An Update: Alliance Roster Size Changes

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Hello everyone,

There's been a good deal of healthy discussion this week about the recent expanding of Alliance sizes for everyone and we wanted to provide you with an update.

An Explanation And Apology

Firstly, we apologize that the change came about with only a few days notice. Honestly, we were a bit surprised by some of the more negative reactions to the announcement. It's our belief that expanding the default Alliance size to 20 for all players is a positive improvement and ultimately benefits all Marvel Puzzle Quest players. The default member size of 20 also opens up possibilities for fun gameplay in the future. We failed to mention this as part of our reasoning behind the change and for that too, we apologize. We'll do our best to communicate with you better as we move forward.

Hero Point Refunds

As we stated previously, for folks who expanded their Alliances (beyond 5 slots) at any time during the month of October, 2014 - we will be returning any Hero Points they spent on expanding Alliance roster slots.

Additionally, we will be expanding the Hero Point refund to include ALL players who opened additional Alliance member slots (beyond 5) since we began offering the feature.

We hope to be able to begin offering the Hero Point refunds late next week. There's some back-end tech involved in making this happen that we're still getting in place. You won’t need to submit a ticket to Customer Service, you’ll simply see the refunds in-game. We'll make an announcement here in the forums when we begin issuing the Hero Point refunds.

Thanks very much for your passion, loyalty and support. It means a lot to us!

*UPDATE: Greetings. We're planning on issuing Hero Point refunds for Alliance roster slot purchases today (11/13/2014). Players who will be receiving refunds will see a push notification when they have received their Hero Points. Please allow up to 48 hours from today for the issuing of Hero Point refunds. Thanks for your patience!

Nellobee

Sacred bovine. They listened and did the right thing.
#backasacustomer.

Thank you!

Unknown

Great news!

Most of us did feel that expanding the default alliances was a good move, but invalidating the purchases that many of us made was not. I and I am sure many others are exstatic about this news.

Thank you for listening and givings us the heads up.

Unknown

Thank you for this great announcement. I would bet money that you were critical in relaying the messages to the developers and on behalf of the forum, thank you for showing us that you are not only listening, but being proactive for our benefit. I had honestly written the whole thing off as a lost cause, but now I am extremely optimistic that those of us who are fanatical enough to come to the forums are actually making a difference in how you guys see things.

A fact that is often thrown around alot is that the forum is only a tiny representation of the playerbase. My counter is that the forum is not a private club. Anyone can join in, and the few that do are showing that their love of the game is above and beyond that of the standard player. Knowing that this relationship is not one sided honestly makes me feel good.

Thanks again, and I eagerly look forward to the future of MPQ.

atomzed

"David wrote:

Moore"]
Additionally, we will be expanding the Hero Point refund to include ALL players who opened additional Alliance member slots (beyond 5) since we began offering the feature.

I am genuinely surprised! Especially that there will be AUTO refunds for ALL slots TILL the start of game. I thought that the management would not want to set a precedence, but it looks like they decided that goodwill is important this time.

It took them sometime to make the decisions, but hey, it's good that they take their time to make important decisions...

And.... well forummites, the petition works! (No thanks to me, since I didn't ask for the refund).

Unknown

thank you for correcting your initial mistake. i look forward to being a part of this game and member of the alliance i helped expand for a long time to come.

Unknown

Thank you for listening to our input and for the apology!

Malevolentropy

Happy to see this, looking forward to getting my HP back. Thanks D3.

lukewin

Wow. They went above and beyond what anyone reasonable would've expected. I hope the affected people are appreciative of this gesture, and are as vocal with their gratitude, as they were with their displeasure. This is one of the rare times I've ever seen early adopters reap benefits from what they bought at a premium, enjoy the product (alliance slots), enjoy the rewards that came with the product (HP, ISO and covers), then get their initial investment back.

Unknown

As a point of clarification, you won't still have to be in the alliance for which you purchased the slot, will you? We've done lots of shuffling around and the guy who bought slots 16-20 has moved to our sister alliance now.

Unknown

"David wrote:

Moore"]Honestly, we were a bit surprised by some of the more negative reactions to the announcement.

You and me both. It's moments like this when I wonder if the playerbase ain't just a tad too whiny. It makes it harder to get across things that really matter (like character balance issues or the fact that releasing mystique with a Juggernaut Heroic sucks more than a sick crossbreed between Sasha Grey and a Hoover).

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Riggy wrote:

As a point of clarification, you won't still have to be in the alliance for which you purchased the slot, will you? We've done lots of shuffling around and the guy who bought slots 16-20 has moved to our sister alliance now.

Hi Riggy,

It's my understanding that the Alliance you are in now does not matter. We're looking at a player's history and verifying if they spent Hero Points on Alliance roster slots and how much they spent.

Unknown

I'm sure this will make history on the positive side.

You decided to interact with your customers when you created this forum, which is not that common. You learnt that the community can give you great amounts of feedback which you need to improve the game.

You are building/rebuilding trust among us which is the most important thing.

Many people are ready to push the button of the store (sometimes for the first time), it wouldn't take much to make the sales skyrocket.

You need to anticipate your customers' needs and not repair the goofs after you made them. But you're learning.

This time I will not say Thank you because you corrected an initial mistake, but Good Job.

Unknown

Budget Player Cadet wrote:

"David wrote:

Moore"]Honestly, we were a bit surprised by some of the more negative reactions to the announcement.

You and me both. It's moments like this when I wonder if the playerbase ain't just a tad too whiny. It makes it harder to get across things that really matter (like character balance issues or the fact that releasing mystique with a Juggernaut Heroic sucks more than a sick crossbreed between Sasha Grey and a Hoover).

What "really matters to you" is not always what matters to everyone else.

If you ask everyone to make a list of 10 things that MPQ did wrong in the last 13 months, with #1 being the worst and #10 being the least of the worst, you will get a wide variety of lists and a wide variety of orders.

So maybe this issue didn't matter to you, but can't you just take it as a company pleasing its customer base, be happy you are a part of the same customer base, and not have to spoil the moment with one last "whiny" dig?

Unknown

Thank you! This is very much appreciated and makes me much more willing to make further purchases in the future.

Unknown

Post Removed

I honestly had a brain fart and confused lukewin with someone who had been posting condescending remarks in the other thread. My fault, sorry.

mohio

Paintsville wrote:

lukewin wrote:

Wow. They went above and beyond what anyone reasonable would've expected. I hope the affected people are appreciative of this gesture, and are as vocal with their gratitude, as they were with their displeasure. This is one of the rare times I've ever seen early adopters reap benefits from what they bought at a premium, enjoy the product (alliance slots), enjoy the rewards that came with the product (HP, ISO and covers), then get their initial investment back.

Couldn't resist one last dig? Inferring that anyone who wanted reimbursement is "unreasonable"? And thank you for explaining what the "product" and "rewards" were. I wish you would have taken the time to explain what "premium" and "investment" also means, but you were probably to busy being condescending.

If you look back over the initial thread, most people were asking for partial reimbursement if they had purchased alliance slots prior to that one week/month period. I think this poster is merely saying that those people seemed measured and reasonable in their request of partial reimbursement. That there is a full 100% reimbursement surely goes beyond what many expected which was really at best 50%.

Wobby

I expect I will get back well over 1,000 HP ... Which is an extremely pleasant surprise,

Do I feel like it was "owed"?

No.

Early adopters who expanded their alliance and were competitive have more than reaped the rewards for that.
I didn't get the rewards, but that's because I was in a casual alliance.

This is probably a huge benefit for folks who laid out Hp when they really shouldn't have... And they are the ones that this will be a big benefit for. So great job D3 -- this is very very far above the call.

Unknown

mohio wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

lukewin wrote:

Wow. They went above and beyond what anyone reasonable would've expected. I hope the affected people are appreciative of this gesture, and are as vocal with their gratitude, as they were with their displeasure. This is one of the rare times I've ever seen early adopters reap benefits from what they bought at a premium, enjoy the product (alliance slots), enjoy the rewards that came with the product (HP, ISO and covers), then get their initial investment back.

Couldn't resist one last dig? Inferring that anyone who wanted reimbursement is "unreasonable"? And thank you for explaining what the "product" and "rewards" were. I wish you would have taken the time to explain what "premium" and "investment" also means, but you were probably to busy being condescending.

If you look back over the initial thread, most people were asking for partial reimbursement if they had purchased alliance slots prior to that one week/month period. I think this poster is merely saying that those people seemed measured and reasonable in their request of partial reimbursement. That there is a full 100% reimbursement surely goes beyond what many expected which was really at best 50%.

You are probably right. I honestly mixed up the names of forumites and thought I was responding to someone else.

lukewin

Paintsville wrote:

mohio wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

lukewin wrote:

Wow. They went above and beyond what anyone reasonable would've expected. I hope the affected people are appreciative of this gesture, and are as vocal with their gratitude, as they were with their displeasure. This is one of the rare times I've ever seen early adopters reap benefits from what they bought at a premium, enjoy the product (alliance slots), enjoy the rewards that came with the product (HP, ISO and covers), then get their initial investment back.

Couldn't resist one last dig? Inferring that anyone who wanted reimbursement is "unreasonable"? And thank you for explaining what the "product" and "rewards" were. I wish you would have taken the time to explain what "premium" and "investment" also means, but you were probably to busy being condescending.

If you look back over the initial thread, most people were asking for partial reimbursement if they had purchased alliance slots prior to that one week/month period. I think this poster is merely saying that those people seemed measured and reasonable in their request of partial reimbursement. That there is a full 100% reimbursement surely goes beyond what many expected which was really at best 50%.

You are probably right. I honestly mixed up the names of forumites and thought I was responding to someone else.

No offense taken. mohio got it right. The 100% return of HP is what I meant by above and beyond. I'll be the last one to criticize any decisions they make, disagree, maybe, but if I ever get to the point of wanting to give up the game, I'll just give it up and move on. I've gotten countless hours of fun out of the game for free. I'm a fan of match 3 games and the Marvel universe, so this game is perfect for me. Not a fan of whining or entitlement, so when I come across it on the forums, I do the same thing I do in real life, ignore, shake my head, and move on. I feed trolls when it's funny, but a few of the people on the forums like to discuss/argue way too much, about issues that are stemming from a Match 3 game. Not much to gain by winning a discussion on the internet.

IamTheDanger

Wow,.... I just dont know what to say here. All I really wanted was for them to show a little gratitude for their customers. But a 100% refund? I just, well I'm speechless.

To show how much I appreciate this gesture, I'm going to make a promise to D3 right here, right now, that however much Hp I get as a refund, I will match it by purchasing the same amount within a week or two of getting said refund.