Feldon Well, I’m sure we’re just a few minutes away from today’s “Not Today” announcement on Facebook or Twitter, but it’s no longer captivating enough for me to stay awake for it. 😉
And with Sony’s luck these days, there’s no way they’d risk bringing PSN or SOE back up on a Friday the 13th. Toodles. 😉
In Japan Friday the 13th – today – is a good day of great luck!
It’s true! In a lot of non-Western cultures, 13 is a very lucky number. But I don’t think anything is going to save SOE at this point. I’ll be canceling my account not because I don’t like EQ2 anymore (I actually still enjoy the game), but simply because I don’t feel comfortable with SOE having my personal information at this point. I know, it’s a little late for that now, but the whole “fool me once…” bit comes to mind.
Anyway, thank you Feldon for the timely updates and insightful commentary. I will continue to frequent this site as I reminisce about Norrath and wait for Guild Wars 2 to drop 😀
Wake up! 😛
Apparently, it’s going to be a “few more days”. At least we know what they are doing once the games come up now.
http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/recentupdates.vm
Actually they posted the update in the recent update section on the website today, along with their make good plan.
Rule of thumb: It takes 21 days to break a habit. It’s the same rule for making a habit; 21 days. (It’s arguable, but most people ‘generally’ know this rule.)
IMO, if SOE’s OUTAGE EXCEEDS 21 DAYS, a critical mass of SOE staff will ‘generally’ recognize a threat to their team’s product/income, and a self-fulfilling prophecy will unfold that leads poor work quality and declining customer satisfaction.
EQ2 is a great game and my addiction will survive well past 21 days! (And survive GU60 too.)
So, I’ll not leave! ~ but that doesn’t mean SOE won’t FAIL!
The everquest2.com redirect site has been updated http://www.soe.com/securityupdate/recentupdates.vm
“It will likely be at least a few more days before we restore our services”
I wonder what that means…
That means expect it to be up on Monday at the earliest. Does the improved network mean less lag or more lag due to increased security? Guess only time will tell. The double xp will be nice, wonder how long it will last. Wish it would be up this weekend, but guess we will see. At least it is not a not up tonight message.
this just posted on SOE:
May 12, 2011
We thank you for your patience as we continue to work around the clock to restore our game services. We know this has been a frustrating time for you and appreciate your understanding as we work to confirm the security of our network.
In light of the recent outage of Sony Online Entertainment’s game services due to April’s cyber-attack, we are committed to compensating our loyal player base for the inconvenience caused by the data breach and lost game time while we improve our security measures.
We are currently in the process of an extensive upgrade to our network to further protect your information from future attacks. It will likely be at least a few more days before we restore our services, and when we come back online, here is what you can expect for each of our game services.
First and foremost, all impacted players will receive 30 days of game time added to the end of the current billing cycle in addition to one day for each day the system is down. Additionally, many games are offering a variety of in-game items and special events to welcome players back once our services resume (per the outline below). This is true for both PC and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system based products.
DC Universeâ„¢ Online: Batmanâ„¢ and Two-Faceâ„¢ Inspired Masks and 30 Marks of Distinction
Free Realms®: Free daily items (7 to collect)
Clone Wars Adventuresâ„¢: Count Dooku v2 Outfit
EverQuest®: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Rare Mob Spawns and Double Faction Gains
EverQuest II and EverQuest II Extended: A series of events, including Double XP, Double Guild XP, Loot Bonanza, and City Festivals
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®: A series of Double XP events
Star Wars Galaxiesâ„¢: Bounty Hunter Statue, a miniature model of Boba Fett’s ship, the Slave Iâ„¢
Magic: The Gathering – Tacticsâ„¢: Four of each of these spells: “Ivory Mask”, “Duress” and “Angelheart Vial”, plus 500 Station Cash
PoxNora®: Limited edition Carrionling, Welcome Back 5K Gold Award Tournaments and two Draft Tournaments, plus 500 Station Cash
For our lifetime subscribers, we’ll grant in-game currency; specifically 20,000 coins for Free Realms, 7,500 Galactic Credits for Clone Wars Adventures and 10 Marks of Distinction for DC Universe Online (in addition to the items listed above).
And finally, our Station Access subscribers will receive 500 Station Cash, in addition to the subscription time and items listed above.
Additionally, we announced today that SOE will provide its U.S.-based Station Account holders with complimentary enrollment in an identity theft protection program through Debix, one of the industry’s most reputable identity protection firms. For Station Account holders who live outside the U.S., SOE will be offering similar programs, if and as available, and will provide details as they’re confirmed for each country or territory.
We continue to work around the clock to restore SOE’s services and thank you for your continued patience as we complete our investigation of this criminal attack.
Thank you,
Sony Online Entertainment
It seems the “make good” events aren’t going to be anything spectacular. I was expecting (though not hoping for) something more, actually, but I would be surprised to find anyone who is actually going to leave or stay based on how much free in-game junk they throw at us, so I suppose it makes sense to do little stuff like double-whatever days.
EQ2X-specific babble follows, ignore if you don’t care:
The phrase that interests me is “all impacted players will receive 30 days of game time.” I have a sneaking suspicion that non-subscription accounts on Extended may be considered “not impacted,” which is likely going to ruffle some feathers.
Obviously the one day per day of downtime is just a credit for the unusable time people are now being billed for, and I wouldn’t expect non-sub accounts to get that. But the flat 30 days is an apology for the inconvenience, and would I think that’s appropriate for everyone. I just unlocked a new race, and the servers went down so I can’t actually use my purchase. I’m certainly a customer, and I certainly feel impacted. *shrug*
Of course, if I’m wrong and non-sub accounts /are/ considered “impacted” and do get the 30 free days, then a different set of feathers will get ruffled. (A visit to the forums will readily show that relations between subscribers and non-subscribers are rather… adversarial. :P)
TBH – I’m not a current subscriber and don’t really want to “beat the system” here BUT, I don’t see any sort of compensation for those of us who are not currently playing but may have been affected by these hacks. As far as I know, my info was still in Sony’s databases when these hacks occurred and I would like to be compensated for the inconvenience this has caused me. So far I have had 3 “late fees” charged to my account because I had to change my card numbers for my safety. This is just ridiculous.
Again. This is not me trying to profit from Sony’s misfortune however, I’m just trying to cover my back just like everyone else. Honestly, given SoE’s track record, I can see them totally neglecting a lot of us who fall in this group… and that doesn’t sit well with me at all!
Does anyone know what sort of compensation will be given to those of us who recently quit and may have been affected?
@Jason S:
They are giving out that ID theft protection service to “U.S.-based Station Account holders” which one would hope includes inactive accounts, since their information was lost as well. That’s all I’ve heard as far as compensation for people not currently interested in playing.
What a friggin joke those greedy aholes are.
If they were THAT greedy then ALL compensation would be in-game or SC since they have zero incremental cost for Sony. Credit of game time is REAL lost revenue for them.
Many have pointed out that the free month is chump change, but they aren’t giving up $15. They are giving up 100% of SOE and PSN revenue for one month plus the time it takes them to fix everything. The whole while they are paying people top dollar to renovate.
To bring this into perspective, it’s like someone breaking into your house then you taking off work without pay while you have expensive contractors renovating your house….THEN you get docked a full month pay after you get back to work because you were broken into.
Sony made mistakes, but I still empahize with their position.