I'm sorry, but no amount of customer service or CS discussion is going to change the minds of gamers with no patience or intelligence as to how it goes with MMO's and their companies. These types of gamers(especially console players) want it all and they want it now.
The best thing is most MMO's are becoming "niche" games and we're slowly weeding out these types of gamers and the veteran, mature players can settle in for some gaming greatness. Perhaps we won't have to listen to the "chicken littles" of the gaming world too much longer.
I'm sorry, but no amount of customer service or CS discussion is going to change the minds of gamers with no patience or intelligence as to how it goes with MMO's and their companies. These types of gamers(especially console players) want it all and they want it now.
The best thing is most MMO's are becoming "niche" games and we're slowly weeding out these types of gamers and the veteran, mature players can settle in for some gaming greatness. Perhaps we won't have to listen to the "chicken littles" of the gaming world too much longer.
God knows, I'm waiting for that day...
QFT +1
I've been waiting for Zenimax customer service to correct an issue I have since the first day of the pre-launch (almost a month ago). Their incompetence certainly changed my mind and I will definitely not continue my subscription despite liking the game (which has plenty of problems, but I could live with those).
If anything, the sorry state most mmorpgs are launched and handled is attributed to to apologists and the unbelievable low quality expectations of mmorpg games that is unique in the genre in this extend. Maybe when this breed of developers that think that they can milk their customers with loved IP and juicy proclamations get extinqued, we'll get mmorpgs that are worth our time and our money.
And yes, this article should have a header "damage control" above it.
Originally posted by sbrite10
....
They have had more hot fixes for quests than any other MMO Ive ever played in this short a period of time.You think these developers don't have families to go home to?I guarantee you they have teams working on every inch of this game.For crying out loud the games only been out what 3 weeks?Get over yourselves.Im having a great time in the game.Yes there are bugs but not gamebreakers for me.If you cant have a good time playing this game then you aren't even trying.Just want whine like little kids.Man sometimes I wish the Internet was never invented.
Do you know how I would call an mmorpg that needs hotfixes every day and server downtime every other day with some days having two downtimes in the same day?
I am fully aware of problems mmos have at the beginning but the duping exploit killed my confidence in Zenimax totally. Sure there were duping exploits in other games, even in WoW but never on this scale, where one could duplicate everything very easily from the very beginning of the game and only once it hit the you tube they fixed it. If anything can be called gamebraking in mmo it is precisely this - possibility of obtaining end game items on a massive scale by cheating. Seriously I can't imagine worst exploit. Totally unfixable after few weeks of abusing.
Also why should we forgive problems during launch?
Because many previous games had problems? To me that's not a valid excuse period.
This is the concept I have the most problems with concerning game launches. The willingly bending over of some customers is hard to bear.
But credit goes to the PR-departments of publishers for making those people believe that when it comes to software shitty quality is unavoidable. Like gravity.
The same people would never ever forgive a producer who had years to test and refine its product to come to market with essential parts missing, not working, not working as intended, destroying their property etc.
Just game developers get excused because they are obviously too retarded to use the alpha and beta test periods to make their product fit for launch. Also the gaming industry is the only one where people willingly pay up to alpha and beta test and still have to suck up a "rocky launch".
But shitty software is NOT a law of nature. And large scale multiuser transactional and data driven systems are in professional use outside of the gaming industry at even bigger levels. Especially in the banking and stock exchange sectors the volume of transactions is much higher than in gaming. Same goes for large scale geolocation systems aka tracking of large amounts of assets (e.g. cars, containers, commodities) in real time. But in these sectors nobody pays for the gamma test most "live launches" in online gaming are nowadays. The customers expect the software to work.
It would really help the gaming industry if gamers would follow a similar attitude since it would force the developers to spend more on actual development and testing and less on retarded PR.
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76) Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
I just love the fact that so many people feel like they were raped by ESO and now they come here to cry or be the victims. Many of them can not help themselves but post the same crap in every thread about the game. Frankly pretty funny. Seems many just want the game to go F2P. This tells me they actually like the game, but just can not afford to pay for it or why would they care what the pricing model is.
Originally posted by Horusra I just love the fact that so many people feel like they were raped by ESO and now they come here to cry or be the victims. Many of them can not help themselves but post the same crap in every thread about the game. Frankly pretty funny. Seems many just want the game to go F2P. This tells me they actually like the game, but just can not afford to pay for it or why would they care what the pricing model is.
Just go through this whole thread, you'll find out that you're the first one that mentioned the pricing model.
Since you mentioned it though, do you think I would receive better customer support if the game wasn't subscription based? Or should I have expected worst customer support from this game because it is subscription based?
it is supposed to be a AAA subscription based MMO thats why all this rage. If they didnt messed up with the charges on the credit cards and the high cost for access when you have similar quality games for free or they charge on buy only no one would care or it wouldnt receive so bad criticize ...
edit: @Xasapis check above the previous comments and you will see a lot of guys arguing about what is delivering into this price. Bugs always occurs and can be fixed but the broken mechanics are intended and they are hardly to get fixed..
If it were a F2P title there wouldn't be this much complaining. The problem is they are serving hamburgers and acting like it's steak. Just concentrate on flipping those burgers Zenimax, quit fooling yourself.
Originally posted by spoggos I'll give this my two cents, as I've been an MMO gamer for a couple of years now, 10 namely, starting back in 2004 with WoW. Now , I'll admit, I wasn't around for many releases of the "big" MMORPGs of today, including WoW, TERA, Lineage II or whatever, you name it. I mostly join 2-3 months later, so I can spectate from a 3rd person point of view how the game is received by the community, how the game handles bugs or other issues that will almost always pop up, and how it develops. And, since I'm not playing ESO, and haven't played yet, I'd like to think I'm not really biased. So, the feeling I get from reading around in MMORPG.com is that many, many customers are dissatisfied. I also get the feeling from reading MMORPG.com's reviews, or some of them, that they are trying to semi-back-up ESO. I'm sorry but I can't accept "most MMORPGs have bugs on release" as an excuse.. We shouldn't have such low standards, especially when producers are asking for as much as 60 euros to purchase the game and another 15 to purchase a subscription.. Like, to me at least, it seems like a lot of money (its closing in to 100 euros) just to get to play the game, only to find out its basically drowned in bugs. Kind of sucks. Anyway, I guess you do need patience when launching a new MMORPG, but people dont have enough patience, and its normal, I mean theres a ton of games out there to try out, why should we stick around for ESO for 2 or 4 months or however long it takes them to patch out all bugs, when we can simply play something less buggy but equally enjoyable?
Those "less buggy" games are available to play because players stuck around for them when they were "more buggy". Sometimes longer than 2-4 months. Someone liked something about those other games just like some like things about ESO. In any case..those that don't see any hint of merit in a game will and should not play...but not necessarily haunt forums trying to scare off people from the games with which they are obviously having fun.
I also do not understand why people can't comprehend that MMOs would still have the same launch problems and continuing bugs after 15 years of experience. Technology is always changing. It's like mercury...drifting this way and that..morphing. Tech specialists need to recertify regularly now...go to classes to learn new things and "keep up" . Games use to be in single digit kilobyte size ranges now they can reach 20+ GIgabytes of various systems and subsystems integrated in code that is suppose to , optimally, work in unison through the coordination of multiple teams working on multiple projects pieced together to form a whole. Not to mention the hardware and server issues.
Christ..I'm surprised any of this shit works at all to any degree resembling "functional".
Oh well...wasting my breath. No one gives a shit right?
I am level 40 and still having tremendous fun. The bugs I experienced personally were server latency / loading, and lost collector's items. I have not experienced other crashes or more than a few bugged quests. (/reloadui and /stuck are your friends.) However, the storyline and the crafting system are great. I've not played a MMO in a long time that had so many morally ambiguous, interesting choices. I love the instancing that allows me to see the effects of my actions differently than my friends in the same party do. I became a vampire and while the spawn rate was a pain, it made me feel like I accomplished something in the tricky acquisition and quest process.
Zenimax support seems to be an incredibly mixed bag of people. Half the time I get the wrong form letter answer to my tickets, and the other half I get personable, competent people.
Intend to sticket with the game, and I'm very happy with the pricing model. It seems to be keeping some awful players out.
If you are paying a monthly subscription you should be able to expect promt customer service. In the event players do not get the expected level of customer service I find it entirely justified they would cancell the subscription.
Comments
QFT +1
I am having a lot of fun playing the game and love it. Best mmo to date since the release of Dark Age of Camelot.
All new MMO's will have bugs and teething problems, I have yet to be in a mmo release without it having some major bugs.
To those who are already in the veteran ranks wtf ? My guess is they have missed quite possibly half the game.
I've been waiting for Zenimax customer service to correct an issue I have since the first day of the pre-launch (almost a month ago). Their incompetence certainly changed my mind and I will definitely not continue my subscription despite liking the game (which has plenty of problems, but I could live with those).
If anything, the sorry state most mmorpgs are launched and handled is attributed to to apologists and the unbelievable low quality expectations of mmorpg games that is unique in the genre in this extend. Maybe when this breed of developers that think that they can milk their customers with loved IP and juicy proclamations get extinqued, we'll get mmorpgs that are worth our time and our money.
And yes, this article should have a header "damage control" above it.
Do you know how I would call an mmorpg that needs hotfixes every day and server downtime every other day with some days having two downtimes in the same day?
Not ready for release.
To paraphrase Bruce Allmighty:
ESO's blessing are raining upon its players...wait a minute, that's not rain!
This is the concept I have the most problems with concerning game launches. The willingly bending over of some customers is hard to bear.
But credit goes to the PR-departments of publishers for making those people believe that when it comes to software shitty quality is unavoidable. Like gravity.
The same people would never ever forgive a producer who had years to test and refine its product to come to market with essential parts missing, not working, not working as intended, destroying their property etc.
Just game developers get excused because they are obviously too retarded to use the alpha and beta test periods to make their product fit for launch. Also the gaming industry is the only one where people willingly pay up to alpha and beta test and still have to suck up a "rocky launch".
But shitty software is NOT a law of nature. And large scale multiuser transactional and data driven systems are in professional use outside of the gaming industry at even bigger levels. Especially in the banking and stock exchange sectors the volume of transactions is much higher than in gaming. Same goes for large scale geolocation systems aka tracking of large amounts of assets (e.g. cars, containers, commodities) in real time. But in these sectors nobody pays for the gamma test most "live launches" in online gaming are nowadays. The customers expect the software to work.
It would really help the gaming industry if gamers would follow a similar attitude since it would force the developers to spend more on actual development and testing and less on retarded PR.
Too much whine.
Not enough glasses.
Playing: Darkfall New Dawn (and planning to play Fallout 76)
Favourite games have included: UO, Lineage2, Darkfall, Lotro, Baldur's Gate, SSX, FF7 and yes the original Wizardry on an Apple IIe
Justified in this case.
Just go through this whole thread, you'll find out that you're the first one that mentioned the pricing model.
Since you mentioned it though, do you think I would receive better customer support if the game wasn't subscription based? Or should I have expected worst customer support from this game because it is subscription based?
it is supposed to be a AAA subscription based MMO thats why all this rage. If they didnt messed up with the charges on the credit cards and the high cost for access when you have similar quality games for free or they charge on buy only no one would care or it wouldnt receive so bad criticize ...
edit: @Xasapis check above the previous comments and you will see a lot of guys arguing about what is delivering into this price. Bugs always occurs and can be fixed but the broken mechanics are intended and they are hardly to get fixed..
Those "less buggy" games are available to play because players stuck around for them when they were "more buggy". Sometimes longer than 2-4 months. Someone liked something about those other games just like some like things about ESO. In any case..those that don't see any hint of merit in a game will and should not play...but not necessarily haunt forums trying to scare off people from the games with which they are obviously having fun.
I also do not understand why people can't comprehend that MMOs would still have the same launch problems and continuing bugs after 15 years of experience. Technology is always changing. It's like mercury...drifting this way and that..morphing. Tech specialists need to recertify regularly now...go to classes to learn new things and "keep up" . Games use to be in single digit kilobyte size ranges now they can reach 20+ GIgabytes of various systems and subsystems integrated in code that is suppose to , optimally, work in unison through the coordination of multiple teams working on multiple projects pieced together to form a whole. Not to mention the hardware and server issues.
Christ..I'm surprised any of this shit works at all to any degree resembling "functional".
Oh well...wasting my breath. No one gives a shit right?
If you can't reason with them...join them.
Me..me..me! Want..want..want.! All! Perfection!
NOW!
I am level 40 and still having tremendous fun. The bugs I experienced personally were server latency / loading, and lost collector's items. I have not experienced other crashes or more than a few bugged quests. (/reloadui and /stuck are your friends.) However, the storyline and the crafting system are great. I've not played a MMO in a long time that had so many morally ambiguous, interesting choices. I love the instancing that allows me to see the effects of my actions differently than my friends in the same party do. I became a vampire and while the spawn rate was a pain, it made me feel like I accomplished something in the tricky acquisition and quest process.
Zenimax support seems to be an incredibly mixed bag of people. Half the time I get the wrong form letter answer to my tickets, and the other half I get personable, competent people.
If you are paying a monthly subscription you should be able to expect promt customer service. In the event players do not get the expected level of customer service I find it entirely justified they would cancell the subscription.