Cases where game masters will not intervene

I'm beating a dead horse here but I feel that if this thread continues long enough, it may foster a developer or Daybreak employee response.

EverQuest is a horrible game by today's standards in sound, 3D engine and graphical quality. So you can accept the fact that we (customers) do not keep paying you month after month to play EQ because it's such a great game. It's not.

We pay continuously because of the friends me meet in game and because we know there is a human interface we can depend on when problems arise.

If you remove the human interface, then all the rest will go away. Fix Minishots' problem. Your job probably depends on it.

If you do not gather enough information (IP addresses, CC info, etc..) to catch the perpetrator, then suck this up as a lesson learned and make changes that can catch them.

My two coppers,
105 Rogue.etc, etc, etc

I would be annoyed if I lost all the gear on my toon.

I would quit if I lost my toon.

WoW - The character is restored in the same condition it was in when it was deleted
Daybreak - Deleted characters are not restored

Imagine Daybreak's policy changing to match WoW's policy and instead of no restore you got "the character is restored in the same condition it was in when it was deleted."

Imagine that transfers to FV did not transfer No Drop gear. So the motivation to sieze control of a toon and bring it to FV to sell it's No Drop gear disappears. Oh, maybe some would take a toon to sell the whole thing but that's a different kettle of fish.

With those two changes I'd think the need to investigate before restoration would be reduced substantially. It would be reduced to who should own the toon. And it even might eliminate the need to resort to backups if a toon could be marked as deleted and still be carried on the production database - reducing the cost of restoration.

Unless someone is malicious you don't get a stolen and recovered naked toon (if you have a fair amount of No Drop gear). It's value is in being kept intact. And if it's deleted by accident you get it back the way it was before it was deleted.

Daybreak - The character is restored in the same condition it was in when it was deleted (the same policy as WoW).

Does that still look horrible compared to the current policy? Compared to other MMO's in the marketplace?

There's probably a desire to reduce CS staffing costs. More than one way to skin a cat.

Better when stuff like this can be addressed with a one-time investment of development hours, rather than years of specialized staffing.

Cheap insurance and good CS aren't mutually exclusive, though I'd imagine such a service likely generates revenue.

They already reduced CS staffing, now they have to do something because the scant number left couldn't keep up with the petition count.

Heck, if it comes to this, go back to India and let them do some of the more basic things like character restorations.

I'm not sure what relevance WoW policy has in this discussion, since WoW is not at the heart of this debate, but whatever.

I really hope that DBG realizes how short-sighted they are being with this change in policy, and how much their customer base both disagrees, and feels slighted. The policy is poor, lacking, out of touch, uninformed, sudden and fails to encompass EQ and its history, as well as alienate its player base/customers.

These "things" that the players make mistakes doing, or need help with, cost you nothing. They are intangible pieces of code. I am sure someone at DBG makes a mistake everyday. Does your policy for them match these policies in terms of absolutes? I bet not. I they did, you would not have acquired SOE, nor would you have employees, which would leave you as nothing, ironically which will be the direction of this game with changes such as these. Now, I will not argue that customer service has ever been the bright shining star previously, but in comparison to these changes, you all (DBG) appear as sharks in a feeding frenzy, and I personally hope that I never have to get into that water for help, as you make it abundantly clear you do not desire to help, at all.

Again EQ CS was never able to help everyone, but they were able to apply at least a personal touch to each and every issue to a point. I personally, have had very good experiences with CS in the past, and feel like they did everything possible to find out if my mistake or problem was valid, and then make a decision to help or not. I hope that trend continues, because mistakes are made everyday in this game, valid ones that require your help. I hope that you re-evaluate these policies, for everyone that plays this game, both new and those who first subbed in 99. I think this thread shows that there is considerable displeasure with the changes.

My suggestion a couple posts back was to fill the gaps with player staffing rather than further degrade service quality via asinine policies.

So if you asking me would I rather get a naked toon restored or none at all I'd rather get the naked one. AA's cost time, which is valuable to me.

I get what your saying, it seems you feel if characters transferred to FV can not trade raid gear that was equiped or owned prior to the transfer, this problem goes away largely. Can't disagree with that.

You can slap me for that, I opened the can of worm when I said every other MMO on the marketplace can restore deleted chars.

I have received an e-mail where an old account was trying to change PW. Few points...One.... I haven't played that account in 5+ years. Two... No one ever had access to that account. This is a clear sign of the direction customer service is going. The fact that idiots on this forum think a Sony Account wouldn't be subject to hacking is a joke.... This is a clear sign we all need to go ahead and move to WoW or another game and just let EQ die.

I don't know what your account name was, but this could be entirely innocuous.

I'd already checked WoW's restoration policies and was waiting for someone to say Daybreak fell short of what other games do.

The innocent victim/Daybreak better make good even if they have to close down shop as a result despite the fact these things are often almost always 100% the user's fault made me look. More precisely the argument that users aren't responsible for their computer security and protecting their User ID and password.

Besides, it puts a little fair (for a change) heat under Daybreak's feet. And it is less exploitable and maybe even doable.

From a WoW forum:
"The character would also only be restored in the same condition it was in when it was deleted so if all of it's items were deleted before the character was, it would be restored naked."

Don't get your hopes up, it's up to 16 pages and no response, we more than likely won't see an official response to this thread beyond it being closed when they feel it has run its course.

it is very easy for a toon to be restored. it is saved frequently. not an issue for daybreak to pull up a copy / replace all items.

however I can see that they are doing this if they believe most of the cases of a "deleted toon " lost items etc. are the result of a player intentionally transferring / selling and then later trying to reclaim account.

Well, if they aren't going to change their policy I wouldn't expect them to enter into a debate. The most we'd see is a clear statement and their reasons.

Silence probably means they are looking at feedback. If I didn't believe that I wouldn't post.

If items are gone they went somewhere. Restore a toon in the condition it was in when it was deleted pretty much eliminates any chance of exploitation, you don't end up dupping items or tradeable currency that were moved by the user or a thief increasing the supply, and it can allow you to restore from production if toons are marked deleted and carried in the database. It reduces cost. And toons deleted entirely by accident are restored exactly as they were before deletion.

The only drawback I could see (other than development and some CS cost) is that it would only be available to toons deleted after the changes went into production.

This would be my concern too. Even getting back a naked toon the would soon enough have their raid gear back especially if the guild looked at them as a victim and wanted to help regear them extra fast. Make any gear transferred to FV no trade when it gets there and that takes out the profit side of things.

Let's get this "what's doable" business straight shall we.

Daybreak is quite able to determine the date, time, IP address of each and every single log in. They are also quite capable of ascertaining precisely what was done to a character, what was on the character, what was deleted, what was removed, where it went and when, etc., etc., etc., etc. and from which IP address action was initiated. They can tell how many failed attempts were made to log in any account and when the attempts were made. Over the years they HAVE restored deleted characters after some investigation which in turn saved them the loss of a subscription as well as engendering an enormous amount of good will; which by the way, carries with it revenue.

In making a blanket statement to the effect that they will not restore a deleted character, they are shooting themselves in the foot! This is certainly NOT the type of decision or cost-cutting measure one would expect a company which is in search of additional revenue and new subscribers and/or a company wishing to entice back former subscribers should be making...unless they really do not wish to improve their bottom line...let alone flatter their brand, i.e.: Daybreak Games Company.

Your whole "blame the victim" in any and all cases is not only callous and mean-spirited, it shows an amazing amount of ignorance from a business perspective. I said it once and will say it once again. Zero Customer Service eventually leads to Zero Customers.

I, for one, don't give a rotten fig about what is done in WoW or any other game out there. I DO, however, give a **** what Daybreak does!
All your babbling about how you do this and you do that and you do the other thing and how it doesn't affect you because you do this, you do that, you do the other thing, is downright ignorant. You seem to fail to realize that each and every time something as drastic as this most recent change, which, by the way, was very cleverly and very stealthily slipped into the Knowledge Base with NO announcement, does, in fact, affect YOU and every other player in this game. That naturally presumes you even play with other people.

So do please continue you on-going tirade and continue your "blame the victim" roaring if you must. But kindly do NOT insinuate that Daybreak will go broke if they do not cease offering Customer Service. The fact is, if such decisions do continue to be implemented, Daybreak Games Company's viability as a going concern is assuredly in jeopardy.

j/k

this, but unironically

Coming from the company (regardless of current owners) that had a massive hack in the not so distant past and is paying out claims for the class action suit... it seems kind of hypocritical.