Feedback regarding reddit post and start of the rebrand / Questions as well.

Hi, “Tera-Europe”! o7

I wanted to write a first impression and wish/feedback post regarding the upcoming Tera-Europe classic server and rebrand of your setup as a whole. I will do my best to write constructive criticism with clear arguments why I feel the way I do.

Disclaimer: I am an ex- Tera EU veteran. I’ve played the Betas, as well as Early access, Subscription era and F2P era for years before finally calling it quits. I’ve seen Frogster and Gameforge both run the game to the ground. I have also ran and hosted my own private server for another kMMO (Ragnarok Online, you might have heard of it) a few years back, so I am accustomed to the work that goes into hosting and maintaining a private server and community.

Let’s talk about the reddit post first, since that's how I got here myself and I am assuming it's your current biggest platform to attract new players with marketing. I will also talk about the “rebrand” in my arguments as well.

AI Post

I think using AI to help write a marketing / announcement message is not inherently an issue, but the way it was executed here, is not really great. In short...

1. The first argument is that it sounds “cringe” and not really human.
2. There are clear mistranslations (or poorly written text) in sections where you seemingly did not run it through a translation machine.
3. There are confusing parts, such as transferring between servers.
4. There is a clear lack of useful information when it comes to the server.
5. You are trying to announce two things at once, which is overwhelming and difficult to understand for a new player. (1. You are rebranding to Tera-Europe. 2. You are opening a new classic server) Both require a lot of work and effort and this post does a really poor job at portraying your commitment to making it happen.
6. Way too much fluff text that repeats basically the same context without providing useful information. The post could be cut short and made to look and flow more professional in my opinion.
7. No discord mentioned or provided. The link provided does not actually bring you to any Classic portal, be it inside the forum or otherwise, and instead brings you to the general front page, which is all German.

Let's talk about the points in detail:

1. “The first argument is that it sounds “cringe” and not really human.“
   • It gives a lazy first impression (vibe) to the overall post and your image.
   • I don't know your server (Tera-Germany) or your community at all, but this is the first impression I got, which is unfortunate because I bet you guys really care and are amazing, but the way the text is written is just really off-putting to me.
2. “There are clear mistranslations (or poorly written text) in sections where you seemingly did not run it through a translation machine.” (By comparing your original german post and the english one.)
   1. “we got a forums post at https://crazy-esports.com and i will look at it for a good ping from eu”
      • This should be rewritten, as it currently makes little sense and really shows a contrast between (Auto Ai generated and translated) and manual human written text.
      • Suggestion: “We are currently preparing our Forum and Discord server to include new >Tera-Europe Classic< sections. We are also currently in the process of rebranding to “Tera-Europe”. You can find our current Tera-Classic information channels here: [>insert relevant link<].
        You can also expect a low ping if you are playing from within Europe, connecting to our server hosted in Germany.”
   2. “But note: Going back from 64-bit to 32-bit is not technically possible.”
      • Translating “technisch” to “technically” in a literal sense is not a good idea (and google/Ai doesn’t really know this). I would rewrite it as:
        “Going back from 64-bit to 32-bit is not possible on a technical level.”
3. “There are confusing parts, such as transferring between servers.”
   • A reddit comment already confirmed my suspicion. People are confused and it seems like you did not write an official answer to address the confusion. (So far)
   • In my opinion, the reddit post needs to be separated into two major sections:
     1. The rebrand from Tera-Germany to Tera-Europe.
     2. The opening of a new classic server, known as “Tera-Europe-Classic”.
   • Write clear details about each of these (major) commitments so that players understand what's going on and what it means for them.
4. “There is a clear lack of useful information when it comes to the server.”
   • Another reddit post effectively asked the same question: What makes your server classic?
   • What are the endgame dungeons/raids? What’s the max level? Will there be nexus events?
   • What custom features have you implemented? Is there modding support (toolbox/similar)
   • Do you have DDOS protection? (a common issue with current Tera Classic NA)
   • Did you rebalance anything? (OP Gunner comes to mind, especially when you want to provide a BALANCED PVP and endgame environment)
   • Do you have the skill rework in place? (Eg. Warriors gain their important skills much earlier, instead of level 60 (scythe))
   • There are a bunch of these questions that come to my mind, all which I'm sure other players would like answered as well, at a first glance.
     Remember, the average attention span of potential new players is very short when they don’t know anything about you
5. “You are trying to announce two things at once, which is overwhelming and difficult to understand for a new player.”
   • As mentioned at “3.” I would re-format and re-write the post to clearly separate both commitments and how you plan to implement them.
6. “Way too much fluff text that repeats basically the same context without providing useful information.”
   • Not much to say here, any human being can tell the post is written by AI.
   • In my opinion / what I would like to see:
     Make a more informative post. Describe the server configuration and plan for the classic server. What kind of content is available, what kind of (major) balance changes have been made. Your commitment to the recreation of a true classic experience. You have a lot of fluff text that modern society would consider “cringe”, such as:
     “Because Tera lives - through you” or “[Emoji] Battle awaits. A world is reforged.” “Lancer blocks with honor” etc etc.. The whole post sounds like a failed attempt at an elevator pitch. The Tera(p-server) community isn't some oil prince in Saudi that will be impressed by these salesman words. I hope that makes sense.
7. “No discord mentioned or provided.”
   • I know I might get a lot of shit for this opinion, but I will be frank: Use and promote discord as your primary source of information and communication. Forums, as much as we Germans love them, are incredibly archaic and very 2005. Every gaming community uses discord first and foremost, websites to register or information is very much secondary. Tertiary I would even say, since social media is second. Websites are important to handle back-end stuff like accounts, monetization, server statuses, etc. But other than that, I would highly suggest you promote your discord environment as your first choice of contact. (Download links, register links, server status, news, etc)

I am personally not a huge fan of the entire “Transfer your character to Tera-Germany(Modern)” part.

1. It’s confusing to many players, as can be seen in the reddit thread. Using “Tera Classic” right now, means to a lot of people that you are talking about a different server to most new folks around reddit / tera p-servers. (The canada hosted one)
2. My first impression I got when I heard this:
   “They don’t really care about Tera classic and only see it as a stepping stone to funnel into their main server.” Which is a terrible idea.
   • You cannot transfer from WoW classic to WoW Retail either. The servers have very distinct configurations and communities and probably monetization schemes. They should be treated separately as their own unique experience that you would like to offer to your players. I don’t want to join a server that shouts “We can close at any moment as we can just transfer you to modern tera server whenever we want to”.
     I want to hear you say : “We are committed to this classic experience with its own team working on it, here to stay forever.” I don’t think a transfer should even be possible because it makes no sense.
     If I want the modern experience, I play on the modern patch, if I want classic, I play classic.
     I don’t even want to be able to make a “mistake” by transferring and then being stuck on modern. I hope that makes sense.

Final note:

I’d like to see more relevant information in regards to downloading the new client/patcher, launch events, current known bugs/issues, rewards, etc.

I’d like to see your commitment to the rebrand and how you plan to execute it.

I'd also like to see the community move towards "english first, german second" if we are rebranding to Tera-Europe, english as communication language should be the primary one and represented everywhere as such. (but I also dont want to alienate the core german playerbase ofc)

Final Final Note:
Super excited to see you try to make this all happen and to try the classic server with a low ping as a EU player myself! 🔥😀

*mic drop*

I was honored to directly speak to OltSoldat earlier today to address both my post's concerns, but also to answer the questions written therein.

Here is the summary of my fun little interv-- chat with him!

Regarding the AI post itself

1. People using AI to help write texts isn't anything new, or unusual. I think we somewhat agreed that the issue is not using AI per-se but instead that the post was trying to do too many things at once and as such the outcome was a bit of everything and a bit of nothing while sounding a little cringe.
2. A new post will be made that focuses entirely on the European Classic Server announcement.
   

Regarding the server transfer (32bit-Classic to 64bit-Modern)

1. As the kind folks have already pointed out, this feature is not intended to "funnel players towards the modern (64-bit) server" and instead provide an option for players to try Tera in a different way once they might get bored of the classic environment, without having to start over entirely.
2. We talked about the possibility to instead "clone" the character to the modern 64-bit server, instead of transfering. This way the action is not "irreversable" and allows players to continue playing on the Classic 32-bit server, should they later change their mind.
3. Tera Europe Classic will be its own standalone service that will provide its own unique experience to players for many years to come.

Regarding Classic Server info, direction and decision making process

1. The EU classic server will be similar to other available classic Tera servers due to the fact that (currently) all private classic servers are being based on the same source files.
2. Custom changes will be made to provide a better QoL experience for players, without losing the "classic feel" of the server. (For example you probably don't want to wait in-front of a bonfire for 2 minutes in a dungeon because you lost all your stamina after dying once.)
3. The "Avatar Weapon System" is still in discussion. (Whether it will be active, or not.) However it was said that enabling or disabling the system is a very simple matter, so it's easy to change, if necessary.
4. Currently there are no confirmed changes to the skill progression system (e.g. when a character learns a new skill and how much damage the skill does) since making changes to the leveling process is not an easy task. However late game changes, such as changing the power of maxed out skills is much easier and might be done to balance classes in case of obvious outliers.
5. All(most) Tera Private Servers have to deal with DDOS attacks. This is an unfortunate truth and seems to be caused by the same third party, targeting various servers. There are steps taken to mitigate the issue, and some internal changes have been made to ensure that in case of a DDOS attack, not all in-game services will necessarily be affected.
6. Existing classes are meant to retain their identity, retaining their strengths and weaknesses. There are potential plans to add more classes in the future (beyond the Gunner and Reaper class), without interrupting the balance of the game.
7. Future content is a possibility (such as adding new dungeons, classes, items, etc. over time). So basically EU Tera classic could become something like a "progression server". (Similar to how WoW classic turned out)
8. There will be Toolbox support with whitelisted mods the server will allow. Various blacklisted ones will be blocked / banned, including those that simulate 0-ping or automate gameplay.

A quick summary of the 31.04 patch EU Tera Classic will run on:

• Guild Alliance system
• Guild Crusades with Sky castle support
• The old Stamina System with bonfires and charms
• Possibility for Nexus & Nexus Traverse instances
• Gunner class (and Reaper)
• Top Dungeons Sky Cruiser Endeavor (Hard) and Dreadspire
• Option to enable "Blast from the Past" system
  (Allows higher leveled players to matchmake in lower level instances with Gear equalization)
• Skill Awakening (New skills for all classes past level 60)
• VM4 Generation (PvE) and Renegade (PvP) as Best-In-Slot equipment.
• Gear refinement up to +15.
  
  Currently the staff is working on preparing a new website that will act as the new rebranded landing page for Tera Europe.
  
  Once there, you will be able to choose which server you want to download and play. (Classic or Modern) and visit the respective sub-page.
  
  A new launcher is being prepared for the Classic client and in the future the plan is to have a launcher that allows you to download and start both Game Versions. (Classic or Modern)