Cases where game masters will not intervene

I really don't like these eggs being all put in one basket...
there's a huge difference between losing your toon..all your items..being hacked,
and the topic that GMs won't help on mislooted items or mistakes that can be prevented if players are careful in game.

One is understandable, actions in mmorpgs do have real consquences that's why you play online.
They don't want to hold hands anymore if someone is crying about a misclick? Fine.

And the other is a slap into everyone's face, if you take money from players they have the right on account related support. In a 15y old game there should also always be help on deleted characters.

This screams for a compromise, yes please cut expenses on stuff where players just need to grow up in game to live with it. But why the radical changes to how they are treated as paying customers...

We recently had a character hacked in our guild and moved to the ZEK server, they did nothing about it, and the person in question had to pay for it to be transferred back to AB. So ya, they are going to lose customers.

This wording has got to be the most hilarious thing I've read in quite some time. Why? Well for starters, the in-game descriptions of nearly all abilities are laughable. So I can see this scenario happening:

Hi DEY BRAKE GAMEZ CS, Spirit of the Goober should be affecting my blah blah by this amount but Nothing is really happening.

Response: Actually, we can't see the code and / or do not possess the mental capacity to look it up so there is no way for us to determine if spirit of the goober should be doing that. Maybe it decreases your blah instead of increasing it. Perhaps if you purchased some Station Cash and had some pretty armor, the issue may resolve itself? Thanks! CS Mario.

Can I get a heroic child? Just skip till they are in the 20s and self dependent?

I'd like an 04-05 boy soldier...just in case of zombies.

I would stop in a heartbeat and depending on timeframe also retract my last payment for EQ. I haven't spent more than 2 years of my lifetime (not bazaar or anything) to be ripped off like that.

I bet if they could sell it for SC they'd have Restore Deleted Character Options available in a heartbeat.

I don't understand how they are not at least trying to find a solution and communicate with players asap, i really don't understand it anymore. It's as if this company doesn't want to have success, reminds me of my football team.

Even if i have to assume it's all about milking the game, it could still be done in a much more clever way.
Whole new levels of bizarre here, quiet unique just makes me shake my head.

This is a bit late but I had to sit here and think on this post for awhile. I've come to the conclusion that this is quite possibly one of the worst mentalities I've ever come across. In order to [attempt to] show you how bad it is, I'll go into more detail.

1) Just because you don't activate key loggers, doesn't mean you are protected from hacking. People are able to hack into high end security systems almost at will, you think you're personal computer is safe if you take simple precautions? Think again.

2) It's preposterous that you use the "well it doesn't affect me" excuse. There are literally hundreds of things that we pay for which don't directly affect us in anyway. I've never been in trouble with the law nor have I been mugged, (lol they are starring out a legal term, classic) , assaulted, defamed, or robbed. Does that mean I can abstain from paying for the salaries of local authorities (police)? My house was never set on fire nor did I have a cat stuck in a tree, does that mean I no longer have to pay for the fire department? I've never been very ill where I needed to use my health insurance, do I risk not paying for it anymore. I've never been in an accident, why should I be forced to have car insurance? I don't have kids, why am I paying taxes for public schools? Oh that's right, because it's a community! Just because something doesn't directly affect you, it doesn't mean it doesn't affect you at all.

3) Daybreak hasn't even taken personal responsibility for their flaws, and you expect the community to take personal responsibility for stuff that is usually out of our control? People deal with the continuous DDOS attacks, bugs, flaws, broken content, lack of content, etc etc while Daybreak continues to take our money without hesitation. Just look around, there are dozens of cases where unexpected bugs pop up, yet the best answer we get is "Oh well, your loss. Better keep playing in order to gain that back.

4) If they are no longer going to offer all their services, they sure better come up with ways that people can fix the issue on their own accord. There are few safe fails currently in this game and it's pathetic, to say the least.

So in turn, you are getting less for your money. You are getting less potential friends, less of a community, less of a stable game, and less service in case something ever does happen to you. There is always the IF fact. It just doesn't go away. And that is the reason why we pay for certain things and expect certain returns for our money.

But go ahead, keep supporting the diminishing services. If DBG asks you to jump, do you simply respond how high or from which bridge? It sure seems that way.

I am so disappointed in the heavy-handed leadership that is preventing their employees from being empowered to do the right thing.

COME SUBSCRIBE TO DAYBREAK GAMING AND GET MINIMAL CONTENT, POOR OR NEXT TO NO CLASS BALANCE AND NOW F### ALL CUSTOMER SERVICE!! Way to go to continually take a dump on the former glory that was EQ all whilst hackers don't get penalized and loyal customers get the shaft. I'm personally glad I'm not subscribed to this garbage at the moment. How many times can you disrespect and cheat your customer base before they all leave. With this attitude I hope pretty soon!

My views for what they are worth....

Deleted items: Please reacquire any deleted items through gameplay.
Annoying, but generally you can use the Tokens or re-acquire the item. However what about items which were one-time quest rewards!

Accidentally sold items: Buy the item back from a vendor. If it cannot be bought back, reacquire the item through gameplay.
Again, annoying but something I can live with.

Accidentally bought items: Sell the unintended item back to the vendor (not all items can be sold back unfortunately) and purchase the intended item.
I have had to petition for this when I selected the wrong CotF raid currency item. Would be annoyed if in the future they said no, but why not just allow us to sell items back for raid currency!

Misloots: The Game Masters will not move items that were looted by accident or sent/traded to an unintended character.
People will just have to be more careful, I don't see this happen often, but it does. I suppose it depends on how often it happens!

Accidental item modification (combines, augs, ornaments, etc): There are in-game means to correct this issue which the player should explore prior to contacing In-Game CS.
Never done this, but as it said "explore in-games prior to contacting CS" - i.e They are not saying No!

Renaming: The Game Masters will not change a character's first name, surname, or Guild name upon request. Name change potions are available on the marketplace.
Never need this, can see it being annoying, but just purchase the potion. However, you should get a free potion on a server merge if your character is renamed due to duplicate names, i.e. has a "x" added to the named.

Guild Administration: The Game Masters will not administrate a guild or intervene in Guild management affairs in any way. If your Guild leader is absent, please create a new guild of your own or find another guild on the server that meets your needs.
A really stupid idea. I agree they should not intervene on guild arguments etc. but if the leader is AWOL then the ability to promote an officer to leader is needed. Who wants to lose all the guild trophies, guild achievements, guild hall layouts, guild tribute and guild bank items!

Deleted characters: There are various mechanics in place to assure that characters are not deleted by accident. Let's be careful out there. Deleted characters will not be restored. Feel free to re-roll a new character.
If you delete the character yourself -well sh*t happens. However there should be more protection when deleting instead of a simple Yes/No button. If you are worried about being hacked, use common sense with stationname and password, or even get an SoE Authenticator - however its about time they released the "free" mobile phone version....

Haz

I'd feel guilty if someone read that post, failed to use normal computer security measures, got themselves hacked, and were disappointed should Daybreak or MicroSoft decline to provide or pay for recovery efforts.

Most single user and even some well known mass "hacks" are directly attributable to individuals who failed to take normal computer security measures.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/target-breach-may-have-started-with-email-phishing/
(btw it's a good idea to hover over a link or copy/paste it into your browser and make sure that where its sending you is where the text says its sending you)

So in an effort to be constructive...

Do NOT

click on executables attached to email messages

mount portable storage from less than or might have been at any time less secure sources (I do such things on a computer that's not attached to a network and do robust checking afterword if I must do such a thing)

download and run software or utilities provided by random entities (source code kplsthnx, lemme check it out and compile it myself - on a clean machine)

conclude that an email saying its from Daybreak but sent from an overseas site looks legit - do not fill in your User ID and password where they are asking for it

provide your User ID and password over the phone when asked by someone who claims they are working for Daybreak and investigating account security or an in-game scam.

share your EQ User ID and password even with someone who will gladly log you in to loot that item if it drops

post your EQ User ID in a public forum and use a password like "secret", the name of the family dog, etc. (When properly authorized by an employer I've personally broken into 3 ex-employee accounts:
1. Person that had a strong attachment to a well known concert - "Woodstock"
2. Firearm enthusiast - "Remington"
3. Biographical trivia two people had in common - "Commack" [BA: High school, Long Island]
Modesty (or discretion) prevents listing other examples.

use the same User ID and password on multiple sites.

allow unsupervised physical access to your computer

fail to run anti-virus and anti malware software

fail to install the latest security updates

fail to backup your files

etc.

This is not a complete list.

This literally had nothing to do with my reply yet you quoted me...

What makes it worse, is that the post I was replying to has nothing to do what you just said either. Do you even read before you post or do you just go about rambling?

Don't use Lenovo computers? You know the ones that came with bogus certs?
Don't use iOS, Andriod, or Windows, with the FREAK exploit?

There are things a user CANNOT reasonably protect themselves against, while still being able to install and play EQ, or other SoE products.

Yeah sure does seem they just to run off all the loyal players in the game now!

There's new server level vulnerabilities weekly.
And user level ones for non-adobe/java programs about as often. Java and anything by Adobe are assumed to have an unlimited supply of zero days lying in wait.

Not even sticking to big name sites is good enough. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/02/10/forbes-website-used-to-hack-readers/

Sure, there's a bunch of safety precautions that you can take, but the only way you're gonna be completely safe is to toss your computers, phones, routers, modems, smart-appliances, and TVs into a wood chipper and move into a cave in the mountains.

It has everything to do with your reply.

Anyone who is dismissive of the role normal computer security plays in lowering the risk of having thier EQ account taken over by another player with

does a disservice to the community. Not knowing or knowing and not saying that keyloggers have even been implicated in mass data breeches is particularly troubling.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/target-breach-may-have-started-with-email-phishing/

It's one thing to post "People don't really care if they lose their EQ character through their error or Daybreak's error. They simply and understandably want their character back."

and quite another to suggest in any way that
1. Users don't have a responsibility to protect their data.
2. such efforts will be ineffective

So, rather than see such things (me caring about people and all) I provided a list. Almost every item on that list can be the proximate cause of data loss. I don't want to see posts that amount to

I don't know if I shared my password with a guildmate, ex-partner, or email phishing scammer who did me wrong.

These are user preventable vulnerabilites. They are highly likely, outside of a massive breech affecting thousands of players at a time, to be the major reason players lose accounts.

Prevent them. Period. It might not be as much fun to hold players responsible for what players can do about their brought on by their own actions difficulties, but its fairer than holding Daybreak's feet to the fire.

/\
As the next target for the love of Inny!

Somewhere in this mess the question was asked if accidental character deletion is possible. In 14 years it's happened twice in my household. Once by my son when he was very young and didn't read so well. Once by myself who ought to have known better. Both times we were attempting to return home, and of course clicked "Yes" to the confirmation dialogue.

The fact that character deletion and return home follow the exact same method should be noted. If you "think" you've clicked "return home," of course you're going to click "yes." Poof. The End.

The fact it won't be remedied, and it's not possible to recover a decade old character, even if doing so does require a marketplace transaction, is utterly disrespectful.

The "reroll" comment blatantly explempfies the naivete of DBG.