Brushed Under the Carpet
For Days now ‘customers’ and ‘users’ have been up on arms about the cluster **** that was Malakgate.
However the issues go much deeper as has been discussed to death on this forum and I’m not here to continue that.
What I want to know is how a company can completely ignore the recent uproar. They have done nothing to counter act the negativity across the internet about any of this. This is a shocking way to run a company.
I’m not one for ‘the customer is always right’ however I firmly believe in customer service. It doesn’t take a lot to acknowledge concerns, they don’t have to agree but an acknowledgment is the least they could do. It does appear that they have brushed all this under the carpet and buried their heads in the sand hoping it will all go away.
So I ask politely to any and all devs on here, please acknowledge the concerns of the majority of this forum. It’s the very least you can do.
However the issues go much deeper as has been discussed to death on this forum and I’m not here to continue that.
What I want to know is how a company can completely ignore the recent uproar. They have done nothing to counter act the negativity across the internet about any of this. This is a shocking way to run a company.
I’m not one for ‘the customer is always right’ however I firmly believe in customer service. It doesn’t take a lot to acknowledge concerns, they don’t have to agree but an acknowledgment is the least they could do. It does appear that they have brushed all this under the carpet and buried their heads in the sand hoping it will all go away.
So I ask politely to any and all devs on here, please acknowledge the concerns of the majority of this forum. It’s the very least you can do.
20
Replies
If you aren't reading the forums then you are clueless sir. It's the epic confrontations and the requirements then only passing out a 5 star. I got Malak first time. Waited Months to 7 star him I got him 7 star when relics hit and G12 and G13 the same day. I hoarded Gear for months. It was a complete waste for such a hard event. I got GAS and it was stupid hard. 5800 people unlocked him. That's insane considering the amount of players and then he sucks at 5 Star against Relic 7 Darth Revan. and, yea, the list of other complaints that are never addressed but are instead pushed under the rug! So there is no whining per say but a frustration that has been mounting since Malak came out and this sent people over the edge.
What about legitimate concerns of players who spent money or crystals due to CG's error, and have been told that those items will not be returned (only the actual gear will be returned). Isn't that a concern? No one at CG has acknowledged that yet or made any statement addressing it.
I got 75 shards from doing the DS of the event. That added to my 30/100 put me at 7* + 5 shards for shard shop currency. I did not do the LS side. I do not care if they roll back my Malak, if that is the direction they wish to take with everyone. What I do care is that everyone who was at 7* Malak gets 2250 shard shop currency, but I do not according to the 'reconciliation plan'. That is akin to giving a % of the player base 145 character shard advantage. That imbalance is unfair.
The devs clearly have no intention of changing this, so there is nothing they could say that would make you happy.
Remember these **** ups in recent months?
C3PO & Finn
Multiple GA issues
Bringing out GAC with reduced rewards
FUBAR Matchmaking
Need more?
All have been handled with the kind of customer service you’d expect from a panhandler
I've read the forums. It's all whinging, and in the cases of Malak and GS it boils down to "CG is consistent about events and I'm mad about it". Malak was a 5* unlock. Why would anyone think GS was any different? The devs said a while ago they were definitely doing another epic confrontation. Why wouldn't you hoard GET? The second round of Malak rewarded no extra shards. Why did anyone think extra shards the third time wasn't a bug that would be rectified?
But I'll ask: What reasonable response from the devs would make you all happy? Seriously. At this point, nothing CG does or has done has been met with any sort of fan fare. Someone is always mad about it, and they think it's a huge issue because they are shouting about it and others agree... even though they're ignoring the fact that this game (probably) has millions of users who aren't on here complaining.
Your logic is flawed. You may say that my concern is not a valid concern (to you) but that doesn't make it any less of a concern to me, and many, many other players. At the end of the day, CG screwed up royally, and their attempt to correct the situation seems only to be angering people further. Also, how would you know that gearing up Malak wont make a big difference to someone's arena team? All shards are different after all.
You read the forums and it's all whining?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?
Okay.... let's talk about this. Because we need go no further.
IT'S ALL WHINING - -- okay, if it's all whining then clearly, the community at large is not happy.
Just look at that.
And you can dismiss all of this whining if you want. Fine. You aren't making the game.
And the more people you turn off on the forums dismissing their comments like you work for CG/EA, the more this game is going to hemorrhage players. But, you don't think the game is.
Trust me. It is. When another games has 15k downloads in the last week and most of them saying they're coming from here. And another game also is getting a huge uptick.
You're right. No whining. Everything is good. But your behavior directly affects the health of this game. Keep telling people that they're whining and that they're wrong etc..
I think the piece you’re missing is that it has been all whining and doom and gloom and the game is dying for at least 3 years.
The majority of the complainign is over three issues, if you had actually read the forums and not just formed an opinion amd only considered complaints that fit the opinion you started with.
A. Compensation should be equal. As it stands, people who had 7* malal get 2250 shard store currency that they mever should've gotten by the same virtue that those with 5* shouldn't nave gotten those 145 extra shards. They're taking shards away from people who had non-7* malaks while saying 7* owners get to keep those shards or gain those shards if they didnt use the bug in amy regard. 2250 shard currency may be nothing for some, but for others its alot, and the princible of not compensating equally is ****.
B. Refunds should be being offered (evem if you have to email them to get them, they should brimg the offer to people's attention) for those who spent on gearing their new malaks. Fact of the matter is, those crystals or that money would've never been spent if they knew they weremt keeping malak. If I give you a boat, you buy some special, expensive boat paint, then I take the bkat back due to an error, are you happy keeping that boat paint for when you one day get a boat, or will you want to return the paint for your momey back? (Bad analogy, buy not the worst). The cost of that gear is more than just the base price it cost. Gotta remember opportunity costs when considering this stuff.
C. Cg has made no effort to diffuse tension or actually apologize to people who didmt expect this to happen, or to address valid concerns over unfairness in compensation or the desire among many people for refunds. Poor communication. Announcing a plan is not enough, a.good company would provide some amount of customer service. It doesnt matter if there's nothing they could say to actually diffuse the situation, the fact they dont try shows they don't give a **** about the portion of the player base is upset.
Don't just dismiss the criticism because it doesnt bother you that they're doing this stuff (let me.guess, you had 7* malak before all this? Its a pretty common trend amomg the defenders of the plan), and don't just strawman every complaint as "whining", if they're complaining, especially if there's this many players complaining, there's a serious issue.
I dont own or have a desire to own malak amd I still thinkt hey're handling this like some shady start up company that plans to take all the money and run rather than actually.do.anything.
You can have a concern; just because you think it's important, doesn't make it valid. Phobias exist as a diagnosis because they are irrational in nature, but very real to the person affected. This is the same. You think you've been wronged and deserve something. You don't. If you want to talk about arena shards, fine. Show us all screenshots of the top 50 teams in your shard, and the mods on the most important characters. Then show us your mods on your SE team you were going to use. Would you crack top 5? Top 10? Top 20? If not, then no, it doesn't really matter. 50 extra shards a day isn't enough to significantly speed up progress to the point of "being able to keep up". It's hardly even noticeable, especially if you're in a shard where you have to decide to spend 50 crystals on an arena refresh or lose 50 crystals at your payout and risk plummeting even farther before the game reset. Be mad all you want; doesn't mean it's valid.
The community at large isn't happy because most people don't spend money, yet they think they have a stake in the company. They think CG/EA/Disney should make them an awesome AAA title with endless content and awesome graphics and cinematics and a killer story without any download cost or other associated costs, all because they are star wars fans and they deserve it. That other game with a ton of downloads you're talking about? Tons of players are already quitting because the characters don't matter and it's essentially a SWGOH clone. More people are spending on that game because the devs offer heavily discounted packs for 24 or 48 hours before the packs go back to $20 and $40 dollars, so they buy them to get ahead. Want to talk about how F2P friendly SWGOH isn't? Go play a game where more of the playerbase is cool dropping $100s because of "the value" compared to SWGOH and then let me know how fun it is chugging along at the same, slow grind you hate about SWGOH. And I don't know why you keep saying "no whining". It's mostly whining. A lot like your post. Whining about someone not thinking community outrage is a big deal (it's been like this since mods were introduced).
A. It's not easy to offer equal compensation when a lot of the people involved were at different levels of Malak. You had people without Malak who unlocked him; they get to keep Malak. You had people who already had a 7* Malak. Some got 150 shards worth of shard shop currency, some got 0. To keep it fair at this level, everyone who already had a 7* Malak will get whatever equivalent it takes to total 2250 shard shop currency. The nebulous area starts with those who already had Malak unlocked but didn't have him maxed out. Player base has already chastised CG for not being able to fix other issues (like Sith Assassin) quickly. How long do you think it would take for CG to roll back the Malaks and then parse through and see who was at 95/100, 90/100, etc, and figure out how a sliding scale for shard shop currency? Do you think the forum would be placated just with the knowledge that this would eventually happen? Or would they be up in arms when it didn't happen within a week? Is the third group getting the short end of the stick? Sure. But they wouldn't have earned 2250 shards, so why should they get them?
B. No refunds should be offered because no one received anything that said "Malak only". Crystals/gear/both were purchased and then crafted and equipped to Malak. You received what you paid for; crystals and/or gear and/or relic items. What are they refunding at that point? Your poor decision to disregard how the last Epic Confrontation was conducted? Anyone who 100% believed that CG changed how the Epic Confrontation worked without any prior mention, even a vague one in a QnA or a forum or reddit post, should probably have their caretaker password protect purchases. It was obviously a bug. Remember when Dooku became a level 1 toon in the assault battles with level 1 stats? I didn't see a single "Thanks for reducing the difficulty CG!" post and saw a whole lot of "lulz look at this CG screw up". And again, I will 100% contend that anyone who spent money to quickly gear Malak did it thinking that there wasn't any way CG would take it away once it was geared. Everyone says GAC rewards are trash, so why would anyone blows hundreds of dollars for GAC? The difference between first and second in TW is a single zeta mat, so who would blow hundreds of dollars on that? Are we talking about arena that is usually dominated by a shard chat with either whales or lucky hoarders at the top? If so, then why aren't we seeing any "I demand a refund on my entire SE team I took to G13 and dropped relics on!" posts? Or "I spent crystals and credits buying, farming, and slicing mods specifically for Malak; I want a refund!". And the real point is, gearing up Malak is no guarantee. Mods and shard chat matter. I fight plenty of arena teams with more G13 and relics than my squad; if my squad can still beat them, they aren't going to be able to even sniff the top 20. You can't calculate opportunity cost if you don't even know the extent of the opportunity.
C. Have you ever seen CG customer service? Honestly, have you? No, because they don't have a customer service department. They are a developer. EA, the publisher, has customer service. From what I can tell, video game companies that publish have customer service. CG doesn't publish this game; EA does. If you'd like to direct ire at EA customer service, go right ahead. There's a clear disconnect between EA customer service and, probably, all of their products, just due to the sheer volume of products. If you'd like to be mad at CG for, let's say, customer engagement (or the lack there of), that would be ok too. I'm not sure what they could say at this point, and I'm sure any attempt would be dismissed as being half **** or poorly thought out or whatever other diminutive phrase you'd like to use, so that seems like a moot point. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. At that point, I'd choose "don't" too. Less work and more time to focus on trying to do something actually possible.
And I love the "don't just dismiss" argument when you're entire diatribe was meant to dismiss my view of the whole situation. It's great and illustrates what's actually wrong with this "community". Everyone thinks their opinion is fact and everyone else is wrong. Say something against the tide and all of a sudden you're a shill. Yeah, great "community".
You're also using "strawman" incorrectly. I called all the complaints whining while actually responding to the said whining. If I really wanted to strawman, I would say that your incorrect use of strawman invalidates your opinion of any of the Malak situation since you can't comprehend a simple concept like a strawman argument. And just because a lot of people are saying the same thing, well.. How's the saying go? A person can be intelligent, but people are generally dumb?
Also, no one answered my question about what CG could actually say or do to placate the situation for everyone.
Side question: Does everyone upset about this situation fall into the "unlocked Malak but hadn't taken him to 7*" category? Because, if so... Well, those complaints are pretty hollow.
I know that the Devs won't do anything. He's pretty clueless why the community is upset. I don't need them to make me happy. They need to address the community. I've got Malak. I've Got GAS.
That’s a pitiful list dude. Just so pitiful. That’s a period of Six months or more , and 3 of those things are really one thing. And you had the balls to say “need more ?”
Man this is the funniest thing I’ve read on here.
And remember , it’s not customer service if you’re not paying to play this game, so they don’t have to “service” many of these complaints because the complainers aren’t all customers. Not to say there isn’t paying players complaining.
What do you do professionally? I’m sure your job has problems like this arising on a daily basis. They get fixed , and you move on. These aren’t major problems.
Doesn't sound like you own a business or have ever run one! If you did you would understand your clients are your most important commodity and when you lose one it's hard to replace that one. when you perform terribly you lose more clients until it becomes a trend where you're no longer growing but retracting. When your customers are leaving or frustrated any good business would absolutely reevaluate the situation and make changes to keep the clients happy with your product. Happy clients spend money. upset clients take their money somewhere else. The game is loved by the players but the people running it are ruining the game which is more upsetting than the errors. so continue to defend CG/EA as it sounds like you work for them and came out the wood work. I've posted once on the forums until this past week. This was finally enough to get me talking.
GAC has "exhibition" rewards.
We were promised that rewards would be adjusted after real GAC starts.
The real GAC has started months ago now yet rewards never updated, that was swept under the rug definitely.
Ok. There is nothing they could say that will make “the community” happy. There is nothing to be gained by a statement.
Doesn't sound like you own a business or have ever run one that had freeloaders! How many companies force stores to allow homeless people to stay in their shops and use their facilities? Up until recently, you had to purchase something to stay in a Starbucks. How many restaurants can you just walk into and sit down and order nothing and not expect someone to ask you to leave?
The whole "happy clients spend money" thing is laughable. There's a salon/barbershop near me that charges like $100/haircut. I'm sure they keep their clients happy. But guess what? Their clients previously paid for services! If you walk into that place, don't spend money because you think it's too expensive, and then threaten to take your business elsewhere, do you really think they'd care?
So, please, show me the data that says big spenders, or even consistent small spenders, are the ones who dropped hundreds to gear up a Malak they knew they shouldn't have. Or show me some data that correlates to expenditures and complaining on the forum. Go ahead, I'll wait.
You win the CG **** award enjoy the rewards
Move out of your parents house already