Retrospective of Specgate and the Vindication of Players

sarcasmdetector · October 2014

I won't go into any details about what has transpired over the last week, we all know more than we want to.

The biggest thing we can take away from this is that the trust between the Devs and the Players was seriously damaged. There where things said on both sides, some legitimate, other things completely out of line (from both sides).

Put that aside for now. Today was the day of Vindication for most of the players who where smacked in Specgate. From what i gathered from talking to different folks, everyone got either some, most or all of their points back.

I myself got everything back on both my affected toons. yes i'm back to full 60 points on Jena. :party:

So i have this to say to my fellow players who got Specgated: enjoy the sweet taste of this Vindication, it really is something you will only feel once in a life time.

Having said that, know that this is the closest you will get to an apology from Cryptic. Don't go looking for anything more than that.

To all the whiteknights who said we deserved what we got for getting cought with our hands in the cookie jar: GG sirs, but i think we are owed some apologies.

To the Devs: Thanks for taking the time to re-review all the cases. I'm sure that didn't help anyone's schedule at all. Also thanks for going back and correcting all the things.

To Everyone: I think it is time to move on now.

cbrjwrr · October 2014

Crisis over it would seem. Well done Cryptic, it is a step in the right direction for all.

Well, except those who were wrongfully accusing players who did not use the exploit of using the exploit of course.

anazonda · October 2014

I trust all devs apart from a certain lizard...

It's PWE and Cryptic leadership I don't trust.

bareel · October 2014

anazonda wrote: »

I trust all devs apart from a certain lizard...

It's PWE and Cryptic leadership I don't trust.

ditto

/10 char

cbrjwrr · October 2014

anazonda wrote: »

I trust all devs apart from a certain lizard...

It's PWE and Cryptic leadership I don't trust.

We don't agree very often, but we do on this.

shpoks · October 2014

sarcasmdetector wrote: »

To Everyone: I think it is time to move on now.

I agree with this. After these rough couple of weeks, time to go back enjoying the game.

talonxv · October 2014

Hate to point out the white elephant in the room, but don't we take this game a tad too seriously at times? Just sayin.

daveyny · October 2014

talonxv wrote: »

Hate to point out the white elephant in the room, but don't we take this game a tad too seriously at times? Just sayin.

Yep we do... but everybody has their passions in life... :cool:

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:rolleyes:

ursusmorologus · October 2014

Ego led them to many errors

One apology for one error, well, its a start

ummax · October 2014

talonxv wrote: »

Hate to point out the white elephant in the room, but don't we take this game a tad too seriously at times? Just sayin.

Aye people do. Anyhow so everyone who put in tickets got fixed up so they can move on now. I personally do not believe that going ballistic is the way to handle things (huge waste of energy in my opinion) but whatevers.

So can we move on from assuming the worste of the devs? which is par for the course in most gaming communities.

*goes to fork over my pennies for a lifetime sub*

http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1282041

cmdrscarlet · October 2014

This thread wins the forums.

stoutes · October 2014

Grats Sarcasm and everyone else which has their points returned.
I have to ask though, has the damage already been done? I haven't seen Dez in a good while, since all of this everything started.

gulberat · October 2014

While I think you are right to be happy for the players who got back their spec points and I am happy to say action taken on Cryptic's part, the fact of it for me right now is that Cryptic has a long pattern of crises caused by a combination of QA and communications failures, which has been followed especially in this case by attempting to use technical/systems solutions to solve problems that are much deeper and due to their actions are now in fact public relations and customer trust problems at the core.

What this means is, for me to consider paying into the game or converting dilithium to Zen again, I will need to see better communications, quality testing, and game design as a consistent pattern over a sustained time. That means being engaged on a people level (and for some, knowing how to communicate without being flippant or dismissive), and placing a higher priority on pre-release quality testing and LISTENING to Tribble testers and not locking down testing to make sure only a few can test, and generally attending to the risk versus reward structure in the game to get the grind back down to more tolerable levels.

This is a first step. I would like to see it become more.

I think a good description, overall, is a mode of watchful waiting.

bareel · October 2014

The entire thing was nothing more than a gigantic waste.

Waste of development time. Waste of CS time. Waste of player time. Waste of public relations. They should have just fixed the bug and moved on but then again hindsight is 20/20 they say.

pwstolemyname · October 2014

For the past week I was angry. I was not expecting any amount of community rage to cause cryptic to change their course but I was wrong. Now I am no longer angry.

I think we all leaned a lesson from this experience. Getting angry gets results. Which is a shame, because I would rather get results without getting angry.

anazonda wrote: »

I trust all devs apart from a certain lizard...

It's PWE and Cryptic leadership I don't trust.

Sadly I must echo this sentiment. One person at cryptic is seriously out of touch with the consumer base in more ways then one. Which is also a shame. Oh well no point putting in a vote of no confidence, I am not a stockholder.

Edit:

After posting this I took a look at another thread and there was something there that I did not expect.

stephendangelo wrote: »

I sincerely apologize on behalf of the Star Trek Online team for both the original bugs and the error of penalizing some customers incorrectly.

Maybe I can give some one at cryptic another chance after all. We will see how things go from hear. I hope my trust can be restored. I don't like feeling bitter.

solspot · October 2014

Getting the white knights who also were calling innocent people exploiters and dividing the community to apologize wont happen.

These guys have their heads up their rears so far they dont even consider what they did wrong.
Now even Cryptic has come out and apologized, to help heal the rift. Will the playerbase do the same? I think not. Im glad I have a list of all the knights who felt it right to accuse and belittle others in defense of a draconian action.

You will never have the respect or even ackowledgment of your opinions again until apologies are issued. Help heal the community, dont hide and wait for it to blow over so you can start being trolls again.

talonxv · October 2014

solspot wrote: »

Getting the white knights who also were calling innocent people exploiters and dividing the community to apologize wont happen.

These guys have their heads up their rears so far they dont even consider what they did wrong.
Now even Cryptic has come out and apologized, to help heal the rift. Will the playerbase do the same? I think not. Im glad I have a list of all the knights who felt it right to accuse and belittle others in defense of a draconian action.

You will never have the respect or even ackowledgment of your opinions again until apologies are issued. Help heal the community, dont hide and wait for it to blow over so you can start being trolls again.

Not that I even knew what was going on (have a job that keeps me on the road a lot) can I offer a suggestion. How bout you just take the high road? And let it go like the OP said.

wilbor2 · October 2014

I dont get why craptic never learn, this is not the 1st time players have felt robbed by craptic and players have flooded the forums. Its about time they looked at there own history before repeating it yet again

solspot · October 2014

Taking the high road and letting it go wouldnt have got people back their points.

It wont heal the community.

No, taking the high road would mean those who divided this community would come out and apologize for being wrong. The fact none have even done so yet indicates it wont happen anyway, since asking for it instead of just receiving it means it wasnt considered wrong on their part till someone with actual morals brought it up.

Catch 22 no win situation for those guys.

gulberat · October 2014

Personally I hope I have been clear in my stance on the exploit: I believe a small group did exploit something far beyond Japori, and yes, I have given Cryptic benefit of the doubt because I heard something from other sources that pointed strongly to that. *However,* I hope I have also been clear that I think many got hurt by the rollback that were not engaged in the Bigger/Real Exploit.

Obviously if anything got misinterpreted I apologize for unclear communication on my part. I hope though that I *have* been clear throughout.

To some I guess I could be considered a white knight for seeing valid points on both sides--but I can assure you that I try not to look at anyone with an uncritical eye, *or* with blind contempt.

talonxv · October 2014

solspot wrote: »

Taking the high road and letting it go wouldnt have got people back their points.

It wont heal the community.

No, taking the high road would mean those who divided this community would come out and apologize for being wrong. The fact none have even done so yet indicates it wont happen anyway, since asking for it instead of just receiving it means it wasnt considered wrong on their part till someone with actual morals brought it up.

Catch 22 no win situation for those guys.

Be that as it may, calling them "white knights" or whatever else because they stated an opinion is also FLATLY wrong. Sorry you don't get to throw mud like that, then demand they apologize just because Cryptic made a good call. That's not for the good of the ccommunity, you simply want your ego saved and rub it in their faces.

Be the better man and community and just let it go already. Both sides have already flung enough garbage around.

solspot · October 2014

gulberat wrote: »

Personally I hope I have been clear in my stance on the exploit: I believe a small group did exploit something far beyond Japori, and yes, I have given Cryptic benefit of the doubt because I heard something from other sources that pointed strongly to that. *However,* I hope I have also been clear that I think many got hurt by the rollback that were not engaged in the Bigger/Real Exploit.

Obviously if anything got misinterpreted I apologize for unclear communication on my part. I hope though that I *have* been clear throughout.

To some I guess I could be considered a white knight for seeing valid points on both sides--but I can assure you that I try not to look at anyone with an uncritical eye, *or* with blind contempt.

Actually you were one of the only voices of reason in this entire debacle. Things didnt really escalate with the angry innocents until the white knights starting attacking them. Then the situation went from bad to worse. Will they apologize? I think not.

The fact you have despite your reasoning this entire time just shows what a stand up guy you are, and that your opinion should be something everyone listens out.

I only use the term "white knight" to describe those who attacked innocent people trying to protest being wrongly punished, without even considering the possibility Cryptic could have done wrong.

anazonda · October 2014

wilbor2 wrote: »

I dont get why craptic never learn, this is not the 1st time players have felt robbed by craptic and players have flooded the forums. Its about time they looked at there own history before repeating it yet again

THis right here is part of the reason...

YES... There is one who openly says he hates the customers, but calling them names surely wont help.

chemist6lp · October 2014

anazonda wrote: »

I trust all devs apart from a certain lizard...

It's PWE and Cryptic leadership I don't trust.

The problem is that this lizard is the head dev. And until he gets his paws off the game, nothing will ever improve.

mindshadow999 · October 2014

gulberat wrote: »

While I think you are right to be happy for the players who got back their spec points and I am happy to say action taken on Cryptic's part, the fact of it for me right now is that Cryptic has a long pattern of crises caused by a combination of QA and communications failures, which has been followed especially in this case by attempting to use technical/systems solutions to solve problems that are much deeper and due to their actions are now in fact public relations and customer trust problems at the core.

As someone who played City of Heroes before this... it's kind of how it goes. You get used to it after a while, even if the unforced errors like this are kind of maddening.

ursusmorologus · October 2014

talonxv wrote: »

Not that I even knew what was going on (have a job that keeps me on the road a lot) can I offer a suggestion. How bout you just take the high road? And let it go like the OP said.

whiteknight wants to change the subject

talonxv · October 2014

ursusmorologus wrote: »

whiteknight wants to change the subject

Wow. I want the community on ALL sides to move past this dark time and let water go under the bridge and I get called a WK. Or did you miss where I said Cryptic made a good call.

People like you are going to be the reason animosity exists. That kind of attitude right there.

ursusmorologus · October 2014

talonxv wrote: »

Wow. I want the community on ALL sides to move past this dark time and let water go under the bridge and I get called a WK. Or did you miss where I said Cryptic made a good call.

People like you are going to be the reason animosity exists. That kind of attitude right there.

Anybody can search your posting history and decide for themselves if you're neutral

I have

talonxv · October 2014

ursusmorologus wrote: »

Anybody can search your posting history and decide for themselves if you're neutral

I have

I am neutral. I didn't even know about this issue till today, and yeah I said this community is down right toxic. And I wasn't far off. I just stopped giving a TRIBBLE about certain things and tried to tell others to do the same and suddenly I'm.

Some people are just taking all this WAY too seriously and way too far with their "if you're not with us you're a boot licker" TRIBBLE.

Again that attitude is going to do far more damage in the long run. Better to stop, take a deep berath, let it all go and just game on.

meimeitoo · October 2014

ursusmorologus wrote: »

Ego led them to many errors

One apology for one error, well, its a start

The French have a good saying: "Ce n'est que le premier pas qui co

Retrospective of Specgate and the Vindication of Players

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