Any Devs Wanna Explain Test->Live Transfers?

Unbelievable. legendboy and HaCkHaCkER .. So these are the type of people SOE Devs choose to be "friendly" with huh. They sure do seem like people deserving of "acts of kindness".. Nice job

HaCkHaCkER wrote:

Before you take on the role of Robin Hood and his Merry Men here, consider that the players on Unrest had no knowledge whatsoever of the source of the items on the broker and were simply typical shoppers. You can't implicate someone who had absolutely no way of knowing what was going on.
The mere fact UT was selling valuable items for a low rate as is your admission makes it all the more easy to believe the items were obtained in a very trivial manner - even more trivial than typical gameplay methods. Such as if one were to have insta-kill powers, for example.

Aphlos@Lucan DLere wrote:

No, it's because we're lazy and pretty much list everything for default broker price. Or if they don't it's 2x broker price. or if it's an item for trade only it's listed at some stupid high amount (or what I thought was stupid high until I saw the prices on Unrest).

EDIT: PS - to make it clear, the economy on test is VERY different from a live server.

legendboy wrote:

Kirstie


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HaCkHaCkER wrote:

Grats on being the biggest joke in EQ2 right now.

Good luck against Revelations, who are nearly through t4, Im sure you will be rivalling them very soon!

Ok...

I think overall the thread has run its course. I'll be honest when I say again that I did not agree with the players being moved from Test to Unrest without the other test players being given equal choice. The other abilities I won't comment on as that is something still being argued about as to whether it happened.

Here is my final take on the situation. Bruce, Grimwell or Gnobrin can correct me if I understand it incorrectly.

What happened is that several players were moved from Test to Unrest at the request of Lucky. This request was made apparently six weeks ago. There are and were a few staff members involved in this guild at various times. The extent of their actions are unclear and I won't tarnish them if they did nothing wrong. Grimwell I'm sure would appreciate that sentiment.

The request was possibly granted by a relative or friend of the requestor then passed down the line in order to have it happen.

Mouths talk, word gets out and we have this thread. Enter Bruce (no, not Lee). Bruce makes a statement which was poorly worded however based on what I'm hearing feedback wise from some of the former members of that guild... it was, in fact, done. It was not only done but in a fashion beyond what was expected by me. I surely would not have chosen to have their original characters on Test deleted nor any alts they had on Unrest beyond those copied. This clearly hints, despite the poor wording of Bruce's statement, that he was not involved himself. I'd be willing to be that he had some anger at the whole situation and wanted to just eliminate it quickly.

So what happens to those internally who acted unethically (regardless of intent)? That I don't know and I don't expect it to be stated publicly.

SoE will need to learn from this horrid PR nightmare. The only thing that really saved it was the decision to act fast on it. Yes, I understand that the second guild is still there. Yes, I understand that apparently a very few characters were left though apparently in junk gear if I read eq2flames correct. Should the guild have been left? Not my choice to make. It was started about six weeks ago from what I read. Well before this explosion. If it had been enhanced in levels by a staff member I would suggest that at the minimum it be reverted back down to where it belongs.

This is a terrible time right now for everyone involved. A lot of the Test players were truly and dearly hurt. Bad enough to leave the game. I, myself, considered the same when it happened. Those who were transferred by request of Lucky and lost characters not even involved were hurt by this. Thy shouldn't be the ones to take the blowback either. And finally the entire gaming community here. EQ II does not have a large community. We are not big like WoW. We are not small like GemStone IV where everyone knows each other (literally). However, the community is in a precarious situation. It's Christmas time. It just had a major release of the largest expansion to date. It has a new Producer in time for the holidays. And here we are. The community is hurt. Things were misspoken and misworded. A judgement error had been made.

If this game is to staunch the loss of accounts something needs to be done game wide. Be honest, be upfront to the entire community by EQ 2 Players and mail. Extend an olive branch back to the community by offering something to all as a way to make up for it. Look, let's be honest. It wasn't the fact that they were moved that made everyone mad. It's the fact that it was done secretly and with internal help. Folks have stated here they wouldn't mind a chance to move around. So let's do that. For one two week period just for the holidays. Let everyone move around from server to server for free. Make the scripts to remove bad gear from PvP. Make the scripts to remove gear and/or levels from players on Test. Don't worry about us on the Bazaar. Most of us here are happy where we are. If not we'll just sell our characters and move to another server... that is when they fix the Exchange. Want to make us on the Bazaar happy? Fix the exchange. Yesterday. Seriously though. Open up the transfers temporarily. Even to Test. You lost a lot of folks on that server and you need people to test the new code.

It's time to lock this thread. I do not want, by any means, any of you to consider this to mean that you should not feel or think the way you do about the situation. That said, continued conversation is just beating a dead horse. Something happened that should not have gone down the way that it did. It was noted and reacted to, and the team gathered together and decided our best course of action to rectify the issue.

Now, at this point, the best course of action is to focus on the continued development of EQII with clear notes about the learnings from this particular chapter. I hope you all can understand that need, and join us in it. Thanks.