Salem

There's been a rash of posts popping up of late. "This bug/servercrash/feature cost me my items, I deserve them back". I, and at least some others, have been openly critical of this sense of entitlement that permeates posts of this kind. Rather than repeat myself, or get frustrated when it pops up yet again, I wanted to write up a little post on why older members of the community will likely react badly to the whole thing:

This is an open world, PvP, permadeath game. SeaTribe has had some extremely bad experiences with refunding people items/lives in the past. It opens a huge can of worms and is incredibly possible to be abused. I personally don't even want SeaTribe to start wading into that muck because they are a small team and simply cannot afford the manpower that would be required to deal with those issues.

We are living in a no holds barred world. People will grief, steal and kill. Boston will be littered with corpses. People are complaining about a couple dropped items? What's going to happen when someone bashes your home open, tries their very best to kill you, and takes everything of value that they can? I will bend over backwards to help new people along in the world, teach them how to be paranoid so that they have a chance of surviving when a raider wanders nearby. But entitlement has no place in the world of Salem. People with that attitude are only bound to meet disappointment in this game.

This warning goes out particularly to people who are thinking of paying into the game. Caveat Emptor to anyone buying silver. If you're paying into this game be aware that anything you take out of the bank can easily be taken from you in any number of ways. All caution, including minimizing the value ferried per run to your claim, should be exercized.

Now you listen up children! Daddy Sevenless has spoken so you'd best mind! :: Eyeroll ::

painhertz wrote:Now you listen up children! Daddy Sevenless has spoken so you'd best mind! :: Eyeroll ::

Tsk tsk pain, cranky today? Have a cookie, it'll make you feel better :3

I disagree with you, though. Having your house and camp pillaged and burned down and your pants offered to a dark god are normal game mechanics (except for the last one - for now, at least).
And while you can't expect this game to be perfectly functional as it is a beta, it is also true that you shouldn't expect to lose items due to bugs and crashes, especially if you paid real money for them. We aren't talking about normal game mechanics, here. Those are issues and a similar situation was to be expected when they entered the game in the commercial phase, after all. When people spend real money in a game, it is natural they don't want to lose what they spent because of some server fault.

You can't really expect a beta to be stable and bug free.

Potjeh wrote:You can't really expect a beta to be stable and bug free.

I learnt this the hard way, losing 500ish silver in total through crashes during first two days of the server. I learnt to minimize risk by not getting too close to objects such old stump or trees while carrying expensive items that I ain't prepared to lose.

It was though very disheartening when it happened.

Potjeh wrote:You can't really expect a beta to be stable and bug free.

Sure. And that's why i wouldn't have introduced the "commercial" aspect in the beta.

To be completely honest, it wouldn't suprise me if Jorb and Loftar were to reward people who buy real money in the cash shop during the beta with a small amount of silver upon release. Would be a nice rebate to those that lose things to bugs etc during beta, though completely up to them.

Edit: But theres that entitlment again. Guess I caught the noobbug in the MMORPG key giveaway...

Sevenless has spoken. Now it is law. but no i get what your saying. Most recent one i read was about someone who lost his stall when his character died its a shame but its the risk you take.

Flameturtle wrote:To be completely honest, it wouldn't suprise me if Jorb and Loftar were to reward people who buy real money in the cash shop during the beta with a small amount of silver upon release. Would be a nice rebate to those that lose things to bugs etc during beta, though completely up to them.

Actually, TotalyMoo did made some sort of statement on this concerning purchases and potential wipes. I can't rightfully recall where it was at, though. I think it was on the Paradox forums. It might have been here, though.