Grief

Linna

I was recently banned from an MMO. The game is not doing well, and I think it will fail soon, yet I grieve. The things I worked for, the struggling factions I tried to help, the new members in my guild who I had to leave behind, and maybe most of all, the injustice of it all. You see, I was not banned for exploiting, griefing, harassing, duping or anything like that. I was no longer welcome because I violated policy. A policy that did not exist when I bought the game, but was suddenly implemented 6 months into live. My 'crime'? I had two accounts, one of which with characters in another realm on the same server. Something other games I played actually encourage, and which the devs of this game said they had no problems with in multiple statements during beta. And worse, correspondence about the new policy with the devs and CSRs of that game had me convinced they'd grandfathered in my accounts. Until the hammer dropped.

For those of you who are familiar with the pre-CU SWG, it feels as almost as bad a betrayal as the CU and NGE. It makes me wonder about the depth of the emotions these damn games manage to invoke in us, or at least in me. It also makes me wonder once again why there are no laws forbidding these practices, or if there are (I suspect bait and switch laws might apply here) why they aren't enforced. Why are game companies allowed to change the rules for the use of their products or - in the case of SWG, the contents - so dramatically midstream? If I were to buy a Ford, the salesperson would not be allowed to reposess it after a few months and give me a Toyota in stead, so why do game companies get away with it?

Yes, this is a bit of a rant. Several weeks into this I am still upset.

Linna

 

Sourajit

Originally posted by Linna


I was recently banned from an MMO. The game is not doing well, and I think it will fail soon, yet I grieve. The things I worked for, the struggling factions I tried to help, the new members in my guild who I had to leave behind, and maybe most of all, the injustice of it all. You see, I was not banned for exploiting, griefing, harassing, duping or anything like that. I was no longer welcome because I violated policy. A policy that did not exist when I bought the game, but was suddenly implemented 6 months into live. My 'crime'? I had two accounts, one of which with characters in another realm on the same server. Something other games I played actually encourage, and which the devs of this game said they had no problems with in multiple statements during beta. And worse, correspondence about the new policy with the devs and CSRs of that game had me convinced they'd grandfathered in my accounts. Until the hammer dropped.
For those of you who are familiar with the pre-CU SWG, it feels as almost as bad a betrayal as the CU and NGE. It makes me wonder about the depth of the emotions these damn games manage to invoke in us, or at least in me. It also makes me wonder once again why there are no laws forbidding these practices, or if there are (I suspect bait and switch laws might apply here) why they aren't enforced. Why are game companies allowed to change the rules for the use of their products or - in the case of SWG, the contents - so dramatically midstream? If I were to buy a Ford, the salesperson would not be allowed to reposess it after a few months and give me a Toyota in stead, so why do game companies get away with it?
Yes, this is a bit of a rant. Several weeks into this I am still upset.
Linna

 

I truly understand your state of mind here.

I have been playing for almost a decade now and one thing I hate in these new released games is the support system.

I won’t take names but this is really harassment.

Previously in the old Everquest days or the Anarchy Online days we had players who made the game world and game masters where only in chat boxes or game helpers were only to resolve issues.

But nowadays it is somewhat different. We have the support system which control the game. If you have found a bug or if you have found something weird then you are not welcome there. The support people who made friends with you in the game world and never became friends through messenger will banish you away.

The support people no wonder knows everything about the game and though their elementary idea was to help you but in that process of community development they have made the game world crowded and real hardcore gamers are hard to find.

I tried a game in open beta recently and made a guild to experiment a bit. The game had many community options. I found out that there are single people logged in with many multiple names.

Thus the guild small talk became spam to them and though they were playing but they do not kind of like me much there. I tried to get hold of a few players the normal player people but alas, I bumped into more support people.

I know this kind of gaming support companies operate in my country India but never knew that the mmo worlds are nowadays a make belief world where you get friends who are actually been paid for playing with you.

My previous posts hint the game and I am now confident that it is done because the prize distribution of triffle goodies or anything in that game competition which the game boasts is an in-house way to disillusion kids to go and play that game.

Marketing and advertisement of the gaming world have now seen new heights and somehow I do not want to be a part of this made up number of players and likewise.