What happened to my Generals?

[thedarklorde]

So, I have a question.

In the rollback, I lost most of the "Easter gift" you guys sent out. I happened to use both of my rabbit's feet during the hour or so that was lost. That's huge to me - I had used them on my two level 3 coinages, and was very much looking forward to the hundreds of coins (rubbing hands together greedily).

But, now they are gone. And, I have submitted three (I think) customer support tickets for it. The loss of the awesome buffs (along with the "Old Friends" adventure I had just started) ticked me off pretty seriously, and so I sent multiple (not-so-friendly-but-hopefully-not-terribly-aggressive) support requests.

Here's my question: can I seriously expect to get ANYTHING back? And, this question is really "can I expect to regain my confidence that I won't lose valuable items in the future?" Which, long term, means "can I get emotionally invested in this game?" Which, of course, means "will I continue to spend money on this game and/or tell my friends they should be playing?"

Here's why I think the answer is no:

- The game is "beta" (which doesn't mean much - so was Gmail for most of its life), so officially, I've "been warned this might happen".
- You guys may or may not have records of what I did during the "lost" hour - if not, it's just my word that I hadn't used that stuff until then. I work in the games biz, so I know that the word of a pissed off player is not to be taken seriously.
- The fact that this can happen AT ALL is terrifying. Somewhere in that system is an architecture choice that allows this to be possible. Rolling back the game is inevitable - all games need to do that from time to time (even WoW). Rolling back ONLY THE WORLD and keeping the inventory? That's amazingly bad. I don't know how to forget that your game system allows this.
- Our dear, beloved BB_ people are clearly under-supported by Ubisoft. This game is successful, but no way is it successful at the level that means Ubi will throw extra support at making it work. So, you guys are working with what you have.

Are we screwed? I've spent hundreds of dollars on this game so far, have been having a GREAT time playing it with my wife, and have been enjoying this "end game" feeling where I'm working on the adventures and fine-tuning... but this event has made it clear that my status is at risk, and that if something bad happens, I probably won't get support to get it fixed.

That tells me I should back away. I don't want to back away. Is there a reason I shouldn't?

[Dreamsfear]

I have that same question, as far as waiting type games this is one of my favorites. The problem is exactly as you stated, they are understaffed and you can tell by a lot of the minor bugs with the game. Then top it off with the current blowup that just happened in the servers, I don't know if it was caused by some changes these guys did or if something just failed out of nowhere but its a pretty scary thought when you invest a little cash into something like this. All in all I think this game can be successful, sure it is right now but even more so if they made some good changes.

One thought is use the community you have already to make the game better. You have plenty of people who play this game with computer experience so if you're lookin to change graphics of buildings and what not host a competition among the players to do that work for you and give gems to the winners. Let your staff handle the big issues and let the community help with the minor ones and just call it a "competition" or "contest". Essentially it would probably save your staff some grief and headaches and let them focus more internally on keeping the game smooth rather than "ooo pretty" yet still a nightmare for lost generals and what have you.

[thedarklorde]

I want to be more clear. My issue here is not so much "boo hoo hoo I lost my rabbit's feet". That is how I feel - but the issue is deeper than that.

Let's imagine I had previously spent $100 on gems, so that, going in to the "rollback" time, I have a large amount of gems in my inventory. Imagine then that during that "lost" hour, I decided to blow it all on decorations. Like, I really went to town with rock walls and ruins, and hey, maybe I won a dark castle or something! I decorated my island with awesome. Sweet! I'm down to 0 gems in my inventory, but my world looks COOL.

BAM! Rollback.

My world returns to its previous (undecorated) state. But my inventory stays where it was - so, gems are spent, items have been used, and there is literally no proof anywhere in their system that I "deserve" any kind of a refund at all. They have my money, and I have nothing. Worse, I *HAD* something, and then it was taken away.

It's so incredible to me that this possibility was *ever allowed* in the architecture. The world state and the inventory state are (should be) THE SAME STATE. Or, at the very least, both should be timestamped to ensure a synchronized rollback.

If my inventory was kept with the world state, then all a rollback would mean would be that I lost the "effort" of spending the gems. Maybe I would have to re-fight some battles, or re-buy some items... but fundamentally, the game would be where it was. The worst case there would be if I happened to *purchase* gems in that rollback timeframe... but then there are bank records that can be used to easily prove to Blue Byte that I bought the gems. Inconvenient and frustrating... but recoverable. Nothing actually lost.

This is one of those rare times where a problem with the game is *actually* a huge problem. When fans and players say "THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM!!!111!!!!!11!!" it usually means "I'M REALLY MAD RIGHT NOW!!" And, while that's true...

...this is *actually* a huge problem.

Blue Byte development team: are you aware of this problem? Do you acknowledge that it is a real problem? Do you acknowledge that it is a severe problem? And, if so, what are you going to do about it?

[Smurdley]

How can BB tackle issues like this when they have their hands full trying to find another name for wine/beer/brew? I mean, where would the game be if it was still called "wine"?

Lighten up folks, and let BB tackle the tough stuff first.

[Achilles]

lol smurdley...that sarcasm font you have works great!

[Achilles]

I agree with all of the above...and not one reply from anyone! I have no idea what you guys call prompt replys, but its been over 52 hrs now....

[thedarklorde]

Let's keep going.

The dev team is in Germany, not here. Our support people here (I would guess) have limited access at best to the dev team. And, if the relationship between development team and community staff is like it is in the rest of Ubisoft, I would guess that their ability to communicate with the German team is email-only, and any attempt to push for results from this side will result in less-than-positive results from the far-off dev team.

This is how it is, by the way, for *most* online games in Europe. The dev teams are in the States, and the European community people are left hanging out to dry. Unfortunate, but in many ways inevitable, given the differences in time zone, language, and job descriptions.

I would *hope* that this is not true here. But it's probably just that - hope. The reality is more likely closer to what I described.

So. Why have we never (ever) heard from the dev team, directly? And why is the hope that we *would* ever hear from them probably misguided?

Because they:
- are on another continent/time zone
- write in another language as their first language (although almost everyone at Blue Byte speaks English, to be sure)
- have a successful, vibrant community for their game locally (in Germany) that is an easier/more positive/more familiar place for them to go to look for feedback
- are not receiving any pressure from the U.S. side of Ubisoft to communicate with us (those guys are certainly more interested in the upcoming Assassin's Creed release than in the revenue stream this game generates)

...we will literally never hear from anyone other than our own local reps (the BB_ people). And those guys are (probably) almost as much in the dark about what is happening as we are. I have an enormous amount of sympathy and respect for the work they do - it must be difficult to fend off the aggressive players with one hand and with the other desperately try to get SOME kind of support from the far off developers... yeah. That's gotta be fun.

What does all this mean? It is a further extension of my first post: it's a reason to back away. Unless Blue Byte makes some kind of direct contact, it's hard to see sticking around for much longer. It's an amazing game - I *really* like it. But the zero response & support from the core team is starting to sound like a deafening silence to me.

I'm probably alone in this - probably this is just my overreaction to losing those darn rabbit's feet. But I'm posting on the off-chance that I'm not the only one who sees things this way.

[Dreamsfear]

No, you're absolutely right. And what's worse, you're probably right about the support team and its a scary thought. You're situation up there where there's a possibility to "lose" gems that you paid for...I'd lose my mind. You wanna piss someone off in a hurry, screw around with their wallet. If that's really how things worked for the guys who bought gems during this server crises, rollback, blow up shenanigans then I'd say BB may wanna get with those individuals and work something out. I was fortunate and I caught all the posts from the disaster like I was watching first hand, so my generals and their boys got weekend libo...no major upgrades...no trades I couldn't live with if reversed. It's amazing if that's really how it went down for the guys who bought gems. Not exactly how I would run a business.

[Achilles]

Their lack of reply is indeed deafening....

[EpsilonSilver]

http://forum.castleempireonline.com/...n!-Please-read