Action against XP Scroll Scam

And you seem to forget that this relationship is a symbiosis.

They keep doing that, I'll leave and take my money with me.
It's not, like in your analogy, a store I may or may not go into and buy something, it's a store luring you inside with free candy then telling you that you have to pay 20 bucks for a drink if the candy made you thirsty.

I'll gladly pay for a F2P game cuz someone's gotta do it but either make decent or no events at all, stuff like this is a slap in the face.
That's where the "whinging" seems to stem from, not from the denial of the exp-boost but the way events are run in the first place.

Gotta keep your players happy, one should think they'd know that.

I give up, can't argue with 0 reading comprehension.
No offense.

Not a scam, just a BAD event.

TBH.

I don't feel cheated at all (but then again, I am not someone trying to race through a game...I play at a more "leisurely" pace). They set a goal, and we came up short.

I never really liked the whole 1.5exp idea, to be honest. Power gamers will pull further ahead increasing the gap between them and more casual players. This would come into play in PvP and TW, most likely.

Instead, I offer this suggestion in compensation for what was a damned fine advertising effort by this gaming community:

Instead of 1.5exp, how about 1.5 drop rate for a week as a reward for the effort. Many other versions offered this without catastrophic impact on in game economy. In fact, it made many things more affordable for those newer or more casual gamers since it translated into a better chance at those items dropping.

Just my 2 cents. If we race to level cap, there will just be more players standing around with our thumbs in our bums wanting more content. I'd rather have more gold in my pockets to buy better stuff to make the content we do have that much more enjoyable.

Jebbediah - Lost City wrote: »

YOUR THE ADDICTS THAT NEED ARE CASH ( ... ... ) Profits are good yes but Your comunity of players respecting the game makers is a hella of alot more important.

Good sentiments and thanks are worthless, they do not pay the bills.
The real world is like this.

You want something from me ? Pay or make do without.
You want something from PWI ? Pay or make do without.
You want something from the whole planet ? Pay or make do without.

I hate the real world rules. But there's no alternative.

Twilyte - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Instead of 1.5exp, how about 1.5 drop rate for a week as a reward for the effort. Many other versions offered this without catastrophic impact on in game economy. In fact, it made many things more affordable for those newer or more casual gamers since it translated into a better chance at those items dropping.

Nae ^^ Let's just stock away to create a shortage then sell away a few bundles at a time at 170% of their real value ^^
** Howls to the moon ** MONEYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Serjah - Heavens Tear wrote: »

lol they ripped us off, or at least the ppl that added them to myspace

so they didnt reach 6000, why not give 1.5 xp for 4-5 days then? or at least a decent 50% OFF, wtf is 20% anyway, why not make it 17.4131 %

It's ok, because we can delete them from our myspace again, which I intend to do. Yes, I feel scammed. By now I feel they're only in it for the money.. as I've been playing this game a while now. They're way too obvious about it, and if they'd focus more on making a great game and less on being all about the money, in the end they'd probably draw more success meaning more money to themselves. But whatever.

Going to delete them from my myspace now because yes I feel screwed over. I'd advise everyone else who feels the same to do the same.

I will still probably play a bit but not as much as I was playing before because playing this game requires you to spend a ridiculous amount of money just to lvl your character and have fun and have inventory space for all your stupid DQ items.................

yep, it's a scam, imho. The way it's currently set up and run it appears to be run by a group of cons and thieves. Cash shop items should be things we want, not things we need.

why do people keep saying that there was no way we could hit 6k friends?

As if by hitting 5300, we hit our absolute max potential. I don't think that's true.

I didn't even bother signing up to their friends list in the first place.

I have a myspace account that alot of people would call a *Myspace **** Account* (No I am not cussing thats actually what its called) The reason it is called that is because you go out and use these programs to get alot of myspace friends, etc. I could have EASILY gotten PWI 2-3k friends in 2 days, but I chose to stay out of this event for one reason, and one reason only. --

They ONLY did this event to get more people to play their game to get more money, they obviously aren't very good at marketing because I work at Gamestop and nobody who I work with has ever even heard of Perect World International, they have heard of the other versions, but not this one. Kinda sad eh?

You guys should just give us FUN events such as EXP bonus instead of us having to add you to myspace 6000 times... Thats kinda greedy when all you need to do is change a tiny bit of code...

To the people who actually did participate in this event, I'm sorry.. You should feel cheated and used..

I really don't care about an exp gain much myself, but guys... The people who participated in this event got you REALLY close to 6000 and all they get is 20% off exp scrolls? Thats harsh... If you want money, give them 50% off AT LEAST.

Also, as my final statement -- Give me a santa hat!!!! b:victory

erethizon1 wrote: »

If your goal is to teach someone to do something you want them to do, then yes, you need to reward getting close. If you want to teach your baby to walk across the room and he gets 80% of the way there do you totally ignore him and act as if he is a total failure? No, you praise him as if he did exactly what you wanted because that will encourage him to try it again.

All the people that added PWI as a myspace friend did exactly what they were supposed to do, but because the rest of us did not help them they get nothing for their efforts. All that does is encourage them to never try again since they cannot control the behavior of the rest of us.

As for your examples, these would be examples of what currently happened...

You got 80% of a level, we are going to drop you down to 0% because you did not make it to 100.
You got a B on the test, I am giving you a zero in my grade book because you did not get an A.
You did not get into Harvard so I am not letting you go to Community College either. Enjoy your life time job at McDonalds.

There is a gigantic different between total failure and total success. Too many people think that those are the only two choices. The problem is, when you are actually trying to teach people or animals the behaviors that you want them to learn rewarding partial success is many times more effective than not doing so. It is virtually impossible to train animals without rewarding partial success (unless you resort to heavy animal cruelty) and while it is possible to train people without rewarding partial success it is much, much harder. All the people that did add PWI to their friends list did exactly what they were supposed to do and got no positive reinforcement because the rest of us did not help. All they learned was not to bother helping PWI get free advertising in the future.

**APPLAUSE**

Thank you!

PWI hasn't got a clue how to run a company or their game, imho. Not to mention human psychology. If they keep going on with their current ways of doing things, they might achieve some momentary success, but they'll burn out fast.

A business cannot truly succeed for long without LOYAL customers. And you do not create those this way.

People aren't feeling scammed for no reason!!

ash, erethizon1, and all the other like minded posters, i agree 100%. i understand that PWI needs to make money, i understand that the cash shop is their means of keeping this game going BUT i'm really getting tired of these completely ridiculous and GREED driven tactics.

listen up "masterminds" behind PWI "events"......you just basically said F*CK YOU to all of the people who DID sign up for the myspace event. that's how they feel, and rightfully so. the game they were trying to help, gave them the wonderful reward of 20% off an item you still have to shell out money for. let me repeat........a DISCOUNT ON AN ITEM YOU HAVE TO SHELL OUT REAL MONEY FOR! and a measly 20% discount at that.

want to make your loyal players happy?......want to keep the players you have?.........want to have those people recommend this game to their friends? then you SHOULD have said......



"Well guys, we didn't quite make our goal but we are so happy that so many of our loyal players signed up. As our way of saying thanks, we have decided to give everyone 1.25% (or the full 1.5%, whatever) extra exp this week! Thank you to all those who participated and thank you for playing Perfect World International."



get it? that's what keeps players happy. that's what makes them tell their friends, "hey, PWI is a cool game you should try it!" instead they're saying "PWI is ok, but it's really all about money and their events totally suck. they don't care about their players."

do you think many (if any) of the 5300 people, or whatever the final number was, will ever do this sort of thing for PWI again after this? no, they will say to hell with it since they got such a crappy "thank you" this time. you may think that this (and the other posts here) are just the rants of a few people but i assure you there are more people who feel this way than you realize. it's not about just this one event but pretty much all of them and the way this game is run in general, refer a friend is a total greedy joke.

Lessie, i understand your point about not hitting the goal = no prize, but PWI is trying to gain new players, and keep it's old players on top of that. sure in other areas of business if you don't make the goal you don't get the reward, but that doesn't really apply in marketing to gain a new player base. you have to offer your customers some freebies every now and then to keep them from going to other products (games). and that especially applies to a game that is dependent on a cash shop. you have to give people incentives to stick around and not move on to another game that isn't all about the money.

PWI will not do well in the long run with these sort of tactics. these posts indeed may not change anything but PWI will eventually reap the consequences of their mistakes if they don't start doing things a little differently. keep people coming back for more, instead of driving people away. PWI really needs to reevaluate it's tactics. the future of this game seriously depends on it.

Lessie - Lost City wrote: »

Ppl seem to forget PWI is in it to MAKE MONEY.
No they dont host these servers, get the updates, do maintenance, go solve problems in game, etc. out of good will.
"Sales" are good to bring in more cash, PWI is doing one omg what a crime !!

Do you go and cry in front of every store that makes a sale ? sounds ridiculus doesnt it ? well that's pretty much what you're doing here simply because the sale got "reward" in it's advertisement.

This is the problem.... when people think running a business/making sales means bad ethics/total lack of principles is acceptible or even positive. That such deceptive and shady practices are acceptible because it's a "business". Good businesses use good business ethics. Bad businesses/scam artists and cons use bad business ethics and practices. Need you really ask why so many people are feeling scammed of late? i.e... Do you have at least a few functioning neurons left in that brain of yours?

The business itself may even believe it's good for them to pursue shady fast money-making schemes, but it's really not because lack of respect does not bring you more business.. it loses you business. So really, shady schemes and underhanded practices benefit no one. Neither the customers nor the company. So why do such things persist?

I guess maybe because human beings are not so bright as they like to think that they are?


PS: Methinks Lessie secretly works for PWI.... Either that or see above. She's arguing a little too enthusiastically against her own benefit.

Neverwas - Heavens Tear wrote: »

ash, erethizon1, and all the other like minded posters, i agree 100%. i understand that PWI needs to make money, i understand that the cash shop is their means of keeping this game going BUT i'm really getting tired of these completely ridiculous and GREED driven tactics.

listen up "masterminds" behind PWI "events"......you just basically said F*CK YOU to all of the people who DID sign up for the myspace event. that's how they feel, and rightfully so. the game they were trying to help, gave them the wonderful reward of 20% off an item you still have to shell out money for. let me repeat........a DISCOUNT ON AN ITEM YOU HAVE TO SHELL OUT REAL MONEY FOR! and a measly 20% discount at that.

want to make your loyal players happy?......want to keep the players you have?.........want to have those people recommend this game to their friends? then you SHOULD have said......



"Well guys, we didn't quite make our goal but we are so happy that so many of our loyal players signed up. As our way of saying thanks, we have decided to give everyone 1.25% (or the full 1.5%, whatever) extra exp this week! Thank you to all those who participated and thank you for playing Perfect World International."



get it? that's what keeps players happy. that's what makes them tell their friends, "hey, PWI is a cool game you should try it!" instead they're saying "PWI is ok, but it's really all about money and their events totally suck. they don't care about their players."

do you think many (if any) of the 5300 people, or whatever the final number was, will ever do this sort of thing for PWI again after this? no, they will say to hell with it since they got such a crappy "thank you" this time. you may think that this (and the other posts here) are just the rants of a few people but i assure you there are more people who feel this way than you realize. it's not about just this one event but pretty much all of them and the way this game is run in general, refer a friend is a total greedy joke.

Lessie, i understand your point about not hitting the goal = no prize, but PWI is trying to gain new players, and keep it's old players on top of that. sure in other areas of business if you don't make the goal you don't get the reward, but that doesn't really apply in marketing to gain a new player base. you have to offer your customers some freebies every now and then to keep them from going to other products (games). and that especially applies to a game that is dependent on a cash shop. you have to give people incentives to stick around and not move on to another game that isn't all about the money.

PWI will not do well in the long run with these sort of tactics. these posts indeed may not change anything but PWI will eventually reap the consequences of their mistakes if they don't start doing things a little differently. keep people coming back for more, instead of driving people away. PWI really needs to reevaluate it's tactics. the future of this game seriously depends on it.

I agree 100000%!! You took the words right out of my mouth! b:victory

Ash - Heavens Tear wrote: »

So what was the definition of a scam again? Because I definitely think the nature of PWI's attempts to earn money from their players most certaintly falls on the shady side........

How, exactly, is this a scam? You were told that if you got 6000 friends you'd get 150% xp. You did not get 6000 friends, so you did not get the 150% xp. Just because you're not satisfied with the consolation price (that was never even promised in the first place) doesn't make it a scam.

I don't mean to be off topic....

But am I the only one who isn't sure what myspace is?

Lessie - Lost City wrote: »

Oh that applies a lot in marketing, I dont buy stuff with 80% of the money

Marketing doesn't necessarily mean buying stuff. It's promoting the product, getting the word out about how great your product is compared to the competition, giving people incentives to use your product over the others. Ever go to a supermarket and see the free samples given out for the new products? That's marketing. Also, your statement regarding players leaving because of this but they gained new players so the number won't change, this insinuates that this is not a problem. This would be considered a big problem for a marketing team. When you're promoting a new product, like this new game, you want to increase your numbers as much as possible. Even if the numbers stayed the same, not seeing an increase after this Myspace event would be considered a failure of the event, by any marketing firm in the world.

Yes, in most areas of business (and life) you shouldn't get something for nothing, and usually don't, BUT when you are promoting new products and NEED new customers for your business to survive, offering incentives and perks is a common practice. Think of a business firm giving freebies to a potential client, schmoozing them with free gifts, etc. all in hopes of getting their business. You could argue this with a "game" trying to get new players but that's exactly what the Myspace event was about. They lured their current player base, with hopes of free exp, to recruit more players for them. When a customer base does something out of the norm (like signing up for Myspace and supporting this game) there should be some sort of reward for them, NOT a minuscule 20% discount on an item they still have to pay for and may not necessarily want or need.

Does PWI "have to do this"? Of course not. Yet the point is the so called "reward" these people got for going out of their way to do something for this company, isn't considered a reward at all by a large number of people and they are angry, especially by those who question the validity of the numbers (people getting booted from PWI's friend's list on Myspace). This is not a wise move for PWI since they are "trying to grow". They cannot afford to make their players angry and distrustful of them at this point.

This single event is not why some people (myself included) are getting so pissed off at PWI. It's all the events and how the game is run in general. It's time after time of "give us money, give us money, give us money" with no relief or reward (unless we pay for it). The most successful online games usually do have, at least occasionally, events or times when they give actual free stuff or bonuses. They "give" to their loyal players when PWI's perception of giving is offering a new cash shop item. PWI has every right to do this, but it's not a smart way to handle a new game that needs players. Some people will argue that "This is PWI, not some other game. This is the way the game is and if you don't like it, don't play it." That is of course true however PWI will not have long term success if they continue to run the game in this way because more people will eventually decide to go to another game that gives more to it's players (keeping their interests up) and does not take half their paycheck.