To one and all GOA fanboys

[old.Jable]

Let's take a reality check.

First off RightAboutNow:

Let's say they had proper customer support. half of the mails they receive would never be sent, as the customers would be able to communicate with real people (either in game or via telephone) and sort out half the silly little problems before they even opened outlook. this would leave their massive customer support team to answer all the remaining mails (while maybe learning some more english too because they seem to think that "you billed me altho i cancelled, give me back my money" actually means "please bill me again 6 days after you just billed me without authorisation?".

Server problems:

No system is 100% safe, so it would make sense to have some sort of contingency plan in the case of a hack occuring. some backups would be helpful for a start (maybe an up to date copy of which accounts are open, and which are cancelled so they don't have to guess) and maybe some staff on the weekends so that any problems over the weekend can be sorted out there and then, rather than closing down systems in case they get hacked, because theres no one in the office.

Subpage problems:

Other games don't have account page problems on anywhere near the scale of GOA. i have been playing Anarchy Online recently, Ultima Online before that. each time i have wanted to access my information, it has been there. if it hasn't, its been back up within 20 minutes. if it takes longer, there is a note on an official website stating why it went down and for how long.

GOA have had the server down so much, they can't be arsed to put it on any website. whats funnier is the fanboys who pat them on the head like they would an elderly incontinent relative that managed to shit just his pants, and not the entire bed.

All in all:

GOA are doing a bad job and unlike the rest of the working community they have no one to answer to, so they can get away with murder. you can't expect everything to go smoothly all the time but you can expect there to be communication with the community (rather than the website news, which is more of a PR stunt that actually useful imo), you can expect them to give us good service for our money and you can expect their errors not to affect you financially.


Flame away, at least im not lying here waiting for GOA to take me up the arse.

 

[Archeon]

Originally posted by old.Jable
Flame away, at least im not lying here waiting for GOA to take me up the arse.

Just to clarify on somthing, what are you doing instead of waiting to be taken up the arse?

 

[old.Jable]

[moderated]

 

[Archeon]

Originally posted by old.Jable
I'm playing a different game, run by a company that likes to be treated like a lady, rather than taking on the persona of an imprisoned rapist.

Oh right, so your just trolling these forums preeching to everyone and trying to generate some flames.

Ok, just wanted to clear that up.

 

[Tesla Monkor]

He's just a little frustrated. Don't pay too much heed to the noise on these boards, both positive and negative. It's only a tiny part of the people actually playing the game.

 

[old.Jable]

no im responding in kind to tohtori's thread concerning how GOA arent all that bad, by offering the view that actually they are.

you however want to play white knight for goa, which is kinda sweet.

 

[old.Jable]

Originally posted by Tesla Monkor
He's just a little frustrated. Don't pay too much heed to the noise on these boards, both positive and negative. It's only a tiny part of the people actually playing the game.

thats about right. many are playing and having fun. its only when problems arise, that you hit the barrier that is GOA's inexistent customer support. also i saw tohtori's thread and thought "bollocks to that" and wrote my one.

i do have an active account btw (2 in fact) so i do have ongoing concerns.

 

[Addlcove]

Originally posted by old.Jable
i do have an active account btw (2 in fact) so i do have ongoing concerns.

still doesn´t defend you against trolling the boards!

 

[old.Jable]

i thought trolling would be if i stated something totally incorrect then waited for people to respond so i could attack them verbally and stuff?

i think you'll find thats not my purpose. i stick up for consumer issues. nothing winds me up more than if a friend of mine has an issue with a shop (faulty goods for example) and is too nice to sort it out without getting fobbed off.

happens to my parents, they go to a shop and get some git telling them they can't get the services that by law they can demand. they shrug and come home. thats the moment i take matters into my own hands.

too many nice people are taken advantage of because they are too polite, and wish to avoid conflict. those are the people that won't benefit from posts suggesting everything is ok and they have no case to complain.

 

[Silenzio]

well cant see anything wrong in this thread...

customare support rlly lack...

every point he made r plainly explained and moslty right

wile ather ppl seems just rdy to barck at the one other barks too..

i know is hard to be openminded

 

[Arrows]

this post made me spit snot out of my nose from laughter at work and i subsequently rushed for a tissue blew it read more and almost eat my own snot due to laughter
(i have a cold btw not large amounts of nasal green gold)

I agree with jable %100

dac was released as a half finished game and still is about only
%75 imo.

I hate that GOA have fucked up a game i really liked.
Example. is it me or are all the new SI classes uber thus making it you have to have SI
(other than hibs (my home realm) but then as the website about it all proves hib was and still is the rushed third realm).

The lack of any enjoyable content in the game has caused me to move on to greener pasteurs.

FF11 coming out soon run by squaresoft quite possibly the one of the best games companys on earth from many standpoints i hope and believe will treat there customers vv well.
Just look at the website on teh launch day they had a special halloween event and the game seems to have tons more depth.

Its the donkey and the stick. Squaresoft makes a quality product and so we feel compelled to buy it GOA makes shit like SI and we have to buy it.

Anyone whos done business studies may know what i mean about the different aproach to business east and west have and i cant wait for ff11.

basically i hate goa and i hope all who do also will leave daoc and move on to companys who are learning slowly that the customer and service is going to be all important in the coming mmorpg wars and dont become complacent because theres is the best of the worst at present.



just a few of my opinions


once again ... at teh incontinence remark ....


"GoA ! youve done it again youve shat the bed but .. wait ... ahhhh at least youve only shat a small bit and not all of it ... why .. i dont mind getting hands deeps in feaces rather than good old knee deep "

 

[old.Jable]

as much as i'd like to agree with you 100% arrows , unfortunately GOA only handle the running of the european game, they have nothing to do with writing the game. thats all down to mythic.

GOA are responsible for customer service (2/10), account handling (1/10), writing their events etc (2/10), patch translation into french and german (7/10), and finally running the actual servers (9/10).

they have no input into the design of classes and other stuff.

my main gripe is and always will be (until they fix it) the communication with the community, which they put a stop to when they closed the official boards and sent us here, good to see someone else who finds that side of their service not up to scratch.

its also good to hear about your snot

here is my reasons for my scoring btw

customer service (2/10) its inconsistent and impersonal but isn't worth a 1 because it occasionally works.
account handling (1/10) the account page is down more than a dutch whore, and they rebilled people who cancelled. 1 point for it working ok sometimes is removed for the rebilling
writing their events etc (2/10) it took nearly 18 months to complete the first event, and it was shit.
patch translation into french and german (7/10) i assume its translated correctly, but it takes too long for my taste
running the actual servers (9/10) hardly any downtime, if this wasn't done correctly, they would be screwed.

 

[Arrows]

Yeh i thouhgt afterwards it was aimed more at mythic but i still dont like G.O.A either
For many of the reasons stated.
Id say though that G.O.A are partly to blame because they represent europe to mythic and mythic to us really.
I wonder if G.O.A tell mythic anything about how we feel about all sorts of issues.

Reading kemors post about where to buy daoc was funny. Places dont stock it cos there little demand for it.
G.O.A are like the ostrich.
Oh oh problems on the horizon ... someone givf me some sand to hide my big head in and carry on like nothings wrong.


Yes.
I do feel fucked over
Down wit goa ! .. i mean mythic ah whatever

 

[hellraisermk2]

I agree 100% with you Jabble. It always raises a smile how many people try to defend Goa whenever they make another monumentous ferk up.

 

[deadkid]

goa is scheisse nothing new here rly =)
if my guild would massivly invade any other game u'd see us going for good and i hope this will happen someday

GL G.O.A. u can screw urself more than u did rly

 

[Indiana Jones]

its always the voice of the whiners/unhappy ppl that sounds the loudest

I have been playing this game since day 1 of european release and i'm more than satisfied.

but maybe thats because i never felt the need to use customer service. I'm not saying that customer service is excellent, i just never used it because i haven't had any problem with the game

if you want horrible service i suggest you try Soe. But thats my suggestion

and about FF11...you're always judging goa for translations that take too long. All FF games that i've played were released in Europe one year or so after Japan and six months after US. I can understand Japan - english translation takes a while. But why is there still a 6 month gap between Us and europe

 

[Arkian]

Originally posted by old.Jable
I'm playing a different game, run by a company that likes to be treated like a lady, rather than taking on the persona of an imprisoned rapist.

So what's this game with the amazing customer support?

 

[old.Jable]

i already said which two games ive been playing that have both had better customer support/feedback. anarchy online and ultima online.

i didn't mention the time it takes to do patchs as a reason for them being bad, only that i dont believe they are being done as fast as humanly possible.

my beef has always been the way they shut down the official forums when people started asking them difficult questions soon after release, and their complete lack of progress in improving any factor of their communication with the community.

but as already said, people know this. and as i already said, i only wrote it because of the other thread. you may be able to guess which one (i'll give you a clue, the title is nearly identical).

you want to write threads having a go at the whiners, expect a response back. if you have never had a problem, im happy for you. just don't expect those that have had issues to keep quiet so you can pretend its all roses.

 

[old.Jable]

Originally posted by Indiana Jones

and about FF11...you're always judging goa for translations that take too long. All FF games that i've played were released in Europe one year or so after Japan and six months after US. I can understand Japan - english translation takes a while. But why is there still a 6 month gap between Us and europe

yeah ok, i remember waiting months for street fighter 2 to be released for the super nintendo in europe. we all know that nintendo and some other companies are really slack when dealing with europe - there is a history of american and japanese console companies not taking the european market seriously enough to release games simultaneously.

final fantasy 11 may have taken a while to translate. fair enough because it was written in japanese. i cant see anyone complaining too much. the french and germans wont complain about receiving their translated versions of camleot later than the americans either.

im not hassling about the translations anyway. im more interested in GOA thinking enough about the consumer to let us know what is going on, and giving us a less frustrating way of communicating with them.

the discussion of attitudes by console companies towards europe is an entirely different can of worms, one that needs its own dedicated thread before we can truly get to the bottom of it.

 

[cjkaceBM]

LOL Jable.

Never found you to be this much of a crybaby whiner. IMO please leave your account inactive as the game as a whole can do without people like you.

For the record I'm not a fanboy either. My experience with GOA has been good, with no problems whatsoever, so therefore to me the Customer Service is good. I recognise that others have problems but as I can't do anything about it I keep my mouth shut. As others have stated, those that receive what they perceive as bad customer service, scream 100 times louder than those that don't.

But hey whatever, looking around these and other boards it seems that problems have arisen to around 10% of the DAOC population (aside from the major server downs) which if you go and ask any company director, they would be exuberant that 90% of their customers are satisfied. Never mind though, let's just give GOA a kicking.

Anarchy Online

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q3-2001/070501a.html
http://www.game-revolution.com/games/pc/rpg/anarchy_online.htm
http://www.cgonline.com/reviews/anarchyonl-01-r1.html
http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2001/1299.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/096/096621p1.html?fromint=1

 

[old.Jable]

LOL CJ

i always like reading your replys, usually of the form "whiners lie, GOA i luuuuv you".

my reason for mentioning anarchy is because you can do /petition or /bug during play to speak directly to a GM. this is called "in-game support", something you may have heard of. ultima also has the same service.

all of those anarchy reviews are dated 2001. everyone and his mum knows anarchy online had problems on release. its still great to play and i haven't had problems yet. and if i did, i would page a gm.

of course, i would never be so ignorant as to suggest that my good experience of not ever having had issues means that no one has ever had issues or has a right to express their experiences in a public forum. i definately wouldn't tell anyone raising a valid topic to shut up, and i wouldn't suggest they should stay away from the game.

personally, i like camelot. i have my reasons for not appreciating GOA as much as you obviously do, because i have seen first-hand unauthorised rebillings and i also listen to the people on the board who have complaints rather than thinking "whiners" and skipping the post. i dont like hearing about people having problems, and it annoys me that 9/10 people are happy while the other 1/10 take pot luck whether customer support can understand their emails .

however, i do take offence to you suggesting i should stay away from the game. its creating a mix of emotions tbh, the strongest being that i shouldn't care a shit about your opinion and that you should go screw yourself, you grumpy old bastard.

 

[cjkaceBM]

But GOA is a complete screw up according to you?

So why on Earth would you want to support such a poor company by paying them cash which you have earned with your own sweat?

TBH Jable it's not you that pisses me off. It's everybody that whines yet continues to pay/play. If people don't like the way a company operates then they should take their business elsewhere.

Working for a company with a very bad reputation myself I see first hand what good/bad customer service really is. I've also seen the absolute worst side of customer behaviour, having had to suffer verbal abuse and threats of violence, and the irony is that I give a higher level of service than I expect for myself.

I've not had any problems with GOA that weren't of my own making, so like I say as far as I am concerned they are doing a damn fine job.

You can't please all of the people, all of the time, and you would be foolish to even attempt it. Some people quite simply get what they deserve.

 

[old.Jable]

I dont think GOA are a complete screwup, i tried not to give that impression (today anyway). their good points are that they have kept the servers up and running for the majority of the time, but im at a bit of a loss for anything else. it may be late but thats the only thing i can think of right now (maybe i'll edit tommorow).

the thing is i dont hate GOA - quite the opposite, i want them to be my friend.

i want to give them the opportunity to come clean when they have problems, to explain when they are going to fix it and to let them get on with it, safe in the knowledge that something is being done and we have nothing to worry about.

i want to be able to speak to them in cases of some urgency, to be able to communicate to them precisely what my issue is, without having to worry about them translating my emails incorrectly. i want piece of mind that any problems i run into are being dealt with in the most efficent way, both for me and for them, because i dont want to waste my time or theirs with miscommunication.

i want this not just for me but for everyone who plays the game. i hate to think of people paying good money and not getting the service they deserve.

most of all, i can't help but wonder at this missed opportunity by GOA to nurture and interact with one of the biggest playerbases for any game in Europe. they have saved money but ultimately built an entirely different perception to the one that would be prefered. instead of creating mutual respect between community and company, they have set up barriers beyond which they cannot be reached, and haven't kept us as well informed as i think they could. it wouldn't hurt for one of them to post a "we are doing fine, how are you guys?" thread every once in a while, but that would be seen as an opportunity by some to voice their grievances, because there is no other opportunity. i dont blame GOA employees for wishing to avoid that.

the thing is good customer service is valuable not just because of the ability to fix problems and interact, but also because it has a massive positive effect on peoples perception of the company in general. one of the reasons why you make so much effort, even when dealing with muppets.

anyway, i only posted this because of tohtori's thread, but he was fishing for flames anway, why the hell did i let myself get sucked in? these are questions i ask myself at 3.17am, with double vision and a weird throbbing in the centre of my forehead, possibly caused by too much monitor radiation. uke:

------call centre anecdote--------

my friend made the mistake of getting a job in the call centre for the new 118 118 directory enquiries. it was fine until 4pm after school hours, when he had 2 hours of kids phoning up shouting "Got your number!!!" and slamming the phone down (from a recent run of adverts on UK telly). he didn't last the week.

----------------------------------

 

[Sping]

I don't understand the replies stating that the ones who think GOA provide bad customer service scream 100 times louder than those that don't. That really does have to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Ofcourse they'd scream louder than those not having problems because they're actually having problems whereas the ones who aren't, aren't. Get it?

I haven't been reading these boards for long and yes, I understand that people whine quite a bit about the customer service but what I find more annoying are the people who've never had problems gracing every post with "QQ whiners", "Not ANOTHER whine thread?!?!" or words to that effect. If you don't have any problems that's great, I'm sure everyone's happy for you but that doesn't mean others don't have problems that need to be addressed. It seems to be the general consensus that Rightnow! isn't very good so of course people will come here to voice their issues as it's the only other place to go. I just wish that some of the people voicing their opinions/issues would do so a little more eloquently! ("omg goa suk i 4got 2 pay and dey bild me!")

Also, it may be that only 10% of people playing the game have problems with their customer service but has anyone actually sat down and considered some of the problems that people have had? It's my understanding that people were unnable to cancel their subscription and thus were charged for something they didn't want. Also, people have had their accounts reactivated after having closed them manually and billed for no apparent reason.

I'm sorry, but that's inexcusable and until something is done I can endure the whines.

~Sping

 

[cjkaceBM]

The 100 times louder comment was designed to reflect the fact that when people feel they have had bad customer service they will complain to whoever they can, but those that receive great customer service generally don't say anything.

There's another thread here on BW asking people what they would like most from DAoC, and despite all the other problems, around 40% want faster patching, which didn't surprise me tbh.

I'd like someone to set up another poll.

If GOA promised to commit more people to Customer Service, more translators resulting in faster patch times, another two servers (1 Co-op 1 English) and in game CSR's during peak time, HOW MUCH EXTRA SUBSCRIPTION WOULD YOU BE PREPARED TO PAY??

a: between £1 and £2
b: between £2 and £5
c: more than £5
d: nothing...it should all be ingame now.

 

[old.Jable]

an interesting question. i dont know whether i would be willing to give them extra money to set up something they should have done anyway, and as i said in my previous post, the good publicity and extra merit they would receive should be afforded from their pockets, not ours. but if its the only way...

hmm

 

[cjkaceBM]

I would be interested to see a breakdown of what sort of queries get sent to RightNow.

How many pertain to actual in-game bugs?
How many are reports of RVR bug abusers?
How many are reports of PVE bug abusers?
How many are internet connection related?
How many are computer hardware related?
How many are other software related?
How many are from people whose accounts have been 'hacked'?
How many are requests to restore characters?
How many are account/password related?

The above would probably make up the majority of all RightNow queries, yet half of them are potentially nothing to do with DAoC, yet I bet the people manning RightNow try to help as much as possible.

Not long ago I had an annoying problem with my internet connection. I use BT Home Highway ISDN, and whenever I connected to the internet it was fine, but when I started DAoC it used to hang at the 'connecting to server' screen. I tried everything to get it to work properly, re-installed, tried different drivers etc but no joy.

One day though when I fired up DAoC, i also had the Task Manager running. The instant the game.dll was accessed my CPU usage went up to 100% for around 20 seconds. Because I know a little bit about computers I realised that this was causing my ISDN connection to hang (sometimes be dropped all together) because I was using the USB connection to my ISDN box, which uses the CPU to modulate/demodulate the signal, meaning that whenever the CPU was running at 100% there was no processing power left to decode the signal. Solution was to buy a true hardware ISDN card and since then no more connection problems.

If I had contacted RightNow it would have used GOA's resources in an attempt to solve what was a problem with my PC/Internet set-up, nothing to do with GOA in all reality, but I wonder how many other problems they are asked to solve are down to the user at the other end?

 

[Israfael]

So quit then, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. One clueless whiner less won't really be missed.

 

[Demolay]

Originally posted by old.Jable

patch translation into french and german (7/10) i assume its translated correctly, but it takes too long for my taste

As someone who does this every day of the week for lots of different games co's believe me they are pulling our pissers on the translation and QA of Camelot - how long can they possibly stretch the easiest of the European text localisations out for

 

[PJS]

Actually they did raise the subscription and nothing noticeably changed :/