Compensation for service outage

jebaited

In the past week there has been server issues such as being stuck at loading screen which cause players unable to play.
For VIP players, that means they are not making full use of their VIP period during the downtime and sometimes even not being ableto claim their free keys. I wrote in to support and they said they cant help with this. From now on, I will stop buying VIP pass as this is such a ridiculous answer.

Unknown

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jebaited

etelgrin said:

jebaited#3297 said:

In the past week there has been server issues such as being stuck at loading screen which cause players unable to play.
For VIP players, that means they are not making full use of their VIP period during the downtime and sometimes even not being ableto claim their free keys. I wrote in to support and they said they cant help with this. From now on, I will stop buying VIP pass as this is such a ridiculous answer.

The real question is, Who are you going to penalize, them or you?

I dont understand your question. I paid for a month worth of VIP and even at the top right corner of the game they clearly state the remaining time left for my VIP up to the minutes. few hours of outage without compensation is ridiculous. I am not talking about penalizing them, but if they are not even bothered to extend the vip by 1 day (the simplest solution) shows how much they care about their fan base. there are many good games out there I can still play.

reg1981

What outage do you speak of? I've had no down time. Sure there have been a few times where it's been a pain to log in, but we were able to get in...

jebaited

reg1981 said:

What outage do you speak of? I've had no down time. Sure there have been a few times where it's been a pain to log in, but we were able to get in...

theres a thread on loading bug dated 10/3.

c1k4ml3kc3

Interesting point.

The question is whether you have a contract with Cryptic that states that one key per day is guaranteed to you?

Taking a key is quite fast, even if you do not have enough time. Logging in and logging out is fast. You may also tell your relative or someone to just log in and take the key while you're doing something in the 24h, which is how much you time have to take the key.

I don't know... Seems like you don't really have a case and all that's in question is whether the Cryptic will allow something like that. Maybe a better tone and approach wouldn't hurt. Just a tip, don't throw sticks and stones at me

spidey

jebaited#3297 said:

In the past week there has been server issues such as being stuck at loading screen which cause players unable to play.
For VIP players, that means they are not making full use of their VIP period during the downtime and sometimes even not being ableto claim their free keys. I wrote in to support and they said they cant help with this. From now on, I will stop buying VIP pass as this is such a ridiculous answer.

Good point and i want a compensation for maintenance times where i cant play. For me its clear they make theese maintenances to insult me and try to rob my VIP points.

minotaur2857

Most EULAs have a disclaimer to cover this but I haven't read the Cryptic one. I do think support should be more sympathetic in cases like this but they seem to never give any ground.

frogwalloper

I don't know how difficult it would be or if it's even possible, but it does seem fair to pause the clock for VIPs whenever there's maintenance or server issues.

Unknown

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plasticbat

jebaited#3297 said:

reg1981 said:

What outage do you speak of? I've had no down time. Sure there have been a few times where it's been a pain to log in, but we were able to get in...

theres a thread on loading bug dated 10/3.

First, it was resolved in a matter of few hours.
Second, that loading problem did not stop you to login to get the VIP key. If you had problem, that would be a different problem not related to that one. The loading problem happened when you moved from one place to another place. I had all my toon get in to do invocation and profession without any problem when the problem happened. The "loading" problem was I could not leave the area.

jebaited

etelgrin said:

jebaited#3297 said:

etelgrin said:

jebaited#3297 said:

In the past week there has been server issues such as being stuck at loading screen which cause players unable to play.
For VIP players, that means they are not making full use of their VIP period during the downtime and sometimes even not being ableto claim their free keys. I wrote in to support and they said they cant help with this. From now on, I will stop buying VIP pass as this is such a ridiculous answer.

The real question is, Who are you going to penalize, them or you?

I dont understand your question. I paid for a month worth of VIP and even at the top right corner of the game they clearly state the remaining time left for my VIP up to the minutes. few hours of outage without compensation is ridiculous. I am not talking about penalizing them, but if they are not even bothered to extend the vip by 1 day (the simplest solution) shows how much they care about their fan base. there are many good games out there I can still play.

Nobody ever wrote anywhere that you HAVE to get your daily Enchanted Key, you CAN get one daily though. Therefore lets get back to the question, who are you going to penalize, them or you? Because nobody cares if you paid for VIP and are unable to log in for whatever reason - vacation, health issues or whatever and are unable to pick it.

I dont understand your logic. so now their server fault is my fault and I am to blame for not being able to load into game? I got my keys before the server went down, I am just saying that there are others who missed the window to claim their keys. I am unhappy with how they manage the whole server outage issue which lasted for a few hours. Maintenance are always announced way before the maintenance date so that players can plan when to log in accordingly. However for a server fault, any normal game will compensate their players for the down time. NOT TO MENTION VIP players who paid for a fixed amount of time. out of all the comments here, you sound the most illogical and childish

plasticbat

jebaited#3297 said:

etelgrin said:

jebaited#3297 said:

etelgrin said:

jebaited#3297 said:

In the past week there has been server issues such as being stuck at loading screen which cause players unable to play.
For VIP players, that means they are not making full use of their VIP period during the downtime and sometimes even not being ableto claim their free keys. I wrote in to support and they said they cant help with this. From now on, I will stop buying VIP pass as this is such a ridiculous answer.

The real question is, Who are you going to penalize, them or you?

I dont understand your question. I paid for a month worth of VIP and even at the top right corner of the game they clearly state the remaining time left for my VIP up to the minutes. few hours of outage without compensation is ridiculous. I am not talking about penalizing them, but if they are not even bothered to extend the vip by 1 day (the simplest solution) shows how much they care about their fan base. there are many good games out there I can still play.

Nobody ever wrote anywhere that you HAVE to get your daily Enchanted Key, you CAN get one daily though. Therefore lets get back to the question, who are you going to penalize, them or you? Because nobody cares if you paid for VIP and are unable to log in for whatever reason - vacation, health issues or whatever and are unable to pick it.

I dont understand your logic. so now their server fault is my fault and I am to blame for not being able to load into game? I got my keys before the server went down, I am just saying that there are others who missed the window to claim their keys. I am unhappy with how they manage the whole server outage issue which lasted for a few hours. Maintenance are always announced way before the maintenance date so that players can plan when to log in accordingly. However for a server fault, any normal game will compensate their players for the down time. NOT TO MENTION VIP players who paid for a fixed amount of time. out of all the comments here, you sound the most illogical and childish

That particular specific "outage" did not stop people to get their VIP key. The server did not go down neither. There was a notification in the first login screen saying the server was down but it was not.

spidey

jebaited#3297 said:

However for a server fault, any normal game will compensate their players for the down time. NOT TO MENTION VIP players who paid for a fixed amount of time. out of all the comments here, you sound the most illogical and childish

No F2P game makes any compensation for any kind of of server fault. You, my friend, accepted the terms of service:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/about/terms

Maybe you read 25.1 +25.2.+25.3+25.4. again? Like you did and accepted when you installed the game?
Accepting the terms of service and claiming for a compensation after you got a server fault? Lemme think if this is logical or non childish? mmmhhhhhhh

Thx

jebaited

seems like you guys are supportive of how they handled the outage for VIP players. maybe you used your parents money and thus cant be bothered with such minor compensation.

Apart from keys... My point is the outage lasted for a few hours. That is what a normal player will play in a day. With the server problem, I could not continue playing and thus I feel that my VIP is wasted for that day. I.e. exp bonuses and other benefits of VIP not just keys.

plasticbat

jebaited#3297 said:

seems like you guys are supportive of how they handled the outage for VIP players. maybe you used your parents money and thus cant be bothered with such minor compensation.

Apart from keys... My point is the outage lasted for a few hours. That is what a normal player will play in a day. With the server problem, I could not continue playing and thus I feel that my VIP is wasted for that day. I.e. exp bonuses and other benefits of VIP not just keys.

So, you are talking about 8 cents.

If you pay full price of VIP for one month (I don't),

$10 / 30 days = 33 cents

I give you 6 hours outage.

$10 /30 / 24 * 6 = $0.083

jebaited

seems like you guys are supportive of how they handled the outage for VIP players. maybe you used your parents money and thus cant be bothered with such minor compensation.

Apart from keys... My point is the outage lasted for a few hours. That is what a normal player will play in a day. With the server problem, I could not continue playing and thus I feel that my VIP is wasted for that day. I.e. exp bonuses and other benefits of VIP not just keys.

spidey

jebaited#3297 said:

maybe you used your parents money and thus cant be bothered with such minor compensation.

Cute insult ^^

jebaited#3297 said:

Apart from keys... My point is the outage lasted for a few hours. That is what a normal player will play in a day. With the server problem, I could not continue playing and thus I feel that my VIP is wasted for that day. I.e. exp bonuses and other benefits of VIP not just keys.

Did you pay any real money for your VIP? Do you have to pay real money for VIP? My dear friend....i dont know why you are so stubborn, but do you REALLY want an compensation for a VIP advantage you can grind ingame? Srly??

plasticbat

jebaited#3297 said:

seems like you guys are supportive of how they handled the outage for VIP players. maybe you used your parents money and thus cant be bothered with such minor compensation.

Apart from keys... My point is the outage lasted for a few hours. That is what a normal player will play in a day. With the server problem, I could not continue playing and thus I feel that my VIP is wasted for that day. I.e. exp bonuses and other benefits of VIP not just keys.

I personally would not tell my kids who are adults to bother with 8 cents especially the effort of doing so far exceed that amount. Yes, I would strongly against them to do so. However, I sure welcome other people like you to do that for us.

unthoughtknown

Pretty simple uninstall game. Reinstall. In options turn off on-demand patching. Fixed.

kreatyve

While I do not have any sort of official statement at this time, my personal opinion is that they should not compensate unless the outage is for more than 24 hours. That wasn't the case with this issue.

chidion

VIP isn't a 30 day pay as you go cellphone contract where you can take the game with you and sign in at your leisure, nor is it like cable where you can record programs you know you are going to miss...

Not every player can schedule their real world responsibilities around the outages and unavailability of the game especially since a number of those appear to be without prior notice or warning and can happen anytime.

VIP is great for people with lots of days and time available to do little else than play Neverwinter, however my first experience with VIP I spent sixteen days in the hospital so consequently that was sixteen days I wasn't able to sign in to claim my VIP benefits.

Presently VIP runs for 30 consecutive calendar days. I would much rather see it run for 30 days a player logs in... If because of real world circumstances a player is not able to sign in they don't lose any of their VIP benefits as it carries over to the next day a player signs in.

If for some reason a player signs but fails to claim their VIP benefits it's their fault - not the fault of the way VIP was designed.

Understandably not as good for the people who sell VIP, but much better for the people who actually purchase VIP...

A small compensation is the level of VIP doesn't expire between one purchase and the next. On months where I know or suspect my scheduling will be tight I skip purchasing VIP - on months I figure my real world schedule will be pretty clear I purchase VIP.

If VIP ran 30 sign in days, instead of 30 consecutive calendar days I'd probably purchase VIP a lot more frequently.

jade1280

Cryptic should just give every single player in the game ONE enchanted key (per account) and see if they can destroy the economy overnight.

greywynd

unthoughtknown said:

Pretty simple uninstall game. Reinstall. In options turn off on-demand patching. Fixed.

You don't even have to uninstall for that.

dafrca

@jebaited: I have been playing for over eight months and I have never missed picking up my key. In all that time I have managed to pick up the key every 24 hour period. Now I admit once I thought I was not going to make it, but I still made it. Have there been some outages for a few hours durring that time, yes. But this last problem lasted a few hours. So if you missed a key it was because of some other reason other then the outage.

And no, my parents didn't pay for my VIP. I paid for my own VIP and I still do not think I am owed something because of this last server issue.

demonmonger

So I bought 12 months of vip... then for 6 months I could not play. Nothing was given to me.... that's many many keys

jebaited

dafrca#4810 said:

@jebaited: I have been playing for over eight months and I have never missed picking up my key. In all that time I have managed to pick up the key every 24 hour period. Now I admit once I thought I was not going to make it, but I still made it. Have there been some outages for a few hours durring that time, yes. But this last problem lasted a few hours. So if you missed a key it was because of some other reason other then the outage.

And no, my parents didn't pay for my VIP. I paid for my own VIP and I still do not think I am owed something because of this last server issue.

I got my keys too. I am just stating an example if people fail to get their keys due to outages and support just reply saying that they cant do anything about it. And also having an outage for 1/4 of a day is significant. When I bought VIP, it clearly says 30days worth of VIP. and that includes my 6 hours loss due to the outage +many routine patches (like now) which last for 3 hours just to patch some minor changes? All these adds up. What I am unhappy with is how support handled the situation by not bothering to even extend my VIP when I wrote in to them, it is very easy for support to tell the admins to extend the VIP for my individual account if they even care about their customer.

wylonus

company cant help, we all signed EULA that allows them to do what they need to change for downtimes. it nothing we can do, just deal with it.

jebaited

wylonus said:

company cant help, we all signed EULA that allows them to do what they need to change for downtimes. it nothing we can do, just deal with it.

yup. just wanna voice out my view. I am not really bitter about compensation, but some comments from people just made me angry somehow, but would like to see how they can improve in customer relations. I enjoyed the game very much and would like to see further improvements to grow the fan base.

utookmynick

jebaited#3297 said:

yup. just wanna voice out my view. I am not really bitter about compensation, but some comments from people just made me angry somehow, but would like to see how they can improve in customer relations. I enjoyed the game very much and would like to see further improvements to grow the fan base.

I believe you are talking about the period of time where it first started out as difficult to connect (needed multiple tries) and eventually became completely unable to connect. The first part lasted longer and the second part was, I think, about an hour. It didn't affect everyone because if you are logged in and never logged out, you would not have experienced this (hence the confusion for some people here).

The reality is, in a complex program, there are going to be bugs and with anything internet, there will be service/connection interruptions. The question is, at what point does it become unreasonable. In any relationship, with a person or a company, there's got to be some give and take. In my opinion, you should give them a break on this one. Maybe you were just emotional at the time because of the frustration of being unable to log in repeatedly during a time when you really wanted to play.

* If you chuckled when you read that last sentence, you have a dirty mind

plasticbat

utookmynick said:

jebaited#3297 said:

yup. just wanna voice out my view. I am not really bitter about compensation, but some comments from people just made me angry somehow, but would like to see how they can improve in customer relations. I enjoyed the game very much and would like to see further improvements to grow the fan base.

I believe you are talking about the period of time where it first started out as difficult to connect (needed multiple tries) and eventually became completely unable to connect. The first part lasted longer and the second part was, I think, about an hour. It didn't affect everyone because if you are logged in and never logged out, you would not have experienced this (hence the confusion for some people here).

The reality is, in a complex program, there are going to be bugs and with anything internet, there will be service/connection interruptions. The question is, at what point does it become unreasonable. In any relationship, with a person or a company, there's got to be some give and take. In my opinion, you should give them a break on this one. Maybe you were just emotional at the time because of the frustration of being unable to log in repeatedly during a time when you really wanted to play.

* If you chuckled when you read that last sentence, you have a dirty mind

I did not but now I do.