A hacking incident again, this time, nothing will be restored.

[SoulFly Amarok]

A hacking incident again, this time, character restoration issues..

Scenario:

Our loved cleric, Lochlyessa logged out one night. Then her cable disconnected for 2 hours, so she decided to go and play some Red Alert when waiting to get her cable online again. After the connection got restored, she logged in and suddenly got the "choose a realm"-option screen..chose albion..8 empty character slots.

She had got hacked.

Apparently the hacker had deleted all of Loch's characters and remade lochlyessa 4 times, so the bacup slots were overwritten, hence her character can't be restored..that's what GOA says.

I know, that you can give people levels by clicking a trainer and you have the tools to edit characters. So, in the name of good customer support, HELP out.

Not to mention, that you should've implemented a "safer" way for character deletion, by, for example: you have to type y e s, then you must enter a secret character deletion password, which is given to you after you've made your account.

Though, I'm quite sure, that you have bacups of characters on some independent server. Atleast all the wise MMORPG server's tend to have, incase for corrupted databases etc.

Please, share your thoughts with us.

Regards, Servants of the Lake.


edit: Topic.

 

[walkerb]

everyone that think goa should change their views on these kinda incidents, and actually restore chars instead of just saying no we wont, good bye.
should mail goa or kemor@goa.com

 

[Derric]

Good customer support is something that only happens on a good day in France.

 

[Lochlyessa]

 

[klavrynd]

summer is coming, prices just rocketeered with 33% , and there's tons of new games coming, it's maybe time to show some good will

 

[Coren]

Well, isn't good customer service like this what we'll pay 33% more for soon?

 

[frogster]

It appears that hacking is not tollerated by GoA's precious CoC but the consequences are.
Basically, she got an "oh we're sorry, but nevermind."

There is no 100% safe way to be online, we can all take precautions..(firewall, virus scanner etc, as Loch did.) but at the end of the day , if someone is out to get you, your fucked.

Oh, and guess what? GoA will do absolutely nothing to help you.

The account wasn't shared, someone just had a grudge and now all the effort and work she put in over the last year has gone down the pan.

Just remember that next time it could be you.
As we saw with Blaen, the culprit will remain unpunished, and the victim? well and truly fucked over.
Perhaps its time GoA sorted their policies and priorities and gave the PAYING customer base a customer support it deserves.

 

[quiescent]

clever hacker...

But yes something should be done about this, a lot of time is spent getting items and lvling characters. For GoA to just say no, sorry.. is quite frankly an outrage. Restore her chars/items and stop being fucking awkward frenchies? thx.

 

[k9awya]

vry sad

 

[Eliz]

This is so sad.

Gifv Loch back!

 

[mirieth]

That is absolutely sickening.

I always thought GOA were sub-standard, but this is now becoming a joke.

We now pay 33% more in subscription prices per month, what then are they using this extra cash for except lining their own wallets?

It's small compensation, but I'm sure your Guild - Lochlyessa - and the rest of Albion will be willing to help you out if you come back.

It's things like this that make me wonder why I resubscribe every month.

Comisserations to you, Lochlyessa. If you remake then give me a tell if you ever need cash, itamz or anything else

Sort it out GOA, this is not acceptable. We are all paying customers. A company should be striving to keep its customers by providing them with a good service, not the sub-standard joke of a service we have at the moment.

 

[Brannor McThife]

I remember when there was the DOS attack soon after release, and they checked multiple backups to role back. Now, to me, that means, that EVERYBODY's data is backed up for AT LEAST a few days. The ONLY reason I can logically come up with for them having the "No, we can't/won't" stance is that it takes time.

But come on. Who in their right mind is going to delete a level 50 character (and other chars) they've been playing for ages, and then knowingly overwrite the names/slots to ensure no "easy" retrieval?

Ok, I understand that IF you have shared your account with ANYONE, then they're going to show very little remorse, because you broke their CoC. So that's 2 reasons. But I'm sure there must be some way to extract the persons character data from a previous backup without having to do a full restore. Hell, how hard can it be to have one (or two) of those old crap machines used for "weekly" restores - i.e. Each day of the week, a difference server is built, on one of these old machines, from the previous week's backup, and any people who had their characters deleted (and fully purged) get them back as they were a week before. Shouldn't be too hard to make a programme to do that.

Hmm, thought of another reason. Balance. Thing is. If the person that did this used a "mule" to transfer all the victims items, e.g. 50 plat, to another character. You can't suddenly go and create a character with another 50 plat. So in the scenario where all your items were given away, they'd simply have to give you back the character with 0 items/cash. But at least you have your character.

Time, it all comes down to time. Does the cost in time and manpower justify it. Regardless of how it got deleted, or who deleted it, there should be a set of built in rules they could follow to restore ANY character.

That's just my humble opinion, heh, and I've applied to be a CSR for them. There goes any chance I had.

-G

PS, Feel for you Lochy.

 

[k9awya]

Originally posted by Brannor McThife
I remember when there was the DOS attack soon after release, and they checked multiple backups to role back. Now, to me, that means, that EVERYBODY's data is backed up for AT LEAST a few days. The ONLY reason I can logically come up with for them having the "No, we can't/won't" stance is that it takes time.

as previously stated those "few days" backup slots were overwritten

 

[Spinky]

Ehm, bugger

not much else to say really.. bugger, well done to whoever decided to ruin a years worth of work/play, would be nice if you were hit by a bus or something more imaginitive

 

[frogster]

lol, u dont honestly think they only keep a few days backups do u?

Scenario:

1. New patch is implemented.
2. Major bug goes unoticed for a week.
3. Everyones characters are affected.
4. Realm wide chaos ensues!.

Oh bugger.. lets reset the entire player base and see who comes back!...

 

[succi]

Same thing happened to Kella ( rr6 bm ) very sad

 

[Sharma]

1. you up prices
2. you cannot restore characters even after you start making money.

jesus i mean come on, something is more than fucked up here.

 

[leviathane]

 

[Danya]

Poor Loch.
<Licks Loch sadly>

 

[case-rigantis]

OMG lochy NOOOOOOOOOOO

how could someone do this to another person?!

This should be the turning point in GOA`s poor record of customer care...sort this one out GOA or you WILL lose a hell of a lot of long term players

think money GOA players like lochy are the people who pay your wages once people like her have gone you`ll never get them back and be left with players who play for a month then move onto the next big thing

don`t give us this crap about not being able to do it thats rubbish we know it...you knowit..... and you know we know it

at least give her characters back and we`ll have a collection to get her back on her feet

 

[old.Atrox]

I really hope 1.60 comes before my sub runs out cuz I sure as hell aint gonna pay GOA anymore.

this is just sick, I'll never pay for any future games hosted by GOA.

 

[kr0n]

One major mistake what GOA made long time ago, was to even explain how the backup system works. They explained detailly how many slots you have and so on. Too naive move.

I don't know the details, but If nothing against the CoC has done with that account, they shuold restore it. Just like they restored Psi's character with no items back in 1.45 or whatever when it got bugged and stuck while porting to Emain or something.

But come on. Who in their right mind is going to delete a level 50 character (and other chars) they've been playing for ages, and then knowingly overwrite the names/slots to ensure no "easy" retrieval?

Same reason someone in the street takes a old lady's purse and kicks her in the stomach to keep her down while he runs away. This is even easier for your concience, you don't see the person, you don't ever have to meet him/her. Out of sight, out of mind.

Im not trying to justify anything.

I feel for you Loch, shitty thing. You know Im truly sorry.

 

[old.mattshanes]

This is appalling and sad to read very sorry to hear it loch,they should track the bastard's ip down or somehow get some info of their computer logging your account in?if they do lock the bastard up,it's something someone is paying for and they are violating it.

Hope you get your characters back i really do

 

[old.diabolus]

ofc they can restore her from previous backups they just dont want to bother

 

[Damon_D]

Give Loch back..now...

 

[Jace]

Very sad indeed

I wonder if it might be a good idea to mail details of this incident to Mythic in the states. I'm not sure if they're aware what piss poor customer service we recieve from GOA but another reminder sent to them can't hurt.

I'm concerned also as to how GOA asign blame in instances like this. I take every precaution possible to safeguard my account but soemhow I get the feeling that, were I to have soemthing happen to my account, GOA would have a get out of jail free card tucked away somewhere.

Hope it all works itself out anyway, an unbelievably shitty thing to happen to anyone

 

[SilverHood]

GOA must save the data on a weekly basis, or monthly basis, in case things go tits up.

Failure to do that, providing her with a lvl 50 char can't be out of their control... with a good guild to back her up, she should be able to get some armor/epic in no time.

is it really that much to ask for someone who's been paying to play daoc for what, a year? more?

I know that if my chars got deleted beyond recovery, I'd be pissed beyind belief.... spending over a year getting to where they are, over 50 real time days....

just a shame people see the need to hack people's accounts in order to get their kicks

 

[Cami]

Loch

 

[Esoteric]

This just makes me mad, I knew loch an extremely good cleric and well liked too a lovely player. Please restore her.

I'm off anyway due to the price hike and no sweetners for it. Put sweeteners in Ill be a bee to the honey pot ;-).

I have 3 months sub left till July then I will either move onto something else or move with some mates to US daoc.

Eso

 

[Arnor]

totally sucks

same thing happened to a guildie today uke: