Information about bans

[sylverscale]

I’m streaming GWs or watch streams if I have time. Not always, but it’s fun for me.

I’m also not addicted. If I’m out and about, I don’t miss gems or feel like I have to log in.

However, as someone who is currently mostly housebound, the game is rather important to me. And I enjoy the events (not Arena, that’s not an event) so of course I want good events to happen.

I just ignore people who mock others for still enjoying the game and for wanting it to be better. They must have a very sad life if they come here to poop on others.

[thejaz180]

@Denthegod

The only other thing I do is encourage people to quit the game. If anything that helps the cause a whole lot more than coming in here and crying about how the devs are bending over the player base. Here’s the thing, I really don’t care what you people think of me. I’m just gonna sit here and do me just like you people are doing you. It’s not my fault I find what you people do hilarious.

The players who are expressing their frustrations are the ones who really enjoy playing the game—the fans of the game. Feedback from them helps a company. A company that pays attention to these benefits. Constructive criticism and feedback, both positive and negative, help.

This is what pushes a company to improve. Encouraging players to quit will only help those who have had enough, those who don’t want anything to do with the game or any of its features. While those who do want to have something to do with the game will continue to push a company in the direction that the players want. It’s up to the company to follow this direction or not, but the company will only know which direction the players want to go based on the feedback.

I do question some of the features that were implemented in the game and ask myself, “Why did they do that?” but of course only they know the answer, and of course they will hear how the players feel about it, and of course they will see how they can fix things. The game was made for us; they didn’t make it for themselves; it was made for players to enjoy. Again, encouraging people to quit the game doesn’t help a company fall; their wallets need to hurt, stocks need to go down, etc. People have a choice to pay for features, and people enjoy this game; encouraging people to quit will only help those who don’t want anything to do with the game or any of its features.

I like this game a lot, and I have high hopes. What I find hilarious are the comments that are funny and make me laugh because they’re hilarious, but what I don’t find hilarious is a company that doesn’t show any signs that it’s heading in the right direction. It’s a new year, so we’ll see how things go, but whatever, right?

[sylverscale]

You don’t see the irony, do you?

How’s life under the bridge?

[sls]

Denthegod is just Sirrian’s troll alt

[Rockwell]

@Denthegod

I’d rather be the guy laughing at the people getting punched in the face than be the guy that gets punched in the face.

If only there was a solution that didn’t involve anyone being punched in the face…

[sylverscale]

Yeah, I knew you wouldn’t see it. Needs some self reflection to figure it out and that’s seemingly not your forte.

You’re really funny, talking about people liking to get punched in the face when you’re the only one in this thread asking for it.

All the others don’t want it to happen but you actively come here to try to rile up people so they’ll clap back at you.

You say you laugh but I think life under the bridge is very sad and lonely if any attention is good attention to you.

Here, have some. Wouldn’t like you to go unfed.

[Tabu]

You guys fed him, now they will lock the thread. Exactly what it wanted.

[sylverscale]

Other players flagged you because you’re being obnoxious, that’s all. If they would actually mod you, you’d be unable to post at all.

But keep up your delusions. It’s amusing.

[Eika]

@Denthegod Reddit next for ya! Safe travels!

[Lucien]

@kafka ban this idiot above please

[ORKKI]

[Hipp619]

Originally, I saw vault weekend scheduled for January 13th and it was changed to arena. So technically we are not getting an extra vault weekend. Also, I’m not clear on your explanation for time played. People are saying we will get full rewards for the gnomes we defeat, regardless of how fast we kill them. Is this correct?

[ANGI]

@Kafka when do we get information about changing back Krinkle’s spell?

[AMT]

@anon6277487

I think Kafka had the talking to from the boss after his/her last replies. It was not customer friendly.

We’ve seen worse from that mod over the years (with the corresponding loss of income for the company due to customer dissatisfaction), and the powers that be continue to allow it instead of finding someone with the necessary soft-skills to interact with customers.

Had some hope for Jeto, but seeing how she’s been MIA except for the auto-posts makes one wonder if she was less morally willing to convey some of the dubious ‘truths’ (e.g. Arena Vault Weekend) that this company broadcasts periodically…

Can we get @Hawx as our mod?
#WishfulThinking

[Fourdottwoone]

@Hipp619

Also, I’m not clear on your explanation for time played. People are saying we will get full rewards for the gnomes we defeat, regardless of how fast we kill them.

It just means that the more active players will get more rewards out of the vault event, because they will be playing more. Which is sort of fitting, because those more active players were also impacted more by the bans. There won’t be any changes to gnome rewards, they will still be scaled down to around 10% for fast players.

[icy]

@anon6277487

I think Kafka had the talking to from the boss after his/her last replies. It was not customer friendly.

tbh I don’t care about friendly or not happy sunshine or those regular “just words” completely meaningless apologies, so inflationary used that by now the textline is saved in sowwy.txt to just copy&paste it in…
what I care about is a working game, not being lied to by employee(s?) on a regular basis, getting correct information when you ask about something and not just maybe by repeated asking about it, and fast fixes if bugs occur, and regular status updates if some announced fixes take longer and what’s the cause of it.

is noone in this company able to remote access anything on a weekend? everyone at home at the same time? office abandoned?

---

Kafka this would be a good time to chime in and explain some things again. this time with the truth that was missing last time.
Jeto, if you care you can chime in too.
any other mod/dev whatever feel free to take the lead on explaining the current situation(s).

just make things right and handle stuff truthful in the future.

if the further plan was/is to just reduce gnome vaults (completely?) than just announce it as that and the playerbase will be unhappy. everyone has the information needed and can adjust - but we’re not being lied to. you’re not being caught lying. everyone would be way more happy.

[Fourdottwoone]

@icy

is noone in this company able to remote access anything on a weekend? everyone at home at the same time? office abandoned?

It was Christmas weekend, the issue was worked on and resolved. Whoever volunteered for cleaning up that mess really deserves some praise. It probably wasn’t the same person who caused it.

[Courtaud]

@Fourdottwoone

It was Christmas weekend, the issue was worked on and resolved. Whoever volunteered for cleaning up that mess really deserves some praise. It probably wasn’t the same person who caused it.

It shouldn’t be about volunteering. In a company offering services 24/7/365 all over the world, someone should always be available as a matter of fact. We aren’t talking about a mom’n pop shop where everyone has a right to stay home at the same time (even if usually they don’t).

Nevermind the endearing habit to put out new things Friday just before disappearing all together until Monday. We are customers, not beta testers.

[Fourdottwoone]

@icy

just make things right and handle stuff truthful in the future

A somewhat more extensive analysis:

1.) Ban compensation more than just missed the mark

The ban wave hit the most active players. Those players also have a high participation level in weekly events, which requires purchasing extra event sigils. It’s quite common to go for shop tiers 1 - 6, for a total of around 1500 gems, paid in advance. The sigils ended up expiring unused, because players were locked out till after the event. The “compensation” mail might as well have read:

“Hey, we messed up, so the 1500 gems you paid ended up being wasted. Terribly sorry, here’s 200 gems as compensation, now our mistake will only have cost you 1300 gems. Merry Christmas.”

For anything to be called compensation it should at least make up for the direct damage caused, especially damage that can be calculated as easily as this one.

2.) Kris is still missing the maps from his spell

Players bought event sigils and grinded the holiday event to gain a way to farm treasure maps. The maps were removed as a first guess at what might be causing the bans, which ultimately proved to be wrong. The ban issue has been declared fixed, the maps haven’t been returned to the spell yet, any questions regarding this matter get ignored in a way that appears to be quite deliberate. This is beginning to feel like an intentional nerf supposed to stay, due to someone realizing that treasure maps also get sold for real money.

3.) Vault events have been nerfed

This is actually unrelated to Krinklemess, it just happens to contribute to the perfect storm. Vault events are getting removed, or at least made more scarce, possibly to make room for a new event in the event cycle (Treasure Hunt, as a very uninformed guess). It looks like the decision was already taken prior to Krinklemess, in the first weeks of December. Apparently it’s not something supposed to get communicated, Kafka kind of stumbled into it, things went rapidly downhill form there.

Summing it up

First reactions and communication were excellent, up to and including the explanation on what had happened. And then it all went belly-up in true and tried Infinity Plus Two fashion:

• Somebody who doesn’t know anything about the game at all decides on “compensation”, adding insult to injury.
• Inconvenient questions in regards to still unresolved items first get dodged, then treated as complaints.
• The whole Community Team pulls a disappearing trick that would make Houdini proud, never to be seen again in any thread related to the topic.

This might be a good opportunity to suggest yet again that proper communication in both directions can actually prevent more issues than it creates.

[Dust_Angel]

@Fourdottwoone

Vault events are getting removed, or at least made more scarce, possibly to make room for a new event in the event cycle (Treasure Hunt, as a very uninformed guess). It looks like the decision was already taken prior to Krinklemess, in the first weeks of December.

EDIT.
I was misremembering things and got corrected. Hiding erroneous part out of immediate sight now (unfortunately, I don’t find it entirely outside realm of possibility, given right circumstances, but this time was not that case).

Summary

For what it’s worth, Vault event was in the spoilers (call it preliminary schedule, if you will) up to Christmas Bangate, after Christmas it was already Arena in spoilers, so it seems that whatever “subject to change” magic card was played it happened during two-three day window of dealing with ban spree.

Obvious short term goal is, of course, a possibility to use the removed vault event as “extra compensation event” at some unknown time to cheap their way out of the mess they created. (Well, in case players start asking for vault event as compensation; if nobody here had mentioned it, the event, I suspect, would’ve simply disappeared without a word, not even returned as “extra vault event”.)

Long term - reducing and reducing vault events sounds quite possible.
Take away the only event that allows newer players to catch up? - Sure thing.
Make Tarot Cards effectively paywalled and not available to free-to-play folk? - Absolutely.