Curse

Nereyda Shoaal · Dec 16, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrvrod

ANet/NcSoft

Stopped reading there. Sorry

Kenzo Skunk · Dec 16, 2009, 04:26 PM // 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snow Bunny

Valve and Blizzard make ArenaNet like a bunch of morons.

Just saying.

And Turbine makes ANet look like carebear. I had issue once in GW and they`ve responded promptly and professionally.

gremlin · Dec 16, 2009, 04:30 PM // 16:30

Have to go with number 1 here
I contacted them when the free storage tab came out as I had forgotten all details of the plaync account login and pw.

Over the next few days several emails passed between us, both of us remaining courteous.

They asked for more information and I gave it or replied that it was unavailable and why.
I received all the information I needed it did take a full 7 days probably because of working hours in the different time zones.

Perkunas · Dec 16, 2009, 04:34 PM // 16:34

On the two occasions that I required support, they were prompt with responses and the information they provided resolved my issues.
So #1 is my response.

Captain Bulldozer · Dec 16, 2009, 04:45 PM // 16:45

I've had to use NCSoft's "support" about 4 times in just over 2 years. In each case they were unable to assist me and basically told me my issues weren't their problem (or simply that there was nothing they could do about them). So as far as I'm concerned they are pretty bad (it often seemed the people contacting me barely knew they game they were trying to support... I had to send like 3 e-mails one time just to explain the existence of the XTH for example).

As For anet's CR/Support, I'd say Gaile used to (and still kinda does) do a great job. Regina, for as much flak as she's taken, seems to at least try to stay in touch with the community and does a reasonably good job in my opinion. The problem in the last several months seems like Regina is just about the only one we hear from anymore, despite being promised a more open relationship with the Live team. Over the past year or 2 we've been promised a lot of necessary and exciting changes, only to have most of them delayed or scrapped completely. Sure, anet is devoting its resources to GW2, but I'm starting to think they don't realize that how they continue to support GW1 (or not) would strongly affect consumer confidence for future purchases. Its gotten to the point where they're removing content because they can't get it working correctly, and letting unbalanced skill abuse run rampant for years at a time. By making drastically over-powered skills and then leaving them that way long enough for people to become dependent on them, they only encourage players to quit when those skills finally get nerfed.

In short, I'm underwhelmed with the quality of support for both Anet and NCSoft.

Hyperventilate · Dec 16, 2009, 05:04 PM // 17:04

I'm number two. I haven't had many troubles with support.

Earlier in the year my account was permabanned for, "Threatening to Hack." I said, and I quote (To my own boyfriend), "im in ur c0mputrz haxx0ring ur pr0n."

Someone reported me for it.

My only issues are --

A: Some GM actually banned me for that.
B: It took four days to get it reversed, and without an apology.

Everything else I've needed to contact support for has gotten through without a hitch.

IninefingersI · Dec 16, 2009, 05:43 PM // 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperventilate

I'm number two. I haven't had many troubles with support.

Earlier in the year my account was permabanned for, "Threatening to Hack." I said, and I quote (To my own boyfriend), "im in ur c0mputrz haxx0ring ur pr0n."

Someone reported me for it.

My only issues are --

A: Some GM actually banned me for that.
B: It took four days to get it reversed, and without an apology.

Everything else I've needed to contact support for has gotten through without a hitch.

LOL, maybe your boyfriend did it out of fear for his porn library.

I rolled some guy in RA once and he started ranting at me. I told him he could tell them all about it back on the beach.

30 seconds later my game shut down, I was banned for 72 hours for inappropriate character name for the name Perforated Condom.

I e-mailed support to find out why that was so offensive. I get a reply from a GM four days later, after the ban was already up. Here is a synopsis of the e-mails:

Me: What is so offensive about that name that it warrants a 3-day ban?

GM: The word condom is offensive because it implies bodily functions and drug abuse.

Me: DRUG ABUSE??? Please enlighten me.

GM: Condoms are use to mule drugs.

Me: Are you out of your friggin mind?

Then they went into my account and ban flagged me again for inappropriate name for the word Hoochies on a character that hadn't been played in a month.

Thats some pretty full-contact game support there. The kind you would expect from someone dealing 3-card monte on a street corner.

AngelWJedi · Dec 16, 2009, 05:48 PM // 17:48

4. More often than not, I'm waiting quite a while for an answer.
5. I've never had a positive resolution/quick response.
6. they are complete idiots except for gaile

after getting my account banned for two days because they thought i was a gold seller/buyer i will never believe in them again. and all i got from them was oppsie our mistake here's your account back. no sorry from them. unlike others who had their accounts banned by mistake all i wanted was a sorry. but that's to much work fromthem i guess. i can only hope gw2 will be better with this stuff.

MMSDome · Dec 16, 2009, 06:18 PM // 18:18

They are very fast in responding to support tickets and they only give out information when they feel they need to.

If they wanted they could use the technique the creators of Half Life use on releasing information but we are fortunate enough that they give us some info.

Apollo Smile · Dec 16, 2009, 06:23 PM // 18:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by IninefingersI

In theory, if your talking about game support, any experience with them would have to be negative because if everything was going well, you wouldn't need to have an experience with them to begin with.

I've never heard of someone with a positive issue that needed resolved.

Thats why I like Valve so much. I play their games much more than I do any other games, and I've never needed to contact support.

The support you don't ever have to use is the best support of all.

Everything is smooth as glass, no problems, no BS.

Technical issues can be fixed automatically on the user end with their steam validation utility. zip, zip, auto-repair, and your back in the saddle.

Content updates happen automatically before you get in game .... you never get kicked out for an update.

No squad of ban nazis running around looking for excuses to shut people down, you just login and have fun. The essence of gaming.

Valve doesn't make MMOs. Unless you are implying First Person Shooters would need anywhere near as much support.

mrvrod · Dec 16, 2009, 07:20 PM // 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR

When you say 'Public Relations' I assume you mean community relations, but your post seems to imply you are talking about customer service.

If so: Option 2. I've dealt with them a few times, and whilst it's never been great, it's always been at least satisfactory.

Actually I'm talking about any and all communications between company and customer. One-way or two-way. So while technical support is a big part of it, the PR portion is important too.

And I really don't want to lump in the release of information about GW2. when I talk PR, it's more along the lines of the release of information regarding the XTH update, account security, patch notes (which have become so short they wouldn't pass the 12 char min on guru), and the disappearance of the monthly newsletter. I see support as the one-on-one conversations and the PR as their way of addressing issues that affect us all.

I hope that clarifies my thread topic for you.

Hyperventilate · Dec 16, 2009, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by IninefingersI

LOL, maybe your boyfriend did it out of fear for his porn library.

I rolled some guy in RA once and he started ranting at me. I told him he could tell them all about it back on the beach.

30 seconds later my game shut down, I was banned for 72 hours for inappropriate character name for the name Perforated Condom.

I e-mailed support to find out why that was so offensive. I get a reply from a GM four days later, after the ban was already up. Here is a synopsis of the e-mails:

Me: What is so offensive about that name that it warrants a 3-day ban?

GM: The word condom is offensive because it implies bodily functions and drug abuse.

Me: DRUG ABUSE??? Please enlighten me.

GM: Condoms are use to mule drugs.

Me: Are you out of your friggin mind?

Then they went into my account and ban flagged me again for inappropriate name for the word Hoochies on a character that hadn't been played in a month.

Thats some pretty full-contact game support there. The kind you would expect from someone dealing 3-card monte on a street corner.

That was the funny thing. I was going to hack him to put porn on his computer.

Maybe they're afraid that you can use condoms to huff paint?

IninefingersI · Dec 16, 2009, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo Smile

Valve doesn't make MMOs. Unless you are implying First Person Shooters would need anywhere near as much support.

Well, I would't say that 'A' FPS games requires the same level of support as a MMORPG ... but ..

How many online games does Valve run and support simultaneously? Over a dozen?

How many does Anet run and support simultaneously? one?

Professor K · Dec 16, 2009, 08:11 PM // 20:11

A single MMO like Warcraft or GW has alot more bit and pieces and "moving parts" than multiple shooters. The scales are completely different.

Emperor Bush · Dec 16, 2009, 08:49 PM // 20:49

2. My experiences have been mostly positive, very few letdowns.

I've contacted support 3 times.

#1. Scammer notification with screen shots. Player was banned within an hour.
#2. Scammer notification with screen shots. This happened on the weekend, and player was banned within 3ish days.

So those were positive

#3. I was suffering a period of Jade Quarry addiction. I was sick and tired of the turtles and juggs getting stuck in the base. (Fellow JQ addicts know exactly what I'm talking about.) After maybe 2 months of this aggravation, I sent support a question about it, explaining the problem, and asking the following: Is this an intentional aspect of the game? Is this something you are aware of? Is this something you are working on fixing?

After needing a series of email exchanges to explain the problem, they said (paraphrase) "We were unaware of this problem. We will begin trying to solve this problem. We will keep you updated. Thanks."

For starters, there is NO WAY that I was the first person to bring this to support's attention. NO BLEEPING WAY.

I have not received any feedback on the issue since, and this occurred maybe 10 months ago.

This problem still exists. Part of me thinks it is some intentional part of the game. But I maxed my lux and kurz title, don't play JQ anymore, and really stopped caring a long time ago.

While I have not had my account hacked, I am paranoid about it after having a good friend have his hacked, and after reading the many stories here. I really want/need to buy an extra character slot right now, but I'm too paranoid to do it. I have read some people speculate that the problem is with ncsoft, and I'm not touching anything having to do with that site until all this hacker stuff gets sorted out.

The Drunkard · Dec 16, 2009, 09:02 PM // 21:02

I'm going to assume you're talking about support, not PR

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrvrod

.
6. Don't know/Never had an issue.

It's not too hard to keep things clean in chat, nor is it to think twice about any "too good to be true" deals.

Lishy · Dec 16, 2009, 09:10 PM // 21:10

By no means at all does Anet have the best support and public relations, and god forbid they be compared to the tyrannical rampaging, king Blizzard.

However, I certainly can't say they've done bad either and I've mainly had good experiences with them.

Overall, I would give them a B in rating if I had to.
They`re doing the job just fine in my opinion and experiences. It could be better, but I won't delve into to that. They're doing fine.

Reverend Dr · Dec 16, 2009, 09:23 PM // 21:23

I really do enjoy having to waste a week sending back 4-5 responses to bots before getting a live human to talk down to me while Anet stealth fixes server problems, denies they had a problem, and then tries to tell me it was my own fault.

Karate Jesus · Dec 16, 2009, 09:27 PM // 21:27

NCSoft does PR?

Since when?

Jugalo Dano · Dec 16, 2009, 09:51 PM // 21:51

For my personal customer service contacts with them I would have to say better than choice 2 but not quite a perfect 1.

I've submitted tickets about 4 times total, and every time they have responded very swiftly; and tried to help as best as they can. Once I reported a bugged gate in factions shortly after release and they did a fix update about 2 days later, they fixed my xth points pretty quickly when they switched to the new setup and almost everyone's points bugged out, and I reported a bot with screens once long before the /report command, fairly sure they were banned a day or 2 later.

The time I had trouble was when I tried to get them to change the login email account for my game account 'cause I don't use it anymore and they refused; but support had their reasons for not doing so and I understand why they wouldn't change it.

As for general PR, overall I would rate them as a 1. Sure lately they have become much more vague in what information they openly release to us, but I blame the community for that not Anet. Gaile used to login and have her sessions fairly often, and she has taken alot of bs and flak from the community. People scold anet and whine over the tiniest of things, and over and over people have flipped out if anet varies from any slight thing they say before it happened. Everytime i sat in on a pr session, there was always a few jagoff's saying rude remarks etc just to try push peoples buttons, showing no respect.

Personally I think the community is way to critical of anet and their PR. I know there are many people who do appreciate their community relations like me, but there's has always been more greivers than people giving thank you's. Anet has always listened to the guildwars community very well with the requests and opinions we have made and tries to follow through to the best of their ability. Many of the things that have been implemented over the years simply wouldn't be there if they didn't talk to the community; most other game companies just say 'my way or the highway' as far as relation to their customers go.

For better or worse, they have done a great job in molding the game to what the players wanted/requested as best as possible. And frankly to be honest if I were regina I wouldn't want to login and try to talk to the players if I knew I was going to have to read people cussing and slandering me either, even if it is just a few out of the masses that would do so.