Maintenance 21/04 Updates

[Sugie]

withdrawals not good had to go on test server just to get my buff fix ;p

[Peajay]

I hope they're not trying to beat their 18 hours a week maintenance time record.

[Bowlock]

i used to buy gems every happy hour but not any more
wont spend another penny on the game

I think that is kinda the problem actually god666. I myself have spent money on the game but since I realized how incompetent they were is stopped. It seems to me that an awful lot of ppl have come to the same conclusion. The problem for BB is that rather than realize why people stopped spending money on the game (ie the downtime, bugs, lack of customer service, inability to chat to friends etc) and put that right. What they in fact did was starting writing "more features" to encourage ppl to spend cash. In turn this has lead to even more downtime / bugs etc and even less ppl spending, so in turn they start writing even more content with even more bugs. Essentially a vicious downwards spiral. Time and again BB have been told by players through the support channel or the forum channel to troubleshoot the bugs and keep the game available to restore confidence. Time and again they have failed to address this. Clearly BB are under pressure to increase revenues, but sadly are going about it completely the wrong way. I fear that at this rate it will not be long before the parent (Ubisoft) step in and close the whole thing down (as Square Enix did with Final Fantasy 13), because BB are basically destroying one of Ubisoft's prime assets i.e. The "Settlers Franchise". As far as I am concerned it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world because there might at least be a decent settlers game down the line somewhere.

[Qualan]

nope- this is a testrun for the record attempt which is scheduled next week :P

[god666]

Hello, I am of the thinking that you probably enjoyed game a lot. and now not as much. I hope you got enough entertainment for your money.

I think BB sells gems at a reasonable price and one can enjoy game without purchase. I really appreciate a company that does that in the gaming world.

I have over a thousand friends in my list, and over 95% no longer have a green dot. Any game only lasts so long with intensity.

I am satisfied with their selling structure in relation to gameplay as just an option. I think you may actually agree. : )

hiya Doc

yes i do agree
and i do still love the game
i do hope BB get these problems sorted out soon ( not holding my breath tho )

[Ozzymandeus]

"Dear Player,

We know we've had some issues with maintenance the last few weeks, and in fact we know you had issues with game play all year. We are incredibly embarrassed about this. The game has been out of Beta for a long, long time now, and you really shouldn't be getting these issues on a weekly basis the way you are at the moment. Truly we are sorry that you are. Issues have become so bad and so frequent that our management board has instructed us to get a working version on the servers as soon as possible and then lock that code up until such time as we can figure out who to fire and/or how to write and deploy code properly. Coming from such a bad place, we obviously cannot promise to get things 100% right in future but what I can assure you is that we are going to try. We absolutely understand that the level of service / up-times you have experienced, really from the start are not by any measure acceptable. In future we are going to concentrate on keeping the game available. Further, when we do have issues in the future, we are not going to send you a load of old tat, and go on about bunnies / ghosts eating the system because we know it just insults your intelligence and makes you all very angry. Instead we are going to be open, honest and frank both to you our cherished customers, and ourselves about what is expected of us and where we fall short. Once again we are truly, truly sorry, we understand that the experience you have had is atrocious but we are now working our socks off to sort it out, rather than writing a load of new tat nobody wants."

+MILLIONS!

How you can roll out buggy update after buggy update, again and again, and not once, ever, publicly apologise for the atrocious service defies all decency and sense.

Keep your Colony Mode buffs... Keep your omniseeds... Keep your extended premium time... Keep everything you are going to send and give it to someone who gives a hoot!

Instead...

1. Send 100 gems to anyone who loses their login bonus. (Not just to everyone, because that is not fair!)

2. Send a premium token to anyone who has premium active for them to activate when they will be able to make best use of it!

3. Have whoever has been responsible for these last two updates going pear-shaped draft a statement of apology to be posted on the News section of the front page as a mark of RESPECT for your CUSTOMERS.

EDIT: P.S.
That last bit needn't take them much time...
Bowlock already wrote a pretty good one they could just cut and paste!

[SwampHen]

When it takes as long as this, it makes me think there was a really big screw up. Perhaps all islands lost or locked and restoring from backup.

[wierdjohn]

To be honest I think they know there flogging a dead horse...its only a matter of time before the devs are replaced
or the game ends.

[Wh4t3ver]

Wow, someone can't complain anymore without u guys deleting the message? If u dont want people to complain about ur very, very, veeeerrrry long maintenance fix it alright.

[KelTor]

It's a free game people. What you expect?