In the fantasy MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online, the announced relocation of the EU servers to Europe is definitively off the table.
In early 2015, Lord of the Rings Online announced: We are moving to new data centers. The US servers are going to New Jersey, the EU servers are coming to Amsterdam. Great for everyone. This dragged on for a year until it was only in early 2016 that the actual move could take place, but: suddenly all servers were going to New Jersey, including the European ones. This was briefly announced in a stream and later confirmed.
It was said at the time: Let’s first see what happens before moving forward.
This phase is now over. This week, Turbine announced: The European servers will remain in New Jersey.
This will “best serve all players.” They now want to assign their technicians to take further measures to improve performance for Europe from New Jersey. However, this will take some time.
No EU relocation – serious accusations against Turbine
In the forum thread where this was announced, fans express their disappointment and make serious accusations against Turbine. The harshest accusation: Turbine never planned the move; it was a lie from the beginning to keep European players engaged. At least they should have informed that they would not be relocating months ago. Such a decision is not made overnight.
Mein MMO thinks: It is certainly a difficult situation for Turbine. Some MMORPGs of this “post-WoW generation” like Rift are in a similar situation. Revenues are certainly becoming tighter, while the demands and expectations of fans are even higher. And the relationship between players and developers seems to be, at least in the forums, noticeably strained.
With all understanding, the situation in Lord of the Rings Online is really difficult. Breaking a promise that was so important to many, which many had high hopes for and which stood for over 14 months, could severely damage the trust relationship. And the trust relationship of MMO players with the developers of their game is extremely important.
There are examples of unfortunate situations like in Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan, or ArcheAge that stuck to developers for a long time and likely had negative impacts on the studio and their future projects.
Even today, stories of breaches of trust that are nearly 10 years old can be heard regarding a new Funcom title.
MMO players are like the North: They do not forget.
