Play Free War Battle Games Online, Multiplayer Games, Strategy Games, Top MMORPG

Supz108x · **Joined:** Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 67

Hello all

Long time player here, Matty of WARDOG

Every 1 experienced a server fail on E4 about tick 120. I was being attacked by a Newb with 60 infantry. I donated and bought 1000 tokens in order to protect my self. I had built 30 vehicles and they were ready to hurry in order to protect my self from the attack now eta 1 tick.

I waited until there were ten minutes left on the clock till the next tick and went to hurry my units. To my dismay the server had failed. I could not log in for a further 15 minutes.

When I do get back in it is the next tick and i have lost my crystals I have lost all my 6 conquers I had lost my units. Obviously been conquered whilst the server was down....

Ok stay cool, Admin will sort it.

So I messaged Seth E4 Admin and asked for some sort of a refund or compensation for the tokens I had bought and that had been wasted due to a fault in the game not due to my own mistake.

Apparently, according to Seth , no can do. "Would be unfair"

Now correct me if im wrong. The fact i have played for well over 5 years, have donated thousands of £ is not the point. Although some discretion and respect for a longstanding player wouldn’t go a miss. The fact that i suffered losses that could have been prevented had the server not failed and the fact that i donated to prevent these losses would suggest to me that some sort of compensation would be appropriate.

If not... Why do I donate? Why do i put money in a game if the outcome can not be felt or seen? Well quite simply I wouldn’t. I use money to gain an advantage, when that advantage was taken away because of a server fail. quite frankly i want my money back.

I would appreciate some neutral opinion and thoughts.

Its the principle not the $18

Thank you

Matty of WARDOG

Seth · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 10:57 am

Once again mate, you aren't the only supporter, or the only player affected by that very short downtime. I cannot realistically go through each and every player whom has suffered losses due to something that affected each and every player in the game, therefore, yes, it would be unfair for me to 'pick and choose' whom I DO compensate for such issues.

Instead, I will do my best to give some extra boosts along the way to EVERYONE, as opposed to the select few who complain the most or threaten me with 'how much they support'. I am sorry, but there are always 2 sides to every coin. For every one supporter who likes to wave his purchases around and make demands, there are potentially hundreds, perhaps even thousands whom choose not to behave in such a way, and understand that I cannot go to each and every one of them and compensate them individually.

In this case, I was able to get online immediately and see that we were down and have the issue addressed in under 15 minutes. I did my best to minimize impact, and am thankful that I was able to get online quickly and do so. However, we were down for 15 minutes, but NO ONE was able to get into the game. Not even the admins! So yes, it would be unfair to play favorites, and to compensate only a select few for things that affected each and every player in the game.

In this genre, there can be no guarantees as far as up time, only a record of maintained up-time. Our record is outstanding, and we have better than 99.99% up-time, and it is very rare for us to experience downtime, let alone any extended down time. Still, we are very clear in our TERMS OF SERVICE that we cannot realistically warranty uptime due to the dynamic nature of online gaming. This is EXTREMELY common in the terms and conditions of almost any online game, and most big name game companies will include an immediate disclaimer that states "experience may vary during online play" (which essentially makes preemptive notice that there are 'no guarantees of service') for the very reason that there can be no guarantees to online play because of the nature of networking and computer hardware. Things happen. Everyone knows it. This is nothing new.

We also address the downtime personally, as well as taking appropriate measures such as pausing ticks to minimize impact of such events. Once again though, we clearly outline that we cannot realistically make warranties regarding up-time or even play experience.

Therefore, when you purchase tokens, you are doing so on a donation basis, to help us maintain the servers (not to give you preferential treatment over every other player in the game!), and we obviously do! As stated above, we were online and had the problem solved in minutes, thereby fulfilling our personal oaths to service and maintain.

Sorry mate, I know its not the answer you were looking for, but its the truth. We simply cannot realistically say that we can go around and calculate each and every player's potential losses due to 15 minutes of downtime. Therefore, it would be unfair to selectively go through and compensate only a few. I would not subject you to being the one who I did not make it to, while someone who complained louder than you long enough received full compensation. I would not do that to you, and it would be unfair to thousands of others if I did that here with you in such a manner! I am many things, but corrupt is not one of them. Sorry.

Instead, I will try to make reparations long term by matching boost bar bonuses and giving out random goodies globally. This way, I know in fact that everyone whom was affected (every player in the game) is compensated equally and on level terms, and no one player gains an undue edge over another, thereby exacerbating the issue unnecessarily.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, and once again, aplogies for any inconvenience that 15 minutes caused you. We do our best to keep a good record, and I think 99.99% up time is exceptional considering I am looking back as far as 2007! In the browser based game genre, this is an exceptional value!

Supz108x · **Joined:** Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 67

You clearly put some effort into your first post here Seth , much appreciated, and I have to agree with most of what you said.

First of all I wasn't aware that we are mates. So please don't call me that.

Second, I dont think you fall under the catagory of

Quote:

appreciate some neutral opinion and thoughts

the key word here

Quote:

neutral

.

Seems at you went through the effort I suppose it is only fair I give a response.

You regularly made reference to myself expecting preferential treatment over those who don't donate or those who perhaps donate less then myself. I actually made a specific point in my original post that the fact I donate is irrelevant

Quote:

Now correct me if im wrong. The fact i have played for well over 5 years, have donated thousands of £ is not the point.

So once again Lets stick to the facts eh?

Now, I understand you obviously could not be expected to go through every player in the world and compensate accordingly; that would take an awful lot of time for what actually like you said

Quote:

I did my best to minimize impact, and am thankful that I was able to get online quickly and do so. However, we were down for 15 minutes

the servers were only down for 15 minutes. 15 minutes is not a long time and BD servers are usually excellent I must say; but I am curious as to how many people actually complained because they had specific losses as a cause of the down time? Probably not that many. In other words for you to have compensated the people that did lose out and felt the compelling need to complain and ask; would in actual fact not have been to difficult.

I mean full compensation may have been a little bit unrealistic but you don't seem to have had the professionalism to even offer a "token" payment. You know; some thing to soften the blow.

I think that is why I find my self here or-castrating this message in such a tort manor. I simply feel a little begruntled at your original response to my in game message and feel hacked of that your making my post in this forum look like a power hungry cry.

Many things you are Seth but respectful is not one of them.

In many ways I feel that if only another admin had dealt with this small problem in a professional manor; very much how you haven't, then it just wouldn't be a topic here at all.

I knew as soon as I saw saw you were admin that this easily remediable error would for some reason be so much more than that. It happened many years ago in very much the same way then. If my memory serves me correctly you were overruled by Andrew. Hmmm all in the past eh.

Now lets see if we can get some NEUTRAL points of view in here

Matty of WARDOG ( Once proud to play BD)

nwbster · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 12:15 pm

Not many people were effected in the 15 minute period of server failure so it seems fair to compensate the ones that did lose.

Seth · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 12:20 pm

Actually there were several. And I do not believe that "neutral" is what you are shooting for here. I believe you are looking for people to agree with you, and not disagree, so that you can begin to try and troll and bash us for sticking to a policy that we dont compensate a few for issues that affect everyone.

Like I said, Ill do my best to comp everyone over time, at the same time. It is the only way to ensure fairness for all and not a select few. On E4, I have already started to do this by giving a random boost to the world recently, and will continue to do so later by matching occasional boost bar bonuses (+extra 50% for supporters).

Sorry for calling you mate, but address me with respect as well, lest you should become a troll. If you are to attempt to troll me, the conversation will turn out very differently.

Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience that 15 minutes of downtime caused you, but you are wrong. This affected every player in the game, and at the time of this incident, there were roughly 700 other players online.

We did our best to handle the situation quickly. And mass reparations are ongoing.

Supz108x · **Joined:** Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 67

Thank you,

But "neutral" is exactly what I want. I want to see if the players; supporters or not, agree with what I believe or if they think that you are acting fairly.

I'm not writing here to "get one over you" I simply wanted to make our debate public and hopefully see if I am morally right or wrong.

So if you have the urge to post here please make it an honest genuine thought or opinion.

Your apology is appreciated.

Now all I ask is that you let this thread continue and read the thoughts of the players.

Matty of WARDOG

Supz108x · **Joined:** Sun Aug 05, 2012 11:46 am **Posts:** 67

korikof3 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 07, 2012 5:21 pm **Posts:** 4

Seth's in the right, you agreed to the terms even if you didn't read them. :p

OmegaXII · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:57 pm

i agree with seth, if he compensates certain people they might go to there friends and say "hey, seth gave me tokens for the downtime" and there friend will probably say "really? i didnt get any, i should ask for some." and he will complain to seth, tell his friends and it will just snowball from there until everyone wants something

Jake · **Posted:** Sat Aug 11, 2012 3:05 pm

Technically speaking the moves Seth has made are completely legal. The ToS specifically give him the right to do everything he has. However I would not oppose a compensation specifically to you but you must ask yourself, where does he draw the line after that? What if he agrees to what you are asking him too ( a token comp ) and then someone else asks for the same thing? Should he just give it to anyone that asks?

No.

I would like you to know though 'matty' if I was in your position I would probably be asking for comp too.

Lets just see what happens when the dust settles.

E4 Server Fail Tick 120