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Went to IRC chat to discuss lack of phone support
TheHellfire
Member Posts: 67
The cryptic devs who were on claimed that they felt customer service would be better if they didnt get chewed out by angry customers on the phone.
/facepalm
Comments
LOL yeah not answering the phone always works LOL.
Ostrich meet Sand
So they are basically using the same tactics Chav's use for avoiding debt collectors.
What next, are they going to start keeping the curtains closed and hiding behind the sofa everytime someone knocks Cryptics front door?
Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-pope.
ignore the man behind the curtain.... this is not a fraud!
IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME
That's a responce quite typical of Cryptic's extreme arrogance.
"Our game is awesome and if you don't agree you don't get it. And don't say bad things about our game and hurt our feelings!"
Wow, how pathetic. So basically, theyre so aware of horrible of a product and service they put out, that they cant even face their own customers anymore. Theyre so ashamed and frustrated with what theyve done to their own company and game, that they cant even get the balls up to actually deal with their customers and even attempt to fix their issues in any way.
Not that i was a big fan of Cryptic to begin with, but this is just pathetic, and warrants my never giving them a cent for any game they ever release again, until they put new people who have some fking common sense, pride in their work, and respect for the people who pay their bills. But that doesnt look likely to happen anytime soon, so enjoying going bankrupt and shutting down Cryptic, cause youre never going to be able to push box sales like you did with STO after this shameful performance.
I don't suppose you have a copy of the IRC chat?
Doesn't change whether or not they actually have phone support.
CCP doesn't provide it for EVE either, though I prefer being able to call someone for an assist.
More likely is that STO doesn't generate enough revenue to warrant phone support.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Could be. I'm of the opinion that they simply don't care what their customers think, as Cryptic is an extremely arrogant bunch on the whole, and stubborn to boot.
I just wanted to see the chat because I find it hard to believe the devs would be honest enough to admit they don't have phone support because they are tired of being told how crappy the game is.
That's not their style. They tend to spin (lie) so as to give the CDF a talking point quote for their sigs and another way to shout down dissent on the boards.
Now don't forget, they did say that they watched Star Trek when they were making the game and that the game was not made for Star Trek Fans
They don't seem to understand their source material especially the federation. I saw one post where someone was asking them to add the terran empire from the mirror universe as a playable factions. One of the responses was for him to just dress up in the mirror universe uniforms and he would be all set.
That seems to be the same attitude they had when they made the game, just dress it up in a Star Trek uniform and throw in a few ships and you will be all set with a Star Trek MMO.
I hate to quote CENSORED NAME "If you put lipstick on a pig it is still a pig" gaa i hated doing that but it is justified this one time.
Not quite; remember that in interviews post launch that they were always ready and willingly to whine about customers complaining, or at least get snarky about them. I don't have any trouble believing that they made such a back-handed comment at all. Their spin, such as it is, is in the fact that they never admitted their game was junk; they merely said that the customers were getting unruly. They can step in (if someone brings this up) and say that they were getting a lot of very rude people calling them, or something along those lines.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Just a joke:
**Stolen from a Cryptic developer computer**
Loading Champions Online Please Wait....................Load Complete.
>Replace generic city with generic space backround.
>Copy / paste character creator (note to self, replace hero garb with "spacey" uniforms)
>Make Star Trek ship models *Do a pretty good job, make the models one of the few highlights of the game.*
>Overworld - Replace hero models with ship models.
>Ground combat - Replace hero models with "spacey" ones.
>Program annoying Support Ticket auto response and auto-ticket close after 3 weeks.
>Employ arressive forum moderation / marketing.
>$$$?
Oh sure, there have been many times where I've been surprised by the snarkyness of the devs and plain rudeness they display to forum goers who have complaints. The funny thing is the CDF will of course defend the devs with "street" level intelligence. As in, "If someone said that to me, I'd punch them out! Way to go Devs!!"
Never mind the fact that this is a business - customer / provider relationship. A professional knows that a cool head and a thick skin is a must. You can not get in the gutter with the rubes, or snobbishly berate reasonable complaints with a "I'm right, you don't get it" attitude.
But hey, they always respond to the "Devs, add striped skirts to the C-Store!" threads, so they are listening.
The lack of dev communication with STO is quite a bummer. You see, (long after you left Die_Scream) the devs communicate with Champions players very substantially. This started when STO launched, they touted a new communication initiative, and it has been great in CO but never materialized in STO. The obvious reason is that STO is over run with useless negativity. If you visit the CO boards, the majority of threads are positive, and the nasty threads are rare and minimal (usually player-to-player nastiness, not player-to-dev). Of course, it did take several months to settle down, and I hope the same can happen for STO. For the players who actually like the game to communicate with the devs is a great thing, but so far there have been too many people with nothing better to do than to start nasty threads.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I already know that this sensical comment on this is going to be like pissing in someones punchbowl here but I think technicaly the devs are right. Customer support is not a complaint hotline so if they didn't have to field complaints they could provide better service to the people who call that number for it's intended purpose.
My feeling is that CO launched, was lackluster..had the launch nerf..etc, bad feeling abound. Then word of STO sinks in, people feel angry that CO's problems have not been addressed, stealing devs, etc.
Then STO launched, all focus went there, meanwhile CO chugged along in the back round. If, as you say its gotten so much better...It was quietly, out of the spot light, as all attention was on the terrible STO. Since its old news, only the patient players who have stuck with it are now reaping fortune for their patience?
You wish more people would give it a second chance.
That's my guess only.
And the same should happen to STO eventually; after all, STO is bleeding players as fast (if not more so) than CO did, so eventually you will only be left with those who like the game and therefore the boards should be relatively positive. As for the 'nasty threads' comment, while you always will have those no matter what MMO you play, Cryptic wouldn't have had as many of those had they spent more time developing both games. To their credit CO was a far more completed game than STO (it needed more content, while STO needed so much more), which is why CO boards are probably a lot more civil than the STO boards.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I agree in that CO is a better game than STO, at least it was when I left shortly after launch compared to STO a month ago or so. I also agree that the blue name will quickly be the only names you see on the official boards. Then they turn on eachother as more and more finally admit the game is flawed.
It seems we are in this stage now, or at the beginning anyway.
Heh, ya, Cryptic seems to be populated by kids that think everyone needs to play nice nice in the sandbox, and when grownups talk straight to them, Cryptic staff pick up their little balls and run home.
So they are going to provide better service to those people...by getting rid of the number entirely? How on earth does that equal better service?
Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-pope.
That was a classic post, it was in the thread on future factions.
All this negativity comes out of the fact that the game is so small and limited. People want to like this game for various reasons, but all except for the most die hard lifetime subscribers have to admit that the game is fundamerntally flawed.
That, coupled with the utter arrogance of the dev team means that the STO forums are in a rough shape.