I wanted to take a moment to thank the NC staff for their efforts. We collectively may not always understand or even agree with what the team does, but the evidence of hard work and investment is there. Lineage 2 has a great opportunity to be revitalized, and we've seen an unprecedented level of feedback and community participation from the NC team.
Here's hoping for more good things. I do occasionally take a break from being a pessimist and make an effort to inject some optimism:)
Agreed. As a long time NCSoft customer, I'm very happy to see them take this step. Going free to play is impressive already, but looking at all the changed made for Goddess? This isn't, as Paragon Studios put it, "simply flipping a switch." The two together is fantastic to see. Removing the subscription and revamping the early game to be more new player friendly gets rid of the two major objections most people I know had about Lineage II (especially those already paying a sub for another game)!
Agreed. As a long time NCSoft customer, I'm very happy to see them take this step. Going free to play is impressive already, but looking at all the changed made for Goddess? This isn't, as Paragon Studios put it, "simply flipping a switch." The two together is fantastic to see. Removing the subscription and revamping the early game to be more new player friendly gets rid of the two major objections most people I know had about Lineage II (especially those already paying a sub for another game)!
Yeah, they've only allowed L2 in North America/Europe to be filled with bots, because bots = subscribers, they destroyed Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Exsteel and have pretty much failed at every single project they've ever attempted. Aion was pretty much a failure outside of Asia and had 0 North American/European localization...
I don't understand what there is to appreciate, I can only hope they don't screw this up like they have done to every single thing they've put their hands on...And I hope even more that they don't do that to Lineage Eternal.
I disagree. Yes, they've had failures, but they've had successes too.
So far as I know Aion is not a failure, so if you've got something more concrete from a business perspective, that'd be great. As I understand it, Aion indeed had localization with not just writing but creating quest PVE content for Western players rather than staying to the pure hunting grind there was originally. Aion 3.0 is looking really cool, and is one of the reasons I decided to reup and try the game again.
Guild Wars has been a critical and commercial success, with Guild Wars 2 looking to be on the same track, being one of the most anticipated upcoming games I know of. They took a risk allowing Arena.Net to go with an odd revenue model and its really paid off.
City of Heroes has gotten worlds better since NCSoft bought out Cryptic's share of the game, taking on full ownership. The game has gotten deeper, many long-standing hopes/requests have been acted upon, we've gotten a great expansion in the form of Going Rogue and more. COH: Freedom has been a great success. I could not be happier with NCSoft's handling of City of Heroes.
Dungeon Runners and Exteel were fun, but failed. Advertising cannot sustain a game yet, and I'd argue both games gave away too much for free making paying for anything unnecessary. That, right now, is my only concern with Lineage II going free to play but so unrestricted in regards to content, plus the infamous grind of the game being lessened at the same time. Hopefully I'll see a lot of things in the in-game shop to dissuade me otherwise, as well as seeing more stuff come down the pipe with the shop and galleria in coming months.
Auto Assault would be NetDevil, and given their latest game just flopped, well, there's likely blame to share.
One big problem with Tabula Rasa is the devs listened to the beta testers whining "its not like WOW!" Well, yeah, that's the point. Also, the market as a whole has gotten a lot less forgiving of new games being rough or patchy, comparing launched titles to games that've been around 5, 6, 7 or more years. Its tough going.
Granted; I will have to readily admit I'm coming from a different perspective here, even though I did play Tabula Rasa (control point battles - loved 'em), Dungeon Runners and Exteel (Virtual On's spiritual successor!). I've been very happy with my experiences with all of them, so...
I have long been a hater of NCWest's customer support. It is one of the reasons I quit the game after playing it for almost 4 years. Also, when I applied as a GM for another MMO, I was asked what inspired me to apply - and I pointed out NC's total lack of support. I was hired on the spot.
But when the game went free to play, I decided to come back and perhaps reunite with some old friends. Of course, my password was locked, so I had to contact support. They quickly got me back up and running (with one minor error . . they accidentally gave me someone else's account for a short time, but that was an honest mistake and quickly fixed).
Through all of this, I was very impressed with the quick responses and the time they took to explain exactly what they were doing. There were no "canned" responses. Kudos to NCWest!
I have long been a hater of NCWest's customer support. It is one of the reasons I quit the game after playing it for almost 4 years. Also, when I applied as a GM for another MMO, I was asked what inspired me to apply - and I pointed out NC's total lack of support. I was hired on the spot.
But when the game went free to play, I decided to come back and perhaps reunite with some old friends. Of course, my password was locked, so I had to contact support. They quickly got me back up and running (with one minor error . . they accidentally gave me someone else's account for a short time, but that was an honest mistake and quickly fixed).
Through all of this, I was very impressed with the quick responses and the time they took to explain exactly what they were doing. There were no "canned" responses. Kudos to NCWest!
lololol.
This post shows exactly why this thread is simply lol.
Not only can NCWest not even work well enough with each other within the same company (as evidenced by the numerous "miscommunications" - post-server-merge TW badges incident, the major announcement non-announcement, October Extravaganza rewards details, not even having all details about the GoD update finalized even this close to the update (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3107217&postcount=11)), their customer support is notorious across the industry as a demonstration of how not to support customers.
Let's not even discuss the ridiculousness of not having a PTS for this update, in which a single, irreversible choice will be locked to your character, determining how you will be playing game unless you reroll!
NCWest customer support has become a cautionary tale to be used as a reference point during interviews! It's driven people from this game in droves!
And even after some people return because of the lure of F2P, they manage to screw it up almost immediately again (really? They gave you someone else's account?! LOL!)!
And people actually want to show appreciation for this ********?
As for the canned responses, I'm actually surprised that you didn't get a canned response, as that seems to be the initial step in their SoP for handling customer issues (http://boards.lineage2.com/showpost.php?p=3106176&postcount=5) these days.
Try petitioning about PvP cheaters or bots. I'm 100% sure you'll get a canned response then! :D
Yeah, they've only allowed L2 in North America/Europe to be filled with bots, because bots = subscribers, they destroyed Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Exsteel and have pretty much failed at every single project they've ever attempted. Aion was pretty much a failure outside of Asia and had 0 North American/European localization...
I don't understand what there is to appreciate, I can only hope they don't screw this up like they have done to every single thing they've put their hands on...And I hope even more that they don't do that to Lineage Eternal.
So no appreciation, but I do wish them good luck.
Whenever someone asks me about Aion, I tell them about the following:
NCKorea-developed game.
Claims from NCKorea of taking territories' feedback into account when developing content.
Claims of NCWest support.
Then, I tell them that's what the case with Lineage 2 was/is and how it's turned out.
They stop asking about Aion and any other NCSoft game after that.
Before anyone else feels inclined to go off on a rehashed rant, let me say that the idea behind the thread wasn't to express complete agreement with all policies instituted and actions taken by NCSoft as a company over the years.
I'm simply expressing appreciation for the hours put in by the staff and by the obvious efforts they are making to reach out to the playerbase. Better late than never.
If we would like any chance at having this level of interaction continue and improve, some small acknowledgement wouldn't hurt. That, and I always hesitate to judge too harshly when I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. When I'm at work and a customer disagrees strongly with a point of company policy, I don't take it personally that they are upset. However, if that customer is belligerent and starts turning their grievance into a personal attack against me, I suddenly don't feel like empathizing, much less making any concessions in their favor.
Does NC operate for them the way the majority of customers wished it would? Almost certainly not. Have they arguably failed to provide key information and neglected to maintain communication when it counts? I would say so, but there are already dozens of threads for complaining about that. One thread to say "Hi, thanks for reinvesting in the game and putting in long hours" isn't a bad thing.
Before anyone else feels inclined to go off on a rehashed rant, let me say that the idea behind the thread wasn't to express complete agreement with all policies instituted and actions taken by NCSoft as a company over the years.
I'm simply expressing appreciation for the hours put in by the staff and by the obvious efforts they are making to reach out to the playerbase. Better late than never.
Efforts to reach out to the playerbase? Have you been privy to secret communications that the rest of the playerbase haven't had access to?
There are still basic questions about the update and the update process tomorrow that haven't even been answered yet, here in this 11th hour before the update actually takes place!
How much effort does it actually take to get a simple communication out to the playerbase correctly?
Our TW badges after the last merge was lost simply because someone erroneously told Sace that we would be keeping TW badges when we really weren't. This communication was made days, if not weeks, ahead of the actual merge, so there was plenty of time to catch the error.
How many times did Sace have to change the text in that October Extravaganza page because what she was told was wrong?
Every time there's a developer Q&A, where our playerbase asks questions to those who actually make decisions - that is, to the developers outside of the US/EU, none of the major, tough questions are even addressed.
The last time there was a similar opportunity, our NCWest reps even made it clear that they weren't the ones who selected which questions the Korean devs would answer, as it was correctly predicted beforehand that none of the questions about pvp cheating would be answered and the NCWest reps wanted to head off as much backlash from that as possible.
That such a major issue for our playerbase was so predictably ignored and that NCWest reps knew that it was such a sore subject which would generate considerable anger when it was inevitably ignored by the Korean devs that they felt the need to preface the Q&A response post with a "Not our fault!" disclaimer speaks volumes about how little effort has actually gone into "reaching out" to our playerbase, especially by the ones who can actually make changes - NCKorea.
However, there's one thing that a lot of effort has been expended recently, particularly in the realm of player communications - lots of posts and threads that speak of NCSoft in less than a positive light, however truthfully, have been edited or deleted outright, along with several bans upon the community members expressing themselves in ways reflecting how they've been treated the last few weeks (Sace/Moxie, feel free to PM me if you want clarification on this one, if Necro_Prince doesn't get to this post before you're able to see it, that is).
If we would like any chance at having this level of interaction continue and improve, some small acknowledgement wouldn't hurt. That, and I always hesitate to judge too harshly when I don't know what's going on behind the scenes. When I'm at work and a customer disagrees strongly with a point of company policy, I don't take it personally that they are upset. However, if that customer is belligerent and starts turning their grievance into a personal attack against me, I suddenly don't feel like empathizing, much less making any concessions in their favor.
Waves of people have left this game already due to terrible customer support. I'm not in the habit of promoting non-improvement, especially after 7+ years.
Does NC operate for them the way the majority of customers wished it would? Almost certainly not. Have they arguably failed to provide key information and neglected to maintain communication when it counts? I would say so, but there are already dozens of threads for complaining about that. One thread to say "Hi, thanks for reinvesting in the game and putting in long hours" isn't a bad thing.
So, your point in starting this thread is to show appreciation for the hours the staff has put into...for doing what they're paid to do...and for "the obvious efforts they are making to reach out to the playerbase," but at the same time, you acknowledge that they've "failed to provide key information and neglected to maintain communication when it counts"?
You can say this, you can say that, you can keep going on and on about everything, but when it comes to Lineage II, a few things can't be denied:
Despite anything that may or may not be happening, content updates have been consistent and interesting. When was there ever a large patch shortage? It's all come promptly in due time, keeping the game interesting. Please give me another Korean MMO that's done the same for this long. Lineage II's history is impressive and practically unbeatable.
They've went free-to-play because they recognize that such a business model could rake in more money, but ultimately it's better for everyone because the reason it's a better business model is because a lot more people are willing to at least TRY the game, and many end up staying.
Claim that NCWest doesn't do anything for us, when that's all I heard when it came to a new server. "lol this won't happen if it does they'll allow transfers" -> New Server is coming, no transfers. Mad? Mad that you're wrong?
Now, customer support wise and handling bots and all this, they are absolutely TERRIBLE at. I won't argue. I played Aion, I know how that went. I played L2 back in the day (lol @ people claiming I never played retail and only p. servers, kbros) and I know how bad it was. They have weaknesses, but they also have their strengths.
What you're telling us isn't news. This thread looks more about the recent tribulations that give NCWest the appearance that they may be shaping up. Maybe they aren't, though. But we hope they are. Problem?