Innogames, unethical to activate crowns in current situation.

[DeletedUser]

Dear Innogames,

A friend of mine just lost noble + clear after a hard week of competing for the nr1 farm of the world, solo. You can imagine how devastating it is after this hard work and !money paying money for crowns! to have it happen. The reply was that support can't do anything about it because it's "unfair" to people who don't contact support, the irony of the whole problem I will explain now. That is absolutely heart breaking, how can you ask money for this game (some people pay quite a lot of money already) when there is a big chance (happens to 1/3th of player according to support) that all your hard work and hard earned money vanishes in 1 second. Gone, no support can't help you because that would be unfair.

If you didn't allow the purchasing of crowns I could understand the situation, but how is it ethically responsible that I pay a high price for crowns and that there is a chance this will all vanish in one second because of your mistake, and all you will do is take a "sorry can't help you" attitude. You do not warn about this bug at all and you are scamming players (unintentionally) in my eyes.

Even though I'm incredibly disappointed about this fact, on a second note I must say that I love the game and normally love to support it by buying crowns.. but this really is a downer.

Edit: I read through your user agreement again, and there is nothing that states that we are responsible for losing all our paid money to a bug. This means it comes even closer to a real scam. Even though if you would have something in your agreement to cover it though, it wouldn't help on the ethical issue. And I sincerely hope that this is just not the kind of company that Innogames chooses to be for the future of TW2, a game that is great already and can become even greater.


I am looking forward to your response,

Cocobloco

 

[DeletedUser486]

It's a shame that they have taken that stance. Though I don't personally like the pay2win features that innogames adopts in tribal wars that give paying players advantages over free players, when you pay for something a contract is created between you and the service you are paying for, I would consider it fraudulent to not deliver on that service and hide behind an "unfairness to those who don't file for support". Who even didn't, anyway?

 

[DeletedUser388]

At this moment its quite possible to lose your entire army including nobles in this way and if you complain support thinks its "unfair." to re-spawn your troops that vanished in that way. Even when you can provide screen shots as evidence. I dont understand how anyone is expected to keep playing after this happens to them. If they had bought crowns as well its even worse.

 

[DeletedUser]

Yes, if there was no (imo big) money involved then this situation would be totally fine in my eyes.

 

[DeletedUser]

You should speak with lawyer about.

 

[DeletedUser4]

Hello Cocobloco,

We are aware that this issue is extremely troubling at the moment. We are working on a solution and are are confident that a fix will be implemented soon. I would advise your friend to contact support himself about this issue once more if he/she feels a money value was lost during this indecent. Please keep in mind that the game is still in the open Beta phase. Please read more about the open beta phase here: Open beta information.

Thank you for your posts and concern.

 

[DeletedUser]

Hello Checkered Jester,

Thank you for your swift response. My friend has already contacted customer support but I will tell her to mention the money problem and try again. As I have said in my post, I fully understand that this is beta and if there were no money involved, it would be completely understandable. However that is not the case as I explained by detail in my post and that is where the entire issue lies. If someone who spent 0 money on this game lost his troops in beta because of a bug, of course no big deal, it happens. However from the moment someone paid money (if it happens to me it will be a lot of money, in my opinion at least) and all of their hard earned money vanishes and the company does nothing about it whilst it is 100% their fault, that's quite low. I will keep this thread updated on how the issue is solved for my friend, or she can post here herself. I really hope this will have a happy ending because I am a huge supporter of this game and want to see it flourish in every way possible.

 

[DeletedUser]

Update on the situation, and it's very sad. The support replied that they could do nothing basically. I'm deeply sad. I have been looking forward for tw2 for so long and was only positive about the game and the people that work at Innogames. Now I'm left with this twisted feeling in my stomache that Innogames takes money from people, including me, without warning them that there is a game-ruining bug in effect that effects 33%! of people in the game. Then when you lose your paid crowns because of a mistake you haven't been told about and that you can do nothing about, Innogames will not fix their mistake by giving lost troops back. (maybe this is too hard to do, so this would be more acceptable!) But to then take it a step further and tell those people that they won't be getting crown/financial compensation for the money they lost because of Innogame's mistake, I'm stunned.

Please don't bring up the argument this is beta again, I told you I agree this is beta, but when you let people pay for something and it vanishes because of your mistake, that has nothing to do with beta. Don't activate payment for crowns then. Put a warning that there is a risk people will lose all of their troops after possibly buying 90 euro's of crowns. It is highly unethical (imo) and extremely unusual for an online gaming company anno 2014 to scam their player base like this, seeing as the quality of customer service of any game nowadays is easily a make or break factor when it comes to the succes of any online game nowadays.

The support told her that they are sorry for the trouble that the mistake is causing. I don't think the point was gotten. Any kind of bug is ok to have at all times, even in normal version of the game, it happens. But if a product you pay for doesn't turn out what you advertise it to be, and you won't fairly compensate or react, you are not sorry in my eyes.

I deeply hope that this story will get another look, for as I said I love this game and want it to be what it can potentially become. I'm not trying to be a jerk, and I really don't think I am, I'm just asking for something completely fair. Can you tell me that you think it's fair the way things are going?


Thank you for reading and best regards,

Cocobloco


PS: If there is still no positive response to this situation after this post of mine, I will drop it. But I will be left with a disappointed feeling. Also I have spent a lot on crowns, if this bug happens to me and I basically wasted my money, I would not let this one slide so easily. Again not trying to be a jerk, love this game but there are customer rights that I feel I have to bring up because I feel so strongly about this situation.

Now I am going to enjoy this beautiful art piece of a game again, and hopefully it won't happen to me personally.

 

[DeletedUser486]

You should get your friend to contact her payment service and complain that the money she spent wasn't compensated with the service she paid for or refunded. There will be evidence of her payment to innogames and so that means evidence that her money has been taken, what I personally consider to be, fraudulently, That is the only word I can think of to describe the situation, and it is ridiculous.

 

[DeletedUser]

Friend quit playing. She was one of the most active and motivated players I know in TW2, if not the most. I'll say it again; If Innogames does not change their ways and adapts to 2014 customer service standards for online gaming, they will never gain the public attention that they could easily obtain with a game like this. Please Innogames, I know you know the right way to run things, everyone knows what the modern standards are for a great online game that becomes insanely popular. Why are you not adapting?

 

[DeletedUser]

If your friend was so devastated for loosing her money on the game, she could have come on this forum and tell her story story herself. I play 3 InnoGames myself, Tribal Wars, Forge of Empires and now this TW2. I paid for TW because there is no way I can have 1K+ of villages without Premium Points (I guess equivalent to crowns here and diamonds on FoE). I also understand that BETA games are to be used by players that have some interest in "digging" into what is not right with the game in order to make it better before it is released. Players should understand that BETA games are work in progress and "things" will go wrong. Putting one's own money into the game at this point is at their discretion and they obviously want to get a :"leg up" on the competition.

Just my 2 cents... and I am in no way connected to to the company that makes these games, just a occasionally happy user of the games.

Happy Gaming!

 

[DeletedUser]

If your friend was so devastated for loosing her money on the game, she could have come on this forum and tell her story story herself. I play 3 InnoGames myself, Tribal Wars, Forge of Empires and now this TW2. I paid for TW because there is no way I can have 1K+ of villages without Premium Points (I guess equivalent to crowns here and diamonds on FoE). I also understand that BETA games are to be used by players that have some interest in "digging" into what is not right with the game in order to make it better before it is released. Players should understand that BETA games are work in progress and "things" will go wrong. Putting one's own money into the game at this point is at their discretion and they obviously want to get a :"leg up" on the competition.

Just my 2 cents... and I am in no way connected to to the company that makes these games, just a occasionally happy user of the games.

Happy Gaming!

Thank you for your post. As I stated before in my previous posts in this thread; This issue has nothing to do with the fact that this is a beta game. If you pay money for a product, and it vanishes because of a mistake the company made, it doesn't matter if it's beta or not. The company did not warn that paid for product could vanish due to a bug. As I said before, this is beta, I am aware of that fact. I know that things can go wrong, even in full release I could understand. However it is not appropriate for a company to take money, destroy the product by their own mistake, and then tell the customer that they can't do anything. Don't you agree? My friend did post in this thread. Why can't I post about this issue exactly? Is this a forum rule? I feel deeply about this issue and that is why I want to bring it to light.

 

[DeletedUser]

I don't think that the argument that it's "in open beta" applies as long as you are accepting real money, it's not an excuse for having people lose their hard earned money over a bug and not even be offered a refund, where's the fairness in that? And since this is "open beta" and clearly people risk losing their money, why don't you at least sell crowns at a discount rate until the beta flag is gone? The price for crowns is already quite high compared to other games in this genre, my gut feeling is that there is plenty of GREED in the Innogames management.

 

[DeletedUser]

Being in beta is no excuse, taking real money for a product they can't deliver on is fraudulent and probably illegal. If they want to test crown features out without the risk of having to refund people's money, they should offer everyone an amount of crowns per week to be spent as people want. I kind of understand if they won't respawn the units, but a refund most certainly should have been offered to people who are now disadvantaged and out of pocket.

 

[DeletedUser4]

Hi Guys, I understand your concern. We offer Crown features for the players that want to already use them in a closed beta environment. We think this is fair as it is everyone's choice as to when they wish to enjoy our features. If our crown features do not work we will of course take direct action to the players that inform us of their issues. No doubt that the units bug is a major problem and we have already implemented fixed for this which reduce the amount it occurs, however this is not a feature that costs direct crowns. Of course this issue still affects gameplay and we are looking for a solution. Also each incident will be handled separately as we are aware that in some cases we have to make exceptions.

Cocobloco, I think it is great you are standing up for your friend, however I would also like you to accept the decision that was made by our team. I also think that dissecting our support's decision which does not affect your account, can take our rulings out of context as you do not have all the needed information. In conclusion I would like everyone with an issue to contact support and clear your problem with us directly rather than making conclusion from situations you only know of from second hand. I feel this is reasonable. Cocobloco, Please contact me via pm if you wish to discuss this further.

Thank you all for your concern. I know this game is a world we share and I am happy we can discuss this in a polite fashion.

 

[DeletedUser572]

Probably one of the best CM's i've ever seen. Usually at least in my country's forum, CM is abusing power and probably would have locked and delete this post. You sir deserve my respect. We need more people like you

Sorry for irrelevant post