Spin Me Right ‘Round

[awryan]

@ctenn2ls

I might well be wrong as I haven’t submitted a report ticket in a long time. It just has that feel to me as someone who has worked with similar ticket/automation emails in my professional life that is has the vibe of stock language. Lol, then again, I’m just some dude on the internet.

It’s 100% an automated response chosen by a human that decided that the issue at hand isn’t worthy of a personal response.

When a player first submits a ticket they get an automated response acknowledging that a ticket has been filed.

90% of a time a player will get a genuine response.

This time (and times I’ve had personal experience with) any time a ticket is submitted where the devs could be legally liable due to bugs or gotcha type actions where players are mislead. A stock reply is sent back to the player to ensure that the dev doesn’t say anything legally liable.

It’s a text book response from a company that has only become worse in regards to player service every day since acquired by 505 Games.

I’d compare it to Cancer but at least cancer will show up on scans and x rays.

505 reps are the most cowardly reps in the world. Which makes sense I guess. If I sell my sold for a living I wouldn’t want to interact with my customers either.

[ekkusu]

i opened a ticket last monday (10/4) and got this response with no real answer or solution:

In which i replied with:

This seems like an edge case that you’ve overlooked, it specifically states in game “New Mythic Troop Exclusive to Glory, Gem, Guild & VIP chests for one week only” it has no mention of event key chests there. That’s very contradicting and confusing, this is disappointing for players like me who’ve wasted half a years worth of event keys here with no real resolution, so i wouldn’t consider this “Solved” at all.

How do you explain your in- game documentation:

They finally replied to me today (10/13) after the event has already been over for a week and a half. They closed my ticket and sent me here to this exact forum post.

So here i am, reiterating everything from the ticket i opened, I was lucky enough to pull AW from event keys on friday so i’m not as upset, but I did waste 4400 event keys beforehand based on their contradicting documentation regarding mythics on event chests.

[sylverscale]

The fact that they think their answers are acceptable and solve the issue is mind boggling.

I don’t blame @OminousGMan or @Jeto for this but the company behind it.

Silce the issue, stop pretending it was working as intended and people should have known.

You guys didn’t even know yourself.

Give players a way to trade one of their Yvendra copies for AW at least.

You messed that up so you should fix it.

Nowhere else but in games do people think stuff like that is acceptable.

[Danna]

I got the same reply as yours, so reading this post is the final solution from them and what we should do is pretending that nothing happened to our keys and gems? The game is great, but how they deal with these kinds of issues made us so disappointed.

[Fourdottwoone]

@ekkusu

They closed my ticket and sent me here to this exact forum post.

Open a new ticket, reference the closed ticket, insist that this solution isn’t remotely acceptable. Point out that the forum thread you are supposed to keep an eye on appears to have been abandoned. The last official participation is from over a week ago, contains claims proven to be incorrect and hasn’t been responded to in spite of multiple clarification requests.

This really needs to be made more public. Gaming company forgets to put advertised jackpot into paid for gashas, claims four year old community request as reason, refuses to refund or rollback because “it’s not a simple solution”, proposes to talk to the hand instead. I’ll probably be too busy, but just in case, would you be okay if I publish your customer experience?

[Snooj]

This is ridiculous.

Devs, you have literally stolen from players. You offered X but sold Y. Pretending you always only offered Y doesnt make that true.

Everyone effected by this, keep resubmitting your tickets until you’re refunded in some way. Publish your poor customer service for the community to see the theft. Devs, keep up your end of the sale transaction.

[Jonathan]

Maybe a differentiation here could be “working as intended, but not as advertised” (i.e. maybe they intended for the new Mythic to be exclusive if ever it was available in Event Chests, but failed to communicate that by reasonable standards, and in fact communicated the opposite).

[Kafka]

From this Monday’s weekly reset (ROUGHLY 7am GMT Monday 18th of October), a special recipe for crafting Arachnaean Weaver will be in the Soulforge. The recipe will cost half as much as the usual recipe for Arachnaean Weaver.

This recipe will be removed from the Soulforge on Monday 25th of October at ROUGHLY 7am GMT (weekly reset).

The time is ROUGHLY 7am GMT because this is a recipe that needs to be manually added and removed from the Soulforge.

I understand this isn’t one of the exact outcomes that was hoped for by everyone, but this was the best compromise we could come up with given this was working as intended.

Just for clarity, this is going to be our final response to this issue as this is all the information we have about it and what is being done about it. We will of course continue collecting your feedback though.

[TheIdleOne]

Well… hmm.

That doesn’t actually solve any of the problems of the resource drain due to false advertisement.

I get that a half price Weaver is nice and helps people that might not have been affected by this issue, but it really leaves the people affected by this issue the most (the people who spent resources) in a bad spot. Now those people have to spend more resources/different time gated materials to obtain something they should have had a chance to get in the first place from dev miscommunication (frankly, a dev error). Some of those people might not even have the diamonds for it.

This current issue didnt affect me, but if I applied it to the time where I spent Vault Keys attempting to get Heart of Rage after hundreds of Vault Keys with no actual proof it was in the drop pool, didn’t get it despite the devs claiming it was working as intended, and then was told I had to craft it to solve the issue, I’d be rather annoyed too. Just thinking about it now is already getting on my nerves.

@Kafka

Just for clarity, this is going to be our final response to this issue

If the devs aren’t confident with their own products and have to disappear instead of confidently settling any issues with its player base, why should I as player and a reoccurring customer have any confidence in their product?

How do I know any of my future key openings are safe?
How do I know any money related action is safe on Gems of War?
…
How do I know this game won’t just shut down one day with no warning?

I’ve been spending less time on this game this year as other games have been garnering my attention more. Seems like my decision isn’t a mistake.

[awryan]

@Kafka

From this Monday’s weekly reset ( ROUGHLY 7am GMT Monday 18th of October), a special recipe for crafting Arachnaean Weaver will be in the Soulforge. The recipe will cost half as much as the usual recipe for Arachnaean Weaver.

This recipe will be removed from the Soulforge on Monday 25th of October at ROUGHLY 7am GMT (weekly reset).

The time is ROUGHLY 7am GMT because this is a recipe that needs to be manually added and removed from the Soulforge.

You missed the part where you send each player affected by the Event chests fiasco 2k diamonds.

Personally I didn’t use any event keys chasing AW. So I shouldn’t get any diamonds in the mail. But I did advise all my fawrmily members to chase it if they don’t have AW. And your company made me a liar by making the chase a fool’s arrand.

I guess it’s “be a playa, not a paya” time since 505 Games won’t let you do the right thing without actual financial losses being a realistic fear. Sad, but okay then.

[Fourdottwoone]

@Kafka

I understand this isn’t one of the exact outcomes that was hoped for by everyone, but this was the best compromise we could come up with given this was working as intended.

This isn’t about “working as intended”, this is about “not working as communicated”. You are free to change price tags, you are free to change what you are offering, it’s your game after all. However, you are not free to bait and switch, if you advertise and sell a pound of apples it has to be a pound of apples, not a pound of apple cores you intended to be in the sealed box but neglected to tell about. The official Game Guides still claim as of today that Arachnean Weaver should have been in event chests.

@Kafka

From this Monday’s weekly reset ( ROUGHLY 7am GMT Monday 18th of October), a special recipe for crafting Arachnaean Weaver will be in the Soulforge. The recipe will cost half as much as the usual recipe for Arachnaean Weaver.

This sounds like the IP2 still hasn’t fully understood the issue at hand yet. Players bought your lottery tickets, to gamble on the big jackpot Arachnean Weaver. The officially published chance to receive one was slightly above 0.05%, the real chance to receive one was exactly 0%. Some players kept on gambling because they believed they were just unlucky, spending enough to receive Arachnean Weaver several times over if it really had been available as communicated.

Offering Arachnean Weaver at 50% discount for a week doesn’t address the issue. The crafting recipe uses a special currency, diamonds, that can’t be obtained in high enough quantity within the limited time frame to make use of the offer, even when spending more money. IP2 can’t possibly not be aware of this, so this “best compromise” feels highly irritating. Players are due either the pound of apples they bought or their money back, not some fictional discount that would require further investments if it could even be claimed.

@Kafka

Just for clarity, this is going to be our final response to this issue as this is all the information we have about it and what is being done about it.

Who would you suggest this should be taken up with? This appears to be a serious legal issue, outright refusing to address it might not be a wise choice.

[Grundulum]

@Fourdottwoone

Who would you suggest this should be taken up with? This appears to be a serious legal issue, outright refusing to address it might not be a wise choice.

It is possible that Infinity Plus Two cannot do anything else because 505 Games won’t let them. If we assume that the devs would like to do more, then going above their heads to the publisher is the next step. You could also check out whatever agency regulates gaming/gambling in your home country. Make sure you take time-stamped screenshots of the game content before it can be changed.

[sylverscale]

@Kafka

From this Monday’s weekly reset ( ROUGHLY 7am GMT Monday 18th of October), a special recipe for crafting Arachnaean Weaver will be in the Soulforge. The recipe will cost half as much as the usual recipe for Arachnaean Weaver.

Awesome. Fantastic!

Now you just need to send every affected player 2000 diamonds.

Might I also add that claiming it was “working as intended” without telling anyone is worth as much as promising something with your fingers crossed behind your back and then saying the promise didn’t count because of the crossed fingers.

[Fourdottwoone]

@Grundulum

It is possible that Infinity Plus Two cannot do anything else because 505 Games won’t let them.

Unlikely. I’m in contact with 505 Games about this, they claim this is Infinity Plus Two, they won’t step in while this is still being resolved.

For those not aware, similar incidents have happened several times the past years. IP2 never played fair, they always claimed it didn’t happen, claimed it didn’t really affect anybody, claimed it would be too difficult to compensate and ultimately claimed they considered the issue closed, usually hidden in some unrelated forum thread as few players as possible would stumble over.

[Grundulum]

@Fourdottwoone

they won’t step in while this is still being resolved

Fortunately, according to Kafka’s post, I+2 considers the matter closed.

[Snooj]

@awryan

You missed the part where you send each player affected by the Event chests fiasco 2k diamonds.

The soulforge recipe is fine if everyone who spent even one event key gets 2k diamonds.

Why on earth should someone who spent on event chests they saved over time or bought with money, now have to spend yet another resource?

[Fourdottwoone]

@Snooj

Why on earth should someone who spent on event chests they saved over time or bought with money, now have to spend yet another resource?

Well, if they were to send everyone a diamond for each even chest opened while they were faulty it would sort of balance out. That’s 2000 event chests for an Arachnean Weaver, which would roughly have been the expected average to pull one. It would be a compromise with some rough edges, but at least it would be a compromise that attempts to treat everyone in a somewhat fair way. It would also address the issue that it’s just not possible to gain 2000 diamonds within the next 10 days, after which the crafting recipe gets removed again.

[Magnusimus]

Seriously Gems of War, how do you fumble this so friggin’ hard? It astounds me.

How many people spend thousands of keys? A few? Dozens? I can’t imagine it was in the hundreds of players, so it would be so easy for you to knuckle down and make it right.

Give them their keys back. Mail everyone else in the game a “whoopsee” 50 gems, citing that people who didn’t spend weren’t affected anyway, and those who spend fewer keys would likely not have drawn the mythic even if they could (STILL really shady not to just roll back EVERY event key requested to be rolled back that week, but whatever).

That would buy so much good will and would likely avoid a lot of blowback from this forum and from reviews on app stores, etc… And you know what anybody who requested a rollback would still have lacked? Arachnaean Weaver. Which I’m sure they would have continued to be eager to spend money and/or other resources upon in the future, despite the disappointment at present.

So I’m flabbergasted. I just don’t understand how having this much egg-on-face can possibly be the better outcome than taking a one-time hit to the drain on event keys which you had no right to have in the first place.

Just such a shame. I can already see now that anytime anything goes wrong in the game in the future, people are going to cite this precedent. And it’s going to be part of a long legacy of incidents that, over time, have become more-egregious and less-deftly-handled.

To see a game I love to spend so much time on malign itself so hard hurts. I want the game to continue in a healthy way, despite the regular hiccups that I’m always either rolling my eyes at or gritting my teeth over.

I don’t want the game I like to play receive bad reviews or take revenue hits etc…, but when they’re well deserved what am I to do? What am I to say? There is no defense — you STOLE through false advertising.

So there it stands — and anytime anyone asks in the future, I and many others won’t be sweeping it under the rug, which sucks. But what choice have you allowed us but to do so, to protect other consumers and gamers by word of mouth?

[terberos]

I usually stay away from the most heated conversations, but that “working as intended”
really gave me the chills. Does it mean this worked for them just as was planned, cheating us to get the keys, such a poor response… Maybe they are thinking that the forum people are a little fish in the sea, but doesn’t most of us have at least 30 people behind us. I told about this “bug” to my guildies, when it came to light here. I also told them, that there is sure to be some compensation for this… (that was stupid, but I had faith) Now I’m not sure what to tell them… The fear of losing good players from the guild i’m in has been constant lately, because nothing really seems to work as intended for players. That fear is not shared with whoever is pulling the strings. i still have some faith…

[BUSCHKA25]

I don’t have a horse in this race, but I honestly think that GoW is making a huge mistake in not properly addressing the possible legal ramifications. Your own game documentation clearly states that AW would be in the drop table and it was not.

Bookmark this decision as the time when the game I love began its ultimate downturn.

Really, it would be so simple to rollback the affected, what 90-150 people.