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We should talk, i know you dont want to talk but.......
benyr
Member Posts: 238 Arc User
Ok I strongly suspect this is going to get moderated, but given the lack of communication from customer services i'm not sure where else to seek clarification.
I am of course referring to the recent exploit / subsequent bans. I don't want to talk about the rights and wrongs, this definitely isn't the place for that but i do have some questions that i think Cryptic / Perfect World needs to address for the communities piece of mind.
There have been no winners in this debacle, some people have lost their accounts, those that haven't have almost certainly lost friends or guild members or at the very least are finding random groups harder to find, and a game that rely's on a critical mass of players has lost a lot of dedicated accounts and suffered a PR disaster.
Whilst I'm sure there were reasons for the serious delay in addressing the exploit and the decision to not make a public announcement about it the was probably taken in best intentions, in hind site it was a bad decision to take and only exacerbated the extent of the problem. I think as a player base we require an apology for the way its been handled and assurances that lessons have been learnt, and going forward on a best endeavour's basis they will not be repeated. As customers of Cryptic / Perfect world we need to know out time and financial investment is in safe hands.
We also need to know what is being done to handle the fall out for players still in the game. I'm in a guild (that's also an alliance helm guild) where the entire leadership has been perma banned. The guild is in limbo, will provisions be made to allow for existing members to take ownership? or are we all expected to walk away from a guild we've spent years building?
I am of course referring to the recent exploit / subsequent bans. I don't want to talk about the rights and wrongs, this definitely isn't the place for that but i do have some questions that i think Cryptic / Perfect World needs to address for the communities piece of mind.
There have been no winners in this debacle, some people have lost their accounts, those that haven't have almost certainly lost friends or guild members or at the very least are finding random groups harder to find, and a game that rely's on a critical mass of players has lost a lot of dedicated accounts and suffered a PR disaster.
Whilst I'm sure there were reasons for the serious delay in addressing the exploit and the decision to not make a public announcement about it the was probably taken in best intentions, in hind site it was a bad decision to take and only exacerbated the extent of the problem. I think as a player base we require an apology for the way its been handled and assurances that lessons have been learnt, and going forward on a best endeavour's basis they will not be repeated. As customers of Cryptic / Perfect world we need to know out time and financial investment is in safe hands.
We also need to know what is being done to handle the fall out for players still in the game. I'm in a guild (that's also an alliance helm guild) where the entire leadership has been perma banned. The guild is in limbo, will provisions be made to allow for existing members to take ownership? or are we all expected to walk away from a guild we've spent years building?
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As to the others issues... I'm not sure whether this was really handled poorly or not. Seems to me people that deserved bans or other penalties for cheating got what was coming to them. My guild/alliance appears to be just as active as it was before, though it remains to be seen if any random individuals were effective, and I haven't had any additional issues pulled together groups for RQs. I'm not really sure I'd see it as a PR disaster to be honest. Are players upset? Sure - especially the ones that cheated, got caught, and now have no accounts. But, a game that properly polices itself and prevents cheaters from ruining the gaming experience of legitimate players who actually follow the rules (including the one where you don't exploit bugs in the game) seems to be to be a game that has effective oversight. EVERY game will have exploits and bugs, so yes, Cryptic - like every game company - can always do better at catching those, but at the same time, it is CHEATING to capitalize on their mistakes regardless and players should simply know better than to exploit bugs that are clearly bugs. And this hunt exploit was clearly an exploit (unlike, say, the chest bug where it really wasn't clear to anyone that that wasn't WAI, the opposite actually since it felt very much like that's how things should be working - which is why Cryptic didn't ban people over it).
So... I guess in general, I disagree with the premise of your post. I agree it's important for Cryptic to keep the lines of communication open, and they could have done better in that respect in this case. But on the whole, I think they handled this situation effectively. At the end of the day, cheaters (aka people that were ruining the game for people that don't cheat) were penalized and that, to me, is the most important thing.
Final note: Anyone that really thinks this will be the end of the game and Neverwinter is done for, all I can say is: LOL
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Like i said i dont want to talk about rights and wrongs of the bans, its a surefire way to get the post removed 😉, i just can't shake the feeling that by standing idly by for such a long period of time whilst knowledge of the exploit spread, cryptic/ perfect world whoever were complicit in just how badly the situation got out of hand, and id like some assurances that they wont let a problem like this run and run again in the future for everyones benefit.
The magnitude is not Cryptic's or PWE's fault. It's noteworthy, perhaps, if indeed the numbers are high but that's irrelevant. The game will certainly recover and be better for having fewer cheaters in play. The fact is, from my viewpoint, Cryptic and PWE handled this situation about as well as they could have, and the only thing missing was a formal statement once everything was done stating exactly what the exploit was (no risk since it was fixed) and that bans and penalties have been handed out to those found in violation of the Terms of Service, etc etc... and if that was you and you have further questions, here's the link to PWE Customer Service because, IMPORTANT NOTE: Cryptic doesn't actually handle this stuff, PWE CS does, so please talk to them if you feel the need.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Put it down to backgrounds, i work in a heavily regulated environment. If my company had an issue with our systems and took a fraction of the time to resolve it, the regulatory body would not only pursue those that exploited the system, they would also hold my employer and key employees accountable for enabling the ongoing exploits by not closing down the loop hole fast enough. Maybe behind the scenes perfect world are lettng cryptic know theyre not happy with the time taken to resolve? Thats where my personal opionion that we need assurances the inaction wont be repeated again come from. Not that we will get any of course, just felt the need to air my frustration.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Sci-fi author: The Gods We Make, The Gods We Seek, and Ji-min
They're the only ones that can help.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
——
After 30 days of inactivity, leadership should fall to the next highest ranking player at that time.
If they are inactive, it will continue to fall until an active player can claim leadership.
——
I don’t know if it’s 30 days per rank, or if it just automatically cascades down until a rank has an active member to claim it. But there’s the official word on it anyway.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
I also want to add something regarding the situation that has caused a lot of confusion and anger, just a thought I had about all of this (since we, as players, have no clue about inner workings), it is possible that the perma bans were done due to them continuing after the announcement was made on this forum by Julia, since we only know about ourselves and real world friends, it would be hard for us to know, but it's just a thought I had....sorry if this shouldn't have been added here