Is now the time to merge server shards? Reset Chars? Refund Zen/Packs?

gruntpyre

In light of the exploit, I believe now is the perfect time for Perfect World to merge all of the servers into one, wipe all accounts, and refund the purchased zen/founder packs purchased by players.

I see no other solution, as compelling, to the current ruined state of all server economies. The inflation has devalued the real life money spent on items, and I do not know how technically feasible it is to ever remedy the issue, particularly since the bug itself has existed since beta.

A complete, fresh start, with this economy ruining bug fixed, and accounts compensated for their purchases to the amount that they'd purchased, would not put any paying customers out on any money.

Everyone else would have to simply accept that PWE kept this in an open beta state for a reason, and that the people to 'blame' for a wipe and reset would be the parties who have ruined the game for the rest of us.

An MMO, interconnected world with an interconnected economy needs to have a stable economy premised on a solid foundation.

It benefits all players to have that economy, unless they were exploiting or do not see the harm in exploiting.

Other methods (band-aids as described by others) won't fix the underlying issue that the foundations of the economy are now broken, and it does not seem possibly to remedy the problem (gear has been bought, zen/ad has changed hands on a massive scale). The number of interconnected variables is multitudinous at this point, and most likely irreparable.

harming18

Cpmpletly agree with you. As long as our zen is given back for our purchases. Nothing else is going to fix the damage that has ben done.

solidor80

Just look all the polls more than 80% of the people want a wipe because no1 want to play in broken server.

daschla

The thing is, people who have dumped huge amounts of cash into the game can rest easily knowing that they have to just point and click and recover. People like me who didn't, but bought a small amount of AD to begin with when purchasing the guardian pack, but then turned a profit on that in order to gear and buy coveted items will suffer.

What may only seem like a few days of work to some, was literally me ignoring (almost) everything else in order to play the auction house in order to set myself up. Did that give me an advantage? No. That was me not complaining about prices and finding a way to work within the game to get what I needed.

I don't want to start over, period. Sure, I am broke now, but my cleric is set up and I did it all legitimately.

jaelithe

Merger doesn't seem to have anything to do with this problem. They can create a new "clean" shard and NOT merge it. This wouldn't wipe anyone's character against his or her will. They can do a wipe as many want - that will "fix" the economy without a merger (or with one but the merger wouldn't be part of the fix). Or they can do essentially nothing other than perhaps a rollback bandaid for the latest of many exploits - this is by far the likely result, alas.

daschla

If there is any kind of reset/rollback/wipe, The only thing that will make me happy is that my cleric remains 60 as leveling was tedious for me with the gear that she has now remaining in my possession and she keeps her nightmare mount. If for whatever reason I lost the items I had my AD invested in from the AH, I would also want a return on my 600k initial AD.

Anything else is unacceptable.

gruntpyre

Daschla, in mmos, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, that's just how things are and how things should be when there are conflicts. PWE is a business concerned with making money. With that said, I was in the same boat as you. Guardian Pack. Played the AH. Etc.

However, it IS open beta. And your AH playing and 600,000 base AD would have more value if everything weren't ruined from massive inflation.

Highly unlikely that anyone gets 100% of what they want, but PWE shouldn't look at it, and won't look at it, from a "What does Daschla say is acceptable + infinity other players" and work with that.

daschla

The way I see it is this..The people who benefit most from a wipe fall into these categories;

1. Exploiters who laundered and covered their tracks. They have nothing to lose as it was all free and still well-hidden. They maintain what they had.

2. People who invested nothing into the game, worked for nothing and want to see others suffer alongside of them.

3. People who have invested tons of real-world money into the artificial currency market and can easily recover all that was lost while enjoying a far greater benefit of now getting MUCH more for their dollar.

While things might not be that black and white, it definitely looks that way to me.

gruntpyre

But what you aren't acknowledging is that EVERYONE suffers from inflation. Everyone. Except exploiters. Inflation hastens the demise of the game as well.

daschla

And what you are not acknowledging is that everyone suffers from a wipe except those three groups of people.

If PW does not have extensive logging in place to isolate the exploiters, then there are bigger problems. That is the only group of those three that have to go. Wiping won't solve anything as so many will become frustrated, PW loses out and the game suffers from death on launch due to word of mouth.

Inflation will level out, as those who cannot afford, can't buy, and those who can't sell, lower prices. Wiping will only WIDEN the gap of those who can have, and those who cannot.

kerlaa

I just don't understand the reasoning behind merging servers. I mean its hard enough now to find your target mob kills with everyone running. City Population overcrowding is already causing some ppl to suffer lag can you imagine what would happen with 3 times the population n the city. Chat log is already un-readable do to to much ondoing chatting again imagine it 3 times as bad.

knac007

There is no need to wipe, why is people obsessed with that word.

The best compromise is:
1) Merge all the current servers into one.
2) Create two new shards and do NOT allow any transfers whatsoever from old merged shard to new shard.
3) Offer Zen buyers (with real money) a refund of what they bought, only redeemable in the new servers, leave the other servers alone (they will die because inactivity).
4) Additionally, make a copy of every character into the ONE of the new shards but with zero currencies and items (good for people who have limited time to play); only skill tree, name, guild, contact list, level, etc. A fresh start for the economy but don't need to spend time levelling up again.

mefario1970

knac007 wrote: »

There is no need to wipe, why is people obsessed with that word.

The best compromise is:
1) Merge all the current servers into one.
2) Create two new shards and do NOT allow any transfers whatsoever from old merged shard to new shard.
3) Offer Zen buyers (with real money) a refund of what they bought, only redeemable in the new servers, leave the other servers alone (they will die because inactivity).
4) Additionally, make a copy of every character into the ONE of the new shards but with zero currencies and items (good for people who have limited time to play); only skill tree, name, guild, contact list, level, etc. A fresh start for the economy but don't need to spend time levelling up again.

Wow, that is expecting a lot in terms of customer service. I would go for that bit in a heartbeat. I also like the OP's idea as well. A broken economy like this is just not fixable IMHO and needs the big "reset" button pushed.

vernednd

daschla wrote: »

And what you are not acknowledging is that everyone suffers from a wipe except those three groups of people.

If PW does not have extensive logging in place to isolate the exploiters, then there are bigger problems. That is the only group of those three that have to go. Wiping won't solve anything as so many will become frustrated, PW loses out and the game suffers from death on launch due to word of mouth.

Inflation will level out, as those who cannot afford, can't buy, and those who can't sell, lower prices. Wiping will only WIDEN the gap of those who can have, and those who cannot.

Everyone loses with a wipe mate. We all at least lose time invested, whether on leveling, trading, crafting, etc... But, allowing this ill gotten currency to exist completely devaluates everything in the founder's packs and on the zen store. It puts them at risk of massive refunds. There is no solution here that is going to make everyone happy. Let us hope they make the choice that makes the fewest of us unhappy.

I like the idea of starting a new server and merging the former servers keeping the two separate, but I don't know how they will handle zen (since so many of the exploiters bought it up). In the end I have a feeling they will just ban a few accounts that committed the acts and those individuals will get away with it for the most part since they likely transferred everything away. I highly doubt they will pay for the manpower to scour all the logs to track it all down, it just isn't economical to do so. Bah, rant off.

Cheers!

gruntpyre

Truth is, in my opinion, wipe isn't optimal, but there is no perfect result. Thus, as a company, you go with the result that most preserves the integrity and continued financial success of your product; and in this situation it appears to me on the outside to be a complete wipe. Otherwise, why buy zen ever? AH integrity is tied to real money purchasing in a free to play model.

gruntpyre

mefario1970 wrote: »

Wow, that is expecting a lot in terms of customer service. I would go for that bit in a heartbeat. I also like the OP's idea as well. A broken economy like this is just not fixable IMHO and needs the big "reset" button pushed.

Good idea, but I think it certainly would b more than they were willing to do.