Since it got announced that the Danish Universes are going to the be merged the upcoming 4 of april 2012.
Then i thought to make it easier for my fellow Team and users, therefor i asked Kebab for an interview.
Plus i used his very nice FAQ´s and walkthrough and translated them to make the merge go as smoothly as possible.
I hope this can be used for other upcoming Merges around the globe.
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First and foremost, I would like to thank Kebab for giving this interview.
Hope you will introduce yourself, so the readers have an idea who you are.
Hi, I’m Kebab, I’m a Student from the UK studying Chemistry. I’ve been playing OGame for quite a few years now, too many to keep track of
What is your specific role in OGame?
Did you have a trial account that went through the merge?
In .org we had 2 target universes for the first merge, I sent an account to each universe. Both of these merged successfully, keeping all but one of the planet positions (the one that moved, was moved within the same system).
For the second merge my account was already in the target universe.
What tasks did you have in your role during the merge?
As a member of OGameTech I was part of the testing and improving of the merge process from when Gameforge started to develop the idea to its final outcome.
To help players understand the merging process I created two guides that I really recommend reading: FAQ & Tutorial
Has your merge been successful? Why?
The .org mergers have been quite successful in my opinion, it has received a lot of positive feedback from the users, and the vast majority of active players have moved their accounts without any real problems. Gameforge put in a lot of time and effort to ensure the process went as smoothly as possible, this meant frustrating delays but the finished product is worth the wait.
How much compensation has been given in the form of free planet movements and coupons?
As far as I’m aware coupons haven’t been sent out yet as the universes are yet to be finally deleted. But as for relocations there have been quite a few, but not as many as a lot of players anticipated. If you select your universe early then you won’t have any issues with planets being moved.
Has the overall merging process proceeded as planned from start to finish?
Yes I’d like to think so, Gameforge gave the players more than enough time to prepare and take part in the merging process. Within a week of being able to choose a target universe so many players had signed up for the merge that all the slots in one of the Universes had been filled!
Are there certain parts of the merge process that players were unsure of?
Many were unsure about what would happen with their alliance, buddylist and fleet movements at the time of the merge. These are all answered in my FAQ.
The merge process is a really straight forward process so it’s easy for the players to understand what to do.
Have there been some technical difficulties where players have lost their accounts?
No, all accounts were successfully merged to the new target universes. Just one bit of advice though, on the day of the merge log out of your accounts manually using the log out button to avoid losing some of that day’s resource production. There were a few reports of that happening, but in the grand scale of things it’s not a big problem.
Have certain stages of the merging process been particularly challenging?
From my point of the view the hardest part was probably the wait, and trying to keep players interested in the game while this was developed. Many players believed the Merge to be a hoax and a lie by Gameforge, but it’s good to see the finished article slowly being rolled out.
Probably the hardest part of the Merging Process is the planning, it’s not an easy decision for the CoMas and Product Director to decide what universes will merge where, and remember you can never please everyone
How many accounts out of the total number of accounts have been deleted?
So far the old universes haven’t been deleted yet, but I don’t think many players have been lost, most of the accounts to be deleted are the old banned with DM accounts.
Have any unforeseen challenges arisen after the merge?
In the first .org merge it was pretty smooth, but in the 2nd there was only one Target option given, this was potentially problematic for players with multiple accounts.
How was it resolved?
Thankfully Gameforge listened to the players on this and added universe 20 as an option only for the players that already had an account going to the first Target.
How have the users received the merge before and after?
The users in general seem very pleased with the merger, personally I still can’t believe how active the new universes are, I can’t remember the last time I was probed this much!
Now that your merge is over, how has team members received it?
The teams all seem happy with the merge, especially the Game team; the crisis on lack of GOs isn’t quite so bad now we’ve lost 37 universes
Overall everyone is just relieved that it’s finally happened after such a long wait, and I’d like to thank the users for their patience throughout the process.
Good luck to all the players in your new Target universes
Hope you will introduce yourself, so the readers have an idea who you are.
Hi, I’m Kebab, I’m a Student from the UK studying Chemistry. I’ve been playing OGame for quite a few years now, too many to keep track of
What is your specific role in OGame?
- OGame Tech – Tech member
- OGame.org – GO and Mod
- OGame.us – SGO and Mod
- OGame.Origin – Board Supporter and Supporter for Bugs
- GO and Support for the Origin Test Servers
Did you have a trial account that went through the merge?
In .org we had 2 target universes for the first merge, I sent an account to each universe. Both of these merged successfully, keeping all but one of the planet positions (the one that moved, was moved within the same system).
For the second merge my account was already in the target universe.
What tasks did you have in your role during the merge?
As a member of OGameTech I was part of the testing and improving of the merge process from when Gameforge started to develop the idea to its final outcome.
To help players understand the merging process I created two guides that I really recommend reading: FAQ & Tutorial
Has your merge been successful? Why?
The .org mergers have been quite successful in my opinion, it has received a lot of positive feedback from the users, and the vast majority of active players have moved their accounts without any real problems. Gameforge put in a lot of time and effort to ensure the process went as smoothly as possible, this meant frustrating delays but the finished product is worth the wait.
How much compensation has been given in the form of free planet movements and coupons?
As far as I’m aware coupons haven’t been sent out yet as the universes are yet to be finally deleted. But as for relocations there have been quite a few, but not as many as a lot of players anticipated. If you select your universe early then you won’t have any issues with planets being moved.
Has the overall merging process proceeded as planned from start to finish?
Yes I’d like to think so, Gameforge gave the players more than enough time to prepare and take part in the merging process. Within a week of being able to choose a target universe so many players had signed up for the merge that all the slots in one of the Universes had been filled!
Are there certain parts of the merge process that players were unsure of?
Many were unsure about what would happen with their alliance, buddylist and fleet movements at the time of the merge. These are all answered in my FAQ.
The merge process is a really straight forward process so it’s easy for the players to understand what to do.
Have there been some technical difficulties where players have lost their accounts?
No, all accounts were successfully merged to the new target universes. Just one bit of advice though, on the day of the merge log out of your accounts manually using the log out button to avoid losing some of that day’s resource production. There were a few reports of that happening, but in the grand scale of things it’s not a big problem.
Have certain stages of the merging process been particularly challenging?
From my point of the view the hardest part was probably the wait, and trying to keep players interested in the game while this was developed. Many players believed the Merge to be a hoax and a lie by Gameforge, but it’s good to see the finished article slowly being rolled out.
Probably the hardest part of the Merging Process is the planning, it’s not an easy decision for the CoMas and Product Director to decide what universes will merge where, and remember you can never please everyone
How many accounts out of the total number of accounts have been deleted?
So far the old universes haven’t been deleted yet, but I don’t think many players have been lost, most of the accounts to be deleted are the old banned with DM accounts.
Have any unforeseen challenges arisen after the merge?
In the first .org merge it was pretty smooth, but in the 2nd there was only one Target option given, this was potentially problematic for players with multiple accounts.
How was it resolved?
Thankfully Gameforge listened to the players on this and added universe 20 as an option only for the players that already had an account going to the first Target.
How have the users received the merge before and after?
The users in general seem very pleased with the merger, personally I still can’t believe how active the new universes are, I can’t remember the last time I was probed this much!
Now that your merge is over, how has team members received it?
The teams all seem happy with the merge, especially the Game team; the crisis on lack of GOs isn’t quite so bad now we’ve lost 37 universes
Overall everyone is just relieved that it’s finally happened after such a long wait, and I’d like to thank the users for their patience throughout the process.
Good luck to all the players in your new Target universes