Dear CrimsonBlue,
This letter I sent to InnoGames HQ has nothing to do with what you have been doing, but I hope you understand that what is going on in this case, including our private convo, is a shame. You have told me privately, but as it concerns all players, I am posting it here as well, that the issue should be fixed in the next TW2 update. Now this is absolutely and completely unacceptable.
This is not a minor issue (see referred things below), this concerns the most important, basic game feature. At the same time, InnoGames miserably failed at informing its customers that they are unable to provide the service they promised to do. On top of this, NO INFORMATION has been given to any players, including the affected ones and NO WORLD has been suspented despite the company being aware of the fact AGAIN THAT THE MOST BASIC FEATURE OF THE GAME IS SIMPLY NOT WORKING. At the same time, InnoGames had no problem asking players to pay Crowns for features, including the newly introduced ability to purchase troops.
Judging from you answers to my own tickets, which I am more than happy to reproduce here, you are not in a position to inform (affected) users about how this issue is going to get resolved, e.g.: what TW plans doing about the lost resoucres, troops, buildings, items, strategic locations, tribe changes etc a nobeling at this stage of the game brings about.
Following is the e-mail I have sent to InnoGames. I encourage all other players to complain directly to them.
To whom it may concern
I am sure you are aware of the issue with nobling on Bastille in TW2.
According to public posts on the forums, this issue has been brought to your attention on the morning of 23/10/2014 as another player already complained that despite having reports of nobeling a village, he still cant access the newly nobled village.
I encountered the same issue without having any knowledge of this issue on the eve of 25/10/2014 and have contacted Support accordingly.
I have been in touch with CrimsonBlue, if needed, I can forward you our conversation.
As he hasn't informed me that the problem in practice means that the nobeling is completely ignored, I tried several things to solve the problem: logged in and out, used a different browser, refreshed the game, recalled troops, sent spies to the village. None of them worked, in fact, 2 out of 4 spies have died and the village is still producing troops and develops buildings. To make matters worse, the nobeling was not a random decision: a newbie player has been farmed to death by the player and his friend I attacked. The newbie is not a member of my tribe, I do not know him/her in real life, he just asked for help. The conquer would have made a significant change in the newbie's situation - now he is about to leave the game. Sounds familiar?
I haven't received adequate information for my support ticket either. Let me note that this is not a complaint against the person who answered my ticket, it seems that he is left in the dark just as much as all the other players of TW2. I am not sure whether you realize that you are ruining not simply the sequel to TribalWars, but the reputation of your company as well. Releasing a game with loads of almost necessary Premium features (e.g. building slots needed to buy in each village) without being able to run its basics properly is not only ridicolous and outrageous, but is I think illegal as well (See below).
I am having great difficulties in finding the proper adjectives to describe your product. You might be aware that nobeling is a basic in-game feature of Tribal Wars as the aim of the game is to conquer as many villages as you can. This is not about the fault of the background music or the non-burning of the looted villages.
For at least four days this issue has been known to you. You have not bothered to make an announcement to the affected worlds, you have not bothered to communicate this issue appropriately to the players (including Premium users like myself, shame on my stupidity), instead, you have introduced troops for Crowns.
As of today, you already are aware of this "bug" as your employee described the situation, yet the company's response is the following:
"Crim 2014-10-26 21:10:48
Unfortunately it is a bug within the game and we will need to wait until the developers release a fix. It should come soon and you should receive an announcement.
CrimsonBlue
In Game Moderator"
This is precisely what constitutes gross negligence in my view thus a breach of the Terms and Conditions, that, by default, protects the interests of InnoGames.
I would like to receive answers to the following questions in light of this:
1. Since when InnoGames knew of this issue?
2. What has been done in order to
a) fix the issue
b) inform the players that the most basic game feature is not working
c) compensate the affected players
3. If this is a known bug for four days, why has InnoGames failed to inform their customers of this issue?
I am seriously thinking of taking this to an official, legal level. Not because I've spent hundreds of Euros on Crowns or what not, but simply out of principle as an old TW player (back to en.world.13). Making money is one thing, running a scam is something rather different.
Despite being an admittedly very angry e-mail, this is a notice that unless the mentioned issues are reasonably resolved, I am willing to pursue legal steps against InnoGames at least to reimburse the money I have spent nobeling and after my nobeling attempt failed. At the same time, I beg you not to dismiss my e-mail with a legal blah-blah as I have came to play your game in the first place and lost my patience only in light of the "developments".
Yours
(AndrisBandris)
