Giving back the improved storehouses

[ddakka]

Personally I think this whole event smacked of alpha code, untested and untried. Many reported the errors on test and nothing was done. While I don't think exploiting the bugs is right, nor do I think BB has the right to be threatening and demanding the way they did.Very heavy handed for a slapshod run event that really was a horrible mistake to even start up on BB's end.

For me, apparently I am not a hacker or cheat, cause I didnt get more than 4...LMAO! I love that part the best, its awesome. Hey there little thief, your going to gaol...oh no wait up, you only stole 3 items, thats just fine, no problem there, nothing to see here run along.

Yea I dunno, on one hand BB is atrocious at communicating, and they really dont seem to understand basic human nature, or how to converse nicely with their customers. My gut feeling tells me they should let this one go, cop it on the chin. Looks like so many are in support of keeping their ill gotten goods (regardless of the morality of it), and there is only a minority that seems too upset about it, bleh let it go. Stop with ban threats. Perhaps u should spend more effort into listening to the testers on test server, or maybe even ..shock..test the stuff yourself before making it live. I mean aren't you even embarrassed at the horrifying code you let loose on your customers? I have a technology background myself, and i honestly can't imagine letting something so flaky out as a production version...lol. Let alone trying to ban people over the mess you caused.

My final message, perhaps asking for stuff back would have been ok, if you had admitted to this being a bug exploit, not a cheat or hack. That is inaccurate and is like comparing someone that took money from a faulty ATM machine, as apposed to a deliberate snatch and grab, or a bank holdup. Sure both are wrong, but the morality of either is quite a large gap. A smack on the wrist for one, and jail sentence for the other. But yea its a game, u made your money, people don't seem too upset at the stolen goods. There are more who spend money and got the extras, than there are who didnt and dont spend money and are complaining. Better business option is to support those who make you the most money :P

[litsa]

goodmorning .i am one of some they gave their storehouses back today not big deal 6 of them .i want to know what happens with the most are not given back .they got banned they took them from their islands or some of us just pay for the all exploiters?

[quarky]

ok so i got 6 (5 "illegally"!!) imp stores. Can BB say with any degree of certainty that I, or others, exploited this bug knowingly? No they can't, I may have clicked on the imp store at the end of the event, looked in mail/star menu for it, did not see it and decided to relog (as this needs to be done frequently on this game). after relog noticed storehouse is not greyed out so clicked again, check mail/star no joy, relog etc. My eyesight is really poor so may or may not have seen imp.stores in star menu.
BB send me a mail saying you are only allowed to "steal" 3 Imp.store, u must put the 5 imp.stores, you got by exploiting the poor code we implemented, in your star menu so we can take them back. I put 2 stores back in my star menu (to display "good faith" on my part) as this would mean I would now only have 3 "exploited" imp.stores on my island which according to BB is acceptable. After this mornings maintenance I get this mail:


As described in our mail from Friday, 18th of July, we tried to delete wrongfully acquired Improved Storehouses from your star menu. Unfortunately, the sufficient amount of 2 could not be deleted. As we want to avoid deleting Improved Storehouses from the island or banning your account, we ask you again to put the rest of the Improved Storehouses in your star menu.

You redeemed 6 Improved Storehouses and you may keep one of them. 2 were deleted. Please put the remaining amount of Improved Storehouses in the star menu until the next maintenance.

Your “The Settlers Online” Team


This begs the question: Why the heavy handed threats when BB can just delete the "exploited" items from your island?

[Splotch]

As described in our mail from Friday, 18th of July, we tried to delete wrongfully acquired Improved Storehouses from your star menu. Unfortunately, the sufficient amount of 2 could not be deleted. As we want to avoid deleting Improved Storehouses from the island or banning your account, we ask you again to put the rest of the Improved Storehouses in your star menu.

You redeemed 6 Improved Storehouses and you may keep one of them. 2 were deleted. Please put the remaining amount of Improved Storehouses in the star menu until the next maintenance.

Your “The Settlers Online” Team

That message is pretty badly worded, if I were you I'd highlight what I have and ask them to explain in a way that makes sense.

This begs the question: Why the heavy handed threats when BB can just delete the "exploited" items from your island?

Deleting stuff out of a database is a two second process, doing it indiscriminately and without prior notice is a bit off. I think the "heavy handed threats" were more damage limitation than they were scare tactics.

[Salem_Warrior_1]

simple BB are giving you the chance to do the right thing first before removing them off you island....... fair idd say.. so just put them in star and all will be ok

[litsa]

i have my answer (guarky) from you what bb doing to ppl not given their stores .

[Splotch]

What they are doing, and this is the argument I failed to see until a couple of pages back, is protecting the emotional wellbeing of the people who have invested money into this game.

Any argument about cheating/stealing etc is just wrong. It's not about punishing the cheaters, it's about making the gem-buyers feel better so they keep on spending.

Got to admit it would seem there is an element of truth there...

Of course there's an element of truth there and it's a pointless point because it goes without saying.

When you're trying to make money out of something like this you focus your efforts on creating and maintaining as many active revenue streams as possible... You don't focus your efforts on destroying them, that would be stupid.

[quarky]

I bet if BB did some analysis of the players who managed to "exploit" this coding bug they would find that the majority of the exploits would be from players who actually spend a lot of time on the game, as apposed to just logging on to claim daily rewards during the event. Personally I would have thought people who spend more time on a game are more likely to spend money on that game. Just a thought, no evidence other than that from guild chat and global.

[IndianKid]

so those who got 1000 of improved storehouse by using exploit. and naybe they get away with it..but what happenes with those who didnt use exploit?...nice

[Ethelred1]

I would like to point out that I was able to give back the ISHs, did so, and received a letter reminding me to "play fair" in the future. There was no need for an additional insult, and since we are not in competition with each other, it is ridiculous in any case to try to pretend the issue is one of fairness. I know those of you who are eager also to insult the people who saw no harm in seeing whether the error made by the programmers would be accepted as their own fault or visited upon the players will now insult me. Go ahead, I can't stop you, and though the moderators should, apparently they won't.