Feldon From an announcement entitled “Double Loot Week!” on the EQ2 Forums:
If you haven’t doubled on your Ascension scrolls and experience, today is your final opportunity!
More importantly however, tomorrow the bonuses continue with double loot in all Kunark Ascending dungeon and raid instances!
Starting at 12 AM PT (07:00 UTC) June 16th, until June 23rd at 12 AM (7:00 UTC) players will receive double loot from the following:
- Kunark Ascending Solo Instance Bosses (final encounter)
- Kunark Ascending Heroic Instance Bosses (final encounter)
- All Raid bosses
Time to get your crew together and run some dungeons!
Players asked in the popular Discord chat for clarification of whether this was truly double loot or an increased chance of double loot and whether it was going to work the same as it did last year or if there had been some changes. Apparently that was a mistake…
Update #1: Apparently the double loot didn’t go live at midnight but late this morning.
Update #2: There has been a followup from RadarX:
Wow that is bad. I have just returned and I read ‘double loot’ as exactly that.
I did not know ‘exactly how it works’.
This guy should be fired – not a healthy employee for consumer relations.
Do the devs not have any input into what RadarX posts? As soon as there was confusion from the playerbase, one them should have pinged him to clarify it so it could be communicated back to the players.
Kander needs to be pointing his frustration at what’s being communicated to the players, not at the players themselves.
/agree
Same goes for Holly’s very few posts. I think there’s something misleading in each of her announcements this year, and it goes unchecked. Developers have to sit and remind everyone it’s not what it means.
Communication is so bad they can’t even communicate amongst themselves!
btw Ansom was banned from discord eq2 channel, for that 😯 😯 😯
I like the part with the deception!
But in seriousness, yeah – this isn’t a double experience sort of misunderstanding (+100% to base server = double base server, so on a technicality is double) – this is straight up dishonest.
“…players will receive” … So I guess that means they want the players to petition every item not received… I mean, it’s not working the way it was officially announced, right, so it’s a bug…?
Not actually doing that. Just trying to make the point – some of us were not here for previous iterations of this, so we don’t have that experience to fall back on.
Simple fix – just change it in the official post to read, “players have a chance to receive.” Problem solved. There’s already one edit on the post, so why not put another?
Note: RadarX just locked the post in the General Form with the note: “Double loot as it functions is currently listed in the News and Announcements (it’s not like last year). If this is not working, please let us know.” I mean, he just said there it’s NOT like last time which was 25%?
What?
Wow….how unprofessional could Kander possibly be? These Devs really are living in their own version of reality. We their customers pay to play this game in one form or another. As consumers we have every right to ask a question about misleading information, because not every one has been playing this game forever or even if they have, it is very reasonable that you can forget. I can’t believe how bad this has gotten. I am glad people report what they are saying to their paying customers in Discord chat. I know their are some people that are trolls and overtly hostile and rude towards the developers, but I think those people are few and far between. The only feedback that these developers seem to want, in spite of what they say, is only glowing praise. So very, very sad. 🙄 🙁
Btw, thank you Feldon for sharing this with us and for all your hard work for the EQ2 community. I know you will always have our back. I can’t imagine what I would have or would do without this site.
I’d pay good money to see Kander show up at my door and try to shut me up in person. Trust me, you’d see the end of that conversation on CNN.
I ran fourteen zones this morning and saw bonus loot on three of them, so I’d say it’s even less than twenty five percent.
Kander should be kanned. (See what I did thurr?)
BTW, when you get banned from discord, just how long does that last? =p
A lot of the bans have been temporary for just a few minutes.
Guess I get to wait and see how long mine will be =)
Kander can get bent. Frankly this entire gang of devs has failed in the slightest to indicate to me an acceptable level of professionalism and competence.
Still lookin’ for a new home…
Bruh. Come to either Ashes of Creation of Pantheon.
Two games years from release… 😆
By the way, if this hadn’t been brought up in discord, the bonus would still not be working.
Meanwhile, I’m counting the days till Pantheon!
Hello 😀 i am the player banned from the eq2 chat, and atm I have no desire to return, is like talk in the wind.
I don’t even able to end the discourse, for the ban..
Like i wrote in eq2 forum:
I still think 20/25% double loot is a nice incentive..
I was a very active player, now, in this day, i don’t have any interest to log in, is only a blind grid, and after how kander reply, after the ban.. The reason to log become thinner, just if my guild mate need a tank for farm heroic zone..
Is like they don’t understand the job basic structure, pretty much is a entertainment company, you can’t do whatever you like just because you can do it, is like they don’t have much memory (SWG…).
Kander was abusive, inarguably. What the hell?
Kander’s extremely unprofessional behavior regarding people inquiring about the very confusing news tells you all you’ll ever need to know about him.
Gosh, last I looked Discord was for the devs, not for CS inquiries. I think I’d also get exasperated by a bunch of questions that aren’t mine to deal with, taking time and attention away from what the devs do – develop. Besides the fact that the team is trimmed to the bone and are still turning out what I consider great content.
I don’t imagine there are very many other companies where the customers have direct access to the developers at all. Can you imagine the developers at, say, Microsoft, having to take time and attention to answer questions from the end users? It’s a terrible waste of the time they need to do what they do best – develop and ship. The fact that EQ2 does allow access is a courtesy, not a right.
Seems to me that the above question could have been posed on the regular forums and been figured out easily there.
Yes Kander was rude, but I can understand why. Maybe he considers it rude to have to use precious time to deal with things better addressed elsewhere.
Grinding Gears Games developers regularly makes themselves available for inquiries on the Path of Exile subreddit, the official Path of Exile forums and the Path of Exile discord channel.
Also nobody forced him to answer. He chose to answer and very rudely at that.
I am sorry but there is no excuse for Kander to respond the way he did to a paying customer. He is supposed to be a professional and he could have responded in that manner. If he felt that wasn’t a question for the developers, then he could have politely referred that player to Customer Service or elsewhere. Calling him a turd was beyond the pale in my opinion.
People did ask on the regular forums, and were ignored UNTIL it was proven that the supposed additional loot wasn’t actually working. Then an explanation happened, but had this never been escalated on discord, you’d still not have bonus loot drops.
“Gosh, last I looked Discord was for the devs, not for CS inquiries.” Krizani
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq2/index.php?threads/introducing-the-eq2-discord-chat.572491/
http://archive.is/pJ0MD
“Players are always looking at methods to keep in communication with developers.”
“Discord” … “staffed by volunteer moderators and members of the EQ2 team”
“The answer is that this is an a third-party site that will be a shared effort between different members of the EQ2 community” Feldon
“Can you imagine the developers at, say, Microsoft” Krizani
Like:
http://msdev.chat/
“The goal is to gather people working with Microsoft technologies in the same place, so we can all learn from each other. (Also, I really miss the good old days of IRC.)”
Among other Dev/Customer to Microsoft Dev channels.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/microsofts-renewed-embrace-of-developers-developers-developers-developers/
http://archive.is/OUmQU
“It’s not just the developer division that’s reaching out to other kinds of developer; the Windows division is, too.”
I have never run into a “”snarky”” Microsoft Dev. Off the wall M.Devs, sure.
“Seems to me” Krizani
“We aren’t going to be strict about “off-topic” discussion.” Feldon
“Yes Kander was rude, but I can understand why” Krizani
I can’t. It was completely unprofessional, and obvious later that he did not expect any of the responses to see the light of day.
btw thank you Feldon.
From what I’ve seen, common professional responses can be:
“No comment.”
“Please refer this issue to ” {some department}.
No Response…
And the number one favorite of companies (and guilty myself):
“We’ll look into it.” <— Macro IT.
With a dwindling customer base, see history/timeline of server merges, ticking off customers is bad business. Having these lapses of customer service being made public is … well very United Airlines. Or for games, very Digital Homicide.
EQ2 folks, or Feldon, considering reaching large general gaming audiences might consider contacting YouTube game channels:
SidAlpha – 29K subscribers – Calls out Devs
Jim Sterling/JimQuisition – 512K subs – Experienced with game Devs
TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit – 2.2M subscribers – O.O
Send ACTUAL examples, and it might get a mention.
/*
The 25 Worst Customer Service Stories to Train the Best CSRs
http://katenasser.com/worst-customer-service-stories-train-best-csrs/
"he responded with the infamous two letter expletive and hung up. I called back and spoke with a different tech who was able to resolve the problem in a matter of minutes and who then asked his supervisor to join us on the line. When I told the supervisor of my earlier experience, she asked me to give her one day so she could resolve the problem. She called back in less than fifteen minutes to tell me that she and the call center manager had reviewed the tape of the call, fired the original technician"
Ouch! Feel better now, Archangel?
Uhhh, I have worked all my life in IT. The end users always, repeat, always have access to the developers, after passing through level 1 CS. And at no time is it allowed to call a customer a turd, even if they are. Once a year we purged one or two accounts that were too problematic and we were happy for them to go to a competitor. Probably they will think twice about their behavior.
I think the problem is they called it Discord. Inviting trouble, with a name like that.
If it’s not Kander’s job to reply then they could’ve just passed it back down to CS, and had one of them post a reply in explanation. Trouble is, in the gaming world they protect the CS people more than the developers. You only get CS if you pay for the game. So the developers by default have this Q&A problem.
I’ve said it a million times in many game forums. Games should always be for-pay. Look at the mess we made with f2p. The people who make these games should be certain that the people commenting are customers who are paying. It would change everything about the conversation, community and attitude.
Hey Feldon, is it Week or Wheel? I actually thought it was Wheel when I first read the title. I’d almost consider putting Wheel as the last word considering how it is being handled. 🙂
It’s the Wheel of Loot! You might get many awesome prizes…you may get crap to break down…you may get infusers!
What a condescending putz Kander is.
I was going to come back for the Fallen Gate server, but these fools don’t deserve my money.
Smart
*sigh* When you work for a company, whether you’re a head developer or the janitor, you represent the company as a whole. When you can’t answer a simple question to clarify concerns by your customers (i.e. playerbase) without making bonehead personal attacks about their personalities then sorry, you being a core developer for a game is nothing if you attack the customers you’re developing the game for.
Well, I can’t even see if it’s double loots or not because the game crashed on me zoning my raid main into the suckfest known as Proving Grounds. After re-loggin, I was greeted by a completely blank character select screen! I can’t see any of my 16 toons, and only have the option to make a brand new character. It’s been like this for 16 hours today and I’m way beyond pissed at this point!!! It’s bad enough that this whole XPAC has been nothing but a freakn’ ALT UNFRIENDLY GRINDFEST, but today, when I actually had time to grind out my 16 PG solo zone weeklies (6 hours of mindnumbing suck!), the game said FU, cause these guys can’t program a stable game!!! Been playing since launch, and even kept my account active for the 26 months I was deployed to Afghanistan (but no vet reward this last year! (WTF there!)), but I can hardly wait until Pantheon or something else worthwhile to play. You DEVs have completely alienated your player base at this point! Rant over……
I think it’s the juxtaposition of incompetence, unaccountability, arrogance and rudeness that above all bothers me about Kander. If he were simply rude but were doing great things for the game, it would be easier to take. Let’s not forget, though, that it’s not just Kander. On at least one occasion, Holly, having left her bunker briefly, called a player an “asshat” in chat. To me this indicates a pervasive culture of disrespect at DBG. Let’s hope for some fresh air there soon, both with regard to the relationship between devs and players and with regard to the direction of the game in general. They’re overburdened, bitter and insecure, which leads them to lash out. Something has to change, because you know what? There will always be mean players who say terrible things. This latest episode, however, was not an instance of that.
I’m shocked by Kanders response in Discord. I used to think he was a good guy. If he isn’t in Discord to answer CS enquiries, don’t answer them! Leave them for the CS rep.
Personally I think the devs spend far too much time chatting in Discord, that time might be better spent fixing this damn game. Although I fear that moment has well & truly passed.
I bet if I replied to someone asking a question with the follow-up turd comment I’d have gotten banned.
I said that some douche GM was killing people in OF for no reason and got banned. and can’t get back in at all now
Since GMs don’t randomly kill players and in fact are rarely seen in-game, I can understand why you got banned.
actually in this case he did seem to. I was there. There was the usual crowd waiting for then next OF to start. I went to the bathroom and missed it (no xp/ loot since I didn’t tag any mobs) came back to a score of dead chars (mine included) and someone on the dias “shouting” maniacally about this being the wrath of the gods. One person who got killed (said in chat they) had actually participated and gone afk just after the kill and was still nuked (as AFK)
What was the GM’s name?
Sorry, as far as I was concerned he was a raving nutter surrounded by a ring of dead bodies. I just did the sensible thing and got out of there. 🙂
yes they did, I even shouted from the revive point, about who ever was killing me should give me a burnt key, proving that I was there and was killed again.
THEN he summoned me to him. That was when I went into discord and said what I did. So yes whoever was doing it, was just going wild on whoever they wanted, there was another person saying the same thing.
What was the GM’s name?
I did not see the name either, he was invisible just doing “you have been summoned” and you have been killed by wrath of the gods in emotes, So I could not see him at all.
As I don’t see the entire exchange, I don’t know what transpired fully. If it was just as it looks then Kander needs to take a chill pill, and make a private apology to the player/unban the account.
I’ve had one of those days as well, sometimes it is best to take a step back and let someone else take the call/time to answer.
In a previous job I was in, we were told to tell the supervisor if we were having a crappy time in our real lives and we would be relegated to the non-public facing work. This outburst is probably a response based on something he has going on in his life.
I think the public facing Devs need to get some lessons in how to communicate effectively without using any form of insult. DBG needs to send them on a course for a week or two, even if it takes them away from development it will give them the tools to communicate better with players and lead to them to have less likeliness of this scenario happening.
I work in Japan, in most companies here, this would not happen. The way you talk to customers is very different.
You always use what we call cushion words when the customer is wrong and you never ever insult them.
This is not the first time he has done it. Earlier he said “If you don’t like it, Don’t play it” one of the lead Devs telling customers to not play your game is just wrong. Now he calls someone a turd. Time for him to find another job.
I believe Kander has been promoted to his level of incompetence and is taking out his frustration on his customers. When people are overworked an/or over-stressed their true nature tends to come out and Kander has shown that he is not a naturally kind person.
Stress could turn Ghandi into Stalin. Who are we to judge Kander’s character?
I think they need to rethink using discord chat. People do come on and ask the same question that was asked previously (might have been a minute, a day, a week ago). They aren’t being jerks or turds or whatever word you want to use. They are being normal people.
I’ve seen new people sent to discord chat to ask a question and then being fussed at, ridiculed, or banned because they don’t know the customs of the group. THIS IS BAD FOR BUSINESS. It gives new people a really bad impression.
You can’t get annoyed at new people asking old questions. Teachers learn that quickly or turn in to jerks. You can think, I’VE SAID THAT A MILLION TIMES!! You should then think, oh yeah, but not to you.
If you are that annoyed about it you need to stay away from it.
Not surprised by Kanders comments, he’s done nothing but work in that job (at SOE/DBG) if you look at his resume/linkedin. He has no skillset other than being a programmer and it shows.
On top of being banned from discord, apparently my dissent got me booted from the community round table as well. No warning or anything, just removal. Tossing people out simply because they don’t agree with everything you do just makes their current stance even clearer to me,