Please stop closing threads that request reasonable information

Kondor, first off, I'm sorry I misunderstood your request. When I saw the demand to know "Who the GM's are," I assumed you meant their full names.


Secondly, I can understand why you would want to know GM aliases, schedules, and servers. It's obviously completely normal to want a solution to whatever problem you may have the instant that it happens. No one wants to have to sit there and miss out on the playing that they could be doing or the item that they could be enjoying right now had the issue been fixed sooner.

Still, I have to reject the request for this information, and for this reason: if such information were made public, it would result in each GM being bombarded with dozens of issues within minutes, some which would take 5 seconds to resolve (I'm stuck!), and many that would actually take a number of hours to investigate and resolve.

Our GM's handle literally thousands of tickets each week, and the professional ticket system they use was chosen specifically because it was the most organized way for GM's to be able to communicate with the player, prioritize and track the issue, and ultimately resolve the issue. But while it is the best system we've had so far, they unfortunately can't resolve every request as quickly as the players involved would like. Still, I can assure you that they are doing their absolute best to get to every ticket as quickly as they possibly can.

So please continue to use the ticket system for all customer service needs, and we will continue to hire more GM's to take care of the ever increasing ticket-load.

Thanks!

konuk wrote: »

Firstly.. Kritty.. if you took me to have been derogatory about you personally, I apologise.
Its the system failure I was exemplifying and nothing personal, I see your responses all over the forums, regularly and they are considered and thought out responses for sure.

Secondly, Kritty and Alasan, yeah I pasted from another thread.. poorly.. not that familiar with quoting from another separate thread sorry.

Thirdly, thanks for responding Frankie, it only took 4 threads and several posts to achiever it but thank you anyway.

I still maintain that sending in a ticket for being stuck is ludicrous. It's an excuse to reduce the apparent level of issues in the game, in much the same way as the live chat issues are.
I note that you didnt address that btw.
I also still maintain that the reason you are dealing with so many tickets is that this is your universal answer to all queries and problems, you are making a rod for your own back.

The live system if working would help ease that, as would the use of the GM button function in game. I too recall when they used to do what they said. It worked. If it isnt broken dont fix it.

You are blinded to things I am afraid, the only reason people would bombard Gm's is that there are so many unresolved issues. There are only so many hours in a day but you will reduce the player anger and the number of complaints, by being seen to do something.

Having had to re organise a failing customer service section in one of the branches of the compnay i worked ofr as operations director, initially when we started taking calls and taking ownership, we too were bombarded.
Thing is, as you start to address and clear things.. so the bombarment eases and eventually becomes a trickle.

Your response actually doesnt meet a single one of the requests, sorry to say.

When you are up to your *** in alligators it is difficult to recall that the original objective was to clear the swamp.

In other words, when what you are persisting in doing is clearly in anyones estimations, not working, swallow the pride and at least TRY to do it differently.

Taking on more staff you say.. how many more? More than the how many you have currently?

If you are going to continue to have a live service that clearly isnt most of the time.. please remove it as an option, you are adding to the frustration by advertising it.
Likewise, please remove the GM button from the interface.. no excuses about whose job it is or whose domain. You are the point of contact, the funnel if you will.
Without being rude, I dont care whose job it is, I am asking the only people YOU see fit to let us contact. If it isnt your job then YOU pass it on to whoever is the person whose job it is.

How about a demonstration of your committment to customer service?
Simply list each day how many tickets you have had submitted, how many you have currently outstanding, and how many have been satisfactorily resolved that day?

You MUST have that information, nd it cannot hurt for customers to be able to see for themselves how successful the system is.
I am sure that once they see figures trending the right way, the player base will be a quieter and happier place. Never content of course.. customers job to complain , but still.

How hard can it be to show us that information?
Incidentally.. would help if someone actually working there thought of a few of these things.

There really aren't that many stuck players throughout the day on a given server. Maybe a handful at most. There is an option in the ticket system for "I'm Stuck!". These tickets are higher priority than the rest.

The LiveChat system is something that we're really looking at right now and seeing if it actually helps more than it hurts. So far in it's existence, the vast majority of LiveChat calls result in the GM asking the player to submit a ticket, due to the fact that the issue cannot be resolved in a matter of a few minutes. So having GM's taking livechat calls all day is actually a lot less efficient than having GM's work on tickets.

So yeah, we're looking at the LiveChat system.

Also, just curious, but what kind of company did you work as operations director for?

Alasen - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Btw read the rest of that book lmao FYI the sucessful P2P mmo's i've played actually told you how many peopel were banned, what for, EVERY fixed bug (not to mention fixing bugs.........) EVERY MONTH. So dont' hand us this b.s. line that u can't disclose what you do, the ONLY tihng you can't disclose is measures being taken to stop a glitch/exploit or find one or w/e, since that'll attract attention to it.

Might I bring attention to the type of game you are now playing? It's a Free to Play MMO, not a subscription-based MMO. You cannot compare them to each other, because they are completely different in terms of customer service and staffing requirements.b:bye

Alasen - Heavens Tear wrote: »

LOL pay attention to what i wrote before this... and now i say BULL**** ROFL Higher priority my ****...........

Btw read the rest of that book lmao FYI the sucessful P2P mmo's i've played actually told you how many peopel were banned, what for, EVERY fixed bug (not to mention fixing bugs.........) EVERY MONTH. So dont' hand us this b.s. line that u can't disclose what you do, the ONLY tihng you can't disclose is measures being taken to stop a glitch/exploit or find one or w/e, since that'll attract attention to it.

technically speaking, despite having a cash shop, Perfect World International is and probably always will be a Free to Play (F2P) game. The people that made this game do not require ANYONE to pay for the stuff in the cash shop. It is the greed of the people on the American and European Servers that makes them want to purchase those items, and subsequently it appears seems to make them feel entitled to greater customer support than is really necessary for a purely F2P game.

Also, if all it took to get ahold of a GM was simply clicking the "I'm stuck" button, then we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. I doubt that clicking that button was intended to be the catch all end all for getting ahold of a GM. Though I will let you know that I personally spoke to a GM today in game after having hit the Report Hacker Button regarding a person that was trying to get people to go to a third party website in order to buy coins for real life money. I was subsequently told that the next time that happened I am supposed to take a screen shot and submit a ticket, and I accept that response because my issue wasn't a life or death issue that needed to absolutely be resolved right then and there. In fact I wasn't seriously expecting a response from a GM in game as I had used the report button before and never gotten a response before. So it came to me as a complete shock >.>

And my example isn't an isolated case. Apparently the GM's are making an organized effort to be more present in the game within the last week or so. So we do have that floating around for us.

frankieraye wrote: »

There really aren't that many stuck players throughout the day on a given server. Maybe a handful at most. There is an option in the ticket system for "I'm Stuck!". These tickets are higher priority than the rest.

The LiveChat system is something that we're really looking at right now and seeing if it actually helps more than it hurts. So far in it's existence, the vast majority of LiveChat calls result in the GM asking the player to submit a ticket, due to the fact that the issue cannot be resolved in a matter of a few minutes. So having GM's taking livechat calls all day is actually a lot less efficient than having GM's work on tickets.

So yeah, we're looking at the LiveChat system.

Also, just curious, but what kind of company did you work as operations director for?

If youre looking at the live chat system then you just started doing it. Ive used your little GM call button and chat at same time several times and got zip for a reply.

It helps if you guys are awake after you go on duty.

Alasen - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Try reading, i used that button that frankie says works and is a high priority, and i've used it before too in other places.... adn NEVER ONCE got a gm to get me out of that spot.

actually if you read what Frankie said, he specified the "Ticket" system. With which he meant submitting an actual ticket here on the website referencing the fact that you are stuck. Doing that is what has the high priority, not hitting the button in the game.

Alasen - Heavens Tear wrote: »

errrr ya good point, but why the hell would i even bother submitting a ticket and waiting for a week to move my toon when there's a button in-game? o wait that button dont' work (see where this is going? crappy response time etc etc etc).......

then ultimately it is up to you to think of alternative solutions to your own problems so that you don't HAVE to call on the GM's to bail you out of every little thing.

Take for example your issue of being stuck in Twilight Temple. That is an instance. Easiest way to get unstuck there, as you correctly surmised here in this thread is to either have an alt, or a member of your own faction add you to their party so that the instance resets and you leave the instance. That would have solved at least that one problem for you without having to wait hours. And in fact you don't even need to have an alternate account to accomplish this, you just need friends or faction mates with space in their party for you.

Dethprowl - Raging Tide wrote: »

Well when you hit the damn button a message ought to pop up on screen and read like this:

You just wasted a few seconds of your life pushing a button that doesnt work LOL.
If you really want the services of a GM please send a message through the ticketing system and if someone shows up in the offices today we'll see if they can be bribed with a soda and a cup cake to get in touch with you and help you out, (if you havent signed out in disgust by that time).
Sorry to have wasted your time, sucks to be you LOL.

At least thats how they make you feel with all the made up excuses and hidden operational rules on getting help.

technically speaking, the button probably does in fact work. The problem is that the button is so generic in what it is meant to do, and the fact that it is supposed to be a helpline to getting in touch with GM's... means that the button is probably being used for everything that goes wrong in the game big or small, despite the fact that the button explicitly states it is intended to be for when people get stuck. Thus the GM's have all probably unanimously decided to ignore that button in favor of the ticketing system, and live chat (the latter even now is under investigation for being removed apparently).

What this means is that in the near future it looks like the only way we are going to have to actually get in touch with a GM, and probably the best way to actually get what we need taken care of... is going to be the ticket system. In fact in my experience in other games, most other games want you to have submitted a ticket before they will help you via things like Live Chat or Phone Responses (assuming they have Phone Responses in the first place). This is so that the job of the Rep who is assisting you is made easier by being able to refer back to the ticket that you submitted initially and not having to rely solely on what you tell them over the phone or chat log.

Dethprowl - Raging Tide wrote: »

Well if they arent going to respond to the button OR to a WC request for help that comes at the same time they need to make it clear that they are only going to respond to tickets in the first place. Perhaps even just remove the button altogether.
I dont have the forgiving nature that you do about situations like this. Ive paid this game alot of money as Ive played and at this point I count it all as a waste. Nothing about this version of the game is appealing to me anymore. Its a greedy money grab with **** customer service.

if I am understanding the way Perfect World International is developed, the GM's here in the States and Europe cannot actually remove the Button in question without getting the "OK" from China. And I doubt that would ever happen. Additionally I have every doubt that the GM's actually monitor world chat very often anymore unless they are checking it for malicious activity such as coin seller sites, fake GM's and other similar stuff.

konuk wrote: »

You got a fast response when reporting a possible hacker?
Prioritise.. a response to something that is speculation, hearsay, and not for certain affecting ANY player detrimentally....
Respond to the things that ARE affecting players, are fact, are substantiated.
The only thing this shows is that where there is the slightest possibility of you having your revenue spoiled, you are there in a flash. (Gold sellers etc etc)
Where its a concern that only affects the players... send a ticket, let some anonymous person decide whether to grace you with a response that calendar month.

Wait... am I understanding this correctly? You prioritize people who get stuck in the scenery of the game over people who try to **** other players accounts? And no, it wasn't a possible hacker, it was an actual player who was advertising a site other than the perfect world entertainment website that sells you coins in exchange for real life money. These websites are 99% guaranteed to be run by scammers who are usually also hackers. I have seen this kind of behavior in other games, and it is never a good thing for the game's economy or the players themselves to participate in this kind of behavior. I would highly prioritize hackers above getting stuck in the scenery.

Also, there was no way for the GM who contacted me to know why I had reported the individual in question unless they had personally been monitoring world chat on my server prior to contacting me, and even then they would be guessing. The only reason they would have likely known why I had reported the individual was because I told them why. And even then they asked if the individual was still performing the action and when I said they were not, they asked me to report the individual via a ticket the next time such an event happens like that.

Also the fact that Live Chat kicks you from the queue after 30 minutes or so of waiting in the queue is likely not something that the staff of perfect world entertainment can control seeing as how they are using a third party bulletin board service to facilitate their Customer Support Board that is used by several different companies for the same purpose. I imagine the time limit on the Live Chat is pre-built into the software and not something that can be changed a whole heck of a lot.

konuk wrote: »

Well actually Tolan, by now it has become pretty clear that all you are really doing here is attempting to create the illusion of being in the know in order to appear cool.

Huh?

You have backtracked, evaded, misread and waffled time after time after time.
You give the impressino and have stated that you have worked on the bulletin board software for every single other company that uses it...

Way to misrepresent what I said.

What I actually said was that I have played other games and submitted tickets using those other games support services, not all of which are in fact Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Games (in fact one of them is a Trading Card Game and Pen and Paper Roleplaying Game company), asking for assistance and by doing so have experience in what is to be expected with regard to various other companies with regard to their own Customer Support services. I would name all the companies I have experience with, but somehow I have a feeling that is against the rules of this forum so I don't think I am allowed to do so despite the fact that it is heavily relevant to this discussion.

I can find your quote saying that if you really want. If you have worked for that many companies you are either several centuries old or are emplyes for no longer than a few hours at a time by anyone.

Go ahead, I would really enjoy seeing where I said I worked for several different gaming companies when I know for a fact I have never in my life worked for a gaming company except perhaps if you count working as a beta tester for an Online Trading Card Game?

As to what you ask above..YES I prioritise ACTUAL problems above speculation.. be careful too since what you are alluding too approaches libel. You make an accusation about a spammer being a hacker with nothing but guesswork to go on.
You mention that gold spammers are "Illegal". Which country's laws state that please?

And you define actual problems as getting stuck in terrain of the game as opposed to actual illegal activity? As for my speculation, all I did was report a person who was spamming a site offering to sell coin for real life money. I know from past experience personally and the fact that even the GM's of this game have publically announced such to be the case though indirectly, that many of these third party websites are infact havens to hackers. I will make no attempt to claim that the specific example I reported was in fact a hacker. However that means nothing when you consider the fact that there are hundreds of these kind of spammers running around all the servers, and at least some of them are in fact hackers. And believe it or not hacking people's personal information via internet websites is in fact illegal on an international level!!!!!

Also you say that the GM had no way to know what your issue was... BS and lies.

I said they had no way to know what my issue was unless they read world chat prior to contacting me. I have no way to know if they did this or not since they approached their conversation with me from an appearance of ignorance about what I was reporting. As such I assume they did not do this. That said, I personally spoke to no one about the issue both prior to reporting the issue and from the time I reported the issue right up until the issue was resolved in game. It was only after I finished my conversation that I actually gushed about actually speaking with a GM personally to my friends.

This is the quote from you when you originally mentioned it: "Though I will let you know that I personally spoke to a GM today in game after having hit the Report Hacker Button regarding a person that was trying to get people to go to a third party website in order to buy coins for real life money. "

Of course.. REPORT HACKER gives no clue to anyone as to what your issue is.

You um... are aware that there are multiple reasons aside from reporting a person offering to sell coins for real life coins that would explain why a person could actually want to hit the Report Hacker Button? Botting comes to mind readily as one example....

Your issue was alleged hacking.. you said so yourself. You informed the GM you 'apparently' spoke to that this was your issue.

Okay since apparently the fact that I actually spoke to a GM is in question here, I will take a screenshot of the conversation the next time I have a discussion with a GM. Sorry I forgot to do that this time around, I didn't realize I was going to be quizzed about the experience later in the day b:surrender

I use the stuck situation purely as example.. and obviously it isnt the end of the wrold.
There are many many situations when players need and deserve a timely response.
The amount of racial, sexist and otherwise intolerable abuse that runs through WC daily are just some more small examples.

Seriously, I get stuck in the game all the time... and I can usually get out of being stuck without resorting to either having to submit a ticket or having to call on the GM-Faerie to come and rescue me. I don't see why people are so stressed about having to rely on the GM's to fix every little problem in this game that pops up. This kind of behavior has a clinical name, though I can't quite remember what it is at the moment.

I repeat that the reason it gets such prompt attention.. in the example you apparently had,
was because it could impact on the revenue of the company.
Yes the spamming and the sale of coin breach the ToS, yes it should be dealt with, but heck no it should never ever ever take priority over a player with a GENUINE, FACTUAL issue.

Actually the reason I probably got such a prompt response that one time is that I have taken a bit of a habbit of reporting those people who spam sites that are selling coin for real life money via the report hacker button instead of taking a screen shot and sending in a ticket with the screenshot. I figure they saw my most recent report and wanted to see why I keep hitting the button. At least that is my best guess.

Would be ironic if the spammer concerned actually took legal action for being called a hacker.
Making coin sales is one thing.. you are in NO position to jump to unfounded conclusions as to the perpetrator being a hacker.

Would be funny actually considering I have nothing that they can take from me save maybe my computer >.> I am a ward of the state.

konuk wrote: »

Again, attempting to appear in the know. I dont expect PW staff to modify their management software. I expect them to have it modified by the support agenct to match their requirements.

If it isnt feasilbe then they are presumably getting karma here. If I install an off the shelf management information software system for my company, I will have it tweaked and customised by the supplier.
As a qualified systems analyst (not trying to look cool like some here) I can tell you that the software can be changed to remove or change the 30 minute time out.
Likelihood is that the package was procured by people who merely controlled the bufget and had no real appreciation of the application per se. Yes thats guesswork though.

Even if what you said were true and the system was too rigid and inflexible to allow this to be changed, whilst waiting, the customer is permitted to type into the window explaining their issue.
Store what is sent by the customer, and attend to it according to the time at which it was sent.

As to the quantity of occurrences where live chat issues result in the GM asking for a ticket submission, well fine.. allot an arbitrary time period to attend to a live chat request for help, and if it cannot be resolved then resort to the ticket if you must.
It isnt a waste of time responding if you manage to solve even one problem in a timely manner.
Why? because you are responding to people before they have chance to get angry, you get some things done pretty quickly and the PR gain with your customers is huge.

Be honest please.. this is what you are doing at arms length when people submit tickets anyway... you look at them, prioritise them, fix what can be fixed in a short time first in parallel with working on the most serious issues first.

So what is the difference to you as a company between these two scenarios?
Not much I suggest.
To customers its a huge difference. They get to speak to a live person.. pretty quickly, queuue or no queue. Excuse the typos please.. tired (thank god i hear you say :P )

Explaining simple premises and concepts like this is long winded and I can understand some people getting annoyed by lengthy posts.
If only the basics were understood and considered it would be tottally unnecessary to drag it out so much.

Every response thus far has consisted of "we cant, we wont, we dont want to try"

Not one single time do I see.. "well maybe we could look at that... perhaps we could try this.. it is possible we could do things differently"

In a nutshell.. there is always some unjustifiable excuse for not improving the appalling service.

for every silly excuse there needs to be a lengthy explanation of a way round it or a reason why it is not valid.

So much negativity.. resulting in... "shut up and submit another ticket.. ohhh and by the way.. any help there ever was or could have been above and beyond this is being terminally removed or shut down"

" its not my job... its out of my control... i dont have authority.. i dont have staff... i dont have funds... it wasnt me... I wasnt there.. I cant help you! "

For the love of God... try something positive and constructive Frankie. You are being obstructive, un co operative, unhelpful, evasive and you need to try to embody something popularised by your fellow Americans here...

Try a little "YES WE CAN"

you never know you may grow to like it, a change is as good as a rest.

I have a close friend who is an administrator for a professional gaming forum that uses the vBulletin software. I have a basic understanding from him how coding a forum from predesigned forum software works as he is one of the primary people responsible for that website's maintenance and tech support. And trust me, assuming the distributor of the software does all the work for you when you subscribe for use of the software... just is not how it works. Oftentimes you have to customize the software yourself if you are going to be doing customization to begin with. Othertimes there are in built limitations to the software that you cannot overcome even with the best programers in the world at your disposal due to the way the software was designed in the first place. So simply reworking the software may not be an option and the distributor may not be available to do so.

Also, can you please stop posting such huge honking walls of text?

konuk wrote: »

No one suggested hacking was not illegal.. try reading...and recalling what you say.
You are claiming that the gold spamming is illegal. The onlt thing you reported... as you said.. was the spamming...
Then you ask if i want stuck people to take precednce over illegal activity.. WHAT illegal activity?
Hacking? what hacking? who got ****? ohh thats right.. we have no means to know if anyone at all got ****.. or if the spammer was a hacker... or if the website advetised was hacker central or not.

Funny... last I checked there was a thread on this very section of the PWI forums entitled and I quote "Gold Site Spammers - please report here." in said thread the GM's request that people actually name and shame those who are spamming both sites selling gold, and sites selling coin which are not officially sanctioned by Perfect World Entertainment. All I did was use the report hacker button to accomplish the same thing. Was my method any more or less effective in doing what was asked of all of us? I have no idea. Did I get the attention of a GM? Most certainly!

Ahh yes botting... something else that impacts on revenue.. but actually doesnt impact hugely on the customer.. unless of course there are growing quantities of them. I am guessing you are referring to farming bots by the way.. could be wrong though.

Yes I was primarily referring to farming bots, and actually said bots can impact players more directly by killing mobs in area's that have high quest traffic.

dude I keep saying.. getting stuck is just one small easy to relate to example..
you say there many reasons why someone may want to hit the report hacker button..
yet it eludes entirely that there may be many reasons for a player to need a timely response from a GM. So blinkered... stop focussing on the stuck scenario.. its just ONE example.

I am focusing on the stuck scenerio because at the moment that is the only scenerio for a timely response from a GM that you or anyone else has yet to offer to us. Provide another scenerio that requires an immediate response from a GM in the game itself and I will gladly address that issue as well. But for the moment the only one I can think of is getting stuck in the terrain.

Stop with the back and forth arguments, or I will be forced to close this thread.