Originally posted by DanitaKusor

It woud be interesting to no the exact legal issue they are having so then players in europe could lobby their politicians to sort things out.  Probably wouldn't fix things but would be nice to know exactly what is the issue.

One issue I can think of is VAT. Americans don't pay VAT... so if you bought the NA version to use in the EU and didn't pay VAT then they'd send the crushers to your house and turn your family into soylent green.

I think the US also has laws about exporting 100 year old cryptography, like simple XOR, and since Canada is a US territory they probably have the same rules.

It's all very complicated and messy. Much too complicated for us common folk to fully understand.

It'd be nice to hear about the exact reasons why things are the way they are, but I don't suppose if it's a contract issue... ie: X company has agreed to host servers for GW2 given profit on regional sales and doesn't want to miss a single red cent, that they'd be too happy to share that with us.

Originally posted by OldManFunk

Originally posted by DanitaKusor

It woud be interesting to no the exact legal issue they are having so then players in europe could lobby their politicians to sort things out.  Probably wouldn't fix things but would be nice to know exactly what is the issue.

I think the US also has laws about exporting 100 year old cryptography, like simple XOR, and since Canada is a US territory they probably have the same rules.

lol wat?

Like the others have said, ArenaNet is looking for a way to accomodate customers that move between continents. I think they should sell an "Internationa Edition" that is $10 extra and can be played regardless of continent.

I'm not very good at geography and may not have a good grasp of how the world actually works.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by ionxeel

Originally posted by tfoges

If none of you can figure out their reasoning behind this then I have little hope for the advancement of the human race.

A. Hypothetical-If your in Canada, would it not make sense to play on a Canadian based server? Not only for community purposes but also so that the connection to the server based in Canada be faster.

B. If you live in EU, and are playing on a CA based server, it would have a terrible drag on connection to said server, causing not only yourself to lag but say if 1000 people from EU are connecting to a CA server could cause server wide connectivity issues.

Anet just wants people to play on the servers that will benefit them the most community/connectivity wise. If you have a max lvl toon then you move, just server transfer, it's why the feature is there.

I don't think you understand how the whole thing works. It's not about being able to play on different servers. It's about not being able to play at all if you move to a different zone. Let me explain. If I buy the game in Canada, I will not be able to use that account to play the game when I move to Europe, because I'll be playing from Europe. Also ANet already stated that you'll be able to play on servers in a different zone, for example EU servers from NA.

Actually you can still play from the EU you would be directed through the NA data servers though. Same with GW1 (I moved the other way around) I was told there is not a mechanic in place to switch account to a different data server but there will be with #2.

If your in EU and choose and EU server but brought the game in NA you still route through the NA data server for ping of 180-450

wasnt there a single world wide server in GW1?

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by ionxeel

Originally posted by tfoges

If none of you can figure out their reasoning behind this then I have little hope for the advancement of the human race.

A. Hypothetical-If your in Canada, would it not make sense to play on a Canadian based server? Not only for community purposes but also so that the connection to the server based in Canada be faster.

B. If you live in EU, and are playing on a CA based server, it would have a terrible drag on connection to said server, causing not only yourself to lag but say if 1000 people from EU are connecting to a CA server could cause server wide connectivity issues.

Anet just wants people to play on the servers that will benefit them the most community/connectivity wise. If you have a max lvl toon then you move, just server transfer, it's why the feature is there.

I don't think you understand how the whole thing works. It's not about being able to play on different servers. It's about not being able to play at all if you move to a different zone. Let me explain. If I buy the game in Canada, I will not be able to use that account to play the game when I move to Europe, because I'll be playing from Europe. Also ANet already stated that you'll be able to play on servers in a different zone, for example EU servers from NA.

Actually you can still play from the EU you would be directed through the NA data servers though. Same with GW1 (I moved the other way around) I was told there is not a mechanic in place to switch account to a different data server but there will be with #2.

If your in EU and choose and EU server but brought the game in NA you still route through the NA data server for ping of 180-450

wasnt there a single world wide server in GW1?

Yes but based on where you brought the box is from which data server you pass. For example I brought mine in the UK in 2005 and had a 34 or so ping, moved to Canada and it went right up, even if I played on EU or NA server. Double whammy. From my understanding GW2 will be the same. In GW 1 they were unable to relocate me to a NA data server so I just had to bear with it.

What's funny was my wife was playing from same location in NA with a less than 50 ping and mine was 5 times hers. My tracert was all over the place.

Originally posted by DanitaKusor

It woud be interesting to no the exact legal issue they are having so then players in europe could lobby their politicians to sort things out.  Probably wouldn't fix things but would be nice to know exactly what is the issue.

Yeah lets bring politicians into it! Brilliant! lol

PS I know there are no legal issues. 

I'm not saying this is a good solution, but it is one that can be used if they do region lock accounts (i.e. trying to play a NA installation on an EU connection is blocked completely, not just routes through the NA data center):

TOR gateways. Proxies. Etc.

Basically spoof your IP address so that the servers think your are local. It might add some time to you ping (definitely wouldn't play competitive on it) but you could at least log in and do some PvE stuff.

Originally posted by fundayz

Originally posted by OldManFunk

Originally posted by DanitaKusor

It woud be interesting to no the exact legal issue they are having so then players in europe could lobby their politicians to sort things out.  Probably wouldn't fix things but would be nice to know exactly what is the issue.

I think the US also has laws about exporting 100 year old cryptography, like simple XOR, and since Canada is a US territory they probably have the same rules.

lol wat?

Like the others have said, ArenaNet is looking for a way to accomodate customers that move between continents. I think they should sell an "Internationa Edition" that is $10 extra and can be played regardless of continent.

 

Ya I had a chuckle over that line too. Not sure if he is trying to be funny or insulting.

Anet will announce a solution 1 week before release. Not explaining what it is though. 1 Year after release people will discover they had removed regionlocking all together or it was never actually in.