I want to congratulate my second-favourite vgm (still has a stretch to cover before reaching Kami high in my favours) turned loremaster (for some obscure reason) for the worst collection quest list ever, in matter of asked drops and of spread throughout maps.
Fox Tail - doesn't drop
Tobacco Leaf - clan base drop
Bear's Gall - NC/HZ drop
Buddhist Beads - zz/sz and jinan/datong drop
Fiber Rope - NC/HZ drop, pass material for mansion/wild tower
Water Herbs - dungeon chest drop
Wooden Flute - zz/sz drop (jinan/datong too, though more seldom and ppl usually don't grind on voh mobs)
Molar Tooth Elephant - icy drop from specific mobs, srs pass material
Snowman's Fur - icy drop from specific mobs, srs pass material
A Piece of Red Clothes - ld drop, gc/bt pass material
Plate of North Sea - icy drop,srs pass material
Plate of Bloody Shadows - tibet drop
Antler - icy drop from specific mobs, srs pass material
Sorcerer's Amulet - ld drop, gc/bt pass material
Jade Stone - tibet drop
So... 2 Tibet drops, all icy drops, all ld drops. Tibet drops controversy has been going on for some while, the drop rate is about as bad as broken arrows if not worse and moreover, no one knows yet what the drops are for - could be item collections or maybe pass collections for the ice palace dungeon. All Icy and LD drops are actually pass materials for either SrS or GC which is the main source of income for HM-PS players (I mean those who don't buy gold from sellers or sell item mall stuff).
From the 2 drops of NN/HZ (actually the maps with the greatest drop variety), one is high GB and the other one mid SM and guess what - pass materials for the mid-level dungeons, also required for the FC party quests.
Two drops from the lvl1 and 2 maps: buddhist beads and wooden flutes (again, loads of drops possible from those maps). One drop from clan base maps, the tobacco leaves. I haven't seen fox tails in ages - neither from clan base foxes, nor from the ones in sz/zz. Fox hairs, fox skins, yes. But no tails. And water herbs for which you'd have to go in the dungeons for which the pass materials are required as a donation.
The message to me reads "less dungeon runs for you, folks". Add to that the 10 billion gold sink and you'll have a too late fix for an out of control economy that should've never ever gotten to this point. Also, since rewards are being given out, it doesn't really help low level players get a footing into the game as the others offered the possibility - there's almost no drops they can donate in exchange for BEs.
Showing posts with label fail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fail. Show all posts
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Servers down
Greetings Players, we were as taken by surprise as you were. Acclaim is switching all domains over to Playdom's domains and everything is likely to be down until the morning hours (PSD). No rollbacks, just an unfortunate interruption that seems to be taking down the forums, and mall, etc. Please spread the word to friends who play as best you can and I'm sure we can make up for lost time with some raised XP.
(As usual, thank you for taking into consideration the non-north american player base... not! not announcing GMT times as well has been a common practice for a while now and yes, I'm lazy to do the maths. The guys at acclaim are paid to do it, i'm not.)
The first pages of any PR manual teach you that credibility cannot be bought. Not with promotions and not with cheap "bribery" such as raised xp. I think manuals skip the part of announce-people-something-will-happen-BEFORE-it-happens because that's just common sense. But hey, we all know that common sense is anything but common these days.
Have a nice non-gaming weekend everyone. After all, spring is in the air.
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
PvP balance at last!!!
Yes, my friends, it has arrived. It has taken Acclaim 112 patches to figure out the ultimate recipe to pvp balance: bring BP down.
As of patch 111, The Bloody Plains are not working anymore. It is a grim hour, a sad day for all the Hermit nukers in the Land.
It is a day of rejoicing for us, a day of peace in The Land, a day we walk knowing that no poor soul looking for the flowers of the Bloody Plain is being griefed for 1 BK, no particular shaolin warrior logs to CC to make life miserable for peaceful grinders (sorry about the bias here), no safe zone becomes unsafe....
My friends, this is the day when we are proven right: PvE pwns!
As of patch 111, The Bloody Plains are not working anymore. It is a grim hour, a sad day for all the Hermit nukers in the Land.
It is a day of rejoicing for us, a day of peace in The Land, a day we walk knowing that no poor soul looking for the flowers of the Bloody Plain is being griefed for 1 BK, no particular shaolin warrior logs to CC to make life miserable for peaceful grinders (sorry about the bias here), no safe zone becomes unsafe....
My friends, this is the day when we are proven right: PvE pwns!
Saturday, 24 April 2010
The "free" Tears and Scales fiasco
Well, folks, they've done it again.
This week, I read in the DC league chat that there's a sudden promotion with tears and scales at 1 coin/pack. I logged to the IM, got 1 pack of each, thinking I'm set for the next year.
A little later, in a forum post, Fugen stated that the 9D Item Mall was hacked and those items shouldn't have been there at that price. A lot of people bought more than 1 pack, and even more gifted those very cheap items (after browsing through the posts, the record i saw was 600 scales and 69 tears).
I will not discuss the cases that spammed the "Buy" button. They can be labelled as greedy. What bothered me was the fact that the head GM called the people who took advantage of that "promotion" thieves and scammers. Last time I checked, thieves were the people who took something that is not rightfully theirs. The Acclaim team claims that we were supposed to know better, after the "free xp card" IM bug.
What I do find a gross lack of proffesionalism and care for their customers is the attitude displayed by both Fugen and The Hermit. Instead of admitting their failure to keep their Item Mall safe (if that is really what happened and it's not just an oversight by someone responsible with maintaining that page), they put the blame on the people who bought the wrongly labelled packages. The fact that those things costed 1 coin each means that only people who have already bought from the IM were able to get them.
Calling your paying customers thieves and scammers is not exactly the way to keep them satisfied and buying. I expect a fair number of people taking a break from getting stuff from their IM.
On the same note, the people who have gotten the almost free scales and tears are now expected to return them, even if they are gifted. So to those league members who have gifted any of these items, please talk to the people who you've gifted them to, to put the weapons in the first slot of their bags. Fugen said they would remove the scales from those, and not confiscate the weapons. Also, please post in this thread how many packages you have purchased and where they ended up. I would hate to see leaguemates banned for taking advantage of that offer.
On another note, the promotion that started on April 21st (Tibetan Medium Spender) was accompanied by a 2x bonus coins promotion. All the items in the Mall were at full price. I think this promotion is one of the worst planned ones I have seen since starting this game. First of all, it replaced the "tibetan refinement pack" promotion, that was supposed to last 1 more day, without any notice. Second, on April 24th they decided to add another promo: 50% off the Item Mall.
Some people have spent A LOT of coins between Apr 21-24. It's natural that they feel cheated, especially after the scale/tear fiasco. In a typical "My customers=my slaves" kind of attitude that we keep getting lately, Fugen and The Hermit said:
So, in the end, this week's conclusions are:
1. We, the paying customers of Acclaim, are thieves and scammers.
2. We must return the items that we payed for and were underprice, otherwise risking to be banned.
3. They can change their promotions unexpectedly, without a few day's notice, but if we see a promotion, we should not immediately buy, because we risk getting banned.
Enjoy the compensation event (today and tomorrow 12-20 GMT) and reap the bountiful fruits of capitalism (end sarcasm here).
A tired Squirrel, over and out.
This week, I read in the DC league chat that there's a sudden promotion with tears and scales at 1 coin/pack. I logged to the IM, got 1 pack of each, thinking I'm set for the next year.
A little later, in a forum post, Fugen stated that the 9D Item Mall was hacked and those items shouldn't have been there at that price. A lot of people bought more than 1 pack, and even more gifted those very cheap items (after browsing through the posts, the record i saw was 600 scales and 69 tears).
I will not discuss the cases that spammed the "Buy" button. They can be labelled as greedy. What bothered me was the fact that the head GM called the people who took advantage of that "promotion" thieves and scammers. Last time I checked, thieves were the people who took something that is not rightfully theirs. The Acclaim team claims that we were supposed to know better, after the "free xp card" IM bug.
What I do find a gross lack of proffesionalism and care for their customers is the attitude displayed by both Fugen and The Hermit. Instead of admitting their failure to keep their Item Mall safe (if that is really what happened and it's not just an oversight by someone responsible with maintaining that page), they put the blame on the people who bought the wrongly labelled packages. The fact that those things costed 1 coin each means that only people who have already bought from the IM were able to get them.
Calling your paying customers thieves and scammers is not exactly the way to keep them satisfied and buying. I expect a fair number of people taking a break from getting stuff from their IM.
On the same note, the people who have gotten the almost free scales and tears are now expected to return them, even if they are gifted. So to those league members who have gifted any of these items, please talk to the people who you've gifted them to, to put the weapons in the first slot of their bags. Fugen said they would remove the scales from those, and not confiscate the weapons. Also, please post in this thread how many packages you have purchased and where they ended up. I would hate to see leaguemates banned for taking advantage of that offer.
On another note, the promotion that started on April 21st (Tibetan Medium Spender) was accompanied by a 2x bonus coins promotion. All the items in the Mall were at full price. I think this promotion is one of the worst planned ones I have seen since starting this game. First of all, it replaced the "tibetan refinement pack" promotion, that was supposed to last 1 more day, without any notice. Second, on April 24th they decided to add another promo: 50% off the Item Mall.
Some people have spent A LOT of coins between Apr 21-24. It's natural that they feel cheated, especially after the scale/tear fiasco. In a typical "My customers=my slaves" kind of attitude that we keep getting lately, Fugen and The Hermit said:
[GM] Fugen Sorry guys, it works the same way on 9Dragons in the Item Mall as it does on a site like Amazon.com. There are various promotions, and from time to time there may be a larger sale. If you bought a book the day before Christmas and it goes on sale on 12/25 for half off, they don't send you two books or give you half your money back.
You're still able to take advantage of the sale and employ some dollar-cost averaging by stocking up on more items.
9D Hermit: I doubt anyone would like Acclaim to turn the sale off now??? Would you have preferred it be next week? Or now while you can have DBL Bonus Coins and the Tibet Medium Spender Package? Even if you'd already spent prior, I think you'd still be interested in the added value even if we'd finished the promotion, waited a week with full prices, and run the promotion again with 50% Off thrown in.
And what about the player who paid full price for an Item the day before any promotion started? Or a player that was buying a promotion during the week and then Curse You Lord Mara Double Bonus Coins just came on!!!
Often we get promotions sent down from Those On High, and they could be Acclaim Wide promotions that do not even make sense in tandem with a 9D promotion.
Promotions can overlap.
We think it's a good thing.
Use it to your advantage, I say
So, in the end, this week's conclusions are:
1. We, the paying customers of Acclaim, are thieves and scammers.
2. We must return the items that we payed for and were underprice, otherwise risking to be banned.
3. They can change their promotions unexpectedly, without a few day's notice, but if we see a promotion, we should not immediately buy, because we risk getting banned.
Enjoy the compensation event (today and tomorrow 12-20 GMT) and reap the bountiful fruits of capitalism (end sarcasm here).
A tired Squirrel, over and out.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Collection Quest, again
Well, for those of you who are interested (and who can play, for that matter because massive dc's are still an issue), there is another Collection Quest going on. The thread is well tucked away in the Loremaster's Corner, so look for the sticky there. You can also see what items are still needed in the spreadsheet, as usual.
I for one will be sitting this one out. The SrS bug has almost eaten through my stack of red passes and I assure you, grinding through half a dungeon of blue mobs only to find the light blue ones missing over and over again is not really what I call entertaining. As for my EC alt that I'm currently playing, I couldn't care less on what xp she is grinding. I know that some players in Restless are out there and grinding for drops and I know someone who gave almost a third of the needed gold - tnx for that. I've just given around 200 cof-drops I had saved and that's that.
I just don't feel like putting up with events for now. Not with league mates still dc'ing ever so often, with me unable to play my main char because of bugs and with the last event, the Mystery solving thing turning out to be a rip-off for me personally. Right now I'm really disappointed in the game and the people behind it so I can't be really bothered to participate in something that doesn't give me what's being advertised, whether it's prizes, xp or even fun (which I am sure is found something in the definition of "game").
I for one will be sitting this one out. The SrS bug has almost eaten through my stack of red passes and I assure you, grinding through half a dungeon of blue mobs only to find the light blue ones missing over and over again is not really what I call entertaining. As for my EC alt that I'm currently playing, I couldn't care less on what xp she is grinding. I know that some players in Restless are out there and grinding for drops and I know someone who gave almost a third of the needed gold - tnx for that. I've just given around 200 cof-drops I had saved and that's that.
I just don't feel like putting up with events for now. Not with league mates still dc'ing ever so often, with me unable to play my main char because of bugs and with the last event, the Mystery solving thing turning out to be a rip-off for me personally. Right now I'm really disappointed in the game and the people behind it so I can't be really bothered to participate in something that doesn't give me what's being advertised, whether it's prizes, xp or even fun (which I am sure is found something in the definition of "game").
Thursday, 4 March 2010
The free XP cards fiasco
If you were online during Lucky Cricket last night on Bardo, you might have noticed a roar saying that 5Exp cards were available for 0 coins in the item mall. Like many other players, I thought this was another one of those flash events held on twitter/facebook that someone thought to advertise in game (I don't have a facebook account and I definitely do not check twitter during raised xp events, I have other things to do, like... grinding? And I still fail to see why exactly in-game events should be announced there. Anyways, point is I didn't double check on those crappy social networking sites that have nothing to do with Acclaim or 9Dragons).
So I went and got the 5 cards on the account I was grinding. By the time I relogged my main account, the cards weren't there, so I assumed it was indeed one of those obscure hour long events only a select few know about. Later that night, I had the following conversation with a mate:
"Did you know the xp cards were bugged?"
"You mean the 5 free ones from earlier today?"
"Yes. They could be taken countless times. I know players who got over 500 of them like that."
"... no, I did not know. I didn't even try, since gifts are once/account. I am no cheater."
Well, apparently I was wrong and I am a cheater and glitch abuser, as defined by Acclaim. There's a heated debate currently going on in this thread on the 9Dragons forums: http://phpbb.acclaim.com/9dragons/viewtopic.php?t=128148.
There were indeed the greedy bastards who got hundreds of cards (and with that I agree, I can't imagine them now knowing that was a glitch); and there are countless players who got their stack of 5 cards thinking it was a flash event / gift something. Regardless: even thought they admit on screwing up, Acclaim view all as glitch abusers and threaten to ban players who do not pay or return the XP cards.
So, if you happen to be among the players who benefitted from that (fake) offer, I suggest you follow the instructions in the thread. After all, if there is one thing in this world that Acclaim takes serious, it's the company money. Anything else seems of secondary importance, like:
- The tone used in the post; Most players reacted amazingly reasonable to it, given that it's a big poo poo on Acclaim's side that those cards were loose and were ready to give them back. At the same time, all those people pointed out the offensive and arrogant tone of the message. Basically it assumed that everyone knew that free cards should not have been available so no one should've taken them because no one should've known. Like kids who discover a surprise birthday cake and eat it up knowing it shouldn't have been disclosed yet, much less eaten. I know there are a lot of kids in this game but... cut me some slack, will you? I don't need your "Amnesty". I didn't reach deep into your pockets, you do that with mine.
- The way communication between Acclaim and the community is handled; this issue just seems to not go away. Regardless who "the voice" is, regardless who the current community manager is. Somehow something goes wrong and then someone somehow goes into panic mode. That translates either on complete silence regading the issue (as was the cased with a bugged SvS some while ago that lasted 5-6 hours, as far as I know, no reasonable explanation was given to date) or on some random trigger happy behaviour on forum, banning accounts and locking threads. And no, showing up 4-5 pages later in the thread and saying "we didn't mean it like that, we only meant this" doesn't cut it either.
- The freaking non-official announcement channels. First the twitter channel is dead cause Historian abandonned it. Now Acclaim spams me tens of messages a day, making it hard to find any relevant info there or keep track of my real life friends' tweets (after all, sorry, I don't check that page 24/7). Not only that, if you wanna take part in special events, sign up on that pathetic facebook. Sorry, didn't do that. I personally have no means to check if presumed events are real or not. Nor is it my job to do so. Like it wouldn't be Acclaim's job to run parallel, unofficial communication channels for exclusive info. Like I said on some other occasion - try to develop communication intensively and not extensively.
/rant over
So I went and got the 5 cards on the account I was grinding. By the time I relogged my main account, the cards weren't there, so I assumed it was indeed one of those obscure hour long events only a select few know about. Later that night, I had the following conversation with a mate:
"Did you know the xp cards were bugged?"
"You mean the 5 free ones from earlier today?"
"Yes. They could be taken countless times. I know players who got over 500 of them like that."
"... no, I did not know. I didn't even try, since gifts are once/account. I am no cheater."
Well, apparently I was wrong and I am a cheater and glitch abuser, as defined by Acclaim. There's a heated debate currently going on in this thread on the 9Dragons forums: http://phpbb.acclaim.com/9dragons/viewtopic.php?t=128148.
There were indeed the greedy bastards who got hundreds of cards (and with that I agree, I can't imagine them now knowing that was a glitch); and there are countless players who got their stack of 5 cards thinking it was a flash event / gift something. Regardless: even thought they admit on screwing up, Acclaim view all as glitch abusers and threaten to ban players who do not pay or return the XP cards.
So, if you happen to be among the players who benefitted from that (fake) offer, I suggest you follow the instructions in the thread. After all, if there is one thing in this world that Acclaim takes serious, it's the company money. Anything else seems of secondary importance, like:
- The tone used in the post; Most players reacted amazingly reasonable to it, given that it's a big poo poo on Acclaim's side that those cards were loose and were ready to give them back. At the same time, all those people pointed out the offensive and arrogant tone of the message. Basically it assumed that everyone knew that free cards should not have been available so no one should've taken them because no one should've known. Like kids who discover a surprise birthday cake and eat it up knowing it shouldn't have been disclosed yet, much less eaten. I know there are a lot of kids in this game but... cut me some slack, will you? I don't need your "Amnesty". I didn't reach deep into your pockets, you do that with mine.
- The way communication between Acclaim and the community is handled; this issue just seems to not go away. Regardless who "the voice" is, regardless who the current community manager is. Somehow something goes wrong and then someone somehow goes into panic mode. That translates either on complete silence regading the issue (as was the cased with a bugged SvS some while ago that lasted 5-6 hours, as far as I know, no reasonable explanation was given to date) or on some random trigger happy behaviour on forum, banning accounts and locking threads. And no, showing up 4-5 pages later in the thread and saying "we didn't mean it like that, we only meant this" doesn't cut it either.
- The freaking non-official announcement channels. First the twitter channel is dead cause Historian abandonned it. Now Acclaim spams me tens of messages a day, making it hard to find any relevant info there or keep track of my real life friends' tweets (after all, sorry, I don't check that page 24/7). Not only that, if you wanna take part in special events, sign up on that pathetic facebook. Sorry, didn't do that. I personally have no means to check if presumed events are real or not. Nor is it my job to do so. Like it wouldn't be Acclaim's job to run parallel, unofficial communication channels for exclusive info. Like I said on some other occasion - try to develop communication intensively and not extensively.
/rant over
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