My dealings with Compensation

Gideon

 There is nothing in this game that makes me feel more Charlie Brown then when an event comes up and a node or something else about the event is broken. Most of the games I play recognize when they screw up like a broken event or an improper announcement etc...
and then the developers apologize and compensate with in game currency. I think it’s time to take some responsibility for all of the broken things about this game that can be fixed but are definitely being ignored for weeks months and even years . It’s time for Apologies, Fixes, and Good Will Compensation.

Froggy

@Brigby I fully agree with this. Those most hit by these problems are bigger players in the game.

morgue427

oh you couldnt possibly be talking about the broken node in hour of devastation could you? I would hate to hijack your thread if that wasnt what you are talking about though

TheDragonHermit

I don't know about asking for compensation, there seems to be some issues with that in the past.
Https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DL-ncAhVwAEwmHK?format=jpg

unclejimbo

Truthfully, this game is by far the worst - no exaggeration - of all the mobile games I've played in terms of greed and lack of support.

* The return on investment is brutal
* The support is awful (actually getting a person to speak to you instead of just churning out form letters is near impossible)
* Zero remorse for known, well-proven issues
* Refusal - inability?! - to fix long-standing issues
* No compensation policy.

It's sad that the primary factor behind playing this game for me is to try and justify getting some value out of what I've already put into it.

joerginger

unclejimbo said:

It's sad that the primary factor behind playing this game for me is to try and justify getting some value out of what I've already put into it.

Sadly, this is also why I can't just uninstall the and pretend I never put any time and money into it. The time it consumes is outrageous especially right now when every single event is a PvP grindfest.

Kinesia

I have managed to get support to treat me like a human occasionally, I have also sent them example support emails from other game companies about the _same_ issues as examples of how to properly deal with things. Them actually admitting an issue this time, even on twitter, is a HUGE step forward for them.
As you say, the next step is them _preemptively_ giving compensation, people shouldn't need to be asking, let alone being denied.
At the very least... Progression rewards are what they've agreed _everyone_ is allowed to get. At the _very_ least absolutely everyone who joined should be given the progression rewards. More beyond that is appropriate, sure, but to deny the progression rewards well...

It looks like this:
"We'll advertise double rewards for the month!"
"We'll sabotage the event so we don't have to pay them! At the same time as things are on sale, so the extra gold crystals are even more mocking! Hahaha!"

Which.... Could very easily get you sued for misleading business practices and potentially fraud.

So someone in the company needs to look at their whole policy of never compensating anyone very very very closely.

You have an easy way to avoid giving people compensation, it's called "don't let the bugs out the door". But if you do you have an _obligation_ to do the right thing. In this case you are getting very close to tripping not only on the normal moral tripwire but the legal one too.

Krishna

joerginger said:

unclejimbo said:

It's sad that the primary factor behind playing this game for me is to try and justify getting some value out of what I've already put into it.

Sadly, this is also why I can't just uninstall the and pretend I never put any time and money into it. The time it consumes is outrageous especially right now when every single event is a PvP grindfest.

This is why people stay in Scientology

Mainloop25

It's  also called the sunk-cost fallacy. 

Sirchombli

This game has occasionally given compensation. I can think of 3 instances, but one got taken back 20 minutes later. If anybody who's been playing long time expects the game to ever be ideal, I think it's pretty apparent that that isn't going to happen. It was buggy when I picked the game up, it's buggy now. They've made concessions to us, but more stuff means more problems. That's why I keep my expenditures to a minimum. There's no return, and I do just as well without spending as I did when I was regularly spending cash. 

FindingHeart8

Is this about the broken node in HoD?  I mean this seems a pretty intense reaction if that's what you're referencing.

Unless you're talking about the mistakes of the past designers, which in that case I would wholeheartedly agree with your justified frustration...but still I feel like it wouldn't be fair to hold Octagon responsible for their mistakes.

Unless there's some big issue I'm missing here.  I play the game pretty regularly but not more than a couple hours p/day.

julianus

I understand being frustrated, but I don't think compensation is warranted - for the current bug, at least.

Everyone is affected equally, meaning it shouldn't have an effect on ranking - if anything, it made the event slightly easier. I joined in Platinum a day after it started, for example, lost a few matches, and still managed to get the full progression rewards and will probably get some jewels from my individual rank.

I have heard about a few people who have faced a second broken node, which is a different case, but I don't know how widespread this is/was.

Krishna

julianus said:

I understand being frustrated, but I don't think compensation is warranted - for the current bug, at least.

Everyone is affected equally, meaning it shouldn't have an effect on ranking - if anything, it made the event slightly easier. I joined in Platinum a day after it started, for example, lost a few matches, and still managed to get the full progression rewards and will probably get some jewels from my individual rank.

I have heard about a few people who have faced a second broken node, which is a different case, but I don't know how widespread this is/was.

To say this bug affected everyone equally is like sending people to walk through a mine field, and saying that the ones who stepped on one had the same chance to survive as those who didn't step on one, and calling it a day.

In the groups I am affiliated with, several people per coalition are being affected, and thus it is also affecting coalition rankings. I managed to dodge a mine this week, but it hit me last week. We had people who lost a 2nd node to this bug THIS MORNING with one charge left. I have to admit, it was a harrowing feeling to have to play these nodes knowing that at any time it could freeze and your game was done. It's like russian roulette, only with a stupid phone-app game that people keep playing because they've already invested so much time/ money. And it's MTG. MTG is super swick

FindingHeart8

In the groups I am affiliated with, several people per coalition are being affected, and thus it is also affecting coalition rankings. I managed to dodge a mine this week, but it hit me last week. We had people who lost a 2nd node to this bug THIS MORNING with one charge left. I have to admit, it was a harrowing feeling to have to play these nodes knowing that at any time it could freeze and your game was done. It's like russian roulette, only with a stupid phone-app game that people keep playing because they've already invested so much time/ money. And it's MTG. MTG is super swick

From what I've heard it effected everyone equally, and I haven't heard any exceptions... 

But giving your claim the benefit of the doubt here, aside from the ideal of removing all glitches (which I'm guess if 2 different companies are struggling with it then it might be more complicated than just flipping a switch), they should at least put a program in place that could recognize when a player was glitched out of a game and restore their node slot, not damage their planeswalker, and maybe give a 50 rune gift as an "oops" apology.  The trick with this is making sure the program could distinguish between actual glitches and loopholes players might try to use to abuse the courtesy (ex: shutting phone off mid-battle, etc).

Emanon

My account was affected so bad that it was impossible to complete progression rewards!  Everyone losing 1 node was bad enough.  Getting locked out of a second node while searching for an opponent is a complete disaster!!!  

Again, never mind team rewards...  If I can't even compete in order to complete my own personal rewards... That's just insane!

Krishna

From what I've heard it effected everyone equally, and I haven't heard any exceptions... 

But giving your claim the benefit of the doubt here, aside from the ideal of removing all glitches (which I'm guess if 2 different companies are struggling with it then it might be more complicated than just flipping a switch), they should at least put a program in place that could recognize when a player was glitched out of a game and restore their node slot, not damage their planeswalker, and maybe give a 50 rune gift as an "oops" apology.  The trick with this is making sure the program could distinguish between actual glitches and loopholes players might try to use to abuse the courtesy (ex: shutting phone off mid-battle, etc).

Now you've heard from two people who were unequally affected, and there at least dozens more. Unless you want me to go get them for you, moving on...

They (Oktagon) can't go in there and just fix your node. If they could, they would have (I assume). Therefore, they should credit us 50 runes as adequate compensation for losing hundreds of Jewels and Crystals

UPDATE: I quick counted in my group of 5 or so coalitions, and 12 people were writing in about a 2nd or even 3rd node frozen.

FindingHeart8

They (Oktagon) can't go in there and just fix your node. If they could, they would have (I assume). Therefore, they should credit us 50 runes as adequate compensation for losing hundreds of Jewels and Crystals

Well neither of are exactly sure what Octagon is able to do, but we know they claim to be in the process of expanding the game capabilities, so it's logical to believe that refining some of the processes of the game itself is possible.

Regardless, I think we are in agreement of the 50 rune compensation being a compensation that should be added.

As it stands, my view on Octagon is currently sympathetic, as they're trying to change the path of what was a dying game with the previous designers, and were left with a lot of issues to fix.  The fulfilled (or unfulfilled) promises of updates either today or later this week way determine if I maintain this view though.

I would encourage you to share a good-sportsman-like perspective on the matter.  After all, it is (in the end) just a game.

FindingHeart8

.I would encourage you to share a good-sportsman-like perspective on the matter.  After all, it is (in the end) just a game.

I would also add though that this does not mean that I don't empathize with your frustration in the matter, it is indeed aggravating.  It just seems to be a lot of salt in this overall thread that I think would be justified against the previous designers, but maybe not yet this one.

Krishna

I know (by playing MTGPQ) that they inherited a heck of a game code. For that I'll offer sympathy.
But one thing I KNOW they have the capability to do is offer compensation for players missing rewards because of that terrible code. And that, they are not doing. Maybe D3 won't approve it. Then, it's D3 to blame for no compensation. But when you roll out these awesome, juiced-up rewards, then have a game which locks out a significant portion of the players, you can't just shrug your shoulders, or give a rare+ Elite Pack of cards that have been rotating in the Elite Pack for months. Come on.

btw 50 runes means so little to me, I'll force quit a TG or TotP game I'm losing instead of playing the game out, losing, and getting 50 runes. And I definitely am nowhere near having all my PW at lvl 60.

Kinesia

And, yeah, the compensation is absolutely NOTHING to do with Oktagon, it's a d3go policy from long again, they do the support, they make the decision. Oktagon are trying, I wish they had time and resources to test things properly, but everyone is forced to get fixes out fast and they have unintended consequences, the bit they _can_ do is compensate people in the short term. They _need_ our good will.  The staff we can actually talk to at d3go seem fine, but it souds like their upper managers have some pretty weird abusive business ideas and policies that the staff and us are forced to deal with.

FindingHeart8

Kinesia said:

And, yeah, the compensation is absolutely NOTHING to do with Oktagon, it's a d3go policy from long again, they do the support, they make the decision. Oktagon are trying, I wish they had time and resources to test things properly, but everyone is forced to get fixes out fast and they have unintended consequences, the bit they _can_ do is compensate people in the short term. They _need_ our good will.  The staff we can actually talk to at d3go seem fine, but it souds like their upper managers have some pretty weird abusive business ideas and policies that the staff and us are forced to deal with.

I'd believe it.  Unfortunately, you just described the hierarchy of how many businesses are run.