Y'Dun Goofed!: A Monologue on Accountability/Compensation

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In the long history of online games, there have been moments where a few errant pieces of code here and there or an untested system can break an otherwise great experience. Here are a few examples of how some companies handle such moments:

Mobage gave players free power packs after they botched up Co-Op X to the point that it was

entirely broken to everyone in Marvel: War of Heroes.

Playdom gave players free challenge points and command points whenever they mess up their Special Ops or PVP in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

When Blizzard nerfs or buffs a card in Hearthstone, they change the dust (basically the currency to create cards) value of the card to the same price that it would be to create a new one so that people could sell it, get 1-2 new cards, and go on with their day.

So, what does D3/Demiurge do when a crisis of their own making comes along?

They give out only a few blurbs hidden behind hundreds of pages of threads saying that they know the event is broken. No in game announcement throughout the entire painful process saying that it was broken. No apology to the players that looked forward to a nice weekend playing a game they put their money and

trust into only to run into a train wreck. Not even a snarky post in the news/announcement section of the forums.

Now, I am not saying that every company I listed above needs to be perfect in exactly every way possible. Everyone has had some good ideas that fell apart under pressure now and then. But any organization should at the very least be accountable for their decisions and their repercussions.

Use that in game announcement feature to send out an apology so that more than 0.01% of your player base can see it. Gift everyone a Daredevil cover, or at least some Iso-8 and/or Heroic tokens.

It would literally be the least you could do.

Fellow forumites, Agree or Disagree?



P.S. I also felt that it was very disingenuous for D3/Demiurge to increase the sell back rate for Thor/Wolverine after their adjustments and then have multiple events in which they are nearly mandatory to have at a decent level in order to do well. It's not like I had a gun to my head that forced me to sell them, but the whole ordeal just seems hypocritical to the "being more transparent to our players" goal I thought was going on. Either way, I'm taking a break. Have fun, everyone.

NorthernPolarity

+1, although I would prefer iso/tokens as Daredevil is a pretty bad character.

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Oversoul wrote:

P.S. I also felt that it was very disingenuous for D3/Demiurge to increase the sell back rate for Thor/Wolverine after their adjustments and then have multiple events in which they are nearly mandatory to have at a decent level in order to do well. It's not like I had a gun to my head that forced me to sell them, but the whole ordeal just seems hypocritical to the "being more transparent to our players" goal I thought was going on. Either way, I'm taking a break. Have fun, everyone.

I very much agree with this. When they announced the increased sell back rate, they should also have advised people that they would feature in upcoming tournaments. The fact they didn't do this shows just how complacent they've become recently.

Unknown

I'm in a foul mood tonight after they've messed up this event and I genuinely feel bad when I criticise them because IceX has a **** job trying to be nice to people like me here.

But in the name of the pink and fluffy lord it is hard to escape the feeling that they have no clue what they are doing. They have a grandiose name for their studio and clearly enjoy the license but they're making a right old hash of it.

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DaveyPitch wrote:

Oversoul wrote:

P.S. I also felt that it was very disingenuous for D3/Demiurge to increase the sell back rate for Thor/Wolverine after their adjustments and then have multiple events in which they are nearly mandatory to have at a decent level in order to do well. It's not like I had a gun to my head that forced me to sell them, but the whole ordeal just seems hypocritical to the "being more transparent to our players" goal I thought was going on. Either way, I'm taking a break. Have fun, everyone.

I very much agree with this. When they announced the increased sell back rate, they should also have advised people that they would feature in upcoming tournaments. The fact they didn't do this shows just how complacent they've become recently.

There's no complacency. Right after The Reds made the announcement I immediately commented / asked / don't remember how I worded things but just straight didn't receive reply.

There can be many explanations for many things, but in this matter we simply weren't told they would be in upcoming tourneys because it's "bad for business"

Unknown

I agree 1000% about the wolverine Thor announcements of sell back followed a day later by two events they're required for or partial requirements for.

I sold my wolverine after he was changed so I could mess around with patch since he could still be used in the ongoing tournament. Now I'm kinda screwed for the current progression pve because everyone one of my high lvl chars is locked out with the exception of the one I just sold. Where's that respec!

Unknown

I've played a lot of F2P games and they all go out of their way to provide compensation for hiccups with patches, servers going down, holiday bonuses, etc.

Even small tokens go a long way in maintaining player loyalty.

It's kind of puzzling(pun) why this crew is so resistant to this common practice.

Unknown

I do agree some sort of olive branch is sorely needed.

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Toxicadam wrote:

I've played a lot of F2P games and they all go out of their way to provide compensation for hiccups with patches, servers going down, holiday bonuses, etc.

Even small tokens go a long way in maintaining player loyalty.

It's kind of puzzling(pun) why this crew is so resistant to this common practice.

It's weird, I sit here literally begging for reasons to spend money on the game. I'm a money player, I'm not ashamed of it but with the value spectrum being as far away from acceptable as it is it's the little things mentioned in the OP that talk me out of dropping that £69.99 on the game.

Unknown

Amen, dude. Everyone should get a free daredevil AND a free cover slot to put him in. The Thor and wolvie events only exist because of the backlash against the nerfs. Try telling people about these things BEFORE they sell their nerfed guys. I bet the increased buy back will "magically" disappear right as the Thor event finishes, so the people who thought ahead are punished for it.

Unknown

I think d3 goes beyond customer service and allowing for bonuses. I didn't like Thor wolverine timing and seemingly understand the sense of rubbing salt in wounds. That in my opinion is a marketing problem not a game problem. We as consumers sometimes don't appreciate how hard the developers have strived for a quality. Give me one mobile app that gives better customer service?

Unknown

Uh, destro, I have tried again and again to get customer service to no avail. That may just be me though. And marvel war of heroes has by far the best customer service of any f2p ive played. Every time they screw up, they own up to it and give out consolation items. A certain other developer of another marvel game could learn from this example.

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Typhon13 wrote:

Uh, destro, I have tried again and again to get customer service to no avail. That may just be me though. And marvel war of heroes has by far the best customer service of any f2p ive played. Every time they screw up, they own up to it and give out consolation items. A certain other developer of another marvel game could learn from this example.

Considering several people have gotten refunds (and if you dig in the forums you can even get a template that several people have used and received refunds from), I might chalk this up to either HOW you're trying to get in touch with CS, or perhaps using a defunct link. It's clearly not something everyone is experiencing.

And not to say D3 doesn't need some work (probably more than one CM would help *cough*), but in three years my experience with Mobage was always always terrible. A small pat on the back and a "here's some free items" doesn't make up for some of the terrible terrible choices they've made in both design (or in the case of some games, complete lack of content for months) and a complete LACK of regard for players. Rage of Bahamut is the greatest example (at one point they changed the ENTIRE Battle system of how skills processed, basically weakening almost every deck in the game across the board... stopping here so I don't ramble), but it's a long list.

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Telicis wrote:

Typhon13 wrote:

Uh, destro, I have tried again and again to get customer service to no avail. That may just be me though. And marvel war of heroes has by far the best customer service of any f2p ive played. Every time they screw up, they own up to it and give out consolation items. A certain other developer of another marvel game could learn from this example.

Considering several people have gotten refunds (and if you dig in the forums you can even get a template that several people have used and received refunds from), I might chalk this up to either HOW you're trying to get in touch with CS, or perhaps using a defunct link. It's clearly not something everyone is experiencing.

And not to say D3 doesn't need some work (probably more than one CM would help *cough*), but in three years my experience with Mobage was always always terrible. A small pat on the back and a "here's some free items" doesn't make up for some of the terrible terrible choices they've made in both design (or in the case of some games, complete lack of content for months) and a complete LACK of regard for players. Rage of Bahamut is the greatest example (at one point they changed the ENTIRE Battle system of how skills processed, basically weakening almost every deck in the game across the board... stopping here so I don't ramble), but it's a long list.

I doubt the format is actually in the forums. Most people have received refund requesting advice by directly Pming me.

Edit: I've heard A LOT about RoB this week. I made like $2000 playing that game. Hehe. But it was super fun until the **** implemented their auction system. The day that was put in effect was the day RoB became ****.

NorthernPolarity

I think you guys all need to chill out. It's getting a little catty in here.

Unknown

Maybe King Disney comes and takes their toys away if they outright admit they've made an embarrassing hash of one of the most lucrative licensed properties in the world?

The Thorverine thing didn't bother me. They didn't have to do the fraction (but still much greater than usual fraction) of spent value buy-back, and it's no surprise these characters are still turning up featured. With respec who knows when, I'm pleased to take an ISO dump towards characters I'm building up longer term, redo the terrible twosome to new specs whenever, and get limited participation in any events that feature them meanwhile.

The state of PvE events now is an appalling fiasco, though. I don't see why they didn't pull TaT after acknowledging it was broken, but they chose to let it run, so I gritted my teeth and ground on through. To be honest, I mostly enjoyed the higher difficulty compared to what we usually get from them, anyway, even after they fixed the "accidental" bug that made Patch a god of destruction and it actually got difficult. But I think a lot of people were relieved to have a new event opening up, and obviously assumed the code that had been broken for days would be gone or fixed. They've now set off a second week-long event broken in exactly the same way, this time from the outset. Again, they acknowledge it's not supposed to be working like this, this time issue a panicky patch, and bugger off home for the weekend. But nothing seems to be quite fixed and the only non-tournament content their product has is flat out unplayable for what looks like a significant portion of their users, though admittedly this place isn't a representative sample. I've never seen anywhere cocking up a deliverable to that extent doesn't mean you volunteered for some weekend overtime.

It's f2p territory, so inevitably some are leaping to conclusions of conspiracy - mine is that you ain't viable vs this latest wall of 230s without a high blue Spider-Man, since they're "encouraging exploring lesser used characters" (read: making you use ones that are **** for the task at hand) so this is their last chance to milk people buying those covers before they forcibly retire him 36hrs before the end of the event. But that's not how they're coming across at all, and is really quite silly. I don't know mobile gaming, I've not been near development in years, never mind video game development, and I don't know what goes on behind their office doors, but, as abuelo says, and rude as it feels to say it, from an outside perspective they're looking for all the world like they haven't a clue how to do their job.

LordWill

I agree with this. I even started a thread on how they could use a sticky for known issues.

I think that would help with communications.

I just feel like their track record for changing the game to fix issues hasn't been good.

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Typhon13 wrote:

Uh, destro, I have tried again and again to get customer service to no avail. That may just be me though. And marvel war of heroes has by far the best customer service of any f2p ive played. Every time they screw up, they own up to it and give out consolation items. A certain other developer of another marvel game could learn from this example.

Thank you for your reply. No offense but maybe it was the way you framed the context of your request.

War of Heroes? It has been my worst experience ever. No response. For the revenue they make their customer service is awful.Mobage is a text book example of what not to be.

Unknown

Fair enough. I guess everyone has a unique experience with these games.

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Veracity wrote:

Maybe King Disney comes and takes their toys away if they outright admit they've made an embarrassing hash of one of the most lucrative licensed properties in the world?

(snip)

Nah, the F2P Marvel Heroes made one mistake after another since the day it launched (3 days late, at that) and they're still going.

But when they do screw up, they offer apologies and a little currency, or a bonus on XP and item find, or something to make it up to the players. It goes a long way.

Unknown

Step 1: Offer 2 OP characters and make people fight to get them.

Step 2: Nerf the characters. Make them impotent.

Step 3: Offer a huge incentive to sell off these characters.

Step 4: Create new tourneys featuring these characters.

Step 5: Do the Nelson Laugh.