for this is because games like PUBG generally run their own servers and place them in data centers, while Intrepid plan to simply lease. This completely changes the financial model of setting up a server in a new region, and things that are not viable for a game like PUBG may be more viable for a game like Ashes.
As I have been saying this entire thread - the plan that Intrepid have for these regions is your best bet.
It is just not smart to have many servers while you can use an existing server for the same purpose and it isn't far at all and as in example Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia which makes it the nearest to Europe and players from Egypt would be able to play on Europe servers (ping varies 15~45).
It would be so easy for me to ask Intrepid studio to have a server for MENA region from the beginning effortlessly but I just putted in consideration that it would make them pay much more instead of saving, that's why I'm against this idea. Also that's why I'm trying to find the best solution for our problem that have not been listed from the beginning.
Yes, EXACTLY.. I've just copied and pasted my last comment here without even the need of rephrasing it.
Again, as I have said, Intrepid have decided that based on their situation, regional servers are how they want to do things. Unless you have an in depth understanding of how Intrepid are setting up their servers as well as their financials, you are in no place to question that.
I am also in no place to question it, which is why I am simply telling you what Intrepid have said.
You can argue all you want that other games do things a specific way. Cool, go play those other games. If you want to play Ashes, Intrepid have made it clear that they will set up regional servers if there is the demand for them.
The sad thing is, unlike many services, Intrepid aren't even forcing you to play on your local server. If you want to play on an EU server, you are welcome to do so, even if a MENA server were launched. All you need to do is pay the same price as everyone else playing on that server - which is absolutely fair enough.
While it may well be true that Intrepid are setting up an Oceania server due to distance (not really, they could have easily have used the same servers as the SEA regional servers), the fact remains that Intrepid consider a population of 40 million to be worth setting a server up for, and MENA has a population of 578 million. The comparison there was made to illustrate that there is an argument to be made for a MENA server, if you wanted to take up that fight.
It is literally the discussion, and I'm not waiting for you to be convinced.
However I'm going to create a bot that is just going to copy/paste my previous comments to reply to your infinite repeated comments. Brilliant idea, I should've figured out that earlier.
The reason why you HAVE TO separate a server with cheaper sub from the EU price is because it destroys the defence of the sub from gold farmers.
As soon as there's a cheap option for subcription, Gold Farmers are all over it, the price of black market gold becomes cheaper, people can more easily create throwaway accounts to experiment more with server vulnerabilities, etc.
This is why if MENA wants a cheaper sub, it needs to be a separate server so the economies of both regions are preserved.
If MENA can show that they have a large audience and the financial analysis can show that MENA can pay for its own server - then that would be an option for Intrepid to explore. As it is, I don't think there is much motivation to set up a server that is going to run on a deficit.
Something I don't think you are understanding is that if there are indeed a decent number of players from MENA, and they all played on EU servers, that would increase the cost of the EU servers for Intrepid.
Perhaps you will understand things better if I give you some electricity prices. USD per kilowatt hour, Germany is paying 36 cents, Denmark is paying 33 cents and Belgium is paying 30 cents.
For Oceania, electricity is 25 cents in Australia and 24 cents in New Zealand.
Brazil is 12 cents, Argentina is 6 cents. This makes it blatantly obvious why it is possible to have a South American server with a cheaper price, run locally.
For MENA, Saudi Arabia pays 5 cents, Qatar pays 3 cents and Iran pays 1 cent.
Internet bandwidth follows a similar pattern.
This is all fairly basic stuff, and Intrepids reasons for wanting to host servers locally for such regions should be fairly obvious with this information.
Here are some quick stats pulled online regarding average salaries:
EGYPTIAN AVERAGE SALARIES:
AVERAGE SALARY / YEAR
299,464 EGP
$19,172 USD
MOST TYPICAL SALARY / YEAR
109,339 EGP
$7,000 USD
Source: https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/egypt
Then we have the UK:
AVERAGE SALARY / YEAR
£52,803 GBP
$73,606 USD
MOST TYPICAL SALARY / YEAR
£33,717 GBP
$47,000 USD
Source: https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/united-kingdom
Now here is America’s:
AVERAGE SALARY / YEAR
$82,268 USD
MOST TYPICAL SALARY / YEAR
$52,000 USD
Source: https://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/united-states
I’m no expert on global economics, but I can certainly feel how op must feel incredibly frustrated in this type of situation, because yeah, it must seem like simply enjoying a video game is out of reach because of their country’s economy.
@Hirschegar - I certainly do understand where you’re coming from regarding this. But I feel everybody else has made very valid points on why the process works the way that it does. It’s an unavoidable fact that if some of your suggestions are implemented, it could quite literally ruin the game. And when I say ruin the game, I mean to the point where people don’t play it anymore and it completely fails or becomes just another watered down MMO with bots running around selling black market gold and griefers running left and right, because they know they can just create a new account for three bucks.
And this isn’t even considering the business aspects and needs of Intrepid - So much capital has been invested in this game, with a ton of it coming from their fan base. I’m guilty myself of spending a couple hundred of my dollars in order to gain early access as well as support something I believe in. it just doesn’t make any sense from a business perspective to go down the road that you are suggesting.
They have to be able to maintain the game as well as put out new content, which costs money. While it might not seem like a big deal to offer certain groups of players a 4/5 discount, servicing a system and producing new content for a group of customers paying 20% of a standard client just doesn’t make good business sense. It is far more practical for them to allocate resources to maintain and improve the retention and satisfaction of customers paying full price. You have to remember, the gaming industry is for profit, these are basic business concepts here. Intrepid wants to be profitable, pay their employees well, build a solid and reliable brand, and create an amazing product for their customers.
Plus you have to remember that when there is a possibility out there to pay 20% of a standard price, you bet that people are going to try to find a way to take advantage and exploit it. And they certainly will find a way. They always do.
I’m really not trying to beat you down, because I know you’re obviously very passionate about this topic and this game and I really do empathize with how you must be feeling. I can only imagine how annoying it must be to just want to play a simple video game and that being blocked by financial obstacle completely out of your control.
It sucks, but it’s just the reality of it.
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I dunno where it gets its stats from, but I can guarantee you that the average salary in the UK is not £52k.
According to the Office for National Statistics on the gov.uk website, the average salary in 2020 was a little over £31k. Which still shits all over me, but hey-ho.
Why else do you think games that provide online services have shut down their servers? I'll name a few racing games: Test Drive Unlimited 1, Test Drive Unlimited 2, Need for Speed Carbon, Need for Speed Undercover, Need for Speed Shift, Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed, Need for Speed The Run. Their servers were shut down because no one is paying for them anymore. The amount of sales made from those games is not enough to cover the costs of maintaining the servers, let alone maintaining the game itself.
Why else do you think a lot of F2P MMORPG shut down after losing its player base? Same thing. Because no one is paying for them anymore. The only reason why F2P games thrive and lives despite the fact of them being free is not because servers are cheap. It's because F2P players end up spending a lot more than a game with a subscription fee would require. In F2P games, there are whales. These whales are not many, they only account for 1-5% of the whole game population. Yet they're the ones that keeping your precious F2P servers online. They buy tons of items in the premium cash shop. Some do it monthly, some do it weekly. These things gives them more money than subscription fees does. P2W stuff, cosmetic items, etc. Now you see why F2P games usually have no new content for a year or two, sometimes never. They're only alive to make money.
More subscribers = more money = more new content (they have much more money than they need)
Less subscribers = less money = no new content, only maintenance and keeping the servers alive (this is when subscription money matters for keeping servers alive)
That is exactly why your idea would not work. There are many loopholes and workaround this idea that would not make it a viable option. People are looking at subscription fee as not only as an assurance that they would use it make new content for the game, the players are also looking at subscription fees as deterrent towards gold sellers and hackers/cheaters. This is why so many people are against your idea.
Just saying how every other online games whether its MMORPG or any other genre used to use this technique to save up money, and no, having a whole bunch of servers for a region costs a lot more than increasing your bandwidth to be able to accept 10 billions of people. But it isn't my call if intrepid don't want to save up its money then yeah let's have our MENA servers.
This wasn't my intention, I'm not here to roast anyone.
I knew that and I have already mentioned that before and how the $15 monthly subscription won't be a barrier anymore after leaking a hack/bot Read my last paragraph which would lead us to ask Intrepid to remove the idea of having harmonized prices and set the 15 buckets fees to all the players in order to avoid/decrease the probability of having hackers/botters.
Wish this could be true, but I can guarantee that even this is wrong. This isn't a reliable source (total surveys 2,598) and most people here don't do surveys people here either don't even know what is it for or have time for doing it most probably who did this survey are rich, yes getting paid 25k/month (which is 299,464/year) would make you be represented as rich. Here is the real statistics:
Most people here are getting paid 2,500 EGP/month which is 30,000 EGP/year (1,914.55 USD). This is why I'm telling you I even wish this could be true.
Sadly, I know right.. I'm just trying so hard and doing my best but unfortunately I know it is a closed end.
I understand that bro.
Thank you for these kind words. And thank you again for your empathy and for your understanding, and for reminding me that we are all connected.
Intrepid are going to be the first MMO developer to use AWS (other than New World, I assume), and as such what does and does not make sense for other games straight up doesn't apply to this game.
If you want a MENA server, the best thing you can do is get as many people from that region posting here, and ask Intrepid directly for one.
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So, please don't be so harsh on me and kindly support the idea and try to help me in figuring out a way to be able to become alpha/beta tester as the prices of the current packs after converting it to Egyptian pounds it is impossible to afford.
If you get a harmonized price, then you get a harmonized server. Period. They aren't going to let you play on the NA or EU Servers if you aren't paying the $15 USD.
There are plenty of rich people in Egypt. I studied abroad there in college. There are plenty of poor people in Egypt as well.
There are plenty of rich people in Brazil. There are plenty of poor people there.
There are rich people in the US, France, Germany, England, Poland, Belgium, etc.
There are poor people in all these areas as well.
If you have a computer that can play Ashes of Creation, you have the internet to play Ashes of Creation, then you can afford to pay the monthly subscription.
If you spend all your time in internet cafes, that might fix part of YOUR issue, but it doesn't fix the cost for Intrepid.
Intrepid still has to put a server in your region, they have to provide Customer Support, GMs, ops and sustainment, etc.
I'm sorry that you can't grasp the idea that nobody wants to open this pandoras box of potential gold sellers, bots, etc.
Ashes won't be for everyone....and that's ok. There is an audience for Ashes, and there are people who may have to find another game.
Intrepid may put a server in your region for a $5 monthly. They may not. It all depends on if it is profitable or economic for Intrepid to do so.
The problems are among many
* VPN´s and anyone just claiming their location is something it´s not
* Other regions claiming foul play
* Other regions demanding lower rates for them
* A new form of gold selling, but now it´s region IP´s or something
At launch , i do not see too high of an reality of a regional server at a lower cost, but you never know.
What i would say is the core problem, is that of proving that you are one living in these areas.
If THAT problem could fully be solved, that´s a start, but it has to start there as i see it.
How, i do not know, but if i come to think of one i´l be sure to post it.
Nice assumption, I've a PC that can play AoC on ultra settings and have a stable internet to play AoC but NO I cannot afford to pay the monthly subscription. No need for such an assumption if you don't know our reality. if there was any possibility I could be able to afford the game I won't be here thinking for almost 3 weeks how to have harmonized prices for us on EU/NA servers. And it's not about being "POOR" or "RICH" matter....... this is really messed up.
Actually by this logic, getting caught would make the income of the intrepid's studio much bigger as the assumed players would just try to trick the system over and over and pay much more over and over.
*Other people after how I showed/declared/mentioned that all the other online games used to increase their server bandwidth to handle EU and MENA players instead of having MENA servers not because MENA players aren't that much but because they pay less money and save much more so its better for the studio to use the same technique: jUsT AsK fOr mENa SErvErs.
Intrepid have already stated what they are willing to do to help out regions such as yours. You are literally shitting on the helping hand they are offering with comments like If it were up to me, I wouldn't even consider looking at a MENA server based on this thread and the last. The people posting from those regions in those threads are people I would be happy to not have as customers if it were my company.
I mean, you offer a helping hand - one that you are under no obligation to offer and that will likely result in your company making less profit over all - and the thanks you get are comments like the above.
You must be fun at parties lmao..
Finally, good to show your true nature. Thanks god that you are in no position to consider or to not. Also I would like to avoid this type of people like you in the game/real life, hope the game would be mainstreaming worldwide so the probability of seeing you in-game by coincidence would be 0.00000001% for just a millisecond.
What about waiting for their response? who knows.
Calm down, ignore him and hopefully wait for intrepid's response I hope they hear you.
What effort? All he has done is come up with a different version of "I want to pay less". His latest suggestion would actively cost Intrepid even more money in needing to monitor locations of everyone playing the game.
If you remember back in the last thread, Intrepid said this The key part of that is the last little bit... Their current plans are regional servers, so you have your answer from Intrepid- as we have all been saying.
If either of the two of you want to put any effort in to it (as you wrongly claim has already been done), then put that effort in to asking for a MENA server, as that is how Intrepid have stated several times they intend on assisting people in regions such as yours.
You may not like my responses, but that is because I am simply being blunt and honest. I am giving you the correct answer, which isnt what you want to hear. That isnt my problem, all I am concerned with is passing on the correct information - 2which in this case is that the proposals made are absolutely not in Intrepids best interest, and their current plan is to support regions such as yours by having regional servers.
I mean, I even pointed this out in the other thread with a real world example of how the EU pays up to 30 times more for power as parts of MENA, which is why it is viable to run servers in these regions and offer players in these regions a lower subscription.
Those are my thoughts, too, @FuryBladeborne.
I'd like to play with our gamer friends in Egypt and other parts of the world ... but only Intrepid can crunch the numbers to see if it's even viable to offer a lower subscription fee or local MENA server.
Given the additional financial overhead needed to make this idea work (along with the game genre Ashes is in), my skepticism is high at the moment.